This new patient is a 24 year old single man who has worked as a first responder for two years. He loves his work because he loves being in a position to serve those in need. However, he has gradually become more and more depressed when he is home. He lacks energy to do anything, can't concentrate, no longer does the things he used to enjoy, such as playing in a band, riding his motorcycle. He entered into counseling for these issues and his counselor sent him to me for a psychiatric evaluation.
I found him to be a very personable, idealistic young man. He did not show any signs of mental illness. He was reacting to some very distressing events which happened on the job. He had been the first one on the scene for several very disturbing events: 1. a woman who was run over by a car as she stood in the road directing a school bus that was backing out of a driveway, 2. a still born infant delivered at home, and 3. a man who committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. These images stuck in his mind and plagued him when he wasn't busy with the demands of work.
It seemed to me that what had happened was that the souls of the recently deceased woman, the baby and the suicide had attached to him. I have found that it is common for the soul of someone who just died to attach to a sympathetic caregiver who is in the vicinity. This happens often with a friend of mine who works in a hospital and attends "code blues" or resuscitation attempts. My problem with the first responder was that I had limited time to work with him, and he had not background or expectation that I was going to do shamanic work with him. He was a good Catholic young man, with no understanding of spirit attachment, journeying in altered states, etc.
So I told him we could try some meditative work to see if that would help. I asked him to close his eyes, take a couple deep breaths and begin visualizing a warm, soft golden light filling his body by streaming gently down through his crown. I took him systematically through the body until he was filled with golden light. This greatly reduced his chronic anxiety level. He felt very peaceful and calm. Then I asked him to imagine a TV screen in front of him and to visualize the face of the woman who had been run over by the car. He was able to do this without getting greatly upset because of the preparation we had done. Then I asked him to imagine a round opening above and behind her, filled with bright white light. I asked him to imagine her turning and looking into that light, then that several angels would come and lift her into it. He was able to do this. So we did the same with the stillborn infant, and the man who committed suicide.
I never suggested that he was actually moving these souls into the World of Light. But the result was the same. He saw each of them move on into the Light.
And when we were done he said he felt much lighter and happier. He said: "I really loved that meditation."
So I encouraged him to do this meditation every time he came home from work if he had seen someone die.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Follow up on the November 1, 2011 post
This young woman, who was presumed to have Bipolar Disorder, came back a week later. She looked different in that she was smiling and made better eye contact. She reported at first that she felt "a little better." Upon further questioning, she said she felt more normal than she had in a long time. She felt lighter inside. She admitted she felt very much better but didn't feel sure that it would "stick." There were no more "hallucinations." Her father told me that she was more active, not laying in bed all day. She was taking walks, reading books. She said she had trouble concentrating and that when she tried to read her mind would race. So we looked inside again and found a "suffering being" (earthbound spirit) in her third chakra area, the upper abdomen. He had died in the 1920s, being beaten to death by another man who was angry that he was dancing with the other man's girlfriend. The suffering being said he was making my patient anxious because he was still very frightened about how he died and about being in spirit without a body. After he was lifted into the World of Light to join his parents, the patient again felt lighter and calmer.
The patient continues to feel drugged and to have an excessive appetite. Consultation with her True Self brought the advice that the medications were making it difficult for her True Self to communicate with her. (Some would use the term High Self). So we made further reductions in the medications, with a view to having her medication free eventually.
The patient continues to feel drugged and to have an excessive appetite. Consultation with her True Self brought the advice that the medications were making it difficult for her True Self to communicate with her. (Some would use the term High Self). So we made further reductions in the medications, with a view to having her medication free eventually.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Case Report - a Typical First Session
The patient is a 22 year old single woman. She has been under the care of a very competent mental health provider and is taking five psychotropic medications for presumed Bipolar Disorder. She is on Abilify 20 mg, Risperdal 1 mg, (both are antipsychotics), Lexapro 40 mg (antidepressant), Trazodone 75 mg and Vistaril 100 mg (for sleep). She has gained 130 pounds in the past three years, going from 130 to 260.
She began having difficult at age 16, with trouble concentrating, racing thoughts. She also was drinking too much and angry much of the time. She was prescribed Adderall for the presumed Attention Deficit Disorder. This resulted in increased racing thoughts, too much energy, not sleeping, acting out, i.e. sexual promiscuity, excess drinking. The diagnosis was changes to Bippolar Disorder, although there have not been any more of the hyper episodes (presumed hypomania.)
At 19 she began binge eating, without purging. At 20 she began to experience a relationship with a man named Saul (name changed for privacy reasons). She soon learned that she was the only one who could see him. This led to a psychiatric hospitalization and the introduction of anti-psychotic medications. She continued to see and hear Saul, who at first was friendly and intimate but not sexual with her, but then began berating her for being fat, lazy, etc. The medications reduced these experiences but did not eliminate them. The patient entered a prolonged period of depression. She had low energy, still has trouble focusing and concentrating, sleeps too much, failed at college and began to see no future for herself.
She was brought to me by her father who was convinced that there must be a better way to deal with the catastrophic changes in his daughter.
