WnT Artists Profiles

CS: I was brought up in Africa, in Burkina Faso, where my parents were working. When I came back to France, I studied musicology, piano and composition. Then I gave concerts and created a music school.  

However, my life took a completely different path in 2001. Living in London, I had the opportunity to cover as a BBC World Service reporter a program on religions. During a trip to Mongolia (Mongolian Mysteries, BBC World Service, 2002) Balgir, a Shaman, told me I was a Shaman myself. Why? In this region of the world, shamans reach trance through the sound of a specific drum. A sound to which, during that first experience, I violently reacted, to the point of losing control of my own movements. According to Balgir, I definitely had the shamanic capacities and my “path,” he said, would be to follow the teachings in order to develop them. 

Once past the surprise, I accepted his advice to follow this training. This is how I would spend several months a year on the Siberian border with Enkhtuya, a shaman from the Tsaatan culture, who was responsible for transmitting this knowledge to me. After eight years of apprenticeship I become the first westerner to reach the status of Udgan, the Mongol term designating women who have received the “gift,” then traineeship, of shamanic traditions.  

Scientists are interested in my experience in practicing the shamanic trance and in my capacity to self induce it. Since 2007, I have been collaborating with neuro-science researchers in order to try to understand the physiological mechanisms connected to this state of Trance (voluntarily modified state of consciousness) as well as its influence on the way cerebral hemispheres function. The first results (obtained in 2007 by EEG analysis under the supervision of Pr. Flor-Henry / Alberta Hospital – Canada) showed that this shamanic trance, whose acting mechanism on the brain remains unknown, indeed modifies the circuits of cerebral functioning. By pushing back the limits of current knowledge, these results open new perspectives and are at the root of the establishment of a first protocol on shamanic trance research studied by the neurosciences; an exploration attempt into occurrences linked with human brain capacities and the neuronal foundation of consciousness. 

SD: In your book, you wrote that as a child, you were already passionate about Native Americans. Do you know where this interest came from?

CS: This interest comes essentially from films and westerns I watched as a child: Geronimo, Day of the Evil Gun, Broken Arrow…

These films made me discover the Indian people. I remember very well that my preference always went to these heroes, especially Geronimo, whose courage, honesty, and fighting for the freedom of his people, already commanded my admiration. At seven or eight years of age, my favorite game was to make a horse with chairs, a tipi with a bed linen and a small table, to dress up in the Indian outfit I had asked for Christmas and to do all my favorite scenes all over again. The scenes with the Indians of course!

SD: Why Geronimo? Why write a book about this hero of the Native American Resistance?

CS: As I said before, the shamanic practices I was formed to do happen through the sound of a drum which provokes a trance. I was trained in provoking this trance and in analyzing the visions it could cause. During one of these trances I had the vision of a Native man that I am sure was Geronimo. As I am used to interpreting my visions, I sought to learn what this one was about. I researched Geronimo in books and on the internet. Through this process I managed to get in touch with his great grandson, Harlyn Geronimo. I told him about my journey in Mongolia. He listened to me carefully and then told me he wasn’t really surprised by my call. According to their legends, the Apache people originated from Mongolia. The Apache babies were even born with the same blue birth spot as the Mongol babies. Unfortunately, they had lost all traces of this tradition, but through me, they might resurface it. My call was therefore anything but a coincidence… When I told him that the Tsaatans were still living in tipis today, the correlation seemed obvious. We definitely had to meet!

SD: How did your meeting, and then your collaboration, with Harlyn Geronimo and his family go? What did you learn about the Apache Chiricahuas?

CS: I met Harlyn Geronimo in 2005. He lives in the State of New Mexico, in the Unites States, on the Mescalero Indian Reservation. Through interviews, we exchanged our respective knowledge on the Apache and Mongolian traditions. Some of our views were very similar. Harlyn then took me on a pilgrimage to the source of the Gila River, where Geronimo was born. He also told me about his great-grandfather as he had been told by his great grandmother, Geronimo’s wife. He shared about the old Apache Chiricuaha traditions. The Chiricahua men went through extreme warrior training - training that was highly effective. An example of the efficacy was illustrated when Geronimo and a small band of warriors were able to defeat the American army.

As a medicine man, he also told me about the lesser known aspect of Geronimo’s personality, that of war shaman. He finally shared his opinion on the political, social and economical condition of the Apaches in the 21^st century. From this exceptional testimony was born the idea of sharing it through a book, told by one of his direct descendents. So we collaborated until 2007, and from these months of friendship was born “Sur les pas de Geronimo” (Albin Michel, 2008).

SD: What did you learn from this meeting and experience? 

CS: First of all, the amazing testimony about the Apaches but also about the many problems they encounter today on their reservations: unemployment, alcohol & drug abuse, obesity… For Harlyn Geronimo, the progressive erasing of their traditions (assimilation process) is the principal cause of this situation.

Tribe members including Harlyn Geronimo, agree that one must do everything possible in order to revive these traditions: “Without its roots, a tree cannot grow and bloom”, stated Harlyn. Courses of Apache language have been put in place, but also of Apache wrestling, bow hunting… courses that youngsters seem to find interesting. “It’s a beginning,” says Harlyn, who hopes someday to see his people manage the problems they are confronted with. Renewing traditions was also the reason that led us to follow the Mongolian path, and in organizing a meeting between Harlyn and Enkhetuya. This meeting took place in France, at a book fair whose theme was the Steppe Peoples. I had been asked to be the godmother of the event, and thus suggested the invitation to both of them. It was a magical and very emotional moment for everyone who had the chance to witness this reunion.

The next step is to bring Harlyn to Mongolia. It’s a dream for him and his wife. They will discover the life in a tipi.

SD: Do you have any upcoming projects?

CS: This adventure made me want to expand my research on the migration of Mongolian people. I went to Alaska to meet with the Athabaskan Indians and to Laponia to meet with the Sami People. All of them have some traditions in common with the Mongolian people. The book I am currently writing will portray someone uncommon: Enkhetuya. The Tsaatans ethnic group to which she belongs is on its way to extinction and I find it important, even urgent, to tell the story of this woman’s life. Since our first meeting nine years ago, I have been a witness to the complete change that occurred in terms of her ancestral way of life to the one of modern adaptation. For example, today she still lives in a tipi, but she owns a cell phone! In this book and through about 40 everyday life scenes to most of which I have been a witness, I found it important to show the mechanism and the impact globalization has on these last nomads of the Steppe ~ a unique analysis that could serve as an example to those who still doubt its secondary effects.

For more information, please visit Corine Sombrun’s website http://www.corinesombrun.com/index.php?lang=en