The Relationship Cauldron: The gift of interpersonal conflicts!

All that we experience is a gift. Even pain is a gift! Anytime we get information that creates uncomfortable sensations in our body it has to do with alerting our conscious mind to look at choices and to make those that serve us more holistically.

What facilitates this work happening expediantly are the “tools” (http://scottlsherman.com/frameset.html)  that have been developed over centuries and which I have gathered, added to and expanded upon.

Most often when I suggest that conflict is a gift; that relationships are a kind of cauldron I am met with incredulous comments. How can such hurt and pain be a gift?

Referring to other blog entries helps to understand what this is about.

Once people get the idea that when conflict occurs it allows for rapid personal integration and consciousness expansion it is possible to adapt the understanding and belief of conflict being a gift.

The work has to do with learning to look inward, to our sensations and how they connect us with aspects of ourself. The vision is to remove the prescriptive blocks and allow the flow of energy and information between sensations and thoughts.

As that work happens it gets easier and easier. The hardest part is grasping that changing self is a whole lot easier than trying to change anyone else’s behavior or thoughts.

When both (or the set as with groups) adopt that understanding and belief then change towards health and happiness, balance and harmony, becomes even easier.

The work can become faster or slower by moderation of the temperature of the heat under the cauldron. Both individuals (or all) meditating and working to calm inner-turmoil increases the cooling. That can optimise the change process or prevent it from happening. Too much cooling can lead to a response similar to the proverbial “Saint in the Monastery”, who upon re-joining society finds themselves back in the Jeckyl and Hyde pattern.

Learning to modulate inner turmoil stimulated by “other” allows for a faster and deeper connection between neuro-cortex and body. Mind and Body become more closely linked and the transition from reactive to responsive increases. What used to take years or months to work through and regain “presence” or “center” can be reduced to days or even hours or minutes.

Practicing and agreeing to take time outs to re-center and then returning to process the interactions increases the rate of turn-around time. That tends to increase and stimulate our neuro-cortex, the newest part of our brain. Our third-eye is stimulated, self-awareness increases and our ability to change in the now is augmented.

I believe that the process of taking time outs is critical to our work. How about if I focus on that in my next entry?

What is Shamanic Vision Psychotherapy?

Okay, if you havn't figured it out by now you are not alone. I am still figuring it out!

It is all a gift! I have been talking and writing about Shamanic Psychotherapy as a way to broaden my and other therapists perspective on the field. When I typed in shamanicpsychotherapy for my blog title I was clued in that title has been taken (probably by me in another life-time: That is another story) and one of the choices Google gave me was the current title with "vision" included. Immediately I experienced a warm flowing energy and knew that to be right!

The "shamanic" aspect has to do with bringing into the therapy the concept of a much bigger Universe; one that includes upper worlds, lower worlds, other worlds; and, in short, alternative realities. Psychotherapy deals with "dissociation" but has not stretched the concept of just where soul parts go when one is traumatized and dissociates. As a matter of fact most psychotherapy does not give a whole lot of consideration to "soul". It seems that is in the realm of Ministers or Reverends to consider. Not so!

This blog is in the business of "stretching".

"Trauma", itself, needs to be considered in more detail. We are traumatized in many more ways then most consider. Most focus is on big trauma's like rape and war. We are also traumatized by repeated shaming or blaming messages. And, also by self corruption: Choices to act outside of our personal code of honor and/or our family or communities values.

When the trauma occurs immediately or a little bit over time our Soul becomes very uncomfortable in  Body. "We are a Soul; we have a Body; and, we have a Higher Self! It is the Higher Selfs job to make sure the Body is a safe container for the Soul." A safe container is one where we are walking and talking with integrity. As Joseph Campbell alludes to with his motto: "The purpose of my life is to become fully integrated."

When we are doing what we are supposed to be doing our Soul (think many pieces) are more comfortable and rejoin our body. Some, severely traumatized stay out of our bodies and are somewhere out in non-ordinary reality! Wow! How to find them . . . how to heal? No worry; our wounded soul parts in conjunction with our Over-Soul (Damion) will conspire to set us up to be "worked" in our day-to-day relations. They do this mostly via our interactions with significant others (think Relationship Cauldron) to provoke us to heal!

Here comes Vision! The work requires someone to be "in the field of love"; to leave their body and go into non-ordinary reality to seek out wounded and lost soul parts. Shamans have been doing this for hundreds of thousands of years. Mystics and psychics do this. The arts provide images through paintings, poetry and music, to name a few.

