My Journey into Shamanism

Karyn spent many years surviving in corporate America, working in such companies as Clinique and Christian Dior Perfumes, as well as the fast-paced high-tech communications industry of MCI Worldcom and AT&T. After watching her 401k and stock options tumble in the downfall of MCI Worldcom and the telecom industry in general, and her health tumble at about the same speed, she resigned her job and left the corporate culture to explore a more heart-centered life and career. As she watched her health improve through holistic healing practices, and the laughter return to her life, Karyn knew she had made the correct decision and Harmonic Visions was born.

Karyn’s shamanic journey began in 1998 with a trip to Peru. Since then she graduated from the Two Week Intensive and Three Year program with The Foundation for Shamanic Studies, founded by Michael Harner, and is a graduate of Sandra Ingerman’s Teacher Training in Advanced Shamanic Healing Practices. Karyn continues to expand her studies by apprenticing with indigenous shaman and medicine people in the United States, Peru, Bali, Egypt, Belize, Nepal and Canada.

Karyn was one of 4 shamanic practitioners in a clinical trial of shamanic healing funded by the National Institute of Health’s research grant and carried out by researchers at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon (a copy of that study is available by request). Karyn spoke at the Re-thinking Psychiatry Symposium in May of 2012. Additionally, Karyn has been doing Initiations into Women’s Mysteries since 1996. She has mastered her ability to work in the ‘other worlds’ with the support of her spirit guides, bringing wisdom and years of experience. Through the partnerships she builds with her clients, her work spans the globe; and she offers a variety of personally developed healing practices, specific to the needs of each client.

For close to three decades, Karyn’s ongoing education in the alternative esoteric healing arts has included: Reiki, Healing Touch, Sound Healing, Flower Essences, Aromatherapy, Expressive Movement, Creative Arts, Shamanic Healing, Voice Expression, Ancient Buddhist, Hindu Tantric practices and most recently, deep in the throes of her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts.

Karyn’s integrative approach to teaching is rooted in her own unique and disciplined daily spiritual practice. It is from this heart-centered space that she works with others on their journey of healing the past, expanding the present, and joyfully moving into the future.

Karyn founder of Harmonic Visions providing a Faculty of leading holistic Spiritual Teachers whom she sponsors in workshops and retreats in Asheville, North Carolina, Oregon, Toronto and Montreal, Canada.

Karyn teaches internationally and is recognized for her ability to bridge the world of spirit, bringing it into the daily lives of clients and students. She maintains an active and busy private practice, both in person as well as distance work with SKYPE. She teaches a series of workshops on Shamanism and has developed a successful mentoring program.

Karyn offers a variety of Shamanic healing practices, including Soul Retrieval, Soul Recovery, Intuitive Coaching and Counseling. Her greatest gift is mentoring others into the practice of shamanism. She is a compassionate, sincere, forthright, funny teacher and candid about what she sees. Karyn has been called a ‘Sovereign Revolutionary Alchemist’.

Karyn journeyed to Peru in 1998, to explore the ‘Land of the Children of the Sun’. On that amazing trip she was able to spend a night in the ancient city of Machu Picchu, welcomed to this sacred place after making an offering to the Gods, rising the following morning bathed in the healing waters from the dew and was out of her body the entire night doing spiritual work.

Another trip took, in 1999 took her to Egypt, where she explored the great Egyptian Mysteries and meditated under a full moon at the temple of Horus and was initiated in the Kings Chamber of the Great Pyramid. She was gifted with the most amazing piece of Alabaster while at the temple of Hathor and has a profound connection to what she represents.

In 2000 she submerged herself in the culture of Bali and was initiated by a High Priest in one of the nine holiest temples in Bali, located in the remote, mist-shrouded temple of Pure Luwur Bakuku.

During the summer of 2008 Karyn spent time in the Kalahari Desert basking in the raw land and culturally delinquent form of any civilization other then communing with the last surviving Bushman of the Kalahari. This was a tragic yet eye opening experience for this is where she learned a different type of integrity must be brought to Western Spiritual Communities and Money, Property nor Prestige should be the end goal and spiritual healing should be open to all.

She ended the first decade of the 21st Century in sacred Maui, Hawaii, spending three weeks doing personal healing, introspective contemplation and meditation in the loving arms of the nurturing, heart filled Goddess energies, writing and collaborating with a kindred spirits heart-storming on ways to bring more love, compassion and joy into her life.

Karyn teaches courses on Spiritual-Sexual Integration focusing on bringing individuals to develop a practice of personal spiritual awakening. Additionally she teaches courses in Medicine for the Earth, Dancing your Shadow through Mask Making, Soul Retrieval, Soul Recovery, Ancestral Healing, and Extraction of Spiritual Intrusions as well as bringing more love to the planet by supporting couples to learn the ancient mysteries of Hindu Tantric Communion for transcendental love making. When two people are blessed by a ‘Divine Union’ created by conscious loving together they can manifest what ever their hearts desire. It’s a practice and like any practice it takes dedication and commitment to the practice but the reward is a ‘Mystical Union’ much like any initiation you would have during the practice of shamanism except you merge two energies to become a third entity.

May you be bathed in the straight forward humor and raw honesty Karyn brings to her work. Karyn’s biggest mantra is get out of your head and start expressing, stop talking and start writing. Listen more and keep your heart smiling through the expression of your lips. Sometimes all you need is an open heart and mountains will move between relationships.

