Testimonials
Read some of John's clients and participants reflections on working with John....
If you have worked with John and would like to leave a testimonial, click here.
Featured
After receiving a plant medicine treatment from John a wonderful healing occurred for me. I slept soundly and peacefully for the first time since 2006 and the next morning I felt lighter and brighter and felt more like my old fun-loving, mischievous self. Having read an article in Spirit & Destiny Magazine about John Lockley last summer I knew had to meet him. But time went by and I totally forgot until I received an email from a friend saying John would be giving his Ubuntu 101 workshop in East Clare. At that time there were severe weather alerts due to the unprecedented frost and snow that Ireland was experiencing. People said "your crazy" but I knew I had to make this journey.
To be honest I didn’t know what to expect and it took me awhile to get used to John's rather direct form of teaching! But it really is the only way to get through to some of us! I really enjoyed listening to John speaking in Xhosa and in some strange way I instinctively knew what he was saying before he translated it into English (which proves that Ubuntu has no language barriers). The singing, dancing and drumming were so beautiful and you could literally feel your spirit come alive and soar.
From honouring my ancestors and doing my heart beat meditation (which is a really effective and beautiful experience) I now see people differently and feel much more connected to myself and to my sense of oneness with Mother Earth & to all living beings and things.
I left East Clare feeling happy & peaceful with the singing of the Xhosa tribe ringing in my ears.
Lelia
East Clare, Ireland
December 2010 Ubuntu Workshop
Here are some thoughts about the fire (and thanks for sharing about the coyotes!) What most impresses me about the messages John Lockley brings is the simplicity of them. He began with having us listen to our own hearts. Feeling them beat inside of us. Everything else came from that point. I have gotten instruction before in meditation that focuses primarily on the breath, and struggled to feel connection. Somehow focusing on the heartbeat was a very different experience. To feel the drumming inside of me, and feel the connection to the Earth through this rhythm, while remembering and honoring ancestors, placed me firmly in my body--balanced and stable and able to move from a place of calm. I felt a new understanding of meditation.
The knowledge he shares is ancient and timeless, and yet he communicates it in such a way that we in these confusing and hyper-fast times can comprehend them.
His personal stories help to illustrate essential truths of spiritual practice and seeking help from Divine, from Source.
John is very down to earth and sometimes uses a Puckish sense of humor to make ideas clear. Yet always there is an unwavering authenticity that he shows and invites us back to again and again. He brings us back to ourselves and our own work, all the while encouraging us to drop our false faces, our patterns of old habits that may not serve us, and connecting us to our ancestors and spirit guides.
Heather
Vermont, USA
John Lockley is an extraordinary being. His dedication to his calling ispalpable, and his infectious enthusiasm for finding and following your unique path touched my heart deeply.The timing of John's message is impeccable. I recognize the grace that was bestowed upon me by being in John's presence. He shook my bones, and moved my heart.
Carolyn Gregory
Vermont, USA
Reconnecting to my ancestors through ceremony and dreams has truly been an empowering and life-changing event. I will be forever grateful to John for facilitating this experience.
Lorraine
Galway, Ireland.
It is a very special and unique experience to be taught by someone trained in a living, breathing, intact medicine tradition. You bring the teachings to us with dignity and integrity and have inspired me to want to connect deeply with my own ancestral lines. You also show us your own humility and humanity and sense of fun to produce an experience which is strong, but gentle. I look forward to continuing working with such an inspirational teacher. Thank you!
Elizabeth Caldwell, PhD
University Lecturer, UK
From what I have experienced so far I would say that UBUNTU involves opening up to great power through learning to be humble and to open the heart. Whilst honouring and praising my ancestors outdoors with the group I have felt levels of love and peace that I rarely achieve elsewhere. And through the personal practice of honouring my ancestors in the UBUNTU way I feel I have been able to connect with my helpers and guides in a much more profound and deep way.
Caroline Evans
School Teacher
John and all the people were amazing. So much more than I could have hoped for, and oh my gosh can John dance...
P.P. Chester
Retreat participant
When I saw an advertisement for a weekend course with John Lockley, a white South African member of the Xhosa tribe and a practising Ubuntu Sangoma i.e. shaman or ‘medicine-man’ or even ‘witch-doctor’ as we in the west might call him, my curiosity was aroused. I decided I had to find out more and approached the course with nervous but open-minded anticipation. I was not disappointed. I do not want to give too much away about the weekend except to say that it was a mixture of instruction and participation. Some of this I found emotionally very challenging, nothing we did was unacceptable to me, and the benefit was enormous. I felt elated for days afterwards.
There is one thing that surprised me. Although my knowledge of Romany Chovihano shamanism is limited (I am of mixed Anglo-Irish-Romany descent and Chovihanos have all but died out, at least in the west), what I do know tells me that Xhosa and Romany shamanism are so similar that it cannot be coincidence. Since the two peoples can hardly have met and exchanged ideas, they must have independently developed two systems whose closeness, in my opinion, tends to add credence to their value and utility.
In my job as a Chiropractor I am very aware that there are emotional and spiritual aspects of peoples’ lives which have negative influences on their general health contributing to their overall ‘dis-ease’, and which are left unresolved by modern health care (of any kind), psychology, and religion. I feel that Ubuntu may go a long way to filling that gap.
Dr. Peter Smith
Chiropractor, Llandudno, North Wales Member of the Scottish Chiropractic Association
Member of the College of Chiropractors
There are only a few genuinely trained and apprenticed shamanic practitioners working in Europe and the U.S.A. Having been a witness at John Lockley’s final initiation ceremonies in South Africa, I can testify that John is one of the few exceptional people working in the U.K. who can claim to have a genuine Ancestral training and lineage. Working with John is a unique opportunity to experience a connection and harmony that will enrich your life and strengthen your heart.
Steve Taylor
UK Medical Herbalist