Spirit Release Therapy as a Contemporary Healing Practice

The notion that spirits can attach to people and cause distress, requiring specialist healers, is uncommon in Western cosmology. This ethnographic study of spirit release therapists and clients in the UK describes practices for removing unwanted spirits and energy attachments. Unlike shamanic societies where individual apprenticeships are typical, Western practitioners acquire skills through books, technology, and courses. Despite differing methods, cross-cultural continuities exist in concepts of the self, the dead, and spirits, particularly spirits of the dead. The study discusses how therapists practice, how clients come to believe they are troubled by spirits, and the understandings of self and unseen worlds developed by both groups, drawing on first-hand ethnographic experience, workshop reports, and published accounts.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract The notion that spirits can attach themselves to people, causing them physical and mental distress, and that specialists are needed to heal both the spirits and their victims, is not generally part of Western cosmology. This study of spirit release therapists and their clients in the UK reveals practices for dealing with unwanted spirits and energy attachments in Western contexts. Rather than the individual apprenticeships often seen in shamanic societies, in the West, books, technology, and courses are central in acquiring the skills and knowledge to practice spirit release. While the methods differ, there are cross-cultural continuities in ideas of the self, the dead, and the operation of spirits, including spirits of the dead. The ways spirit release therapists practice, how patients/victims come to understand that they are being troubled by spirits, and the understanding of the self and of unseen worlds developed by therapists and clients are discussed using first-hand ethnographic experience, reports of people attending courses and workshops on spirit release, and published accounts.