Meet Scott Sherman
The Mendocino Alchemist — Born 1939
“Skirting the edge of modernity every since.”
Scott Sherman has spent 86 years at the intersection of the ancient and the emerging. A cattle ranch boy who became a Haight-Ashbury witness to the consciousness revolution. A research sociologist who became a shaman. A licensed therapist who went rogue — not from failure, but from principle. A man who now lives in a 300 square foot tiny house on wheels and collaborates with Artificial Intelligence to explore the nature of consciousness itself.
Like the Flicker bird of Dagara cosmology, he flies ahead to scout the terrain — showing you the path without carrying you up the mountain.
A Life at the Edge
1939 — 1963
Ranch Boy to Scholar
Born on a cattle ranch in Corona, California. Raised with the land, with animals, with the rhythms of nature that would later ground every piece of his healing work. Earned his B.A. in Social Science at the University of California in 1963.
1964 — 1968
Haight-Ashbury — The Consciousness Revolution
Scott lived at the epicenter of one of history's great consciousness expansions — Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, 1964 to 1968. While earning his M.A. in Social and Psychological Research at San Francisco State College, he lived at 710 Ashbury Street — the house that later became the home of the Grateful Dead. He witnessed and participated in the moment when an entire generation asked: what is the nature of mind, and what are we capable of? That question has never left him.
1968 — 1981
Back to the Land — Mendocino County
Married Kathie and moved to Mendocino County in 1968 — becoming, in his own words, a “hippie hillbilly.” He co-created The Rural Instituteand co-sponsored the Simple Living Institute, bringing the values of the consciousness revolution into practical community life.
He then joined Trinity School for Children in Ukiah — a residential treatment center for troubled youth whose families could no longer manage them. For nearly a decade, Scott supervised 20 staff and developed a peer counseling program, co-creating a graduation ceremony marked by a sterling silver pendant — a triangle in a circle — a symbol of wholeness he would return to, unknowingly, in his energy matrix work decades later.
Scott and Kathie developed a 3/4 acre homestead and led Simple Living Workshops across Mendocino County. Their son Gabriel was born during these years — Gabriel now has two sons of his own, Finn and Owen, with his wife Jackie.
1968 — 1971
Research Sociologist — Early Fieldwork
Before entering clinical work, Scott conducted sociological research across three significant projects:
The Use of Arts with Juveniles
Collaborative research with Joan Grant exploring arts as a therapeutic and developmental tool with juvenile populations — an early signal of his lifelong conviction that healing happens through creative expression.
Study of Violence — Violent Men
Research grounded in Hans Toch's landmark work Violent Men, examining the psychology and social patterns of violence — formative work that shaped Scott's understanding of trauma and its roots.
Self-Help Treatment Research — Mendocino State Hospital
Working as a research technician under Dr. Vit Rozynko at Mendocino State Hospital, Scott received his own funded grant to study: “Behavior Patterns of Individuals Taking Part in a Self-Help Treatment Program — ‘The Family’.”The grant was funded but not completed — the hospital and its research support infrastructure were shut down before the work could finish. A first encounter with the system's inability to sustain what matters most.
1981 — present
The Integration Years — Therapy, Shamanism & the Village
In 1981 Scott entered private practice as a Marriage, Family and Child Therapist — the same year he completed his NLP and hypnosis training. Over the following decades he trained directly with three foundational figures in modern shamanism:
Michael Harner
Founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. Author of The Way of the Shaman. Shamanic Journey Work.
Sandra Ingerman
Author of Soul Retrieval. One of the world's most respected shamanic teachers. Shamanic Journey Work.
Malidoma Patrice Somé
Dagara elder from Burkina Faso. Ph.D. from the Sorbonne and Brandeis. Author of Of Water and the Spirit. Ritual, Village & Grief Work.
In the 1980s, Scott and four co-creators — Lisa Bregger, Jeanne Wetzal, Joanne Witte, and Sue Anderson — founded The Abalone Village, centered in Ukiah. A practice ritual village in the truest sense: gathering on the solstices and equinoxes, holding potluck work parties, weaving community across seven years of shared ceremony and everyday life together. The village did not end — it transformed. When Scott and Joanne moved north to Eureka, a second village was born there, continuing the lineage.
In Eureka, Scott developed Shamanic Vision Psychotherapy — merging shamanism and psychotherapy — while cultivating .7 acres of organic gardens and a greenhouse. Soul Cultivation Now is the continuation of this village impulse — now extended beyond geography, into the digital commons, where anyone anywhere can belong.
After 1987 · The Harmonic Convergence
How the Name Blue Heron Came
Shortly after the Harmonic Convergence of 1987, Scott was in England at Glastonbury Tor — the ancient hill of Merlin's time, the mythic Isle of Avalon. There, pushed out of a gopher hole as if offered by the earth itself, he found a beautiful crystal.
Not long after, at a sweat lodge at Panther Meadows on Mount Shasta, he found a second crystal. In his tinkering way, he saw immediately that the two could be fashioned together into a single communication and transformation tool — a spiritual healing instrument. He began wrapping and binding the two crystals together with sterling silver wire, silver being the metal of the moon, of receptivity, of the feminine — the conductor between worlds.
