A Shamanic Experience of Restoration: Journeying, Ritual, and Ceremony
Jeffery Black
March 3, 2022 DOI: 10.4324/9781003105077-5 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Case study Case report |
|---|---|
| Population | A person experiencing a traumatic grief fixation (single case) |
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Key findings | Argues that persistent grief can harden into a disabling fixation sustained by a deep fissure within the bereaved person's soul, and that shamanic healing, framed through Jerome Frank's principles of healing, may address this imbalanced self through spiritual retrieval and restorative journeying beyond what verbal retelling and exposure offer. The case study illustrates a traumatic grief fixation healing through shamanic cosmology. |
Abstract
Intense and persistent perception of the presence within absence of the deceased does not necessarily dissipate spontaneously but may become a disabling and unalterable fixation of grief. Many traditions describe fixations as not only caused by the absence of the deceased but sustained by a deep fissure within the soul of the bereaved. Shamanic healing may offer a connection with the imbalanced self in ways beyond the familiar techniques of verbal retelling and exposure. Using Jerome Frank&s;s foundational principles of healing as a framework, a case study of a traumatic grief fixation healing through shamanic cosmology and its techniques of spiritual retrieval and restorative journeying is demonstrated.
Comparable studies
Other case reports and case series on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brain changes during a shamanic trance: Altered modes of consciousness, hemispheric laterality, and systemic psychobiology A normal subject with extensive training in the Mongolian shamanic tradition | 2017 | Case study | n = 1 |
| The Diaspora of Brazilian Religions | 2013 | Ethnographic case studies | |
| Transformation in Dang-ki Healing: The Embodied Self and Perceived Legitimacy. A male dang-ki, 10 temple assistants, and 9 clients at a shrine in Singapore | 2016 | Case study | n = 20 |
| (Neo)Shamanic Dialogues Members of a Guarani Indian village on the Atlantic coast of Santa Catarina, Brazil | 2012 | Case study | |
| Kambô: A Shamanic Medicine - Personal Testimonies | 2018 | Case study |