After this initial evaluation we began doing some inner exploring, asking the patient to become mindful of inner physical sensations. She identified herself as feeling anxious, but the physical sensation was heaviness in the chest. There was not the usual tingling, jittery feeling I would expect with anxiety. By dialoguing with the heavy place in the chest we found a Suffering Being (what some would call an earthbound spirit). He was a man who had died in 1920, having been murdered in a fight with his cousin. He cleared very easily into the World of Light.
Heaviness in the chest: GONE
Next we asked to speak to Saul, the "hallucinated" man. He appeared reluctantly and said he wanted me to stop doing what I was doing. Upon further interview, being constrained by the Archangel Michael and commanded to speak the truth in the presence of the Archangels, he admitted he was not human, but what we would call a demon. He said his purpose was to try to make the patient come over to the dark side. He admitted to creating havoc in her mind and causing her to binge eat. He said he came into her when she was 19 years old. Recognizing that he was now in "trouble" with those who directed his actions, by virtue of having been found out, he was willing to go into the Light also, to a place specially designated for rehabilitating beings like himself.
No more Saul.
Next we called in the patient's True Self (what some would call the High Self). She said that the problems began at the patient's age of 15 when she became angry about parental conflicts and started drinking and behaving badly. Her True Self then was forced to leave and tend to other soul parts of the patient (not explored in this first session). She agreed to remain and guide and protect the patient now that we had done this healing work.
As one might imagine, the patient was somewhat surprised by the session, but in a good way. She was no longer anxious, no longer had the heaviness in the chest. I told her that we had accomplished a great deal in the first session and that it had gone rather easily. I expected there to be more work, but that things would be considerably better for her now.
We then began a gradual process of dosage reduction in her medications, which were demonstrably not working anyway.
I will continue to follow her closely over the next few weeks.
I have to conclude that this was not a case of Bipolar Disorder at all. This "psychosis" consisting of a single hallucinated being, was in fact a case of spirit possession. Using anti-psychotic medication for situations like this, which is the current standard of care by good practitioners, has very little if any effect on the spirit being. It just makes it harder for the patient to know what he is doing!
She began having difficult at age 16, with trouble concentrating, racing thoughts. She also was drinking too much and angry much of the time. She was prescribed Adderall for the presumed Attention Deficit Disorder. This resulted in increased racing thoughts, too much energy, not sleeping, acting out, i.e. sexual promiscuity, excess drinking. The diagnosis was changes to Bippolar Disorder, although there have not been any more of the hyper episodes (presumed hypomania.)
At 19 she began binge eating, without purging. At 20 she began to experience a relationship with a man named Saul (name changed for privacy reasons). She soon learned that she was the only one who could see him. This led to a psychiatric hospitalization and the introduction of anti-psychotic medications. She continued to see and hear Saul, who at first was friendly and intimate but not sexual with her, but then began berating her for being fat, lazy, etc. The medications reduced these experiences but did not eliminate them. The patient entered a prolonged period of depression. She had low energy, still has trouble focusing and concentrating, sleeps too much, failed at college and began to see no future for herself.
She was brought to me by her father who was convinced that there must be a better way to deal with the catastrophic changes in his daughter.
After this initial evaluation we began doing some inner exploring, asking the patient to become mindful of inner physical sensations. She identified herself as feeling anxious, but the physical sensation was heaviness in the chest. There was not the usual tingling, jittery feeling I would expect with anxiety. By dialoguing with the heavy place in the chest we found a Suffering Being (what some would call an earthbound spirit). He was a man who had died in 1920, having been murdered in a fight with his cousin. He cleared very easily into the World of Light.
Heaviness in the chest: GONE
Next we asked to speak to Saul, the "hallucinated" man. He appeared reluctantly and said he wanted me to stop doing what I was doing. Upon further interview, being constrained by the Archangel Michael and commanded to speak the truth in the presence of the Archangels, he admitted he was not human, but what we would call a demon. He said his purpose was to try to make the patient come over to the dark side. He admitted to creating havoc in her mind and causing her to binge eat. He said he came into her when she was 19 years old. Recognizing that he was now in "trouble" with those who directed his actions, by virtue of having been found out, he was willing to go into the Light also, to a place specially designated for rehabilitating beings like himself.
No more Saul.
Next we called in the patient's True Self (what some would call the High Self). She said that the problems began at the patient's age of 15 when she became angry about parental conflicts and started drinking and behaving badly. Her True Self then was forced to leave and tend to other soul parts of the patient (not explored in this first session). She agreed to remain and guide and protect the patient now that we had done this healing work.
As one might imagine, the patient was somewhat surprised by the session, but in a good way. She was no longer anxious, no longer had the heaviness in the chest. I told her that we had accomplished a great deal in the first session and that it had gone rather easily. I expected there to be more work, but that things would be considerably better for her now.
We then began a gradual process of dosage reduction in her medications, which were demonstrably not working anyway.
I will continue to follow her closely over the next few weeks.
I have to conclude that this was not a case of Bipolar Disorder at all. This "psychosis" consisting of a single hallucinated being, was in fact a case of spirit possession. Using anti-psychotic medication for situations like this, which is the current standard of care by good practitioners, has very little if any effect on the spirit being. It just makes it harder for the patient to know what he is doing!
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