The Everyday Shaman
Join the Everyday Shaman each week for insights on how to spiritually, emotionally, and physically recognize, navigate, and overcome the traumas and daily obstacles everyone encounters by tapping into the inner shadow and divine light that shapes our past, present, and future. Find that no one is ever alone, and that everyone and everything is connected by seen and unseen forces and energies of light and darkness.
The search for oneness with oneself and everything in this world, universe, and beyond starts here!
The Everyday Shaman
From Resistance to Acceptance: My Journey to Awareness
How does one transition from a structured life in Iowa and North Carolina to the mystical realm of shamanism? In this episode, Ebony Mixon takes the reins, unraveling my personal journey with thought-provoking questions and deep explorations. From my childhood memories in Winston-Salem filled with artistic mischief to the mysterious guidance from my grandmother, every story and experience weaves into the tapestry of my spiritual path.
Listeners are taken through the evolving landscapes of my life, exploring the pivotal moments that shaped my spiritual awakening. We discuss deeply personal family stories, nostalgic childhood experiences, and the profound bond with my wife, Pam, whose support was, and continues to be, a cornerstone in my journey. Together, we reflect on the challenges faced within organized religion, the transformative power of Reiki and shamanism, and my professional, worldly journey ranging from graphic arts to bartending and beyond, which collectively enriched my spiritual perspective.
Closing with reflections on embracing one's past, the significance of interconnectedness, and the ethical dimensions of modern spiritual retreats, this episode is a heartfelt tribute to the journey of self-discovery and healing. We emphasize the importance of grounding and self-awareness, the role of traditional healers, and the necessity of genuine intention in spiritual practices. Join us as we share wisdom, gratitude, and the profound lessons learned along this path, offering a beacon of insight to all listeners.
Learn more, schedule a Q&A by phone or video, or book a shamanic session at www.everydayshaman.net
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Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Everyday Shaman. Thank you for joining me Today. I have a special guest that's actually been here before. It's Ebony Mixon and you may remember her if you've heard the podcast about dreams. I call her the dream therapist. We're going to flip the script a little bit on this episode, so it's going to be a little different. I hesitate to talk about myself because of I don't know. It just doesn't feel right, but Ebony had come up with the idea to interview me, so I'm going to be answering questions. I have no clue what Ebony will ask and I hope to be able to answer everything as succinctly and clearly as possible, if I can.
Jeffrey Brunk:It's going to be different and I hope you enjoy it and I hope I don't embarrass myself too much. But I'm really not concerned about what others think about what I say, because I just speak the truth as I know it and what I'm told and what I've gone through. If you don't remember Ebony, by the way, she lives in Detroit, has two wonderful kids and a great husband, teaches American Sign Language, is an advocate for women that have had issues with birth or with stillbirths and miscarriages, and she's a wonderful person. So, without further ado, ebony, it's great to have you here.
Ebony Mixon:Thanks for welcoming me back to the podcast and good to be back here.
Jeffrey Brunk:Yeah, and it's your idea to do this and I think it's a great idea.
Ebony Mixon:I thought it would be a great idea for listeners to get to know you and learn more about you as a person, so we can know who's this guy that we're listening to on this podcast. So let's jump right into it. If you could just tell us a little bit about yourself, you know where you grew up.
Jeffrey Brunk:Well, that's a long, that's a broad question.
Ebony Mixon:Where are you from?
Jeffrey Brunk:I was born in Iowa, actually, but at the age of two my parents moved to North Carolina. So I'm from originally Winston-Salem, I guess, where I grew up till about fifth grade and then moved to Lexington, north Carolina, another small town in North Carolina in between Charlotte and Greensboro and in between Charlotte and Winston-Salem, somewhere in the middle of the state, and I lived there for oh, I guess until I graduated from high school and then it was sort of living everywhere. I kind of went where the wind took me. I've never been one to stay in one place for a long time until here, just in the last four or so years. Four and a half years Lived in Myrtle Beach as a bartender for a while. It's just going wherever I wanted, it's just trying to experience life. But yeah, north Carolina I call home, I guess, or I used to.
Ebony Mixon:That makes sense for a free spirit.
Jeffrey Brunk:I'm in Virginia now, I'm sorry. I shouldn't say where I am now, in the middle of the woods, probably where I belong.
Ebony Mixon:That sounds just about right for such a free spirit to kind of bounce all around and kind of go with the flow. Is there any particular experiences that you had growing up that you think contributed to you becoming a shaman?
Jeffrey Brunk:Well, I didn't even know what a shaman was until I was going through what they call the shaman sickness or the dark night of the soul, and my wife, pam, actually told me she found out what that was. I'd never heard of it. Same with Reiki. But as a child there were a few experiences and I can remember a couple. Specifically, one that I still haven't quite figured out was as a kid of somewhere between seven and nine, my grandmother kneeling down and just telling me remember who you are? And I never knew what that meant and, to be honest, I still don't completely know what that means. I do know. After my mom and dad died, my sister found a piece of paper in the files where they had had me tested, kind of like Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory, as a little kid, and I don't remember this and I don't know why.
Jeffrey Brunk:I was born in call I'm sure you know what that means with a placenta over and years and years. I mean I was in my late 40s probably when she told me that. But as a child I remember one incident sitting in church in the South that's what you did on Sunday and it had been raining for days and days and days and all I wanted to do was go outside and ride my bike and jump ditches and be a kid. And I remember sitting there and just closing my eyes, going stop raining, just let it stop raining. I didn't speak it out loud and within a minute or two I looked up and it was a large church, stained glass windows, and the sun came out and it stopped and it didn't start again. And this, I think, was sometime during early fall maybe, and that was my first experience with that. And then I'd had other experiences, especially with weather, where whether I recognized I don't think I even recognized that I was focusing in tension. I was too young or just too stupid to know that moving the wind and moving clouds and there was a time living in Northern Virginia, standing in a storm outside and no rain hitting me, which I know was really hard to believe. That was very bizarre to me. But I can feel rain Even on the sunniest of days. I can say it's going to rain later and it's just a knowing about that and a feeling I get. It's not like the feeling you get as you get older, when it's in your bones and your creek, and it's just knowing those things, having a strong connection, always having a strong connection with animals.