Resume of Training & Studies

  • 1996 thru 2000 Into the Mystery Women’s Initiation and Rite of Passage, Mira Sophia
  • 1996 Everyday Soul, Awakening the Spirit, Bradford Keeney
  • 1997 Interior Alignment® ~ Intuitive Feng Shui Educator Training
  • 1998 Sacred Journey to Peru for apprenticeship with Peruvian Shamans
  • 1998 Certified Soul Coach Training ~ Denise Linn
  • 1999 Egyptian Mysteries Intensive Nicky Scully & Jane Bell, Egypt
  • 1999 Living Sacred Intimacy, David Deida, Breitenbush Hot Springs
  • 2000 Advanced Space Clearing, Karen Kingston, Bali
  • 2000 Performers Workshop Sierra Faith
  • 2001 Foundation for Shamanic Studies:
    • The Way of the Shaman, Leslie Conton
    • Foundation for Shamanic Studies, Two Week Intensive, Michael Harner, Alicia Gates
    • Soul Retrieval Training, Sandra Ingerman, Santa Fe, New Mexico
  • 2002 Sun Dance Support Camp
  • 2003 Spirit of the Cosmos, Claude Poncelet
  • 2003, 2004 & 2005 Vision Quest Mt. Hood Oregon
  • 2004 thru 2007 Foundation for Shamanic Studies Three Year Program, Alicia Gates
  • 2005 thru 2006 Two Year Shamanic Teacher Training, Sandra Ingerman
  • 2004 Depossession & Advanced Depossession Training, Betsy Bergstrom
  • 2004 Founding Member of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners
  • 2005 ShapeShifting, Claude Poncelet, Hosting
  • 2005 Foundation for Shamanic Studies Extraction Healing, Leslie Conton, Hosting
  • 2005 Foundation for Shamanic Studies Death & Dying and Spirits in Nature, Leslie Conton, Hosting
  • 2005 Shamanism in Daily & Professional Life, Claude Poncelet, Hosting
  • 2005 Beginning Tantra Yoga Seminar, Source School of Tantra Yoga, Hosting
  • 2005 thru 2007, Level 1, Level 2 & Level 3 Tantra Teachers Training, Source School of Tantra Yoga, Maui, HI
  • 2006 Assisted Level 1 Source School of Tantra Yoga Teachers Training, Maui, HI
  • 2006 Divine Feminine Initiation Weekend, Caroline Muir & Joan Heartfield, Maui, HI Hosting
  • 2006 Divine Feminine Institute: Intuition, Visioning & Shamanic Astrology, Caroline Muir & Joan Heartfield, Maui, HI
  • 2007 Mayan Spiritual Healing, Miss Beatrice Waight, Belize, Central America
  • 2007 thru 2008 Two Year Training in Celtic Shamanism, Tom Cowan Hosting
  • 2007 Soul Retrieval Training Supporting, Sandra Ingerman, Portland, Oregon
  • 2007 Allison Armstrong, Oregon
    • Celebrating Men, Satisfying Women Training
    • Celebrating Women: Regarding Ecstasy and Power
    • Celebrating Men & Sex
  • 2007 Ipsalu Tantra Kriya Yoga Level 1 Training Bodhi Avinasha, Portland, Oregon Hosting
  • 2008 Grief Ritual, Sobonfu Some Breitenbush Hot Springs, California
  • 2008 thru 2010 Shaking Medicine: Getting Cooked, Bradford Keeney Hosting
  • 2008 Kunlan Level 1, Max Christianson, Sedona, Arizona
  • 2008 Journey to Africa, Namibia, Botswana for Healing Dances with the Bushman
  • 2008 Soul Retrieval Training, Sandra Ingerman s Assistant, Still Meadows, Oregon
  • 2008 Ghost Ranch, Shamanic Teachers Reunion, Sandra Ingerman, Abiqui, NM
  • 2009 Bishops Lodge, Working in Community, Sandra Ingerman, Santa Fe, NM
  • 2009 Grief Ritual, Sobonfu Some, Still Meadows Retreat Center
  • 2009 Soul Collage Facilitators Training, Suzie Wolfer
  • 2010 Extreme Journaling Intensive, Juliana Coles
  • 2010 Basic Design, Painting, Watercolor, PCC Sylvania
  • 2010 Embracing Sovereignty, Tom Cowan, Still Meadows Retreat Center
  • 2010 The Art of the Sketchbook, Marilyn Reaves
  • 2010 The Painting Experience, Stewart Cubley
  • 2010 The Art Journal Workshop, Traci Bunkers
  • 2010 The Heart of Tantra Communion, Karyn Armstrong–Facilitator, Maui, Hi
  • 2011 Wisdom of the Druid Tales, Tom Cowan, Still Meadows Retreat Center Hosting
  • 2011 Sun Dance Support
  • 2011 Soul Retrieval Workshop, Sandra Ingerman, Alton Collins Retreat Center, Hosting
  • 2009 to 2011 Associates Degree in Fine Arts
  • 2012 Empowerment Ceremony and Assisting Bhola Banstola–Nepalese Shaman
  • 2012 Personal Vision Quest in Taos, NM, facilitated by Angele Mason
  • 2012 Global Shamanic Teachers Reunion, Ghost Ranch in New Mexico
  • 2010-2012 Associates in Arts
  • 2013 Assisting Bhola Banstola–Nepalese Shaman
  • 2013 Assisting Tom Cowan–Faery Doctoring
  • 2014 hosted John Lockley ~ Sangoma Asheville, North Carolina
  • 2015 Certified Chanel Skin Care Specialist and Make Up Artist
  • 2016 Developing The Medicine Art Way®