Behind the Healing Circle: A Conversation With Dr. Rain Warren

THIS IS PART OF APRIL’S “OUR PUBLIC MEMORY” PIES EMOTIONAL PRACTICE ON HEALING OUR SHAME. IF YOU MISSED THIS NEWSLETTER, READ IT HERE.

What inspired you to use Nina Simone's song  "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" for the healing circle?  

To begin to answer your question, I acknowledge that the work that I do is highly intuitive in partnership with Spirit and is based in the African cosmological ways of being and knowing, along with the unique method of organic inquiry, and trauma informed healing. All of the aforementioned methods utilize everything that arises as information, as approach, as possibility for healing and transformation. At the forefront of my work is the ability to silence the mind and listen to all that is presented to me in working with individuals and communities. 

When I begin to work with a group or individual, I become psychologically connected to them at the soul level.  With Political Healers, I attended a couple of your events, spoke with your Executive Director and leader of the Healing Team, reviewed your website, and considered all of this information and began to LISTEN for what might most serve this group. 

Almost immediately the song by Nina Simone began to echo in my Spirit, over and over again, as I washed the dishes, drove down the street, several times during the day. Specifically, there are two lines in the song that ring out: "I wish I knew how it would feel to be free and break the chains that are binding me," and "I wish I could express the love in my heart."  I recognized that this is what Political Healers are all about - breaking chains, being free, and full freedom and expression to the highest level of humanity. I personally have an enormous love and appreciation for what activists bring to the table being committed to liberation in mind, body, and spirit, total liberation, and doing the work to make it so.

What written prompts should people use to determine what areas of clearing they need to focus on? 

The only prompt is to fully and completely express what is relevant and present for you, withholding nothing. I use whatever is revealed to me to encourage and release that expression. 

For Political Healers, in this moment, it happened to be that song, "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", by Nina Simone. I assert that in the listening of that song much can be healed and released. 

If you study Nina Simone's life, her music questioned and confronted the times and the status quo, at the same time she was deeply being confronted by the challenges of motherhood, abuse, disenfranchisement, mental distress, addiction, and being an African woman living in a country that did not love and cherish her humanity and consciousness on her terms. She was engulfed by the pain and struggle of freeing herself and others from the trauma of all of that. She was an extraordinary, unique, genius artist who provided a pathway for healing that continues on in her life, her death, and legacy. Nina Simone is a Political Healer.

How can this be applied to having difficult conversations with people?

One participant in the session expressed an upcoming conversation that she needed to have for which she was feeling some anxiety. As we went into the silence and answered prompts, it came to her that she needed to do more walking, specifically in nature, outside. I assert that this was her medicine to deal with the challenges of life, to spend more time in nature, walking, breathing, allowing the spaciousness of the elements to wash over her and calm her mind and energy. In this space, her job is to listen for the messages, however they may come, to instruct her on how to live a life in which nothing will disturb her peace.

To specifically answer your question, there are no cookie cutter answers. Each person and situation is unique and what works for one may not work for the other. The work is gentle, unique, and at the same time challenging because one is encouraged to go outside of their, perhaps, normalized and westernized ways of knowing and being. 

My method is based on 61 years of experience being on this planet, and counting, encompassing extraordinary life experiences worldwide, studies in spirituality, depth, community, liberation, ecological psychologies, and a foundation of having been raised in vibrant, rich, alive Black communities.