Jeffrey Brunk:Again, as a child I went to my grandmother's house out in the country and had my uncle at the time, which is another thing. I'll go to him first. Actually, he was 16 when he passed and he was playing Russian roulette with my grandfather's service revolver and didn't know it was loaded and so that didn't end up well and he and I were very close and I remember going to the funeral and Casket was sitting up on a stand and there were two steps leading up to it and I sat on the step and I was talking to him. Not talking to him like you would saying you know things you would to someone who's passed, but literally talking to him. Not talking to him like you would saying you know things you would to someone who's passed, but literally talking to him like he was standing in front of me.
Jeffrey Brunk:Well, he had a BB gun and I remember being at my grandmother's house and I shot a bird and it still haunts me to this day and I was five years old, six years old, and finding that bird and burying it and it just killed me. It's just like I felt something within me had died a little bit with that bird. So I've always had a very strong connection to nature and animals, even growing up in the city, but having that connection and always being sort of a loner. I have thousands of acquaintances to this day but count on one hand and three fingers probably the number of true friends I have, because no one ever understood me. I don't believe some, even within the family. So yeah, as a kid I guess looking back on it now I didn't know it then, but looking back on it now I can see it's like feeling like not belonging to this place, this earth, and I still have that feeling.
Ebony Mixon:So you mentioned being kind of a loner. So how would you describe your behavior as a child and going into your teenage years? Were you a troubled child? Did trouble find you? You know, were you a straight, a academic type student? What was that like for you?
Jeffrey Brunk:It was a really it was a good childhood. I wasn't a troubled child. I had a great childhood. My parents were wonderful, my sister wonderful. I was very protective of her. I was not a straight A student. I was very much into art. I would get lost. I remember getting lost. It was fifth grade and I would draw. I remember this particular drawing of airplanes and being in a battle, but I was making the noises out loud and I was called out by the teacher for doing that. I was totally lost in the scene. I had one real friend there when I was a kid that lived across the street in Winston-Salem. It wasn't a troubled childhood.
Jeffrey Brunk:I got in trouble with the law one time as a kid because we did something stupid. We broke a light out of a bank ATM drive-thru thing and they came looking for me, scared the crap out of me. As I got older I started going through a little bit of a metamorphosis and keep in mind, I was a child of the 80s, so cocaine was well you know, it was everywhere and I did partake and did party a lot. I have a friend who was nine years older than me. He's still around and he's one person that I could pick up. I haven't seen him in years but I know I could pick up the phone. We'd pick up exactly where we were, you know, back in the 80s because we had a good friendship. But yeah, my childhood was good.
Jeffrey Brunk:I had a very close relationship with my grandmother. She came from a large family. My mom and her mom and she was one of my grandmother was one of 10 kids. They were not your typical Southern people. For the time my mom was a dowser. My grandmother, I believe, had very strong gifts of some sort. One of my formative things was when she died, and I still remember this very clearly. She died of a brain tumor and my girlfriend at the time had driven me to the hospital and I was still in high school and it's when the police this song, every Breath you Take that album came out and I just laid my head on my girlfriend's lap.
Jeffrey Brunk:I was in the passenger seat and just bawling, and that song came on Every Breath you Take. And now to this day, when things are going on, and because we're human, we all have those days that song will come on. I've had it come on in playlists. It's not even in playlists, it's a reminder.
Ebony Mixon:So you grew up close to your grandmother. You also mentioned your mother. You have a sister. Did you grow up in the house with your father? Did you have any other siblings?
Jeffrey Brunk:No, just the four of us. My sister is about a year and a half almost two years younger than I am. My mom was at first, I guess she stayed at home. My dad worked for Piedmont Airlines, then became US Airlines his entire career, and my mom got a job in radio. Back when radio was you opened up the window to see if it's raining and that was your weather forecaster. And then moved up into cable television and became a manager and that's what moved us from Winston-Salem to Lexington, north Carolina. Her job started working when I was 12 years old, crawling under houses and trailers stringing cable TV with all the spider crickets coming out filthy, and I loved it. I did that all the way through high school.
Ebony Mixon:You also mentioned going to church in the South, so would you say that your family was religious growing up?
Jeffrey Brunk:They were not religious in the way that you would think of sitting around having Bible study type things. You know, we went to church on Sundays and after church on Sundays we'd go to my grandmother's where she would fix fried chicken and mashed potatoes. That was the best part of the whole day. And then we lived the rest of the week our lives. But I never had that. Even then, at that age, I never had that feeling that I saw other people have. It's like why are they so happy? Why can't I get that? And it took years and years and years to realize they're not all really happy. There's a lot of mass song, but I didn't know that at the time.
Ebony Mixon:So does anyone else in your family? Does your sister? Would you say that they're more spiritualist or more like yourself?
Jeffrey Brunk:Kelly, if you're listening and I know you will be I think you have more gifts than you are aware of. She was also born in call. I admire her so much and I know that she and she'll deny this, I know, but I know for a while she resented me because I've always been a free spirit and would just pick up, go by myself different places, and she always stayed put close to the family and so as my parents got older, she was there caring for them. She knows more about them than I do and when she just visited us recently and there's so many things that I did not know about them I'm so proud of her and where she's come to, she helps people now that have recently gotten out of prison, out of jail, have no jobs, have no insurance, have no prospects and trains and gets them placed in jobs and gets them insurance and she's a friend to these people and she's so proud of them and I admire her and I'm so proud of her.
