Author Topic: Kenneth Cohen AKA "Bear Hawk"  (Read 13987 times)

Offline educatedindian

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 4740
Kenneth Cohen AKA "Bear Hawk"
« on: September 18, 2005, 09:27:56 pm »
White exploiter setting himself up as a successor to an Indian medicine man, and selling ceremonies. He also imagines in a Lynn Andrews kind of way that he's learned all kinds of secret healing all
over the world.
http://www.qigonghealing.com/sacred_earth/about.html
"known for his pioneering work in Chinese healing arts (qigong), he has followed the "red road" of Native American wisdom as his personal
spiritual path for thirty years.
Of Russian Jewish ancestry, Bear Hawk is an adopted member of a Cree family from Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Canada and teaches with the
blessings and support of traditional elders of many Nations. He is an initiate of the Red Cedar Circle (Si.Si.Wiss Medicine) and various medicine societies. Bear Hawk was an apprentice to Cherokee spiritual teacher Keetoowah Christie, from 1977-87. He also trained with elders
from the Northeast, Northwest, and Northern Plains.
In his quest for the common root of healing, Bear Hawk was initiated into Filipino oracion, prayer healing and psychic surgery, after a five year course of study. He studied African medicine with the Zulu shaman, Ingwe, in the lineage of the Holy Man, Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, and is a keeper of the sacred "bones" used in divination. Bear
Hawk was one of four North American students of a master healer of the Igbo Tribe, Nigeria and is fully trained as an Igbo priest/shaman (dibia)."

One of his teachers, Credo Mutwa, was denounced by his own people as an exploiter. And the Cree have reported problems before with exploiters falsely claiming endorsement or training by Albert Lightning.

Endorsed by exploiters like Twyla Nitsch and Sandra Ingerman. And get this, an endorsement from elememntary schoolkids for "teaching us to
dance the Indian way" and "letting us play the Indian rattle."
http://www.qigonghealing.com/sacred_earth/endorsements.html

jim tree

  • Guest
Re: Kenneth Cohen AKA "Bear Hawk"
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2005, 12:41:41 pm »
He is an initiate of the Red Cedar Circle (Si.Si.Wiss Medicine)

This is the group that was started by Johnny Moses. It was a mix of shaker religion and N.W. native spiritual ways. It is now pretty much run by Wicca's. Not the kind of indorsment I would want.
Tree

Offline educatedindian

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 4740
Re: Kenneth Cohen AKA "Bear Hawk"
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2005, 01:51:04 pm »
Red Cedar Circle
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~jhbauer/rimsinfo.htm#redcedar
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~jhbauer/red_cedar_circle_links.htm
http://www.redcedarcircle.org/
"Si.Si.Wiss Workshops:
Johnny conducts introductory workshops in the Si.Si.Wiss (sacred breath, sacred life) spiritual medicine way, sharing teachings of the Earth with all those of open heart and open mind. These teachings call to the healer within each person to awaken and make the changes necessary to open inner channels for the healing spirit of the Creator. In an atmosphere of laughter and loving friendship, Johnny shares teachings of his people that have been passed from generation to generation through songs, stories and dancing.
He offers regular workshops and spiritual gatherings in the states of Washington, California, Oregon, Hawaii, New York, and an increasing number of other areas. Please see information on the Booking page of this site to schedule a gathering in your area."
Also
http://www.sisiwiss.org/

Cohen mentioned Moses trained him when he wrote about a ceremony he did in Iceland.
Here's an interesting part, shows Cohen's cluelessness:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:gWrhqjEXuBcJ:www.ijhc.org/FreeJournal/Journal/0601articles/KCohen-I-1.asp+%22red+cedar+circle%22+paGAN&hl=en
"As my prayer ended, I motioned the group to silence and began to sing loudly and strongly the Hebrew song, Shalom Aleichem, "Peace unto you, Oh Angels of Peace," while continuing non-contact treatment. I closed the healing by chanting several times the Hebrew, Baruch atta Yahh [3] eloheynu hey ha'olamim. "Blessed are you, Creator, Life of the World...."
A few weeks after the healing, Father Emanuel....began to have a recurrence of symptoms. His optimism faded, and he neglected his self-healing practices. Within six-months, the tumors in his brain reappeared and caused pain and memory loss. Father Emanuel passed into spirit about a year later.
Although neither patient was "cured," there are some important lessons to be drawn."

