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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels October 1, 2004 Going to the Edge By John Darling Tidings Correspondent "There's a moment when fear and dream must collide Someone I am is waiting for courage The one I want, the One I will become will catch me" --Josh Groban, Cirque du Soleil Suspended by trust, Shianna Walker hangs over a precipice (far left), held by a participant of The Edge. Walker dances on the beach following a successful session. Submitted photos It's called The Edge. After reviewing the fears that are holding them back in life, they stand at the precipice of cliff, looking into nothingness. They're roped up in climbing gear and, as they plant their feet and lean out into thin air and confront their souls. Why? Because it brings up all their fears around falling, failing, hitting the wall and dying, said Shianna Walker of Talent, who leads this compact vision quest - which is followed by the Sacred Dance of the Feminine, a wild and sensuous exploration of women's passion, power and tenderness, all geared to cut through life's fears and bring one's true vision into reality. Building on skills learned personally in aikido, rope courses, Lakota vision questing, the Tantric Dance of Loraia Ward, the Tensegrity of famed author-shaman Carlos Castaneda and the Sente (energetics) of Paul and Patty Richards of Ashland, Walker and her husband Dean Walker created The Edge to focus women's power and lift them out their limiting routines as mothers, wives and homemakers, she said. "I've always been afraid of heights," said author Lucinda Weatherby of the Applegate, "but doing this (The Edge), I was comfortable and supported in my terror, went through it, saw it was a thin veil and got beyond the fears about what people think, so I could be more honest in my writing." Many seekers trek in the wilderness or meditate for years in ashrams - and even do skydiving or bungee jumping - without really going to the edge, said Walker, but doing The Edge and hanging out, "leading with your heart" over a hundred feet of empty space with friends holding you up, is a different animal. "Here, every conditioned molecule of your being is forced to have its own opening," Walker said. "It becomes a reference point to remember and call on and use to take you beyond your most stressful experiences in life." Demaris McNamara of Ashland said the "frightening, amazing and powerful" experience helped her put daily fears into perspective and overcome resistance to change outside her comfort zone. "It forces you, in a gentle, supportive way, to say, hey, I can overcome this," McNamara said. "Most of the time, we all create reasons not to change. We have tapes in our head that play over and over, stuff like - it's too hard, I'd have to buy new clothes, I'd have to get child care - stuff that, if you heard someone else say it, you'd know was ridiculous." Leaning over a sheer cliff may sound tamer than, say, bungee jumping or skydiving, but, given the preparation of looking at your life dreams and exploring your obstacles to those dreams, Walker said, it "moves you to a place deep within, into the screaming silence of inner certainty, inner calm and joyous peace, having touched a place some never even dream to touch." Aneeahseah Lefler, of Ashland, the "corporate shaman" for the training, said, "I help folks get crystal clear about what they want to create. Usually people's ideas are all over the map and they get sidetracked in goal-setting, rather than achieving. Here, we find the true goal and use it for momentum, opening to new vistas in life." In the Dance of Life, women, with eyes closed, move subtly and sensually, yet with wild abandon before other women, tapping into personal depths, expressing a deepened self realized from their experience at The Edge, said Walker. This, she added, propels females beyond "the squelched creativity and sensuality of our culture, where wife is not sexy, not a positive word." "Women come out of this dance reborn," she said "It's typical they'll say they had no idea that dance was in them. It's being alive and feeling the feminine awaken to a powerful and creative world. The beauty we experience in each other is profound." Said Walker, "It's a meditative quiet course, assisting women to go into themselves and relax in what would normally be a tense experience, allowing them to know they can move into a scary part of life, relax and look at it from a different view - and that view is spectacular." Contacts: Aneeahseah Lefler, 541 488.7179, [email protected]. Next course here is in November. Cost $250. The Edge is also offered separately for men and women at $75. Walker conducts ongoing Sacred Dance of the Feminine and private consulting sessions. She can be reached at 541 840.0096. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams