Epic Journey of Spiritual Discovery

When I look back at my behind-the-scenes adventures while gathering Ancient Myths and Architypal Dreams from Africa's most remote tribes, the stories are amazing. For example, one night I hear a lion roaring while I'm reading Shakespeare in my little backpacking tent at the edge of a Karo tribe village along the Omo River. Hearing that lion roar was a truly a reality shift for me.  This wasn't a zoo.  The next roar is closer. Then closer.  Do something. I looked around my tent to make sure that I didn't have any food inside. (Later a friend reminded me that indeed I was the food.) 

Come to the Epic Journey Presentation to hear how the story ends.

(Above) This is the Konso tribe village called Busso, one of my favorite villages in all of Africa.

(Above) The Konso tribe witch doctor has a region-wide reputation of being able to pull out evil spirits to cure diseases. So in the interest of spiritual science, I had to go and check him out. 

He wanted to charge me to take photographs, but he wanted some professional photographs of himself.  When he told me his fee, I replied in a very surprised voice, that my fee was exactly the same. What to do? He wouldn't give in, nor would I. Finally, the culture minister who was traveling with us, paid the fees. He actually wanted the witch doctor perform magic on him.

This boy had severe headaches before he went to the witch doctor and reported that he felt better after the "operation." Unfortunately, I never did a long term follow  up.

 (Above) This is the evil spirit the witch doctor pulled from the subject. Looks pretty nasty; so does the witch doctor's hand.

(Above) On my first visit to Busso in 2001, I photographed an old man. I printed lots of the photographs I snapped during that first trip and took them with me on the second trip. It turns out the old man had died. When I gave the photograph to the son, he cried. It was the only thing he had to remember his father. That's the power of photography.


Epic Journey of Spiritual Discovery live presentation
July 1, 2012   4:00 to 5:30pm
Mumm Napa Gallery 
8445 Silverado Trail
Rutherford, CA 94573
RSVP  707-967-7740