Care
for the soul dates back 40,000 years but Western medicine ignores it
Shamanic
Healing and Soul Retrieval
by Jan Engles
Smith
Learning about
shamanic healing practices and soul retrieval became imperative for
me. Through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, I contacted Sandra
Ingerman, the author of Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self.
Sandra Ingerman is responsible for bringing the concept, the
training, and the healing potential of soul retrieval to the
American public. I strongly felt that I needed to have a soul
retrieval, and the information about journeying stimulated wisdom
that already resided in my soul. I remembered lifetimes of being a
healer, and my knowledge from previous lifetimes became available to
me again. I not only reevaluated my counseling practice, I
reevaluated my understanding of the concepts of God, Spirits,
possibilities, other realities-the meaning of life!
Shamanism is
an ancient healing art, dating back at least 40,000 years. It was
used by most indigenous cultures in the world. It is a healing
method that emphasizes that all experiences affect your soul and
that all healing comes through the soul. In shamanic cultures, the
care of the soul is extremely important. In fact, it is the most
important aspect of healing. The shamanic belief is that a human
being is first and foremost a soul having a human experience, not
the other way around. If the soul is cared for properly, or is
healed through the process of soul retrieval, other healings can
then manifest in the mental, emotional, and physical bodies of an
individual person.
In our Western
culture, we have doctors who specialize in everything imaginable
except for the soul. To me, this care of the soul is the missing
link in healing. The soul must be cared for first. Fortunately, this
is beginning to be understood in our Western culture and more people
are seeking out individuals such as shamans for their individual
healing.
Shamanically
speaking, all things are energy. The movement, or the transmutation,
of energy is part of the healing of the soul, which is itself,
energy. In a healing, the shaman moves out the energy that does not
belong to a person and refills him/her with the divine energy that
is the essence of that person's true soul. The theory behind soul
retrieval is that there is soul loss when an individual experiences
powerful or traumatic situations. Ingerman states that, "whenever we
experience trauma, a part of our vital essence separates from us in
order to survive the experience by escaping the full impact of the
pain" (Soul Retrieval, Ingerman, p. 11).
Through
individual experiences, usually some sort of trauma, a person loses
part of himself. In shamanic terms, this process is called "soul
loss." In psychology, it is called "disassociation." Basically, it
is a survival mechanism to withstand the pain of the situation. What
psychology does not ask is where the lost part goes and how one gets
it back. In the practice of shamanism, when a piece of the soul or
energy leaves, it actually goes into another reality and is lost
from the person. A void then exists in that person's soul. Think of
the soul as a giant jigsaw puzzle. When you experience a trauma, a
piece of the puzzle is lost, leaving an empty space in the puzzle.
When this soul loss occurs, a soul retrieval is necessary to restore
wholeness. In a process called journeying, a shaman is trained to
enter an altered state of consciousness and travel into different
realities to find and retrieve the lost soul parts. The shaman then
literally blows these parts back into the client via the heart and
the top of the head, restoring wholeness to the client.
The voids
created by soul loss can actually fill up with energy that is
foreign to the soul. This can manifest into all kinds of diseases or
physical, mental, or emotional problems. According to shamanic
definition, the soul is perfect and divine, and life should reflect
this. If a person is not experiencing happiness, or if there are
physical, emotional, or mental problems apparent within a person,
then evidence exists that there is not only soul loss but also an
intruding negative energy. Extracting this negative energy and
restoring the soul through the process of a soul retrieval thus
promotes feelings of wholeness and happiness. One of the ways that
indigenous people realized a soul retrieval was needed was when a
person had stopped singing. With the restoration of the soul's
wholeness, the person would sing again.
In a shamanic
culture, care of the soul is part of daily existence. I believe that
is why these cultures are notably contented, happy, and crime-free.
People who are whole or feel good about themselves handle the ups
and downs of life in a wholesome way. When people feel fearful,
threatened, or fragmented, their responses to life are extremely
different from those who feel trustful, optimistic, whole, and
complete. In our culture, we have very little experience with
sustaining trust and optimism. Our cultural system is based on a
win-lose hierarchy. Someone is always gaining while another is
losing. In shamanic cultures this win/lose phenomenon is seen as
soul stealing, or stealing away someone's personal power.
Many people
purposely steal personal power from others. A person can be the
victim of this theft at any stage of life, but it often happens to
children, especially if they are raised with authoritarian,
controlling, or needy parents. The parents actually steal power away
from their children. If a person is abused in any way, emotionally,
physically, sexually, or mentally, there is a resultant exchange of
power. The overpowered loses energy to the abuser. Children are easy
targets to control and extremely vulnerable to soul stealing. The
resultant soul loss leaves a void that is filled by negative energy
(usually feelings of unworthiness) and the individual carries this
energy for a lifetime, or until the lost soul parts can be
retrieved. If there is no care of the soul built into the culture's
system, the result is a society of wounded people. Feelings of
unworthiness can lead to all sorts of dysfunctional behaviors and
attitudes that predominate in society. These feelings of lack can
take generations to heal, but once the patterns are recognized
efforts can be made toward healing. I have found in my own research
that the core counseling issue for most people is the issue of
unworthiness. People need to be genuinely loved and connected to a
higher power. Once soul theft occurs, an effort must be made to
recover it.
People also
give away their power trying to find love or acceptance. Women have
been taught to give away their personal power to the male gender.
Cultural and family mores often create hierarchical gender
structures, which establish male dominance. The result is socially
reinforced losses of personal power for a false sense of social
order. A country-western song like "Stand by Your Man" is an example
of a gender-based system of control that suggests "appropriate"
positions of power in relationships. Other examples of this belief
system abound in our culture, but in true love and acceptance one
does not give away one's soul. The void caused by engaging in this
behavior can have extremely adverse effects.
About the
author: Jan promotes self-healing, empowerment, better communities,
a healthier world and conducts workshops for shamanism and
journeying. Her book, Becoming Yourself is at
http://www.janengelssmith.com . A Shaman, Jan has done two
thousand soul retrievals. She is a water pourer, a pipe carrier, a
minister, a shamanic Practitioner, a Reiki Master, a Licensed
Counselor, a Chemical Dependency Specialist, and an MFT.
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