Here’s a simple experiment you may want to try. The next time you have the opportunity, ask an addict this question: “Do you feel that the source of your addiction originates from a place inside of you or from a place outside of you?”

I have found that well over 90 percent of the people asked this question feel that their addiction originates from a place outside of themselves. If we are to trust this instinctual response of the individual, then we must answer the questions: “Where is this place?” and “What is the original source that has entered and manifested as an addiction?” for our clients as well as for ourselves.

Answers to these questions, as well as treatments that repair the damages inflicted through the lineage of addictions, await us in the realm of shamanism. Shamanism is an experiential, time-tested science whose techniques are applied for divination,¹ transformation and healing purposes. The healer in this work, known as a “shaman” can be a man or a woman, and is found throughout history on every continent and universally in all indigenous cultures. Today, with most societies suffering from the absence of a traditional initiation practice welcoming one into the guild of the shaman, many people take up the practice of these fundamental concepts outside of the context of “tribal life” and earn the title of “shamanic practitioners.”

The healing work of shamans
Primarily, a shaman’s job is to form and maintain working relationships with the occupants of the spiritual realms. These occupants are the actual spirits of ancestors, a particular place, the elements, weather, the gods and heroes of myth, and the dead, to name a few. They will appear to the shaman in the form of a human, a humanoid, an animal, a form from the natural world, or combinations thereof. This alliance is a mutually beneficial one with the shaman “feeding the spirit” with words and deeds appropriate to the spirit’s “tastes,” while the spirits are consulted in times of human need so that they may provide the shaman with information, knowledge, and power to be used to help oneself, another, or the community.

These spiritual realms, commonly called Non-Ordinary Reality², are the places in which the shaman travels in to do his or her work and meet with his or her “compassionate and helping spirits.”³ These travels are called a “shamanic journey”⁴ and the worlds visited provide the answer to the addict’s first question, “Where is this place?” A person is required to alter his or her perception and apply specific techniques to reach these places, which normally are hidden from view in everyday life. An altered state of consciousness traditionally has been accomplished through dancing, singing, various forms of deprivation, ingesting plant substances, sweating, and numerous other means. The application of a repetitive, monotonous drumbeat, which has been used for thousands of years, is the choice of many shamanic practitioners, as it can be applied today with the same level of safety and efficacy that it has enjoyed for millenniums.

To answer the second question, we first will need to understand the idea of disease from a shamanic perspective. Simply stated, all types of spiritual disharmony are caused by three conditions: 1) power loss, 2) soul loss, and 3) spiritual intrusions. They can take on many forms and are commonly seen together in the same person.

Following are brief examples of how these conditions can happen and what they appear as in a person. First, power loss can be associated with the notion of the sudden departure of “our guardian angel.” In shamanism, it is believed that we all have kindred compassionate spirits helping us along on the walkways of life that are similar to what popular culture calls guardian angels. And whether it is because “we’re big boys and girls now” that we consciously send them away, or they have become overpowered by a traumatic incident to name two causes, their loss leaves us without the benefit of their help and protection.

The loss of power from the departed guardian spirits leaves one vulnerable, a little less protected. A “predator” will recognize this quality and attack to steal one’s most precious prize: the soul. This predator person’s abusive behavior is a jealousy that covets the spirit’s light and essence. When the predator is successful, the victim suffers a fragmentation of the soul — a part becomes split off from the whole. A condition similar to dissociation, this situation creates a void that cries to be filled.

Unfortunately, what fills this unoccupied space is not beneficial, as the emotion associated with this hole in the soul is one of fear. This is the spiritual intrusion, which flocks to the scent of fear, and is a hungry entity demanding to be fed. As a symbiotic relationship is formed, the ultimatums to devour become a regular part of the person’s personality, and these actions manifest in the world of everyday life as an addiction.

Speaking the language of metaphor and exchanging the currency of power, a shaman will treat this problem by introducing the client to new power, retrieving their lost soul parts and extracting the spiritual intrusions. Utilizing the power of symbolism and myth, which is done through ritual that makes use of masks, dancing, eloquence, drumming, and the shamanic journey, the shaman engages the addict to begin to reclaim the power that was once lost, integrate the soul parts into their present life, and sever the relationships with the spiritual intrusions.

Honoring the addict’s instinctual belief that the origin of his or her problem indeed has originated from someplace outside of themselves, shamanism provides a language and treatment approach that recognizes this concept while also separating out the aspects of this disease that are now the client’s full responsibility. Shamanism taps into and makes use of an addict’s natural ability to enter into altered states of consciousness, while simultaneously changing their intention for doing so from intoxicating themselves with distilled spirits to receiving knowledge, information, and power from compassionate, helping spirits. Because of this, shamanism can reveal the fantastic story of a new personal myth and put a person in the hero or heroine’s role on a wondrous path to self-discovery and recovery.

Randal Lyons, DOM, AP, LAc, is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine and shamanic counselor with a private practice in West Palm Beach, FL. Having a specialty in addictions and celebrating his 10th year of sobriety, he conducts group and private sessions for public and private treatment facilities. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and via www.7dragons.org.

Footnotes
1 Divination is the art or practice that seeks to foresee or foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge usually by the interpretation of omens or by the aid of supernatural powers.
2 This term was made popular by the works of Carlos Castaneda, first found in his book, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1968.
3 This phrase first used by Michael Harner, found in his book, The Way of the Shaman: A Guide to Power and Healing, New York: Harper & Row, 1980.
4 Ibid.

This article is published in Counselor,The Magazine for Addiction Professionals, October 2004, v.5, n.5, pp. 60-61.

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