Customer Testimonials

"I ordered your I Ching: The Tao of Drumming from Amazon.com several months ago. I also had one sent to a friend of mine. We were both pleased to see your signature on the front. As soon as I got the book I felt a special energy and then when I realized you had signed it I knew this book was going to become special to me. I thank you for the knowledge you have shared in your book and for the energy you put into the things you do. I started drumming in January 2000. Making my frame drum from a Cedar Mountain Drums kit. I now have several drums, talking, Djembie etc. We started a community drum circle "Drumming for Peace" on October 2001 in hopes to balance the violent energies we were feeling after 9-11-01. We meet the first Friday of the month and drum from 7 to 9 PM. When I got your book I knew it would be helpful for us to use. Since we have new drummers each time into our circle I have slowly started to add these rhythms. We have only played with some of the simplest of the I Ching rhythms, and it is going well. Everyone seems to enjoy the drumming sessions using this simple method. The guidelines in your book have proven helpful for me in facilitating and creating the energy needed to for healing vibrations. The rhythms are easily converted to be used on the other types of drums (Djembie and big ceremonial drums) we have in our circle. Thank you for sharing. I hope one day to be able to follow all of the exercises in your books and attend one of your workshops."

Peace, Love, Health and Happiness,
Rhonda Donahoo, New Smyrna Beach, FL
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"I just finished your book, and must say it's one of the most informative that I've read thus far. I have just started drumming with the help of your book, and can't believe what a great tool it is! I have also started using it with some of my clients that I meditate with. My client base is very type "triple A" executives (mostly) who are trying to in mid-life focus on their health and well being. They are rushing through life so fast and are missing much. The workouts I do with them consist of a combination of Yoga, Pilates, and Tai Chi, though it's "amped up" to get their heart rate up and challenge them. So they get stronger from the inside out, and have greater flexibility. Most of them are hard chargers, so they like the intensity of it. I end each session with a meditation (and depending on their stress level sometimes begin with one too). After reading your wonderful book and experimenting with my own Shamanic journeys according to your guidance, I brought a drum to a client's session and after much coaxing let them try the meditation with the drumming. It has been unbelievable. Now it's hard to get it out of their hands! You are very inspiring! I have been journeying for the last few years with regards to enhancing and embracing the Shamanic path/connection that I have been trying to develop and make stronger. Your book is clearly one of my favorites!"

Peace,

Kimberly Bennett, St. Louis, MO
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"I recently bought your book and the CD for the Tao of Drumming and was very happy with the outcome of where I'm at in life. I am a martial arts teacher of a Daoist Kung Fu system as well Buddhist system and have dabbled into the I Ching over the years, but just recently wanted to research it much deeper. My arts are based on Chi Cultivation which I found that your Tao of Drumming fits in well with as the vibrations of the drum will enter certain organs for its healing benefits plus much more. So I needed to write to you to thank you on a huge effort and great job on the book and drumming. Once again I am very happy I have come across you online and I think it's by fate as I was interested in learning the I Ching and was thinking of taking up African drumming so this has both inside and relates to my Chi Kung."

Regards,

Garry Hearfield, Shaolin Yau Kung Mun Kung Fu Academy, Sydney, Australia
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"I wanted to thank you for your books and your work and let you know that they've deeply touched me. I've been especially touched by the exercise, Drumming the Tai Chi. Although I'd heard of the I Ching for years and had friends who loved it, it's only been since I started drumming the Tai Chi that I've consulted it. What a powerful tool!"

"I and two friends play Middle Eastern frame drums (the styles taught by Layne Redmond and Glen Velez) each week. One weekend, I found your Book behind a frame drum at a retreat center I frequent and created rhythms for each of the trigrams. We've been drumming them collectively and individually for about 2 months and the effects are unmistakable: We've all leapt forward boldly in our personal and work lives and our collective drumming has become more coherent. The other night we all sheepishly confessed that, when we play it on our own, we go for anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour, effortlessly. That very night we taped ourselves playing it together and were stunned when the tape recorder clicked off: 45 minutes had gone by and we were only a little better than 1/2-way through. We all find that, if we don't drum it every 3 days or so, we miss it terribly."

"Conversely, when we use it as a morning meditation, we have better focus and are calmer and clearer. I've noticed a difference in how I deal with my clients on those days. I recorded one of my morning sessions (40 mins), burned a CD and have used that to burn through a multi-year writing block I'd been struggling with. (I play it in the background while I'm working.)"

"So Michael, thank you for your gift to us. It's called to me deeply and I'm loving responding. All the best to you."

Liz Williams
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I've spent some time visiting your site and I'm totally enthralled by what you've been doing with your drumming. I just ordered one of your tapes, too, and I can hardly wait to hear it. I could get a good sense of your depth and insight from reading your site, so I especially look forward to hearing the tape. I also found myself nodding in agreement to so much of what I read at your site. We obviously share many common outlooks and perspectives. Music is so incredibly powerful, as you know. I also ordered a copy of your updated book via amazon.com, so I look forward to reading that, too. I'm glad we've crossed paths. I wish you all the best, Michael.

Warmly,
Shirley E. Kaiser , M.A., Pianist/Composer, Sacramento, CA
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I have just finished reading your book The Shamanic Drum and wanted to compliment you on the valuable and easily readable information it contains. I am going to buy another 12 copies for the shamanic practices group I am studying with over the next two years - I think they will all find the book useful too. Thank you again for publishing such a valuable book for the learning shamanic practitioner.

