Training with Bradford Keeney involves learning how shaking medicine can awaken the original mysteries of spirit. Each mystery brings a skill or gift that helps bring forth a fully vibrant life.
“I had a personal experience of Brad’s shaking power . . . He placed one of his hands on my upper back and the other opposite on my upper chest. He began to shake vigorously and apparently involuntarily throughout his entire body. His face, shoulders, torso, and feet were vibrating in some invisible power, like a wave that was continuously cresting in his body and crashing and rippling in his fingertips. I felt the trembling power pass through me . . . While receiving this beautiful ‘gift,’ I was transported to the Kalahari . . . I was in Africa as truly as if I had opened my eyes and found myself physically there.”
KENNETH COHEN, author of The Way of Qigong:
The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing
“Bradford Keeney is an authentic shaman, who in his ceremonial practice, answers the question: what would happen if you gave a university professor a kind heart and a limitless infusion of spiritual power?”
Stephen and Robin Larsen, authors of
A Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell
1. First Original Mystery: Moved by the Spirit
Nurturing Health, Creativity, & Performance
Natural body movements facilitate the flow of the universal life force (chi, kundalini, or n/om) - thereby nurturing health, creativity, and everyday performance. What is less known is that this process is enhanced by spontaneous, automatic movements (rather than consciously driven choreography). From the beginning of human culture, ecstatic Bushman shamans 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, who passed her lineage to Bradford Keeney.
2. Second Original Mystery: Working the Spirit
Shaking and Tuning the Body
Beginning with the first Bushman shamans, the natural ways of working the spirit spread throughout the African Diaspora from Africa to the Caribbean and the African-American Church. Whereas the Bushmen have the complete kinesthetic alphabet for the ecstatic expression of spirit, other cultures have focused on particular forms and their elaboration. However the spirit is worked, doing so tunes the whole body and makes one ready to receive the original mysteries. Keeney has learned to work the spirit in a number of traditions in 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: Engaging in Shamanic Conversation
Shaking and Tuning the Mind
The Guarani Indians of the lower basin Amazon in Paraguay believe that word souls – the talk of a shaman filled with living spirit - are able to tune, heal, and inspire. These shamans are vessels for the soulful expression of spirit. Word souls shake the mind – clearing it from distracting influences and opening a connection to spirit. Other cultures also facilitate the voicing of spirit-based speech including the balians (shamans) of Bali and some unorthodox experientially oriented therapists. Keeney is well versed in the art of shamanic conversation. Accepted as a shaman among both the Guarani and the Balian elders of Bali, he also was mentored by Dr. Carl Whitaker, one of the founders of experiential psychotherapy of the absurd.
4. Fourth Original Mystery: Bringing on Death & Resurrection of the Everyday
Shaking and Tuning the Routines
Most shamanic 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 indirectly carried out by the traditions of strategic therapy, best 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 routines – something Keeney is internationally respected for as a teacher and innovator. With Betty Alice Erickson, he is the co-editor of a critically acclaimed biographical work on Dr. Erickson.
5. Fifth Original Mystery: Opening the Highways to Spirit
The Song Lines
One cannot be a shaman without a song. The most important beginning gift of a shaman is receiving a song from spirit. It provides a connection and pathway to spiritual realms. Songs are the highways to spirit – the song lines - and they enable many remarkable experiences to take place. Keeney has received spirit songs in the context of diverse shamanic cultures. He is also a professional musician and songwriter who records special CDs for helping others in their learning and practice of shaking medicine and ecstatic shamanism.
6. Sixth Original Mystery: Awakening The Healer Within
The Ecstatic Body Pump
Bushman shamans 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 pulled out of others and themselves. Surprisingly, few healing traditions know about this ecstatic body pump. Keeney is regarded as a Bushman healer and has been encouraged by the Bushman elders to teach others about their way. The Bushmen’s ancient knowledge about these matters calls for an immediate revolution in the understanding and practice of healing.
7. Seventh Original Mystery: Sharing the Spirit
Becoming a Spiritual Lightning Rod and Transmitter
The strongest Bushman shamans (not all of them) are able to transmit n/om (the universal life force) to others as a means of helping them become spiritually awakened. This kind of transmission is also known in the kundalini tradition and among other shamanic cultures from Ojibway Midewin to Australian aboriginal medicine. Keeney has been authorized by numerous shamanic traditions to teach this interactional (and typically tactile) way of sharing the spirit.
8. Eighth Original Mystery: Attending the Spiritual Classrooms
Spiritual Traveling
Shamans experience visionary travel into the spiritual universe to find “classrooms” where they receive specific guidance and instruction. The classrooms include cities, underground places, mountain and sky regions, as well as unexpected encounters with a wide variety of spiritual presences. Perhaps the most advanced spiritual travelers outside of the Kalahari Bushmen are the Shakers of St. Vincent. Keeney has spent years learning about these spiritual classrooms from both the Bushman shamans and the Shakers of St. Vincent.
9. Ninth Original Mystery: Receiving the Divine Elixir
Drinking God’s Water
There are several mystical and shamanic traditions that know about the extraordinary experience of drinking the divine elixir. Called the golden elixir by the Chinese Taoists, the Bushmen refer to it as drinking God’s water. The fountain of life is one of the most amazing original mysteries and a person is never the same after drinking from it. Keeney has experienced this revitalizing elixir on numerous occasions and has learned from his spiritual teachers, particularly the Bushmen and the Shakers of St. Vincent, specific recommendations for guiding others to this mystery.
10. Tenth Original Mystery: Intercourse of Souls
The Gift of Vibrational Union (the greatest intimacy)
Another of the amazing mysteries is the intercourse of souls that takes place when two people, typically advanced practitioners of shaking medicine, shake together. When vibrational union is achieved, it is more exhilarating than conventional forms of intimacy. Furthermore, it opens the door to other advanced teachings of shaking medicine. Keeney was taught this mystery by some of the strongest elder women shamans in Africa, particularly those among the Bushmen.
11. Eleventh Original Mystery: Entering The Sacred Library
The Master Key to Visionary Knowledge
This may be the most remarkable mystery. As one becomes a master of n/om or shaking medicine, the intercourse of souls can lead to a vibrational encounter that deeply pulses the spine with vibrations that continue for an additional 12-24 hours afterwards. Later during evening sleep, one awakens to a steady high frequency body vibration. This particular vibration serves as a master key of higher consciousness that opens the door to a universal sacred library where visionary knowledge may be directly downloaded into one’s mind. The few living Bushman shamans who have this key gave it to Keeney so that he could teach others about it.
12. Twelfth Original Mystery: Finding the Lost City of the Kalahari
Climbing the Rope to God
Bushman shamans say that the most important original mystery is a close encounter with God. This takes place in God’s spiritual city – the Lost City of the Kalahari. There one is completely rewired, filled with spirit, and reborn as a new person. Getting to God’s place may require learning how to climb the mystical rope to the sky. One typically receives a luminous egg in a visionary experience before later ascending to God’s city. The sacred egg brings forth the incredible experience of complete spiritual rebirth, undeniably the most powerful experience possible for human beings. Keeney and most of the teachers he has worked with have experienced this rebirth and subsequently climbed the rope numerous times, experiencing the spiritual teachings of the Lost City.
