shamanic healing

 by Judy Liu Ramsey

INTRODUCTION

I began my shamanic practice through working with the animals. As an animal communicator, I wanted to offer remote support for healing. I needed a resource that I could do over distances since I do much of my communication over the phone. God works in mysterious ways. When I was recovering from a serious back injury (thrown from my horse), I listened to workshops provided online by the Animal Spirit Network (now Heart 2 Heart With Animals). Through the archival workshops, I discovered Carla Meeske, a shamanic practitioner who specializes in shamanic work with animals. I apprenticed for one year with Carla, who is now a good friend and mentor.
Over the following six years, I was trained by Sandra Ingerman, Tom Cowan, Kate Durda and Stephanie Tighe, and others in the American shamanic community. I am presently a shamanic teacher with Sandra Ingerman’s shamanicteachers.com and teach not only Sandra’s courses, but also Shamanic Animal Healing.

WHAT IS SHAMANIC HEALING?

Shamanic practitioners believe that everything - people, animals, plants, the Earth and its minerals - has a spirit. When something happens to that spirit through trauma or life circumstances, there is soul sickness that expresses itself through the physical body and mind. Shamanic healing addresses the spiritual aspect of an illness or injury. The practitioner acts as a bridge between this world, Ordinary Reality (OR), and the spirit world of Non-Ordinary Reality (NOR) where compassionate spirits provide healing. As a witness to the healing performed by these compassionate ones, the practitioner brings through energy, communication, and strategies to further the healing of a person or animal.

My shamanic practice allows me to see with my heart. It is all about what an open, loving heart can do to provide support to the spiritual side of healing, both for animals and for people. Animals are particularly responsive, because they live mostly in spirit. 

HOW DOES IT WORK?

We begin with your strong intention to heal whatever you concerns you at this moment in your life. To do shamanic healing, I enter what is called a shamanic state of consciousness, a trance-like state similar to deep meditation, and connect with my compassionate helping spirits who love me and who want to help me help the animal or person. This state is not difficult to achieve but usually involves some training. While in a shamanic state of consciousness, my “connected self” is able to move about and reach out to the “connected selves” of other beings, including compassionate helping spirits and teachers who can tell/show me directly what may be happening with a particular animal, person, or situation. I use these terms because they best describe the phenomena of this experience. This process of interaction is called a “journey”, and is similar to an active dream state.

Animals are particularly responsive to shamanic healing, because they mostly live in their spirit, which is connected to all that is. They consider their bodies as vessels for spirit, which enables them to communicate telepathically, to live in the present moment, and to leave their bodies at will to manage pain. As humans, most of us are focused on our body’s physical or mental functions, so making our minds still to connect with spirit may offer some challenges. In-person, as well as remote, shamanic healing can be very beneficial to people suffering from anxiety disorders, PTSD, depression, and trauma or abuse.

WHAT CAN SHAMANIC HEALING DO?

From a shamanic perspective, there are three main causes of illness: power loss, fear, and soul loss. Loss of personal power may occur when life situations create disharmony, such as loos of home, partner or purpose. When chaos is present, both humans and animals exhibit behavioral issues like aggression, separation anxiety or depression. Prolonged fear destroys one’s sense of well-being, safety and balance, the foundation for a healthy immune system. Chronic illness may appear as the immune system becomes vulnerable to disease. Soul loss happens during trauma or abuse, when the event is so overwhelming that a part of the spirit leaves so that the rest of the spirit and the body can survive. That part takes with it those qualities that need to move to safety or be destroyed. The person or animal begins to dissociate.

It is unusual for an animal or person to experience only one of these sources of illness. The three causes are sometimes indistinguishable. Frequently one state includes aspects of the others. My helping spirits prioritize both the sources of illness and the healing elements. Some frequently used shamanic healing methods include extraction, power retrieval, soul retrieval and spiritual healing, and psycho-pomp.

EXTRACTION OF SPIRITUAL INTRUSIONS

When personal power is lost, energy that is not associated with the person’s/animal’s highest good called an intrusion, may be present. Intrusions can come in as negative thought processes or words from others, or sometimes sensitive persons, children, or animals try to help ones they love by taking on their excess fears and anxiety. In shamanic practice, I work with my compassionate spirits to extract that energy, move it to a neutral place where it can contribute to wellness instead of harm, and replace it with energy that is to person’s/animal’s highest good. Clients generally experience a heightened sense of well-being, more physical energy and confidence, as well as a joyful demeanor.

POWER RETRIEVAL

Power retrieval can take many forms. Sometimes it is done within the context of a healing story, and at other times it is more directly given by my spirit allies. A shamanic practitioner can work with elements, landscapes, and/or nature spirits to retrieve power for the client. It is different each time for each client. When fear has been prevalent, the compassionate spirits may provide a “dismemberment”, which purges the fear and its effects, essentially taking apart old patterns and putting the spirit back together like new. It feels better than it sounds.

Power animals are animal spirits that protect and guide those with whom they are allied. Everyone has power animal allies that have been with them a lifetime, and can be revealed and retrieved through ceremony. Once a power animal is retrieved, that protection and guidance can provide security for a lifetime.

SOUL RETRIEVAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALING

A traumatic experience can make us lose touch with the vital essence we brought with us into our human life, leaving us feeling exhausted, lost, and without a strong connection to our soul’s purpose and path. The most serious power loss is soul loss when traumatic circumstances lead to dissociation. While this dissociation makes it easier for the animal/person to survive trauma such as accidents or abuse, it often results in loss of memory, a feeling of incompleteness, lack of energy, and/or behavioral and health issues.

Once the traumatic event is over, complete healing can occur when the missing soul part(s) is returned. I journey into non-ordinary reality and, with the help of spirit allies, find the missing soul part and bring it back home. The return of the soul is often accompanied by a healing story. This is followed by a period of integration to heal the old wounds. 

Frequently, the compassionate spirits give instructions, like a prescription, to support healing. To assist with integration and healing, they may recommend strategies and actions that seem silly. In shamanic practice, the sillier the remedy, the more powerful it is. The remedy may not be what you expect, but it will always be to your highest good. I never know what the spirits will recommend, so sometimes, I learn as much as the client! People report feeling ‘whole’ again, with curiosity and trust restored, as well as joy and courage to move forward. Animals frequently exhibit radical behavioral changes.

Once the ceremony is complete, it can take up to a month to feel the full effects of the healing. In shaman’s terms, “I give you the cure - the healing is up to you.” I may teach you how to journey for yourself or to transfigure, being in your heart’s light, to help you support yourself for life. I will give you exercises which will strengthen your spirit, and you will leave with tools to reinforce your intentions.

PSYCHOpOMP

The word psychopomp is derived from the Greek meaning “guide of souls”. Sometimes the soul of a deceased animal or person becomes confused, disoriented, or stuck and cannot find its way to its tribe, to its people, to the other side. Sudden, traumatic death can cause this disorientation. The spirit stays with the body or within ordinary reality, without moving on. For example, animals killed suddenly by cars frequently are unaware they are no longer in their bodies. A person who has co-opted another’s spirit through abuse will not completely cross over until those soul pieces are released and returned to whom they belong. A shamanic practitioner can help to navigate these situations, escorting the soul to where it needs to be, returning balance to both the deceased individual and to any living person who may be involved.

Resources:

The Way of the Shaman, Michael Harner, Harper Collins, San Francisco, 1980.
Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self, Sandra Ingerman, Harper Collins,  San Francisco, 1991. Welcome Home, Sandra Ingerman, Harper Collins, San Francisco, 1993.
Walking In Light, Sandra Ingerman, Sounds True, Boulder, CO., 2014.