Narrye Caldwell - Shamanic Extraction Healing Training™

Join us as Narrye Caldwell shares her transformative journey into core shamanism, the power of extraction healing, and how these practices can deepen your spiritual connection and healing abilities. Discover practical insights, personal stories, and expert guidance on integrating shamanic techniques into your life.

Guest: Narrye Caldwell, MTCM, LAc
Guests Bio: https://www.shamanism.org/faculty/narrye-caldwell/
Guest Website: https://www.narryecaldwell.com/

Host: Kerri Husman, MD Bio: https://www.shamanism.org/faculty/kerri-husman/
Website: https://www.mammothhills.com/services/courses-in-core-shamanism/

Workshop: Shamanic Extraction Healing Training™
https://www.shamanism.org/workshops/shamanic-extraction-healing/

Learn more about shamanism and shamanic workshops by visiting the website of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies: https://www.shamanism.org

Transcript

Introduction to Shamanic Healing

Speaker 0:07

You are listening to the Way of the Shaman Podcast with your host, Kerri Husman. The content shared in the Way of the Shaman Podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional or therapeutic advice. The views expressed by the host and interviewees reflect their personal experiences and opinions. Please consult with an appropriate licensed professional if you have any medical, psychological, or legal concerns.

Kerri 0:38

Hello, and welcome to the Way of the Shaman podcast. I'm your host, Kerri Husman, and today Narrye Caldwell is joining us. We're going to be talking about shamanic extraction healing training, the in-person workshop today, as well as her experiences coming to course shamanism. Welcome, Narrey.

Narrye 0:59

Thank you very much, Kerri. It's good to be here.

Kerri 1:02

Well, I'm so glad to have you. Narrye has taught all the workshops in-person and virtually and continues to offer those, and it's such a delight to have her. And it's been a delight personally for me to take workshops with her.

Narrye 1:15

Thank you.

Narrye's Journey to Shamanism

Kerri 1:16

So tell us a little bit about how core shamanism and specifically Michael Harner's work found you.

Narrye 1:24

Well, Carrie, that's um a remarkable story, I think. And it comes in two parts. Um the first part is something I've actually never talked about publicly, and I decided now's the time. So um this is kind of the prequel to everything that happened afterwards. Um and this is a dream that I had starting at about the age of six, um six or five or six, somewhere in there. I had a recurring dream. Um it was a nightmare for me at that time because I didn't understand what it was about. But in this dream, I'm walking up the staircase in our old home in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, where I grew up. And when you looked over this the banister of that staircase, you could see the hallway below. And in the dream, I looked down, and there's a great big hole in the floor in that hallway, and out of that hole emerges a giant python that begins to slither up the stairs at me, and I, of course, am terrified of being wrapped up and strangled and smothered and all of that stuff. And of course, like ha what happens in dreams, you can't move. Right. I couldn't I couldn't move, and I'm screaming, and and and finally the snake reaches me and begins to wrap around me. Of course I wake up screaming. Well, this dream came back repeatedly throughout my childhood, and what's very strange about it now to me is that I never told a soul. You'd think a little kid would run to their parents or something like that, right? Right. But there was something in me that knew in a very childlike and innocent way that this was not for anybody else to know about. So I just hung in there and bore up and you know, and and eventually it left. The dream left, but it not until I was about a teenager, right? And then I go on with my life. I just go on with my life and and go to college and I get married, I have a family, I do all these things. I got into Chinese medicine, um, and was just beginning a clinical practice in Chinese medicine, and one night the dream came back. By this time I'm in my early forties. Oh wow. Right? And I was shocked, but it came back in a slightly different version. And in this version, this is the fun part um I'm standing on a little bridge, and in the distance there's a a little cottage, a really attractive little rustic cottage. And there's a sign, a wooden sign over the cottage door that says apothecary. Now I'm studying herbalism in Chinese medicine, and I look at that and I go, Oh, I really that's what I want. I want that medicine. I want to go there. And the minute I start to cross and approach the um cottage, the the front door gets flung open and the snake comes out. And this time it's a little smaller, but it's flying in the air at me. Oh wow. Um and my first response was like a six-year-old. I was like terrified. And then something happened, and this is kind of it turned into a little bit of a lucid dream because I got mad. And so as it approached in the air, I reached out and I grabbed it in the dream and I shook it really hard. I was really angry. Um, and I said, What do you want from me? And at that moment this snake got this big grin on its face, very kind, very loving, and it said, I'm not what you think I am. And then I woke up and something really had changed for me there. Now, this was years before I studied I I I discovered shamanism. Um clearly, I learned later that it was a very shamanic dream. It was just out of time, you know, and I grew up in a family. Had I been living in any kind of traditional or indigenous culture, there would have been elders around me who who would have explained all this to me, but um that was not my childhood. So the timing was off. But it came back when it knew maybe I was open in a very different form. Um and it was it was actually years before I figured all this out, but what it did was it got me involved

