For centuries, indigenous cultures have honored their shamanic healers as the bridge to spiritual healing,providing healing and blessings that help cure all manner of ills, both physical and spiritual.
Throughout the world’s cultural history, the shaman has been consulted for both practical and pragmatic solutions to the everyday problems we face in life.
Since the early 1900s, quantum theory has described the nature of the universe at the tiniest measures of energy levels while shamans have been manipulating that energy without question or reserve, fully aware and understanding religion and science are not simply closing in on each other, but they continue to bridge.
No matter how we may perceive the universe, those things that we hold to defining our sense of it, whether it be religion, science, the spiritual or the physical world, all things are entangled and connected, and at the root of it all, the universe is pure energy, as are we.
Shamans draw from the relationship that exists between the invisible realms and the realm of ordinary life as we know it.
They deliberately alter their state of consciousness to find knowledge obtained from the hidden spirit world.
This approach assumes that adults within their community must take responsibility for their own relationships with spiritual energies, in addition to the influence from their own ancestors, spiritual guides and from Spirit as the creator force.
Considered the first physicians, shamans are also seen as diagnosticians, therapists, religious counselors, storytellers and performance artists. The main difference between shamans and conventional practitioners such as physicians, psychiatrists, priests and world leaders is the way shamans manipulate energy to enter the invisible world at will through altered states while maintaining self-control as they move within and without them.
Located in the South American Amazon Jungle is the Spirit Vine Ayahuasca Retreat, formerly called Ayahuasca-Healing. Founded by Psychotherapist Silvia Polivoy, she practiced privately in Buenos Aires for 20 years, but wanted to explore the Spirit World. She was initiated as a shaman, and her work now is an integration of shamanic practices with her background in psychology and many other techniques.
Shamanic healing relies on a multidisciplinary approach to counter disease and imbalance working in concert with physical healers, changes in diet, botanicals or entheogenic plants, shamanic drumming and other therapies.
The repetitive rhythmic shamanic drumming helps to facilitate journeying by breaking up existing energy and shifting through a series of trance states.
Another important aspect to healing is a supportive community that understands and accepts this work allowing time for the healing process of integration that individuals are required to complete.
This involves the shaman and the client creating the resources and a structure from which the individual can adjust to the shift in internal energies.
The use of ayahuasca, a South American brew, in religious ceremonies is centuries old.
Spirit Vine provides an intense program agenda that also includes a healthy, organic, substance-free diet, yoga, sacred music, art, a ceremony room and programs that encourage interaction with other guests from all over the world.
According to their website, “The ritual of ayahuasca ceremonies is an ancient practice that has traditionally been performed by shamans in South America for many thousands of years. The ayahuasca ceremony is a powerful spiritual experience that opens the participant to a greater awareness of the essence of oneself in this realm.”
The goal is to create a community support system that helps people feel safe amid the sounds, sights and comforts of the jungle while exploring the inner depths of one’s soul in a journey intended to bring this inner consciousness to light.
Consulting with a shamanic healer can be a means of discovering the way the inner world creates your outer world, and helping you overcome blocks in your life.