Jeffrey Brunk:She has different gifts. I think she has other gifts too, but she has gifts of discernment, gifts of compassion and it's just. She's a wonderful person. She's much like my mom, which, by the way, my mom had a tremendous sense of humor, very witty, very snarky, and we both picked that up, and sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes it's a bad thing. I look at it as a good thing.
Ebony Mixon:How would you describe your father?
Jeffrey Brunk:Quiet, moody. He never talked a lot. He never talked about his military service. It wasn't until after he died we found out some things about his military service. He and I did not really bond until I was maybe 16. It was his efforts. I was in Boy Scouts and he became an assistant scoutmaster and we went to Philmont Scout Ranch out in New Mexico and hiked 110 miles with the group over a course of a couple of weeks and he and I bonded there and I have very, very great memories of that. As he got older and as things with me during my upheaval were happening, I remember him. I remember walking into their place in Charlotte and him getting up and running over to me and hugging me and saying, finally we've got our son back, and he cried. He opened up more. He became softer over time. It was a good relationship. He became softer over time.
Ebony Mixon:It was a good relationship, so it sounds like you had a really good foundation for where you are now with your childhood.
Jeffrey Brunk:Yeah, I look back at my dad too and I didn't know at the time as a kid, but my dad's dad left them. When he was my dad was nine years old and I know it was hard for him but he never talked about that. I think he internalized a lot of things. So I don't think he totally knew how to maybe be a dad in the traditional sense you might think of one, but he did the best he could and he tried and he was always there for me. There was one time as a child and we're still living in Winston-Salem I don't remember what the issue was, but sitting on a porch outside the kitchen and he just came and sat beside me and said son, are you okay? You just seem kind of blue. There was just a genuine concern. It sticks with me to this day. He was there, you know. I knew he was there.
Ebony Mixon:Nice. And so, after high school, did you go to college or did you jump right into working?
Jeffrey Brunk:I started off at Elon for a year. Elon now university Did not like business administration. You know you pick your major and I hated that I was in math 101 with the football players because I was never good in math and I took an art course and I'd always liked art you know kind of like drawing the little planes and stuff in fifth grade.
Jeffrey Brunk:So I was only at Elon for one year and then I went, always liked art, you know, kind of like drawing the little planes and stuff in fifth grade. So I was only at Elon for one year and then I went to Randolph Tech, which at the time was the second best graphic art school next to Rochester Institute of Technology, and I got a degree from there. I had a job lined up before I graduated with RJ Reynolds in their main headquarters doing graphic arts, and I stayed in that for a while and then stopped. I've worked so many different jobs and so many different careers and self-taught in the majority of them, aside from the graphics, just searching for where I was supposed to be and what I'd like to do.
Jeffrey Brunk:But I've never worked in anything more than three years. I do it, I do it well, or else I'd hate it and leave that only happened once and then move on to something else. So everything from being a graphic artist or stringing cable under a house to working with CTOs and CEOs of major telecommunications companies, selling them ICs and electronic components that I learned by reading data books, to being a stockbroker, to you name it there's not a lot I haven't done Bartending, bar management, sales, which I swear I never do, but that's just relationships with people.
Jeffrey Brunk:So, but it's been good that I did that, because it's allowed me to be able to talk to everyone from you know, the guy digging ditches on the road crew to the guy sitting in the office in the big, tall buildings that makes million dollar decisions. You know they're all the same. They all have the same type stresses, different circumstances, but the same type things that affect us all.
Ebony Mixon:So I did read your book. It's been a while but I do remember it was some very interesting points that kind of led up to your spiritual awakening.
Jeffrey Brunk:Interesting is a very nice way of putting it.
Ebony Mixon:Very drama. I'm not a big reader but if it's interesting, there's drama, it captures my attention and your book definitely had a lot of moments that captured my attention. So as you were going working, you met your first wife, got married, had children, and then you talk about in the book where things just started to change. Your whole routine of life began to change. Could you tell us a little bit about that?
Jeffrey Brunk:Well, it might have started. I mean, she and I had been married and I'm not going to speak ill of her at all and I'll jump ahead to say a lot of things that happened during the time of my upheaval shaman, sickness, dark night of the soul, whatever. I could have handled a lot differently, but as far as them happening, I think it was necessary the things that happened for me to be who I am, because I wasn't where I needed to be, and that's not saying I didn't love my wife or kids. I can't remember how many years we had been married. Well, when everything really the crap hit the fan, we'd been married 19 years, but being at home and being more kind of a stay-at-home dad, I was the guy that picked up the kids, went to the games, did all this. I sold so much of stuff on eBay. I paid for a full one-week cruise for four at a time, but it also was. I guess I started quieting my mind some then and becoming curious about things, and the church that we were going to this was in Cary, north Carolina. I don't know. I had made some friends there, older guys, professional guys. One of them actually ended up hiring me. That's where the whole thing with selling electronics to major corporations and reading data books came in. But it was staying home and then going to that church.
Jeffrey Brunk:I was in full-blown search mode at that point. I joined the pastor parish committee, I was on choir, I did Stephen ministry, I did the walk to Emmaus, I studied disciple Bible study the entire series went through that. I've read the Bible two and a half at least. I know twice, but probably two and a half times and still was searching for that same thing. Everybody had coming out of the church on Sunday, never got it.
Jeffrey Brunk:And then I saw within the guys that I'd made friends with, both married. One in particular went through a midlife crisis, was having an affair. The hypocrisy was just so blatant and I started seeing it in other people, people that were close, and I thought this is not what I'm hearing from them while they're in the building or from the person behind the pulpit. This is the true people, who they are. They're there either to be seen or to make an appearance. So I started kind of questioning other things and first thing that I looked into, I bought a book and I was told by a psychologist well, that's the worst book you could buy, but at the time I just was just trying to learn new things and, bobby, if you're listening, my ex-wife.
