“In every culture and in every medical tradition before ours, healing was accomplished by moving energy.”
-Nobel Laureate in Medicine, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Over the past twenty years there has been a growing interest in Shamanism and energy medicines as avenues for healing. In Part 1 of “Projections as Doorway for Healing” I suggest that many of the problems and conflicts in life are rooted in projections, citing psychology’s role in defining, identifying and understanding projections. Briefly, projections are a natural phenomenon that occurs when we transfer some unconscious, that is, unperceived and unintentional, impulse, trait, attitude or feeling onto an outer object.1 In this way we create relationships based essentially on projection, creating an unconscious identity. As long as this identity between subject and object goes well, projections can alleviate life in a positive way.It is only when this identification begins to have a disturbing effect or exerts a negative influence or our energy wants to strike out on a different path that our projections become problems.2 At this point something in the individual’s adaptation to the inner and/or outer world isn’t working and forces insight into the projection. This “falling apart” of the projection can become the doorway to healing—the healing of wounds that are often at the core of our projections. “Projections as Doorways for Healing: Part 2” explores how to identify the hidden wounds inherent in our projections, and how we can use shamanic healing and energy medicine to heal those hidden and wounded parts of ourselves that are the roots of our projections.

Bob is a man who comes to therapy to overcome his fear of speaking up in group settings, whether that setting is a family gathering, a work setting, or a discussion following a lecture presentation.  Bob reports that he has things that he wants to say but feels paralyzed, fearing that what he will say will be wrong or stupid or that he will be made fun of.  If Bob chooses to remain quiet, he leaves such settings feeling dejected and angry at himself, even depressed, yet also relieved that he once again avoided the feared outcome. On the other hand, if Bob does choose to speak up, and if what he says doesn’t receive praise or validation, he often leaves such situations feeling wrong or stupid. Bob states that he is tired of living this way and wants to “fix it.”

A review of Bob’s life reveals multiple experiences of feeling embarrassed and wrong because things he said or did going all the way back to kindergarten where he was made fun of by peers because he had the wrong pencils, gifts given to him by his father for starting school. One embarrassing moment after another began to create a belief that whatever he said or did somehow would be judged wrong, not good enough, not acceptable and/or stupid. This created a pattern of paralyzing anxiety in the face of possible public scrutiny.  Bob began to project into all settings that his answers or comments would be judged as somehow wrong. He feared embarrassment and would hide, putting his face down to avoid being called on or asked questions in business meetings and in other group settings, living in fear of not giving or knowing the right answer. On the other hand, Bob also judged others, although for the most part Bob was not aware of his own judging.

Complicating and contributing to this pattern of fear of “being wrong” is Bob’s perception that he was raised in a family that emphasized perfection. While Bob could see many positive outcomes of his childhood training, it did result in a belief that he had to be perfect in order to be accepted and “ok.” Thus, whenever he didn’t meet the standard of “perfect” whether his own or somebody else’s, he met this judgment of “being wrong” either in himself or in the other.

After years of work on this pattern and having made significant progress in reducing his anxiety and self- judgment of being wrong and having to be perfect, Bob reports this pattern got triggered once again causing him to miss a much desired business meeting because of his fear that since the door was closed, there really wasn’t a meeting and if he showed up looking for one he would once again be wrong and stupid. He feared that he didn’t know something that he should have known. Again he didn’t have it “right.”  Although Bob is now fully aware that even if it were true that there was no meeting, this does not mean that he is wrong and/or stupid. Neither does he any longer believe that he would be judged. However, he continues to operate at times under this “spell” of self-judgment, suggesting the deep entrenchment of such childhood wounds and their influencing effect on us throughout our lives. We might call this the “judge’s wound.”

We can see that Bob has internalized an accusing judge that no matter what he does, unless perfect or met with complete praise, tells him that he is wrong, not good enough, and even stupid. It matters not that Bob’s rational mind can tell him it simply is not true. The emotional mind says it is. We can say here that Bob is projecting this inner judge onto an external object and attributing this part of himself onto the other, reliving the original wounds from his multiple embarrassing childhood experiences where he felt judged, wrong, and stupid.

