Struck by lightning – now I heal people
I was hit by lightning – and it changed my life
MYa’acov Darling Khan, 56, from Devon
y mate John* and I strolled out onto the golf course. ‘I think it’s going to rain,’ I said. Dark clouds were rolling across the sky, and the air had that energised, electrical quality you get just before a storm.
‘,W¶OO EH ¿QH ¶ KH said. ‘We’ve got an umbrella! We’ll do a couple more holes then call it a day.’
It was 1986 and I was 22 years old. As the heavy droplets began to fall, and thunder rumbled loudly overhead, I put up the umbrella, holding it over John’s head as he swung his club back, getting ready to take his shot.
That’s when it happened. There ZDV D ORXG FUDFNOH D ÀDVK RI OLJKW ± DQG , ZDV ÀXQJ VL[ IHHW LQWR WKH air. I crashed to the ground, feeling as though I’d just been whacked over the head with a mallet.
I lay there gasping as John’s face loomed into view. ‘Oh my God, Ya’acov, are you OK? You’ve just been struck by lightning!’
It was a few seconds before I could answer. ‘I’m OK, John. In IDFW ± , IHHO ¿QH ¶
Slowly, I got to my feet, dusted myself down.
‘There’s not a mark on you,’ John marvelled. ‘You’d think your hair would be all frizzy, at least!’
We need to learn to trust our inner shaman
Feeling great
I was shaken and adrenalised – but as we headed back to the clubhouse, I felt wonderful. Better than wonderful, in fact. FRU WKH ¿UVW time in my life, it felt like everything was clicking into place.
I’d always known that I was GL HUHQW ,¶G DOZD\V KDG D GHHS connection to spirit that put me on the margins of my family and social circles. As a child, I’d sit on the stairs and talk to my great-grandma, sitting in her chair at the top. The only thing was, she’d been dead for many years by this point!
,¶G DOZD\V H[SHULHQFHG OXFLG dreams, too. I’d have the most vivid dreams, that I was running with wild animals, or meeting the most H[WUDRUGLQDU\ SHRSOH , FRXOG VWHHU myself round this wonderful landscape of the imagination, and it all felt so real, I almost felt a sense of loss when I woke up.
But now, having been struck by lightning, I realised that my life had a higher purpose. I felt I’d been given a second chance and the REYLRXV WKLQJ WR GR ZDV WR ¿QG P\ way to give thanks and serve life.
At that moment, I couldn’t have articulated the fact that I was going to become a shaman, but it was the ¿UVW VWHS RQ D MRXUQH\ WKDW¶V preoccupied me my entire life.
Shamanism is an ancient healing tradition and way of life. The role of the shaman is to connect with the natural and spiritual world, tapping into the power that the elemental powers of nature and the imaginal ZRUOG KDYH WR R HU DQG FKDQQHO these energies into our world.
Shamans can be found in all W\SHV RI GL HUHQW FXOWXUHV DURXQG the world. However, the Western tradition of shamanism has largely been lost – genuine shamans are in short supply in the modern world but the need is there, so they are returning. It took me three decades of work and study, but in the end I discovered that being a shaman was my vocation.
7R VRPH H[WHQW EHIRUH WKH lightening incident, I was already practising shamanism myself. I’d
NQRZQ , KDG D FRQQHFWLRQ WR WKH natural world, some kind of healing DELOLW\ DQG ,¶G KHOS SHRSOH DW P\ college with their problems, such as backache. The only problem was that this would give me backache P\VHOI DV , SV\FKLFDOO\ DEVRUEHG their energy.
Soul mates
, DFWLYHO\ VRXJKW RXW SHRSOH ZKR could help me on my journey to explore the world, both physically and spiritually. Not long before that fateful lightning experience, while living in a communal house LQ /RQGRQ , PHW P\ ZLIH Susannah.the moment our H\HV PHW , JRW WKDW feeling that we knew each other and we had work to do!
