Event will explore, link Western science and indigenous spirituality

The Grand Convergence: The New Science of the Body-Mind-Spirit Trinity, is a fundraiser

By Anneli Fogt • November 21, 2017 1:30 am
Biologist Bruce Lipton (left), Rosie Trakostanec “White Elk Medicine Woman” (top right) and Tom McCallum “White Standing Buffalo” (bottom right) will speak about science and spirituality next Saturday. (Courtesy Photos)
Biologist Bruce Lipton (left), Rosie Trakostanec “White Elk Medicine Woman” (top right) and Tom McCallum “White Standing Buffalo” (bottom right) will speak about science and spirituality next Saturday. (Courtesy Photos)

Worlds will collide next Saturday when a biologist, an indigenous storyteller and a spiritual healer come to Vashon to discuss science and spirituality.

The event, called The Grand Convergence: The New Science of the Body-Mind-Spirit Trinity, is a fundraiser for the Cree Sun Dance ceremony — a sacred tradition of Plains native tribes that is a prayer for life, world renewal and thanksgiving. The event’s keynote speaker will be Bruce Lipton, a developmental biologist who holds a PhD from the University of Virginia, has attended Sun Dance ceremonies and has gained a following by promoting the idea that genes and DNA can be manipulated by a person’s beliefs. He will be joined by Tom McCallum (White Standing Buffalo), a Metis/Cree storyteller and Sun Dance Chief and Rosie Trakostanec, a self-published author and healer. The three speakers will discuss the ancient wisdom of aboriginal civilizations, the healing arts and how to bridge spiritual knowledge and Western science.

Island health care informatics company NuraHealth is sponsoring the event.

“The main goal is to really present a new science that’s grounded in Western roots, but really articulates a common picture between the Western society and the aboriginal (First People’s) culture,” Tristan Carbery, the event’s organizer and a NuraHealth employee said.

Carbery said the company decided to sponsor the event after he and Wayne Miller, NuraHealth’s founder, attended a Sun Dance ceremony in Calgary, Canada, this summer. The experience was so impactful, Carbery said, that he wanted to help it continue and spread the ideas of harmony in nature.

“It (the ceremony) was a coming together of all different nationalities, all different colors of skin and everyone came to the ceremony grounds for the same purpose, to come together with open hearts and open minds,” he said. “We were able to connect in a way that is typically lost in Western culture. I see the world differently now, through a different perspective that is centered on love and connectedness.”

Proceeds from ticket sales and donations will be collected by the Backbone Campaign and given to McCallum’s charity organization, the Aspen Cultural Healing Society. Money will help fund the Cree community’s Sun Dance Ceremony and Outreach Program.

The Grand Convergence: The New Science of the Body-Mind-Spirit Trinity

The event will take place from 4:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, at the Vashon High School Theater.

Tickets are $40 VIP (which includes a signed copy of Lipton’s ”Biology of Belief” and a pre-event reception) and $20 general admission and can be purchased online at nurahealth.tix.com.