At this point in Bob’ conscious awareness he understands this dynamic and can quickly interpret what is happening, moving to stage five in von Franz’s five stages of withdrawing projections. See Part 1 for a description of these five stages. In stage five, Bob is able to assimilate the psychic energy of the projected content which now flows back to him and raises his consciousness. He understands what is happening. Yet he continues to feel anxious, even feeling the anxiety in his body, being able to locate it on the left side, from his solar plexus to his throat. So somewhere, some part of Bob is still operating under the spell of this wound. Von Franz goes on to say that “[i]f one wants to prevent a renewal of the projection, the content must be recognized as psychically real, though not a part of the subject but rather as an autonomous power”3 So the question becomes “what is this autonomous power” that carries the content of this projection and how do we shift our relationship to this "power" so that it loses its control over us?

As Bob and I end our work on this most recent occurrence, I step into “the shaman’s shoes” and have Bob blow into a stone the energy he was feeling in his body triggered by this recent event, along with the memories of the childhood wounds that still came to mind when he thinks about this pattern as well as the memories of times that as an adult he projected this inner judge. I placed this stone in my Mesa (medicine bag) for mulching, healing and transformation.4  The night after doing this work, I have the following dream: I am sitting with another man. He makes a reference to me about Sheldrake, as if indicating that I need to read Sheldrake. I tell this man that I have read Sheldrake, noting, in relation to my work with Jung, and am aware of morphogenetic fields. Since this dream comes on the heels of my work with Bob on the most recent manifestation of his “Judge wound”, I conclude that the dream is making some comment on that work and especially on my inquiry into “what is this autonomous power” that carries the content of this projection?  According to von Franz, the content of a projection is an “autonomous power” and until Bob can recognize it as such he will continue to be vulnerable to the projection, and if not projected onto others “out there,” will be dissociated and projected into parts of his own psyche or body, being attacked by negative thoughts, self-judgment, anxiety, tension or other physical symptoms.

A morphic field is a field of information that operates autonomously, a database of information extending in space and continuing in time that informs people with the programs within that particular field. According to Sheldrake, all living organisms—from cells to people--that belong to a certain group tune in to the morphic field and through morphic resonance develop according to the programs within that field.  Morphic fields can be behavioral, social. cultural, and mental. These fields serve as databases as well as mental forms.  According to Sheldrake, a morphic field can be set up by the repetition of similar acts or thoughts and therefore, explains why members of a family pass down certain behaviors and even emotions. Grandfather’s music ability might be carried to a grandson or a mother’s anxiety might be carried to a son or daughter via morphic fields rather than DNA. Morphic fields, being subtle in nature, are not limited to time or space. Sheldrake's philosophy also holds that past life memories could pass from lifetime to lifetime through a soul's morphic field. These memories would be nonlocal in nature and therefore not anchored in the brain or a particular life.5

Sheldrake’s morphic fields are not unlike Jung’s idea of archetypes. Jung, with his discovery of the collective unconscious, states that our lives are organized according to certain universal patterns called archetypes which act like magnets attracting various and relevant experiences, pulling us to live out their emotional and behavior stories. An archetype is a primordial universal pattern, an energetic field vibrating with the information of emotions, behaviors and images that continues to attract those experiences that match its energy, bringing the person under its spell.6 While there are differences in Sheldrake’s morphic fields and Jung archetypes, archetypes with their tendency “to attract those experiences that match their energy” and morphic fields which influence the development of all living organisms—from cells to people—through morphic resonance, or “ a tuning into” indicate that something outside of our personal psychology, something transpersonal influences our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. Both Jung and Sheldrake assert that some sort of field influences how we see, experience and interact in the world.