Yes, a hodgepodge doesn't work. If you try to learn a bunch of traditions together, you learn none of them very well. And this poor priest suffered because Cohen's ego in desiring to be the Great White Shaman.

Offline Sparks

  • Posts: 1412
Re: Kenneth Cohen AKA "Bear Hawk"
« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2016, 12:03:30 pm »
These days Kenneth Cohen runs this Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Honoring-the-Medicine-Native-American-Indigenous-Healing-Traditions-207252779285034/

The FB page points to this site: http://www.sacredearthcircle.com

Posts there about "NATIVE AMERICAN HEALING, SPIRITUALITY, & CULTURE" and "WHAT IS NATIVE AMERICAN MEDICINE".

The latter is "adapted from Honoring the Medicine: The Essential Guide to Native American Healing © Kenneth Cohen (Random House, 2003)". I found a 2006 paperback edition of this book here:

For thousands of years, Native medicine was the only medicine on the North American continent. It is America’s original holistic medicine, a powerful means of healing the body, balancing the emotions, and renewing the spirit. Medicine men and women prescribe prayers, dances, songs, herbal mixtures, counseling, and many other remedies that help not only the individual but the family and the community as well. The goal of healing is both wellness and wisdom.

Written by a master of alternative healing practices, Honoring the Medicine gathers together an unparalleled abundance of information about every aspect of Native American medicine and a healing philosophy that connects each of us with the whole web of life—people, plants, animals, the earth. Inside you will discover

• The power of the Four Winds—the psychological and spiritual qualities that contribute to harmony and health
• Native American Values—including wisdom from the Wolf and the inportance of commitment and cooperation
• The Vision Quest—searching for the Great Spirit’s guidance and life’s true purpose
• Moontime rituals—traditional practices that may be observed by women during menstruation
• Massage techniques, energy therapies, and the need for touch
• The benefits of ancient purification ceremonies, such as the Sweat Lodge
• Tips on finding and gathering healing plants—the wonders of herbs
• The purpose of smudging, fasting, and chanting—and how science confirms their effectiveness

Complete with true stories of miraculous healing, this unique book will benefit everyone who is committed to improving his or her quality of life. “If you have the courage to look within and without,” Kenneth Cohen tells us, “you may find that you also have an indigenous soul.”

The original hardcover edition is also on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Honoring-Medicine-Essential-American-Healing/dp/0345395301/

Both editions are labeled "Look inside", so it's possible to get an idea about the claims in the book. Any opinions about the book and its contents?

Offline educatedindian

  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 4740
Re: Kenneth Cohen AKA "Bear Hawk"
« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2016, 02:15:04 pm »
The index of the book shows Cohen gets his ideas from a who's who of frauds, Castaneda, Tom Brown, Bear Heart, Sandra Ingerman, Thomas Mails, Twyla Nitsch, Tis Mal Crow, Oshinnah Fastwolf, Rolling Thunder, Credo Mutwa, Adolf Fastwolf. Also a lot of anthropology and history sources, so he has no excuse. He also claims to be an expert in Hawaiian, Zulu, and Filipino healing. None of it credible. The earlier comparison to Lynn Andrews fits.

Offline Sparks

  • Posts: 1412
Re: Kenneth Cohen AKA "Bear Hawk"
« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2016, 03:19:36 am »
The earlier comparison to Lynn Andrews fits.

(I agree with the rest of your answer.) This is quite a devastating judgment. Lynn Andrews' book "Medicine woman" was translated into Norwegian in 2001, and I have tried ever since to convince the Norwegian New Shamanists (and, of course, the general public) that Andrews is the worst possible impostor. Smaller, but, if possible, even worse than Carlos Castaneda and certain other authors of fake books, even though these latter have a much wider impact.

Kenneth Cohen is, as far as I know, unknown in Scandinavia, except that references to his FB page (see my post) are cropping up now and then. I try to counter them, too.