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Malidoma Patrice Somé



Malidoma Patrice Somé was a West African writer and workshop leader, primarily in the field of spirituality. He was born in a Dagara community in Dano, Burkina Faso, and he moved to the West to share his knowledge of the ancient wisdom and practices of his people with the rest of the world.

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Ritual: Power, Healing and Community

In this remarkable book, Malidoma Some explores the essential role ritual plays in maintaining community and examines the structure common to all ritual.

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The Shamanic View of Mental Illness

In the shamanic view, mental illness signals “the birth of a healer,” explains Malidoma Patrice Somé. Thus, mental disorders are spiritual emergencies, spiritual crises, and need to be regarded as such to aid the healer in being born.

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Between Two Worlds Malidoma Somé on Rites of Passage

On the first page of your autobiography you write, “My elders are convinced that the West is as endangered as the indigenous cultures it has decimated.” They sent you from your village into the “white wilderness” in part to help save us. In what way is the West endangered?

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FindCenter Quotes ImageThe power of nature exists in its silence. Human words cannot encode the meaning because human language has access only to the shadow of meaning.

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On Gift and Life Purpose

It is inconceivable that we humans could be in this world for no reason. There is no way we and our purpose can be ignorant of, or completely alienated from each other like twins who were separated at birth.

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05:51

Malidoma Patrice Some' at Mamacita's

The closing of a brilliant presentation by Malidoma Some'. He gives the audience a charge to become fearless in the process to reclaim their humanity, and thereby, reclaim their right to be healthy and divine beings amongst civilization

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Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman

Malidoma, whose name means "be friends with the stranger/enemy," was born under the shadow of French colonial rule in Upper Volta, West Africa. When he was four years old, he was taken by a Jesuit priest and imprisoned in a seminary built for training a new generation of "black" Catholic priests.

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FindCenter Quotes ImageWealth is determined not by how many things you have, but by how many people you have around you.

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Shamans Through Time: 500 Years on the Path to Knowledge

A survey of five centuries of writings on the world's great shamans-the tricksters, sorcerers, conjurers, and healers who have fascinated observers for centuries.

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10:32

Water Wisdom, Sacred Legacy: How Oral History and Tradition Can Inform the Future

Sharing access to the gifts of water binds family and community groups together. An Elder from Burkina Faso, Dr. Somé recounts the profound pro-social impacts of bonding through water, connecting the water of the earth back to the amniotic fluid of the womb that nurtures all new life.

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Carlos Castaneda