Shamanism

Rattles, wansak, and sweetgrass as tools of shamanism for healing and ceremony

What is Shamanism?

Shamanism has been practiced by cultures all over the world for centuries to heal members of a tribe, provide insight into the location of food sources, ease the suffering of the dying and help facilitate their crossing over, and provide counsel and insight to tribal leaders. Even though disparate cultures throughout the world may have had no contact with one another, there are striking similarities among them in regards to their contact with the spirit world and techniques that are used to ease the suffering of both the deceased and the living. These techniques may include singing, rattling, drumming, dancing, prayer, vision plants and other herbs, and advice garnered from the spirit world on behalf of the client or patient.

Shamanism Today

Ancient cultures and their beliefs might seem far removed from our current urbanized societies, but they’re really not. Below the surface are connections to an immense system of consciousness that integrates with the spirit and angelic realm. This realm has answers to our most profound questions and assists in healing at the deepest levels.

The tools for access are simple, yet powerful, and a practitioner relies on an established and nurtured relationship with these allies to garner their assistance. Intuition, presence, and focus are cultivated over time to enable the practitioner the proper skill set to maintain integrity during engagement with this realm. It is thru lack of ego and the desire to heal that these spirits come thru to help us. They are always benevolent, compassionate and loving, and it is this foundation that enables the healing that takes place for all who come to this work.

Shamanism for You

Not all healing sessions work explicitly with this realm or in this fashion. I always call on the healers that I work with from this realm to assist me with the work I’m doing for others. They help me to get out of the way where I can be the hollow bone or vehicle for their assistance, but also aid me in accessing information that’s crucial to my client’s needs, much of which comes from my studies as a practicing healer, though I do not lay claim to doing the actual healing. I’m just the facilitator for the spirits to assist you in your own healing, whatever that looks like for you in your unique situation.

If a shamanic session is specifically called for, it may be of a particular nature that I will give briefs highlights on in case you might feel a calling to one:

Soul Retrieval

The need for soul retrieval is static and arises mostly due to traumatic experiences that occur in our lives. Conceptually, the soul is likened to the personality, especially as it relates to both male and female qualities and aspirations, as noted by Carl Jung. However, I feel that it can go deeper than that, into the realm of psyche, or all of the conscious functionality of a person. When an encounter with a situation that touches us at a deep, emotional level occurs, part of the soul or of the psyche fragments as if to avoid the situation to protect itself. If it does not reintegrate, it remains hidden from the person. This fragment could contain an essential part of the person’s overall personality, so the result is a person going day-to-day thru life without this part of themselves. Because this results in an ensuing void, the person may attempt to fill this void with habits such as drugs, alcohol, over-eating, or other unhealthy patterns.

My role is to help the client retrieve these soul fragments and provide them with tools to help them reintegrate these long lost parts of self, and establish new healthy patterns to live by and promote long-term healing for the personality. A great book on Soul Retrieval was written by Sandra Ingerman years ago if you’d like to read more about this fascinating subject. Alberto Villoldo has another great book on the subject, Mending The Past & Healing The Future With Soul Retrieval.

Extraction

Extraction is probably one of the oldest and most enduring of all shamanic techniques and is something that often happens in the background of many of my sessions. It involves finding the source of an energy blockage, belief, or consciousness in the body or one of the energetic fields that permeate and surround the body, removing it, and filling it with love and light. Sometimes this is done with a shamanic ritual, but many times it’s just done energetically, and sometimes with Hypnotherapy.

Entity Transference (Depossession)

There are many names for this method of removing a discarnate being or thought-form from a living person: Exorcism, Depossession, Compassionate Spirit Release, Entity Release, Compassionate Depossession, Spirit Release, coined by different people. I’m calling this Entity Transference because my methods include many approaches because it’s not a one-size-fits-all world. Not one technique works in every situation, and one must develop their own way of working in this realm because, to be frank, it’s a bit strange. When a transference of a deceased person or a thought-form takes place, the results are unmistakeable, but I still am humble enough to be astonished at it.

Many people’s imaginations jump to “The Exorcist” and fantasize about demons and fallen angels taking over our bodies and causing havoc in small villages. The reality of what’s going on with discarnate beings is completely different than you might expect. Many people who die do not find their way back to the other side immediately. Much of this has to do with trauma or unfinished business in life during the time of death. Although there are angels and other beings helping to facilitate our crossing over, if the soul doesn’t want to go, it can’t be forced. It may take up residence in another person’s body, barely living off the energy of that person, while trying to deal with it’s amnesia and seeking to fulfill its desires. I’m not saying that all beings are helpless and nice. That’s far from the truth. But in most cases, forcing a being out of someone’s body is a horrible experience for everyone involved. There are much healthier ways to deal with these situations.

