When we feel out of balance, this can manifest itself in a variety of physical and mental symptoms. In shamanic thinking, this is attributed to disturbances in the energy system, which, in simple terms, can have two causes: either there is ‘too much’ or ‘too little’ of something.

An ‘excess’ arises, for example, when our inner spaces are occupied by things that do not belong to us. When we react blindly to our environment, do things we cannot explain, and are at the mercy of our own behaviour patterns, constantly doing and saying things we don’t really want to, ‘memory demons’ and ‘trauma spirits’ are at work. Unhealed traumatic experiences that are not accepted and integrated as part of one’s personal history leave gaps in memory and develop a life of their own as ‘trauma spirits’. In this way, trauma is passed on, sometimes across generations, replacing the freedom of autonomous, self-determined action with automated cognitive and emotional patterns. This ties up a lot of life energy and prevents it from flowing into the development of one’s own potential, creativity, vitality and joie de vivre.

A ‘lack’ usually arises when parts of one’s own soul are lost or split off. This can also happen as a result of traumatic experiences in one’s life, or the origin may be prenatal in nature and rooted in one’s ancestral line, or it may be part of the development of one’s own soul history in past incarnations.

We all have a space within ourselves where healing takes place. As the client learns to send away their trauma spirits themselves, more and more space is gradually created within, bringing more light, vitality and lightness. The ‘emotional charge’ of traumatic experiences is reduced, the life energy bound up in them is transformed into self-determination, creativity and joie de vivre, strength and personal responsibility grow, and entanglements with loved ones can be increasingly untangled. This inner strength is nourished and further developed by tracking down and integrating lost soul parts.

(The tradition was passed on and taught by Fransje Bik, a student of Olga Yahontova (formerly Kharitidi)).