A dancer and musician, Susannah helped me realise that music and dance could be a means of bridging the wonderful opportunity of life in a body with WKH P\VWHULRXV DQG LQH DEOH ZRUOG of the spirit. Altered states of consciousness are part of the shamanic process, and there are all sorts of ways of achieving it. Moving the body to rhythm and drumming itself are the most H HFWLYH ZD\V ,¶YH IRXQG
Sitting there quietly, my eyes FORVHG DV , SOD\HG P\ GUXP ,
GLVFRYHUHG WKDW , ZDV able to drift into a trance state easily.
But it was one of my spiritual teachers, Gabrielle Roth, herself known as ‘the urban VKDPDQ ¶ ZKR ¿QDOO\ FRQ¿UPHG WKDW , ZDV D shaman in the late ‘90s. ,¶G EHHQ FDOOHG D ΜVKDPDQ¶ E\ DQ ,QGRQHVLDQ PHGLWDWLRQ master during a ZRUNVKRS DQG ,¶G JRQH bright red with embarrassment.
Μ%XW \RX DUH D VKDPDQ ¶ *DEULHOOH H[SODLQHG ZKHQ , WROG KHU DERXW WKLV Μ7KH RQO\ UHDVRQ \RX¶UH ¿QGLQJ WKLV GL FXOW WR DFFHSW LV because you think being a shaman PDNHV \RX VSHFLDO ± EXW LW¶V MXVW D vocation. Once you realise that, \RX¶OO JHW RYHU WKLV VHQVH RI VKDPH ¶
Dream guidance
, FDUULHG RQ WUDYHOOLQJ DOO RYHU WKH globe, from the Amazon rainforest to the wide vistas of the Arctic and the Northern lights, connecting with the indigenous people and ORRNLQJ IRU VSLULWXDO JXLGDQFH ,¶G been dreaming about a shaman living in the icy wastelands of the Arctic, in a simple home by the river, surrounded by UHLQGHHU DQWOHUV , XVHG WR FDOO him The Old Man Of the North. One day, in 2003, at a ZRUNVKRS , PHW D 6DPL GDQFHU ZKR WROG PH VKH¶G PHW WKH PDQ LQ P\ dreams. The Sami are the indigenous people of a large area that covers Northern Norway, Finland, Sweden and the Kola Peninsula.
Μ,¶OO WDNH \RX WR VHH KLP LI \RX OLNH ¶ VKH VDLG PDWWHU RI IDFWO\
So we drove up through Norway into a vast snowy landscape – and there we found his home, exactly as LW KDG DSSHDUHG LQ P\ GUHDPV $V , looked into the eyes of the Old Man Of The North, Bikko Mante Penta, the world of dreams and reality FROOLGHG DV , UHDOLVHG ZH¶G EHHQ talking to each other for years.
,W ZDV RQH RI WKH PRVW SURIRXQG experiences of my life.
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ZKR¶V UHFRJQLVHG E\ WKH LQGLJHQRXV people in the Amazon as a shaman ± EXW OLNH *DEULHOOH 5RWK VDLG LW¶V MXVW D YRFDWLRQ , VHH P\ MRE DV being there to support people in discovering their purpose, their destiny, their contribution to the whole community (not just human) of life on earth.
Shamans were the original HFRORJLVWV DV WKH\¶YH DOZD\V understood the interconnected nature of life – and now the human race has to decide what really PDWWHUV WR XV ,I ZH FDUU\ RQ DV ZH DUH WKH HFRORJ\ ZRQ¶W VXVWDLQ XV so we need to make a choice for the next generations.
, EHOLHYH ZH FDQ FRPH WKURXJK this and combat climate change – EXW LW ZRQ¶W MXVW KDSSHQ
7KHUH DUH GL FXOW FKRLFHV DKHDG EXW ,¶P VXUH ZH¶YH JRW ZKDW LW WDNHV WR PDNH WKLV ZRUN ,I ZH SXOO together, and trust our own inner VKDPDQV ZH¶YH JRW WKLV
Ya’acov and Susannah Darling Khan are the founders of the School Of Movement Medicine, a meditation and conscious movement practice that empowers people. Find out more at darlingkhan.com. Ya’acov’s new book SHAMAN: Invoking Power, Presence and Purpose at the Core of Who YOU Are is published by Hay House, priced £14.99.
