SENTIENT TIMES Feb/Mar 2003

Shamanism and Psychology Join Forces

By Jeannette M. Gagan, PhD

Prior to my having any familiarity with shamanic journeying, I noticed some of my clients, while in a hypnotic trance or during relaxation and imagery exercises, encountered animals and/or spirit beings that helped them in calming and supportive ways. I eventually discovered that a shaman’s “journey” to other realms, and their connecting with spirit beings to acquire needed power and information for healing, is not unlike the individual sitting in the psychotherapist’s office guided into an altered state of consciousness to access her own healing resources. As I puzzled over the symbology of these figures which would appear to my clients, little did I know the world I was formally being introduced to was one I had experienced frequently in my life in more informal ways. As a child I spent many hours sitting next to a creek where the pain of emotional disconnection from my family gave way to a sense of well being. I couldn’t have said it then, but Mother Nature was nurturing me.

My experience was, and is not singular. Why, on late Friday afternoons, is the city exodus of campers, SUVs, trucks towing boats and the like to nearby woods, mountains, lakes and rivers such an ongoing parade? It’s because our connection to nature is primal and on both conscious and unconscious levels we are compelled to seek it out, even in the way we mount replicas of natural scenes on our walls or gaze at the sky from our office windows.

When nature eases our hurts, soothes our souls, and revitalizes our spirits, we are doing what the earliest shamans did, who out of necessity fine-tuned their connection with nature for survival and growth. Mircea Eliade, the religious historian who wrote the classic text on shamanism, shows us how this oldest healing tradition known to humankind exists worldwide. No matter where we live or what our genealogy, our roots are traceable to shamanic origins. Perhaps to the surprise of those with European ancestry, the oldest evidence of shamanism is found in two caves in France: the Lascaux cave which dates back 17,000 years and the more recently discovered Chauvet cave thought to be over 32,000 years old. Here on the walls of the caves are detailed drawings depicting shamanic activity with outlines of animals said to be imbued with power.

Carl Jung, the great 20th century psychologist, told us that this form of healing is embedded deep in our psyches and speaks to us through specific archetypes, archetypes being symbols of themes or patterns that are activated by life events. When we experience Mom as caring we experience the “good mother” archetype and when she is impatient and snappy, the “bad mother” archetype rears her homely head. And when we embark on a hike with all the tension of the week reverberating through our bones only to later emerge from the trail feeling relaxed and rejuvenated, some form of healing archetype has manifested and casts its influential spell.

Being in nature alters our consciousness. Something inside us shifts and energy begins moving differently through us catalyzing the release of tension. Our minds and bodies know how to do this naturally with both shamanism and psychology tapping into this facility in the most therapeutic of ways. In the psycho-therapeutic arena, as noted above, hypnotic trances and imagery exercises unveil healing symbols. Shamanic journeying with its use of drumming and entrance into a loosely structured cosmic domain, takes us even more directly into the world of natural archetypal healing.

How does journeying happen? While listening to the sound of a drum beat, the journeyer’s consciousness begins to alter as she travels to one of three destinations: a lower world, a middle world, and an upper world, all connected by a central axis. At the outset this may all seem “made up,” a figment of the imagination. Nonetheless, the experience of what is called “non-ordinary reality” carries its own flavor as the axis reveals an opening into one of three worlds. The lower world is composed of natural settings, resembling those found in our reality—earthy landscapes and forests, mountains, rivers, and deserts. Here she meets and interacts with “spirit beings,” often in animal form and referred to as power animals. The middle world is the earth we live on that can be experienced from a shamanic perspective when journeyed over. In the upper world (or sky) the journeyer receives teachings from beings of elevated or divine status that take on human form.

Yes, shamanism and psychology share in their use of altered states of consciousness and imagery, yet they share an even more relevant underlying purpose—the intent to heal human suffering. Obviously, psychology goes about this in more studied ways relegating the mystical to other modes of healing. At the same time when we look at what happens in shamanic healing, psychological theory actually provides some clues, particularly when it comes to the mending of emotional wounds.

