Shamanism can offer Voice Dialogue three things from beyond its psychology of selves: a way of finding parts that have left altogether, which no dialogue can reach; the skill of telling a self from a being that does not belong to the person at all; and a wider map of who we are, with a Lower-WorldLower-World. The realm of Mother Earth: pure, unspoilt, wild nature, with no technology and no agriculture. Home of the Peoples and of our own Soul, and completely safe: feeling threatened in a journey is a reliable sign of not having reached it. Read the full answer Soul and an Upper-WorldUpper-World. The realm of Father Sky and of Spirit: spacious, rarefied and clear, layered in tiers, offering not escape but perspective. Not better than the Lower-World: we ascend rooted, and bring the gifts back down. Read the full answer Spirit and helpers who are beings in their own right, not inner energies.
What about selves that have left? #
Voice Dialogue works with selves that are still present, however strongly they have been disowned. Shamanism adds that some parts go. A lost soul partSoul-part. A small-s, middle-world part of the self that can be lost (sent away) and can be retrieved. Not the capital-S Soul. Read the full answer is not in the room to be dialogued with, but shamanism can find the parts that have left altogether. No amount of moving to a new seat in the room will give voice to a part that is no longer there. It has to be found, with the help of the GuidesGuides. The Lower-World and Upper-World beings a practitioner works with and learns from, of whom the Power Animal is the first and foremost. True Guides are ethical to their core; the shaman’s power comes from the depth of these bonds, not from the shaman. More about this, and brought home through soul retrievalSoul retrieval. Finding an exiled soul-part and inviting it home. In the modern psyche the fort-holder who sent it away must consent first, and the retrieval itself is a beginning: the real work is integration. Read the full answer. See What is soul retrieval?
Is every voice one of the person’s selves? #
Not always, in the shamanic view. The Stones describe how disowned instincts can turn malevolent until they call them “demonic energies”.1 Shamanism agrees that this happens, and adds that some demons are not selves at all. There are demons, and then there are ‘demons’, and a practitioner needs “To be fully aware of both possibilities”, and “To not make assumptions either way”. “The act of sending parts of our self away both creates inner imaginary ‘demons’, and leaves holes in us that real demons can sometimes get into.”2
Getting this wrong in either direction can harm. If a client’s demons are real beings, then helping the client to dialogue with them as parts “could be disastrous for the client.” If they are disowned parts, calling them real demons “would be to greatly compound the client’s mental health issues.”3 Shamanism offers the skill of discerning which is which. See What is possession, and what is de-possession?
Who are we, beyond our selves? #
More than a system of selves. Voice Dialogue maps the many selves of the personality, and the awareness and aware ego that relate to them. Therapeutic Shamanism describes four primary parts of self, of which only two belong to the middle-worldMiddle-world. Ordinary physical reality together with its energetic layers: the realm of individuality, separation and mixed intentions, and the only realm where harm is possible. “If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world.” Read the full answer: the body and the middle-world selfMiddle-world self. The everyday self (ego, persona, head-and-heart), made of our stories and experiences. A genuine and needed part of the Inner Tribe: of service, not in command. Read the full answer. The other two are the Soul and the Spirit. From a shamanic perspective, each of these four corresponds to, and is an aspect of, one of the main shamanic realms.4 The Soul is found in the Lower-World and the Spirit in the Upper-World. See What are Soul, Spirit, the middle-world self and the body?
Are animal guides just energies within us? #
Not in shamanism. Joy Manné, writing on Voice Dialogue, sees a shamanic element in it: “Shamans have animal guides, and we can access these energies too through this technique.”5 Shamanism understands the Power AnimalPower Animal. The Oversoul of a wild species, met as a single Lower-World being and bonded with in a deep, committed, usually lifelong soul-bond of unconditional love. The practitioner’s first and foremost Guide: Panther, not “my panther”. Read the full answer differently: not as an energy inside us, but as a being in its own right, the Oversoul of a whole species, met in the Lower-World. A shaman’s true power comes “not from within themselves, but from the depth of their connection with their Power Animal”.6 Shamanism offers Voice Dialogue helpers from beyond the psyche. See What is a Power Animal?
