In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The earth was without form and void and darkness covered the abyss
and the spirit of God hovered over the water.
God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light.
Old Testament, Genesis
Shamans know that the origin of all that exists is always a thought.
Shamans are not sorcerers, they are real men and women that can get in the states of higher consciousness, and are able to perceive and communicate in ways not possible under normal conditions.
Through a challenging training, shamans are able to lead the high awareness during what were they separate the physical body and make journeys in their inner world not affected by the weather.
The shaman makes a very clear distinction between the medicine of the body and that of the spirit and sees them as complementary. If a man comes home with an arrow in the foot, it is not the time to go into a trance.
It is time to remove the arrow from the wound to stop the bleeding, prevent infection and promote healing. It’s ‘time for the medicine of the body and shamanic communities know so many things on this subject too.
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To cope with the disease, the traditional shaman shows a lot of attention to the relationship between cause and effect. We know that during the life, the physical body, suffers several transformations. The body gets sick from viruses, there are accidents, we have bruises, cuts, wounds and even broken bones sometimes.
Sometimes we suffer from serious injury or some serious internal diseases – cancer, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, hepatitis – and, eventually, we get to aging, deformities and death of the physical body.
In the shamanic point of view these are just effects. For true healing, it is not enough to only treat the effects and suppress the symptoms with medication. We must address the root causes.
In terms of the shaman, there are three classic causes of the disease, which, not surprisingly, are not bacteria, microbes or viruses, but rather the internal states.
1. DISHARMONY
The first cause is the disharmony, which happens when men lose a relationship important for them in life, or when they are devoid of the sense of belonging. For example disharmony occurs when, for an elderly couple suddenly one of them dies.
It often happens that in a year and a half, the other becomes ill with something as serious as cancer and dies. The disharmony produces a decrease of the personal power which, in turn, makes us vulnerable to diseases.
2. FEAR
The second cause is fear. A person who has a chronic fear is off inside, is vulnerable to disease, because fear diminishes the operating ability of the immune system. Doctors also know that fear and disharmony occur in diseases and are recognized by modern science.
3. LOSING THE SOUL
And the third leading cause is soul loss.
Here it is an interesting thing. From the shamanic point of view, the soul loss is the most serious diagnosis, is the cause of the most important diseases and premature deaths.
However, in the treaties of traditional medicine there is no reference to this aspect.
What is soul loss? The soul loss implies a serious wound to the inner heart of a person – his inner essence, to who he is and what he is. Usually, the wound is the result of the fragmentation of its essence.
In our culture, the loss of the soul is often associated with trauma.
For example, a child who has been pushed to school without pity or been harassed by a person who should care about him. The soul loss occurs as a result of abuse, as in the case of rape or assault.
Soul loss can occur as a result of a betrayal, a bitter divorce, a traumatic miscarriage, a terrible car accident, or even surgery. Many of the young people who went to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan, have returned traumatized because they have suffered terrible soul loss.
Unfortunately, the Western doctors do not have much to offer in terms of true healing and many of them are still traumatized by what has been successful.
The symptoms of soul loss are:
The feeling that you are fragmented, that you’re not completely there, the inability to feel or receive love, memory block, when a person is not able to remember parts of his life.
The installation of a sudden apathy and indifference, lack of joy, initiative, or the inability to feel joy, or even the predisposition to suicide or addictions. Losses in core pieces often manifest as sadness and despair, which induce the classic symptoms of blood loss – depression.
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From the traditional point of view, the disease is seen as an intrusion – something that enters the body from the outside, and that does not belong to the body. This is true when it comes to a virus, an arrow or a form of negative thinking. The most important problem is the loss of power or loss of a part of the soul, which allowed the disease to enter and manifest itself in the body. This is the problem and it is here where the shaman plays his best part.
In accordance with the shamanic tradition, healing takes place in stages.
The first stage involves what might be called the increase in power, a process during which the shaman gives more power to the patient.
The second stage is to diagnose the problem, discovering the cause and feeling its effect on the patient’s body.
The third stage involves the own healing process.
The fourth stage is critical. This is the practice of the lost soul retrieval.