Today is an exclusive live video interview with Itzhak Beery, for the interview series “Interviews with the Leading Edge.”
In this series of interviews, I engage with people who are on the leading edge of transformational change, doing work to further the consciousness revolution and how it is manifesting in culture, politics and spirituality, in order to help bring along a more enlightened society.
Itzhak Beery is one such person.
Itzhak is a shamanic practitioner and author of the book, “The Gift of Shamanism: Visionary Power, Ayahuasca Dreams, and Journeys to Other Realms,” and editor of the book “Shamanic Transformations: True Stories of the Moment of Awakening.”
Born in Israel, Itzhak grew up on a Kibbutz and was raised by parents who were atheists. After coming to the U.S., Itzhak settled in New York City, where he became owner of an advertising agency.
A self-described skeptic, Itzhak went through a transformative process that included synchronistic events that led him to his first shamanism workshop with Michael Harner and eventually a trip to South America with John Perkins (a previous interview subject) to work with indigenous shamanic healers.
Since then, Itzhak has apprenticed intensively and been initiated by don Jose Joaquin Diaz Pineda, an Ecuadorian Quechua Yachak from Iluman, into his family tradition and into the Sacred 24 Yachaks Circle of Imbabura. He was also initiated by Shoré, a North Amazonian Pagé, in Brazil. He studied with and assisted Ipupiara Makunaiman, a Brazilian Amazonian Pagé from the Uru-eu-wau-wau tribe for 12 years until his passing, and with his wife Cliecha, a Peruvian Curandera, and also with other indigenous and contemporary elders and shamans from around the world.
At present, Itzhak is a New York-based practitioner who conducts shamanic healing ceremonies, and teaches seminars internationally and co-lead trips to Ecuador and Brazil’s Amazon. He bridges the indigenous shamanic traditions his teachers entrusted in him with a contemporary shamanic approach relevant to our modern life.
He is a member of the NY Open Center faculty, and a co-founder of the NY Shamanic Circle (NYSC), in 1997. He is a member of the Society of Shamanic Practitioners (SSP) and The Foundations for Shamanic Studies. (FSS). He publishes www.shamanportal.org the most comprehensive global shamanic resource website today.
Itzhak’s work has been featured in a variety of worldwide publications including the NY Times, along with radio and video interviews, and he is often invited to speak on panel discussions, press conferences and festivals, and to host and participate in Shamanic Webinars.
He was featured in the feature film “The Hindenburg Omen” and Parashakti’s “Dance of Liberation” documentary. He is also the featured shaman in the upcoming TV show “Soul Search.”
I met with Itzhak while he was in Saratoga Springs, NY for a book tour in support of “The Gift of Shamanism.” There we talked about his own background and his travels to work and study with various shamans of South America; what the gift of shamanism is; the loss of the shamanic way, as various native tribes in South America are dying off; what the various aspects of the shamanic toolbox is; how shamanism could be integrated into the health care system; how to build a bridge between the world of the shaman and the modern world; the importance for a shaman to have a community; and more.
Itzhak is a gifted healer with a tremendous grasp of native and indigenous healing approaches and wisdom, and is playing an important role in bringing shamanic wisdom into the West.
To learn more about Itzhak Beery’s work or to purchase his book, go to Itzhak’s website.