Bridging
distant worlds
The word shaman is thought to originate from the Tungus tribe in Siberia, meaning ‘one who knows.’ Anthropologists use it to refer to the spiritual and ceremonial leaders among indigenous cultures from all over the world.
All was quiet but for the rushing of the river as Charles Hickson, 42, cast his line into the water. It was October 1973 and KH ZDV ¿VKLQJ RQ EDQNV RI WKH Pascagoula River in the US state of Mississippi with his friend Calvin Parker, 19.
Suddenly the peace was disturbed by what the men later described as a ‘whizzing’ sound. ‘What’s that?’ gasped Calvin. An oval-shaped spacecraft, about eight feet in diameter, had appeared from nowhere and was hovering about two feet from the ground.
It was the beginning of one of the most bizarre alien abduction stories ever to be recorded.
At 10.30pm that night, the two men arrived DW WKH -DFNVRQ &RXQW\ 6KHUL Department, Mississippi. 6KDNLQJ DQG WHUUL¿HG WKH\ WROG R FHUV ZKDW KDG KDSSHQHG They’d been abducted by three FUHDWXUHV ZKR ZHUH DURXQG ¿YH feet tall, ‘humanoid’ in shape, but with lobster-like claws at the end of their hands and ‘carrotlike’ growths for noses and ears. Horrifyingly, they had no eyes and slits for mouths.
7KH\¶G EHHQ ΜÀRDWHG¶ DERDUG the spaceship, where Charles said he’d been examined by a large ¶V football-shaped mechanical eye, about six to eight inches in diameter, that appeared to scan his body. Calvin, who’d passed out with fright, had no memory of what had happened on board.
Hidden microphone
6KHUL )UHG 'LDPRQG ZDV sceptical about the men’s claims. He set a trap for them, leaving them alone in a room with a hidden microphone which was recording everything they said. He assumed that they’d drop the ‘act’ once they were alone – but they didn’t.
The recording of what they said has been held on
¿OH VLQFH DQG was obtained by the in 2018. Charles and Calvin carried on talking about what had happened, and it was obvious that both men were extremely shaken.
‘I got to get home and get to bed or get some nerve pills or see the doctor or something. I can’t stand it. I’m about to go half crazy,’ Calvin says to Charles during the recording.
Charles agrees. ‘Well, Calvin, when they brought you out – when they brought me out of that thing, goddamn it I like to never in hell got you straightened out. My damn arms, my arms, I
The sheriff set a trap for the men
‘WHEN DISCOMFORT BECOMES A FRIEND, MY MOST LIMITING BELIEFS ARE HEALED.’
This card suggests that if you have pain in your life somewhere, emotional or physical, that you somehow ‘make friends’ with it. This card reminds us: ‘Because pain is often the result of rapid transformation, it’s essential to make friends with it in recognition of how quickly you are evolving’. It might be hard but some amazing shifts are possible for you this summer, if you’re open to them. Make evolution your aim.
Card 3:
Dear Roi
n my dream, I was back in my childhood home, looking out into the back garden. Suddenly, workmen came along and ripped it all up, and cut down all the trees! I was distraught, and shouted at them to stop it, but they just carried on. When they’d finished there was just a big field left, stretching off into the distance. Geraldine Carshalton, 38, Lancashire
IDear Geraldine
Something that’s always seemed secure and well-established in your life has recently come under some sort of attack, or been damaged or changed forever. You’re dealing with your internal landscape undergoing a long lasting or permanent change, and you feel rather unsettled, to say the least. I hope you can get used to whatever’s happened, and move on with your life in a positive way.