The Intersection of Chinese Medicine and Shamanism

Narrye 6:16

at the same time. I was I was I was involved in my in my um traditional Chinese medical practice and really enjoying that. It's beautiful medicine. Um But I also was getting involved with Carl Jung's work. Okay. So that work, um, yeah, I should just I should just plunge ahead with this because what I decided, I was at a place in my Chinese medical practice where something was missing. I was just, it was something was missing. And um a little bit of a sidebar here is that Chinese medicine um has deep roots in shamanic cultures, very deep sources in shamanism. All of that the spiritual side of the medicine was pretty much stripped out of it. Oh, when it was brought to the West Yeah, when it was brought to the West, and even in China during the cultural revolution in the sixties in China, um it became illegal um to do things like, for instance, study the Yi Jing, which was the is the great book of divination and magic and sorcery um and spiritual practices uh from thousands of years ago. It was illegal to study that book. And people who got caught having private study groups, secret study groups, were put in jail for sometimes decades. So there was this whole um repression of of a lot of the spiritual acts uh aspects of the medicine. Um but I sensed that it was there, and because I originally came from traditional Chinese kung fu and martial arts and was still practicing that, that it's interesting that that's where those old spiritual practices still lived. Right?

Kerri 8:07

Wow.

Narrye 8:08

So a lot of the Qigong were shamanic activities, they were ways of merging with animals and things like that. Um so I knew it was there, but I couldn't I couldn't quite access it, so I thought, ah, I know what I'll do. I'll I'll um continue with the study of depth psychology, uh, which was really intriguing to me, and then I'll kind of blend that in and I'll have a spiritual way in with my clients, you know. So little did I know. So I I I was accepted to a program that had a um two-year master's um program in deaf psychology, and the semester started,

Discovering Core Shamanism

Narrye 8:47

and this is the this is the miracle part of the story. They said, Well, we're gonna start the semester with a five-day retreat in Santa Fe. Um I said, Fine, that sounds great. Off I go. I didn't even look at the curriculum, I just like went. And I I walk in the very first night, I walked in and meet my cohort there, and they're all sitting in a circle on the floor. I'm like, this is fine, this is cool. I grew up in a Quaker community, I can do this right. So I sit down. And the teacher um pulls out um a buffalo drum, a one-sided shamanic drum, and begins to drum. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like this. And I burst into tears. I had no idea what the heck was happening to me. I'm here to go to school, right? I burst into tears. And so I kind of pulled myself together, and then um the teacher says, Well, the first thing we're gonna do here as part of this five-day retreat is we're gonna teach you to journey. So it turned out this whole five days was this person had studied with Michael and um taught us to journey, and um the whole thing was an introduction to core shamanism, much to my surprise. I never heard of shamanism in the West like this.

Kerri 10:08

Wow.

Narrye 10:08

So, so I uh my very first journey, I had no idea what I was doing. I just thought, well, okay, I can follow directions, I'm good at following directions. So off I go, and I went, it was journey to the lower world. A lot of people listening to this know about this journey to the lower world. And down I go, and I'm earnest. I'm earnest in my I want to do this right, right, and get a good grade. So, you know. So um down I go. I kind of like stumbled into this new world, and I remember looking around and going, whoa, I'm definitely in a new place. So I went, that's good. They told me to do that, so that's good. So I said, Oh, I'm supposed to look for an animal. So uh the moment I had that thought, this animal is in front of me. Big eyes right in front of me. And I'm like, oh, this is very real. Um and so I went, Well, what am I do now? Oh, I'm supposed to ask the animal a question. So I said, How do I know when I'm on the right path in my life?

