by Tamra Lucid.
The protest against an oil pipeline at Standing Rock captured the imagination of the world in the spring of 2016. Participants from roughly 200 indigenous tribes joined together in an unprecedented gathering. In a sense, the Water Protectors became a temporary tribe, among whom certain beliefs were widely held.
Though the pipeline went through anyway, and it leaked as predicted, the event continues to inspire Water Protectors and environmental activists all over the world. I wanted to go, to experience it for myself and to show support, but I was told that the elders wanted me to stay where I was, to help with social media updates, and to connect want lists, donations, and drivers.
To get as close as I could I did interviews with Water Protectors for Reality Sandwich, and did what I could to help several filmmakers who were documenting the event. Since I have an interest in spirituality and I had the opportunity to talk to people there, I asked on and off the record about what kind of paranormal or esoteric experiences, if any, might be going on at such an extraordinary crossroads of time, place and people. I found the same themes came up again and again: dreams, the thinning of the veil, telepathy, synchronicity, and cosmic consciousness.
DREAMS
End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock, a documentary about the women at the heart of the protest, won many awards, including an Emmy. The producer of the documentary, the late Pearl Means, the wife of Lakota actor and activist Russell Means, told me during an interview:
My late husband, Russell Means, stated both privately and publicly after his transition to the next world that he planned to return as lightning. In late summer of 2016, I began thinking I needed to travel to Standing Rock and see how I might be of assistance. Phyllis Young, Russell’s Hunka sister (through a sacred adoption ceremony) had been very instrumental in defeating the XL Pipeline the previous year, and I had been in communication with her around DAPL. I had been delaying my trip by saying this weekend I’ll make plans, etc. Well, that all changed on Aug. 22nd about noon.
I was sitting at my computer in my office in Northern NM when, out of nowhere, a very highly charged bolt of lightning hit the center of my stomach and instantaneously shot up and down my being. I screamed and jumped up, looking at both my hands and feet. Once I realized I was physically ok, I walked out of my office. Pungent smells of burning electrical wire and sulfur hit my senses. I quickly assessed my immediate environment — everything looked to be normal, and it began to rain. Later I realized it was Russell knocking me out of my comfort zone to get me up to Standing Rock!
According to interviews and conversations I had, Russell Means appeared to many people in dreams, including Shannon Kring, the documentary’s director, who woke up with his question ringing in her head: “What are you waiting for?” She grabbed her camera and drove to South Dakota.
Santee Dakota poet and activist John Trudell also appeared in many dreams inspiring people to go to Standing Rock and join the protest, along with other well known leaders, some long passed. Dreams also involved deceased family members and friends, and among the many tribes the ancestors made dream appearances.
Dreams were a means of communication about logistics. People reported to me experiences such as one volunteer who woke up from a dream instructing her to drive to a certain part of camp. She and her truck arrived at just the right place at the right time to solve a problem.
Dreams about the future, good and bad, and about the predicted and dreaded black snake (the pipeline full of oil that had made its way to Standing Rock) charged the air with a sense of not only imminent danger, but prophecy. Some reported that they dreamed they were there at the end of the world. Others dreamed they were there at the birth of a new world, one that would restore the balance of nature.
THINNING OF THE VEIL
Gina Marie is the owner of King Kog Bike Repair and Maintenance in Oakland and drummer of the band Ötzi. She and her family used the shop as a place to raise supplies for Standing Rock, then helped deliver them. She described entering the camp: “It was so beautiful! When entering the camp you drive down a road surrounded by flags on both sides, and people everywhere. I started crying. To finally see the camp for myself was overwhelming. You could feel the energy and spirit immediately upon arriving.”
Shannon Kring wrote: “I’d read that there were ‘almost 1,000’ present at the time of my arrival. There were actually more than 5,000. By the time I departed from my first shoot, the number neared 10,000…the incredible energy. It was at once invigorating and calm. The sense of connection and goodwill is unlike anything I’ve ever felt.”
I heard from many spiritually minded Water Protectors that at Standing Rock the veil seemed thinner than they had ever experienced before. People were surprised to see spirits, not only of ancestors, but apparitions that seemed to be on their way to other business in the camp. The voices of spirits still looking out for their loved ones spoke softly in minds and even ears. Some reported a peculiar glow or electricity in the air that most interpreted as the nearness of the other world.
TELEPATHY
Telepathy was so common at the camps that some believed it had something to do with the thinning of the veil. The presence of so many ancestors, of so much spiritual energy, had the power to awaken dormant human faculties.
Several people reported that when they faced a serious need at a camp, for food, medicine, or fuel for a generator or heater, it would arrive before they had a chance to send out a request.