Jeffrey Brunk:This was still one of the funniest things to me. Ironic that happened was her finding that book on the shelf and throwing it at me on a Sunday afternoon. The hell is this, you know, throwing a book on peace by someone who follows someone who preaches peace. I found very ironic so I laughed and things kind of snowballed.
Jeffrey Brunk:From there we moved to Northern Virginia and went to a church and this was the kicker for me. It was a communion Sunday and my son was nine and, as kids tend to do, accidentally dropped the bread in the cup and there had been this woman in the choir and every song she raised her hands in this hallelujah and, just smiling, she held the cup and when he dropped that bread the look on her face was of such contempt and disgust. And then she gets back up on stage in hallelujah and throwing her hands up again afterwards, and then every Sunday, the first 20 minutes being dedicated to the financials, followed by the passing of the basket. It just didn't sit with me.
Jeffrey Brunk:I can remember people mumbling the Lord's Prayer, which is supposed to be the end all of every prayer in Christianity. There was no intention behind it, there was just part of a routine, and so I was searching more and more and more and I became more verbal about it, which did not go over well much of the time, and that led to my questioning myself who I was and what I'd been taught and what I'd followed for so long, and that sort of led to how I found my wife, now Pam, in a very unorthodox way, and we'll talk about that if you want to ask, because it's in the book and her parents know all about this.
Ebony Mixon:Yes, I was going to ask you know how did that affect your relationship with your first wife and with your children, and how that led to you meeting Pam, your wife now.
Jeffrey Brunk:Well, my first wife wasn't too happy, to say the least, and I was sort of stupid because I had met Pam, my wife now, online on an adult website. But I went there to write honestly, went there and I blogged and her husband at the time, who were still friends, read the blog and said you've got to read this. And she did, because I wrote a lot. I had a blog at the time called Yelps from the Closet also, but I would blog on this website and it was her photo and normally you go on to those adult websites and the photos people post are going to be of genitalia of one type of another, and hers wasn't To me in my mind. I saw a butterfly of another and hers wasn't To me in my mind. I saw a butterfly and I sent a message just saying I love your profile photo, very classy. She contacted me and I saw her photo and I went oh wow, she's way out of my league. And we ended up meeting and spending five hours at a winery sitting under the trees, drinking wine, eating cheese, talking about spirituality, numerology. She had printed out all of this information and we just hit it off from the beginning and I ended up living with them for I believe it was eight years and they had a large house. I've actually spent more years with her kids than I have my own.
Jeffrey Brunk:Went to a block party for a wedding or something in our neighborhood with my ex-wife and stupid me during you know, vodka is my nemesis, that's my kryptonite, or it was and telling people about her and which quickly got back to her like within the time by the time I got back to the house that night, you know, in the cul-de-sac and um didn't go over well, but for the first time in my life my ex had asked me do you love her? And it surprised me even. I said yes, I do. I mean, there was just something that it was like we'd been searching for each other and we're still together. And it's been 17 years. We've been married 13, but we've been together 17. Didn't go over very well with my wife then and my kids, I think, are still having trouble with it. But my ex-wife has contacted me within the last year and things have changed in her life and she told me that I was right about I don't know exactly what, but I took it as an apology. But she asked me for some help. She was very scared about things going on in the world and all and kind of blew my mind because she was not the same person then that she was.
Jeffrey Brunk:When I met her, it was as she climbed the ladder, and it can happen to anyone. Money and things and power can affect people in different ways. With her, it took her time, it took her attention. She wasn't the same person that I met. She wasn't necessarily a bad person at all, it was just I started searching at the same time for something else, not another person, but something that I'd been searching for as a kid at the same time that this was happening. It was like the perfect storm, I guess. So I lived with Pam and her husband for a long time, owned my own pet business, sustained myself after the divorce and actually gave that away because that came to me at a time when I needed it and I had someone one of my employees that was going through a rough time and I just I gave it to her.
Jeffrey Brunk:I said you don't have to pay for it. This got me through a bad time in life. You're going through a bad time in life, and so I gave her the pet service and I'm hoping it helped her as well. But Pam is actually the one that introduced me to Reiki After we were sitting on the bed and I had my hand on her forehead and I didn't realize it, but I was moving my finger around her forehead and she said you do know you're chasing a headache around my head and I didn't realize that, but I could feel it.
Jeffrey Brunk:I guess Now I can put my hand on her head and just take it away. That's how it sort of started. I did four years of Reiki training to become a Reiki master. I took time in between each level to kind of hone practice. I didn't jump into it and I get very upset with these ads on Facebook that say become a Reiki master in eight weeks Bullshit, you can't do it and if you can, you're not doing it right. Do it, and if you can, you're not doing it right.
Jeffrey Brunk:And that led to the shamanic stuff. And I never heard of shamanism until I had gone to a crystal shop and this African-American lady I think she may have been from Jamaica introduced herself and we started talking and she told me she was a shaman and I didn't know what that was. And Pam researches everything. So she looked it up and I got a book by Sandra Ingerman on shamanic journey, came with a CD and a drumming track and I was able to journey the very first time.
Jeffrey Brunk:Started out being what's my spirit animal People wanting to know what their spirit animal is To being now where it's not about finding spirit animals, it's about getting more in the dirt. I look at Reiki as being a good thing and I don't want to upset any Reiki practitioners or people that receive it. But I look at it more, in my personal view, as a band-aid than the shamanic parts, and I still use elements of the Reiki training. I get more down in the dirt when I do shamanic journeys, like within the cellular level, to encounter shadow elements darkness elements or elements of darkness.
Ebony Mixon:To encounter shadow elements, darkness elements or elements of darkness. That is really where things have led. Most of my mentioned shaman sickness and the night of the dark soul. Dark night of the soul. Could you just give a brief explanation of what that is and how did that fit into that time frame?