Kerri 11:12

Great question.

Narrye 11:13

The minute I asked that question, my heart, in ordinary reality, my heart just melted like you're falling in love, like that feeling of your heart just getting warm and expanding. It was a physical feeling. And the animal said to me, Do you feel that? And I said, Yes, I do. And the animal said, That's how you know. That changed my life.

Kerri 11:40

Wow.

Narrye 11:41

That was a game changer. So I came back from that retreat and I um withdrew from the master's program in death psychology. And I mean, what a roundabout way the spirits took to get me there, you know, right. Um and and then I went straight to the foundation for shamanic studies because I had asked this person, where where did you learn this? And she said, Oh, you go to the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. Um so I just took everything, everything the Foundation offered. And when I finished taking everything, I took it again. You know, is that what was what we do, right? Right. Um, because you can't step into the same river twice. So every time you take another workshop that you may have done multiple times, do it again. It'll be different. It deepens deepens your experience. Exactly.

Kerri 12:30

Grows your relationships, builds new ones.

Narrye 12:33

Exactly, right? So that was my kind of crazy um I mean in hindsight, in hindsight, it brought me deep understanding of all of these threads that we all have in our lives that seem to be unrelated in some way, and we we just stumble along, and I don't know what that was about, but that was then, this is now and now. They all um I mean the beautiful thing about getting older as I am is y you you can look back in hindsight and you see the the weaving. Right. They're making a weaving of your life where it's all connected. Um yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Kerri 13:14

Beautiful.

The Shamanic Worldview

Kerri 13:16

So it it certainly sounds like uh your experience with traditional Chinese medicine in some ways prepared you for core shamanism. Yeah, yeah. And and you still have a um your own practice. I mean, even if you're not yeah, I don't know that you're doing TCM as a as a practitioner for others anymore, or are you?

Narrye 13:38

Uh no, I'm not. But but here's the thing, you're you're you're right. Let me back up because that um that experience, that immersion in in Chinese medicine did set me up for uh this kind of I was o really open to this new worldview. Um Chinese medicine was the first time I encountered um a system of life, basically. I mean it's a medical system, but it's a it's a life system that is is a different worldview from the Western mechanical worldview that we tend to have in this culture, um where things are are seen as more machine-like. If there's a broken part, you take it out and replace it or you fix it or something like that. Um the worldview that Chinese medicine um provides, and also I think is very similar to the shamanic worldview, is that everything in life is related and interdependent. Um and that being um well and thriving, um the whole thing has to be well and thriving, right? All of it. Um and so instead of treating disease in Chinese medicine, we would treat a pattern of imbalance. So we had to figure out how did this person get out get separated from nature and the cosmos and the natural cycle of things and life, how did they get separated from that? What's the pattern of d of imbalance there that we need to or that we can address? And then you use herbs and lifestyle and Qigong and needles, any, you know, all these things to bring that person into this web of life again. So being immersed in that I'll call it the web worldview really set me up for for the shamanic worldview, which which of course um and I refer people to the wonderful workshop that's online called the shamanic worldview. That's a beautiful workshop because it really immerses you experientially in this worldview that everything is alive. Everything is alive. And once you have that experience and connect with that worldview, it changes how you walk in the world.

Kerri 16:10

Absolutely.

Narrye 16:11

Yeah.

Kerri 16:12

To know that your mug has a spirit. Yes. Potentially has an opinion.