The above mentioned dream with its reference to Sheldrake and Jung and corresponding associations to morphic fields and archetypes coming in the context of Bob’s recent experience and work on his “judge wound” suggests that something is influencing this projection besides his personal history-- something autonomous--von Franz’s “autonomous power.”  Could this “autonomous power” be some kind of energetic or informational field like Sheldrake’s morphic field or Jung’s archetype? The question I must ask myself: why would my unconscious reference Sheldrake and Jung in the same dream? Is there some message common to both? That is a discussion for another blog. Suffice it here to conclude the dream is suggesting that Bob is somehow “tuning into” or “being influenced by” some transpersonal informational system or pattern.

The shamanic tradition and energy medicine7 that I am trained in states:

 “ [w]e all possess a Luminous Energy Field (LEF) that surrounds our physical body and informs our body in the same way that the energy fields of a magnet organize iron filings on a piece of glass. . . The Luminous Energy Field contains an archive of all of our personal and ancestral memories, of all early-life trauma, and even of painful wounds from former lifetimes. These records or imprints are stored in full color and intensity of emotion. Imprints are like dormant computer programs that when activated compel us toward behaviors, relationships, accidents, and illnesses that parody the initial wounding. Our personal history indeed repeats itself. . . [These] imprints in the Luminous Energy Field predispose us to follow certain pathways in life. They orchestrate the incidents, experiences, and people we attract to ourselves.  Imprints propel us to re-create painful dramas and heartbreaking encounters, yet ultimately guide us toward situations wherein we can heal our ancient soul wounds.

“All imprints contain information, which inform the chakras, which then organize our physical and emotional world. The information in an imprint organizes the Luminous Energy Field, which later organizes matter. . .The Luminous Energy Field contains a template of how we live, how we age, how we heal, and how we might die. When there is no imprint for disease in the Luminous Energy Field, recovery from an illness happens at tremendous speed. By the same token, imprints for diseases can depress the immune system, and it can take an extremely long time for us to regain our health during an illness.

 “. . . our luminous template is continually informed by both the positive and negative incidents and experience during our lives. Unresolved psychological and spiritual traumas become engraved like scratch marks in our luminous fields. . .The blueprint that shaped and molded us since we were inside our mother’s womb contains the memories of all of our former life times—the way we suffered, the way we loved, how we were ill, and the way we died. . . These imprints contain instructions that predispose us to repeating certain events from the past. . . Imprints are formed when negative emotions that accompany trauma are not healed.”8

All of us drag around psychological and genetic baggage. Psychological issues get woven into the stories we tell about our lives: Mother was too demanding, our self-esteem suffered, we never had faith in ourselves, and we’re unable to be honest in relationships or to persevere in our goals, we always got in trouble, weren’t good enough or in the case of Bob, if I speak up I’ll be wrong. These tales also impact our luminous energy field, the light body that encases our physical body.9

According to the shamanic tradition, the LEF “also informs your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; these, in turn, choreograph whom you’re going to be attracted to, date, and marry. Ultimately, it’s the information encoded in your LEF that predisposes you to a particular kind of job and boss and determines the themes that will surface in your relationship with your partner.”10

The LEF is the instrument through which you dream the world into being. It consists of light and vibration, so whatever you vibrate in your LEF, you create in the world. Your inability to forgive your mother and move on causes a mark in you LEF that remains there after the physical body dies, so it’s carried into the next lifetime. This wound will draw you to the parents you’ll be born through, in order to manifest the family that will allow you the opportunity to heal yourself of your karma. If you don’t take advantage of the opportunity and choose instead to stay stuck in the same old belief of Mom ruined my life, . . . the wound remains unhealed, you wind up with the reasons why you can’t have what you want . . . 11   However, “if we are able to heal the emotional component of a painful situation as it is happening, an imprint is not created in the Luminous Energy Field. When we discover compassion and forgiveness in the midst of our pain, no residual toxic energies are absorbed into the Luminous Energy Field.” 12

From the point of view of the Liaka medicine men and women, Bob’s repeated experiences of feeling judged creates an imprint in his LEF that continues to manifest in his life. It is also possible that Bob imprint will “tune into” a morphic or archetypal field of the same pattern which continues to fuel his pattern. Even though he has worked through the personal material of this wound, Bob can still get caught in the pattern until he addresses the core energetics or archetype behind this pattern.13

