He says he spoke to the spirits and resurrected. Born in California, Durek has been an actor, model and Pilates teacher, but it was as a spiritual guide that he found his calling. A path that has become royal since his engagement with Princess Märtha Louise of Norway.
His official website describes him as the ‘sixth generation of shamans’, but also the ‘first spiritual shaman to appear in ‘People’ magazine. He is dedicated to empowering people, and to serving world spiritual evolution.” is it explained. Durek has coached stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Pine, Antonio Banderas and Selma Blair, but insists that his mother had told him when he was a teenager that it would be a princess from Norway who would change his life.
Last name : His birth certificate showed Derek David Verrett, but in 2013 Derek felt like a new person and decided to change his first name to Durek. He presents himself today as the “Shaman Durek”.
Birth : He was born on November 17, 1974 in Sacramento County, California. Derek grew up in Foster City, near San Francisco, then lived in New York in the 1990s and traveled before moving back to California.
Kinship : Her father David B. Verrett, a New Orleans native who died in 2017, ran a construction business. In 1972 David married Manhattan native Sheilah G. Farmer. Their children Angelina and then Derek were born before the couple divorced in 1977. Sheilah then returned to live in New York, where she now calls herself Veruschka Urquhart. Durek has given many versions as to the origins of his parents, but most often assures that his father is of Haitian descent, and his mother of Caribbean and Norwegian heritage. As a child he spent a lot of time with his paternal grandparents, very religious and members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. His paternal aunt Shirley Verrett, a renowned opera singer, would have helped to open his mind – unlike his father David whom he accuses of having been violent, and above all very homophobic.
“Destined to meet us”
Marital status: on June 7, three years after formalizing their romance, Durek and Princess Märtha Louise of Norway announced on their Instagram accounts how happy they were to be engaged. The couple said in “Vanity Fair” meeting her in Los Angeles in 2018, through a mutual friend. A revelation. “We’ve met once before. I know you”, the princess would have immediately told him. “Yes. We were destined to meet before we were even born,” the shaman would have replied.
Rank in the order of succession: None for Durek. His fiancée Märtha Louise, eldest daughter of King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway (but fourth in the order of succession behind her brother Crown Prince Haakon and his children), renounced her predicate in 2002 and her first marriage. of Royal Highness. She remains a princess, but has always wanted to be as far away as possible from her obligations. Märtha also gave up using her princely title for her professional activities after the “The Shaman and the Princess” tour organized with Durek, which caused a lot of controversy in the kingdom.
Three things to know about him:
. Vegetarian, consuming neither alcohol nor soft drinks (but having experienced drug problems in his youth), the Californian sometimes presents himself as the reincarnation of an Egyptian pharaoh, others as a reptilian. the “New York Times” reports that he claims to have resuscitated at the age of 27, after a month of coma: “I went to the other side, I took all the necessary information and I came back” he confided about this experience.
. Fascinated by sexuality and tantrism, Durek presents himself as bisexual. In this same portrait, the “New York Times” writes that he would have briefly married to a woman in California (the details of this union remain unclear), before living a long relationship with a massage therapist, who was also her business partner in a holistic healing business.
. “Free yourself from the Matrix,” he regularly advocates to his “tribe” of subscribers on social networks, where he is very active. To follow his invitation to rise spiritually, Durek offers to acquire his very controversial work “Spirit Hacking” (refused by a Norwegian publisher among others for unscientific remarks about cancer in children), but also offers via his website the possibility of reserving private sessions of one hour, at 1500 dollars per session. For smaller budgets, the merchandising tab allows you to buy a mug bearing his image (for 20€), or even hooded sweatshirts (47€).
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