Sometimes all a person needs to feel better is stretch their arms to the sky and release the negative energy with a single, loud yell.
Wowza, the "High Priestess of Wow!," known professionally and published under the name Elisa Lodge believes deeply in the healing power of this primal knowledge and following these instincts in creating a more wonderful world around herself and others.
"At 70 it is important to reinvent ourselves," Wowza said in reference to her life journey from actress to shaman. Wowza bases her teachings, books and workshops off of the doctrines of a Burning Man group known as the "Church of Wow!" The group teaches the "total freedom of expression" and the "recapturing of youthfulness of spirit" to ensure a sense of spiritual vitality.
"Everything is just beginning for her," said Humboldt State University yoga instructor Paula Scott. "She says yes to life."
Scott and the Blue Lake community will be welcoming Wowza on the weekend of Oct. 21 and 22. Wowza will be holding a class on Primal Energetics.
Scott became enthralled with Wowza after meeting her four years ago in a workshop. "I saw something really special," Scott said. "Something in her eyes sparkled with a deep joy for life."
Scott became more intrigued with Wowza and her life when she learned about the traumatic past she overcame.
Wowza was abused as a child by her father and as a result of the physical abuse and mental struggle developed eczema over much of her body. Scott said Wowza believed if she could withstand the physical abuse her father put her through, then she would be worthy of his love.
At age 11, Wowza's mother gave her a floor-length mirror for her birthday and she was forced to confront the physical and mental ugliness in her life, Scott said.
Once she was able to deal with this pain she began shutting her door and dancing by herself when she felt upset. She called herself the "Ugly Dancer" and would perform for herself as a way of releasing the negative energy. This was the beginning of the enlightenment that would come a year later.
There was a picture that hung in her house, Scott said, that showed a woman with a waterfall coming out of her and a child playing at her feet. When Wowza asked who the woman was, her mother replied that the woman was Mother Earth. The young Wowza called the woman "Humma" and she became her inner companion. Through humming and with the guidance of her inner companion, Wowza broke out of her "Ugly Dancer" shell and went on to act in movies along side Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.
Acting, Wowza said, showed her the art of wearing masks. She believed she could show any mask of any person to the world and each mask had a specific role it played. She chose to wear the mask of "Wow!" to express her feeling of gratitude for the world she now inhabits and the discoveries she has made and encourages others to do so through her workshops and books.
Fritz Mussmann was one such student to be moved by her seminar. Unsure of what to expect going in, he was surprised and excited to find what he calls "authentic play."
"Authentic play means playing from the inside out," Mussmann said. "It comes from the core of the being." It is an expression of sound and movement in a safe, comfortable environment that is completely instinctual instead of choreographed.
Wowza describes primal energetics as a type of yoga that stretches and relaxes your mind and spirit along with your body. By giving in to primal instincts and allowing yourself to create the sounds your vocals chords naturally want to create, you get in touch with your primal instincts and release tension.
Christiane Johnson, a third-year Wildlife and Zoology major agreed with this idea. "When you're frustrated you release all the stress off your back [when you] give out a grunt or a sigh. 'Rrrrrrrr!' and it's all out," Johnson said.
Wowza has written several books about the healing powers of the primal noise and yell including "Primal Energetics" and "The Hum of Love" expressing the importance of allowing yourself to give in to the desire to make the primal grunting noises of joy, love, sorrow or anger. These expressions are "more than noise, [they are] our intuitive voice link to Wholeism," Wowza said.
Wowza believes that this seminar is very important for all people in this age of knowledge and technology because people are beginning to forget their primal roots. They are so concerned with socially accepted ways of acting that the need to yell out or hum to themselves is completely suppressed, she said. Every person is born brilliant, Wowza said. "The body is a holographic universe. There's so much intelligent information [in the world today] but very little on embodiment of a new paradigm of being."
Wowza said the problem is we are raised from a very young age in a very hierarchical society and are shaped into a very static posture that we are constantly aware of and only a small part of our teachings are how to live to a greater spiritual potential. By practicing the primal outcries that come naturally to us, we can better equip ourselves to create a higher plane of being for ourselves and live up to our highest potential.
"Primal yoga is stretching with desire," Wowza said. "It is exponentially huge in how it stimulates all parts of the body and opens up our voice to expression."
Printed 10-17-07 in The Lumberjack,
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