During our lives, we often take on energies that don’t belong to us. Each life experience has it’s own energy and depending on the effect it has on us, be it a pleasant experience or a traumatic one, that energy has the real possibility of entering our personal energy field and finding itself “at home” in us.

Energy from pleasant experiences usually doesn’t cause us to wonder what’s wrong with us. When we are feeling happy and joyful, we tend to accept these as the nature of good things that are happening in our lives. On the other hand, unpleasant experiences tend to cause our energy systems to feel out of wack in a bothersome way, bringing on symptoms such as those in the list you read in Part 1 of this article. At the very least, we may feel beside ourselves, not fully in our body or feel separated from life in some way. If traumatic enough, we may start to experience a run of bad luck events or take on addictive substances and behaviors. We may even experience PTSD and/or begin to have suicidal thoughts.

While there are ways to shield ourselves from taking on some energies, it is highly important to know that if you begin to experience any of these symptoms after a traumatic event, you can be helped. In tandem with reliable psychotherapy, a trained shamanic practitioner can help you release the energies that are causing you to suffer. One of these practices is called Shamanic Extraction.

Shamanic Extraction Work

When I facilitate Shamanic Extraction work, I channel one of two guides who have worked through me for quite a few years now. The one who usually shows up is a little old shaman woman who I call Grandmother Shaman. When she comes in, I see her in my mind’s eye. She is quite old, rather bent at the waist, has a wizened face and longer wiry white hair. She has given me permission to share a bit about her because she knows it may help others receive the help they need. Since working together for so long, I feel quite at ease with her. She is compassionate and, yet can be quite firm in her work when necessary.

The second guide I sometimes channel when doing extraction work is Dragon. His energy is quite different from that of Grandmother Shaman although he is also filled with great compassion. He does not speak but, when he comes in, he breathes deeply through me. His breathing is guttural and at times it is almost like the yogic breath of fire.

Whenever I am channeling, I move my consciousness to the upper right side of my brain to allow my body to be used by the one who is coming through me. I am fully in control and hear everything that goes on. Ultimately, all that happens is my personal responsibility and I am very aware of this fact.

These two guides come in for different purposes. Grandmother Shaman’s feminine energies tend to be more nurturing while Dragon seems to enter when it is deemed that the released energy will need to be purified with fire. He may also come when the client has some sort of relationship with dragons outside of the shamanic work that will be done. I don’t know ahead of time which of them will show up or when. There have been a couple of times when they have both shown up within the same session, but at different times. They know more than I what is needed.

Grandmother Shaman speaks in her own language, which I don’t understand. I must say though, that over these years, I have begun to get a feel for what she may be saying simply from what is going on while she is saying it. Sometimes she sings what sound like lullabies and at other times she can become as firm as necessary to get the energy or entity that belongs elsewhere to understand why it must leave. She has certain phrases that have been used over and over again until I became aware that they are chants that seem to be preparing the body for the energy or entity to leave. Another chant seems to be a gratitude chant used after the energy has shifted or left.

She is filled with compassion both for the client who is on the table and for any entity or energy with which she is helping to release. The one on the table is the primary client while any entities or energies become the secondary clients. The secondary clients are as important as the primary client. All parties want to be heard, honored and respected.

I have found, through Grandmother Shaman’s work, that sometimes, the secondary client doesn’t realize that it has imprisoned itself within the primary client. Sometimes all it takes is to get the secondary to understand this and then it leaves with her assistance. Sometimes, the secondary has a message that it wants the primary to receive.

Lucy’s Nightmares

One client, I will call Lucy, came to me because she was having horrible nightmares almost every night and couldn’t sleep. This was causing her waking hours to be pretty miserable as well. Lucy was referred to me and she called and requested a shamanic extraction session.

Grandmother Shaman came and soon discovered the secondary client who was causing the nightmares. It was a relative who had died fairly recently. As I am sometimes privy to “see” what is going on during extractions, I could see that this relative was coming forth in the only way he knew how to contact Lucy, through her dreams. He had a message for her that she wasn’t getting and so he felt the need to become more and more adamant in getting her to acknowledge him. Therefore, her dreams had turned into nightmares.

He came because he had unfinished business. He wanted her forgiveness so that he could be at peace and continue his journey on the other side of the veil. At times like these, I am able to break through the channeling to explain what I am seeing so that my primary client knows what is going on and can do what is necessary to release the energy or entity. In this case, Lucy forgave her relative, he left, and from what she told me, the nightmares stopped.

Addictions

 Some clients have come to me to help them heal their addictions, including heroin. Heroin, like everything else in the universe is created of energy and, therefore, by shamanic practitioners, is considered in its own way to be alive.

What I have learned from working with my Spirit Allies in this area is that once a foreign substance, like heroin, is introduced into the body, it likes the sensations that occur and starts to incorporate into its surroundings. As it begins to feel “at home,” it strives to be constantly fed so that it can remain alive. So, to solidify itself, it sends out signals to the host to take in more heroin, or whatever the addictive substance is, which will in turn continue the “lifecycle” of the substance. Over time, the signal may have to become stronger and stronger until the host finally feeds it and the cycle continues.

The same holds true for any intrusion (misplaced entity or energy). Once it enters the client and begins to feel at home, it doesn’t want to leave.

Through my training and working with Grandmother Shaman over time, I have noticed that her first step is usually to find out if the intrusion even realizes that it has become imprisoned in the host body. Quite often, it doesn’t know this. The intrusion, seeking life, has either been voluntarily taken in by the host or has just happened to latch onto an available, vulnerable body. Sometimes it seems that discovering this basic piece of information is all it takes for Grandmother Shaman to work with the intrusion and to extract it. She works with any sort of leverage she can find.

