Surgeon or Shaman?

David Cumes, M.D. was born in South Africa and has taught at Stanford Medical Center. He is a Western trained surgeon steeped in the allopathic paradigm of medicine and was also initiated in Swaziland as a sangoma (Zulu for shaman) in 2002. He is uniquely trained to access information from the spirit world by a process of divination through the “Bones.” Healing is then dispensed through rituals using plant medicines. He is the author of eight books; including; Inner Passages Outer Journeys, The Spirit of Healing, Africa in my Bones, Messages from the Ancestors, Healing Trees and Plants of the Lowveld, and The Source (about establishing an indigenous healing center in remote South Africa.) He has a surgical as well as an indigenous practice in Santa Barbara, CA and is a bridge between the allopathic and primal original wisdom. 

To schedule a reading call Adrienne Bates at (805) 964-6771. These can be done live or remotely.

(Inward Bound Healing Journeys is a non-profit 501C3 corporation. All donations go to supporting indigenous healing wisdom.)

 INWARD BOUND HEALING JOURNEYS 

BRIDGING WESTERN MEDICINE AND ANCIENT AFRICAN HEALING PRACTICES 

Western medicine has brought us many boons but there are glaring deficiencies as well. Though masters of technology we are often impoverished in the psycho-spiritual healing realms. Going back to our root or core self with the help of ancient African wisdom gives us not only an understanding of our origins but a clear perspective of a new and at the same time a very old paradigm of healing unconfined to the space-time continuum. 

Tshisimane Healing Center was founded in 2002 to validate and research ancient indigenous healing techniques and bridge these ancient methods with current ideas of integrative medicine. These primal methods employ divination and dream telling for diagnosis of physical and psycho-socio-spiritual maladies. They use rituals and plant medicines for their treatment. The vision to build this center came out of a dream which was to fine tune Dave’s sangoma skills after his initiation. It was there that he learnt how to use the ritual power of sacred plants. Later these principles were extrapolated to the plants of the Central California coast. 

Unfortunately, Dave had to give up the center to (illegal) land claims that were insinuated at its inception and were concluded five years later. Those interested in indigenous wisdoms gained from that experience can check the appropriate blogs, the archived information on Tshisimane or his book - The Source. 

“Take from there, and bring to here!” 

The message in Dave's dream could not have been clearer or more direct. Bring the healing wisdoms of Africa and introduce them to people who have only known Western traditions. An accomplished surgeon with a busy practice in Santa Barbara, his life path was to change dramatically. Dave has established sangoma healing in his hometown, Santa Barbara. He has a healing yurt in his garden where divininations and healing rituals are rendered. The work done at Tshisimane (The Source) has been replicated with the added benefits of healing local California plants that are combined with those from South Africa.