James Twyman

Month 6, Week 1

Author, Film producer/director

Transmute and Release Trauma

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[Theme song playing]

Robyn: Hello everyone, and welcome to month six of the Self-Care Revolution where we’re exploring relationships, relationships to self, others, and money; just everything relationships. How’s that sound, Kevin?

Kevin: That sounds great.

Robyn: So, my name is Robyn Benson. I’m a doctor of Oriental Medicine, and I’m also the founder of Santa Fe Soul Health and Healing Center.

Kevin: And I’m Kevin Snow, and I’m an intuitive counselor here at Santa Fe Soul and the Dessert Shaman.

Robyn: Well, we’re excited to be in our sixth month. We’re kind of like in shock, because when you think about when this all got started, really last maybe August/September. The two of us, too. We’ll share that story once again, how this all really came about.

Kevin: This movement.

Robyn: This movement. This Self-Care Revolution. We’ve been planning this month, too, this relationship month, for quite some time, and we’re very excited about our two speakers today. James Twyman who’s here with us today, fortunately back from France, of all places. Welcome Jimmy, James, whatever. What shall we call you? What would you lovingly like to be called throughout this conversation?

James: You know, it’s a good question. I’m not really sure, but I’m getting clearer. When I was in France, I was bringing a group of people around what’s called the Camino of Mary Magdalene – walking through all the different Mary Magdalene places there in Southern France – and I asked them to call me Jimmy James. I was trying that on for a couple of weeks. It didn’t fit well. It didn’t quite fit, though. So we’ll just stick with James for now.

Robyn: Okay. Wow, I didn’t really know the nature of this trip. That is, oh my gosh. I was there in spirit. All I can say is, I totally love the Mary Magdalene and everything she represents and any places I’ve been and the Black Madonna. That is really cool.

James: It was great. As I said, we had about 26 people, and we walked about 12 days through the countryside and along these ancient paths. We ended high above the plain at this beautiful cave where Mary Magdalene lived as a hermit for many, many years. It was just a very blessed trip for us.

Robyn: Wow. Sounds great. Just for everyone who’s listening, I’m going to give a short bio here:

James Twyman is the New York Times bestselling author of 15 books, including, Emissary of Light, The Moses Code, and TheBarn Dance. In 1994, he put the peace prayers for the 12 major religions to music and began traveling the world as the Peace Troubadour, often being invited by world leaders and peace organizations to perform the concert for countries at war. He’s performed in Bosnia, Iraq, Serbia, South Africa, Israel, Northern Ireland, and many other places.

James has also produced seven music CDs and is the producer/director of 5 films, including the award-winning Indigo and The Camino of St. Francis. He’s also the founder of the Beloved Community, a network of spiritual peace ministers around the world, as well as the Seminary of Spiritual Peacemaking, which has graduated and ordained over 500 ministers. At present, James lives in a cabin near Ashland, Oregon, where he leads an eremitic lifestyle.

James: Which I’ll change by the way. I need to upgrade my bio. I just moved to Portland. So, I’m back in Portland, but I’m still in Oregon.

Robyn: How nice. So, since we’ve started talking about your most recent trip, you just got back from France: can you share a little bit more about your journey with these 26 pilgrims?

James: Well, it’s something that I love to do at least once a year, and that is to take people on sacred site journeys. I’ve brought people to Israel many times, to Italy, and in the last few years, I’ve been focusing more on walking. Because when you get a chance to really connect with the land you really get a feel for the energy or the history – things that have happened there.

For example, in the case of this Southern France trip, the idea was to reconnect with the energy of Mary Magdalene and the Divine Feminine. Most people believe that 2,000 years ago after the resurrection of Jesus, that she went to Southern France and lived there for the rest of her life, teaching and living as a hermit. But she visited very many places, so there’s rich history of the Black Madonna, the Cathars, and so many things.

So we walked from castle to castle, from landmark to landmark, and I think everyone had a real sense that every step we were taking was a prayer. We were like literally beating our prayers into the earth with every step. It was quite an extraordinary trip. It’s the first time I’ve done this particular one. I’ve brought many groups through Italy, walking, but this is the first time in Southern France.

Kevin: That’s really inspiring to hear you say that every step is a prayer. We just finished up a month about earthing and helping people connect with the earth in that kind of way.