Once we understand that our projections tend to show up again and again, we begin to see certain patterns in our lives like Bob who projected the inner judge onto others expecting them to judge him as somehow wrong or not saying or doing the right thing. Insight into our projections can reveal the wound inherent in the projection. Bob’s wound is a judgment that unless what he says or does or believes isn’t right or perfect, he isn’t good enough. Identifying the wound inherent in the projection also speaks to a desired healing inherent in the projection. Could it be that the psyche longs to heal its wounds and that it sets up projections as a way to initiate healing?

When the body suffers a physical wound, all the forces of nature go into action to heal the wound.  Wound healing is an intricate process in which the skin (or another organ-tissue) repairs itself after injury. In normal skin, the epidermis (outermost layer) and dermis (inner or deeper layer) exists in a steady-state equilibrium, forming a protective barrier against the external environment. Once the protective barrier is broken, the normal (physiologic) process of wound healing is immediately set in motion.14

In the psyche is a process that seeks its own goal independent of external factors.15   Jung asserts that the psyche is a self-regulating system and within the psyche is an autonomous tendency and fundamental drive toward wholeness and healing and, if given the proper conditions, this drive will move the psyche to heal itself.16 Jung points out that the mind in its natural state presupposes the existence of projections.17 If the psyche has a goal independent of external factors and if there is a fundamental drive toward healing in the psyche and if in its natural state the psyche projects, could the psyche set up projections as a way to initiate its drive toward healing and wholeness? If so, the task then is to become aware of our projections and the wounds inherent in them. One of the ways to identify our projections is to notice the destructive, distressing, and painful patterns that continue to show up in our lives. Instead of blaming the object we must step back and look at how we are creating the situation by our beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. We must become aware of how we are projecting.

Alberto Villoldo, psychologist and medical anthropologist, sums it up this way: “To own your projections, you must discover and acknowledge the parts of yourself that you’ve refused to look at. It turns out that everything you believe to be true about the people around you, or the situations you find yourself in, mirrors a story you hold about the way the universe works. When you understand this, you can take a long, hard look at every difficult situation in your life and then change it within.18 Now to the task of owning our projections and healing our wounds.

To change what we see, we must first recognize that what we see is a reflection of our hidden selves.”19 Jung called these hidden parts our shadow. Jung defines the shadow as “the thing a person has no wish to be,”20 those elements that a person is least likely to consider as part of his or her personality.21 Villoldo points out “[o]ur shadows are those parts of ourselves that make us feel that we’re not good enough, that we’re unwanted, or that we’re a failure and will never be happy; and projection is the mechanism through which we cast these undesirable qualities onto others.”22

From the shaman’s point of view we can say that Bob’s repeated experiences of being embarrassed by things he said or did created an imprint in his LEF that continues to operate in his life. From the morphic field point of view we could say that Bob’s repeated experiences created a morphic field that Bob continues to “tune into.” From the archetypal point of view, we could say that while Bob has worked through the personal aspect of this pattern, the energetic charge of this pattern which accounts for its continuing disturbing effect originates elsewhere, not in the personal material, since the effect does not cease when met by consciousness on this level. Rather this continuing disturbance comes from the core.23 The core of the pattern consists of a primordial universal pattern or archetype, an energetic field vibrating with the information of emotions, behaviors and images that continues to attract those experiences that match its energy, bringing the person under its spell. In any case the original wound continues to manifest.

