I asked Toby to introduce himself.
Toby: My name is Toby Christensen and people call me the “healingdrummer”. Through my work in Burkina Faso West Africa I have developed a process of sound healing called sound attunement therapy. It uses sound energy from the drum as a mechanism to disrupt and reconfigure a person’s energy field so that the things that are not helpful in their lives can fall away, and the things they desire to create they can do more easily. I travel around the United States and Canada doing private healing sessions, workshops, shamanic training, and interactive concerts. More information can be found at www.healingdrummer.com
me: Sounds amazing! How long have you been doing this, and how did you get into it?
Toby: I have been doing this type of drum healing since about 2002. I had been on a trip to West Africa and when I returned I started having zombie dreams! It was an interesting vision of zombies coming up out of the ground coming towards me, seeming as though I was going to be attacked by them, when they reached me they laid down on their back I stood over them and played djembe rhythms and they were restored to full and complete health. They would jump up to shake my hand and run off! After several nights of having this dream I called my African teacher. After hearing the reoccurring dream they simply said this “the ancestors are showing you exactly what your life purpose Is, do exactly what you see in the dream!” It was then that I began to pull my friends aside and asked if I could drum on them to see what they felt. As this occurred life-changing things happened in their lives, and people began to call me for sessions. At the time I owned a chain of espresso bars and a restaurant, which over the next three or four years I sold. And I have been on the road doing the healing work and teaching since then.
me: What a remarkable story! Who are your clients?
Toby: I would say that my average client is middle income, middle class, college educated and open-minded.
me: How do most of your clients hear about you?
Toby: the majority of clients hear from me through word-of-mouth. Starting off with very grassroots marketing, the word began to spread from person to person. Then I was asked to speak at a medical conference at University of Portland a few years ago, which led to greater visibility. Then it is as though I somehow fell into the cosmic phone lines and people began to call, I began to travel, which led to more calls and I am now on the road 300 days a year bringing the healing drum too many places in the world. In addition to this, I have had tremendous help from people in my community who have helped create my website, blogs, and marketing material so that when people call I am prepared to offer them the programs that I teach and sessions that I facilitate. It is because of this community and their support that the work has expanded as quickly as it has.
Me: I would like to get a sense of the impression most people have of you when they first meet you. From people you encounter on the street to clients to event organizers…
Toby: Because of my very real-world presence, I drive a bright red sports car, I like to wear nice clothes, and my watch is a Rolex. There is a funny Association with such ordinary-reality things, which often contradicts people’s perceptions of what a “healer” is. When I worked in Park city Utah where my home is, there is an organization that brings students of shamanism in for workshops. When I am not teaching there, I am often doing private healing sessions. When I pull up to the conference center to pick them up for their session, I often hear “this is not a shaman car!” I often respond, “I know, but it’s the best I can do for now until I can afford the real shaman car which everyone knows is a Ferrari!”
I believe that the gift that we bring to the world, all of us, is the most natural thing that we do. It is not being something other than who we are at our core. I love having a great human experience, and I enjoy the pleasures of this human experience. Because I come from this place of authentic connection to the spirit world, energy world and the physical world, it gives me a way to relate to people that are often shocked by my ordinary reality appearance. Or, in the case of Procter & Gamble, and Merrill Lynch, they were thrilled that I walked in wearing a pair of Prada issues and an Armani shirt. The CEO later told me he wasn’t sure what he would do if a dreadlocked hippie dude would’ve come walking in the door!
me: That is a great story! So are any of your friends “dreadlocked hippie dudes”?
Toby: sure! I hang out in Hawaii four months out of the year and there’s a ton of them over there.
I’m doing these really cool workshops July August and September on the island of Kauai.
me: And how do they see you? Do you change your presentation when you are around them?
Toby: no I’m pretty much always who I am. The thing that they like is that I am this very connected-to-the-ordinary person, but I have done a radical ritual and ceremony in sub-Saharan Africa, and throughout the United States with the Lakota medicine man. I am a full mesa carrier in the Andean tradition of shamanism, and have become an initiated diviner in an ancient African modality. The “realness” of how I live my life is in alignment with my hippie friends, and the fact that I fly first class and brought back a nice Louis Vuitton sweater from Paris keeps me connected to my ordinary world friends. It’s a pretty funny paradox but I have always been and my work seems to always be a bridge bringing people together!
There was a situation in Cincinnati Ohio where I was invited to facilitate a drum circle at an Episcopal church. I told the pastor if you want me to come, I want you to be prepared, you say you want community and with me you will get that. You will get the whole community! You will have dreadlocked hippies, gays and lesbians, you will have the woo hoo fairy people, and we had them all. We had 75 people show up for the drum circle and they were from all walks of life.