Narrye 16:18

Yes, yes. I can tell you my car has an opinion for sure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it really changes and and it it so so the plant, I mean, like right now I have a tree out on my back patio, and I look at it every day, and it looks like it might be dying. It it keeps, you know, the branches keep turning, you know, and I trim it and tr try to trim off the dead branches, and then some new dead branch arises. And I'm like, this is affecting me. It's affecting my home and the well-being of all of us that live near that tree. And I know that I have to figure that out in order to for everything here to thrive. But that's a different world view, isn't it? From you know, um, so so we pay attention to everybody's well-being. Everybody's and everything is important. It changes it changes you, it gives you compassion. Yeah.

Kerri 17:18

Absolutely, and thank you for that, Narrye. Yeah. So I I

The Rewards of Teaching Shamanic Practice to Others

Kerri 17:22

want to ask a little bit about um what it's like to be because you've taught so many workshops, um residentials included, as a faculty member, what do you feel has been most rewarding about teaching shamanic practices to others?

Narrye 17:38

I love that question, Kerri. Thank you for asking that because I love to teach. I love to teach. It's my jam. It's it's it's what gives me joy and what a what an honor, what a privilege to be able to do something you love so much in your life as your primary work in life. So, yes. And I see teaching as a form of witnessing. I like to think of it that way. It's a form of witnessing. So I see my job um as I need to make sure that I create a container for the people who are making themselves vulnerable to learn this new thing, and to some of them it's a very strange new thing. So these vulnerable. I need to create a a container for them to feel safe. Um and then I need to communicate methodology really clearly. Um and once they have that methodology, they feel comfortable and safe, then they can have their own exploration, and it is such a cool thing to see them f discover for themselves these these other worlds. It's just amazing. And and they light up and they get excited. Um, and even when they're frustrated, it's okay because they know they have what it takes to work through that on their own, right? Um, so that's really what lights me up about teaching. I just can't get over that. It doesn't matter what workshop it is, it's always going on constantly, you know. Yeah, right? Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you've had that experience too.

Kerri 19:20

Absolutely. It's um, you know, and sometimes your job as a faculty member, as far as that container, is helping people understand we leave other trainings aside. Absolutely. You know, we're not bringing in other types of trainings when we're doing this work, but you know, all that ethical training that you've had in there, you know, because so many people who are drawn to this have other trainings, right? And they may they they may be bringing in something from the medical practice or a therapeutic practice or a a you know, an acupuncture practice or a massage practice. So they've all had those trainings, and those are important, but they're setting aside those modalities, not the ethics, not the understandings, but the modalities they're setting aside to really look at this as what it is, as a complete modality that is separate and unique.

Narrye 20:11

Right. Absolutely, that's so important. And um I mean I have, for instance, uh you asked this earlier, I didn't really directly answer you, but I have laid down my clinical practice. I actually gave up my license uh to practice actually acupuncture, which is a huge deal. But I still carry that because I continue to teach martial arts and and uh you know I continue to do Polestar astrology, which is a Chinese form of astrology, these things. But you're right, it's really um important to not only yourself as a teacher, to keep that stuff out of the room. So um so so people have the freedom to experience the power of this work as it is, without being mixed up with other in its pure form, without being mixed up with other things. That's why. It's not because we don't like that other stuff. There's lots of cool and wonderful practices actually. I'm so grateful for them, you know. Um and I respect all of them. But if you want to be clear about what sh core shamanism offers, you're right. You need to keep it really um um clean and and not mix it with other things because then you don't know what the heck is working. Right, right. Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah.

Kerri 21:24

Wonderful, thank you for that.

Understanding Extraction in Shamanic Healing

Kerri 21:26

So we're gonna shift a little bit now and to starting to talk about extraction. Yes. And so for those who are unfamiliar, Narrye, can you tell us a little bit about what extraction is in the context of shamanic healing?

