The Sacred Space of Healing
I am asked all the time what "ceremony" is and how you do it within a container of healing. This is but a brief description of what is done and why it is very important when you are doing any entheogens. Medicine plants and psychedelics have been used for thousands of years, very successfully for healing and spiritual enlightenment. They were never intended for the casual party goer. However, some have had amazing results even in that environment, but I would not recommend it.
Many ask: "What is a shamanic ceremony, and why is it so important for entheogens?" These ceremonies are not casual events. Plant medicine, Kambo, magic mushrooms, and cacao have been used for thousands of years for healing and spiritual enlightenment. While some may experience benefits in informal settings, true transformation requires a container of intention, safety, and reverence.
A shamanic healing ceremony creates the environment where vulnerability is honored and deep change can occur. Your desire for healing — whether a longing for wholeness, connection to God/Goddess, or relief from trauma — acts like a vacuum, drawing the universe's healing energy toward you. When the call is sincere, help arrives through a teacher, guide, or spirit ally.
How Shamanic Healing Works
At its core, shamanic healing involves the shaman connecting deeply with the Spirit of kindness, compassion, and divine love. Ancestors, guides, and spirits of the natural world are invited to the circle. These spiritual allies work with participants to reveal the inner self and guide healing at the soul level.
Healing unfolds gradually — like peeling layers of an onion. As soul fragments are reclaimed through soul retrieval, participants experience a profound sense of wholeness. Over time, less healing is required as the individual moves toward authenticity and sovereignty.
Learn More About Soul Retrieval
Ceremony Practices
Shamanic ceremonies combine ritual, music, and plant medicine to facilitate deep healing:
Kambo treatments: Support emotional and energetic cleansing.
Cacao ceremonies: Open the heart for love, connection, and spiritual insight.
Psilocybin or other plant medicine: Facilitate visions, self-discovery, and emotional breakthroughs.
Drumming and song: Guide participants into altered states and support the flow of energy.
These practices allow the shaman to hold space and navigate emotional releases, visions, or deep inner insights safely.
Explore Psychedelic Mushroom Ceremonies
How to Identify a Skilled Shaman
Not all facilitators are equally prepared. Ask yourself:
Do they know the spirits they work with?
Can they clearly describe the ceremonial container they hold?
Do they have methods for discharging negative energy or attachments?
Are they guided by experience and a connection to God/Goddess or the Divine?
A truly skilled shaman is guided by Spirit, not ego. Their role is to hold and direct healing energy, helping participants safely release trauma, reclaim soul fragments, and reconnect with their authentic selves.
Shamanic Healing with Soul Retrieval
Why a Shamanic Ceremony Works
Modern research confirms what shamans have known for millennia:
Psychedelic-assisted therapy improves emotional regulation, reduces trauma responses, and enhances neuroplasticity (Nature Human Behaviour, 2022).
Ritualized, guided ceremonies provide structure and safety, dramatically increasing the chance for lasting transformation (Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2023).
Plant medicines engage both mind and spirit, promoting insight, emotional release, and spiritual connection (Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2022).
Integration and Continued Growth
Healing does not end when the ceremony ends. Integration practices — journaling, mindfulness, and mentorship — allow participants to apply insights to daily life, strengthening emotional resilience and spiritual awareness. Soul retrieval, in particular, provides a foundation for long-term wholeness.
Plant Medicine Allies for Your Vision Quest
When we create a space or an environment that supports vulnerability and we are truly open – we can truly change. Our desire is the burning fire in our core, a longing, an ache for healing, a connectedness to oneness (god), or some great sorrow. Our need creates a vacuum in the universe that pulls the healing energy to us. When nothing comes, the burning desire continues and the vacuum gets larger and stronger- the Universe hates a vacuum. Help is on the way. A teacher of sorts.
How does Shamanic healing happen?
Shamans develop a heartfelt conversation between the deepest levels of themselves and the Spirits of kindness, compassion, love and generosity. These are all the aspects of the Living God/Goddess or Spirit of our understanding. We call these spirits to us, inviting then to our healing circle, and then we call our ancestors from thousands of years ago along with our participants' ancestors and guides. These spirits have waited your whole life to help you. They come in many shapes and forms and they come to you for you to truly see the inner you. They come to guide you to a healing at a soul level- because when we heal at a soul level we no longer have to keep searching for the missing key that completes us-we "feel" whole and authentic. None of this is done in one session, but as we peel the layers of our wounds off like an onion we need less and less healing. Once that is done we stand in the gap of time and space for others- the ether where we draw down the light of the Divine for others to heal. This is the true work of the Shaman.
Shamanic Healing comes out in a fierce declaration of personal sovereignty. That personal sovereignty is not haughty or egotistical. It is the direct knowing that we are only a vessel, a hollow bone. We are nothing but what the Spirit allows in the moment.
Shamanic Healing Spokane Washington
During a Shamanic Healing Ceremony is where we ride this wave of self-sovereign healing energy. We feel that energy rise with a slow build of drums, songs and powerful music, the release for our participants, comes with tears of gratitude, a gentle cry, or peals of laughter. If not acted upon the tide of energy will subside. If we choose we can allow this tide to rise and fall many times until we "feel" safe enough to allow our walls down to experience the emotion, and that raw emotion then becomes focused into pure energy of intentional healing.
Shamans hold this flow. Then we step back. Our bodies and our spirit listen and at this time a response comes, it can be slight or astounding but always comes from deep inside us. It comes directly from the spirit world, the ether. In this place we are told what to do for our participants. We are in a deep place, with complete trust and we don't look back, everything is now in the hand of Spirit. This pivotal moment in ceremony only takes a few moments for each individual, but it does not happen without mindful planning, grounding, and the development of sacred space. Calling the direction by someone that knows the spirits of the air, water, fire and earth, and spirit, goes a long way in a ceremony that is guarded by kind and helpful spirits.
How do you know if your shaman is holding space?
So here are a few questions to ask yourself and anyone holding space for your healing: Does this shaman or plant facilitator know the spirits that they work with? Do they have any hesitancy in speaking with you about this? Do they call in a container for ceremony? What does it look like to them? Do they know how to dispatch and discharge negative energy and attachments? For my Christian bothers and sisters, you would call that a demon. Please note that not all ceremonies will be fairies and rainbows. Most negative energies are taken care of with no one the wiser, but negative energies do exist and need to be taken out of our energy field. Please note that there is no such thing as a bad trip only a facilitator with little knowledge.
I have sat in ceremony with people who trained in Peru and with someone that never "trained" at all. It really makes no difference. What makes the difference is the direct knowledge that they have with Spirit and the Divine. Those gifted with healing abilities will be guided by the God/Goddess of their understanding, search for those.
Meehl Foundation Blog
External Research References
Nature Human Behaviour, 2022 – Psilocybin & self-transcendent experiences
Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2023 – Psychedelics and trauma therapy
Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2022 – Emotional regulation and well-being
Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 2021
Consciousness and Cognition, 2020 – Psychedelic experiences and insight
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