Shaman for our times
What does it mean to be a Shaman in in the 21st century? Do you encounter cynicism? In Iceland, I was working with a lot of sick patients and one of them had cancer and got better. I staked no claim to healing her; however, she went to the press and spoke about it. It sparked an outcry with the medical community and it became a controversy. But what then happened was really interesting – a conversation about allopathic medicine versus alternative therapies and utilising ancient wisdom to bring forth healing and changes in people’s lives.
I was reading that you said when people take on criticism, if they criticise themselves, if they criticise their body, it’s like they’re like drinking poison? It’s beyond drinking poison. It’s worse than drinking poison because it attacks the cellular membrane inside your body which is basically responsible for how your health is generated.
How do you work with people? When people come in with questions, those questions are not the real issue. I show them what the real issue is, and they go: “my God I had no idea. I went to like 20 years of therapy, I could have had one session with you and this could have been fixed!” Every session is based on people being able to learn and understand. The reason most people come to me is because they love it. For example, a Wall Street Exec said “the reason I would fly anywhere in the world to work with you, is because I don’t only just get a session with you where I get to clearer things out of my life which help me improve, but also that I learn from you.”
That must put pressure on you? No, not at all. That’s why I’m the go-to shaman in the world. I can handle anything under pressure and stress. When I’m dealing with a Hollywood personality or someone who is in that world and has major anxiety, the first thing I do is analyse. In shamanism we understand that anxiety means that you are holding too much energy in your being. So, we do a decompression exercise where I begin to decompress all of that energy out of them and open up their neural pathways so that they are able to think clearly and be more grounded and focused in their energy.
Anxiety is energy being in stored the wrong place and not directed correctly? Exactly. Can you imagine, you are a Hollywood actress or actor and you have got everyone wanting to be in your business, you have got a movie coming out, you have got people signing autographs, you have got people in your face who are paparazzi, you have got your family, you have your friends and then you have got all these other thoughts going on like, am I good looking enough? Am I there? Do people really like me? Are they pretending? You have all that going on and then you have a million other things going on and then you have to get into the character that is very different from who you are as a person. So, you have to download this information and knowledge which means you are pulling in negative energy and all of that is stuck inside your body. So, when I put them to decompression all of that gets relieved and their suicide thoughts go away, their idea of doing drugs goes away, their need for extreme alcohol goes away and they become grounded and get ready to take on what needs to be take on.
You remember having spiritual experiences when you were as little as two. It must be strange living in a world where people don’t experience things in the same way as you do? It felt a whole lot strange when I was growing up. However, now, it doesn’t feel strange because what I do is hone in on a person and what they can see and then I teach them what that is. That opens up other gifts inside of them, and it becomes a floodgate of other types of skills that are inside of them that they didn’t even realise that they were able to operate.
You are a third generation Shaman. Do you feel like you have inherited your ability, and do you feel like you are going to pass it on? My niece denied her abilities for a long time, but she has been able to feel energy and power moving through her body and she has been able to see spirits. All of these things are opening up for her and I do think that I’m passing on my lineage. I believe that with every person I meet and connect with who learns from me, I’m giving them a piece of the light of my lineage or a piece of that energy. I’m passing it onto the world. That’s how I look at it. I’m a Shaman for the people. I’m here for everyone on this planet to recognise the potential of their being.
You mentioned you speak to spirits and guides who are around you? I hear spirits talking to me all the time and what I do is decide who I want to listen to and if it’s necessary ask questions. If I’m with someone I will ask the spirit to show me their ‘file’. Like, what is the thing that they are working on the most? What is something that is coming up for them that they really need to look at to make it successful? The spirit world is vast and so there are so many spirits available and I teach people how to do it themselves. What I will do is, I will take you to go talk to them and that’s really more life-changing for people.
A lot of your work helps people to change or refocus their energy. Why do you think we get so distracted and get it so wrong in the first place? I think it starts from childhood. Most human beings need to be loved and valued and so they do things in order to get that kind of badge of honour. They’re like; “look at what I own, I’m very successful. Look at who I’m dating. I’m amazing!” But all of these things are actually superficial to the spirit. I know many billionaires who are very miserable and very unhappy, and they can buy anything they want, but it’s not fulfilling them and that’s because they are not fulfilled from within. I help them become fulfilled within.