A Shamanic Vison Therapist does so by guiding clients into their own non-ordinary reality!  We each have our own non-ordinary reality. What I experience as the lower or upper world can be vastly different from what you would experience. How can that be? We are each the center of the Universe. It is our combined co-creativeness that brings order or chaos into our worlds. While we can get closer and closer to approximating other's reality (order) we can never fully step into or be at one with all others.

The parameters of that last statement have yet to be fully comprehended. Maybe the only way to get back to the Garden of Eden is for us to merge realities 100%.

Vision work, envisioning is critical. Many people are stymied and not able to let go of the concrete reality, prescribed by Self, Family, Society and World. We all have the capacity to envision our own healing. We do so by honoring our experiences and the challenges we face, with gratitude; and then going through the gate-ways or portals of our holographic experiential body into non-ordinary reality to access the particular sensate specific soul part. However, many of us have limitations in our ability to access our envisioning skills due to heredity, specific personality attributes, beliefs, conditioning, etc. In some cases the practitioner may need to do the psycho-navigation. That is skilled work and problematic. Best to train clients or one's self to access our own soul parts.

To expedite envisioning is worthy of a separate blog entry and will be forthcoming.

Another future blog entry will have to do with finding healing via shamanic visioning vs. finding healing via meditation and attitudinal shifting.

 They all work.

What works best for "full personal integration"?

That is the operative question!

Holographic Awareness as Portals for Healing!

Understanding our unconscious sensations with holographic awareness offers many ways of healing.

One of my favorites from the shamanic perspective is to realize that the holographic sensations serve as portals through which we can psycho-navigate into non-ordinary reality to access wounded selves. Doing so requires that we know how to stay present in our adult and responsible selves, connected to Source. It requires that we have a clear sense of our boundaries between "reality" and "non-ordinary reality." Soul parts when experiencing trauma are often found "hidden" in non-ordinary reality yet the threads of connectivity between those parts and our holographic memories are there for us to follow!

We can also intentionally work with the sensations and their holographic hold on us by transforming the qualities to something more pleasant. For example a deep, dark bottom-less hole that sucks energy can be given a bottom. A huge sphere of dark, cold energy can be given warmth and light! We do this through manipulations based on our polar universe and creative imaginations. Where there is dark, there is light. And, there is also a middle path.

I find in my work with self and clients that when an uncomfortable physiological sensation is matched with a polar opposite sensation we then are considering a continuum. Blending the two extremes as an alchemist would can then create a third and centered state of consciousness that our soul parts find more pleasant. This can be another way of reassuring and re-educating the often immature, pure and innocent and somewhat ignorant soul parts. Give them some comfort base in our bodies to attach themselves to and they will. It is there want, and ours, to be United!

Our holographic awarenesses can also be the fertility leading to expressiveness via thought, word and deed! This leads me to state: Where imagination and intention go; there also goes energy! This awareness goes hand in hand with "Be careful what you ask for as you might have to experience it!"
Beings as how this is mostly so where we walk "in the field of love" or in a state of grace one doesn't need to worry too much about that fear. Yet, why waste the time when we can engender great energy and activity towards healing and manifestation of "our hearts desire" by harnessing the energy that we experience in and around our holographic portals.


Defusing a trigger or button (and our holographic sensations are, indeed, often just that) can then free up an abundance of energy. We no longer need to keep ourselves connected to lost soul parts. They have re-joined us and we have more energy and fewer detractions. Channeling that energy and focus into our desires is greatly beneficial.


Considering the above. I challenge you to find a quietness within yourselves and between yourself and the world and then enter into one of the scary places via breath, relaxation and remembering. Go into that territory with breath, gratitude and an adult, responsible caring self and invite a dialogue with a wounded part of yourself. Be open to hearing and experiencing what that "other" has to share with you. Stay present with breath, relaxation and clear boundaries about who is responsible and invite that part to join you. Reassure it that you can hold the center while it processes. You can comfort it back into the now and welcome home a vital part of yourself.


Questions? Let me know!

It's all about: What You Are Experiencing Inside!

Our cultural way of training each other is primarily through "shame" and "blame."

We now know that the most effective way to train towards self-realization is via "acknowledgement" and "encouragement".

However, because so many of us learned what we learned and know what we know via shame and blame we have skewed our awareness to a very intellectual plane. It is easier and not so scary to spend time in our heads. It also is not as productive or "healing"!