Is this synchronicity or telepathy? I call it telepathy if the parties involved have prescient thoughts pertaining to what they do. For example, a man told me he received the clear idea that something he had must be delivered to a friend. That friend had been wishing she could contact him but she had nowhere to charge her cellphone. He took it upon himself to go to her with what she needed, without any conscious knowledge of her need.
I did hear of a case of telepathy that involved two people who had never met. They were more inclined to say that ancestors had put the thoughts in their heads, not telepathy.
SYNCHRONCITY
The difference between telepathy and synchronicity as I define them is that with synchronicity there is no prior awareness. A driver shows up with the right stuff at the right time by chance. Detours may have been involved, so the driver’s original intent was modified. Some preferred to think of this as the ancestors orchestrating events to provide support.
Bianca Heyming of Emerald Village had an experience that captured the immediacy of synchronicity at the camps. “I had been alone in the car for three and a half days. When I got there I pulled up and I could see a camp and a fire pit going, so I pulled out my head lamp, opened my car, and started rummaging around trying to figure out how I’m going to set up my camp. Before I’d even finished unpacking my things, I was greeted by two large native guys and a woman from South Dakota. They were curious where I was from and why I had come. I shared that I was a builder and came to help however I could, but it was only when I shared I could cook that I was gifted with a ‘Hey, you said the magic word! Come with us, let’s introduce you to the family.’ As it turns out this camp served as one of the kitchens providing food for the security, which was really beautiful witnessing the inner workings and communication of those who are literally guarding our camp.”
All sorts of synchronicities happened at Standing Rock. A filmmaker’s camera failed but another filmmaker showed up who happened to have a spare battery for that specific camera. I heard more examples of these small conveniences, of timely help and unexpected opportunities that fell together one improbable step after another, like a series of happy accidents.
Shannon Kring relates the experience that moved her most: “Perhaps my most treasured occurred just this week, when I was granted an exclusive interview with the mother of Wiconi, the first baby—a girl—born at the Standing Rock camp. I suffered a devastating, second-trimester miscarriage over the summer. My first child, a daughter, would have been born this week. The same week beautiful Wiconi was born. After the incredibly powerful interview, I sat privately with the mother and child. What transpired has helped me in my healing journey. It has also reaffirmed my belief that there are no coincidences.”
COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS
The human experience of consciousness expansion that feels like we somehow share the awareness of all that surrounds us has been given many names, including cosmic consciousness. Freud dismissed it as a return to the oceanic bliss of the womb but it has also been described as the ecstasy of enlightenment. People talked about having an experience that Ralph Waldo Emerson described when writing about uninhabited woods and forests: “Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite spaces, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”
Mystical oneness is not the only form cosmic consciousness can take. It can also become an encounter with deep truth and meaning, an epiphany with a cosmic resonance. Daniel Garber, a driver who brought heaters and tarpees (tarp + teepee) to Standing Rock, is a U.S. military veteran. In an interview I did with him he described the epiphany he experienced. “It was serendipitous from the outset. There were in excess of 4,000 veterans in the camp, but only a small number of those heard about the ceremony the Lakota nation planned to thank the veterans for coming. I happened to hear of it the night before while sitting at the Oceti Sakowin sacred fire. Only about three hundred vets made it to the Prairie Knights Casino for that ceremony. The elders present for the ceremony were not the political leadership of the tribe. They were the spiritual leaders of the Lakota Nation — Chief Arvol Looking Horse and his brother Ivan. Faith Spotted Eagle. Phyllis Young. Dave Swallow. And Chief Leonard Crow Dog himself. It was very emotional for all of us present. We had all endured incredible hardships just to make it to that room at that time. A brutal blizzard was striking outside. Spirit was plainly at work. If you had the intuition you could feel Its presence. The ceremony unexpectedly turned into something more than the tribe thanking us. Representatives of the 7th Cavalry stepped forward and began apologizing for warring on their people for two hundred years. They spoke for ALL of us. You could hear a pin drop. And then, Crow Dog FORGAVE them, and all of us. It was extremely moving. Probably the most significant moment of my life so far. I consider it to be a historic moment, and a sign of how practicing the Lakota Ways can save us all, as the Rainbow Prophecies predict. Forgiveness is next to godliness, and so Christlike.”
I hope you enjoyed these fleeting glimpses of the spiritual and psychic aspect of an event of political consequence. From Blavatsky to Jung and Elias Canetti the wise have warned us about the stupidity and impulsiveness of crowds, but what happens when a crowd is gathered to protect the water, the children, and the future? In this case spirits seemed to walk among them. But then as a Lakota woman said when I expressed my wonder at all of this: “duh.”