Jeffrey Brunk:Well, I'll back up a little on that because it contributed to it. When I started changing my views on things and my awareness started to grow and my need to learn started to grow, my wife convinced me to go, my ex-wife convinced me to go to a doctor and it wasn't a psychologist or a psychiatrist, it was a general practitioner. But I never saw the general practitioner no-transcript.
Jeffrey Brunk:Different psychological things going on, but that doesn't mean everybody has a mental illness. It ended up being where I was with a psychiatrist. I had a psychologist too, because during the you know, during that dark night of the soul time, it wasn't just a night, it had a psychologist too, because during that dark night of the soul time it wasn't just a night, it lasted a few years. I was in jail a few times, arrested a few times. But these medications played a part in that, and the one that played the biggest part was called Effexor XR and I was on 400 milligrams and that threw me over the edge, especially when combined, and not told not to do this with vodka or wine. And I sold wine at part time. I was a wine salesman and there's things about that time that I don't remember. Pam does, because she was always there for me during those times. She was the one that picked me up from jail. She was the one that either took me to or picked me up from the hospital when I was on suicide watch. It wasn't a pretty time and she had people telling her let go of him. What are you doing with this guy? And I don't blame them. I probably would have done the same thing, but she stayed where my ex-wife didn't. But that dark night of the soul I lost everything. I mean I had nothing gone. I should have gotten more, probably financially out of the divorce settlement, but I didn't care. I got what I got and I purchased the pet service.
Jeffrey Brunk:But that's when I started getting all of these messages, usually through music. You know, after the first journey it was through music. Things that would come to me in lyrics, songs I'd heard a million times but never heard that part of the lyric before. That spoke to me. That was a very, very rough period of life, but I think it was necessary because I did not listen. And I tell people on this podcast don't get the universal boot up the butt, because if you don't listen and you're meant to do something and you're meant to listen, you're going to listen one way or the other.
Jeffrey Brunk:I was stubborn and didn't. It's hard to watch people. You see where they're headed and what could happen if they don't listen to what they know inside. And I wasn't even aware I was being told something or if I was, I was tuning it out. As a kid I had almost died a couple of times because I'm allergic to penicillin. I was given penicillin as a kid and then there were the two attempts as an older person and then had a gangrenous gallbladder. I was within about a few hours of dying then and I had so many traumas, but a lot of them, I think, I brought upon myself by not listening during that time until I had to. And Pam has been there and she still is, and she's. She gets upset with me sometimes. She has gifts of her own and ways of saying things and conveying things that may be the same thing I'm getting, but she tells it in a different way that's understandable, not just to me but to other people.
Ebony Mixon:So I don't know if that answers the question or not yes, so would you agree that those times of hardship, like, really made you sit down and be quiet and start to go within and that kind of led you?
Jeffrey Brunk:Well, that's a whole other thing, because I didn't tell us I wasn't able to quiet my mind. Now I mentioned I'd had a lot of jobs and a lot of careers. I took one where I flew out to LA and it was working for a company selling LED lighting systems, and my territory was in Florida, in Cocoa Beach, and I was still living in Northern Virginia at the house with Pam and her husband and kids. And so I moved to Cocoa Beach and lived with her cousin who was a Jehovah, a devout Jehovah's Witness, slept on the floor for three, maybe a little over three months. He had no television. You know, devout Jehovah's Witness slept on the floor for three, maybe a little over three months. He had no television. You know strict Jehovah's Witness.
Jeffrey Brunk:But I was able because of my job as a salesperson there was no office there, I was on my own and we were very close to the beach to go to the beach every day and sit and put my feet in the sand and just sit and watch the ocean. It was quiet in the house, but I quieted my mind. I didn't realize it was happening until I got back to Virginia and the television was on. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard. To me it's funny how things happen that way, where you know I didn't realize that was happening, but just the irony of being in the staying with a Jehovah's witness in this happening, a Christian would say well, the Lord works in mysterious ways.
Jeffrey Brunk:Well, this is one of them. Does that answer that? I kind of forgot where that was leading.
Ebony Mixon:So you learned to really quiet your mind during that time when you were staying with them and going to the beach and not really having any distractions? Was that close to the time when you first did your very first shamanic journey? Or when did you do your first journey? No, I believe that was afterwards.
Jeffrey Brunk:Well, I know I was still on the medications which I quit them all cold turkey with no withdrawal symptoms, but honestly I can't remember if it was during that time or not, I don't know. Everything then just seemed to go so quickly. A lot of it seems like a blur. That's why I want to interview Pam on here one time, because she would be able to elaborate, because she remembers everything.
Ebony Mixon:What led to your first journey.
Jeffrey Brunk:It was Pam. She didn't urge me to. She suggested I try and I did. I remember laying on the bed like I do now not the same type headphones headphones and the drumming track, and I only said it for like 30 minutes and was able to do it. Hey, I'm going to know you're going to listen to this, but she still gets upset because she can't do it and I said, yes, you can just get to quiet your mind a little bit and let things go. But it was almost like a novelty act at first, like, oh well, your spirit animal is this and your spirit animal is this.
Jeffrey Brunk:I found that the divine starts you off with baby steps and then gives you more, and I call them downloads. As you go and they get bigger and then there's between those steps, there's a respite. They give you a rest and a time to either reflect on things or recover. In a way, when you're ready, you get more. Now I can feel those times coming when it's time to receive more, and they're much more intense. It's not spirit animals anymore, but that's how it started and that was at Pam's.
Jeffrey Brunk:She has really guided me from the beginning as far as following this path. I don't think she recognized that this is where it would take me. But I believe that's a huge part of the reason why we were meant to meet. No matter how it was, we met when, orthodox as it may have been, she's like the end of my yang. I can't imagine her not holding space for me when I'm journeying, because she does every time. She's the better part of me. You know we have two distinctly different personalities but although we can clash at times, we also can't be without one another and those personalities.
Ebony Mixon:And did you use any medicine or anything to enhance your experience?
