00:00.69 Alan Hey gang. It's your host Dr Alan Garfinkel for rock art podcast number 76 with Gloria Brooks and talking about her journey in understanding native american theology cosmology lifeways sort of. World perspective or worldview instead of integrating that into her own life and her own teaching platform and how she somehow does that as a kind of a roving entrepreneur How's that Gloria. 00:32.70 Gloria Brooks Yes, yes, that's right I'm a digital Nomad a K twelve digital Nomad Curriculum writer. 00:41.50 Alan The I love it. Ah wow that that is a that is a wondrous niche to be and I have to tell you and that you've been able to pull that off as damn near miraculous. Don't you think it's quite amazing. 00:58.23 Gloria Brooks That That's exactly the words I use it is a miracle. 01:00.73 Alan So so let's continue. Let's continue. Yeah, yeah, so you so you went and visited some more rock art same same kind of location learned a bit more about it and then what. 01:08.51 Gloria Brooks Right. 01:14.95 Gloria Brooks Yes, so my friend and I we met Bill Petrie who talked about the rock art. They were all petroglyphs and then he proceeded to. Hand me his book sky spirits a search for meaning and ancient art I actually have it here in front of me and I thought that was really significant I mean ah someone that's been studying the rock art for decades just hands me his material. Um. 01:33.33 Alan Me. 01:45.33 Alan Exactly. 01:47.47 Gloria Brooks I mean I did tell him that I was a K twelve teacher and and highly interested in Native American history and and the petroglyphs themselves. So yeah, so I've hang hung onto his book and. 01:58.17 Alan What's up. 02:02.50 Alan What did that book and meeting Bill Petrie and some of these other experiences show you tell you or influence you and in the way to go. 02:13.72 Gloria Brooks Yeah, so I thumbed through his book and in fact I really didn't look in his book for several years until I took a deep dive in a healing modality called breath work which comes from many. Indigenous cultures and I wouldn't be surprised if if native americans have used breath work. But it's a somatic practice wherere using this circular breath where you don't fully exhale before taking the next breath you come into an altered state. And it allows one to deal with deep hurts wounds trauma um dreams. There's so many different things that that breath work can help with I was at the end of my rope back in 2019 when I went back to the East Coast for a year and a half in my van. Um so breath work came to me in my rock-bottom state and um so when I thumbed through sky spirits this book about Petoglyphs. I was just trying to to search for meaning of course and connections with the deep spiritual work that I had done and um I felt very touched I remember um well it's been maybe six seven months ago since I've thumbed through the book. But I thought you know there's just some kind of magnetic energy that has brought me back to the eastern sierra it's it's very powerful. It's unlike any experience I've had with the land on the East Coast for example on the East Coast so I absolutely love New York I loved love the Emerald Green forests and moss and grass and beautiful vegetation there but it does not have a magnetic pull for me as the eastern sierra does and I just have been thinking that there must be a deeper work for me that's waiting to unfold. Um, and I really hope believe that that it does have something to do with connecting with native americans whether it be spiritually or physically ideally I would love to interact with more That's why when when you and I we met Lucy Parker 04:41.95 Alan Right? Yes, she's. 04:43.31 Gloria Brooks At The basketry workshop I was just over the moon excited like I Just like I look at her and I like hold my breath like oh my gosh I walked into the room and I just I started tearing up. You know I was like holding back tears because I didn't want to go back to that moment in time where. Like my brain was going to explode like you know like you're Here. You're here you and your son are here What a miracle that is you know I just. 05:02.75 Alan Yeah, wrote Yeah, still it is. It is so so you you got an opportunity to meet a authentic um descendant from the. 05:18.83 Gloria Brooks Right. 05:22.48 Alan From the real exquisite artisans of of your region from the cutka piute area the Mono Basin The Monono Mono Lake people and not only is she a a descendant. 05:24.37 Gloria Brooks E. 05:40.72 Alan And living still in that same location where her ancestors live for literally hundreds and thousands of years but also she's you know ah 1 of those rare people only about a dozen I think as she shared actively producing. Art forms and objects day art vis-avis her expertise that incorporate the land. The landscape the natural world in her basketry which is rather amazing. 