What are the stories both old and new that we repeat over and over in our heads, that bind us and affect those whose lives we touch? How can we liberate ourselves from the "isms" and illusions that have been passed down to us...
politically, religiously, culturally, ancestrally.

After seventeen years on Fashion Avenue in New York City, working for Bergdorf Goodman, Mary McFadden, Leonard of Paris, Halston, and Badgley Mischka, I. Murphy Lewis earned a Ph.D. in (Worldwide) Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology and Culture from Pacifica Graduate Institute (2007), continuing her Depth Psychological training at the C.G. Jung Institute in Küsnacht, Switzerland (2010-2013).

What spurred on her extreme departure from a well-honed ready-to-wear career to step into indigenous myths, was a read of Sir Laurens van der Post's A Mantis Carol that catapulted her on an explorative journey into the Kalahari Desert of Botswana to visit the Kalahari San Bushmen (1995); and an encounter with an intuitive, Mariah Martin who encouraged her to heal a past life with the Maasai Warriors. This led to her initiation as a laibon, dream-shaman among a group of Maasai Warriors, elders, healers, and storytellers with medicinal herbs of baths and teas, a naming, a water ceremony, and a fire walk (1998-2004), inspiring a restorative memoir, Across the Divide to the Divine: An African Initiation and a short documentary, To the Sacred Forest of the Lost Child (2007). Twice with National Geographic, she traveled around the world to touchdown on Legendary Places, to create a greater understanding of other cultures. Into the heart of the Kalahari Desert, on ten safaris, she explored the myths of the San Bushmen (1995-2010), publishing Why Ostriches Don't Fly and Other Tales from the African Bush (Libraries Unlimited, 1997), and recording their music, directing three short documentaries, Why Ostriches Don't Fly (1998), Music that Floats from Afar (2002), and How Do You Name a Song? (2003). https://vimeo.com/imurphylewis