David Cumes, M.D. was born in South Africa and received his medical training in Johannesburg. He taught at Stanford Medical Center and currently has a private practice in Santa Barbara, CA. He is a Western trained surgeon steeped in the allopathic paradigm of medicine and he is also a healer. After extensive travel which included time with the Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert, and shamans in Peru and South Africa, Dr. Cumes explored the role nature plays in personal healing and transformation.
He is a graduate of N.O.L.S. (the National Outdoor Leadership School), founded a company called Inward Bound, and leads groups on healing journeys to remote wilderness areas. Dr. Cumes has published extensively in professional journals and is also the author of three books. In addition, he has been initiated as a sangoma (Zulu for shaman or indigenous healer) and is now qualified to throw divining bones. Dr. Cumes is a bridge between Western medicine and indigenous healing wisdom.