Jeffrey Brunk:No, no, I've never journeyed with any psychedelics. I have done an ego death mushroom trip, but that wasn't a journey. I started that with an intention, like I would a journey, but that quickly flew out the window. But no, it's always been just drumming. I have journeyed. For one of your sisters I journeyed under marker trees, indian marker trees, because we live on Native American land. Now I do have a drum and I've journeyed using my own drum, but just drumming From the very beginning, as it was taught in the book Sandra Engelman book. It was find your sacred space, go to your sacred space. And that's what I'd done up until the last several months when I was told no sacred space is within. So now I don't go to a sacred space like I used to, I go within and I'm almost immediately taken where I need to be for the person or for the situation.
Ebony Mixon:So how long have you been journeying?
Jeffrey Brunk:Oh, it's more than 15 years We've been together, 17, so I'd say at least 16, 17 years.
Ebony Mixon:And at what point did you decide to call yourself a shaman? How did you think that cheapens it?
Jeffrey Brunk:I've accepted that I associate myself more with the shaman than I do a shamanic practitioner, but I don't call myself a shaman. My editor wanted to call the book the Everyday Shaman and I protested. But his reasoning and it makes sense is when people are searching for something online, they'll type in shaman. Are searching for something online, they'll type in shaman, they'll type in Reiki master. So it was a way of, I guess, getting the book recognized and so I had the everyday shaman trademarked and copyrighted. The book, of course, is copyrighted, but also had it trademarked so I can use it for other things that I do.
Jeffrey Brunk:But I do not call myself. I don't tell people that I'm a shaman. I still don't. I advertise the podcast now, but I've had people find me all around the world and around the country in the weirdest ways because I don't advertise my website. One, it's too expensive and two, I'm not really good at that whole search engine optimization thing. One lady in Idaho. I asked her once how she found me.
Jeffrey Brunk:My intention for writing the book was to reach one person. My thing was if I could help one person with my story've read it so many times, I've highlighted it and I knew. Right then I've reached that one person because she told me how it's helped her. But she said she found me through a pop-up ad, that she was on some other page. And I said it wasn't me, because I don't run ads and if I did it wouldn't be pop-up ads, because I hate those things, but that's how she found me. People have found me. That people have found me in the strangest ways. I don't look at it as coincidence. I don't look at anything as coincidence. They're synchronicities. People are led to where they're meant to go without realizing it. You know, there are things that guide us to where we're meant to be, whether it's where we live or who we're supposed to meet. So yeah, I don't call myself that.
Jeffrey Brunk:I use the word issue. I issue titles. I don't call myself that. I use the word eschew I eschew titles.
Ebony Mixon:That's interesting because I was going to ask you that next is how you come across the people that you've been able to help over the years, but it seems like the universe just sends them right to you.
Jeffrey Brunk:Well, when I was at the doctor this week, a phlebotomist came in and she asked about the snake tattoo on my arm. Came in and she asked about the snake tattoo on my arm and I said, well, snake is kind of important to me because everywhere we've ever moved, the day we move in and this is true at the door there's been a black snake at the door and I'll go back out and it's gone.
Ebony Mixon:She said oh well, what do you do? And I said well.
Jeffrey Brunk:I do energy work and I was trying to. I didn't know. I still don't know exactly how to phrase it. I said I do some shamanic things. And then I'm asked well, what is shamanic? And that's a whole other story. And it's like let me, I just do energy work. You know Reiki. And she ends up being you know, she's trained in Reiki too. And then she asked me about helping her son. And it's the weirdest thing because she's been there and taken my blood gallons of it for the past four years. The strangest ways things happen. But I just say you know, I do energy work. I'll watch and as long as they're engaged and want to know, I'll answer as much as I can. But I don't say shaman and I don't say Reiki master. I did during this time with her because she had talked about being a Reiki master and wanting to be one.
Jeffrey Brunk:I said well, just be careful, because my first experience with a Reiki master after I finished my training was not good. I was sick for a week. I said careful who you choose. I expected this person's mindset and intention to be the same as where I was, and it wasn't. I literally was sick. She did more harm than good. Energy is transferable and hers was, and I've since learned to protect myself.
Ebony Mixon:Now, when I think about the word shaman, I think about someone who lives out in the forest with tents and medicine and just you know, those really expensive retreats where you're doing ayahuasca or something. No, I'm not doing ayahuasca that sort of thing is kind of what comes to mind.
Jeffrey Brunk:Yeah, I've not done ayahuasca. And people have asked me because you know, on the site now I do have about this being a retreat slash refuge, but it's only open to people that I've worked with and only two, three people at a time max, because anyone that comes I want to be able to focus on them individually. Big groups you can't do that. And they've asked if I do ayahuasca stuff here. I'm like no, it's a trendy thing. People go on these retreats and they're expecting all these things to happen but they're not ready for it. It's like when I did the mushroom ego death, I prepared myself for days before I did that. I have to be in the right headspace and the right place, physically in the right place. If I woke up in the morning and I was not in the right headspace, I would not have done it. And people just they look at it now as something that's sort of a vacation thing. Oh, let's go get high and see funny colors and what shapes we see, or figures or whatever. And that's not the purpose and that's not the way the ancestors of the people who practice traditional medicine look at it. You know one of my guests then we laugh about it and called me witch doctor, but Native American medicine men. I've even read because of what? And I call him Yeshua. That's how he introduced himself to me.
Jeffrey Brunk:The first time that I encountered him, jesus was a shaman. A lot of that has been taken from the texts that aren't included in the Bible, that have been found Other things that he did, but when you look at him laying on hands and driving out evil spirits, darkness, shadow In my conversations with him. He wasn't here to start a religion. He was a rebel. He was here to stomp on the toes and get the attention of people and say there is more out here, and what is out there that you think is a big white man with a beard sitting on a cloud is within you. He wasn't understood. That's still the case today.
