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Who
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A Conversation With Frank |
A Conversation With Frank Laughing Bear |
| I keep thinking of Laughing
Buddha's, those brightly painted ceramic carvings
with the Beatific smiles. I guess my mind is playing
tricks because Frank says he's also known as
"Laughing Bear. Perhaps an understandable
lapse, after all there's the rotund infectious belly
laugh those crinkly deep set eyes that seem to focus way
past ordinary visual boundaries, and the ponytail. Add
the fuzzy beard and mustache (most un-Buddha like), the
warm bear hug and, voila, Laughing Bear. "Laughing Bear is my spiritual name; it was offered to me a couple of year: ago during a meditation The name felt at home, felt right, and I've been using it ever since. Frank's background includes music teaching/performing, astrology, and options a mixed bag that spans twenty five years; some seemingly different roads traveled. Even so, there's a unity and grounding like that of the bear spirit with which Frank identifies. "The bear's extremely earthbound, well grounded with a heavy foot on the ground and a head close to the earth... powerful, vicious when angered, yet gentle and nurturing, like a mother bear and her cubs. Q: What is it exactly that you do? LB: I facilitate spiritual healing through consciousness-raising, self-relaxation, and self acceptance. Q: I think I understand what consciousness raising is, but how do you mean it? LB: It's simply a process of getting a perspective of awareness from a higher vantage point; becoming more aware by seeing more clearly. Q: How do you achieve this when you are curing people? LB: First of all, I don't profess to "cure" anyone. I proceed on the understanding that I'm not a physician, who by definition works in the physical. Nor do I have a desire to "cure." My approach is non-directive, in that I don't recommend or prescribe. I may present options or show alternatives. I help people discover the cause of the problem and support them in dealing with it. Discovery and support are ingredients of a powerful healing. To that extent I am a guide. One of the tools I use is guided imagery, where we co-create and recreate images that are important in shaping life. Q: What do you mean by self-realizing and self-acceptance? LB: Self-realization is manifesting the self fully. Sometimes it means recapturing the person you were before becoming educated/trained/programmed by forces outside yourself - and perhaps ill. Self-acceptance, then, comes from self realization I try to help people see that they're okay. Q: Do you work with physical as well as spiritual ailments? LB: I work with both or either, as requested, but I believe the physical condition is a result, not vise versa. The first thing I look for is receptivity and a willingness to co-create a change. That is, it's a joint effort, I can't "fix it." if this first step feels right for both of us, then we proceed. It's very much a spontaneous thing but not strictly so. Q: What do you mean, spontaneous but not strictly Is there a pattern or formula you follow? LB: Obviously there's no blanket format. it's purely experimental and, therefore, customized to the individual or group. In a very broad sense, however, certain steps generally occur in each meeting: a greeting, a few minutes of talk on whatever seem: appropriate, discovery of what is wanted, a willingness to work toward doing or getting what's desired, and a summarizing afterward. Q: You mentioned guided imagery as a tool. Exactly what is that in the context of a spiritual healing? LB: Anyone can write or rewrite their own script. There may be something to be un-learned, parental and/or societal injunctions, such as ' should or should nots," if and "ought or ought not", if that have been internalized and may impart a feeling of "not okays, if or illness. Some reprogramming or debugging may be in order to get rid of influences or interference's causing dis-ease. Q: What are some other tools? LB: We might use question and answer, free association, or other plain talk that can open the channel and expedite getting to the root. Sometimes music is used. This can center the energies, elevate concentration and the ability to focus. Q: What is healing touch and why is it important? LB: Well, there's little that's mystical or mysterious about touching. if there's pain, physical or otherwise reaching out in touch is instinctive. Physical touch can impart supportive contact and an energy transfer. Q: How does shamanism fit in with spiritual healing? LB: A major characteristic of the shamanistic approach is the shaman's journey into another reality and another state of consciousness to discover what is hidden. Used co-creatively, that journey can lead to a more powerful, attuned, quicker, or sometimes immediate, healing than might otherwise be accomplished through ordinary states of awareness. Q: Does the name Laughing Bear mean you identify with Native American shamanism? LB: Yes, as well as some Eastern and other Western influences including, but not limited to yoga and radical therapy. In that sense I'm an eclectic. All healing comes from God or the god within. As a facilitator, Frank Laughing Bear helps reveal the interconnectedness of elements that may appear separate from each other, but often are linked. Willingness to see and acknowledge all pouts can lead to spiritual healing, growth, and freedom to live joyfully. Through such openness, growth and learning may come from illness. Linking age-old shamanism and New Age awareness generates discovery and change on an upward spiral, which in turn creates a new ways of perceiving life. For example, as a conventional musician, Frank performed and taught. Thai experience has evolved into new musical interests: the spontaneous unstructured music of Muses Channel (a group he co-founded and the synthesizer. Both allow for creation of new sounds; both bring separate components into a synergistic whole where the total is greater than the sum of it's parts. In the same way, diverse elements are used to heal the spirit and create a joyful unity. "All my work with groups involves healing circles, which symbolize equality of all participants, the joining of energy and purpose, and that which has no beginning or end."
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