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 SHAMANIC HEALING

What is it?
DEFINITION AND EXPLANATION OF SHAMANIC HEALING
Shamanic Healing, or "shamanism," comes from a Siberian tribal word for its healers, called shamans (pronounced SHAH-mahns). Shamans have existed in many cultures throughout human history.  The Modern day practice of shamanism is sometimes referred to as "Urban Shamanism." 

Shamanic healers are men or women who use the ability to see “with the strong eye” or “with the heart” to travel into hidden realms. The shaman interacts directly with spirits to address the spiritual aspect of illness. By doing this he or she can perform soul retrievals, recover lost power, as well as remove spiritual blockages. Shamans can fulfill roles such as healing practitioners, doctors, priests and priestesses, psychotherapists, mystics, and storytellers.

What is it used for?
WHAT CONDITIONS DOES SHAMANIC HEALING HELP?
There are three common causes of illness among the living that shamans typically work with:

1. Loss of one's personal power:  Loss of power can result in illnesses, depressed mood, or a variety of negative occurrences.  The shaman journeys to obtain the individual’s lost power.

2. Soul Loss:  A person may have experienced an emotional or physical trauma and lost part of their soul or essence in the process.  It may be due to an accident, surgery, abuse, war, natural disaster, divorce, the death of loved one, or other traumatic circumstances.  Soul loss can lead to dissociation, post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression, illness, immune deficiency problems, addictions, unending grief, or coma.  The shaman can conduct a ceremony in an attempt to locate the missing parts.  

3. Spiritual blockages:  This is a complication associated with the loss of either power or soul. Since spiritual blockages can lead to illness, particularly in a specific area of the body, the shaman may work to remove these negative energies from the body.

Where did it come from?
HISTORY OF SHAMANIC HEALING
Shamanic healing practices may date from the time of the earliest known Paleolithic drawings, created some 30,000 years ago by our hunting ancestors. Drawings depict humans wearing animal masks, suggestive of shamanic practices. Eighteenth-century anthropologists and travelers also documented encountering shamans in throughout Siberia, Lapland, Tibet, and Mongolia.

Historically shamans took part in the work, play and cultural activities of their community often using these for healing purposes, especially art, song, dance and ritual. Shamans were rewarded for their efforts with items or services appropriate to the local economy.

Shamanic healing practices continue today in cultures that obtain sustenance through hunting and gathering.  Agricultural societies seem less inclined toward this system because of their more institutionalized forms of religion. In our own times, shamans have been widely persecuted and their activities suppressed by secular governments and by established religions; yet due to its adaptable nature, shamanic healing persists even in complex modern urban societies.  

Although outside observers have been suspicious of shamanic healers, within their own cultures shamans are viewed as having extraordinary insight into the cosmic processes governing health, food supply, and fertility.

Shamans are often involved with dark and potentially harmful issues, such as sickness, evil intentions, and death.  After long apprenticeship with an elder teacher, shamans typically undergo a frightening or painful initiation before being entrusted with the responsibility of keeping harmony and balance between humankind and the forces of nature. 

What is it based on?
THEORY OF SHAMANIC HEALING
Shamanism teaches that everything existing is alive, interconnected, and imbued with spirit. Shamans believe in an interconnection of all living things and a spirit that dwells within them.  Any belief that we are separate is purely an illusion.  The two most common types of spirits who work in partnership with the shaman are power animals and teachers in human form such as gods, goddesses and ancestors.

There are three levels of reality that are commonly associated with Shamanic Healing: the Lower World, Middle World, and Upper World. Both Lower and Upper Worlds have numerous levels and are outside of time.  All three have helping and compassionate spirits who offer their guidance to the shaman on behalf of all life on earth. 

Because shamanic healing is an experience of direct revelation, there is no consensus about these worlds, but generally they are portrayed in art and legend as follows:
The Lower World exists within the earth and is accessed by tunnel. This world is very tangible and is characterized by familiar landscapes such as forests or caves. The spirits here are of animals, trees, plants, and rocks as well as human spirits that are connected with the mysteries of the earth.
The Upper World is experienced as more ethereal with lighting that can go from pastels, to gray, to complete darkness.  The landscape here may appear as crystal or cloud cities. This level also contains a variety of spirits.
The Middle World is the parallel hidden reality of our everyday world wherein the shaman is able to travel back and forth through time. It is also a place where lost and stolen objects are sought.  While in the Middle World the shaman may communicate with the spirit that inhabits all living things.

How is it done?
WHAT IS A SHAMANIC HEALING CEREMONY LIKE?
Shamans perform a number of ceremonies.  They welcome children into the world, perform marriages, and help people transition to a good place before dying. They lead ceremonies to mourn a death or mark milestones such as initiation into adulthood, and perhaps most notably, they perform healing ceremonies. Shamans are practiced in providing healing for the living as well as those who have died.  For the deceased, the shaman performs rituals to guide the spirit to a pleasant, peaceful place.

A healing ceremony will vary greatly among practitioners. Each shaman applies his or her healing protocols as they have been passed down, generation to generation, teacher to teacher. From this lineage, each shaman establishes their own personal healing ceremony format.

One of the many healing ceremonies a shaman may performs is called a shamanic journey. Typically shamans will use some form of percussion, especially drumming or rattling, to go into a trancelike state that allows the soul of the shaman to travels outside of time into hidden realms often termed "non-ordinary realities." From these realms he or she receives guidance or information that is specific to the healing of the client. 

Who does it?
SHAMANIC HEALING PRACTITIONERS
Shamanic healers do not have formal professional organizations, but many respected teachers from numerous traditions continue to train practitioners in this ancient tradition.