Narrye 21:39

Absolutely. Um so I'm gonna be totally transparent with you guys here and and let you know that extraction healing was one of the hardest things for me to feel confident about. I mean I got the methodology right right off. I I I got that. Um but feeling confident about it that's a whole nother. Story. So I'm really happy to talk about it now because I finally did work through that with the help of my spirits. That's what it takes. Sorry, I've got to adjust this. That's what it takes. So extraction healing, let me go back. That a shamanic healing practitioner is is doing. The first category is removing things that do not belong to the client. And and I'll go back to that because that's where extraction healing comes in. The other category is returning things that do belong to the person and returning power that may have been lost. That's it. So, you know, as a Chinese medical practitioner, I was really happy about that because I only have to, you know. And also that it's not we as practitioners who decide what needs to be done. We may be full of opinions and we may have had experiences that have shown us that certain things tend to need this or that. And it's really important to discipline ourselves to not just be the ones who make those decisions. That's up to our helping spirits. So every one of any shamanic practitioner will always consult their helping spirits about what things need to be done. So in the category of things that need to be removed, um I'm going to talk about this stuff called intrusions. Okay. Intrusions is is the shamanic name for um, and this is hard to describe, I'll do my best. For I call them like spiritual fragments that can lodge in our bodies and cause um illness and pain, localized illness and pain. That's the the main thing that happens. Um we learn in the extraction healing workshop, we learn how to locate these, how to remove them safely, and how to restore the person's power. That's the nutshell version of this. Um so I'm guessing that your next question might have to be with, well, how do you get these things? Right? Are they just floating around?

Kerri 24:35

That's a great question. Where do they come from? Where do they come from? What brings them to you? What exactly what makes you attractive to them logically? Right.

Narrye 24:45

Right, right, right. So um, first of all, yeah, in a way, they are sort of just floating around. I know that sounds creepy and weird, but it's not. It's just that in in old cultures, and I think you can read about this in Michael's work, Cave and Cosmos. You can there's a wonderful section about this. But in some indigenous cultures, extractions were actually purposefully sent by sorcerers in order to harm people. That's not usually what happens in modern Western culture, um, the kind of clients that come to us. That's not usually how attractions, uh intrusions um invaded them. Um it's more likely that these things come from um poorly managed emotional conflict, I want to say. That's a great way to put it. From being around um carelessly managed emotional conflict, I think, you know. So examples, for instance, um you're in a in a in a uh contentious meeting at work with several people, and they're at each other's throats, and they all disagree, and somebody's yelling, and somebody's calling names, and you're really upset and really feel vulnerable, and you leave just feeling like uh really upset, right? That kind of emotional energy, when it's not managed properly and and uh with with respect, that can send these fragments like darts. They're like darts, emotional darts, that can send those fragments out into the world, and if you are vulnerable, and I'll say why in a minute, if you're vulnerable to that, they can literally lodge in your body. And then you find down the road you can't figure out why you have this neck pain that won't go away, or something like that, right? And you you do all the right stuff, you go to the chiropractor, and you go to the physical therapist, you do yoga, you do your stretches, you do your hot packs and herb rubs and all these things. None of it works, right? Because there's this this intrusion there. So your shamanic practitioner might be able to find that and remove it, and then aha, all the things you're doing suddenly start working. So that's that's why. Um now what makes you vulnerable? This is an important thing about shamanic work um in general. Um we have a kind of spiritual immune system, I like to call it. Um, and that the the pri the pillars of that spiritual immune system are partly your own connection with your soul. Your soul is a spirit, and um that soul needs to be vital in you. You need to have access to the full wattage, right, of your of your soul. So that's part of your spiritual immune system. And the other part is at least one connection with a helping spirit of your own, preferably a guardian spirit like a power animal. You need to maintain a strong relationship with that spirit. And and those things um they protect you um in the world, as we're going through this crazy middle world full of all kinds of pain and suffering and conflict. They provide a degree of protection, and I like to think of it as not that nothing bad will ever happen to you in life. Right.

Kerri 28:25

Life lessons still need to happen.

Narrye 28:26

Lessons still need to happen, your soul needs to go what it needs to go through for its own reasons here, but it does tend to provide a kind of resilience and and um a more of an ability to um work through stuff and come out of it with the teachings you need and to go on with your life without permanent damage, right? So that's what we're looking for. Um now all of us slip. Um you know,

The Role of Intrusions in Healing

Narrye 28:59

all of us, I probably have intrusions right now. Oh yeah, you you know, um you've been living your life. I've been living my life, right? Yeah. So all of us have times when when we're just um low in energy or low in soul power or whatever it is, and boy, if you're sitting in a traffic jam when you're in in that kind of state and somebody f flips you off or or yells at you and screams at you or something like that, it's easy to to to um have some intrusions and carry them around. Um But yeah, um it's it's definitely worth seeing somebody now and then, a shamanic practitioner now and then, to make make sure you get a tune-up and remove something. Yeah, yeah, get the house cleaned, exactly.

