The International Schoolof Energy Medicine

Imagine yourself sitting in a circle with members of your community. You have gathered together to support one community member who is suffering from a traumatic experience. You know that if one person is suffering and is ill it affects the entire community. So you have come to help hold the space for healing to happen.

It is dark and the stars are shining bright in the night sky. The air is still. Everyone feels held in the loving arms of the universe and there is no doubt that healing will happen for all gathered here.

The shaman begins to drum and move calling the power of the universe to her as she puts her ego self aside and becomes an empty vessel that fills with the help of the spirits.

The person lies quietly in the centre breathing deeply to be in a receptive state to receive back his lost soul; his lost vitality; his own unique energy.

The shaman sings her journey out loud as she tracks down where the soul has fled. And on finding it returns and blows it deeply into the heart of the client filling the entire body with the light of life

There is a great joy for all as one heals all are healed. The community is now whole again and can be in peace and harmony. The work is done.

Shamanism is the oldest spiritual practice known to humankind. We know from the archaeological evidence that shamanism was practiced all over the world for at least 40,000 years. However many anthropologists believe that the practice dates back over 100,000 years.

The word shaman comes from the Tungus tribe in Siberia and means “one who sees in the dark”. Shamanism has been practiced in parts of Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, Greenland, and Native North and South America.

A shaman is a man or woman who interacts directly with spirits to address the spiritual aspects of illness, perform soul retrievals, divine information, help the spirits of deceased people cross over, and perform a variety of ceremonies for the community. Shamans have taken on many roles in tribal communities. They have acted as healing practitioners, doctors, priests, psychotherapists, mystics, and storytellers.

Shamans look at the spiritual form of illness which might manifest on an emotional or physical level. When researching I found that most shamanic cultures around the world believe that illness is due to the loss of the soul (In energetic terms this is a E-stuck or loss of vital energy).

Shaman’s believe that whenever we suffer an emotional or physical trauma a part of our soul flees the body in order to survive the experience. The definition of soul that I am using here is the soul is our essence, life force, the part of our vitality or energy that keeps us alive, thriving and fully present.

The types of trauma that could cause soul loss in our culture would be any kind of abuse sexual, physical, or emotional. Other causes could be an accident, being in a war, being a victim of a terrorist act, acting against our morals, being in a natural disaster (a fire, hurricane, earthquake, tornado, etc.), surgery, addictions, divorce, or death of a loved one.

Any event that causes shock could cause soul loss. The interesting thing is we are all individual and what might cause soul loss in one person might not cause soul loss in another.

It is important to understand that this type of soul loss is sometimes a good thing, it happens to us so we survive the overwhelming pain. If I was going to be in a head on car collision the last place that I would want to be at the point of impact is in my body. My psyche could not endure that kind of pain. So our psyches have this brilliant self-protect mechanism where a part of our essence or soul leaves the body so that we do not feel the full impact of the pain and trauma.

In psychology we call this disassociation. But in psychology we don’t talk about what disassociates and where that part goes. In shamanism we understand that a piece of the soul leaves the body and goes to a territory in what shamans call non ordinary reality where it waits until someone intervenes in the spiritual realms and facilitates its return.

Although soul loss is a survival mechanism the problem from a shamanic point of view is that the soul part that left usually does not come back on its own. The soul might be lost, or used by another person, or doesn’t know the trauma has passed and it is safe to return.

If you would like to know more about this work and soul retrievals, please read tomorrow blog

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