May 18 – A woman who says she took part in an energy medicine training at a Galisteo retreat center last year is suing the center and the company that ran the course, alleging she was sexually abused by a “shamanic master’.
The woman — identified in the complaint only by the initials MG — says she paid $10,800 to the Four Winds Society and another $6,300 to The Chi Center, both listed as defendants, prior to the March 2023 training session.
The lawsuit, recently filed in court, says the Four Winds Society promoted the course as one that offered participants the opportunity to become a certified energy medicine practitioner with “an extraordinary life of health, purpose and inner guidance.”
According to the lawsuit, participants were told they could start their own careers as master healers. It accuses the defendants of negligence, breach of contract and liability, and demands an unspecified amount of damages.
The Chi Center did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Four Winds did not respond to an email seeking comment Thursday, and a woman who answered a phone call Friday hung up when asked for comment on the lawsuit. No one answered another call.
Four Winds’ Facebook page lists an address in Florida, but its website says the company is based in Chile and offers training in the United States, Germany and Chile.
The plaintiff’s attorney declined to comment.
The lawsuit says about 25 students, three teachers and a man posing as a “shamanic master of energy training” gathered at The Chi Center, a 150-acre retreat. Four Winds offered students individual healing sessions with the shamanic master for an additional $250 per hour, the lawsuit said, encouraging them to participate in the sessions to “advance their own learning.”
The accuser says she scheduled a session with the man and told him she was sexually abused as a child; The man indicated in Spanish that he understood and then had the woman lie down on one of the beds in his room, the complaint said.
It is claimed that he then used the healing session for ‘his own personal interests or gratification’.
The New Mexican is not naming the man accused of sexual assault because he has not been charged with a crime. Multiple online sources identify him as a Peruvian healer and “keeper of wisdom.”
At least two other women had a similar experience with the man, the lawsuit alleges.
The day after the accuser’s session, she and another student reported the experiences to a senior teacher, who told her that “what was done to her was not a standard part of the healing session.” He reported the incident to Alberto Villodo, owner of the Four Winds Society, the lawsuit said.
Reports from a criminal investigation into the incident by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office indicate the plaintiff may be from out of state. She was unable to complete a sexual assault nurse investigation, a report said, because she had “left the state and waited to report the incident by telephone from California.”
A deputy spoke with the woman and an employee at The Chi Center, but was unable to contact other alleged victims or the shamanic master, a report said.
The investigating officer wrote in his report that he learned through a law enforcement database that the shaman had left the United States and flown from Houston to Panama on March 17, 2023.
The officer wrote that he was placing the case on inactive “until more information can be obtained.”
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Friday that the criminal case is “challenging” because the accused shaman is from abroad. The sheriff’s office also had difficulty contacting victims to obtain the evidence needed to file charges, Mendoza said, adding that the agency plans to try again to reach them.
“I hope we can re-establish contact with the victims and reach a conclusion in this case,” he said.
