General > Frauds
Brant Secunda and Dance of the Deer Foundation
Epiphany:
Brant Richard Secunda was born in 1952 https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KPNP-6C8
He claims that he took off on adventures when he was 18 years old, and that this eventually led to a 12 year apprenticeship with a shaman in Mexico. http://huicholshaman.com/huichol-shamans/brant-secunda
He would have been 18 years old in about 1970. The next 12 year span would take him to 1982.
Yet in Jan 25, 1978 he is listed in newspaper Independent-Journal as having just been awarded his B.A. in Spanish at Sonoma State College.
Maybe he could have done both, gotten his degree and spent some time in Mexico, but that is not how he presents his bio. He says he was in Mexico for 12 years studying shamanism, and that after his training, he returned to the United States.
Autumn:
Thanks, Piff.
--- Quote ---He would have been 18 years old in about 1970. The next 12 year span would take him to 1982.
--- End quote ---
Lots of things are not stacking up here. Why would he have started the Dance of the Deer Foundation in 1979?
--- Quote ---Brant’s apprenticeship culminated in a village ceremony in 1978. During this ceremony, Don José honored Brant with the gift of his ceremonial belt, which was given to Don José by his teacher. He then publicly announced that Brant would take his place in the world and certified him as a Huichol shaman and lineage holder. Over the course of his apprenticeship, Brant Secunda became the close companion and adopted grandson of Don José Matsuwa.
Today
Don José emphasized to Brant that the cultural survival of the Huichol people depended upon external awareness of the Huichol way of life. In 1979, Brant Secunda established the Dance of the Deer Foundation Center for Shamanic Studies to disseminate and preserve Huichol culture, practices, and traditions, and to provide direct assistance with the goal of promoting self-sufficiency and economic independence.
--- End quote ---
http://www.shamanism.com/brant-secunda/
He has been discussed on this forum several times over the years. These are the main threads:
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3990.0
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=54.msg181#msg181
ShadowDancer:
--- Quote from: Autumn on November 19, 2014, 11:29:39 pm ---
He has been discussed on this forum several times over the years. These are the main threads:
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3990.0
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=54.msg181#msg181
--- End quote ---
That is odd. I searched the forum both on his name as well as the foundation's name. Nothing came up which is the only reason I started this thread. Can someone combine posts into one of those?
Autumn:
--- Quote from: ShadowDancer on November 20, 2014, 03:57:54 am ---
That is odd. I searched the forum both on his name as well as the foundation's name. Nothing came up which is the only reason I started this thread. Can someone combine posts into one of those?
--- End quote ---
You need to be on the Home page when you search. You were probably inside one of the threads when you searched.
Epiphany:
Secunda's claimed bio has changed over the years, this is what he said in 1997:
--- Quote ---In 1970, 18 years old and fresh out of a New Jersey high school, Secunda traveled to Mexico in hopes of finding Castaneda's fabled Don Juan. Following the advice of a schoolteacher in Ixtlan, Secunda set out on a five-day trek to find a Huichol tribe that might be able to help him complete his quest.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote ---Secunda spent 12 years as an apprentice to the Don Jose, who died in 1990 at the age of 110. Secunda says he spent the first six years of the apprenticeship full-time with Don Jose and the last six years commuting back and forth between Mexico and the U.S. He established the Dance of the Deer Foundation Center for Shamanic Studies in 1979 and based it in Soquel in 1981.
--- End quote ---
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/03.20.97/hometown-9712.html
So that would put him full time in Mexico til well into 1976. But he earned his B.A. in Jan 1978, in California. Which would mean he earned his B.A. in about a year and a half?
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