Jeffrey Brunk:I don't know, it's frustrating to me that there are so many people out there that claim to be shamans or Reiki masters and they charge just gobs of money. It's really more of a business than it is about the betterment of others. I've been yelled at by Reiki masters oh, you're trying to steal our customers because you don't charge, Like no, it's just the right thing to do. And been turned away by Reiki master that said, no, sorry, not taking new clients. And I'm like, are you freaking, kidding me? You know how do you turn someone away that comes to you and wants help.
Jeffrey Brunk:That's probably more than you asked for, but, like Pam says, I tend to go on a little.
Ebony Mixon:That's completely fine. It's like you know what question I'm getting ready to ask anyway, so if I just let you go ahead you answer it.
Jeffrey Brunk:I'm sorry, this is your, your your hosting today.
Ebony Mixon:You answer it right before it comes to me. So, because I didn't really plan this out, I just wanted to have a conversation, just a natural conversation to get to know you. And, like another thing, when people think of healers and shamans and priestess and all these different titles, you think of someone that's just so holistic and has this idea of people think that they're so perfect that they're doing everything the right way or a certain way.
Ebony Mixon:Whereas you know you being an everyday shaman, and now I've gotten to know you, to know that you know you're just like anyone else.
Jeffrey Brunk:Anyone else except?
Ebony Mixon:for some people who don't care to help others.
Jeffrey Brunk:Yeah, there are people like that, and sadly there are people that don't want to help themselves, but they still come to me. You know it's not like getting a shot of penicillin for an infection. People have to do things for themselves as well, especially if it's physical issues that are caused by, say, a spiritual or emotional issue and you know I use the whole ulcers caused by stress thing. What we think and what we internalize manifests into physical issues and people have to take initiative on their own and not just take the word of a doctor here, take this pill or here. They have to think for themselves. So it's not always healing of the body, it's also a lot of.
Jeffrey Brunk:I found a lot of it is, and this sounds funny for me to think that it's. It's counseling. It's like being a therapist in a lot of ways and I do that a lot after journeys with people, after they've read the summaries that I've write. I don't put my interpretations, as you well know, inside the summaries because they're not meant for me. The journeys aren't meant for me, they're meant for the person I'm journeying for. So things in there mean something to them, not to me. I may have an idea of who's there based upon colors or whatever, or someone goes with me, I know. But as far as say, animals or rocks, trees, water, whatever things have a meaning to them, not to me, I don't interpret them, that's not my job.
Jeffrey Brunk:But if it comes to removing, something that has been caused, you know, ancestrally, or something they've done themselves or experiences they've had that's manifested physical issues within them or emotional issues within them. I clear those and take those as best I can, and however many times I need to journey, I will.
Ebony Mixon:It takes that person to be open to the healing and open to receiving the information and applying whatever changes needs to be done.
Jeffrey Brunk:Men are the worst as far as being open to receiving. There's that whole macho. I'm strong, I can't cry, I can't show emotion, blah, blah, blah thing. I've never been that way. But I'm also one that feels I can handle this on my own. And it's sort of lonely because people think that I can handle everything on my own. But I also need others because I don't know everything. I'm always learning. I learn things from everyone that I've worked with. I'll learn something from. I'm given information, sure, by the divine and even by the darkness.
Jeffrey Brunk:But when people think, oh, he can do this himself, he can heal himself. And it's not always the case because I've still got ego. I'm still a human being. I can set my ego aside and do work for others, no problem. But it's hard for me to do that for myself.
Jeffrey Brunk:But I'm just another guy, I'm just another person. I'm no different than anyone else. There's nothing perfect about me. And all these unicorns and rainbows, people that are just, everything is beautiful and they set their place up come out feeling great. Well, it's not always about feeling great. Sometimes it is about feeling bad because you have to let things go. It's a change that happens within people that is uncomfortable things that you don't necessarily want to learn about yourself. And it took me a long time to be able to really be frank about these things. And I'm just a vessel and messenger and you can choose to take that for yourself or not.
Jeffrey Brunk:And I'm very clear I'm not a doctor. But if I'm given advice or given a message to give someone regarding a medical issue, I'm going to pass it along, but it's up to the person. But I'm always learning from others. It never ends and there's always something different. I tell people not to have any expectations when I journey, because people tend to think he's journeying for this particular issue, whether it's physical or otherwise, so when he's done I'll feel better. It's not always like that, at least in the beginning. Time as we know it is. We look at the watch and it's 3 o'clock or whatever, and it's not the way it is. Even in this realm. We're in. Time is fluid, any direction, and it's not always an instantaneous thing. I say have no expectations, because if I had expectations for every time I journeyed, I'd be wrong 100% of the time, everyone is completely different.
Jeffrey Brunk:Now, that intention that I have, that I go with. What happens is that I'll go with that one intention, but it always leads to something else that's associated with that intention.
Ebony Mixon:So how has like, since you've been doing energy work and this whole journey of learning more about yourself and about all these different mysteries in the world, has any of that changed the way that you live your life?
Jeffrey Brunk:For the most part it's sort of a double-edged sword when you have an awareness. There have been times that I literally will say and I think I may have even said it today sometimes I just go man it'd be so much easier just to go back and live the life like I used to before all this awareness was there.
Jeffrey Brunk:But I know, I know it would be harder. So it's a double-edged sword. It's being aware of things, it's a blessing, but it also sets you apart from other people because you lose people. I take that back. You don't necessarily lose them You're farther down the path than they are but some do drop away because you're not the same person that you used to be. My interest changed. It's not a pious life at all. It's not that I'm a heathen type guy.
Jeffrey Brunk:But I'm not a pious person. I'm just a guy, just human, like the rest of us, who experiences the same things in life that everyone else does. You know, maybe not the same circumstances, but the same emotions, the same feelings. But it's the awareness of how I deal with those, whether to let them control me or whether I take control of that. It's stopping to think and discern and say how do I want to spend my energy? Do I want to be angry about something, or frustrated or fearful, or do I want to just take control of that and go? I'm going to trust in what I know.