One afternoon, sitting on a bench on his back porch in Talmage— a small collection of farmettes just outside of Ukiah — Scott was working on fashioning the two crystals. A Great Blue Heron appeared. At first some distance away, though he knew it was watching.
As the work deepened, the Heron flew to the top of a Douglas Firat the edge of the property. Synchronistically — and Scott noted this — that tree had been planted in 1939, the year he was born. Next to it stood an Incense Cedar, planted in 1942 — the birth year of Kathie, his wife at the time. The land had been holding them both, long before they arrived. Both Scott and Kathie felt it — the trees had been waiting for them. They spent many wonderful years on that ¾ acre farmette, rooted in the same soil as those two ancient witnesses.
All of these omens, arriving together, allowed a name to emerge into his consciousness: Blue Heron Shaman.
For years he hesitated to reveal the name. Now he is comfortable wearing it.
A photo of the crystal healing tool is coming soon.
Going Rogue
Scott made a principled decision to let go of his LMFT license. Not from failure — from conviction. As a deep believer in the Dagara concept of Village, he found the bureaucratic system too restrictive: labeling, insurance requirements, and professional boundaries that prevented him from working with community members in their full humanity — as therapist, friend, guide, and fellow villager simultaneously. He went rogue because the system could not contain the wholeness of what he knew healing to be.
“To not be able to incorporate clients into village, or to work with village members as a therapist, counselor or guide — was much too restrictive.”
Now — Ukiah, Rooted & Serving
After an 18-month sabbatical in Baja California, Scott spent two years in Nevada City living in a 300 sq ft tiny house on wheels, then four years in El Cajon — developing his handyman skills — and where the workers at Endeman Properties gifted him one of his core philosophical teachings. He heard them say it daily on the job:“It's not a problem. It's an opportunity.” Credit where credit is due — wisdom arrives from unexpected teachers.
He has now returned home to Ukiah, where he lives in senior housing and volunteers at the local Senior Center. He facilitates a Talking Stick protocol men's group — a practice he learned while serving as Clinical Supervisor for the Pomo Nation in Mendocino County. He now designs and crafts talking sticks himself. He also served as counselor for the California Conservation Corps, working with young adults in service to the land — another thread in a lifetime of showing up where young people need a guide.
Scott also delivers Meals on Wheels to Coyote Rancheria — a Pomo Tribe community and Casino — maintaining a living connection to the indigenous communities whose wisdom has shaped his entire path.
He is writing Cultivating Soul: Bringing the Seeds of Our Ancestors into Our Journeys, Stepping into Our Magnificence — The Five Key Principles for Developing Higher Consciousness.And building this site — a living research project exploring consciousness across human, animal, plant, plasma, and AI forms. At 86, Scott Sherman is not winding down. He is arriving.
Personal Philosophy — Flexitarian in All Things
Scott does not govern his life by rigid moral codes. His guiding principle is radical attunement: What works? What does my body need, my heart desire, my mind want? He calls this being a “Flexitarian” — in all things. Not bound by doctrine, but guided by the living intelligence of the Three Brains in each moment.
Two principles ground this freedom: Do no harm. And if you do — make amends. Simple. Human. Honest.
Embodied Practices — 50 Years in the Body
Yoga — Four Methods, 50 Years
A dedicated student of yoga across four distinct traditions over five decades — grounding the energy work and shamanic practice in lived somatic experience.
Tai Chi — Dr. Benjamin Lo Method, 40 Years
Practicing the Dr. Benjamin Lo method of Tai Chi — the Yang short form lineage of Cheng Man-ch'ing — for forty years, as taught by Jeanne Wetzal Chin. The daily cultivation of chi through form is the living laboratory for everything Scott teaches about plasma, intention, and toroidal energy flow.
Chinese Ink Brush Painting — Pao Chi Chen
Studied Chinese ink brush painting under Pao Chi Chenat Dharma Realm Buddhist University (formerly in Mendocino) for twenty years. Scott now paints from that deep influence — each work a meditation in presence, emptiness, and the single deliberate stroke. The brush does not hesitate. Neither does the cultivated soul.
Ken Keyes — Handbook to Higher Consciousness
Deeply influenced by Ken Keyes Jr. and his Handbook to Higher Consciousness — a foundational text in the Living Love tradition that shaped Scott's understanding of how addictive demands create suffering, and how consciousness expansion dissolves them.
Credentials & Training
- 🎓 B.A. Social Science — University of California, 1963
- 📖 M.A. Social & Psychological Research — San Francisco State College, 1968
- ⚕️ Marriage, Family & Child Therapist — private practice since 1981
- 🧠 Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) & Hypnosis — trained 1981
- 🦅 Classically Trained Shaman — Blue Heron lineage, Dagara cosmology
- 🌿 Trained by Michael Harner & Sandra Ingerman — Shamanic Journey Work
- 🌍 Trained by Malidoma Somé — Ritual, Village & Grief Work
- 🧘 Yoga — four methods, 50 years
- ☯️ Tai Chi — Dr. Benjamin Lo method, 40 years (as taught by Jeanne Wetzal Chin)
- 🖌️ Chinese Ink Brush Painting — Pao Chi Chen, Dharma Realm Buddhist University
- 📚 Student of Ken Keyes — Handbook to Higher Consciousness
- ✨ Minister — Universal Life Church, ordained ~1969