Dr. David Cumes discussed his practice of shamanic rituals, during the the middle two hours of the program. A surgeon here in the United States, he is able to act as bridge between Western medicine and ancient healing wisdom, and believes that both methods have their benefits.

Cumes said he was inititiated as a sangoma (Zulu for shaman or indigenous healer) while in South Africa. The process involved taking part in various rituals such as animal sacrifice, purification and immersion in a river, as well employing drumming and dancing to achieve trance states. Contacting the ancestors or spirit guides is typically done while in a trance, he noted.

Establishing a connection with the ancestors is a crucial part of being able to help people, said Cumes, who believes that these spirits are capable of conducting "non-local healing" on patients. He described working with the ancestors in three different ways: dreams, trance and bones.Cumes was taught to use the "divining bones" by an old Zulu master over several months. A set of small bones from animals such as hyenas and crocodiles are tossed into a pattern, and not unlike the Tarot, they are employed to read a person's psychospiritual state and answer questions, he explained.

Note: The final hour of this program was devoted to Open Lines with a theme of strange hitchhikers.

Hoagland Update

First hour guest Richard C. Hoagland shared updates on space-related topics. He said he is beginning to think that Saturn's moon Iapetus may have been heavily modified by carbon nanotubes, rather than being artificially made in its entirety (Part 5 of his report on this subject has recently been updated).

He also voiced excitement over the plan for Mars Express to turn on its radar, which he believes could confirm buried cities under the sediment on the red planet. Hoagland announced that he'll be at Coral Castle for the solar eclipse on April 8, to observe possible hyperdimensional effects.