Kerri 29:43

Right, right, right.

Narrye 29:45

Yeah.

Kerri 29:45

This is not the same as compassionate depossession. Correct. Tell us a little bit about how they are different.

Narrye 29:52

That's very important. And um I know I know that you're gonna be talking to our our our colleague Robbie Stauffer at some point about compassionate depossession. Yep. Um Yeah. The the spirits that influence us that require compassionate depossession are um deceased spirits that have not transitioned and and are somehow hanging around and and influencing us and affecting our lives inappropriately. Uh those you cannot just extract and toss into the nearest body of water because they're sovereign souls. You need their permission.

Kerri 30:39

Right.

Narrye 30:40

And that can be complex when they're really interested in sticking around and um in involving themselves in your life. That's a whole nother practice. The um intrusions we're talking about um are not conscious souls. Uh they're just little fragments like darts. So um it's okay to to remove them and safely dispose of them.

Kerri 31:06

Um without sovereign beings, they don't have free will, they don't have a personality, possibly like your mug might.

Narrye 31:13

Um, yeah, right, right. It's very different. It's very different, yeah, yeah. Depossession is a very advanced practice. Um we teach it in the three-year program, um, but we don't do it as a weekend workshop. It it takes a lot of experience and and mostly very, very strong relationships with your helping spirits, trusted relationships with your helping spirits.

Kerri 31:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Building that capacity to hold power over time with the years of the three-year program really make a difference there. So thank you for that. Yeah.

The Process and Outcomes of Extraction Healing

Kerri 31:47

So what happens uh, you know, so the client has come in and extraction has been indicated, extraction has been completed, power has also been restored. What happens for them afterward? What happens for that client?

Narrye 32:02

Well, it's he you know, there's a lot of different scenarios that can uh can unfold. Um the most um the happiest one from my point of view is uh whatever they came in with um that's bothering them that they need help with, that slowly resolves. And that happens often. When you know, extraction is very powerful that way. Um and and um so that happens often. And I also I you know I want to add here, I think this is an okay time to do this, is that sometimes you get surprises.

Kerri 32:39

Yeah.

Narrye 32:40

Right? I'm sure you've had those in your practice. But um and I and and is it okay now to give you an example of this? Yeah. Here's the thing. I had a client one time uh contact me out of the blue, she you know, she found me, I guess, somehow on the website or something like that. And she said, she wrote an email to me, she said, I really um need a soul retrieval. Um and you know that we get this a lot of the time. It's like in you know, the bubble over my head is I'm not a vending machine. But um that's what they know. That's what they know about mostly because they've read about it and they and and she described to me.

Kerri 33:24

Exactly power in some way.

Narrye 33:25

Totally, I get that. So, and if it brings them in, that's great. So um she described to me how she had just um ended a very difficult relationship, her heart was broken, and she could not move on. She was just really couldn't function very well, could not move on. And it had been a while. So um I got back to her and I as I always do, I said, I I I do provide soul retrieval when the spirits tell me that that's what is recommended. But I need you to know that there are other healing modalities that we do, and I always ask my spirits, what is appropriate for you? Is that okay with you? She's sure, bring it, she says. So I made the appointment. And I was thinking soul retrieval to see, you know, we humans, we have our opinions, right? But I was thinking, oh yeah, it does sound like a soul retrieval is necessary here. But I did my little journey and I checked in with my helping spirits, and they said, This this person needs extraction healing. I said, What? I even I had the gall to question my helping spirits. I you know, I said, Are you sure? Yeah, are you sure? That's what I did. I said, You sure? Because, you know, I always think, you know, pain, pain and and dysfunction, physical pain, that stuff. They said, they kind of rolled their eyes at me first, you know, like when are you gonna start listening to us? And I said, Okay, okay, I hear you, let's do it. So I did extraction healing for this person. And um there's no point in going into actually what that what that looks like, that doesn't matter. But I did the work and there was m stuff to extract, right? And then I returned some power, not in the form of soul retrieval, but you always return some power um after you do extraction, just so you don't leave them too open. Right. Sent her on her way, the work is done, send her on her way, and then I didn't hear from her for like, I don't know, six months go by. And I thought, well, I guess that was a failure, right? You know, and and I I was thinking about seeing if I could track her down, but um and then all of a sudden I get an email from her. And she says, I'm sorry I I didn't get right back to you, but my life has just been a whirlwind of of I met this wonderful the my soulmate, I met my soulmate, and we've been traveling together, and I'm you know, I'm so glad that I broke up with this other thing because you know this is this is my soulmate for life, and I'm so happy, and I just want to let you know. And that was this huge lesson to me, right? This huge lesson that you never know um what might come of this kind of thing, and always trust your

