Aboriginal Healing
Shamanic healing: Restoring harmony from a spiritual source
The practitioners of aboriginal, or shamanic, healing see themselves as conduits of healing energy from a spiritual source - for example, a powerful animal or spirit guide. The spiritual cause of illness is first addressed, before attempting a cure. While healing techniques are unique to each tribe, all subscribe to the ancient belief that illness results when the body's harmony with nature is disrupted. Herbs are commonly used to guide and assist healing for a wide range of emotional and physical illnesses.
That's it in a nutshell. However, in attempting to explain this approach succinctly, we inevitably gloss over a vast amount of detail and difference. The term aboriginal encompasses dozens, hundreds, perhaps even thousands of different cultures, all of which have their own approaches to healing. Depending on the culture, shamanic healing can involve pain or self-inflicted wounds, fasting, quests, the use of mental or physical exhaustion, or the partaking of psychotropic plants. It's also important to recognize that using the terms "aboriginal healing" and "shamanic healing" interchangeably risks ignoring modern progress made within aboriginal communities. There are aboriginal physicians, kinesiologists, dentists and surgeons, but most people exclude those aboriginal healers when they talk about shamanic healing.
When discussing shamanic healing, it's important to recognize that we're talking about an ancient form of healing that existed before modern science and modern methods of healthcare. This doesn't discount ancient learning, but it must be seen in the right context. Shamanic healers harness energy from the spiritual realm. This traditionally includes the calling of symbolic helpers, or guides - such as animals, angels, inner teachers or even a version of the client's spiritual self. Forms of shamanic healing vary and can include bringing the client into a trance-like state, in order to heal the mental, spiritual and physical conditions.
In essence, embracing shamanic healing means more than just visiting your friendly neighborhood native healer. Belief in the efficacy of a shamanic treatment presupposes belief in an entire spiritual realm which may or may not accurately reflect your view of reality or spirituality. Unless it's your intention to whole-heartedly embrace one of the many aboriginal religions, it's very difficult to see how the spiritual focus of shamanic healing could have any meaning for you.
