PODCAST: Sacred Journey as an Integrative Healing Ritual

Podcast: "Sacred Journey as an Integrative Healing Ritual"

Podcast Overview

Can pilgrimage, conceived as either a long-distance walk or a contemplative experience of journeying through the arts, help people to feel better? For those unable to make a physical pilgrimage, the practice of intentional, guided visualization has been shown to provide considerable mental, physical, and spiritual benefits. This three-part podcast series invites conversation among medical professionals, artists, and leading scholars in religion and theology to discuss the possibilities of pilgrimage.

This podcast is tied to our Spirit to Molecule Pilgrimage, so do go check that out! In these podcasts connected to this guide, various perspectives emerged, including voices from the Indigenous Ecuadorian, Zen Buddhist, and Christian-mystic communities. Some participants find a connection between these spiritual systems and Western medical training. While this guide is, of course, influenced by the traditions we have encountered or have been immersed in through our own lives, cultures, and praxis, there is a vast abundance of Indigenous wisdom to explore that can complement, and sometimes even transcend, established practices in western medicine.

Participants

Chloe Atreya, MD, PhD, is a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Osher Center for Integrative Health. As a physician-scientist with a PhD in Pharmacology, she has expertise in bridging the gap between clinical practice and research. She treats patients with gastrointestinal cancers and co-directs the UCSF Integrative Oncology Program and Research Hub. She serves as Principal Investigator for Art for Recovery and on several clinical trials and other research studies, including investigations of the role of the gut microbiome and novel strategies for targeting genetically defined subsets of metastatic colorectal cancer. A current focus is on increasing access to mindfulness-based practices among racially and ethnically diverse patients in cancer therapy. She believes that optimal care requires a personalized approach, integrating effective cancer treatment with symptom management and values-centered mind-body-spirit support. She enjoys biking and is passionate about visual art. She also serves on San Francisco Zen Center’s Inclusion & Belonging Committee and co-coordinates the East Bay Meditation Center’s Multiracial Deep Refuge Group.

Websites:
https://osher.ucsf.edu/people/chloe-e-atreya

https://www.lymanallyn.org/chloe-atreya/

Tobi Fishel, PhD, is an integrative clinical and health psychologist and the GME Director of Residency Wellness for USC/LA General Medical Center at the University of Southern California. She is the co-founder of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine (Vanderbilt) and co-developed the Distressed Physician Course at Vanderbilt University, which incorporates emotional intelligence, narrative medicine, and mindfulness. She is a consultant to integrative health centers, teaches an advanced seminar to social work graduate students, and has developed integrative chronic pain nature-based retreats. Dr. Fishel attained her doctorate from the University of Miami, Florida. She has a unique clinical practice that incorporates self-compassion, creative arts, mindfulness, movement, depth psychology, spirituality, body-centered practices, and the healing power of community, music, and the natural world. Her website is tobifishelsacredjourneying.com. The guiding principles in her work are authenticity, meaning, and connection, and she encourages a deepening relationship with the innate gifts of one’s own soul.

Gisela Insuaste is an Oakland-based visual artist, educator, and cultural producer with extensive experience working with cultural and educational institutions at various SF Bay Area, New York, and Chicago. She was recently the Education and Public Programs Director at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley. Her work centers on equitable access to arts education, professional development, and public programming for diverse communities. She’s currently focusing on her art practice and projects that connect the community to art, nature, and wellness.

As an artist, Insuaste is interested in the built and natural environment. Her paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations explore the intersection of architecture, memory, myth, and topography. She utilizes found, industrial, and natural materials to map the idiosyncrasies of the urban and natural landscapes (both real and imagined) that challenge our individual and shared cultural space and identity. She incorporates line, color, scale, and texture to create spaces and structures that highlight the precariousness of our environment. She’s inspired by the concept of the apus (Quechua word to describe the protective spirits of the Andes) as a way to connect to people, places, and things at the periphery—to (un)expected encounters or gestures that (dis)connect us to place physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Insuaste has received various awards and fellowships including NYC SCA Public Art in Public Schools Art Commission; Montalvo Lucas Artist Residency; Hope Platform Designer-in-Residence (Seoul, Korea); apex Art Outbound Residency (Thailand); NYC Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder; Laundromat Project Create Change PD Fellowship; Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Program (LMSP) Fellowship; Artadia/Driehaus Award, and MacDowell Fellowships. She’s exhibited nationally and internationally at Kala Art Institute, Berkeley; Southern Exposure, SF; apexart, NY; Bronx Museum, NY; Queens Museum, NY; El Museo del Barrio, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Chicago Cultural Center, IL; John Allcott Gallery, UNC; Satellite Gallery, UTSA; and Centro Cultural in Riobamba and Manta, Ecuador.

Insuaste has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Anthropology & Studio Art from Dartmouth College.

Jaime Kimmel is a Board Certified Staff Chaplain at the UCSF Parnassus Campus, working primarily in Critical Care settings. He is lay-ordained as a Soto-Zen Buddhist and has been a Buddhist practitioner for many years. He received his M.A. degree in Buddhist Studies and certificates in Buddhist Chaplaincy and Soto-Zen Buddhist Studies from the Institute of Buddhist Studies, a seminary affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. He also holds a B.A. degree in Cultural Anthropology from UC Berkeley. Prior to joining UCSF, he worked as a hospice chaplain in the Bay Area and served as a volunteer chaplain at San Francisco General Hospital.