06:17.63 Gloria Brooks Oh yeah, my mind was blown at the detail that goes into that. 06:19.99 Alan Um I I I I I think I think something that I'll share with you that you may or may not know and I certainly didn't know anything about it either? Um, so ridge crest of course hosts. An annual festival and I don't know if you've ever attended that festival but on the first weekend of November for the last six or seven years they've had what they call their petroglyph festival their rock art festival and the. It was ah it was an experiment to try to see if they could brand the city with rock art and native american themes and they were just trying to do this and so I you know I came on board and tried to help them and and and teach them or provide them some guidance. 07:05.82 Gloria Brooks His. 07:18.19 Alan And what they I thought they were trying to do and one of the things I know they were trying to do was to profile and and showcase indigenous people in their cultures right? Well, that's not so easy. The native people are not so interested sometimes in. Participating there rather skeptical and you know and they they actually had some bad press. You know that that they were being you know, using the native themes and you know a sort of a continuation of colonialism and this and that. So in anyways, there was all that background to but 1 of the funny things was um for the last fifty years I've been studying this thing that they call koso rockard that exists there in the you know sort of the central eastern California region. Mainly on base at China Lake but also at little lake and also along the eastern skirt of the sierras to some extent and I am somehow accidentally ran across a picture a photograph. On the internet I think it was it on Facebook and it said the Ram dancers guardians of The Grand Canyon and I go what I go what give me a break who the heck are the Ram dancers guardians of the grand. 08:40.40 Gloria Brooks Oh wow. 08:51.28 Alan Canyon you know this is this is what 2022 right? How how can we have a ah group of native people that are doing this sort of thing that have kept this tradition alive. Ah you know at this point in in western industrial. Development. So I said I saw a video of them found out that this group of have a soup I live in the bottom of The Grand Canyon the bottom of The Grand Canyon I'll say it again and and I said how do they get? How do they get there. 09:22.82 Gloria Brooks Wow. 09:30.47 Alan How can they get out of there once they're in there and and and who the heck knows them so we get them to come to the festival and dance they wear the they wear the headdresses of the bighorn sheep which is of course is depicted in. 09:30.51 Gloria Brooks Yes. 09:49.98 Alan And the rock cart and so I spent the next better part of the next two years failing miserably to connect with anybody in this group but then I yeah I connected with this wind gentleman who um I fell across by accident who. 09:59.47 Gloria Brooks Oh. 10:09.12 Alan Who follows the bighorn sheep right? He full time he he he goes and watches them with ah photographic equipment and photographs them and you know tries to learn about their habits and habitat and he's been helping to repair the land. And transplant bighorn sheep and cause them to proliferate all right? Well he says? yeah so says I I think I can help you I think I can help you Alllan I think I know someone who might know them I says and who is that as well as there's this woman who who ah heads up the cultural department of the. 10:32.21 Gloria Brooks Oh wow. 10:46.74 Alan The nearby Wallapy I says Okay, so you ever name and number says yeah I got it so he gave it to me I called her says. Oh yeah I know them in fact I'm related to him and it says Well what as it is it possible. 11:00.45 Gloria Brooks Wow. Ah. 11:06.26 Alan They could maybe consider coming to a function and dancing says Oh yeah, they do that all the time they've gone all over the world and if you compensate them appropriately they will ah certainly be able to do that if their schedule allows. So. 11:22.94 Gloria Brooks M. 11:26.13 Alan After a lot of wrangling and angling they came and here they were the men the women, the children like 15 of them or more they have to take a helicopter out of the the bottom of The Grand Canyon to get to their vehicles and then they drive across from The Grand Canyon ridge crest california to dance exactly guarding it. You will see them and you will you will see them in november go ahead. They'll be back. 11:46.25 Gloria Brooks Wow oh I wish I had seen them I saw I I saw oh ok, well I saw 2 men dancing with hula hoops at the. The last petroglyph festival so I did go to native american men. It was pretty extraordinary I actually got video of it too. 12:05.90 Alan Did you? okay. 12:11.29 Alan Fantastic! Well these are these are the the Ram dancers of The Grand Canyon guardians of The Grand Canyon and they ah they ah they are related to you know the native they're indigenous have been there for hundreds. 12:17.12 Gloria Brooks 4 Ah wow. 12:31.20 Alan Thousands of years and they believe that the big horn sheep are their animal human ancestors and so this is a religious this is a religious tradition for them and I guess the reason I brought that story up is because it's so amazing. 12:36.89 Gloria Brooks Wow, That's awesome. 