Deepening Your Own Connection with Your Helping Spirits

Narrye 36:13

helping spirits when they tell you this is what somebody needs. Right. You better listen, right? Right.

Kerri 36:20

That's exactly what you needed. That sounds like a wonderful healing.

Narrye 36:23

Yeah, it was all emotional.

Kerri 36:25

Yeah. Yeah. And so, and so, and you're right, those those emotions, uh I mean intrusions can be come from ourselves.

Narrye 36:34

Yes, I've seen that, right? Self-criticism. You know that voice that you know puts you down constantly and that can cause intrusions. I've seen that, right? I've seen that happen, you know.

Kerri 36:47

So removed with the same process, right? You know, and oftentimes when you're doing the work, unless you're helping spirits are sharing that detail, it's just however it shows up for you, how whatever senses you use as the practitioner, um, they're they're moved on. Yeah. But but it is quite interesting how much of that you can be the you can be the generator.

Narrye 37:08

Yes. Yes, that's true, that's true.

Kerri 37:11

For sure. So when a student is taking this course, um what can they expect to have happen for them?

Narrye 37:23

Well, I um a couple uh a couple of important things. One is that um and I want to return to this confidence issue, because I remember I started with my own lack of confidence around it. Um one of the most important things about taking this workshop um is a deepening uh of your own connection with your helping spirits. Uh you cannot do this work um without real clarity and trust in your own helping spirits. In fact, the work is done merged. And you people who are just listening didn't see my little quote fingers going like this, merged. Okay. Um, with a helping spirit, and that's why it's so safe to do. You're merged when you do this work with the helping spirit. But we spend a good part of the first day of this workshop um doing offering different exercises for you to build your power, and which way works best for you to build your power. How do you know when you are filled with your helping spirit's power? This is really crucial. Uh none of this work none of this stuff works uh without the spirits being here. None of it works. You can you can know the methodology so clearly, da da da, but if you don't have your spirit's power here, it's not gonna be effective. So that's the first thing that's gonna happen for students in this workshop. They're gonna really get that, I hope. Okay. Yes. And then I think that then it's it's a matter of learning um uh through practicing different methods of sensing, seeing, um how to locate and um and your and and how to remove. And we give some examples of how to do this, uh, but you you really it's this is your chance to sort of get it how it works for you, right? Right. How it works for you, and then to begin to trust that. Um that's really important. And I think that with respect to confidence, I will tell you that what what happened for me is that um I I went through this whole thing and um I was working with a with a teacher I've worked with for a really long time, and we were doing the job, but I I confess that I had a little bit of that um student syndrome of am I making this up? And because I had that experience, it makes me very empathetic to people who are doing this work. That's a common, it's a common issue. Very common. And um so I took it to I I journeyed about it. That's what you know that's a smart thing to do as a I journeyed about it. And my uh helping spirit said, Well, you need a specialist to do this work with you. I went, Oh, all right. Uh will you introduce me to one? And off we went, and we found this specialist spirit, and the minute I started working with the specialist spirit, the whole thing just lit up for me and became absolutely real. Um and I completely trusted what was going on. I it was an amazing shift for me. Um and it's interesting because this spirit does not talk to me, does not consult with me, doesn't do anything else but extraction. And so indeed, when I when I'm doing my uh divination about what do we need to do for this client, when this spirit just presents himself right in front of me in the in the journey, I'm like, oh, okay, we're doing we're doing extraction. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. There's one other thing I should say about the all the in-person version of this workshop, which is um that we provide, and you can't just can't do this online. We we provide um uh um a little bit of an uh a touch of what it's like to have community support for your work, right? This is true. Really special um in in a lot of indigenous shamanic cultures. There wasn't this one-on-one thing that we do in this culture, it's like a one-on-one practice, and um it was more like the whole community, the whole village came to support the healing, and that was common, right? Well, we don't have that experience, typically. Um so we provide a little bit of that um in this workshop where we um have part of the group um basically drumming and singing for the other part of the group and then they trade around. So you you it's it's a profound experience, what happens. It really is. Yeah, you couldn't agree more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really pretty amazing. Yeah.

