by Dr. Alberto Villoldo: Shamans believe that the world seems real only because we perceive it as such and that everything we perceive is a reflection of an internal, individual “map”…

or blueprint that each of us has constructed about the nature of reality.

These maps are stored in what shamans define as the Light Body or Luminous Energy Field (LEF), and what scientists call neural networks in our brain. Many investigators believe that the Light Body is simply an aura produced by electric activity in the brain and nervous system. It’s why auras can actually be photographed and sometimes seen by the naked eye. Shamans, however, believe that the Light Body is what creates and continues to mold the body, the brain, and the nervous system.

Shamans know that if they wish to change the outer world, they must begin by changing the inner maps, by healing the imprints of disease and trauma from the Light Body. They believe that the Light Body is the blueprint that creates health or disease and that greater understanding of this Light Body process can induce self healing. Learn more about the Luminous Energy Field here …

Shamans understand the difference between healing and curing …

During his studies with the shamans, Alberto Villoldo, Ph.D., discovered that there is a difference between “curing” and energy “healing” and how this relates to the Light Body.

Curing is the business of medicine. Healing is the business of the shaman.

Curing consists of treating disease and eliminating symptoms. We all know people who have received cures but have not experienced healing. When this happens, the symptoms generally return.

Healing addresses the cause of the disease (which is generally a trauma), and the resulting toxic emotions that separate the person from his or her joy and health. To shamans, the cause of the disease is due to the imprints of trauma stored in the Light Body. It is a person’s Luminous Energetic Field that registers “scratch marks” of trauma that are repeatedly triggered. Self healing happens when we clear these marks from the luminous matrix that envelops and informs our lives.

While curing eliminates symptoms, healing transforms your life, and often, though not always, produces a physical cure. While healing, we measure success by increased well-being, a sense of newfound peace and empowerment, and a feeling of communion with all life. Its transformative experience is reflected in every aspect of life – relationships, diet, job, marriage, how you relate to your children as well as how you experience wellness and illness.

Self healing has to do with an experience of infinity, with an experience of a self that exists outside of time, that can never experience illness and never be touched by disease.

Shamanic healing practices focus on enhancing the body’s own healing response and accessing that ongoing state of well-being and perfect health. This is what we do in our training program at the Four Winds Society’s Light Body School. We are training people to be modern shamans who are able to bring about healing, for themselves and others.