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| Adaptation of | ||
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| by Laureen Rama Presented by |
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| Shamanic healing is an ancient and powerful practice that can: |
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| If you are ready, shamanic healing can restore you to who you were before the hurts and trials of life that battered your soul. |
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What is Shamanic Healing? |
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| Shamanic healing is healing at the spiritual level. Essentially it is spiritual reconstruction; bringing back lost parts of our soul and removing spiritual blocks or baggage from our bodies or energy fields. It leaves us lighter and brings us to our full selves; who we were meant to be. Although shamanic healing works with our soul, it generally heals our emotions, our psyches, and our bodies too, because everything is interconnected. Shamanic healing works quickly and powerfully and usually is best performed by a trained and experienced shamanic healer on behalf of the client. When a shaman connects with non-ordinary reality to ask for healing for a client, the healing practices that may be identified are infinite, but three are common: soul retrieval, power animal retrieval, and extraction. |
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Soul Loss. |
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| Sometimes we may separate from a part of our essential self. In contemporary shamanic practice we refer to this as soul loss. This soul loss is usually a healthy natural coping response to trauma e.g: car accident, abusive situation, a job or family in which we cannot be our full selves. When we are traumatized, it is too painful and overwhelming for us to be fully present and aware, so a part of our soul leaves to wait in non-ordinary reality. This state of soul loss is often referred to medically as shock, or psychologically as dissociation. When we are more ready and able to cope, or when we are out of the traumatic situation, the soul part that has left can spontaneously return to us. Often in therapy, or other healing processes, a person has such a strong intention and readiness to heal that they call their own soul home. This is usually marked by breakthroughs in behaviour and thought patterns, renewed energy, and the surfacing of forgotten memories. Sometimes the soul part does not come home on its own, though. This is usually when the traumatic situation has gone on over time, or we become so used to our state that we do not have a strong desire to return to wholeness. When we are adult, significant trauma is often necessary for soul loss to occur. Children are more prone to soul loss because so many things, that may seem trivial to an adult, can be traumatic for a child. Most people I see as clients have had soul loss as children, or in adolescence and early adulthood. |
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Giving and Taking Soul Parts. |
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| Sometimes we experience soul loss because we have given a quality of our essence to someone else, or allowed them to take it. We often give away a quality of our essence (e.g., patience, assertiveness, zest for life) to someone else because we want to help them, or they may want this quality of ours for themselves. No one can make use of our essence but us though, and when it is with another person, they are weighed down and we feel unnaturally connected to them. We may have a feeling of over closeness and neediness that is often labelled as co-dependency. Or we may just think about the other person more often and more intensely than is warranted. |
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Soul Loss Symptoms. |
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| When we have soul loss, we feel something’s missing, we have an emptiness, and we may try to fill it through addictions, compulsive behaviour, taking energy from others, or we may simply become depressed. We may look and act competent on the outside, but feel inadequate or disquieted inside. We may have done much personal growth work at the emotional and psychological level but still feel stuck, like there’s something we can’t get at. |
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Soul Retrieval Healing. |
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| Working at the spiritual level, a shamanic
healer retrieves our soul, finding and returning those lost parts of our
essence. The healer will usually do a shamanic journey to her helping
spirits to ask for healing for the client. In this shamanic journey, the healer will encounter the client's soul parts and may see the traumatic incident(s) that caused the soul loss and/or another person who is holding a soul part. The healer must convince the soul part to return. Usually, as a healer, I will heal the soul part, if needed, before bringing it back. If another person is holding the soul part, the healer must convince that person to let go of the soul part. Ancient shamans used to trick the person and steal the soul back. I find it is more helpful for the long-term relationship between the two people, and for the well-being of the 'soul thief' to use a gentle process of negotiation that usually involves offering healing to the thief so they will be willing to let go. In any soul retrieval healing, the healer may bring back more than one soul part. It is important not to overwhelm the client, though, with too many new qualities of soul. If we are open and ready, soul retrieval changes us instantly and then our work begins in integrating the essential qualities brought back into our lives. We are usually called to change our lives to reflect our wholeness. Everyone in our lives must adjust as well. The focus in follow-up, which is best guided by an experienced shamanic healer, is on using these new inner resources to create a positive future. Further counselling, reading, and calling on a support group can also help us change old habits and behaviours that no longer serve us. Contemporary shamans are pioneering new practices with soul retrieval because in traditional shamanic cultures one would only experience soul loss for a short time before the community would notice and arrange for a soul retrieval healing. We are now discovering new ways to work with people who have had soul loss for tens of years. |