Do you think we are under more stress these days? Are things more troubled, more difficult, or is that just how we perceive it? I would say absolutely. If you are processing information on a slow level and the onset of data is much higher, you will suffer major anxiety, which can lead to all kinds of health problems. One of the reasons why so many people are committing suicide is because the mental health system is failing. They are overloaded in their systems and every time they go to a psychologist they sit and talk to them and they say: “we are going to recommend this type of medication for you.” That’s not the cure. That’s not how we fix the problem. If we keep addressing the symptom, things are going to get worse and worse
Church attendances are dropping, and people are less religious. Do you think there is a change in what people are seeking spiritually? I studied world religion, and one of the things that I found is how humans have an entrenched idea of God. In the beginning people followed whatever they believed in order to be loved and in order to not get into trouble. God was presented to them in a very Santa Claus way: you do good, you get rewarded. You do bad, you get punished. That creates an imbalance within the system, because the subconscious mind immediately says: the creator that created me basically can destroy me if I do something wrong. The reason a lot of people are getting out of the church system and looking so much more to shamanism and spiritual ways of living their lives is because they are waking up. Reality teaches you to ask how any can anything so powerful create something so majestically beautiful but then yet resort to something as primal as jealousy and anger and punishment.
You recently spoke about the #metoo movement. How do you think women can empower themselves spiritually? I think the first key in the whole #metoo movement is understanding that women want to be able to have a voice because they feel like they have been silenced. Women live a very different life than men. Men can walk down the street and women can go like, you are hot, sexy baby, you are amazing, I want you, but men are not afraid that that woman is going to follow her and trap him in a street somewhere and rape him. Whereas, for a woman on the other hand, it’s the concern of, will the man using his aggressive nature to force what he wants from her.
It is about women finding their voice. But the last thing anyone wants to do is shut down men? Right and I think that’s the other parallel that I’m working on with women – helping them get out of this like “I have been angry for so long and now I’m going to take it out on every man that I see and just basically classify all men as being misogynist pigs”. I think there comes a point where women have to kind of like sit back and realise that men are dealing with their own issues that haven’t been addressed spiritually, emotionally and mentally for us on planet earth. We have been told by our fathers you have got to be strong, you have to be bread winners of our homes, that we have got to be able to have money in the bank so that we can build a home and have a family one day. I remember my father saying to me every time I had a tear in my eye: “you better not be crying and if you do I’m going to count to 10 and then I’m going to give you, something to cry about!” He was threatened by my emotions and it taught me something about myself, because I realised a lot of my male friends have the same issues, and when I started travelling around the world I understood men have the same issues.
But do you think we have more in common what’s different? The only difference is that women can see quantumly and men see in a linear way. Men are not able to see all the different nuances that women see – we look at what’s in front of us, where we are going, what’s happening right now, who we are talking to, whereas, women are looking at if you walked over there and if you walked in that direction, you could get hit by a car or if you sat in this chair this way you could fall or if the baby stands close to the balcony there a good chance there is a probable chance that that baby can fall over the balcony. So, they are looking at every quantum experience of danger that can happen.
Where are you planning to go in the next 12 months? I will be in the UK, I will be in Spain, I will be in Switzerland and Italy. I’m going Colombia, Mexico, Canada, New York, Miami, Iceland – I’m all over the place.
Where would you consider home? I don’t really consider home any place because I’m always been called on the road to assist and support this world. I used to have a house in Hollywood in the Hollywood hills area and I got rid of it because I was living in Sweden and one day I woke up and I’m like, why am I paying all this money for this house and I don’t need to? I don’t need things. I’m not the type of person impressed by Rolexes. I like things and I like nice things, but I don’t need to have a huge accumulation of things in order to find peace and comfort within myself. I have peace and comfort from within. I’d rather be in a house with a bunch of people that I love where we are just relaxing and sleeping and eating and talking and going out and having a beautiful dinner outside. Like I used to do when I was in Italy where I could lay by the water and I knew I could look over and see my friend lying down too and we smile at each other and we are just enjoying heaven together. We’ve now been talking for an hour, during which time, as well as patiently answering my questions, he has also offered me incredible advice and insight regarding my own character and my mother’s illness (both of which he picked up on as we spoke) and I reluctantly have to end the call – he suggests that next time he’s in London we meet for tea and I enthusiastically agree. As I put the phone down, at 6pm, I notice that the tiredness I’d felt when I initially made the call has gone and that I feel energised and ready to take on the world. Like Gwyneth I’m beginning to appreciate the worth of speaking to a Shaman. Shaman Durek is truly a force of nature and a force of nature, and someone who is truly focused on making the world a better place, person by person.