Turning Point Q&A with Jim PathFinder Ewing

Jim PathFinder Ewing is a Reiki master, shaman, award-winning journalist, author, and organic farmer. His six books include Reiki Shamanism: A Guide to Out-of-Body Healing; Dreams of the Reiki Shaman: Expanding Your Healing Power; and Conscious Food: Sustainable Growing, Spiritual Eating.

Describe what you do in 15 words or less.
I write books, practice Reiki shamanism and enjoy life as much as possible.

Tell us about a turning point in your life.
In 1992, I fell out of a tree and shattered my left leg. For years, I lived with chronic pain. A few years later, while attending a seminar on shamanism, I shared with the person I was with that my leg was hurting terribly. A woman seated behind us leaned forward and whispered that she was a Reiki master and that, if I wanted, she would work on my leg during the break. Though I didn’t know what Reiki was, I reasoned that anything would be an improvement. During the break, she had me lie down on the floor and she seemed to wave her hands over my leg. I was stunned: the constant, unremitting, excruciating pain I’d been living with for years was gone. I said, “I don’t know what you just did, but I’ve got to learn how to do that!” That moment put me on the path to learning Reiki.

What do you love about teaching?
I love to watch people get excited about new concepts and seeing things they never knew existed. Or, rather, things they knew in their hearts existed, but never in their adult lives thought they would see with their own eyes. There are many ways to see reality. We are taught one way by our teachers, parents, peers. But when we see with our Spirit eyes, the world becomes a new and wondrous place. This does not require any type of drug, or any rigorous process to learn. It requires learning how to learn again: allowing ourselves to see in the undifferentiated fashion of the child and then programming our minds to shift focus a little bit. Once people learn a few techniques to allow the ego or personality to stop chattering what we “think” we see, then we can truly see.

What are you passionate about right now?
Right now, I’m passionate about food. My wife, Annette Waya, and I own a small organic farm and I was out working in the fields one day and it really struck me how beautiful it was to be out there. The plants were gently waving in the breeze and I was going about my chores, thankful to be alive. Then, I came inside and checked the news and there was an alert about food-borne pathogens. There was a report that this generation of young people could be the first in modern history to have shorter life spans than their parents due to the epidemic of child obesity. There was a report on “food deserts” — areas of cities where no fresh fruits and vegetables are available, linking poverty and race to poor food options. Fresh from the fields, where producing food was a walking prayer in love and healing harmony with all beings, I thought: How did we get like this? How did our food become unhealthy? Where did the sacredness of our food go? That got me researching the issue and led to my book Conscious Food: Sustainable Growing, Spiritual Eating. I’ve been doing a lot of radio shows, book signings, talks and lectures on how we as individuals and a society can get back to that sacred connection with our food.

What do you do in your downtime?
I write, take photos, jog, ride my bicycle, give talks, teach classes, farm, and serve on various boards of directors for nonprofits.

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