Soul retrieval – a contemporary therapeutic practice rooted in the 50,000 year old tradition of shamanism – is attracting significant attention in the modern West.
Shamans believe that we are all born with an amount of energy or power, which is enough to sustain us through life. But we can become attached to events or relationships with others (such as ex-lovers) and can give our energy away. Once this energy leaves, it creates a ‘hole’ in our energy field which other energy can enter, which shamans call spirit intrusion. Or our own energy can continue to ‘leak away’, a situation known as soul loss.
In shamanic terms, therefore, illness comes about in two ways:
- The loss of our power when we give away our energy, and
- The entrance into our bodies of other, unhelpful energy
To recover from illness it is necessary to restore the power we have lost. Soul retrieval is the way of doing so.
Soul retrieval usually has three parts:
- The shaman takes a journey for the client to find the soul part they have given away. This is often represented in human form as an image of the client at the time the energy was lost – so the shaman may see the adult client at the age of 6 for example in a situation of stress such as a car accident. The shaman then recovers this energy by holding the child and bringing her back to our reality. He then blows this energy into the client at the stomach and at the head. This returns it to the Energy Body. It sounds strange but it works, as the clients testify.
- The shaman may also guide the client to journey to the soul parts of others that she may be holding on to so they can be released back to their rightful owner.
- The final stage may be for the shaman to guide the client in journeying to the soul parts returned to her during the first meeting. She can ask questions of the soul parts, see any recurring patterns in her life where she is liable to give away her power (in relationships, for example) and help the soul parts themselves to reintegrate.
Many people comment that they feel energy returning to them even as it is blown back into their bodies and most feel better within 2-3 weeks of soul retrieval.
In Western societies it would probably be unique to find someone who had not suffered trauma, injury, neglect or abuse, or given themselves away to others in a dance of power and office politics. We all become more fragmented every day. While physicians treat the body and psychoanalysts deal with the mind, the shamans take care of the soul.
Thank you, Ross, for this article which was in “The Edge” paper in Minneapolis. I found it very interesting, and wrote down, for it seemed very enlightening: “To recover from illness it is necessary to restore the power we have lost.” I believe this is true, and must be acknowledged to speed up recovery, whether or not it is through soul retrieval that one would wish to do it. I also found the article very timely, for tomorrow I am going to a church here in Minneapolis who has a special guest: a shaman from Nepal! I will have to read one of your books someday. Tell me, is “Heaven” your real surname, or did you create it for yourself, for “marketing” purposes? Thanks. Have a good day! Roxie from Minneapolis.