To understand more fully, we go back to the beginning when the first task we have in life is to bond with our caretakers in order to physically and psychologically survive and mature. Unfortunately, many infants have very tenuous bonds with their caretakers while others experience outright abuse. Research clearly shows how the lack of adequate bonding in infancy sows the seeds for troubled youth, dysfunctional relationships in adulthood and social violence. Brain imaging techniques even delineate how infants deprived of touch and loving interaction early in life have less activity in the part of their brains that takes in information and regulates emotion. The good news is that psychological research also indicates that, barring actual brain damage, no matter what our age or station in life, developmental and emotional wounds can be healed. George Vaillant, a psychiatrist at Harvard, explains that by taking the experience of being loved inside ourselves we provide ourselves with an internal “holding environment,” an environment that secures and nurtures us. Probably without his knowing, Vaillant is describing what happens in journeying—power animals and spirit beings providing connecting and nurturing in ways few of us have previously experienced.

Frequently when people first journey to the lower world to meet their power animal, they are overcome by the experience. Andrew’s first journey is a perfect example. Entering the lower world through a rocky outcropping that opened onto a spiral stone stairwell that he descended, he eventually emerged into a meadow with several paths. He chose the one directly in front of him while inviting the appearance of his power animal.

“I continue down the path, and standing by a clearing in the woods is a large white buffalo bull. ‘Are you my animal?’ Bull nods yes, paws the earth with his right front hoof, turns, and walks into the clearing as though he expects me to follow. I see another white buffalo and a calf. ‘Are you my animal?’ They walk over to the large bull. I have the idea that all three of them want me to come visit them. I plunk down in the grass next to a body of water. I feel comfortable, safe, and peaceful. I want to nestle with the white bull, and I tell him that. He moves his body into a semicircle, and I snuggle my back against his side. The other two circle around us. I could stay here forever. [Sigh] I feel tears—not from sadness, but from being welcomed home to a safe place. The drumbeat is like the heart of the buffalo—steady, constant, powerful, omnipresent. I have no cares, no desires; it’s just wonderful to be here.”

As tears rolled down his cheeks, this initial journey provided Andrew a deep sense of safety and nurturing which directly addressed the issue he had brought to our sessions—an unwillingness to trust. Nestled against buffalo, he felt at home, reminiscent of the unity and merging experienced by a baby nestled in mother’s arms. No longer in therapy, Andrew has now journeyed hundreds of times since this first experience ten years ago. Not only does he continue to utilize journeying as a wellspring of nourishment and connection, his encounters with buffalo and his teacher in the upper world provide him with ongoing insights regarding the dilemmas of everyday living and challenge. Andrew now describes himself as an individual far more trusting of the world, more secure in his intimate relationships, and more fulfilled in his vocational and creative pursuits.

Shamanic journeying goes beyond this nurturing connection in providing answers to troubling questions and in bringing transforming energy to challenging emotional states. The story of Doug, a Vietnam War veteran whose underlying rage was masked by a passive and ineffectual approach to life, illustrates the alchemical capacity of shamanic journeys to transmute destructive energies into healing expression. In Doug’s journey his power animals and spirit helpers formed a healing circle, a containing crucible, in which he was allowed to vent his long repressed and self-crippling fury while the energy of the discharged emotion was shamanically transformed into healing vigor.

Such transforming experiences carry tremendous implications for individuals struggling with emotional dilemmas, dysfunctional behaviors and violent proclivities as well as for societies daunted by vicious outbreaks. As more and more attention is brought to the consequences of inadequate bonding and the effects of emotional wounding, the natural power of shamanic healing can be given its proper due. When a shaman returns lost parts of ourselves (soul retrieval) or removes energy from our bodies that doesn’t belong there (extraction), we experience the long-standing power of the shamanic domain. When journeying becomes a part of our individual healing repertoire, we claim a rightful segment of our spiritual heritage. For the healing power of shamanism and journeying is not solely the province of a selected few. In one way or another it is available to us all, its application contributory to the betterment of the planetary whole.

Jeannette M. Gagan, PhD is a licensed psychologist and student of shamanism, and author of Journeying: Where Shamanism and Psychology Meet (Rio Chama Publications). She will give a talk on Thurs., March 6, 7 pm at Bloomsbury Books in Ashland and will conduct a Shamanic Weekend Workshop Fri., March 7, 7pm thru Sun. March 9, at Hidden Springs Wellness Center in Ashland, call Marla Estes, (541) 482-4948 for details. Visit www.journeying
link.com or contact Jeannette at gagan@jo
urneyinglink.com.

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