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Power Loss. |
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In shamanic cultures, it is believed that everyone has one or more power animals which are their guardian spirits. These animals are the source of the person’s personal power. Their strengths are like those of that animal. When someone seems dispirited and lacks energy it can be because they have experienced power loss; they have lost connection with one or more of their power animals. This can be because they are not honouring and expressing their strengths as represented by that animal. |
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Power Animal Retrieval. |
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In power animal retrieval, the shaman addresses power loss by reconnecting the person with their power animal. Power animal retrieval can also be done simply to introduce the power animal to someone who may not have known what it was. In soul retrieval healing, a power animal often accompanies a soul part home to assist the person in integrating the qualities of that soul part (e.g., an otter for playfulness, a bear for determination). As a shaman, I find it most powerful for people to journey themselves to initially identify their power animals. I usually only perform power animal retrievals as part of soul retrieval healing. |
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Spiritual Intrusions. |
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Extraction removes ‘spiritual baggage’ that does not belong to us, or blockages we have created in our spiritual energy by not addressing intense emotions. These are called spiritual intrusions, or Energy Blocks. For example; we may be angry at someone and stew on that anger without addressing the situation that made us angry, or without releasing the anger in a healthy way. This creates an angry energy block in our body, usually somewhere in our torso. Then we have a low level of anger almost all the time and are prone to easily becoming angry. If this block is not released, it may grow and over time it will affect our physical health, likely of our internal organs. People can also project these spiritual intrusions into others. For example; if you are angry at someone and ‘let them have it’ energetically by verbal or non-verbal projection, they may pick up and hold that angry energy in their body. We would only pick up and hold these energy blocks if we were energetically vulnerable. In a vulnerable state, we may also pick up free floating energy that could become a block in our body. Vulnerability, in the shamanic view, comes from soul loss or power loss. |
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Extraction. |
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In performing extraction healing, a shamanic healer can remove these spiritual intrusions or energy blocks leaving us feeling lighter and more energetic. Extraction can sometimes effect remarkable healing of physical ailments too. I have had a client with high blood pressure see her blood pressure drop to below normal and stay there for years. Another client had crippling arthritis in her hips and after removing energy blocks, she sat in the lotus position on my couch, and is able to dance and walk freely again. I have had my crooked spine straightened through the removal of energy blocks in my back. |
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Preventing Soul Loss and Spiritual Intrusions. |
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The shamanic view is that poor spiritual health is caused by soul loss, power loss, or spiritual intrusions. Poor spiritual health can, in turn, cause emotional, psychological, or physical challenges. You can prevent soul loss for yourself by creating environments around you that are not traumatic to your soul, that nurture your soul. This means having people in your life at home, in your community relations, and at work, who are kind and supportive. The people in your life should also have good personal boundaries, which means that they will not try to solve your problems for you or invade your space, yet they can be intimate with you. In other words, people who will not try to make up for their lacks by stealing your soul or giving their soul to you. Soulful environments are also aesthetically pleasing, naturally paced, and physically healthy. You can prevent creating soul loss for others by not traumatizing them and not stealing their souls. You can prevent yourself from soul thieving by monitoring and controlling your inner intentions when you are around others. If you find yourself saying “I wish I had his….. (an essential quality like ‘joie de vivre’ or self-confidence)” then change that intention to something like “I sure like his….. (essential quality) and I’m glad he has it so I can enjoy it by being with him. I can learn or create that for myself if I want to.” If you find yourself excessively honouring or admiring others, or excessively helping others with things they could or should do for themselves, you may have a desire to give your soul to them. Again, monitor your inner intention and change it if needed. The best ways to protect yourself from picking up spiritual intrusions are: |
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To prevent yourself from creating spiritual intrusions or energy blocks within your body, do not stew on your emotions and do not suppress them. Allow them to flow through you as children do; laughing one moment, crying the next, and recovering quickly. Address, or let go, of situations that are creating the emotions. If this sounds like an unattainable ideal, it is because much of modern western culture is traumatic for the soul (e.g; fast pace, constant noise) But we can create environments and communities for ourselves that nurture soul, even if just by small steps. And as we do, we contribute to creating a more healthy, soulful world. |
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| Please feel free to share the text of Soul Restore, crediting Laureen Rama as the author. |
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