News
PUBLICATIONS, PRESENTATIONS, COMMISSIONS, AWARDS
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2013
Private psychotherapy practice, specializing in coaching and counseling for artists and highly creative individuals. http://www.denitabenyshekphd.com/artistscreators.html
Ph.D. Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology, Saybrook University, San Francisco, CA. Associate Mental Health Counselor, Washington. Benyshek, D. (in press). The artist as shaman. ReVision, a Journal of Consciousness and Transformation, 32(2), 54-60. 2012
Benyshek, D. (2012). Art audience as shamanic community: How art meets psychological, social, and spiritual needs (Wang, Trans.). In G. Shuyun, W. Weibo & Q. Fang (Eds.), Modern artists and shamanism (Vol. II of Encyclopedia of shamanism). Beijing: 商務印書館 (The Commercial Press).
This chapter, in English, may be read or downloaded here: 
Benyshek, D. (2012). An Overview of Western Ideas regarding the Artist as Shaman (Wang, Trans.). In G. Shuyun, W. Weibo & Q. Fang (Eds.), Modern artists and shamanism (Vol. II of Encyclopedia of shamanism). Beijing: 商務印書館 (The Commercial Press).
Cardeña , E., Iribas-Rudin, A., & Reijman, S. (2012). Art and psi. Journal of Parapsychology, 76(1), 3-23. Pages 14-16 discuss psi experiences related to my art and related creative processes. 2010
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A True Story: The Spontaneous Shamanic Healing of a Boy. Presentation at the 27th International Conference of the Society for the Study of Shamanism, Healing, and Transformation. Written with my son, Hans Janos Benyshek van Wyk. |
2009
The Annual International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and Alternative Modes of Healing
was founded in 1984 by Dr. Ruth-Inge Heinze to preserve and further the integrity of shamanism and share the latest insights in the field of alternative healing. Presenter: 2009 Conference - Shamans of the 21st Century Santa Sabina Center, San Rafael, California  WinterStar 26: Tribal Spirituality, Presenter, "Contemporary Artists as Shamans" and "Healing Arts", Atwood Lake Resort, OH, www.rosencomet.com
Tuition Grant, Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco July 21 - 26, 2009
Starwood XXIX Festival, Sherman, NY We welcome you to the Starwood Festival; a celebration of diversity and alternatives in belief systems, lifestyles, and spirituality. Here you will never find a struggle to define which truth is the "real" truth, but rather a community of explorers fresh from their many journeys through realms both alien and familiar, flush with discovery, eager to share the wisdom they have found. Here are the children of the quest, their vision neither obscured by the forest nor are their minds diverted by the numbering trees, but peering upward and outward in wonder, beyond the night sky to the distant stars themselves. The Starwood Festival is the largest Pagan/Magickal/Consciousness gathering in North America (perhaps the world). Starwood features classes and workshops by both locally and internationally acclaimed artists and authors. For fine music, dance, drumming, poetry, and film there is no equal to Starwood, currently held near Lake Chataqua at the Brushwood Folklore Center in Sherman New York. See for more information: http://www.rosencomet.com/starwood/2009/index.php Starwood presentations: Art Audience as Shamanic Society Denita Benyshek's current research investigates the art audience as shamanic community. Denita will define shamanic community, examine how individual and societal needs are met through art, reframe attendance of art events as ritual, provide a brief overview of recent research on the healing power of art, and share personal stories. This presentation will enhance your ability to engage with art, find meaning, and achieve a state of mystical union and transcendence through art. The Contemporary Artist as Shaman When 82 year old anthropologist, Dr. Ruth-Inge Heinze, taught her last seminar on shamanism at Saybrook Graduate School, Denita Benyshek was among her fortunate students. Knowledge, conveyed through lectures and through a series of visions, revealed many similarities between shamans and artists. Using Dr. Heinze’s definition of a shaman, Denita will demonstrate how artists may qualify as shamans. The discussion is grounded in over three decades of experience as a professional artist, which provides autobiographical evidence of shamanic experiences during artistic creativity. Research, from psychology, anthropology, sociology, creative studies, art history, and religious studies, is also considered towards constructing an interdisciplinary and multicultural theory of the artist as shaman. Topics will include calling, initiation, androgyny, shamanic journey, healing, integration, and an alternate, nonpathological, model of artistic creativity. 
May 27 - June 2, 2009
International Society for Shamanistic Research, University of Alaska, Anchorage. http://www.folkscene.hu/magzines/shaman/index.htm http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/anthropology/conference.cfm Featured Artist in Coreopsis:
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Above: Download recent article about orientation table in Alpine Lakes Wilderness Society Newsletter, see page 2.
Below: Download full color pdf image.
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