Born in Newton, Kansas, Dr. I. Murphy Lewis is a publisher, author, psychoanalytic Akashic shaman, and lecturer. She received her Masters (2005) and Doctorate (2007) of Philosophy in Mythology from the Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, CA, with an emphasis in Depth Psychology and Culture; an Associate Degree in Fashion (1988) from Parsons School of Design in New York City; and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (1980) from the University of Kansas. Dr. Lewis is author of the Mythic Memoir of Reclamation, ACROSS THE DIVIDE TO THE DIVINE: AN AFRICAN INITIATION (IML Publications, 2024) and the young adult book, WHY OSTRICHES DON'T FLY AND OTHER TALES FROM THE AFRICAN BUSH (Libraries Unlimited, 1997), as featured on WABC News (2002). She is the director and producer of four short documentaries, WHY OSTRICHES DON'T FLY (1998), MUSIC THAT FLOATS FROM AFAR (2001), HOW DO YOU NAME A SONG? (2003), and THE SACRED FOREST OF THE LOST CHILD (2007). She has given over forty speaking engagements to grade schools, junior and senior high schools; lecturing for National Geographic Journey of Man Trip (2008); The Sunflower Story Arts Festival, Mount Kisco (2009); African Art Exhibit at Northwest Missouri State University Department of Art and Horace Mann Laboratory School where she was broadcasted across the state of Missouri to the grade schools (2011); and for the American Business School’s Psychology Department, Paris, France (2013). In 2002, in honor of the Kalahari San Bushmen and the Maasai Warriors and in reciprocity toward indigenous peoples, Dr. Lewis became the Founding Director of Global Voice® Foundation, a fiscal sponsorship of Legacy Global Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization. GVF has provided water pumps, corn-threshers, education, food, medicine, and clothing, as well as funded several indigenous books. In 2018, GVF began working with Radio France’s Radio Ndjoku in the Central African Republic to provide two jobs for the BaAka Peoples, giving voice to their everyday challenges, as well as to their music, which was recorded by Louis Sarno over the course of thirty years. (His music is held in keeping with Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, England.) In 2020, Dr. Lewis served as a juror in Radio France’s ePop contest held to give voice to indigenous youth and elders dealing with the consequences of environmental and climate change. She created IML Publications, L.L.C. to produce art books, poetry and film by various female and indigenous artists. Her first publications include: the republication of Lysbeth Boyd Borie’s 1928 Poems for Peter (in conjunction with Shank Painter) from the original copper plates; Gail Segal’s poetry, IN GRAVITY'S PULL (2002); and Gay Walley’s THE EROTIC FIRE OF THE UNATTAINABLE: APHORISMS ON LOVE, ART AND THE VICISSITUDES OF LIFE (2007), which resold to Skyhorse Publishing (2015), and was successfully launched in 2016 as a film THE UNATTAINABLE STORY at Mostra, the São Paulo International Film Festival where it was acquired by Europa Films for Brazilian distribution and by Random Media at Cinequest in 2017 (I. Murphy Lewis is an Associate Producer); and has become a new film EROTIC FIRE OF THE UNATTAINABLE (2020) by Frank Vitale, written by Gay Walley. In 2021, IML ambitiously launched VENUS AS SHE AGES a 6-novel collection by Jacqueline Gay Walley, which includes the republication of STRINGS ATTACHED, as well as her new books: TO ANY LENGTHS, PRISON SEX, THE BED YOU LIFE IN, WRITE SHE SAID, and MAGNETISM. In 2024, IML released Claudia Rosenhouse Raiken's MESSAGES FROM THE WOMB: BABIES TALK THROUGH GUIDED VISUALIZATIONS EXPANDING OUR HEARTS AND MINDS and Mahdi's novel, KHAAK: THE MESSAGE.Dr. Lewis had a high-profile career in the fashion industry, as Vice President, Director of Sales for Badgley Mischka (1998-2001) and Halston (1997) and was formerly employed as International Director of Sales for Mary McFadden (1993-1996) and a Sales Manager for the Jean Muir Boutique at Bergdorf Goodman (1988-1991).Since 1995, Dr. Lewis has been researching the stories and recording the music of the San Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa (10 safaris in). From 1998 to 2004, during six journeys into Laloshwa Highlands, Kenya, Lewis participated in the shamanic initiation rites of the Maasai Warriors, returning in 2013 for a seventh journey in. Through all her speeches, writings, illustrations, and unique lifestyle, Dr. Lewis opens our eyes to the magical trickster god, Mantis, and the transformative world of shamanism. When Lewis isn’t traipsing through the Kalahari, she is immersed in a private practice of psychoanalytic shamanism with adults in the safety and love of the Akashic Records, editing others’ books, and managing to faithfully write in her lifelong journal of fifty-two years, now 28,000 pages.In 2006, 2009-2011, Dr. Lewis lived in Copenhagen, Denmark researching, writing, and working with private clients. During this same period, she trained psychoanalytically at the C. G. Jung Institut, Küsnacht. Switzerland.For the past twelve years, she has been residing in Paris, France with her Parisian husband, architect and urban planner.Read more about this authorRead less about this author