Welcome to the Cuyamungue Institute (CI)  for Virtual Ecstatic Trance Posture Sessions!

People are zooming in from all over the US, Canada, Germany, Austria, England, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Israel, Egypt, South America, New Zealand and Australia! It is truly exciting and heartwarming to gather our growing, global CI Circle for this spirit work, especially in difficult times when we need the collective strength of community — in both the ordinary and non-ordinary realities!

New to this work? START HERE for a full introduction to the work. Then return to this page for orientation for the structure of the event and how to participate.

You’ve come to the right page to get started, well before your first session! There are a few things you can do now. Due our time constraints of two-hour sessions, with a lot to get done, our brief introductory ‘how-to’ orientation lecture prior to the ETP session is very brief, and we move right along. We appreciate that in exchange for sharing this work with you that you take some time to do some homework.

Watching our six-minute video overview will give you the basics so you know what you’re getting into! Also we have a couple articles with illustrations that gives a bit more information about CI and this work. Find those links below.

To help ensure you have an optimal experience, do the best you can to come to the experiential sessions well-rested, and on an empty stomach (digestion demands a lot of blood flow and energy that is better spent in support of your ecstatic trance, which is also high energy). This shift is best done from “neutral” so forego any other practice, or substances, in the hours before you dive into this one, lest the body receive mixed signals, working at odds. This work is not a daily practice, and does not attempt to replace any other practice. Its simply another wonderful tool to add to your conscious-expanding repertoire. It’s a powerful one, relying on your body/mind to make the shift into ‘waking dream’ mode, so give it the best chance to do so.  We will begin with an introductory talk about the work — but we encourage you to prepare first.

  • Orientation & Introduction. Be sure to arrive on time, and listen to the introductory lecture on exactly how to participate in this work.
  • Journal. You’ll need paper and Pen — we will Journal our Experience! After the event we welcome you to share details of your experience with us at experiences@cuyamungueinstitute.com
  • How long? Our Experiential Session with Ecstatic Trance Postures will be a TWO HOUR event.  In order to have a full experience and complete the Introduction of this process we ask you to commit to the full two hours. If your schedule does not allow two hours, please join us at a later date, when your schedule will allow for your full participation.
  • Watch this Six Minute Video Introduction
  • Read this Article: Introduction to Ecstatic Trance Postures
  • And this article: Sacred Hoop Magazine article on Cuyamungue Institute by Laura Lee
  • Terms & Conditions. By registering and participating in this event, you acknowledge and agree to the following Terms and Conditions

You are also invited to our next day Q&A/Lecture Hour if you’re really intrigued and want to know more – visit our events page.

While course fees are waived, your donations are most appreciated! Should you feel this work is of value to you and are inspired to support the Cuyamungue Institute by ‘paying it forward,’ you can do that on our donation page)

 

FOLLOWING THE RITUAL:

NEW TO ZOOM? For those who feel they need more time to get everything working, we will open the room 15 minutes early prior to our official start time for people to get successfully logged into our Zoom Room — or just to chat!

OPTIMAL ZOOM SETTINGS: Turn off all other programs to maximize your connection. Turn on your audio, and follow Zoom’s prompts to test your audio and mic. We log on 15 minutes early, greet those coming into the session, and watch email so if your Zoom link doesn’t work, email us quickly to request a resend of the link.

More details: What do I need to know before attending an online experience on Zoom?

CHOOSE YOUR DEVICES FOR OPTIMAL AUDIO EXPERIENCE: Use whichever of your devices, phone, ipad, tablet, laptop or desktop, with the best speakers or headphones. Portable devices require the Zoom app, and on your laptop or desktop via a web browser. Plug in so your battery doesn’t give out halfway through (we speak from experience).

As we progress through the ritual, we will be providing the 15-minutes of rattle/drum and you will hear that through the Zoom connection. We’ll test the rattles or drum ahead of time so you can adjust your volume. Zoom has an algorithm to dampen persistent repetitive noise, and it can interpret the monotone beat of our rattling as noise it wants to cut off. You can disable this feature in your settings. Click the up arrow next to the microphone, and click “Audio settings” (last menu item). Select Audio and Advanced – you will see options: “Suppress persistent background noise” and “Suppress intermittent background noise” and disable both. If you find your internet connection is problematic or inconsistent, you can also purchase Paul’s new audio tracks for rattles, drum, or rattle/drum combined. Paul recorded these in a professional studio, and they are downloads at CI’s online store for $6 each or the entire 4-track album for $20, with all proceeds supporting CI. Thank you for your support! 

