Soul Loss

Soul Loss


Among the indigenous peoples of the world, it is generally understood that traumatic life experiences, when they are serious enough, can result in the fragmentation of our inner, vital essence or soul. Often, these traumatized soul aspects dissociate, resulting in a phenomenon generally known as 'Soul Loss'.

In tribal societies, it is understood that this loss is only meant to be temporary, assisting the sufferer in dealing with the psychological aftermath of a truly shocking experience. Problems arise, however, when the soul loss becomes ongoing, even permanent, and this is regarded as a primary cause of serious illness and possibly even premature death.

Soul loss may occur in response to physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; a molestation experience during childhood or being ruthlessly teased and bullied; a bitter divorce, a shocking betrayal, a sexual assault, a serious surgery, or a terrible car accident, to name just a few. The post-traumatic stress syndrome experienced by military veterans is a classic example of soul loss.

Or, when a child is born into this world and the first thing they perceive is that they are not wanted, or that everyone was expecting a boy and they came in as a girl, this can create a form of perinatal soul loss that can affect that person throughout their life.

Soul loss can also be the result of an experience that is so personal at the perceptual level that no one else would know that a trauma had occurred. This is often the case with early childhood soul loss in which there has not been an overt trauma, and so nobody picks up that the child has been severely traumatized. In such a case, it can affect the patterns of the person's life from that time forward-creating inner distortions in which the person feels fragmented in their emotional and psychological realities.

Soul loss is first and foremost an adaptive mechanism that usually serves by allowing us to cope, and in some situations survive a terrible experience, in which the dissociated soul parts depart, carrying the pain, the shock, the extreme emotion, or the memory of the trauma which may be simply unbearable to the sufferer at the time it occurs.

Symptoms of profound and ongoing soul loss frequently manifest as feelings of being fragmented, of not being all there; blocked memory or not being able to remember parts of one's life; a sudden onset of apathy or listlessness, or a lack of joy in life; the inability to make decisions; the inability to feel love for others or receive love from another, often resulting in the sense of being emotionally flat-lined. The loss of these parts of the self is often expressed as despair, as suicidal tendencies, as addictions, or most often-as depression.

Among the traditional peoples, those transpersonal healers who specialize in soul retrieval work are sometimes called 'soul catchers' and they are regarded as being in a league of their own as healers. They are aided and assisted by their spiritual allies, their helping spirits, and working as a team, they track the lost soul parts, find them, and return them to the person who has lost them, restoring the individual's soul to its original, undistorted state.

In the process, the person's vital essence returns to its original owner, an experience that they frequently experience as life-changing. This is ultimately accomplished with the willing participation of the client in creating a sincere call for this work, as well as the integrating of their soul parts back into their overall vital essence.

Soul retrieval can be done in person, the average session usually extending to three or four hours in length. Yet because it is 'non-local' work, it can also be done long distance, and Jill has been able to be of service to folks both nationally and internationally as a transpersonal healer.

If you are interested in connecting with Jill regarding Soul Retrieval work, either in person or long-distance, please contact her using Jill's contact form.

Watch a video on the Symtoms of Soul Loss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAOEYTFHn_8&feature=player_embedded



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Jill is the co-author of SPIRIT MEDICINE: HEALING IN THE SACRED REALMS with her husband, Hank Wesselman (Hay House, 2004), a book in which she has written about the subject of soul loss as well as the practice of soul retrieval. Over the past eighteen years, she has performed more than 4000 soul retrieval sessions and is an acknowledged master of this healing modality.

Amazing post Solane, very informative. It would appear that many, many people today are suffering from soul loss. Perhaps at a certain level, they choose to experience soul loss as part of their learning in this life to bring all parts of themselves back to 'one'. A humanly personal version of spirit or source's intention.

Symptoms of the Soul:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAOEYTFHn_8&feature=related

Three Causes of Spiritual Illinesses:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syu23EDQX8Y&feature=related

Illness from a Shamanic Perspective:
Sandra Ingerman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCPOGtqmCCI&feature=related

About Shamanic Practitioners

Shamanic healing is a spiritual method of healing that deals with the spiritual aspect of illness. There are three common causes of illness in the shaman’s worldview. A person may have lost his or her power, causing depression, chronic illness, or a series of misfortunes. In this case, the shaman journeys to restore that person’s lost power. Or a person may have lost part of their soul or essence, causing soul loss, which sometimes occurs during an emotional or physical trauma, such as accidents, surgery, abuse, the trauma of war, being in a natural disaster, divorce, the death of a loved one, or other traumatic circumstances. Soul loss can result in dissociation, post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression, illness, immune deficiency problems, addictions, unending grief, or coma. Soul loss can prevent us from creating healthy relationships and the life we truly wish to live. It is the role of the shaman to track down the parts that have fled and been lost due to trauma by performing a soul retrieval ceremony. Another cause of illness from a shamanic perspective would be any spiritual blockages or negative energies a client has taken on due to the loss of his or her power or soul. These spiritual blockages also cause illness, usually in a localized area of the body. It is the role of the shaman to extract and remove these harmful energies from the body.

A shaman heals both the living and the deceased. In healing those who died, the shaman performs a psychopomp ceremony of helping those who have died cross over to a comfortable and peaceful place. The ceremony may also include clearing a home or land of spirits that are in a state of unrest.

What I have written above is just a brief overview to give you a sense of how shamanic practitioners might work to help you. You can find a detailed explanation of how shamans view and diagnose emotional and physical illness in my books Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self and Welcome Home: Following Your Soul’s Journey Home. There is an in-depth talk on this subject on my lecture tape “The Soul Retrieval Journey”. You can look at the book section of this website for ordering information.