Robyn: Especially being. Earth is earth, but being in sacred places. I was sharing being in Kenya. Supposedly, they create a little civilization. The power of being on that land was so awesome to me. But me, I would love to do this pilgrimage if you do this again sometime. Kevin, are you in?

Kevin: I’m in.

James: Okay. I’ll keep you guys alerted.

Robyn:So who was your audience? I’m just curious, I mean the 26 people, were they from all over the world?

James: They were. Usually, most of the trips are filled with women. We had, in addition to me, two men. I’d love to see more men take journeys like this, but you’re right, journeys like these attract women most. I don’t really know why. I think that this movement seems to spark the feminine faster than the masculine, but I think more men are catching on. More men are realizing that they don’t have to let go of their masculinity to be balanced and to be more effective, that we just have to embrace both and every side of ourselves. I think these are the men that I am attracting, but it does seem to be something that is dominated by women. Maybe we’ll see that change.

Kevin: Yes, I totally agree. I have been in the healing arts for many years, and I always notice that there’s this 80/20 rule. But it’s great for me.

James: I don’t mind. I do have to say, I have a soft part of my heart for the feminine.

Robyn: So you’ve gone to sacred places all over the world now, how did this impact you individually as a minister, as the Peace Troubadour, as a speaker/author/writer?

James: Well, as you said in your introduction, it all started almost 20 years ago when a friend of mine gave me a sheet of paper that had the peace prayers from the 12 major religions of the world. Just a backup scene where those came from: back in 1986, there was an event in Assisi, Italy – by the way it’s my favorite town in the whole world. It’s the home of St. Francis, of course. So, in Assisi, Pope John Paul II called the leaders of the 12 major religions of the world together, not to talk or discuss but to simply pray the peace prayers from their traditions. The Dalai Lama, for example, represented Buddhism and all the other leaders from the different traditions. They came together and they prayed. It was, I think, a major, major moment.

So when a friend of mine gave me those prayers, I had been a musician all my life and was literally just playing my guitar. I began to read them, and one by one, the music presented itself almost out of nowhere. Within one hour, I had put all 12 of these prayers to music. I knew that this was a gift, and I knew that this was a gift I was meant to share. People began calling me the Peace Troubadour, and I started just traveling around - first the U.S. - to share these prayers of peace.

Something magical happens, I find, when we sing. Actually, it was St. Augustine that said that when we sing, we pray twice, and I’ve always loved that quote. When we sing these prayers or share these prayers to music, it dives so much deeper into our souls. I have that experience so many times, especially as I’ve traveled to many war-torn areas throughout the years. Beginning first back in 1995 when I was invited to Croatia and Bosnia. Then, many other places like you mentioned, while wars were happening.

And if I could just give one example, in 1998, I was invited by Saddam Hussein to come to Iraq. This was at a time when we were getting ready to bomb Iraq again because of their suspected weapons of mass destruction. Bill Clinton was in the White House still. It didn’t look good. It looked like it was definitely going to happen, and I was in London, actually, on a book tour. I just happened to be on this radio show that was listened by millions of people there in Britain. This guy was kind of giving me a hard time, and he said, “Okay Mr. Peace Troubadour, how does this stuff hit the ground and become real, or is it just a bunch of airy-fairy new-age stuff?”

He challenged me so I said, “Well, what I’d love to do would be to go to Iraq and to simply sing the Muslim prayer to Saddam Hussein. Maybe if we just pray together, something magical will happen.” Well, suffice to say, the next day I was on an airplane, because the Iraqi ambassador to Great Brittan heard that interview. I was invited. I went to Baghdad. I did a major concert there. The interesting thing about that event - it was the first time.

Back then, in 1998, there wasn’t really the internet presence that we have now. People may have had email addresses, but it wasn’t like it is now. My agent at that time had about 300 people on her email list, and she sent out an email to all of them asking them to simply be praying or focusing their prayers of peace on Iraq while I was doing the concert. That email went out and it began to spread like wildfire. People were passing it on to their list and their friends. Before long, millions of people knew about it and stopped and prayed at that time. I could literally feel it when I was there.

I could give example after example of this. At the time, there didn’t seem to be any possibility of a peaceful conclusion, and yet, something shifted that day. Three days later, a peace accord was signed, and no one died, no bombs fell. I began to realize that there’s power in us coming together in this way, in this prayerful way.