Purchase here: Rattling / Drumming sound induction audio

INSTRUCTORS: Paul Robear & Laura Lee
Paul Robear
Cuyamungue Institute President / Executive Director
Paul has held life-long appreciation of the teachings of indigenous Elders who share ancient wisdom with spiritual insight, providing practical solutions for modern cultures and technologies. With wife Laura Lee, Paul worked directly with the founder of the Cuyamungue Institute, Dr. Felicitas Goodman, a highly regarded ground-breaker in  linguistics and anthropology. Her decoding of ancient artifacts as “ritual instructions” led to a simple, natural method to access ecstatic trance states. It was his deep appreciation of these profound experiences which led him to support this work by accepting the role of Institute President and Executive Director, along with co-teaching and developing new publications and materials with wife Laura Lee. 
Paul also discovered the magic of playing native cedar flutes more than 20 years ago., He has developed his own distinctive style while retaining the spirit of the tradition, with the lure of the ancients proving irresistible. Says Paul, “One doesn’t play the flute as much as ‘pray’ the flute.” Within his ritual practice, Paul uses flute as an added gateway both to enter the alternative reality and to the return while providing a smooth transition for “walking between the worlds.”
Laura Lee
Cuyamungue Institute Director of Research / Outreach, Media Relations
“I was captivated by all she had to say,” says Laura Lee, of her first meeting with Felicitas Goodman. “It was over the phone, in 1993 on my nationally syndicated radio show. I had long been interested in finding my own indigenous roots, and in tapping into a natural way of achieving the expanded states of consciousness. It was a listener who suggested her as a guest. Felicitas talked of  ’psychological archeology’, of experiencing the worldview of our ancestors by altering the physiology, as they had done, to tap into an expanded state of awareness. She explained this as ‘body wisdom’, an innate, in-built legacy of our nervous system — so different from belief systems, -isms, gurus, and all go-betweens, of which I am wary. So she had me by the end of the first hour. 
“In follow up, Felicitas sent me a booklet that explained how to do this on my own. I had an experience that demonstrated without question that this was real, that here was a way to continue, safely, easily, and ‘on demand’, the spontaneous mystical experiences I’d had since childhood. Soon my husband Paul and I were heading to Santa Fe for the first workshop of many at the Institute, and many more interviews and conversations. The surprise is that these experiences are an easy, natural part of who we are. We both felt we’d come home! And so Paul and I have been ‘paying it forward. We were so fortunate to work with Felicitas for the decade before her passing. Of the quarter-century we’ve been practicing Ecstatic Trance Postures, we’ve been teaching for twenty and serving as co-director of the Institute for the last ten. We’ve been adding to the extensive Institute Archives, expanding the research, and working on new publications. It’s endlessly fascinating, utterly mysterious, and has opened the door to international invitations to travel and teach, and to collaborate on an exciting art museum exhibit and performance piece. And it gave us new eyes to view the  museum collections, and the earliest artifacts left by those ancestors. So, yes, I’d call this work life-changing!”
Thank you for your kind comments – here are a few:
  • Thank you again for these most interesting experiences, and the professionalism of your virtual webinar…. I think you have done a very good job to bring this to the virtual world! Kind regards — Mark
  • What I love about the CI trance practice is it’s ability to help us heal and deal with “stuff” as well as to refind that richness and connection to our own indigenous mind — to find our own mythic stories and spiritual energy, to meet our own spirit beings and ancestral figures and power animals that have wisdom and healing for us… that allow us to create our own rich collection of wisdom stories. Just as the Australian aboriginal elder just needs to glimpse a particular totemic design to instantly know the whole mythic story and meanings that it relates to… so now I just need to glimpse my touchstone to be reminded of all the deep lessons and healing that I experienced today. Thanks! — Shelley
  • Thank you for these sessions. I’m really getting a lot out of them so far. The effects seem to last a while, too. It’s amazing how many similarities there are in our groups’ experiences. — Claire
  • Thank you so much for this great experience! I’m so glad, I could join. Now I’m even more convinced that I want to learn more about this and support other people in experiencing this. I really appreciate how you both give information and guidance in a simple (as in: not complex), straight forward, enthusiastic and respectful way. — M
  • I wanted to respond to the discussion about having trance-like experiences several days after the sessions. In many forms of healing there’s an immediate peak response, and then the effect gradually dissipates afterward, over time…. With this work, that does not seem to be happening. I’ve had ETP four sessions and each time, there’s an inner shift that remains. It’s a very nourishing sense of rebuilding, even when the chosen posture is not specifically for healing…. when we do this work we are becoming the change we want to see in the world, to quote Mahatma Ghandi. We are shifting ourselves, and through that shift we are shifting our community and our planet…. the wisdom we tap into here is deeper than the alchemy of intention. Intentional journeys are wonderful and can be groundbreaking, but here we are letting something beyond our own will work through us. Thank you so much for bringing this work out to the world. — Sophia
  • It works on Zoom so much better than I had ever imagined it could! — Hilary
  • I was deeply moved by all our shared experiences. — Karin
  • I love both the academic and experiential part of what you do. I’m one of those people who lives in the modern world effectively…but find it soul-painful. What you are doing is so valuable and precious and I’m grateful to you for offering it. I’m more motivated to come to CI when that is again possible and I will love to continuing being part of the online community in the meantime. — Jennifer
  • Wondrous the correlations to many of the experiences, why is that? — Ann
  • This journey came into my mind/heart rally multi layered and almost a stream of consciousness, a stream of no time…. very interesting. Thanks for facilitating 🙂 — Tracey
  • I’ve been trying to get to the institute for years, so glad to have the trance experience with others now!
  • I’ve tried this on my own at home from the book, live with a group is much better! 
  • Thanks so much for introducing me to this process. — Sheila
  • I love this stuff! Cheers, — Judy
  • Your program is an answer to my prayer. I wanted to know how I could practice to increase my intuitive abilities. Like so many others I too had my eyes on the institute, waiting for the perfect time to visit. And then, thanks to circumstances, the perfect oppostunity was presented. you offered your classes online…. What I find so fascinating with your approach to trance work is how quickly the trance state gets induced. It is quick and easy, but deeply satisfying, producing profound experiences. — Hildegaard
  • Thank you for a fascinating afternoon today…. Today was a strange but rewarding experience. — Mark
  • After the posture ended, I felt somewhat of a release, or rejuvenated. It was easier to sit up straight and something felt new. Mitakuye Oyasin, — Frank
  • It feels like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this — I’ve come home on some deep, deep, level and my soul is content. — Sherry

 

 

 

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