Wow thank you friends for the flood of great post tags after my post about the word shamanism. Heres another one via Carl Grether, and this is also my view on most mental disorders, after observing nearly every one of my friends encountering this to some degree. It actually took me a while to separate out my own work from the desire to be there for people going through this, because I simply dont have a skillset to hold someone through it, yet Ive been close to it over and over again. Ive had a few people really grab onto me in the midst of their process and it took me a while to set boundaries. Im finally starting to find a referral network of practitioners who can straddle western psychology and this viewpoint, largely thanks to CIIS. Perhaps at some point I should learn how to help people with safe passage through this and provide a container - Im not sure I see in enough detail to do it though. One thing at a time... Its hard to see people suffering and have an idea of whats going on, and not be able to bridge the worldview gap. Honestly I think this sort of healing is best done in a community and not a one-on-one setting. Probably the best suggestion people have made to me so far is to make a documentary about my understanding of this, because its such a massive and comprehensive public health issue. Heres one of my favorite parts of the article.... pondering this one. I often talk about how I feel a large part of drastic imbalance across the planet right now and in many societies is due to the fact that we have wiped out most of the people who understand these dynamic relationships about reality, because we operate in a limited belief system ruled by some dead white dudes definitions of the mind. Unless the relationship between the living and the dead is in balance, chaos ensues,” he says. “The Dagara believe that, if such an imbalance exists, it is the duty of the living to heal their ancestors. If these ancestors are not healed, their sick energy will haunt the souls and psyches of those who are responsible for helping them.” The rituals focus on healing the relationship with our ancestors, both specific issues of an individual ancestor and the larger cultural issues contained in our past. Dr. Somé has seen extraordinary healing occur at these rituals. earthweareone/what-a-shaman-sees-in-a-mental-hospital/
Posted on: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 00:49:46 +0000