Shaman, a healer of soul wounds

A shaman is a healer of soul wounds. S-he is a human being who is able to travel to the realm of the soul of an individual or a community and heal the deep spiritual wounds of trauma—soul wounds—by retrieving the fragments of soul that have fled trauma to hang out in another realm, draining the host of life energy—Chi. By simple ritual(s) the shaman instills the fragment(s) back into their true home, restoring that energy to the rightful host. This simple description of a remarkably diverse set of healing practices found in virtually every corner of the earth comes to me from two masters of shamanic work here in America: Michael Harner, PhD, author of The Way of the Shaman, and founder of The Foundation for Shamanic Studies www.shamanism.org
and his protégé, Sandra Ingerman, MA, author of Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self.

Sandra grew up in New York City, a chronically depressed New York teenager whose depression disappeared quickly when she went to work with a New York shaman. She was already familiar with Harner’s work, and in one of her deep depressions, a friend reminded her of her familiarity with him, saying (if I remember Sandra’s words correctly, nearly twenty years later), “Sandy you know Michael Harner… for G—d’s sake, go and get your soul back!” She did; she healed; she became active in his organization; and now has her own rich experience to share at www.sandraingerman.com/. I suggest you pay her a visit there to see how broad and rich her shamanic experience has become.

A participant in the Portland (Maine) H.O.P.E. Group that came together in 1987 recommended that I read Harner’s book, because she felt that the work we were doing was soul work and, to her, Harner was a “soul worker”. When I read it, I could see how she made this suggestion… I had a strong sense that a lot of the suffering that we call “disease” had a spiritual component.

That “sense” came from the fact that I was born into a family of medical, spiritual, and social healers, and it was a part of my nature to look at all three of these aspects of healing as having equal importance. Healing was my spiritual call. Allopathic medicine and General Surgery were my professional call. Listening with open heart and mind made it possible for me to get a strong intuitive sense of what lay at the actual root of a physical or mental disease or disorder. Reading Harner’s book helped me to get a much deeper appreciation for that same sense.

In 1991, I signed up for a three day weekend introduction to shamanism under Harner’s direction. He introduced me to the practice of going into an altered state of consciousness to retrieve information that could help answer a question that I might have or another human might have. This practice known as shamanic journeying would lead directly to an experience containing an immediate answer to the question.

I incorporated that process into my surgical practice and my personal life. After four years of experience with this, I received an invitation from Sandra Ingerman to take part in a week–long training in soul retrieval in which I would journey to the other side of the trauma and recover the soul fragment that had kicked out then. She accepted my application, and what a wonderful week that was! I became aware that the nature of the soul was to be an individual bridge between the body–mind that comprised “reality” for the ego and the all–encompassing divine, spiritual Reality.

I have a clear sense that Teilhard de Chardin’s observation, “We are spiritual beings immersed in the human condition,” is the essence of the wondrous Evolution Revolution in which we are learning to participate today. I know that Sandra’s wisdom and lifelong studies powerfully encourage the success of the creative, collaborative revolution in which we currently find ourselves.

If you want to know more about the whole of shamanism in addition to the work of Harner and Ingerman, the Wikipedia article on shamanism is detailed and thorough with plenty more references: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism.

Please join me in taking part in this wonderful revolution. Feel free to share your thoughts by commenting on this blog and/or by communicating directly with me at hope(at)hopehealing(dot)org. Wishing you all good fortune, I thank you for spending this time with me and H.O.P.E.