Here is the gest (interesting that "gest" is so similar to "jest", isn't it?) of what that is about. Our thoughts are mostly linear: our feelings and sensations are holographic. The hologram contains tons more information than linear awareness; and, as that is so, it is very easy to get overwhelmed with our holographic sensational awareness. This is the realm of the poet, musician and artist. It wants us to become expressive and there-in is perhaps the rub. Our very expressiveness in life is what so often brings about the shaming and blaming messages which has led to our wariness of un-bridled expressiveness.

My experience, personal and professional, is that having some clear and respectful boundaries not just between self and other but also, and maybe most importantly, between self and selves!

Without these boundaries we get flooded! Overwhelmed and "put-upon." We loose our sense of place and direction. With them we can more easily function along our own paths paying attention to our own agenda.

Learning to explore our holographic awarenesses is incredibly exciting and engenders wonderful productivity. It has to do with breath, relaxation, focus of awareness on what we are experiencing "in-the-now" and basking in our own creative awareness. An operative question is: If what you are experiencing right now were an object in your body what would it be like? What in our world could create the sensations you are now experiencing?

It continues to fascinate me as to what people experience when they go to that place with curiosity and creative imagination. Depression can be a huge sphere, dark and cold and bigger than the room. It can also be experienced as a deep hole that sucks energy. Love can be a warm glow that is rainbow hued and vast. Clarity can be a bright light flowing from a crystal. The experiences are infinite and very dependent on personal experiences and beliefs.

A fully developed holographic sensation would have shape, size, color, form, texture, temperature, weight, energy, etc. Imagine how creative expression can stem from these ponderings!

Imagine, also how some sensations, connected to past experiences or feared consequences can be all consuming in a frightening way. When connected with past experiences which have not been resolved they can assume the portions of terror or abject loss! Deep and toxic shame or overwhelming guilt.

Such potential experiences are why we must enter such territory with great and careful approach of boundary setting; gratitude, breath and a sense of our ability to "Stay Present in The Moment!" Without that we can too easily regress into our reptillian brain stem, fear, anxiety, terror, etc.

What do you think?

Pathways to Personal Integration: Life's Purpose!

Wow, did I in my last blog suggest that I could provide some guidance towards personal integration?

That is a tall order: Yet, why not? When we are all collectively pursuing just that (whether or not we know it) and are cooperatively co-creating ways towards integration! The paths are many and they all lead to becoming One!

So what I have to offer is not for everyone and many of my readers and potential readers are already well on the path of intentional integration and healing.

Today is a tight schedule for me so I will take this as an opportunity to give a brief outline and a link: http://scottlsherman.com/ Yeah, the link takes you to my web-site. It's okay though as one only needs to pay attention to the first piece under "Tools".

There are a few simple steps that do take some practice. They are very effective. I have been working them and been worked by them for the past 15 to 20 years. My changes are marked with greater peace, health and happiness.

Many say it is all in the breath and to a great degree that is so. The "signal breath" reminds us that we are not literally in danger of loosing our life: We don't need to hang out in our reptilian brain stem. And, the single most revolutionary act any of us can ever commit is to refuse to stay in fear! Blow the air out; take several deep full breaths with belly swelling and remind self that we (our collective selves) are safe! 


Then turn your attention not to what is happening outside of self but inside! Notice where there is tension or stress or discomfort. Breathe into that complex with gratitude and notice what happens. This process establishes a link between higher self, adult responsible mind (neuro-complex) and body. That link allows us to practice intentional breath and healing.

That complex of sensations is the gate-way! It is a holographic complexity that links us to our issues or wounds. And, gratitude allows us to work with the issues in such a way as to not flood us with memories or emotions. It is where the work needs to happen and can happen. Regardless of our path for healing!

See you later!

Dissociation and Non-ordinary Reality

Psychotherapy and common-sense experience has it that we dissociate at different times in our day-to-day realities. Could be just "day-dreaming" or might be in response to some kind of trauma.

Beyond talking about dissociation in the sense that "we leave our bodies" there is not too much written or commonly understood in the psychotherapy field that has to do with a sense of expanded definitions of the phenomena.

What I love about the shamanic world view is that it has a great amount of information to share with us about what happens to our soul when we dissociate.

