Shamanic Healing And Connections With The Spirit World

Nowadays, so many people are aware of the importance of mental health. For decades, people have been researching and developing in the field of psychology in order to treat those who are mentally sick. Back in the days, before psychology is being researched, Shamanism as a religion practices healing techniques in a spirituality perspective. Those who perform this treatment with the ability to connect with the spirit world and alter the states of the consciousness are called shamans. They according to a famous American psychologist, Stanley Krippner, are “the first physicians, diagnosticians, psychotherapists, religious functionaries, magicians, performing artists, and storytellers.” (Krippner 72) A shaman is thus this type of healer who alter the states of consciousness to connect with the spirit world for treatments and practices. (“Shamanism.”)

For adults in shamanistic cultures, they are all responsible for their relationships with spiritual energy, and other things related to the spirits. Shamanism values spirits so much that it influence the way of their treatments and practices. For shamans, the sickness of the soul is being seen as the cause of most physical illnesses. Thus, their healing techniques are centered around the healing of spirits. The shamans claim that they can gain power and knowledge from the spirit world that they can connect with through altering their states of consciousness. They possess the ability to enter the alternated states at will and they can control themselves to move in and out of those alterations. They also mediate between the needs of the spirit world and those of the physical world in a way that can be understood and better serve the community. They therefore utilize these power and knowledge to benefit their society and serve the needs of the community. (“Shamanism.”)

Shamanic healing has been practiced, learned, tested and passed down for 30 or 40 thousand years or so of shamanic history. Shamanic healers do not look for any physiological things as factors that causes the illness, instead since shamanism is very sensitive to spirituality and relative aspects that leans towards modern psychological treatments, they look for where the wholeness has been compromised. (“What Is Shamanic Healing.”) They seek for the separation between one’s body and soul, or the loss of one’s power of their soul. This unique approach of shamanic healing makes it somewhat linked to the models of traditional Chinese medicine rather than any Western therapeutic models. However, Shamans and their clients have this Western psychotherapists-client relationship which the practitioner and their patients have a close relationship. The practitioners also empower their patients through various methods. For shamans they would use some methods like pronouncing incantations, singing sacred songs, carrying out symbolic ritual acts, and so on. (Krippner 76) Special choreography of energies are needed for shamans for the healing process along with the diagnosis of both visible and invisible energies at the root of the problem. The shamans would direct and move the energies that shouldn’t be present to heal their patients. (“Shamanism.”) Shamans also has extensive knowledge about local mythological histories which they will utilize during the ritual treatments and ceremonies that they recite the stories to their patients. (“Cross-Culturally Exploring the Concept of Shamanism.”)

Shamanism is also very influential across the globe. Even though there may be some differences in the ritual of the treatment and the ceremony, their perspectives on health and sickness are very similar. It is all centered around spiritual causes, thus all the shamans have methods to cure and protect and attacked soul as they believed that the sickness of the soul often means that there are sorcery of some kind. (“Cross-Culturally Exploring the Concept of Shamanism.”)