Finding and Healing the Wounds that Fuel our Projections

Bob says or does something that gets a negative, critical, and embarrassing response. Depending on Bob’s level of sensitivity or vulnerability at that moment, this “hits” Bob energetically like a dart or a bullet, feeling as real as if he were actually shot by a real arrow from a bow or a real bullet from a gun. Again, depending on his level of sensitivity and vulnerability at that moment, Bob automatically attaches a feeling or an emotion to this event such as embarrassment, shame, guilt, anger, etc. Bob also attaches a thought or a judgment about himself or how the world works to this event such as “I’m so stupid, I never do anything right. It’s always my fault. No matter how hard I try, it’s never good enough. People always make fun of me.”  Unless Bob has parents or some caring person to help him process these hurts in a way that allows him to “let them go” and restore a connection to his more positive, “adequate” and “OK” self, this wound forms what we might call a little “center or field of consciousness” that takes hold in him and becomes a part of his psyche’s operating system, setting up a belief about himself at the unconscious level that what he is or what he says is wrong and therefore has no value.  From the energy model, this wound creates an imprint in the LEF that then becomes a blue print for his life and Bob finds himself recreating this pattern of “self-de-valuation” or “self-negation” over and over.

The above description suggests how the personal aspect of a pattern might get set up or established in the psychic system, creating a wound that then become the fuel for a projection. However, my dream with its reference to Sheldrake and Jung point to yet another level of such patterns, that something transpersonal or non-personal is influencing our behavioral and emotional patterns, even perpetuating the wound.

Sheldrake theorizes that all living organisms—from cells to people--that belong to a certain group tune in to a morphic field and through morphic resonance develop according to the programs within that field.  According to Sheldrake, morphic fields can be behavioral, social. cultural, and mental.24  I suggest that this “center of consciousness” defined and created by the “thinking, emotional, behavioral” response to Bob’s embarrassing events is a “living organism”—energy vibrating with information which then” tunes into the morphic field” matching this pattern. Whether this morphic field has been developed by Bob’s repeated embarrassing moments, by his family system whose members also have experienced such wounding events or whether it is a field that operates universally, such as an archetype is beyond the scope of this blog. Suffice it here to say that Bob’s wound is not formed only by his own personal material but because he belongs to a “certain group”—those who have been wounded by criticism, judgment and embarrassment—he tunes into the morphic field with this database of information. Thus the saying “birds of a feather flock together.”

Projections, Complexes and Healing

Jung points out that when a life experience, such as early trauma,25 is accompanied by a strong affect, all the associated perceptual and mental elements of the experience will accumulate around this affect, thereby forming a feeling-toned complex.26 Complexes are clusters of related thoughts, feelings, memories, and impulses, many of which have been repressed and pushed out of consciousness. These complexes put false ideas into our heads—about ourselves, other persons and situations. Complexes may tell us, for example, that we are unlovable, unattractive, or incompetent27 or in the case of Bob “wrong.”  Complexes are the content behind our projections.  For example, we can spot our complexes when we perceive our feelings and thoughts as originating in or “caused by” another person or outer situation.28 Bob reports that recently he was presenting a case to a group of colleagues.  Bob says that he left the meeting with the old feelings of not being received, feeling that what he had shared was somehow seen as wrong, less than or not valid because he didn’t get the reception that he had hoped—being “right” and “brilliant.” Later that day one of the colleagues that Bob felt had especially been non-receptive expressed to Bob that he had really enjoyed his presentation and was looking forward to future presentations. Bob realized at that moment that once again he was caught in a projection, that he had projected onto this colleague his own fear or belief that what he said wasn’t good enough, right or valuable.  We might say that Bob was caught in his own “self-de-valuing” and “self-negating” complex and projected that onto his colleagues.

 Edward Whitmont in his discussion of the complex points out that complexes have a personal "shell" and an "archetypal core".  This “shell” and “archetypal core” speaks to the idea of a personal and non-personal or transpersonal aspect to projections.  The associative shell or structure in which the complex confronts us consists of the sum total of childhood conditioning--all those childhood events, childhood traumas, difficulties and repressions--pertaining to the particular pattern in question. It always points toward personal experiences and is a network of emotionally-charged associations made up of one's personal history and conditioning grouped around certain affect-arousing situations. The shell can always be reductively traced to one's personal past and explained in terms of cause and effect. In fact they should always be interpreted in this light first, for these associational patterns are the concrete manifestations of the complex in the here and now.29

