What is Shamanic Healing?

mtwadmin - Fri, August 20, 2010

Bob Nemeth

You may or may not have preconceived ideas when you hear the words “shamanic healing.”  Up here in heady old New England, the norm is to mistrust things that are perceived as too… spiritual. “We’re a society that heavily favors the left brain,” Bob says.  “Imagination is considered a taboo.” 

I admit, I too tend to go into these “energy healing” modalities with a healthy helping of skepticism.  On the other hand, assuming that everything that is “real” can be explained solely within the system of Western science is ignorant and myopic, so I also try to keep my externally-influenced attitudes in check and keep an open mind.

Bob Nemeth is a shamanic healer.  Before you start conjuring up mental images of ash-clad, staff-wielding, dreadlocked magicians, take a look at the picture above.  Bob is an experienced bodyworker and interfaith minister from Worcester who also happens to be skilled in what he calls “the ability to track energy.” 

I assume for demographics interested in Wellness Blogs, the idea that the body contains/is made of/is surrounded by fields of energy is not new.  Bob and other shamanic healers have the ability to isolate negative, destructive, or intrusive energy patterns and ease them into release and harmony. 

Bob did not grow up suspecting he had a gift for shamanic healing.  “It’s something that’s in all of us,” he says.  “There are just some people are born having more access to it than others.  I never really considered I might be one of them.”

Several years ago, a profound experience connected to a close friend’s death caused him to reexamine his own innate abilities.  His interest eventually led him to study with Albeto Villoldo who had learned shamanic healing in Peru from the indigenous shamanic community.  Many of Villoldo’s teachers hoped he would help carry the torch of their work to North America.  Fast-forward to his student Bob, practicing in Davis Square, 2010.

Of course, I wanted to try this out for myself.  Bob was kind enough to meet with me to give me a sample treatment.  When I showed up in his treatment room, there was a pile of rocks on the massage table.  I had no idea what I was in for.

The first thirty minutes or so we discussed what I felt like I wanted to accomplish during the session.  It was half-therapy, half-bodywork consultation.  Without getting too hippy-dippy on you starched-shirt Bostonians, we talked about a lot of emotional pain and blockages, both old and new, that were likely manifesting themselves in energetic holding-patterns.  I have had problems with my left leg, my knee and hip since I was seventeen.  We decided I was still carrying a lot of old emotional wounds in my hip. 

The treatment itself involved deep-spirit breathing, symbolic work with crystals, and chakra realignment.  I especially appreciated the ceremonial aspects of it.  “Our culture is starved for ceremony,” Bob said during our initial interview. 

I agree with him.  There was something about standing with a crystal in my hand, about visualizing my past trauma as a black spiderweb of energy, envisioning that spiderweb flowing out of my body into a crystal, and having Bob “catch” it there, that shifted the way I was resting the weight on my hip-joint.  You can talk about the “placebo” effect all you want, but that’s really just a word for something that works without our knowing exactly why.

A lot of emotional stuff was brought up for me during the treatment.  I even cried a little, but in a good, cathartic kind of way.  This was definitely more than I bargained for.

Afterward, I told him my hip did feel better.  I felt like I was standing on it right for the first time in ten years. 

“You may noticed that the things you used to do with physical therapy are more effective now,” he told me.  “Your body shouldn’t be as attached to those old negative patterns.”

It’s been a couple of weeks now, and while the pain in my leg (largely caused by structural knee issues) hasn’t resolved completely, the horrible cramping and seizing in my left hip has seemed to be greatly assuaged.  As he suggested, the stretches and exercises I have been doing to help have seemed to have enhanced and longer-lasting effects.  No matter what the scientific “reasons” for this, I continue to be convinced of the power of ceremony, ritual, and paying attention to those parts of ourselves we can’t see.