Kerri 42:18

Yeah. Yeah. So

Continuing Growth After the Workshop

Kerri 42:21

after a student has completed this workshop, they come home, what do you think they should do next?

Narrye 42:28

Well, I think that um I think that everybody should feel free to practice. You just gotta practice this stuff and don't be too shy about it. At first, um I'm gonna assume that some of these people have already practiced things like a little power animal retrieval because they've had the way of the shaman, they've had the initial workshop, they know that. Um and you kind of at first um I I think you practice with friends and family. You know, um, and just keep at it. Um and offer that. It's not like you're gonna hang a shingle necessarily right off the bat and start charging huge prices for this work, but but you definitely have to practice. And I tell people not don't hold back from that, you know, just see if you can find um a few friends, whatever, to work with. You want to try this stuff out. Um the more you make yourself available and your intention clear to the helping spirits, the more they'll show up for you. They're like, oh, let's help her, right?

Kerri 43:29

Or and so and so connecting with classmates so that you can practice on Zoom free afterwards.

Narrye 43:36

Great idea. Yeah, just just keep doing it. And then also um journey to your trusted helping spirits that you already work with and journey them and ask, how can I get better at this work? Right? How can I be more effective at at this work? And they'll give you things that are personal rel for you. You know, work for you.

Kerri 43:57

And that is part of the workshop and and one of the journeys to repeat.

Narrye 44:02

Yes.

Kerri 44:02

It's really reviewing the work and and growing your understanding of the work itself. So which is a really phenomenal part of the workshop.

Narrye 44:12

Well, and also I think um uh uh take these workshops uh over and over again if you can. Right? Um it's not like a college course where you tick that box off, I took that, and now I don't need to worry about that anymore. You just keep coming back. Um every time you're in circle um with people doing this work, you grow in the work and you deepen in the work. And I would say this even to people who don't see themselves as healers necessarily. Just come to all the workshops, it doesn't matter, you you you know, because you'll find your spirits will give you more tr more depth and and more connection and more of what you need, no matter where you're going with with your practice.

Kerri 44:55

That's true. And with each faculty member, you end up getting different stories, getting different experiences. Yeah, exactly. And and I and that, you know, obviously your helping spirits are with you regardless of whose circle you're sitting in, but there is something about getting that information so it so it resonates with you because your lived experience through your life up to to point this point today is unique to you.

Narrye 45:23

Yeah.

Kerri 45:23

So just like people, you know, others who've had um experiences with traditional Chinese medicine, qigong, um, those folks can resonate with your experiences, and that's really important, which is why we do like to highlight a little bit in these workshops what people also do in their life besides shamanism.

Narrye 45:43

Yes, yes, right. That's so true. Good, yeah.

Kerri 45:48

So thank you so much for joining us today, Narrye. I'm so glad to have had you on, and I look forward to having you on again in the future. If you'd like to learn more about Narrye's practice or taking taking classes with Narrye, or about this workshop or any other workshop on the Foundations page, check us out at shamanism.org. Thank you so much, Kerri.

Narrye 46:15

What a pleasure. Thank you.