Ancient Healing for Modern Problems
Shamanic teachings may be more important than ever to heal the planet and ourselves. Dr. Alberto Villoldo, who holds doctorates in psychology and anthropology and was the first American to have contact with the last descendants of the Inca royalty living at 16,000 feet in the Peruvian Andes, says that Americans can learn plenty from indigenous medicine people.
More than a decade ago, Villoldo founded the Four Winds Society, which teaches the philosophy and practice of energy medicine and trains students to become modern-day shamans. The author of nine books, Villoldo also directs the Center for Energy Medicine, in Chile, where he investigates and practices the neuroscience of enlightenment. He expounds upon some of these shamanic principles and practices and how they’re helpful for contemporary societies.
Do we all have a luminous body or luminous energy field?
Everyone has a luminous energy field (LEF), an invisible matrix that informs the anatomy of the body and is a reservoir of vital force that’s as indispensable to our health as food and oxygen. When these reserves are depleted through illness, environmental pollutants or stress, we suffer disease.
The LEF holds the blueprint of our body the way an architectural drawing holds the design of a house. It contains information that can kill us or heal us, in the same way that DNA encodes formulas for longevity and inherited health conditions. But unlike a static physical blueprint, our luminous template, which is informed by our life experiences, is continually changing.
Unresolved traumas become engraved like scratch marks in our LEFs. When there are no disease imprints, recovery from illness happens at tremendous speed. But if there are imprints, it can take an extremely long time for us to recover from an illness. When we erase the negative imprint that caused the condition, the immune system can rapidly eradicate the disease.
How is the LEF used in shamanic healing work?
The LEF contains an archive of all of our traumas from childhood and former lifetimes. Imprints are like dormant computer programs that when activated, compel us toward behaviors, relationships, accidents and illnesses that parody the initial wounding and orchestrate the incidents, experiences and people we attract to ourselves. We recreate painful dramas and heartbreaking encounters, but can also be guided toward situations wherein we can heal our ancient wounds.
What are chakras?
Chakras are the energy centers, or “organs”, of the LEF, and every being has them—animals, humans, even trees. These swirling disks have wide “mouths” that spin a few inches outside the body, through which they channel the fuel stored in the LEF to nurture us spiritually, emotionally and creatively. They also transmit information to the nervous system about past trauma contained in the imprints. They inform our neurophysiology and influence our emotional and physical well-being and connect to endocrine glands that regulate all of human behavior.
What is the healing technique called illumination?
The illumination process is the technique used to clear imprints from a person’s luminous energy field. As the LEF informs the physical body, a shift in the LEF will manifest in the physical reality. When a person is in need and ready for healing of the light body, a shaman will appear in his or her life. Signs of an energetic imbalance can range from physical to emotional distress or discomfort.
What is the healing practice called soul retrieval?
Traumatic events cause the soul to fracture. A shaman can help a person rewrite disempowering “contracts” with life and help his reclaim his true essence and step into a life of grace and abundance. The Inca medicine men and women divide the collective unconscious of humanity into three archetypical and energetic domains: the lower, middle and upper worlds. We live our day-to-day lives in the middle world; the upper world is the home of our destiny and our spirit; and the lower world, where the record of human history is held, is the realm of the soul.
A shaman enters a unique state of consciousness through “journeying” to the lower world to retrieve what is necessary to reintegrate the lost soul part. The shaman helps the client recognize and honor the traumatic event that caused the original fracturing and to renegotiate the sacred contracts that were written as a result. Many of these were terrible obligations we entered into during fear and stress at the time of the original wounding, and are no longer needed.
A gift can also be part of the soul retrieval and can help individuals to become whole again and achieve his highest destiny. A shaman facilitates the energetic work and creates a new “map” for a client, but then it is his responsibility to maintain a state where the new soul part feels welcome and can reintegrate.
Suzanne Gerber is a freelance writer, astrologer and a NYC-based Four Winds Society Shamanic Practitioner.
Angelica Hocek is a Four Winds Society Shamanic Practitioner in Northern New Jersey. For more info, visit SoulRevive.com, or call 973-495-8390 to make an appointment.