So I began traveling to many other countries to do the same thing and to sponsor these worldwide prayer vigils. It has just been a remarkable experience to share the music in that way and to feel it myself. Of course, the real teaching is that the more we give the more we receive. We have to be the source of this peace. As I’ve had this chance to travel around the world sharing this, of course, it’s all come back to me.

Kevin: It’s very inspiring, because we’re talking about relationships this month. I really believe that those words, “the source of this peace,” is the critical component of being in a relationship. Can you talk a little bit about that, maybe even in your own life?

James: Well yes, you’re absolutely right this is the key. I have to say, being a part of this so-called movement, call it the Esoteric Spiritual Movement. We used to call it the New Age Movement. It doesn’t really matter what we call it, but I remember back in the ‘80s, about ’84 I guess, is when I first came into it. I just graduated from university and was dating this amazing woman who opened up a whole new world to me. Back then, in the early ‘90s, I’m sure you remember it was really exciting, because people were discovering these spiritual openings that they had never really known about. It was a very exciting time to be part of this movement.

Then, something changed. You talk about relationships, and I think what changed was that we began to see this movement – this spirituality – as being something more about me and my needs and what I don’t have and what I should have and what I could get if I could just simply focus this spiritual energy in the right way and became less about being the source and being the change, being something that allows this energy to come into the world and be shared with humanity. It became much more about what I don’t have that I deserve.

Of course, what that means, what that shows - which I think is something very important for us all to realize - is that that egoic part of us will latch on to anything we give it; in particular, spirituality. I say in particular, because in my mind/in my experience, it’s like the ego, it relishes spiritual stuff, because it’s like, “Oh, thank you.” It’s like sugar. It can get in there and it can subvert and it can shift and before you know it, this beautiful spiritual teaching has turned in on itself and in doing so has lost its potency.

This movement, I believe in many ways has lost its potency. When you guys use words like “revolution” or when you hear words like “renaissance,” that really resonates with me, because this does need to be a revolution. But it needs to be a revolution first and foremost about me, not receiving good, but me allowing goodness to come through me into this world; not being so much focused on what I can get, but what I can give. Because, as was all know, the more we do give, the more automatically comes into our life.

This is, for me, what the relationship is all about. How can I be the source of this, knowing that as I do this everything I need will be given to me? I don’t need to focus on getting a new car. There’s certainly nothing wrong with having a new car or financial security, but to make that be the focus, I really have to say, and I believe that it has taken this movement on a nose dive.

I remember back in the early days, in the ‘80s, if you wanted to buy books and things you had to go into one of these weird little shops. Every town had one or two, but it was not mainstream. You had to find these little shops. Then after a while, the change began to catch on. Pretty soon, Barnes & Noble and the other chains would have a section of New Age books. Then, before long, there’d be a whole shelf or maybe even two shelves. Well, if you notice, everything has been going backwards. The two shelves became one shelf; one shelf became a half a shelf.

Now, part of that is because we have new ways of buying books through the internet and such. But the other part is that, especially since this little movie called The Secretcame out, where so many people were sold a completely false idea that spirituality is about something that I have and what I get, rather than what I give.

There’s a lot of good information in that movie, but on the other hand, it was only the first step. And if you think that the first step is the last step, you’re in big trouble. When that movie came out, I thought, “Well this is great. This is a good movie and people are going to get this, but if they don’t get that this is the first step, this is going to really wreak havoc.” How this happened is that the mainstream audience has said, “Well look at this. This is no different than anything else.”

What we need is a revolution. What we need is a renaissance. I mentioned St. Francis earlier. St. Francis lived 800 years ago at the very end of what we would call the dark ages. He did something and he lived a life that was revolutionary, because he decided to take this seriously, to really be the source. In doing so, he inspired millions of people in Europe, including all the artists and the poets who initiated the Renaissance. So it’s people like St. Francis saying, “There has got to be a more consistent way of living this, and it’s the living of this that creates the renaissance or the revolution.” So that’s why what you guys are doing is so important, because when the community comes together to support that vision, that’s when it begins takes hold and that’s when the revolution really happens.

Robyn: Exactly.

Kevin: We’re excited about it.

Robyn: I love this whole take that you’re sharing about this revolution. The revolution certainly, but also this relationship piece – the give and take. That’s the yin and yang of life and the flow. The Secret, too, I also thought it was great, and this is really that continuation that we’re talking about. The first step that this is living it day to day.