Simon Buxton

[jergonsacha]

Simon Buxton of The Sacred Trust fits the NAFPS bill in all respects.

Firstly his book (The Shamanic Way of the Bee), according to another forum on fakes, was ghost-written by someone else, just as Lyn Andrews 'work' and the 'Mutant Message' series was. The book includes Buxton's self-
important Don Juan fantasies (it's about his alleged special apprenticeship to a bee magician! In the end, Buxton himself becomes the master - of course!), but that's about his only contribution. The book itself was rightly torn to pieces by Shaman's Drum in issue 67, which devoted 10 pages to it, calling it a dangerous fairytale of 'fantasy shamans' and exorting readers not to go near it.

The reader reviews at Amazon show, at least, that people are not gullible enough to be taken in by this fraud:

"I don't believe this to be non-fiction. This isn't to say that fiction doesn't have value, but honestly, "The Path of Pollen"?? Is that some kind of joke? Did anyone REALLY take this seriously?...
Also, just as a side note, I LOVE it when authors get their friends (or, in some sad instances, make up various accounts by themselves..) to come on and write reviews for them. You can always tell when they do that by the FIVE STAR reviews coming from reviewers who, gee golly, have never reviewed anything ever before... Mmmhmm. I guess I should have known, since Brooke
Medicine Eagle, the plastic medicine woman who has been conning people out of money for years wrote a small recommendation blurb on the back cover. Silly me."

"Not trying to knock on Mr. Buxton. For all we know, he could be a very sincere individual, who, for some reason, stumbled upon a completely undocumented form of Bee-Shamanism in Europe. A place which is WELL known for it's anthropological documentation of folk customs. Yeah. Riiiiiight."

"This story had great promise but literally fell apart half way through. I consider it either a misguided set of sex fiction or a really weird sex cult."

As regards his workshops, there is a review of one at http://dailyablution.blogs.com/the_daily_ablution/2005/06/polands_rivers_.html, which "concerns the poetics of operating outside of time and space, moving from one secret garden to another, encountering the power of the fire serpent, the
tunnels of nether-worlds, the gods of nature and the nature of the gods."

Yeah right! If you have the money to waste and go for this flowery new age nonsense (and the guarantees that Buxton - and he alone! - can introduce you to god!) it might be perfect for you! What you'll get is an unknown quantity however. As the author of Daily Ablution adds "Would-be nether-world-tunnelers wanting more information concerning the advanced course will be disappointed, as [according to Buxton] "little may be said of the work for it is largely ineffable." One certainty is that it requires "working with the petroglyphic self, beyond the rational mind".

Another post at this site is again about Buxton's book: "I'd take my hat off to him if I bothered to wear one - making money from credulous fools who
are desperate to know about "The Shamanic Way of the Bee" is as good a way as any".

In terms of his overall pedigree, Mr Buxton is a friend of Brooke Plastic Medicine Eagle (already known to this site) as is seen from his book blurb. He also claims to be the UK Faculty for culture-plunder Michael Harner's Foundation for Shamanic Studies, so I guess we can see where he's coming from. Dollar signs (ghost-) written all over him - in 'honey' no doubt!

[jergonsacha]

And, true to form, Buxton, like most newage frauds, eventually gets round to the peddling of sex workshops.

At his website, http://www.sacredtrust.org/serpent_flight_honey_bee.htm you can read all about it and if you've got £425 to spare, join his workshop where you will learn that:

"The Path of Pollen holds a focus of work on 'endocrine alchemy', being a rejuvenative programme that draws upon the intelligence and wisdom of the body-vessel and stimulates the interior stars and hidden veins within the subtle-body, liberating and circulating psycho-sexual elixirs known as nektars which are utilised for shamanic practices including healing, visioning, shamanic flight and the lost art of shape-shifting.

"Other works involve circle-ceremonies, ritual gestures and dances of infinite flight, breathing exercises, dream-work and other techniques to harness the powerful psycho-physical energies which course through the body and reach a fruition through polarisation and appropriate mystical exchanges,ever moving in honeyed circuits of force."

Personally, after that mumbo jumbo psychobabble I have no clue what the workshop is actually about except that it includes sex. Does anyone know of any *legitimate* shamanic practices, though, which, as Buxton claims, involve "psycho-sexual elixirs known as nektars which are utilised for shamanic practices including healing, visioning, shamanic flight and the lost art of shape-shifting. "?

Or any that include "endocrine alchemy", his allegedly "rejuvenative programme that draws upon the intelligence and wisdom of the body-vessel"?

Or can anyone explain how "infinite flight" might be possible or what a "honeyed circuit of force" is?

Do such practices exist in traditional shamanism?

[educatedindian]

Just about everything he's saying is Nuage gibberish. Other times he's using elaborate terms for simple things. How many faiths DONT have "circle ceremonies" or "ritual gestures"? And shape shifting is a part of some Native traditions, but it sure isn't "lost."

You posted the same post in three different threads. I don't think you intended to, but that's spamming. The other two were deleted.

JS, you seem to have some emotional reasons for exposing Buxton. Were you or someone you know defrauded or exploited by him? If so, it'd be valuable to hear a firsthand account.

[jergonsacha]

I didnt realise it was spamming to send a message to the threads that seemed relevant. I appreciate there is this thread on Buxton but as he is also the UK rep for Harner I thought it should go under Core Shamanism too. So I will only post here in future.

I have been watching Buxton for a number of years. Since he has a monopoly on Core Shame-anism in the UK his organisation is quite big and he works with hundreds of students a year. I hear from a number of people who have gone through his trainings (some of them are friends of mine) so I know how he treats them. One person was recently thrown off his one year long course, for example, because (out of interest and not for any sinister motive) that person read his book and began to look for the landmarks in it that he talks about.

When Buxton heard of this he told the person they must do exactly what he said for the next 6 months and must never 'challenge him' again or they would be thrown off the course.

The person chose to leave instead of being dictated to and the £1000 or so paid to him was never returned.

I suppose I am a little 'emotionally involved' in that sense, but I do not like to see people abused by frauds.