The Skeptical Shaman

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) reconnects with "friend of the show" Abigail Kochunas, owner of of Sacred Healing Art AND an incredibly talented energy worker and animal communicator.  Abigail outlines her journey discovering her natural talents with animal communication and energy work, and how she's adding these services to her otherw...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with friend of the show Roger Oney about her super-duper, not-so-fun week with an ancient Sumerian demon. Yah. You read that right. Listener beware: this episode IS spooky. So spooky, in fact, that it took Rachel more than a year to decide that it was ultimately a net positive for clients and listeners to...

In this episode of the Skeptical Shaman Podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) sits down with Britt Sandkulla-Sinclair (of Golden Thread Alchemy) to discuss the crucial need for release and surrender as we enter a new epoch on planet earth. Not only is Britt an astrologer and witch, but she's also a certified Death Doula--and very well versed in the world of letting go with grace. Rac...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Rebecca Szymczak, aka Cardsy B (of The Hex and the City Podcast and The Saturn Diaries). Cardsy B returns to The Skeptical Shaman to dig deep into the turbulence hitting planet earth-- and all of the other planets, for that matter-- at the present moment. What's going on with Saturn? Uranus? Plut...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Brandon Page, an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP) experiencer. Brandon and Rachel connected "randomly" on LinkedIn, learning after the fact that they both worked at the same global corporate real estate firm and are, within reason, total "normies" on paper-- with, of course, th...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Summer Sanders (of Sabai Studio).  Summer shares her experience of owning and managing a brick and mortar healing center in Chicago's West Loop: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Things have changed for small business owners since the onset of Covid, and this is doubly (if not triply) true for tho...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with SPECIAL GUEST Emma Cook, the designer and artist behind the TOTEM Tarot Deck and the TOTEM Flower Essence Deck.  Rachel and Emma dig into the very strange-- and some very challenging-- spiritual experiences that came along with the production, printing and publication of the new TOTEM Flower Essence D...

In this SPECIAL "Emergency Transmission" episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with comedian and podcaster Robbie "The Fire" Bernstein.  Robbie is the host of the Run Your Mouth Podcast and frequently co-hosts the Part of the Problem podcast with Dave Smith. He is also currently driving across the country to bring comedy and free s...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with friend of the show Colleen Soisson (of Feather Mountain Ayurveda). Rachel and Colleen dig into the big, ancient world of Ayurveda: the 6,000 year old Indian equivalent of Chinese Herbalism and Medicine that leverages herbs, food, massage, and oils to create balance and vitality in the energy and physi...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with friend of the show Roger Oney about the truth and fiction of spiritual conspiracy theories. First up? The strange and very real case of Michael Aquino: a Colonel in the United States Army that literally wrote the handbook on 4th and 5th generational information warfare, titled: "Mindwar". An...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Damla Aktekin of A Drop of Om all about the inner child-- and how to energetically heal wounds from our early years and experiences. Damla is the host of the Conversations with Healers podcast, a forum in which she explores topics centered around the art (and the science) of energy healing-- particula...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with the incredible mother/ daughter team of Norma and Nisha Burton, the creators of the Lucid Dreaming, Lucid Living Oracle Deck. Norma and Nisha are legitimate, bonafide experts in the space of dreamtime, vision questing, shamanic journeying, and....drumroll please...LUCID DREAMING.  In this episode, we...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Casey St. John, fellow spiritual explorer! Casey's story follows a very well-worn path: girl goes exploring, finds a reiki studio, signs up for a session, has her mind blown by the utterly unexplainable energetic and spiritual phenomenon, and then finds herself on a quest to learn the who, what,...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Megen Mundy, the owner of Austin's oldest and most established herbalism store, the Herb Bar. Rachel and Megen kick off this new season of the Skeptical Shaman podcast with a deep dive into the wide world of herbalism: how herbs support wellness, what issues they treat + support, and what herbs e...

In this special, solo episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) digs a bit further into The Business of Woo: the "industry" of psychics, shamans, energy workers, and yes-- even the dreaded, mythical "life coaches". Next up on the Business of Woo myth-busting list? Self-care.  If you're a full-time practitioner of the Woo, odds are: you&...

In this special, solo episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) digs a bit further into The Business of Woo: the "industry" of psychics, shamans, energy workers, and yes-- even the dreaded, mythical "life coaches". Next up on the Business of Woo myth-busting list? Sabotage! Online harassment! Intellectual property theft! Abusive clients! Par...

In this special, solo episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) digs a bit further into The Business of Woo: the "industry" of psychics, shamans, energy workers, and yes-- even the dreaded, mythical "life coaches". Next up on the Business of Woo myth-busting list? Client retention. What is it? How do you do it? Why does it matter? And why is...

In this special, solo episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) digs a bit further into The Business of Woo: the "industry" of psychics, shamans, energy workers, and yes-- even the dreaded, mythical "life coaches". Next up on the Business of Woo myth-busting list? Content creation. What is it? How do you do it? And, more importantly, how do...

In this special, solo episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) digs a bit further into The Business of Woo: the "industry" of psychics, shamans, energy workers, and yes-- even the dreaded, mythical "life coaches". First up on the Business of Woo myth-busting list? Differentiation and branding. What is a brand? What is a differentiator? And...

In this SOLO episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) digs into The Business of Woo : the "industry" of psychics, shamans, energy workers, and yes-- even the dreaded, mythical "life coaches". With the economy and job market doing STRANGE THINGS and the rate of change and churn hitting an exponential pace, more and more folks might get the i...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with the "Woo Woo Woman" herself: Shelly Saunier. Shelly is a holistic yoga instructor, registered nurse and the host of the Woo Woo Woman podcast, which is designed to help listers unlock their empowerment and self-improvement through tapping into the deep Woo all around us. Rachel and Shelly ex...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Natalie Fehlner, writer, teacher, theater artist and actual, real-deal spiritual seeker all about Natalie's spontaneous spiritual awakening-- and the good, the bad, and the ugly that followed! Rachel first stumbled upon Natalie and her story via the most unlikely of sources: a poem read aloud on...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Matthew Gindin, freelance writer, teacher, acupuncturist and author of the Philosophy as Therapy Substack. To say that Matthew's background is eclectic is an understatement. When he was 21, he lived as a monastic Forest Monk in the Thai Buddhist tradition for three years. Since then, he has conti...

In this episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Dean Newlund, CEO of Mission Facilitators and the host of The Business of Intuition podcast all about the world of intuition. What is intuition? Why is it important for business? How can we leverage it? What does intuition look like in human-scaled examples? And what's the ROI on focusing on cult...

In this magical episode of The Skeptical Shaman podcast, host Rachel White (of TOTEM Readings) chats with Lesley Logan, founder of OnlinePilatesClasses.com and the host of the Be It Till You See It podcast. Lesley is a dynamic, iconoclastic solopreneur that has broken free of her limiting beliefs to ditch perfection and pursue her dreams-- however wild they may seem or sound. And guess what? It al...