The process of connecting to the discarnate being is gentle yet firm. There is no thrashing about, spitting soup, or furniture being turned upside-down. I come to the situation with love and understanding and with the assistance of the spirit and angelic realm, assist the suffering being to realize where it is and what it’s doing, and facilitate its return to the light. This process is a combination of Hypnotherapy and Shamanism. In the case of invading thought-forms, the process is simple and rather uneventful using BodyTalk, BioGeometry or other energetic methods.

Symptoms of Entity Occupation

The person that the suffering being is inhabiting, depending on their spiritual immunity and physical health, may experience unconscious desires for things or situations that seem outside of their normal functioning. They may have unhealthy cravings, find inexplicable repugnance toward persons or places for no apparent reason, feel dark or foreboding emotions that arise seemingly out of nowhere, or have fears or anxieties that plague them. It could also result in physical symptoms of pain, repetitive injuries to areas of the body, or maladies that won’t heal.

Pacific Sunset

Curse Unraveling

Curses can range from you having a screaming match with your sibling when you’re young and wishing ill upon them, to ancient spells put upon an ancestor by a dark magic practitioner. When a curse or spell has been placed upon someone with enough intention and emotion, it can act like a piece of gum on your shoe, constantly sticking to everything they walk upon, even leaving residue wherever you go. It’s like a dark cloud following them, bringing with it bad luck, accidents, arguments, and poor outcomes from situations.

Many people don’t understand the nature of curses. You have to resonate with the curse for it to take effect. Simply raising your vibration to a state of gratitude and joy will break the relationship to the curse. Sometimes, more steps are necessary, but many people don’t want to acknowledge their role in the curse. Often, when I give instructions to someone about why the curse is overcoming them and what they need to do about it, they throw it off, suggesting that they’re the victim. It’s the victim consciousness itself that perpetuates the curse.

Psychopomp

A psychopomp is a being that helps people cross over from death to the light. This is not something I studied with anyone. When my grandfather died in 1996, I was deep in prayer for him, when I became aware that I was “with” him. He was communicating to me that he didn’t know where he needed to be. I spent 11 consecutive days with him until he “finished” what he needed to do and I helped him get back to the light. I don’t even know how I knew to do this or where it came from, but over the years, I’ve helped many discarnate beings find their way back, including animals. Sometimes it happens very randomly at unspecified locations, and sometimes it’s deliberate when a client feels like someone they know and love is hanging on to them and needs to move on. Sometimes beings find me because I have my shingle out, so to speak. With other shamanic techniques I’ve learned over the years, I’ve enhanced my abilities to work in this way so that it no longer takes 11 days, but each case is unique.

This work combines itself with Entity Transference because most beings that are taking up residence in other people’s bodies are actually deceased people that in spirit form haven’t finished their transition to the light.

Cord Cutting

We often develop attachments with others, or the energetic equivalent of what quantum physicists would call entanglements. When we share deep experiences with others where our lives are greatly affected by the interaction and there’s emotional involvement, we can become entangled with the energy of the other person or group. This can lead to a semi-permanent energetic association that until broken, may control either or both parties and lead to a lack of energetic freedom and/or a loss of free will. Breaking these bonds or cords can alleviate much suffering and return someone to energetic autonomy.

What Else?

If you’d like to read a good abstract on shamanism, read Sandra Ingerman’s. Shamanic practitioners have their own styles, beliefs, and understandings of the work they do. I believe that traditional shamanic techniques that were used by indigenous cultures have a place for those cultures, but to address this age of industrialized society in a shamanic way is a different experience than it would be for a culture of more remote and unspoiled origin. I bring into my healing sessions my personal history and experience, coupled with other techniques that I’ve learned and used along the way for my own healing, to bridge this shamanic gap in the best way that I understand it at this time, which hopefully is always evolving.

Teachers I’d Like to Honor

The methods that I’ve described above have been learned in person with different teachers of great quality. I’ve taken what I’ve learned from these teachers and refined them into my own techniques, individualizing them as is necessary in working with different spirit guides and healers. Not all of these teachers would identify with being shamans or shamanic practitioners, but “shamanism” is just a word to describe our work with spirit.

I’d like to thank Georgia Lambert, Jan Engels-Smith, Betsy Bergstrom, Dr. Lauri Shainsky, Corky Whitacre,
Jose Luiz Herrera, Dr. Lauri Shainsky, Tom Kenyon, and Drunvalo Melchizadek.

As a shamanic practitioner, I serve but am not limited to the following areas in California: Campbell, Los Gatos, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Aptos, Cupertino, Capitola, Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Mountain View, Redwood City, Palo Alto, and Los Altos.

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