First is that, as a rule our whole soul does not leave our bodies. Just a time-slice. And, what tends to leave us is a sense of our purity and innocence. Perhaps our will-power or our self-protective self. Maybe even our imagination or creative self. The list goes on!

Where do these "pieces" of ourselves go?

The shamanic world view has it that they go somewhere into non-ordinary reality. Not in this space and time but somewhere into the past, the future, the upper world, the lower world and perhaps even into an alternate reality. The Universe is vast and our souls have been around for a long time. The soul parts know where to go where they will be safe. When we are unable or un-wise in our living choices and set ourselves up for more self abuse or corruption a piece of us splits off. Sometimes it is our better sense. When we regain our sense of self-care then we come back into some semblance of integration although perhaps with less of an intact personality.

One can see how easy it is over time to become less integrated. All it takes is some kind of high stress or high wantonness to lead us down the paths of paring ourselves down!

Our job as individuals and as healers is to find and cultivate "presence" and to then explore the territories of non-ordinary reality in such a way as to locate and retrieve soul parts so that they can return into our bodies and merge with our greater sense of soul-self.

Joseph Campbell's motto was "The purpose of my life is to become fully integrated!" I adopt that motto as one worthy of immolation. To become fully integrated is to become the seeker and healer for one's own personhood. To do so means that we need be able to find a safe place in this reality to intentionally leave our bodies and "psycho-navigate" into unchartered territories to locate, reassure, re-educate and otherwise comfort wounded or lost soul parts back into our bodies.

Energy follows intention! And, when our intention is to heal and we find a place in our lives where we can feel safe and loved then the intention to heal can create a reality where we find ourselves healing. We connect with people who resonate with us in such a way as to allow or provoke us to find our lost soul parts.

Now that the shamanic world view has returned out of the shadows (where it was perhaps hidden by the great-white-fathers) we can conceive of our healing in a totally greater holistic sense. Our imaginations and creative selves, our awareness of micro and macro realities, and our practicing mind-full-ness and radical forgiveness for self and others excites the wounded soul parts such that they seek us out. In a way they set us up to compel us to find them. And, we now know how and where to look.

How wonderful. We can't not heal or become enlightened because the purpose of our lives is to become fully integrated.

I have heard that in quantum physics there is a concept that once any particle has touched it will touch once-again. And, as we intend for our soul particles to re-unite they will be attracted to each other with a greater sense of compelling need. And our intentionality works with us to facilitate the seeking and finding as well as the merging and healing.

This can and will be problematic. What it takes is firm nurturance and clear boundary setting . . . even for our own soul parts. To have them all become attracted at once results in our being emotionally flooded. Establishing a contract with them to heal will set up conditions where they will return in a manner that allows us to increasingly and gracefully heal. So maybe it takes ten years. What is that in terms of countless life-times?

How to do that?

Check in with me next blog!

Where Angels Fear to Tread!

April 1, 2010

The Day of the Fool: Fools step in where angels fear to tread!

What is this about the fool? And, we relegate one day a year to honoring foolishness, which when one thinks about it is hardly enough!

In the indigenous world the “contrary” plays the part of the fool. The role is to make fun of others that they not take themselves too seriously. The persons usually portrayed are the leaders (chief, medicine man, etc.).

To be foolish is, simply put to do things differently than others.

This provides a meaningful contrast to our “seriousness” and “proprieties”. It gives us the opportunity to compare by and move in the direction of compromise or balance.

Only a fool would “re-invent the wheel.” Good thing there are lots of fools throughout history or we would be driving around on stone wheels, or wheels made of sticks.

Being a person blessed/cursed with ADHD many of my actions have appeared to others as “foolish”. Indeed many have been. And yet much of who I am and how it comes about that I am "re-inventing" psychotherapy is because "standard" psychotherapy just doesn't make much sense to me.

Take the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual)! Who devised that way of sense making out of human behavior? Appears to me to have been designed by people who felt more comfortable judging others and finding a simplistic way of dealing with them. Drug companies love the DSM and so do people who prescribe medications. The DSM provides a crutch for practitioners to label and "fix". It does not help us to figure out how to give people tools and self-concepts for change. Once labeled one tends to be stigmatized. The placebo effect then generates more dysfunctional behavior!

Another approach is more along the lines of "symptom management"!

That helps but it is not enough.

The quasi-spiritual approach considering that our souls are not fully integrated and that our lifestyles tend to disintegrate who we are seems to me to explain more and to allow us to create models of Soul Integration.

And, that is what this blog is about!