Abstract:

Soul loss is the term used to describe the way parts of the psyche become detached when we are faced with traumatic situations. In psychological terms, it is known as dissociation and it works as a defence mechanism, a means of displacing unpleasant feelings, impulses or thoughts into the unconscious. In shamanic terms, these split-off parts can be found in non-ordinary reality and are only accessible to those familiar with its topography. Soul retrieval entails the shaman journeying to find the missing parts and then returning them to the client seeking help. This paper consists of an account of a soul retrieval that was carried out over the internet by the shamanic practitioner, Jonathan Horwitz, over a period of two weeks between December 2006 and January 2007, to bring my partner Keti back from the Land of the Dead after she had an aneurism, was in a coma, and after a priest had been called to deliver the last rites.

Author: Michael Berman