However, as anyone who has worked with clients over a period of time knows, understanding the current problems in terms of the past environmental factors often does not prevent the complex or pattern from continuing to operate. There are clients who after years and years of therapy continue to remain caught in the emotions and behaviors of a complex. Whitmont points out that  often the true and complete transformation of the core complex is not accomplished through understanding and integration of the shell, that is, through understanding the personal experiences and the emotional integration of the how and the why of one's personal history. While such emotional recognition and acceptance of full responsibility for our own past in our own present is absolutely essential for further progress, the energetic charge of the complex which accounts for its continuing disturbing effect originates elsewhere, not in the personal layer, since the effect does not cease when met by consciousness on this level. Rather this continuing disturbance comes from the core.30  The core of the complex consists of a primordial universal pattern or archetype, an energetic field vibrating with the information of emotions, behaviors and images that continues to attract those experiences that match its energy, bringing the person under its spell.

When we become aware of our complexes and projections, suffer their meaning and withdraw them—the work of good psychotherapy--allowing the energy of the projected content to flow back to us, we may experience what the shamans call a “soul retrieval”—a returning of a piece of our soul’s energy, our vital life force, that had split off as a way to protect itself from the pain of the original wounding. While this can happen spontaneously in the process of therapy, the shaman is able to travel to the place where this split off part is residing and facilitate its return.

The shaman can also facilitate in withdrawing the projection by moving the energy that is holding the complex or the pattern, by assisting in releasing the energy so that it can return to its source whether that be the “morphic field” or the “archetypal core.” By working directly with the energetic pattern, the shaman “cuts the tail” so to speak of that energy cord that continues to attract to itself the pattern. He removes the affinity for the pattern so that it no longer attracts this information. Energetically, the content of the projection returns to the morphic or archetypal field as an “autonomous power” thus extinguishing the projection and healing the wound. This energetic shift transforms the energy of the complex so that it loses its negative power.

Once Bob heals the judge in him, he is no longer under the spell of the archetype. Neither is he part of the group that “tunes into” the morphic field that carries the information of the judge. The content of the projection is no longer contained in him. It is part of the autonomous field. Bob now values himself and what he has to say. He is able to enter into dialog in which opposing points of view are shared, even able to sit with criticism without falling back into the feeling and belief that he isn’t good enough or wrong, or what he says or does has to be “right” or “perfect” for him to have value and be ok.

As Bob is working on accepting and owning the projections of his feelings of inferiority and that he has to be perfect or “right” in order to be acceptable, he reports during a meditation he has a spontaneous vision of tables of food, like a banquet.  He notices that someone—people—have been eating from the food. He sees himself putting food from the banquet table onto his plate. The fact that this spontaneous vision comes in the midst of his work on understanding and withdrawing this projection speaks to Bob’s current psychic situation in regards to this pattern. On one hand, the vision could suggest that Bob is continuing to eat from some universal or collective pattern or “field” symbolized by “a banquet table in which others—the collective--have been eating” suggesting that he is continues to be caught in this complex or morphic or archetypal field. On the other hand, the vision could suggest that Bob is in fact “eating his projection”, “owning his projection”, “eating his shadow” so to speak and “integrating its content.” Now Bob can own the truth: “in order to feel good about myself I have to be perfect, always do or say the right thing, know the right answer. When I say the wrong thing, give an incorrect answer, I make myself feel stupid, and I judge that there is something wrong with me.” It is also about Bob accepting that sometimes he is wrong, sometimes he does say stupid things, sometimes he does dumb things, sometimes, he isn’t right, that his way of thinking isn’t the only way, that he isn’t perfect, that he doesn’t know everything, that his way isn’t the only way without being overwhelmed by self-devaluing and self-negating feelings.

 In the alchemical process there is a stage called the “coagulatio.” In essence, “coagulatio is the process that turns something into earth. . . for a psychic content to become earth means that it has been concretized in a particular localized form; that is, it has become attached to an ego.31 Food and food imagery belong to the “coagulation.” “To eat something means to incorporate it—literally, to turn it into body. Hence, dreams in which the dreamer is offered something to eat indicate that an unconscious content is ready for coagulation, assimilation by the ego.”32 Bob’s dream could represent an act of assimilation through which the psychic energy of the projected content flows back to Bob and raises the level of his consciousness.

