Where Sun Dances Heal

Five thousand years ago, in an isolated valley in the Kalahari Desert of Africa, ten bushmen dance in a circle around a blazing night fire. As their black bodies vibrate and tremble, the bone beads wrapped around their ankles hiss like a hundred snakes rattling in the bush. Standing in the fire's shadows, eyes watching a boy who can barely breathe, eight women clap and sing.

Feeling the child's sickness floating toward him, the dancer named Bo prays to his ancestors for help. Finally, Bo's long-dead grandfather appears in the flames. The grandfather talks to Modimo, the Big God, and then whispers what must be done.

In pain, Bo collapses near the child and begins touching him. As he places his heart next to the boy's heart, he transfers !num (spirit) into the boy's body. Suddenly, Bo leaps up. A white light has appeared, emanating from the dancers and traveling straight up into the sky. Bo's pain disappears. And the bushmen rejoice-the child's lungs are clear.

Four thousand years pass. The world changes but some things don't change. Somewhere in the Central Plains of North America, a small, domed sweat lodge is being prepared. When the work is finished, the tribe's Yuwipi man transfers hot stones from the nearby fire into the lodge. As he sits down inside and begins to chant, twelve other men join him, including one with a serious heart condition.

Inside the dark, steaming lodge, as they sing and pray to Wakan Tanka, a brother ties the Yuwipi man's hands behind him with ropes and wraps him in the skin of a black-tailed deer. Within a few hours, small blue lights twinkle in the darkness. Three men hear voices in the north. One sees a vision of an eagle. The prayers continue and then, with a start, the Yuwipi man senses the arrival of the Bear Spirit.

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