12:49.44 Gloria Brooks It is. 12:51.60 Alan And you know and parallel to yours correct. Yeah, so so please please continue I didn't mean to interrupt the flow but I that's what that's what came to my consciousness when you're talking about trying to. 12:55.83 Gloria Brooks Yes, sure. 13:10.95 Alan Resurrect and connect with indigenous people who somehow are able to preserve the pre-contact culture. The songs, the art forms the dancing the language. The. Ah, plant matters. Oh and the altered states of consciousness as Well. Which is something near and dear to my heart as well. Needless to say I'm ah no I'm involved I'm not a shaman. 13:35.37 Gloria Brooks Oh Wow So have you heard of breath work. 13:45.60 Alan and I and I and you know except for the 1960 s where I did imbbibe in a lot of altered states of consciousness and different psychotropic elements. So I have experienced that but from an academic standpoint I'm working with a gentleman. 13:55.22 Gloria Brooks Yeah. 14:04.24 Alan Who's written. Ah I'm co-authoring ah a book an enormous book. That's that's going to be communicating the validity of Native American shamanism and altered states of consciousness and talking about the scientific proof. 14:22.70 Gloria Brooks Ooh. 14:23.55 Alan And the scientific validity of these types of modalities and transforming and healing one's psyche one's body etc and so we've been working on this. Yeah, we've we've working on this for several years now but now it's in draft. 14:33.36 Gloria Brooks Oh that's fantastic. 14:42.36 Alan And so fortunately I have an opportunity to sort of further this discussion and demonstrate to my colleagues that there really is something to this.. It's not just simple fantasy or or silliness or even Magic. It's.. It's a modality. It's a strategy that is demonstrable and actually works in many different ways sort of to harness the Supernatural. How's that yeah. 15:12.32 Gloria Brooks Yes, yeah I can testify that it did just just so for myself to help move move me forward in my life I was very stuck when I came to breathwork. 15:18.78 Alan Um, yeah, yeah, and and people and and there are other videos and other information online about this There was a scientific study. They took I think it was something like a dozen people. Were sick as hell in America some of them dying others that were as you call it stuck and had tremendous psychological and health related problems. They flew him over to ah Brazil and you know out there in the jungle. Established a number of shamans there and the shamans used all of their ah you know efforts to see what they could do in about a week to a week or two a week or 2 wo's time two weeks time to transform these people and get them unstuck and over half of them. Were healed miraculously. So yeah, so I'm a believer. Ah, you know they were using ayahuasca they were using many different strategies. 16:16.47 Gloria Brooks Oh wow. 16:22.83 Gloria Brooks Were they using ayahuasca. 16:34.81 Alan Many different strategies. Not only ayahuasca but others as well and certainly not all of them because some of them were literally terminally Ill and had had had particular diseases that were ah you know, almost at The. The end of their lives but but I would say over half I think it was 60 or 70% of them came back healed transformed psychologically and physiologically and um. 17:06.94 Gloria Brooks Yeah, it makes me wonder if the people that were terminal had they stayed perhaps longer if maybe they could have had their lives saved. 17:13.88 Alan Right. Exactly? So um, and and I do find that that even from my conventional religion I'm I'm Catholic I'm a jewish catholic believe or not that oxymoron is it is is is interesting. But um I um, as I continue to study and learn and listen I get more and more of an understanding of a you know, sort of a global perspective almost a timeless perspective on how. People in general are united and have similar concerns both theologically spiritually and almost ontologically you know from the standpoint of trying to grapple with just living being able to. Enjoy life be fruitful and do things that are sustainable in this world and I just think that it's it's fascinating and I think we're we're at an interesting juncture and you've probably recognized this. But I think I think people often are wanting to sort of disconnect with the more highly technological and get back to the roots of the land am I correct or not. 18:50.14 Gloria Brooks Yes, there's a large movement I know just even in North America the United States I'm among them I yearn for living completely off-grid growing my own food building. 19:05.16 Alan Yeah, yeah, yeah. 19:07.80 Gloria Brooks Earth Friendly house housing I'm like I really want to do that at my core and I I think Van life was like a step towards that direction. 19:15.40 Alan Got it. 19:21.94 Alan Definitely well this is we I've burned through I burned through your second segment I'm gonna have to shut up in the third segment so I could let you let you do more of the talking. This has never happened. This has never happened before but I ah I took over our program with you and I but. 19:38.14 Gloria Brooks I Think it's all great and organic like he said. 19:39.85 Alan I'm gonna let you speak and tell and tell yes and tell your tale let's see on the flip flop gang. 19:46.83 Gloria Brooks Okay.