Best regards,
Walter Cooke , Hamilton (Bermuda)
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"I read and enjoyed so very much your book, The Shamanic Drum: A Guide to Sacred Drumming. I currently use the drum with love and respect, to facilitate healing and community among all sorts of people. I see professionals in business, children, elderly, students (Pre K-College), those with disabilities and those recovering from mental illness all share in the unifying magic and joyful power the drum brings. I am thankful and feel so blessed to be able to share this with my life. Because you are also a carrier of the drum I am reaching out to you. I am contacting you because I feel your writing is from the heart and resonates deeply in the world; awakening the creative divine shared by all life. I am writing to thank you for your gift of words, and to ask your permission to use your knowledge as source for my future book and website. I ask with the up most respect, and with the highest intention and good for all things. My website is www.songofthespheres.com. Thank you for your time."

Sincerely,
Len Mackey, Rochester, NY
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"A few months ago I purchased your e-books I-Ching: The Tao of Drumming & The Shamanic Drum: A Guide to Sacred Drumming. I'm going to download the companion CD for The Shamanic Drum and was wondering if you have a companion CD for the I-Ching.

I do sound healing and after having read the chapters on drum therapy, have begun using the drum in my work. The method I've been using is to have the client lie on their stomach and then use the drum along the spine - starting at the feet and working up to the crown. It's quite an incredible experience.

Thanks for having written both of these books."

Richard Schrei , Sound Healer, Tampa, Florida
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My name is Shaun. I live in Israel and have been studying Shamanism and Native American Philosophy for the past 15 years. I have begun teaching in this past year and am discovering on my own and through wonderful books like yours the magic and power of drumming. I have experienced healing for myself through drumming and calling in the directions and have come to believe more and more in the power of rhythm and vibration to connect us. I love the way it can guide me within or take me out to the farthest corners of the universe and always with such love and usually with a touch of ecstasy thrown in!

I would like to thank you for the information you passed on in Sacred Drumming - I loved it. It was a real opening for me for what I am sure is going to be the direction my healing work will take in the future. I have come to believe that healing is a pulse, a frequency that can be called in and experienced and I am excited by the possibilities for healing and development this opens. I have placed an order for your other book as well and am looking forward to receiving it.

Thank you and Blessings,
Shaun
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Thank you so much for signing the book I purchased, that was very thoughtful of you. I wanted to finish up another book before I started yours (The Shamanic Drum). I'm only into chapter three, but what an awesome book! I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it and rereading it all over again!

Thanks again,
Gregg Swanson, Bend, OR
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I have had your book and CD for a while now and recently have been less busy so can get some reading done. I have to say that I feel your book really speaks from and to the heart. You have one of the best descriptions detailing intent and how it can be used that I have ever seen in print. I thank you for the efforts of writing your book.

Regards to you,
Maggie Carruthers, Nova Scotia Canada
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I am in the middle of reading your book on Shamanic Drumming, so it was with joy that I discovered your website while doing a search of drumming and world music... Thank you for sharing your words via your book and your website. Being in Western Australia it is not an easy feat to come across information, and guidance, such as you are sharing. I have joined your yahoo group and look forward to further thoughts and information.

Take care,
Peter Blake , Wembley Australia
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Thank you, Michael...the recordings and book are just what we've needed since my wife and I lead a shamanic drumming circle in the Dallas, Texas area.

Alex Velasquez-Ebersole
Dallas, TX
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I am just new to your Talking Drum newsletter and have really enjoyed and learned from what I have read so far - I had the honor of making my own drum under the teaching and direction of an Inupiat elder, Graywolf, here in Australia two years ago - my drum is a much loved friend and will get much more attention from me now that I have gained some further insight on ways in which to let her speak through me/to me ........ thank you for this!! Many thanks Michael and thank you for sharing the love and the light, the joy and the beauty of Being.

Love, peace, joy and beauty to you and yours,
Lynn Smith, Australia
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Blessings on your beautiful work and gift to our planet. I am honored to meet you ... and look forward to future communications and sharing Light/Love Essence.

Rainbow Blessings,
Jaylyn L'na, publisher/editor Cosmic Link, Guerneville, CA

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Thanks so much for The Shamanic Drum book and Sacred Songs and Chants CD. I have already read most of the book and listened to the chants. I am looking forward to sharing them with the Medicine Wheel group. It is going to be a great learning tool for us and fun too! Again, thanks.

Shirley Viscalla, Mt. Vernon, WA
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I read your book The Shamanic Drum. I feel it is well done and should be a very good help to people wanting to learn how to use the drum in a sacred way. The Native people say the beat of the drum represents the beat of the heart and we transmit our heartbeat to the Earth and the Universe through the drum. This book can teach others how to drum and feel the energy of the drum and thus become one with the Earth and the Universe.

Sun Bear - Chippewa Medicine man and author of Black Dawn/Bright Day, Spokane, WA
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I have very much enjoyed your two books and have tried to practice the rhythms from what I've read. Please send me copies of your audio cassettes for I am anxious to experience the sounds at proper speeds while someone else properly drums for me. Thank You.

Sue Buck, Denver, CO
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Finally! A good book on shamanic drumming. Mickey Hart taught about drums. Now your book teaches the uses of the traditional shamanic drum. I appreciate your support in our efforts to get your book out there and really look forward to some more contributions from you for the newsletter.

Best Wishes,
Nick Spence, editor Shamanic News, Durango, CO

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I just wanted to let you know how much I love your online I-Ching reading generator and the insightful elaborations on each hexagram. I often find there precisely the support that my intuition could best use, and I thank you for that offering and blessing. Thanks for doing what you do.

Love and all the good stuff,
Karli Nabours-Palermo, Lake Charles, Louisiana

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I really enjoy your music. It has helped to open my door to the Shamanic world.

Elizabeth Dempsey, USA

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Thank you Michael for your drumming offerings; very solid, clear instruction.

Marc Bourdelle, Mount Harmony Farm, Sheffield, VT

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