Shamanism and Cancer

Shamanic practices can have an affect on cancer and the healing process. This week host and shaman, Christina Pratt, explores a variety of ways shamanic healing has been part of successful recoveries from a cancer diagnosis. In any discussion of cancer it is important to remember that there are many different forms of cancer and that shamanism is part of—not instead of—other paths of treatment. At the most basic level people diagnosed with cancer visit a shaman to determine the true diagnosis and answer the question, “Why specifically do I have this cancer at this time and what do I do about it?” Others may approach a shaman, particularly “sucking doctors,” to draw the malignant energy out of the body and allow the body to heal. Others, who know how to journey them selves have work with their own helping spirits in a wide array of creative and successful journeys to healing. Tying all of these approaches together is the idea that one is not at war with cancer or the body. But that illness is an opportunity to look deeply at what we need to do to come into balance with our whole self and harmony with our life and the world around us.