Hello: Has anyone heard of John Luke Edwards? He is supposedly from the UK, come to Canada and has begun the Wolven Path Tradition - which is drawing many people to take his 3 year course in Shamanic Practice. Here are his websites:

[www.wolfindark.com]
[circleofgreatmystery.com]

He charges over $2,000 a year to take his course and his group is becoming increasingly unhealthy. I know someone who has left the training because of his lack of ethical behaviour (breaking confidentiality of clients/students, belittling students, demanding allegiance, claiming his is the true shamanic path). He appears to be drawing very broken people to him and then acting as both teacher and therapist to them. There is an initiation process to become an "elder" in his community, but he appears to initiate based on who is willing to be in agreement with him. One woman who questioned him about this was not allowed to graduate with her class (finishing their first year of training) but was barred from the group, the group told she was sick (mentally) and that she was not allowed to continue. Her diploma was mailed to her. She has been shut out and the group has turned their backs on her.

I would appreciate any thoughts you might have and see if anyone has heard of this guy.

Thank you.
Sarah

Go to this site and see if you find anything.

[www.newagefraud.org]

Thank you for that link. I have applied to get membership but haven't heard back. I'm getting very concerned about this man.

Sarah.

Interesting update. I went to the website suggested and someone did a review of John Luke's website. It is as follows:

Looking around his site, he appears to be doing a salad bar, culture vulture mixture of Harnerisms with out of context and misused terminology swiped from Buddhism, Gaelic festivals, Jewish mysticism, and thinly-disguised, romanticized NDN fantasies.

On these pages he throws around his mishmash of things fake Buddhist, fake Jewish and fake Celtic: [www.wolfindark.com] [www.wolfindark.com]

[www.wolfindark.com]

Quote
The process utilises:
Soul Retrieval - reconnection to that which is lost & exiled
Past life regression & Alignment - linking to the 'un-done' in our spiritual history
De-possession - redemption of primal wounds
Psycho-pomp - a calling to our spiritual service
Dis-armouring - breaking free from useless barriers
Medicine touch – spirit healing
Vision Quest - re-connecting to our spiritual guides and our spiritual destiny
Extraction – identification and removal of soul intrusions
Soul Rememberment – reconnection to exiled and forgotten soul relationship
Exorcism of memory ghosts
Dis-possession, & Depossession

Shamanic work is undertaken under the Wolven Path Tradition and is regulated by the Laws & Principles of that Lineage.
[www.circleofgreatmystery.com]

John-Luke is a member of: The Society of Shamanic Practitioners
A Minister of the Circle of The Scared Earth
And Presidor and Ordained Minister of The Sacred Circle of the Great Mystery
and as such is guided & held by their philosophies and ethics
[emphasis added]

I particularly like, "Circle of the Scared Earth". Be afraid, be very afraid.


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ETA: Checked out [circleofgreatmystery.com] Holy crap. What bullshit. It's about as Celtic as dressing as an orange Oompah Loompah for the St. Paddy's parade and declaring yourself the Pope. Actually, that would be less offensive in the long run, as there'd be actual Irish people there to kick his ass. He hopes that by being a Fake NDN Druid Rabbi Internet Shameon no one with a brain or culture will ever cross his path. This type feeds on the lost and ignorant. Shameful.


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ETAA: I'm showing his site to some of my Irish friends and we're alternating laughing and feeling sick. Dig this quote:

[www.wolfindark.com]

Quote
The Wolven Path Shamanic Tradition. This northern European Tradition, a so called romantic ‘Celtic’ Shamanism, is a Nordic/Druid Lineage Tradition lost in history to religious repression and extinction of its elders and teachers. This Tradition is taught as part of the Apprenticeship.
...
John-Luke works from his Medicine Room in the village of Lions Bay, BC, Canada.
[emphasis added]

Never mind all the blatant ignorance, he's even admitting the fantasy "tradition" he claims to teach was "lost in history" and "extinct". So, he's yet another appropriator, ignorant of the cultural survivals there are, and he inadvertently admits what's obvious to anyone with any knowledge of culture and religious history: he's making all this crap up, wrapping Harneresque NDN fantasies in a plastique, Celtique, made in China cloak. Ick. Ick. Ick.

You know, Harner has a lot to answer for.

Have been to several conferences with this man and his group. Just went to the 2012 conference and will never attend another. He is getting more and more dangerous. This group has all the major cult signs.

Front organization is the SCGMSS. It is supposed to promote and accept all shamanistic paths and traditions but this last conference was all about the Wolven Path Tradition. The Wolven Path Tradition is the innner, secret group behind the SCGMSS.

Rigid, dogmatic, authoritarian leadership. John Luke is the prophet of the WPT (Wolven Path Tradition). What he says goes. No one is allowed to question him or disagree with him.

Us & Them, the typical stuff. We have the truth 'they' don't. We are the enlightened ones, 'they' arent.

Megalomania, he is now claiming that the WPTs goal is to wake everyone in the world up and call them all back to the forest. (Check out the outline of next years conference.) If the WPT fails to do this soon, soon, soon humanity will be wiped out. There is no time to argue or discuss, everyone has to get to work to save the world.

Control over the group members, there are 'secrets' members must not tell anyone. Family and friends should be avoided or ignored if they try to interfer because they are 'in shadow'.

Creepiest of all, there is talk of pooling resources and buying a retreat center where they can all live happily ever after -- I guess the Kool-aid comes next after that.

In the last few months he has lost many of the elders and lot of members too, but many remain.

This is group has definitely moved from worrisome to full blown cult.

Scary and creepy.

Very interesting news about Dr John Luke Edwards.

I have a friend of mine, who works in a major Vancouver broadcast company. He privetely shared with me that yesterday the journalists were invited to the press-conference to announce a new legal case, which was filed against John-Luke Edwards by his ex-patient, who claimed $10 million charges for severe irrecoverable emotional and psychological damage cause by Dr.Edwards' malpractice and violation of the ethical standards of the profession.

I hope we will see something soon in the newspapers to learn more about the case.