Healing Techniques of Shamanism
Carolina Warter, MA
What are these healing techniques, exactly?
The shaman journeys with the intention of finding a power animal for the client. The shaman must make sure that what he or she finds is really the client's power animal -- don't go bringing back just any animal! The shaman brings the animal back to ordinary reality and gives it to the client, perhaps by blowing it into the client's body.
It is then the client's responsibility to journey to contact the animal and find out how best to work with the animal.
The shaman makes sure that the client has a support system in place, because strong emotional reactions can accompany or follow soul retrieval. Often the client is asked to have a friend or two present. The shaman makes sure the client is ready for the soul retrieval and is willing to have his or her life change.
Similar to the power animal retrieval, the shaman journeys with the intention of finding the client's lost life essence. The shaman must make sure that the soul parts found are willing to come back to ordinary reality. Sometimes this requires discussion, negotiation, or healing. See Symptoms of Soul Loss.
As with power animal retrieval, the shaman returns with the life essence and gives them to the client. A welcoming ceremony is performed. It is then the client's responsibility to learn how best to work with the retrieved life essence.
Often a shaman will work with a support system of several other shamans or drummers when performing an extraction. Some believe that the extracted energies can enter the shaman's body if the shaman is not well protected, and that noise and chanting will drive the energies away.
The shaman journeys or passes his/her hands over the client's body to detect intrusions. The intrusions may appear to the shaman as foreign objects or unpleasant creatures, or may be hot or cold spots in the client's body.
The shaman, with his/her spirit helpers, removes the intrusions. Often the intrusions are taken (in ordinary or non-ordinary reality) to a nearby body of water to neutralize them. The shaman may then fill the cleansed body with healing energies.
Healing ourselves from these unhealthy patterns often takes years even decades via our traditional psychotherapy and counseling systems. Shamans understand why that is. Traumatic experiences result in soul loss wherein a part of our soul (vital essence that keeps us alive) splits off and leaves the person. In classical shamanism, soul loss often manifested as illness, comas, or near death states and meant that the life force had left the body. Present day shamans are finding that soul loss is a very common occurrence, due to the traumas and abuse patterns of our culture.
Dr. Carlos Warter writes about his history with many shamans and spiritual teachers in
Recovery of the Sacred: Lessons in Soul Awareness
Purchase the book
Want to find out more?
Go to the next page.
Other pages:
Introduction to Shamanism
What is Shamanism?
Shamanic View of Health
Keys to Shamanism
Modern Day Applications
Find out how to heal
onesoulonejourney@yahoo.com with Carolina Warter, MA for Shamanic Healing
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