Other times, I am privy of her process in discovering further important information about the energy or entity. Like with the story of Lucy’s nightmares, sometimes I need to bring my consciousness forward enough to ask questions of the primary client and to receive answers from them before an intrusion will finally be willing to leave. For instance, if it believes it is there to seek forgiveness or to give a message to the primary client, Grandmother Shaman does what she can to allow this to happen before the extraction occurs. She works for the good of both parties.

Sometimes, though, the intrusion can be especially challenging to work with and it simply doesn’t want to leave. When this occurs, Grandmother Shaman can become quite firm. This comes across to me in her speech pattern and voice. She will shake a rattle hard over the location of the energy to get its attention. Then she says that she will call in Archangel Michael (The big guns!) if need be. Simply hearing this usually shifts the disposition of the intrusion and it allows itself to be released.

In the case of addiction or an especially challenging extraction, Dragon often comes and uses his breath of fire to cleanse the energy that is released before sending it out.

Shamanic ExtractionThe Shamanic Extraction Process

 As always, the space is prepared before the client comes in. Once there, we connect by talking for a short while and during this time, I put the client at ease as much as possible by answering any questions or explaining the process.

The client, who will be called Sally, lies down on the healing table and is invited to call in those spirit allies, ancestors, power animals or other beings who are willing to support her during this session. I say some prayers and invite the guide in who is best suited for the session. In this instance, we will say Grandmother Shaman comes in. When she is fully in my body, she begins to speak in her language and to shake a rattle over Sally. The rattle acts as a Geiger counter looking for any intrusions within the body. When it has found where the intrusion is, it hovers over that area.

Grandmother Shaman then puts the rattle down and begins to speak with the intruding energy or entity. She first asks if it knows it has imprisoned itself within Sally’s body. If it says yes, she works to have it understand that leaving Sally will actually benefit both parties; that it has the potential to become its fullest and best self if it leaves the body and goes where it actually needs to go, wherever that is.

Sometimes the intrusion needs to work through something of its own before it will allow itself to be released, like in the case of Lucy’s nightmares. In this instance, Grandmother Shaman works with it, and perhaps the primary client, to mutually satisfy both parties.

If the intrusion becomes challenging, this is when Grandmother Shaman says she is willing to call in Archangel Michael to assist her in the extraction. This is usually the last measure and works quite well.

When Grandmother Shaman hears from the intrusion that it is ready to be released, she allows me to view this in vision form. I “see” the energy form a more solid mass in Sally’s body. At that time, Grandmother Shaman physically sucks the energy mass from Sally’s body and blows it out the window to a waiting Spirit Ally with whom I work for this purpose. If Dragon is the one to extract the energy, he uses his claws to pull it out and then blows purifying fire over it before blowing it out the window to my Spirit Ally. In either case, I then go to a lit candle on my altar and use the flame to purify my own mouth and hands. And then, I hear Grandmother Shaman chanting what I believe is her thank you to the intrusion for releasing itself, to Sally for doing her healing work, my waiting Spirit Ally for his part in the work, and, finally, to the experience itself. As always, reciprocity is highly important in shamanic work of all kinds.

 Released Energy   

At this point, both Sally’s needs and those of the intrusion have been served. You may wonder where the energy goes once it’s been extracted. If the intrusion is an entity, it may go to the Upper World to be reunited with those waiting for it.

In my experience, energies, on the other hand, often go to the Lower World where they can fulfill their highest potential.

I work with the land elementals on my property with whom I have created a good relationship over the years while doing shamanic work. One in particular works with me to receive the released intrusions and to take them into the earth to be transmuted into their highest state.

In the Peruvian culture, which I learned from my teacher, don Oscar Miro-Quesada, there are unseen beings who reside in the earth that are ready and willing to receive the released intrusion or energy called “hucha,” which means vibrational density or heavy energy. In some cultures, hucha is known as “sin.” These unseen beings eat the hucha, which dissolves and transforms the heavy energy. As I understand it, nature is always striving to evolve. Eating the hucha is an act of love and it assists these unseen beings in moving into their next higher state of evolution or consciousness, which causes them to become more real. So, the intrusion, or energy performs its highest good by becoming food for the unseen beings, which in turn helps the unseen beings continue their cycle of evolution. When the hucha allows itself to be eaten by the unseen beings, the beings become more real and this in turn allows the released intrusion to become more real. Therefore, the intrusion has freed itself from imprisonment in Sally and now has been given the opportunity to evolve, to become more real. Oddly, this is what the energy had originally yet unconsciously set out to do when first attaching itself to Sally. When we look at it in this light, this whole process is a loving cycle of evolution and reciprocity!

At other times, an angel or an ancestor of the entity will come and ask to take the released energy or entity into the upper world where it will be cared for, purified and perhaps reunited with its family. I find this to be another beautiful ending of the extraction process. I have “seen” an entity become overwhelmed with gratitude when this has occurred!

From these two happy endings, I think you can understand why, whichever way the released energy is taken, it would never again choose to come back to the client! It, along with the client, has been thoroughly honored and taken care of!

Ending the Session

Afterwards, I thank Grandmother Shaman for her wonderful work and she leaves my body completely. I then gently shake the rattle around Sally’s body four times to solidify the work that has been done. Next, we each speak about our individual experiences of the shamanic extraction and, finally, I share some self-care steps with her. I tell her that it’s important for her to fill the spaces where energy was released with what she now chooses to be there. This can include love, empowerment, light or anything else that feels right to her. This process can be continued until she senses the work is complete.

Another way to work with entities that have taken up residence within a client is called Compassionate Depossession work, which we will talk about in Part 3. We will also begin the discussion on Soul Retrieval work that will then be completed in Part 4 along with a Soul Hiding technique.