Christina Allen
Founder and Director
Christina originally became interested in the interplay between matter, consciousness, and energy through her readings about the Vedics, Taoism, and Shamanism as an adolescent, as she tried to make sense of a traumatic childhood. She has been working at this interface to help people awaken to their full potential ever since. Her undergraduate training was as a Physicist at the University of California Santa Cruz, followed by a PhD program in Neuroscience at the Salk Institute, through the University of California San Diego. Her spiritual studies started in earnest four years into her graduate degree, when with the death of her mother she realized that as the body dies, consciousness remains in tact. Knowing she could only study consciousness as a product of a physical living brain within her degree program, she bravely left academia, with her dissertation unfinished, and answered her soul’s calling. She knew she had to continue her studies from outside the conventions the current, limited, scientific paradigms, and afar from a traditional laboratory setting. By apprenticing with renowned Masters of Yoga, Reiki, and Shamanism she has spent over 30 years integrating the power and wisdom of ancient indigenous Energy Medicine with her studies of physics, biology, psychology, and neuroscience.
As a former owner of, and instructor at, the Blue Raven Yoga and Healing Center in the San Diego area, and as an associate professor at California State University San Marcos, Christina taught Hatha and Ashtanga yoga for 13 years. She began her formal shamanic studies within that time under the guidance of psychologist, medical anthropologist, and shaman Alberto Villoldo, at the Four Winds Society. She remained at the Four Winds for a decade, apprenticing as an assistant, and eventually teaching for him as a Lead Teacher. In this capacity, Christina worked with students from around the globe, teaching the practice of Energy Medicine in the United States and Mexico, and leading trips to Peru to work with the Q’ero paq'os, or shamans.
Since leaving the Four Winds, Christina has taken her studies with the Andean medicine even deeper, studying Juan Nuñez del Prado's traditional teachings extensively, through the guidance of Joan Parisi Wilcox. She has studied a number of other shamanic teachers and indigenous traditions as well, providing a solid base of shamanic wisdom. She now integrates all she knows about about shifting consciousness and working with the energies of creation to expand consciousness, and to heal, into her own way form of guidance, healing, and teaching. Christina started the Austin Shamanic Center, in 2014. Through Christina’s leadership, published articles and writings, shamanic healing and integration practices, training workshops, and sacred journeys, she has helped empower many individuals, and groups, helping them reclaim their personal integrity and intuitive gifts as they raise their level of soul consciousness. Her aim is to help create a global community of grounded, authentic, beings who can step up and hold the door open for the evolution of human consciousness, and to be of service to humanity in general, in its many different forms.
Volunteer Assistants: We also have an everchanging crew of volunteer class assistants at your disposal too. Once someone has completed a series of classes, either the Mesa Carrier or the EMC, they can come back through as a "class assistant" and retake the classes in exchange for helping to keep the classes running. Because this medicine is deep, repeating these classes is a great way to go deeper with your own medicine.
- Listen to a 2014 Podcast interview with Christina
- See a 2020 Facebook Live interview with Christina
Read Christina's Articles