In the setting of a workshop, Christina explains and demonstrates what shamanic healing is, what it does, how it works. You will see excerpts of an actual, powerful shamanic soul retrieval session, and hear discussion about the results of that session. You will hear how ancestral energies, left unresolved, can cause illnesses and patterns in people's lives that they can't get away from, and/or that don't make sense—like young people coming down with old-age illnesses. Christina illustrates how shamanism can co-exist with and strengthen modern medicine and psychotherapy.

After completing the shamanic healing session, Christina discusses the results of the healing and some of the unique challenges that come with ancestral and dependent relationships in the work.

What is Shamanism

Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world. A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing.

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Shamanism & the Environment

Resources for human consumption are easily depletable in tropical rainforests.

Among the Tucano people, a sophisticated system exists for environmental resources management and for avoiding resource depletion through overhunting.

This system is conceptualized mythologically and symbolically by the belief that breaking hunting restrictions may cause illness.

As the primary teacher of tribal symbolism, the shaman may have a leading role in this ecological management, actively restricting hunting and fishing.

The shaman is able to "release" game animals, or their souls, from their hidden abodes.

The Piaroa people have ecological concerns related to shamanism.

Among the Inuit, shamans fetch the souls of game from remote places, or soul travel to ask for game from mythological beings like the Sea Woman.

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Shamanism & Psychology

We will find that return to the wilderness has been used throughout history to explore the deeper layers of the psyche.

The way of perceiving the world that emphasizes the existence of spirits, ghosts, and gods who interact with men and inhabit objects is called animism.

Animism characterizes virtually all ancient cultures. In many languages, the word for spirit is also the word for breath - which leaves the body at death.

Spirits could occupy the bodies of living men and animals causing either illness or insanity, but they often imparted higher wisdom.

Psychic powers were ascribed to aid from such spirits.

Also commonly found in ancient cultures is the correlative belief in a general spiritual force, or mana, permeating all of nature.

Evidence from cave art, daring back at least 30,000 years, suggests caves were used for magical ritual purposes. In certain cases it must have been necessary to crawl for hours through the caves in order to reach the locale of the artwork and related artifacts.

It may be that solitude inside such a cavern was an initiation technique used to explore the inner realms of being.

From the article Shamanistic Traditions

(we substituted 'primitive cultures' for 'ancient cultures')

Christina Pratt, author of the two-volume "Encyclopedia of Shamanism," talks with Jody Seay in this excerpt about her teachings in the workshop series entitled The Cycle of Transformation. In these workshops, participants learn to apply shamanic skills and paradigms to contemporary life so that they can become agents of change in this world. By asking for spirit-lead guidance, humans can make better decisions that take into account their connections to other people and their environment, decisions that benefit many generations to come. These workshops teach participants the basic shamanic skill set needed to become spiritual grown-ups who get help making quality decisions and take responsibility for their family's needs.

For more information visit:

Christina's Site: http://www.lastmaskcenter.org/

"Why Shamanism Now?" Facebook page