Experiences of novice shamans during their initiatory crises and when they later induce these states during the work with their clients.
Experiences in the rites of passage (Arnold van Gennep), ceremonies that native cultures perform at the time of important biological and social transitions (birth, circumcision, puberty, wedding, menopause, dying, initiation into warrior status and when the tribe migrates into other territories).
Experiences of the initiates in the ancient mysteries of death and rebirth in Sumer, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Asia Minor, Scandinavia, Mesoamerica, based on important myths (Inanna and Dummuzi, Isis and Osiris, Demeter and Persephone, Orpheus and Eurydice, Dionysus, Attis, Adonis, Corybantes, Mithra, Wotan, Quetzalcoatl, and Mayan Hero Twins).
Experiences induced by “technologies of the sacred” developed in the context of the great religions of the world – Hindu yogic practices; Buddhist Theravada, Vipassana, Zen and Vajrayana; Tantra; Taoist and Jain meditation techniques; Sufi dhikrs and Whirling Dervishes; Hesychasm (Jesus prayer); Cabbalistic meditations.
Psychedelic experiences induced by plants (Psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, Pedro cactus, Morning glory, Ayahuasca, Salvia divinorum, Hawaiian woodrose), secretions of the toad Bufo alvarius, and chemical alkaloids (LSD-25, LAE-32, psilocybin, mescaline, salvinorine, 5-MeO-DMT, MDMA) and other psychedelics and entheogens.
Experiential therapies – primal therapy, rebirthing, holotropic breathwork.
Spiritual Emergences (Transpersonal crises).
Experiences induced by laboratory instruments – sensory deprivation, biofeedback
IMPORTANT CONDITIONS FOR A SUCCESSFUL THERAPY OF HOLOTROPIC STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Good Therapeutic Relationship
An Understanding of the Vast Cartography of the Psyche:
Postnatal Experiences: emotional and physical trauma, age regression, Freudian individual unconscious, COEX Systems
Perinatal Experiences: Birth Matrices: BPM I – IV
Transpersonal Experiences: Jungian Historical and Archetypal Collective Unconscious, Ancestral, Racial, Past Life and Phylogenetic Experiences
Bodywork in the Termination Period of the Session, occasionally during the process
Supportive and Nourishing Physical Contact (Anaclitic fusion)
Being Guided by Inner Intelligence during Emotional Abreaction and Bodywork
Importance of Music – significant proportion of music that activates the “primal mind”- it has the strong impact on people without regard of gender, age, race, and historical period; powerful and engaging music during the middle part (“breakthrough music); spiritual, ritual, ethnic pieces, “heart music;” in the terminal period feminine voices, comforting, flowing and meditative music. No human voices in languages that participants understand, no jarring sounds, cacophony, synthetic and techno-music. If possible beautiful meditative music should be playing as long as participants are still in process; it should not be abruptly stopped.
Importance of Art – painting mandalas, Soul/Collage, sculpting
Sharing narratives and mandalas and Post-Session Integration: Gestalt practice (Perls), psychodrama (Moreno), Jungian sand play (Kalff), Systemic Family Constellations (Hellinger), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR-Shapiro), expressive painting and dancing, jogging, swimming, and other forms of physical exercise, releasing bodywork, acupuncture, meditation and movement meditation (hatha yoga, tai-chi, qi-gong).