“I meet a continual stream of people devoted to intelligent soul work and spiritual journeys, but Keeney's radiance shines a different light on the territory. Life happens in dreamtime for him...the soul-in-the-world is alive, and he is, (as D.H. Lawrence said), in sheer, naked contact with it.”

NOR HALL, Ph.D., psychotherapist, author, and playwright

“Brad Keeney is a living oracle, a vessel of raw energy and naked truth that speaks to the core of our soul. His work changes lives and delivers pure ecstatic joy and love. I'm still shaking and feeling the bliss!”

TROY MARSH, body worker and healer

A one-of-a-kind home study course designed and produced by Bradford Keeney presents evocative opportunities for the practice of ecstatic shaking. The course, consisting of 12 CDs, features informative talks, vibrant rhythms, ecstatic music, and prescriptions for transformative work. They are recorded, sonically structured, and sequenced in a way that helps facilitate ecstatic awakening. This unique home study course is designed to teach the original mysteries of spirit:

1. First Original Mystery: Spontaneous Movement
Nurturing Health, Creativity, & Performance

Natural body movements nurture a sense of vitality, what some call the flow of the presumed universal life force (chi, kundalini, or n/om). This, in turn, is reported to inspire health, creativity and everyday performance. With shaking medicine, these outcomes are enhanced by spontaneous, automatic movements (rather than consciously driven choreography). From the beginning of human culture, ecstatic Bushman shakers have encouraged the expression of body automatisms, particularly spirited trembling and shaking. This practice, the first original mystery, spread to different parts of the world, with one of its most developed forms in the ancient samurai practice of seiki jutsu. Its greatest practitioner of the 20th century was Ikuko Osumi, Sensei from Tokyo.

2. Second Original Mystery: Fully Embodied Shaking
Shaking & Tuning the Body

Beginning with the first Bushman shakers, the natural and beneficial ways of spontaneous body movements spread throughout the African Diaspora from Africa to the Caribbean and the African-American Church. Whereas the Bushmen have the complete kinesthetic alphabet for fully embodied ecstatic expression, other cultures have focused on particular forms and their elaboration. However ecstatic shaking is performed, it is believed to tune and ready one to experience the mysterium tremendum. Ecstatic shaking has been well developed throughout the African Diaspora, including the Kalahari Bushmen, Zulu, Himba, Ndebele, Shakers of St. Vincent and Trinidad, Umbanda and Condomble traditions of Brazil, and the sanctified African-American Church.

3. Third Original Mystery: N/om Talk
Shaking & Tuning the Mind

The Guarani Indians of the lower basin Amazon in Paraguay believe that "word souls" – the talk of someone ecstatically aroused – are able to tune, heal, and inspire. These ecstatics are vessels for soulful expression. Word souls shake and tune the mind – clearing it from distracting influences and opening a connection to creative expression. Other cultures also facilitate the voicing of ecstatically inspired speech including the balians (healers) of Bali and some unorthodox experientially oriented psychotherapists of the absurd.

4. Fourth Original Mystery: Bringing on Death & Resurrection of the
Everyday
Shaking & Tuning the Daily Routines

Most ecstatic traditions use some form of a "death and resurrection" ritual to existentially bury everyday habits and patterns, making way for the birth of a new way of being in the world. This practice is also indirectly carried out by the tradition of uncommon therapy exemplified by the legendary work of Dr. Milton H. Erickson. The purpose is to dissipate impoverished habits and provide an opportunity for the construction of more resourceful daily engagement. Unique rituals and unexpected tasks are often prescribed with the intent of shaking and tuning a person's daily routines.

5. Fifth Original Mystery: Opening the Highways to Spirit
The Song Lines

Practically every indigenous healing tradition teaches that one cannot be an ecstatic healer without a song. The most important initiatory gift of a healer or shaman is receiving a song inspired by the mysterium tremendum or what some indigenous traditions call "spirit." It provides a connection and pathway to the numinous. Songs are the highways to the great mysteries – the song lines - and they enable many remarkable experiences to take place.

6. Sixth Original Mystery: Awakening The Healer Within
The Ecstatic Body Pump

Bushman elders teach that there is a natural healing process within them that is activated by the ecstatic pumping movements of their abdominal area. It is the means by which sickness is believed to be pulled out of others and themselves. Surprisingly, few healing traditions know about this ecstatic body pump. The Bushmen's ancient knowledge about these matters calls for an immediate reconsideration of our understanding and practice of healing.

7. Seventh Original Mystery: Sharing the Ecstasy
Becoming an Ecstatic Lightning Rod and Transmitter

The strongest Bushman shakers (not all of them) are able to transmit n/om (the universal life force) to others as a means of helping them become ecstatically awakened. This kind of transmission is also known in the kundalini tradition and among other shamanic cultures from Ojibway Midewin to Australian aboriginal medicine.

8. Eighth Original Mystery: Attending The Ecstatic Classrooms
Visionary Traveling

Ecstatics may experience visionary travel to what they call "classrooms" (or "spiritual classrooms") where they receive specific guidance and instruction. The visionary ecstatic classrooms are described as cities, underground places, mountain and sky regions, as well as unexpected encounters with a wide variety of creative presences. Perhaps the most advanced ecstatic visionary travelers outside of the Kalahari Bushmen are the Shakers of St. Vincent.

9. Ninth Original Mystery: The Visionary Elixir
Drinking God's Water

There are several ecstatic and mystical traditions that report a visionary experience of drinking a special elixir. Called the "golden elixir" by the Chinese Taoists, the Bushmen refer to it as "drinking God's water." This visionary fountain of life provides a multi-sensory embodiment of the mysterium tremenum.

10. Tenth Original Mystery: Interactional Shaking
Experiencing Vibrational Union

Interactional shaking takes place when two people, typically advanced practitioners of shaking medicine, shake together. Sometimes they experience what may be regarded as a kind of "vibrational union," an exhilarating ego-less form of connection. Interactional shaking is an advanced form of ecstatic teaching that opens the door to other ecstatic mysteries. This kind of shaking engagement is well known by the strongest elder women shakers in Africa, particularly those among the Bushmen.

11. Eleventh Original Mystery: Entering the Deeper Teachings
Higher Order Visionary Knowledge

As one becomes deeply familiar with n/om or shaking medicine, the practice of interactional shaking sometimes triggers a steady pulse within the spine that continues for an additional 12-24 hours after the encounter. Later during sleep, one might awaken to a steady high frequency body vibration. This particular vibration opens an experiential door to what can be metaphorically described as a "sacred library" where visionary knowledge seems to be "directly downloaded."

12. Twelfth Original Mystery: Finding the Lost City of the Kalahari
Climbing the Rope to God

Bushman ecstatic shakers say that the most important original mystery is visiting the "Sky God" in the "sky village" – the presumed visionary "Lost City of the Kalahari." For the Bushmen, access involves a mystical experience of climbing a rope that hangs from the sky. It is believed that a visionary visit to the sky village results in significant spiritual renewal and preparation for more ecstatic work.

 

 

The 12 CD collection is available at the cost of $250 plus packing and shipping charges. Order from bradfordkeeney@shakingmedicine.com