Simon Buxton/Ross Heaven: the same person?

[guest]

Simon Buxton and Ross Heaven the same person?
 
check out the pics.

http://sacredtrust.org/buxton.htm

http://www.vodoushaman.com/about.html

http://www.innertraditions.com/Contributor.jmdx?action=displayDetail&id=1429

[Guest]

I notice that my inquiry has been viewed 20 times but no one has answered.  Are they the same person?  And which identity is "authentic" and which one is not?

[educatedindian]

It seemed like the kind of question requiring digging up legal names vs author's pseudonymns, etc,  and that even if you found the answer wouldn't do much. Someone sent me a morph they did of the two faces, and they do look enough alike to be brothers. The noses and hair are different. Buxton and Heaven co authored books together. I've heard of married couples and dogs and their owners starting to look alike, but never co authors. The work of one is discredited by the willingness to work with the other in my view, so the question of same person or not is just a curiousity.

[Guest]

Thank you.  I've had some suspicions about Ross Heaven but did not want to "label" him.  As I was researching info on him I came across those pics and became even more suspicious as Simon Buxton and his "The Shamanic Way of the Bee" , and "The Path of Pollen" have been soundly discredited.  I'll steer clear of them "both".  

[jergonsacha]

I dont think this can be true. Thewy used to run workshops together so I dont see how they can be the same person. And if you look at their websites now they are running different courses at the same time. I have been watching Buxton for a while and heard that Heaven recently broke off his association with Buxton. Maybe over the 'path of pollen' scandal. If anyone knows the reason I would be interested in hearing it. Heaven's email is on his website so if anyone really wanted to clear this up I guess he could be contacted and asked.

[jergonsacha]

An interesting development on this in the form of a review at Amazon, supposedly from Ross Heaven, about a book he has written with (or, by the sound of this, for) Buxton.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594770611/ref=pd_sbs_b_2/104-1300063-4042362?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

From the author, February 24, 2006
Reviewer: Ross Heaven (UK) - See all my reviews
For legal reasons I would like to make clear that I no longer work with or am associated with Simon Buxton, who is listed as my co-author on this book. Nor do I do endorse his work.

Mr Buxton contributed fewer than 15 pages to Darkness Visible (I am including his dedications and the comments he makes about himself on the Resources page within this total, as well as the 5 pages that are taken up with his preface). These pages arrived in the form of scattered paragraphs to be inserted into the already-written text, and not as sustained commentary. Of the 27 exercises in the book, Mr Buxton contributed one, a practice which does not (and, indeed, cannot) take place in darkness. Darkness Visible does not, therefore, contain any substantial work on Mr Buxton's part.

Despite Mr Buxton's marginal involvement in this book, he has, regrettably, decided to run workshops based on its contents. This concerns me greatly as I consider it misleading and unsafe for readers to participate in such events in the belief that Mr Buxton contributed substance to Darkness Visible and its exercises and therefore has experience of teaching these exercises on such courses. He does not.

Darkness Visible, furthermore, contains process-based practices which Mr Buxton did not originate and, once again, has no experience of teaching. He does not have my permission to use these exercises and I do not endorse any practices he has derived from them, for the reasons I have stated.

I encourage readers to apply caution and good sense before committing to any event led by any facilitator who has limited experience in the exercises that are being taught or the work these exercises are derived from. Please put your physical and emotional well-being first in deciding whether such an event is safe and right for you.

Ross Heaven
 

[LeopardGizmo]

No.  I have met Ross Heaven, & they are not the same person. They certainly don't look alike! :o. All the photos I've seen if Buxton show a VERY different person to the one I met. When I met R Heaven, he ranted quite a lot about his difficulties & lawsuits with S Buxton, mostly relating to their book, 'Darkness Visible', which he said Buxton had contributed very little to.

Heaven made me feel very uncomfortable - I had come for 'shamanic advice' about a difficulty -- I understood he was FSS, & so I thought he would be humble & legitimate. He was certainly not humble, & I have begun to suspect the notion of legitimacy in this area.

In any event, Heaven's 'advice' was complete rubbish, making some very silly assumptions. I bought the tea he recommended, thinking it would be harmless anyway -- I was very wrong. It did the opposite of what he suggested it would do, & made things worse.

I felt like a complete idiot, but in my experience R Heaven is someone to be roundly avoided.

[debbieredbear]

Thanks for your input.