I grew up believing that there is no such thing as a soul, only the body and its biologically explainable functioning. Even an experience I had at the age of perhaps seven, which must have been an out-of-body experience, did not change this belief. I was sick and suddenly looked down at myself lying in bed from the corner of the room above my wardrobe. The experience was deeply impressive because it simply felt different—more real—than just imagining looking down on yourself from above. And despite many attempts, it was not reproducible. I didn't tell anyone about it because no one in my family would have understood anyway, but I didn't forget it either.

After school, I studied history and political science until 1992 and then spent about three years working on a doctoral thesis on witch trials in formerly Austrian parts of Germany. The thesis was never finished; only a few short essays on the subject were published. At around the same time, I had my first shamanic experiences, including two seminars with Kenneth Meadows, and so the question arose from time to time as to whether European witches had anything to do with pre-Christian cults, shamanic practices, or the like. From my archival studies on “my” witches, I was able to clearly deny this; however, there are still very faint traces in this direction, which will be discussed in more detail elsewhere. Around the same time, I had a second experience that was just as impossible to reproduce: after a day of research in the archives, I spent the evening sightseeing in Augsburg, ended up in the cathedral, and there, unsuspecting, in the crypt—and, completely stunned, perceived the presence of an immensely powerful being, neither friendly nor hostile, neutral, but infinitely powerful.

In the years that followed, there were just a few more occasions when, for a brief moment, I was able to see “behind the façade of the visible world.” These moments made a deep impression on me, and for a long time I used similar criteria to distinguish “real” experiences in the other world from fantasy (vulgo ‘mindfuck’): the impression that they were more real than simple ideas, and the unexpected, the feeling of “Wow, I wouldn't have come up with that on my own.”

As far as shamanism itself is concerned, I found shamanic journeying quite interesting from the outset, even if my first experiences of journeying remained rather fragmentary. However, for a long time I was unsure whether this other world in which one travels is really real or whether it is ultimately “only” images from one's own subconscious.

In the mid-1990s, I stopped actively practicing shamanism; we moved, lost contact with people (no internet yet), and, most importantly, our daughter was born, and it quickly became clear that shamanic journeying simply doesn't work with a baby around. The hiatus ended with a memorable sweat lodge held in the deep snow of Tyrol by Christian Vogel in February 2005, where I sat on “Skan” (movement) – and which indeed set things in motion again.

After attending a series of seminars with several Yuwipis, led by Cathérine Conradty, I ultimately could not avoid the conclusion anymore that everything is connected and, consequently, that the other world is real, in the sense of an energetic layer of the world. There was simply no other way to explain some of the things that happened during these Yuwipis. This fundamentally changed my worldview. However, it was still unclear what the point of it all was, apart from the travel adventures. My attempts to find answers to my own questions through travel usually came to nothing, and I had never seen myself as a healer – in whatever form – until then.

So I had no idea at all what adventure I was embarking on when I began a shamanic training with Udo Kepplinger in Chiemgau in the fall of 2011. Actually, after several years of hiatus, I was simply interested in continuing on the shamanic path, without having any idea where this path might lead. I “just wanted to understand.” In fact, it quickly became clear that it was about working for people, and furthermore, that I really enjoyed this kind of work – initially to my own surprise.

But working for others first requires working for and on oneself. I hadn't expected that my time there would touch my life as deeply as it did—not necessarily on the outside, but certainly on all other levels. Neither had I anticipated the gifts that came along the way, nor the trials. Layer by layer peeled away, like an onion, in search of the core of myself, merciless in the necessity of honesty with myself and confrontation with my own dark corners. I often felt like I was on a roller coaster – and just when I thought I had arrived somewhere, the next sharp turn came. One such turn eventually carried me out of the group around this teacher. The loss of the home that this place had been for several years hurt deeply, and for a long time, until it finally opened new doors. Doors to a path that goes even deeper and is, well, even more inevitable than anything that came before, even though I could not have imagined that this was even possible. And it would be an illusion to assume that this process will ever end. But the reward is: myself. And that is immeasurably precious, just like every other person and every other being in this world.

I am infinitely grateful for the opportunity to walk this path: to the spirits who so cleverly prepare the stage over and over again, where things can and must be experienced and learned; to the people, some of whom saved my life when I was no longer able to do so myself; and to all those with whom I have walked, was allowed to walk, and am allowed to walk a part of this path.

But experience remains hollow if it has no consequences. With this in mind, I want to pass on what I can. For life. For light. For love. And for laughter.

And in order to do this even better, I have trained in various types of counseling and therapy, especially trauma therapy, over the past few years. All these experiences flow into my work, which ultimately aims to contribute to “bringing healing to bodies and hearts and thus peace to the world” – precisely what it urgently needs and what we all need.

Trainings

• 2025-2027: training in pre- and perinatal body psychotherapy (Ines Oberscheid and Sabine Habermann)
• 2024-2026: four training seminars Integrative Breathwork (Klaus John)
• 2024: Beyond Experience: Psychedelic Integration Workshop (MIND Foundation)
• 2023: two seminars "Integrate dissociation" (Johannes B. Schmidt)
• 2022: The Power Within: Bodywork in Holotropic Breathwork(R) (GTT, Sitara Blasco)
• 2019: training for facilitating cacao ceremonies (Anja Mury)
• 2018-2023: training in Substance-Assisted Therapy (IST)
• 2015: voice and sound (Sandy Kühn)
• 2011-2013: shamanic training (Udo Kepplinger)
• 2006: shamanic group (Cathérine Conradty)
• 1992-1995: dissertation about witch hunting in formerly Austrian parts of Germany (Sönke Lorenz)
• 1991, 1994: shamanic seminars (Kenneth Meadows)
• 1986-1992: university studies: History and Political Science, state examination