Christina Allen
Founder and Director
Christina originally became interested in the interplay between matter, consciousness, and energy through her readings on the Vedics, Taoism, and Shamanism in adolescence as she tried to make sense of a traumatic childhood. She has been working at this interface ever since. Her undergraduate training was in Physics 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 class work and research complte but 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, but still answer to the discipline of scientific inquiry. By apprenticing with renowned Spiritual 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 across the United States and into Mexico, while also 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 energy medicine even deeper, studying the more traditional teachings of Juan Nuñez del Prado and Ivan Nuñez del Prado. Her initial guidance and tutelage of their work came through Joan Parisi Wilcox who then introduced her to don Juan and don Ivan. All four of them have since spent many hours in profund conversation, delving into the deeper nuances of the Andean energy medicine and discussing how to teach it in its traditonal form at the" Fourth Level." Christina now teaches the traditional Andean teachings, as they were originally taught to don Juan, to keep this form of the wisdom alive. She does integrate her 20 plus years experience as a shamanic healer and her scientific wisdom into these teachings when they are complimentary. She also goes beyond these teachings and employs all she knows about about neuroscience, shifting states of consciousness, and working with the energies of creation into her one-on-one healing practice.
Christina started the Austin Shamanic Center in 2013. 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 contribute to the global community of grounded, authentic, human beings who step up to hold the door open for the evolution of human consciousness, and it is to be of service to humanity in general, in its many different forms.
- Listen to a 2014 Podcast interview with Christina
- See a 2020 Facebook Live interview with Christina
Read Christina's Articles