Shamanic Healing

What is Shamanic Healing

Shamanism is a set of tools which has been used by medicine men and medicine women all over the world for the last 40,000 – 100,000 years of history to heal individuals and get spirit guidance for tribal and individual concerns. It is not a religion, and it predates all religions. The word “shaman” itself comes from the language of the Tuvan tribe of Siberia, and means medicine man/woman.

Shamanism is about working with helping spirits, either by traveling to the spirit world to seek their help and advice, or by channeling them as a so-called “hollow bone”. Traditionally, in order to accomplish her work, the shaman uses very rapid drumming, rattling and sometimes dancing in order to induce a trance state. Historically some cultures also have used hallucinogenic botanicals in order to induce a trance state, but this is neither necessary nor desirable to accomplish the shaman’s purpose.

When people suffer an illness, whether mental or physical, Shamanic Healing operates on the idea that the problem starts in the spirit, not in the body. Problems usually begin when a person suffers a shock in life, for example a serious illness or an emotional trauma. The shock causes the person to dissociate from a part of their spirit as a coping mechanism for an overwhelming event; in shamanism, this is called “soul loss”. Once a person has suffered soul loss, they are much less able to protect themselves from the many negative, parasitic and intrusive energies in the world, such as the energy of bullies, needy elders or ghosts. The shaman’s goal is to remove the parasitic energies and restore the power (life force) of the individual which had been lost to trauma, so that the client can ultimately heal themselves.

Healing Protocols

1. Drum or rattle healing

Practitioner drums or rattles around client’s body to assess strength of energy field and to put in healing energy.

2. Retrieval of animal helping spirit (animal spirit guide)

Practitioner goes into trance so as to go into the spirit world and bring back an animal helping spirit for client. This spirit will help the client protect and maintain the strength of their life force.

3. Depossession / Psychopomp

Practitioner talks to a spirit entity which has intruded itself on the client and convinces it to leave, assisting it to cross over to the afterlife. Psychopomp means crossing over the dead.

4. Extraction

Guided by her helping spirits, the practitioner works through the client’s energy field to find and clear areas of negative or intrusive energies. These may be any of the following: difficult people, negative emotions and beliefs, mold/yeast/bacteria/viruses, phobias, poisons.

5. Soul Retrieval

Practitioner journeys for the client to retrieve parts of their soul that have split off and gone to other worlds during a traumatic experience (what psychologists call “dissociating”).

6. Cord Cutting

Practitioner assists client with cutting any “corded” unhealthy attachments to living people. Other people may be draining your power or influencing you, and this procedure helps you to take your power back from them.

7. Curse Unraveling

Practitioner looks for and removes any personal or family / lineage curses afflicting the client and undoes them so that they do no more harm.

8. Chakra Clearing

Practitioner clears energetic debris out of the chakras.

The Philosophy of Shamanism

According to the teachings of many major religions, people were created last, after the animals, plants and the earth, and so are superior and justified in dominating and controlling every living thing, including the environment. Everything is hierarchical, they explain, with people dominating animals, men dominating women, etc. Many who belong to these religions do not even believe that animals have souls, let alone anything else in the world besides humans.

The shamanic view of the world is that, since people were created last, then we are the most ignorant and must respect, honor and learn from our elders—the animals, plants and the earth itself. All other living things are our brothers and sisters (“all our relations”) and all are equal; all have their own intelligence and wisdom, and lessons to teach us humans. Not only animals but even stones, trees, mountains and rivers have their own spirit to be respected and learned from. It is imperative to live in harmony with all living things.

Recommended Reading

Andrews, Ted, Animal Speak (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1993)

Cowan, Tom, Fire in the Head (New York: Harper Collins, 1993)

Dossey, Lary, MD, Be Careful What You Pray For (NY: Harper Collins, 1998)

Eliade, Mircea, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (Princeton University Press, 1964)

Fiore, Edith, The Unquiet Dead (NY: Ballantine, 1987)

Goodman, Felicitas, Where the Spirits Ride the Wind (Indiana Univ. Press, 1990)

Hall, Judy, The Crystal Bible (Cincinnati, OH: Walking Stick Press, 2003)

Harner, Michael, The Way of the Shaman (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1980)

Ingerman, Sandra, Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner’s Guide (Boulder: Sounds True, 2004)

Ingerman, Sandra, Soul Retrieval (NY: Harper Collins, 1991)

Matthews, Caitlin, Psychic Shield (Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press, 2006)

Sarangerel, Chosen by the Spirits (Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 2001)

Tedlock, Barbara, The Woman in the Shaman’s Body (New York: Bantom, 2005)

Wesselman, Hank, The Journey to the Sacred Garden (HayHouse Publishing, 2003)