Mikey Kirkpatrick is a musician based in London, a flute player, singer, composer, and performer with a strong interest in how deeper listening and music-making can be healing for individuals and communities. He is an associate lecturer in Educational Studies at Goldsmiths University in London, specialising in radical and creative pedagogies. He is also the founding director of Alchemy, a creative music mentoring programme created for and with teenagers facing barriers, which he has led since 2017. He teaches courses on music, healing, and deep listening for New York’s Morbid Anatomy student community, which collectively releases music created during the classes as the MHDL (Music, Healing, and Deep Listening) collective. Mikey has recently been exploring the use of masks, double flutes, ritual performance, and extended musical improvisations inspired by hypnosis, dreams, and Celtic shamanic journeying techniques, as seen in his recent albums, Wild Lakes and Songs of Liberation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he provided over 230 daily live flute-loop improvisations on the radio, serving as a regular sonic shelter or resting place for anyone seeking such a space. He performs regularly as a solo artist under the name Bird Radio, with the Zashiki Warashi (pron. Zash-ee-kee Wa – rash–ee) Taiko and Flute Duo, bones and the aft, and the Keys Cut Almanac Theatre Company, among other collaborations.

David M. Odorisio, PhD, is Associate Professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA, where he serves as Chair of the Psychology, Religion, and Consciousness MA/PhD program. David is editor of four volumes, including: Thomas Merton in California: The Redwoods Conferences and Letters, and Depth Psychology and Mysticism. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Mysticism Unit for the American Academy of Religion.

Fr. Chris Renz, OP is professor of Catholic culture and worship at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, and the director of Blackfriars Gallery and Library. He holds a doctorate in microbiology from Northwestern University and theology degrees from DSPT and GTU. His research interests in culture and fine art have been an opportunity for him to reengage his lifelong interest in “how things work.” Focusing on a specialized area of research called “neuroaesthetics,” he is interested in how imagination and our natural capacity for “transcendence” can be related to our ever-present attraction to beauty through the cultivation of wonder and awe.

Amy Slonaker, PhD / Following a 20-year career in law, Amy graduated with a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, where, in her dissertation, she applied theories of consciousness and the imagination by scholars like William James, C.G. Jung, and Jeffrey Kripal to the study of comic books as mystico-visionary texts. Born and raised in Santa Barbara, CA, in a Christian evangelical school and church, she went on to engage religion with a scientific lens as a Religious Studies undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara. After working as an attorney on Wall Street for 13 years, she developed Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer to the bone, which she has battled since 2017. Amy co-founded the non-profit group Survivorship Collective that supports the wellness of cancer survivors through safe and legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapies. She is also an active board member and lecturer at Morbid Anatomy, an online learning platform based in Brooklyn, NY, where she lectures and hosts speakers on esoteric art, occult histories, and mystical religions.

www.amyslonaker.com

https://survivorshipcollective.com/

David S. Zucker, MD, PhD, FAAPMR, is emeritus founding Medical Director and Program Leader of Cancer Rehabilitation Services at Providence-Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle. He holds an MD with honors from Stanford University and, in addition, a PhD in Counseling Psychology from the Professional School of Psychological Studies in San Diego. He completed a residency in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic and an NIH-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship in Medical Anthropology at the University of Washington.

Dr. Zucker is a pioneer in the development of cancer rehabilitation medicine nationally. He is the founding Emeritus Chair of the Cancer Rehabilitation Physician Consortium (CRPC), a group of American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation physiatrists dedicated to improving functional health for cancer patients. The CRPC has been instrumental in creating a national infrastructure for cancer rehabilitation medicine research, educational initiatives, and strategic planning. He developed and implemented a care model at Swedish Cancer Institute grounded in the understanding that cancer affects “molecule to spirit” and that by optimizing functional health throughout the disease/treatment trajectory, the person is better able to negotiate the emotional, psychological, and spiritual dimensions of cancer and, in turn, better integrate rehabilitative self-management skills into daily life. Prior to his retirement, Dr. Zucker collaborated with the American Cancer Society, the American College of Sports Medicine, and other organizations to disseminate and implement research on lifestyle interventions into clinical practice. He has co-authored many scientific papers, including the most recent international guidelines on exercise and cancer.

Guiding Questions

Here are the main guiding questions we used in this podcast:

What are some ways that you have incorporated sacred journeys in your medical/religious/art practices? I am considering not only long-distance walking to a specific site, but also practices like guided meditation. Is there a story you can share about a time when this had a positive outcome?
In the film Phil’s Camino, which is the story of a man who mapped a pilgrimage route onto his backyard after a diagnosis of stage IV cancer, Phil makes a distinction between curing and healing. He says that curing is when the doctor makes the disease disappear, but that healing is rather a reconciliation with the ‘bigger picture’. Do you have any thoughts to share on this, based on your experience?
Can contemplating art or images, or listening to music, or singing/chanting, enhance the experience of walking? Can deep listening, experiencing an artwork, or watching a film engender an experience of travel? Is it possible to engage the arts in an embodied way?
Taking a journey with others can be a powerful way to connect. Does human connection help facilitate the healing process? Returning to Phil, another practice he had was to keep a journal where he would write down how many miles he walked in a single day in his backyard, along with the names of those walking with him. Eventually, on days when he was walking by himself, he would write ‘NOT ALONE.’ These were the times when he felt the closest to the Divine and also with folks he was remembering in prayer, some of them also on cancer journeys or dealing with other struggles – and others who had departed this world. In my work, I have referred to this feeling of connection across time and space as ‘extra-temporal communitas.’ Do you think that walking an ancient path, even ‘alone’ can be a way to connect? Can this, too, facilitate healing?
Can contemplative walking help bridge the mind-body connection? What are some ways that the arts might help?
Can you see some of the practices we’ve been discussing today being integrated into care settings? How so? What are some things that are already being done, and what can we do better?