I cannot say I was enthusiastic to travel a three-hour car trip to see a healer I had never met. I am a commercial fisherman from Alaska who lives in Portland. However, my wife had been to see her before, and was taken by the love that radiated from her and the deep wisdom that she seemed to have.

I reluctantly accompanied my wife there that day, not knowing what to expect. My question was, why I couldn't find a spiritual path that worked for me. Formal religion seemed to repel me and I found the New Age ways of my wife not grounded enough. She had always patiently told me that someday I would find a path that would seem to fit. I was interested in hearing how this healer would respond to this.

My turn came to enter the healing chamber. I explained why I had come to see her, and confessed sheepishly that it wasn't really my idea and that my wife had actually dragged me there. She seemed unperturbed by my confession, looked deep into my eyes and said, "You are a red man in a white man's skin, that's where the problem is. Many of your lifetimes have been lived as an indigenous person upon this land. Being a white man is new to you and their ways still feel foreign."

At that moment, she paused and looked to the right, where huge stained glass windows showed their jewel colors through the room. I jumped up and moved aside. In an instant, a herd of wild mustangs seemed to thunder through the room. It was so real that I could smell the horse sweat and hear the thundering hooves.

The energy pushed me against the wall. In a minute, they were gone. I was speechless. She said nothing either, but waited for me to find my voice, which didn't happen for several minutes. At no time in my life have I ever experienced such an event. It was as though a portal in time had opened.

Finally, I foolishly stammered, "Did you see that?" "The horses?" she asked innocently, a mischievous smile on her face, "Now, let's sit down and discuss how you can find the ways of your people." Many times, as I've been on my boat in the ocean, I have remembered that moment with this holy mother of so many. I have not seen her since, but I now understand my differences more. Peace has settled into my life.

Commercial Fisherman, Alaska