Publications

Book Review by
ForeWord 2002, Volume 5, Number 4

Shakers of St.Vincent
Bradford Keeney, editor
Ringing Rocks Press 2003
Book and audio CD
176 pages
225 color photos
7X10 inches
ISBN: 978-0-9800543-8-5 (paperback) $18.95

Shakers mourn. The pointer covers mourners' heads with white bands and wispers passwords in their ears. With crosses and candles in hand, mourners prepare for ecstatic spiritual journeys. The pointer repeats the password to them so that they can experience a vision and lesson for spiritual healing. The deeper the mourner's journey, the brighter his or her experience of lights and the greater the fellowship and the communion with Christ. The mourner rises from the grave. The hurts of the previous life are erased. The mourner is reborn. Until the mourning begins again.

The Shakers of the Caribbean island of St. Vincent are a dynamic band of Spiritual Baptists who appropriate the name "shaker" to honor the Holy Spirit. In times of praise or mourning, the Holy Spirit descends upon them like an electric force, tightening their bellies and causing spontaneous jerks, shivering, and trembling. Shakers describe their worship as the perfect synchronicity between African spiritualism brought by slaves and Protestant Methodism which was introduced to islanders as early as 1787.

Bishop John, a Shaker leader, explains: "During the slavery, the only thing people could do was pray for relief. What they received was direct communication and prayer with God." Healing through praise and mourning is not limited to inductees only: the Shakers' healing ministry has offered spiritual rebirth for persons of many faiths the world over.

The tome brilliantly captures the spiritual practices of this group. The three-part text describes the process of mourning, offers rich testimonies from many members of the faith, and closes with a vivid narrative of one Shaker's journey into the spirit world. Shakers of St. Vincent is the newest in the editor's Profiles in Healing series, which has featured such traditional healers as the Kalahari Bushmen, Native American Healers, and the Guarani Shamans. The book, accompanied by an audio CD and bright, colorful photographs, draws the reader in through an audiovisual experience of the Shakers' spiritual healing process.

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Book Review by Clarence V. Reynolds
Black Issues, July-August 2002

Shakers of St.Vincent
Bradford Keeney, editor
Ringing Rocks Press 2003
Book and audio CD
176 pages
225 color photos
7X10 inches
Softcover $18.95 (978-0-9800543-8-5)

On the hilly and lush island of St. Vincent, one of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean, thrives a mystical and sacred religion that dates back to the 18th century. With its roots deep I both African spirituality and the Protestant Christianity of the Methodist Church, the St. Vincent Shaker faith — not to be confused with the Shaker religion of English origin — is characterized by the believer's intense display of ecstatic physical and unintelligible verbal expressions, much like "speaking in tongues." In a new book in the Profiles o f Healing series, Shakers of St. Vincent is an introduction to a religious culture that has been relatively unknown and insufficiently documented.

The history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, its slave trade and rebellion in the early 1700s, is worthy of further examination. And a study of the country's religious customs is a fine launching point. In the St. Vincent's Shaker faith, a practitioner is appropriately called a Shaker, someone on a spiritual journey. Among the Shakers, pilgrims must surrender all of their worldly troubles to the rituals of baptism and mourning-a spiritual death and rebirth that eventually leads to an enlightened and meaningful existence.

Many of the world's formal religions have an established set of conventions that often times require firsthand explanations of their doctrines. The Shakers of the West Indies are no different. Incorporating stimulating text and vivid color photography, renowned psychotherapist and practitioner of traditional healing practices Dr. Bradford Keeney along with Kern L. Nickerson chronicle the elements that comprise the Shakers faith.

As editor of Profiles in Healing, Dr. Keeney has been involved in shamanism for over 30 years, and has cultivated an intimate relationship with fellow practitioners of traditional healing. Shakers is supplied with narratives and descriptions of the elders, teachers, objects and terms that are characteristic of the Shaker community. Much of the written content are testimonies of the member's own personal odysseys. Dr. Keeney also includes his own commentary and biblical references as they relate to the essays and imagery.

There are more than 200 vibrant photographs by Nickerson- some of the island's landscape, but mostly portraits of the Shakers. Having lived side-by-side with native Shakers, his photography melds easily with text. Even so, less than half of the images were full-page, especially those of the rhythmic bodies of the Shakers, which would have added visually to the strength if the book.

Shakers of St. Vincent is the seventh volume in a collection that Dr. Keeney calls an encyclopedia of alternative medicine. Just as with the other titles in the series, including Gary Holy Bull: Lakota Yuwipi Man, Ikuko Osumi, Sensei: Japenese Master of Seiki Jutsu, and Guarani Shamans of the Forest, this latest chapter is an unflinching look at some of the world's indigenous and traditional healers, medicine people and shamans who are willing to share their wisdom, and practices to help restore the world's healing.

As a bonus for this unchartered journey, Shakers of St. Vincent also comes with and audio CD, which contains native music and spoken words.

Overall, Shakers of St. Vincent is an edifying cultural reference. Its visually and texturally balanced story sheds light on a unique practice and how this religious belief contributes to the cultural and spiritual fabric of an indigenous people.

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Book Review by Anita Leigh Halladay
NAPRA ReView May/June 2002

Shakers of St.Vincent
Bradford Keeney, editor
Ringing Rocks Press 2003
Book and audio CD
176 pages
225 color photos
7X10 inches
Softcover $18.95 (978-0-9800543-8-5)

This the seventh book in the Profiles in Healing series, which focuses on indigenous healing wisdom traditions. Described with a minimum of interpretation, the Shakers are a little-known West Indies ecstatic religious culture. Blending the Christianity of Methodist missionaries with the spirituality of their African heritage, practitioners such as Mother Pompey and Bishop John describe the core of their tradition: a many-day fasting experience of spiritual rebirth and visionary journeying known as "mourning." It is clear that Keeney, who has impressive psychotherapy credentials, approaches the cultures he studies with an attitude of deep respect. He was able to observe a six-day mourning ritual and gives a day-by-day account of the mystical traveling and healing in the pilgrims' own words. Abundant, evocative photographs by Kern L. Nickerson and a CD featuring the sounds of the Shaker meetings round out the experience, as full and direct as one could ask for without personally traveling to St. Vincent.

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Book Review by Graham Christian
LIBRARY JOURNAL/May 1, 2002

Shakers of St.Vincent
Bradford Keeney, editor
Ringing Rocks Press 2003
Book and audio CD
176 pages
225 color photos
7X10 inches
Softcover $18.95 (978-0-9800543-8-5)

The newest entry in the "Profiles of Healing" series, this fascinating volume casts light on a very little-known sect on a small island in the Caribbean, the St. Vincent Shakers, or "Spiritual Baptists." This remarkable cult, rooted as deeply in African spirituality as in Christian doctrine, seeks ecstatic experience and visionary journeys into the spirit world through two principal rituals: baptism, which follows a spiritual sign, and "mourning" (shedding of one's worldly life), which brings about healing and new mission through a vision quest. This outstanding book, which includes a CD (not heard by the reviewer), gathers many photographs of the Shakers, testimonies, narratives, and prayers. For most collections.

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