Jeffrey Brunk:That's a hard thing to do sometimes because, I'll be honest, there have been times in the not too distant past where I've gone. I just want to go to the dark side and take care of some shit right now, but I know if I do, it'll come back tenfold on me, Just like putting good things out in the world comes back. Putting bad things out there comes back even worse. I don't need that. I don't need that. I don't want that. Even the worst people out there, they're still connected to us, they're still from the same place.
Jeffrey Brunk:Everything is interconnected, so doing something to something that is connected to us is doing something bad to us as well. It comes back to us. We're harming ourselves, but damn if we don't sometimes want to.
Ebony Mixon:We're harming ourselves, but they don't sometimes want to, and so how do?
Jeffrey Brunk:you protect yourself from darkness, dark energy and that type of temptation. I'm aware it's around and as far as physically, since we moved into this home, we've had I've seen shadow elements that I've had to clear and we have orbs all the time, but they're protected and it may be because Native American land. It could be human, it could be animal, it could be. You know everything's energy outside. I've seen the things in the daytime before.
Jeffrey Brunk:But, the way I do it is, I acknowledge those lower vibrational, darker things as being part of coming from the same place, being part of especially the shadow elements of who we are, appreciating their time and what they did contribute, but being firm as well, not fearful, not yelling like on the ghost shows, which to me are situation comedies, because I've seen so much darker than any of these things.
Ebony Mixon:But there's, a.
Jeffrey Brunk:I don't use the word love, I use the word acceptance. But I will say you don't have to, or you don't have to like everybody, but you should love everyone or accept everyone, because they are part of who we are, whether we recognize it or not. Everything's connected. It's not just a metaphysical thing, it's a scientific physics thing. It's been proven. It's energy, it's flowing. You can't destroy it, you can't banish it. You know the ghost shows are funny to me. Because you cannot come back here, I banish you from this. I'm laughing.
Jeffrey Brunk:It's like yeah, right, yeah it can, and you can bring it right in the door if you had a bad day.
Ebony Mixon:So, with you talking about like some of these experiences and you being human, of course you have bad days too. You have times where I'm sure you feel overwhelmed with a lot of the things going on. What are some things you do that helps you keep going, and how do you take care of yourself so that you can keep doing the work that you've been doing?
Jeffrey Brunk:There are days I have, honestly, that I think to myself I just don't want to be here anymore. And I'm not talking about suicidal inclinations, I'm talking about I don't feel like I belong here. But when I have those days and I have those moments during the day, I need to be outside. I just feel drawn and I will go and I'll sit up in the woods or I'll just take a walk, because, you know, being down in the woods here, driveway's a quarter mile I'll just go for a walk. But being outside is my therapy. That brings me back, that grounds me, regrounds me. It's so important for people to do that.
Jeffrey Brunk:Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder. There's not as many places to do that for most people, but it really just takes. It doesn't have to be like where I am, where we're surrounded by forest. It can be anywhere, that's without all the distractions of society. I started out doing walking meditations early, early on, and just noticing things as I walked. There are ways to be outside in a busy area. It's Zen for me to work on my rocks, my brockhound, or to work on walking sticks, which I'd never done, woodworking before that we moved here. It's Zen for me. It's almost a meditation, in a way, even though I'm doing something.
Ebony Mixon:Very good, I appreciate you letting me come on here and ask you all these questions.
Jeffrey Brunk:Yeah, I feel like I'm probably leaving a lot of stuff out.
Ebony Mixon:Is there anything else that comes to mind that you think listeners should know about you? Is there anything else that comes to?
Jeffrey Brunk:mind that you think listeners should know about you. For men especially, don't be afraid to show who you really are. You know, I know it's difficult to do and for everyone.
Jeffrey Brunk:This society is unlike any other because we're constantly bombarded with social media and television and you know so much I tell people, don't discount what you may have always thought of as being impossible or ridiculous, things that seem to be not in tune with the life in the world that you're living. I wasn't expecting any of this in my lifetime. I never knew what would happen in my lifetime or where I would end up being. Certainly not this. I never knew what would happen in my lifetime or where I would end up being. Certainly not this. I followed the path that I was meant to and when I've strayed I'm usually gently nudged back. But be open to things that are unseen and things that are you might consider to be impossible or even ridiculous. There's a lot more there than you recognize, but be open to it because it's there and a lot of questions that people have can be answered if you just take the time to accept that and to listen not hear, but listen to yourself. That's the most important thing. Take care of yourself first.
Ebony Mixon:That's very good. Thank you for opening up and sharing so much about yourself and your history, and this is just a small bit a little piece of getting to know you, and more and more as we go through and do more podcast episodes. Hopefully I'll be back. Oh, yeah, yeah, that sounds good. That would be cool.
Jeffrey Brunk:Well, I'm going to take the reins back over now and I want to thank you for grilling me a little bit. You know I tend to ramble sometimes and I'm scolded for that sometimes, but there's so much and I don't mind talking about my past because it made me who I am the good, the bad and the ugly and there's nothing to be ashamed of for anyone when it comes to the negative things that happen to us or the bad things we do or the bad things we go through or the traumatic experiences that we have gone through. They make us stronger and they make us able to better help other people that maybe haven't gone through something as traumatic. I regret some of the things during those years and the way going about things, but not that that stuff happened because it was necessary for me.
Jeffrey Brunk:Lastly, I want to thank Pam because, literally and figuratively, she has saved my life on many occasions, and that's what you really would call love. I want to thank everyone for joining us here and I hope you come back again, as I say every week, because I may say something that drives you away, but if I say something that upsets someone, good, because that means you've listened and something didn't sit well with you that you need to take a look at. So until next week. Thanks for joining us and see you then, peace.
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