At some point I’d love to tell you the story about how I got the Rolex it’s a very good example of this bridge building.
me: Please feel free to share that story now if you’d like…
Toby: I was at a retreat center in Oregon where I was facilitating a grief ritual with an African woman. I was in the food line when a person looked at my hand and asked me if that was a Rolex that I was wearing. I said yes, they asked “is it real?” I said of course. She then went on a rampage about how could I as a conscious human being and healer spend $5000 on a watch. I started laughing. I then went on to tell this person that when I was in San Diego California assisting chief Phil crazy bull of the Lakota nation on a vision quest, I met a woman who desperately needed a computer. When I asked her how much she wanted to spend on a computer she said that she had purchased a Rolex submariner for her husband, they divorced, and she had never given him the watch. She was going to go to the pawnshop and whatever they gave her for the watch she would use to buy the computer. I talked to a friend of mine who builds computers. He said after receiving her specs, that for $500 he could build a much better computer than what she expected to buy. I had the Rolex, she had the computer, and my friend got to sell a computer. It was win Win! Win!
me: Your story is so powerful! What kind of feedback do you typically get from clients?
Toby: The response is typically, A big “WOW”. Because of the energetic shift that occurs, most people have very little to say after the session has concluded. The usual response after the “wow” is “I have no words to describe how I feel right now.”
This is usually followed by profound life change, and a re-alignment with one’s life purpose as it relates to the issue we worked on in the session. I can’t tell you the immense joy that I feel watching people change so dramatically and so quickly
me: I’d be interested to hear who your childhood heroes were? Who do you look up to now?
Toby: My first and most profound influence, musically, were the Beatles. I remember seeing them on Ed Sullivan show. I saw Ringo up on that stage and knew that’s what I wanted to be. I then later fell in love with the likes of Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa, and many of the jazz greats.
Although I had a very tumultuous childhood, my father has always been a very big hero to me, very calm and wise.
The other person that has influenced my life tremendously all through my childhood and into my adult years is my uncle Mike Flo. He was a very successful businessman and at 90 years old continues to be a very positive influence in my life.
I would say Wayne Dyer is another huge influence. He was the first presenter of what we might call “alternative” perspective in my life. I had a tape set of his back in the early 90s and I’m pretty sure that I wore those tapes out listening to them over and over and over again
me: I can understand how so many people would want you as an influence in their lives. Your life is a testament to the possibility of a kind of broad-spectrum success that seems to require no compromise. Would you agree?
Toby: I would certainly like to think so. My work centers around people coming into, and claiming their power! No guru in my world. I help people become their own guru
me: Yes! I have noticed that in your message over and over again. Clearly, I am not the only one who finds that appealing and empowering.
Many of my readers believe that playing with rhythm has benefits for their children. Does your work relate to anything you enjoyed doing as a child? Are there children in your life? If so, how is your relationship to them affected by your work?
Toby: I would agree with your readers very much! I started drumming when I was about five years old. It is a gift that I was born with. My entire childhood was filled with music, and drumming is the one area of my life where I was supported very strongly by my family. I do not currently have children in my life, however I work with children from time to time, both young children and adolescents.
When I was raising my step-son it was interesting as my work shifted from the more ordinary world things such as the coffee business and a restaurant, to the more otherworldly business that involved the drumming. He was a little uncomfortable with what to tell his friends that his step-dad did. One time I was hired by fashion designer, Donna Karan to do an event at her flagship store in Manhattan. My stepson Adam came with me to that event and as he saw some of his favorite movie stars dancing and enjoying my drumming, it gave him a whole new perspective. It was a way to bridge ordinary and non-ordinary reality.
me: I love that story! What do you think are the most significant benefits of giving children the opportunity to play with rhythm? And, if you could give one tip to parents looking to maximize that opportunity for their children, what would it be?
Toby: I think the biggest benefit is the benefit of self-expression. In our culture we are constantly programming the restraint of freedom and a conduct that is predicated on how other people will perceive us. So self-expression is something that the drum facilitates beautifully. When I had my restaurant I had African décor, and there were drums sitting around on the floor. Every once in a while someone would bring a child in and they would head immediately for the drum and start banging on. The parent usually would run frantically to make sure that the child did not hurt the drum or disturb anyone. Usually, that was the time when I would start an impromptu jam session with the child. The patrons loved it!
Let your child be free! That is the most profound tip I could give. So much of our restrictive behavioral conduct has hugely damaging effects when a child comes into adolescence. Most of the time, substance abuse and “inappropriate behavior” are just a way for our children to fight against a repressive cultural system that denies them their genius. In the village where I’ve studied, my teacher Malidoma Somé says each and every person is born a genius. It is the job of the village, or community, to acknowledge and support the genius that resides in each and every person. Let your child be a genius and let that genius shine!
me: And that just might be my favorite story of all!
Thank you Toby for an absolutely riveting interview! I hope we can do this again some time, and I will certainly be following your work. Please don’t hesitate to contact me for any reason. Would you like to say anything else before we say “good bye”?
Toby: It was an honor to be interviewed by such a skillful, and conscious being. Thank you! I look forward to further contact. Be well.
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