Meet Laurelann Porter | Shamanic Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Laurelann Porter and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Laurelann, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
What a great question, especially since Arizona is my home state and I will always feel like a part of me is there, even when I live elsewhere. I’ve been reflecting quite a bit on what it means to be from Arizona, what it means to be the daughter of my parents who have both passed, and how can I retain their influence while still being my own person.

Both of my parents were very much “salt of the earth” kind of people. So we were raised with a solid work ethic. The funny thing is that I ended up being a workaholic. So maybe I took my parents upbringing a bit too much to heart! But there is something reassuring about knowing that my parents survived poverty from the Great Depression and instilled in me a strong resilience. I will say, however, that I have also taken the time to unpack and critique some of the beliefs and habits I inherited from my family. I even wrote a new song recently to honor my Dad and also question the unhealthy dynamics of some of the assumptions underneath that whole “Pick yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality. I found out recently that the phrase does not mean what we have been led to believe it means. It was apparently used as an example of something impossibly ludicrous. I believe it was taken from some physics textbook from the turn of the century where they posed the question “Why can a man not pick himself up by his bootstraps?” Well because it’s impossible. I now know that we only heal alone AND we only heal in community. It sounds like a paradox but they are both true. We need them both.

Being from Arizona, my Dad used to take us all over the state for camping trips. So I have a deep love for the desert. There is a kind of peaceful renewal at play when I spend time in the desert now. I’m quite certain I will always have a foot in Arizona somewhere. The sunsets in Arizona are the most beautiful of any I’ve seen. I haven’t traveled everywhere in planet earth but I have traveled to North America, South America, Europe and India. So Ive seen some pretty skies for sure. But Arizona takes the cake.

The other aspect to my upbringing that has deeply influenced me, whether I like it or not, was my religious upbringing. I no longer have any affiliation or interest in organized religion at all, especially not the Mormon church where I grew up. I don’t judge my family members who stayed in the religion because I know we are all on our own journey and for many people, organized religion provides community and care that is not available in the modern secular world. However, for me, there were just too many deep hypocrisies that I could not ignore. But probably the most profound influence was actually growing up singing in church, singing with my sisters, and having such a musical family. We were always singing: at church, at family events, just for fun, everything. And so that ability to sing and harmonize is not really something I had to learn because it came so naturally to me in my life.

Someone once told me that I am a true questioner. I didn’t really know exactly what that meant but in hindsight I now see that those desires to question my reality, question my conditions, question my beliefs and assumptions has been central to the work that I do now. If I had not practiced questioning for all those years I don’t know if I would have had the presence of mind to find this path for myself. The shaman’s path is one that asks us to release our past. But in order for us to release it we have to be conscious of it. that’s the first step.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
So this is where it gets really interesting for me. When I was living in Brazil right after my mother passed, I was experiencing the most prolific creative period of my life. I didn’t realize it at the time but I was doing what I teach now. I was grieving creatively. So that whole year of creative grieving, I would periodically get up in the morning, do my morning practices, and then do a shamanic healing ceremony on myself. Most of the time it would be a soul retrieval from a previous lifetime. And as soon as I would finish the healing ceremony I would immediately grab my journal and start writing. Generally a set of lyrics would come through at the same time. Then I would sit in meditation for a bit and the music would follow. Sometimes I would meditate with music and all of a sudden the chord progression of a particular song would jump out at me. So I head to the computer, open my software and crank out a rough sketch of the song. This was all happening within one day. There was a period where I was doing this almost every day for about two weeks, right after my first Ayahuasca ceremony.

So each of the songs on my album, Soul Journeying, came from some sort of healing practice, either for myself or sometimes I would specifically set the intention that I wanted to channel through a song to heal my community. And just recently I tested my theory that I could actually do this for a client. A while back I was in a course for songwriters looking to get our music into film and television. And they challenged us during one of the modules to write a brand new song in less than a week. And I did it! I was shocked at how easy it was. Songwriting wasn’t always easy for me. It used to take me weeks or months just to come up with a good melody and structure. But this work I’ve done in shamanic energy medicine, … I don’t know, it’s almost as if it has unblocked my creative synapses and allows them to fire more easily, more fluidly. So I realized. “Hey, I can write a song in a week.” So I offered one of my clients the opportunity to receive a custom song for them. We did a shamanic healing ceremony, and sure enough. I had a song within the week.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
The last time I was in town I was hanging out quite a bit in the Melrose district. There’s a nice vibe there. Some great eateries and coffee shops. And of course, it wouldn’t be a trip to Phoenix without visiting Changing Hands Bookstore. There’s something so reassuring that there is still a locally owned brick and mortar store dedicated to reading. And of course, a day trip to Sedona is almost always required.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I think I’d probably have to give a shout out to my partner, Mike Anderson. When I had my pandemic-induced crisis and took that huge leap of faith to walk away from my academic life and begin walking the path of shamanic energy medicine, he sort of tried to tell me that I was a bit delusional thinking I would have a thriving business within 6 months. There was so much I needed to learn, but he still stood by me. When we made the decision to completely uproot ourselves, he certainly didn’t enjoy it, but he stood by me.

When I was spending my year in Brazil, grieving creatively for my mother, we figured out a way to collaborate on new music together across thousands of miles of distance. He kept encouraging me to “keep sending more music for him to work on.” I would get up, do a shamanic healing on myself, a song would come through, I’d go to Garage Band and draft a rough version of the song and send it to him via email. Then he would open the file in Logic and add his own bass and guitar lines, he would program new drums, and begin really crafting beautiful arrangements for my solo album, Soul Journeying. Within one year we had an album of 12 songs to release. And now we have a whole bunch more material just waiting to be the next album. We’re not rushing into that just yet until we have a few more business mechanisms in place to really maximize the leverage we can get from a new release.

Mike has also helped me with some management of the website for both of our businesses (Laurelann Porter Healing Services, LLC and our media production company, Rhythm and Flavor Productions, LLC). He has encouraged me repeatedly to just keep doing what I do, keep being an inspiring influence to people, and sooner or later, the money will start flowing. It started as a trickle and we have experienced slow but consistent growth over these last few years. I’m looking forward to the next stage of our life together when we are both living our purpose with more creativity and freedom in our lives.

Website: https://laurelannporter.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurelannporter/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurelann-porter-936a7b8/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Laurelann-Porter-The-Singing-Shaman-138360372881973

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC28HboNmBjtg25c0ToN-gNg

Other: Booking: https://LaurelannPorterHealingServices.as.me/
Spotify for Laurelann Porter
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2sDwYxPkISMWW72xhcN1UV?si=MfiEru19T1a3XUGWrP1Fjw

Image Credits
Libby Danforth