In “Projections as Doorways to Healing, Part 3” I will follow Bob’s healing and transformation of this pattern and we will discover whether this vision speaks to Bob’s successful integration of this projection and the movement of its content to an “autonomous power” or whether it is an indication that he continues to be caught in this pattern and “feeds” from its collective or transpersonal source.

 

Notes and References

1Jung, “Concerning the Archetypes,” CW9(1), p. 121ff2Jung, “General Aspects of Dream Psychology,” CW8, par 507.3von Franz, Marie-Louise, Projection and Re-collection in Jungian Psychology, p. 134A Mesa is a multicolored bundle containing various power objects and stones used for moving energy in service of healing. A more commonly known term in the West might be known as a “medicine bag or bundle.” The Mesa is the shaman’s primary healing tool. Representing the world in sacred balance and wholeness, whenever it is opened, energetic forces are activated to move a person into "ayni" or balance. My mesa contains 13 stones that have been transformed through a lengthy training and ritual process into power stones into which energy, or magnetism, has been called and harnessed in service of my own and others’ healing.  In an energy healing session I work with my mesa in service to the client. Through my training and initiations, my mesa connects me to healers down through time, both past, present and future. In this way, my mesa assists me in receiving the knowledge, insight and power that I need in order to help the client come back into balance. The Mesa is a powerful source of the healing, transformative life force of the universe.5Dale, Cindi. The Subtle Body, pp. 145-1466See Whitmont, Edward. The Symbolic Quest, pp.7I am training with the Healing the Light Body School of the Four Winds Society, 8Villoldo, Alberto. Shaman, Healer, Sage, pp. 46-589Villoldo, Alberto. Courageous Dreaming, p. 23.10Ibid.11Ibid. p. 2412Villoldo, Alberto, Shaman, Healer, Sage, p. 58.13See Whitmont, Edward, The Symbolic Quest, pp14 Nguyen, D.T., Orgill D.P., Murphy G.F. (2009). Chapter 4: The Pathophysiologic Basis for Wound Healing and Cutaneous Regeneration. Biomaterials For Treating Skin Loss. Woodhead Publishing (UK/Europe) & CRC Press (US), Cambridge/Boca Raton, p. 25-57. (ISBN 978-1-4200-9989-9/ISBN 978-1-84569-363-3)15Jung, Carl. Psychology and Alchemy, p. 516Weinrib, Images of the Self, pp. 1-717Jung, Carl, citing L. Levy-Bruhl, How Natives Think, cited in “Transformation of Symbolism in the Mass,” Psychology and Religion, CW 11, par. 389.18Villoldo, Alberto, The Four Insights, pp. 179-180 19Ibid. p.18020Jung, Carl, CW 16, para. 47021Whitmont, Edward, The Symbolic Quest, p. 16222Villoldo, Alberto. Ibid23Whitemond, Edward, The Symbolic Quest, p. 6724Dale,  Cindi. The Subtle Body, pp. 145-14625Donald Kalsched defines trauma as “any experience that causes the child unbearable psychic pain or anxiety.” He defines “unbearable” as the event “overwhelms that usual defensive measures which Freud described as a ‘protective shield against stimuli.’ Trauma of this magnitude varies from acute, shattering experiences of child abuse . . . to more ‘cumulative traumas’ of unmet dependency-needs that mount up to devastating effect in some children’s development.”  “The Inner World of Trauma,” p. 1.26Jung, 1907, par. 8227Mattoon, Mary Ann, “Obstacles and Helps to self-Understanding, p. 128Ibid.  p. 529Whitmont, p. 6630Ibid. p.6731Edinger, Edward F. Anatomy of the Psyche: Alchemical Symbolism in Psychotherapy, p. 8332Ibid. p. 109.