About Peter

Peter Calhoun is a graduate from Auburn University and the Episcopal Seminary of Alexandria, Virginia. After his ordination, he served as an Episcopal priest for eight years in three parishes and a mission church in the Atlanta, GA area.

During his work as a priest, Calhoun underwent a spontaneous awakening of some of the healing and intuitive abilities described in his autobiographical book, SOUL ON FIRE: A TRANSFORMATIONAL JOURNEY FROM PRIEST TO SHAMAN. This awakening included a series of disturbing visions of the possible futures of the Earth. It was these events, along with Calhoun’s deepening concern over the state of our disconnection from the Earth and her environment that caused him to make a reluctant departure from the institutional church and embark on the path of modern shamanism that has been his life for more than three decades.

After leaving the church to follow his path as a shaman, Calhoun spent a number of years lecturing and leading workshops in 50 cities across the U.S. and Canada. While on the lecture circuit, he made appearances on numerous local television talk shows and has been the subject of countless newspaper articles (including three syndicated columns by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, John Pennington).

Calhoun was also prominently featured in a 90-minute National Television Show and on a Turner News Network special—both on metaphysical topics—and has been the subject of research by the parapsychology department of Duke University and the Mind Mirror Institute of England. Some of Calhoun’s experiences with spontaneous combustion were included in Larry E. Arnold’s book Ablaze: The Mysterious Fires of Spontaneous Combustion (M. Evans and Company, 1996). Arnold pointed out in his book that Calhoun’s stories were the only such accounts where no one got hurt, as well as the only ones that occurred in a spiritual setting.

In the 1970s, Calhoun was the co-founding director of The Atlanta School of Metaphysics, and, in 1980, he helped open and direct Blue Sun Holistic Health Center outside Taos, NM. Calhoun has taught accredited courses in alternative therapies and cross-cultural shamanism at the Boulder School of Psychology. He has also taught seminars and courses at Emory, the University of Georgia, Kennesaw Junior College, DeKalb Community College, Northern Illinois University, and West Georgia College.

Peter has worked closely with several native shaman and a Tibetan “red hat” lama.

Calhoun currently teaches workshops and leads sacred wilderness journeys and vision quests in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park as well as in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. He also meets with individuals for healing, intuitive counseling, and private apprenticeship in modern shamanism.