As shamanic healing deals with the spiritual aspect of illness there is no way to predict the results that will manifest emotionally or physically. Shamanic healing does not replace the need for traditional psychological and medical treatment.

There are different ways that practitioners can work. One way is for the shamanic practitioner to only provide spiritual healing and follow up treatments if necessary. Another option is after the healing work to continue to work with your shamanic practitioner on the process of integration.

The purpose of continuing the work would be to find ways to restore balance and harmony in your life and create a positive present and future for yourself through the use of spiritual practices and ceremonies. Life without passion and meaning can result in despair. With shamanic practices you can explore how to create a meaningful life. Examples of the type of work that shamanic practitioners can help with is written up in my second book Welcome Home and has to do with what I call “life after healing”.

Some people feel they have their own support systems in psychotherapy and with other spiritual practices and do not feel they need such follow up work with a shamanic practitioner.

It is important that you find what you need to support the shamanic healing work that has been done. The practitioners on this list can supply support if you need it.

Here are some guidelines to find a practitioner:
· Go to the list in the state where you live and try to find someone you can see in person. It is best to work with the practitioner in person rather than long distance. Long distance work can be done with shamanic healing, however, I do find the best results occur when the client sees the practitioner in person unless there is a critical situation that prevents the client from traveling.
· Talk to the practitioners near you and choose a person you feel comfortable working with.
· Find a practitioner who is flexible in their fees.
· Make sure the practitioner is accessible and does follow up work if you need it.

It is important to understand that in the practice of shamanism the shamanic practitioner works in partnership with his/her helping spirits. The helping spirits do the diagnosis and advise on what healing ceremony should be done.

Today in a psychologically sophisticated culture many clients show up telling shamanic practitioners what healing work needs to be done. This is not how shamanic healing works. The shamanic practitioner listens to the problem the client presents and then consults with his or her healing spirits for the spiritual diagnosis and the proper healing method.


Also, please understand that all shamanic practitioners have different styles of working. A good shamanic practitioner follows the directions of their helping spirits who know what is best for the client.

In the Practitioner section, you will find a list of local shamanic practitioners who have trained with me.

If you have any questions or comments on the shamanic work you receive, please feel free to write to me:

Sandra Ingerman
P.O. Box 4757
Santa Fe, N.M. 87502

I wish you great success in your healing journey.

Please keep checking this website for the list of teachers and practitioners will keep growing over time.

Website:
http://www.shamanicteachers.com/

Soul loss

As you are living your life you experience various traumas that, in that moment, your soul is convinced it is going to die and it says, "I am out of here!" In that moment a piece of your soul breaks off and goes off to live on its own somewhere in the shamanic universe.

This trauma can be anything from a near death experience to a small child being scared by a friend yelling, "boo!" What matters is that in the moment the soul is convinced that it is in Big Trouble.

Soul parts can leave for other reasons as well, such as a child who doesn't want to move to another town might leave a soul part in their old hometown, or you give a soul part to a lover -- "I love you heart and soul".

When a soul part leaves it also takes some aspect of you with it. It might have your trust, or your creativity, or your power, etc. Obviously, it is important to get that part and that aspect back. Sometimes this can happen spontaneously; sometimes really good therapy can bring a soul part home.

The shaman are, naturally, trained to find missing soul parts and bring them home


David Lang
http://www.urbanshamanism.com/Glossary/GlossaryS.html

Soul parts

How do we talk about things that are essentially beyond language. What is the soul? Different cultures and religious systems have different beliefs regarding soul.

From the shamanic perspective it is possible to have the soul fracture and send bits and pieces into the spirit realms where they live out their partial lives. This metaphor offers a perspective on people with multiple personalities and people who don't seem to be "all here".

A useful metaphor for picturing how this soul structure might work is to think in terms of holograms where every piece of the hologram contains all the information to reconstruct the entire image. The smaller the piece the coarser the whole image, but the whole image is still there.

Soul as hologram. It appeals to the William Blake in me. To quote from his poem, "Auguries of Innocence" :

"To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour..."


By David Lang
http://www.urbanshamanism.com/Glossary/GlossaryS.html

What exactly is a soul? You have written a little of it's definition and I know that we cannot know everything, but I would really love to hear a reasonably complete description of what a 'soul' is in words that I can understand. Could you help me out please Solane?

Just out of curiosity Nuelma, how do you define what a soul is? this is a really interesting question I bet there are many different ideas out there.

I've experienced soul loss on a major scale earlier in this life time and I have experienced soul retrieval. Still I cannot put the entire experience into words that would adequately describe all the facets involved.

I have no idea what a soul is. I used to think I knew, but it was only ever really an idea of what one is that was intellectually based. I feel like I want to understand what a soul is in other people's words and see if I can connect with something, if I can experience a light-bulb moment which can help with my questioning.

Mm, I hear where you are coming from. My idea of what the soul is has changed dramatically over the years and now it is something I feel more than understand in terms of cognitive or symbolic representation. In other words, my belief of what my soul is has expanded way beyond any one sense or thought pattern. The only way I can think of putting it into words is to describe it as existing interdimensionally as well as multidimensionally and all-encompassing. A soul is not a solitary thing in my mind. It has flexibility beyond our comprehension and can be in more than one location and form at one time, as it is unhindered by the laws of any one plane. As I type this I feel my heart chakra almost exploding through my chest because of the love connection I have for my soul and speaking about it energetically is very affirming. I have gathered pieces of my soul from across different lifetimes and planes of existence and even from across the universe...the magnitude of the soul is far far beyond the grasp of what we think we know and yet we all hold that knowledge inside us somewhere.