The Listening VOICE: a Journey of Shamanic Initiation
Sven Doehner
Integral Transpersonal Journal April 1, 2020 DOI: 10.32031/itibte_itj_14-ds7 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Key points | Argues that Jungian and Hillmanian alchemical psychology and shamanic ancestral wisdom share principles and practices for transformation, and proposes that working with one's own voice, as inspired by Alfred Wolfsohn's self-healing of trauma involving auditory hallucinations, can dissolve psychological knots and give palpable form to subtle inner material. |
Abstract
The focus and principle interest of this essay, called The Listening Voice, is The Art of Transformation. My approach recognizes the overlap that clearly exists between the Alchemical Psychology articulated by C.G. Jung and James Hillman, and the native ancestral wisdom kept alive to this day in what we now call Shamanism. Both offer laws, principles and practices to guide the individual in search of the kind of transformation that brings about the appearance of the most essential and authentic aspects of their true nature. While practicing these “arts”, I recognized how both traditions work in concrete and imaginative ways with the energy that underlies what has been materialized, what we psychologically call “symptoms”. Given that energy manifests as vibration, and that the most direct way of working with vibration is sound, and that the sound coming out of our own being is the sound that is most transformative, I recalled my own experiences with the discoveries of Alfred Wolfsohn – who healed himself of deep trauma involving auditory hallucinations by working with his own voice – to bring the vocal practices into the work to dissolve knots, to open psychic spaces, and to give explicit palpable shape to subtle things waiting and wanting to take on concrete form and reality in our lives. This essay shares my discoveries, and makes practical suggestions for developing and nurturing a Listening Voice, which is unmistakably transformative. KEYWORDS Transformation, listening, awakening, shamanism, imagination, emotions.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California | 1998 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From Culture to Experience: Shamanism in the Pages of the Soviet Anti-Religious Press | 2020 | Historical analysis | |
| Anthropology, Shamanism, and Alternate Ways of Knowing–Being in the World: One Anthropologist's Journey of Discovery and Transformation | 2010 | Reflective essay or personal narrative |