Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 291.144
EAN: 9780964208803
ISBN: 0964208806
Label: Rio Chama Publications
Manufacturer: Rio Chama Publications
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: 1998-03-02
Publisher: Rio Chama Publications
Studio: Rio Chama Publications

Journeying not only shows the commonalities shared by shamanism and psychology, but expands on inherent healing possibilities when their forces are joined. This book offers informed insight as to how the practice of journeying weaves into the psychological perspective, as well as providing those who know little about shamanism an enlightened view.

Journeying is the term used to describe a shaman's movement into an altered state of consciousness to obtain healing information. Psychology, like shamanism, works to alleviate human suffering and makes use of altered states in a variety of ways including guided imagery and hypnosis. Shamanism, the oldest healing tradition known to humankind, springs from natural, intuitive, and spiritual sources. Psychology, a relative newcomer on the Western scene, relies on logic and science.

In bringing these two healing disciplines together, the author illustrates how variations on the practice of journeying strengthens the psychological process. The true heart of this book rests in the application of journeying to the healing of emotional wounds--wounds that occur when parents are unable to sufficiently bond with their infants. In such healing journeys shamanic power animals and spirit helpers provide nurturing not previously experienced, softening edges of neediness and desperation that sometimes feed adolescent and adult aggression.

Journeying beats a fast-paced path to the alchemy of psychological transformation in words easily understood by practitioners and lay persons alike.
Jeannette Gagan's Journeying is a must-read for those who are interested in shamanism but have been turned off by fuzzy-headed mystical claims or sloppy exposition. In this well-written and eminently useful manual, shamanism, "perhaps the oldest form of practical spirituality in the world," is explained in a straightforward, scholarly manner by a respected licensed psychologist. Gagan succinctly summarizes the procedures, philosophies, and purposes of modern psychology, illuminating the common areas occupied between the two. She builds a strong case for the introduction of shamanistic journeying into the retinue of healing modalities for the modern psychotherapist. For those intent on healing the psyches of themselves or others, shamanism may well work where other modalities have failed. For example, long-repressed anger can be processed while journeying without fear of upsetting the neighbors, or one day awakening to the horrible realization that you just kicked the dog. --Randall Cohan

Customer Rating:
Summary: Ges's Take
Comment: Jeannette Gagan is a psychologist, who while dealing with her divorce discovered Shamanism, and over the years has come to recognize Shamanism's value as a psychological healing system. She takes an agnostic approach to the reality of Shamanic visions, at times leaning to them being internally generated and other times believing there is something at work beyond the individual, but either way, they are healing. The book starts with "This is neither a self-help nor a how-to book" and it is true, this book isn't a how-to on Shamanism with a psychological twist, and it isn't how to use Shamanism as a self-help tool to deal with your problems. What the book is though, is a serious and intellectual look at Shamanism as a tool for mental wellness, largely focusing around power animals, and soul retrieval. It helps to be familiar with psychology and the counselling process to make use of the book, but I don't believe it would be necessary. There is a lot of focus on the traumas that can arise in earlier childhood (before the age of four) and examples and theory on how Shamanic journeying can help heal the wounds of childhood, as well as any other point in your life. The book talks about Journeying as a method to safely explore, and express pain, emotions, and wounds, and how psychology and shamanism are working toward the same goal, but from different angles. An intriguing read for those interested in either or both of those fields.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Apples and Oranges --Shared Slices
Comment: As a trained psychologist, Jeanette M. Gagan, writes lucidly about the her own personal spiritual journey to wholeness through shamanic practice. By comparing apples (the shaman's fruit of choice) and oranges (the psychologist's fruit of choice), Dr. Gagan succeeds in answering the following questions:

1. How does the shamanic tradition bring such potent healing power to wounds incurred in the earliest months of life? and
2. Could journeying provide a release valve for the violence so rampant in our world?

By contrasting the two traditions historically, Dr. Gagan, underscores the slices of each fruit that can be shared. Central to finding common ground are the notions of altered states of consciousness, imagery, and the Jungian alchemical processes to healing.

Throughout her story Dr. Gagan weaves in carefully chosen vignettes from her clients' journeying, and explains how these experiences transcend verbal therapy and succeed in achieving transformation.

--A very convincing and readable book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A shamanic practitioner's viewpoint
Comment: Having experienced the shamanic path directly and then going back for a degree in psychology I found this a good book for helping the psychological community understand the shamanic path of direct experience. Too many people who are facing a spiritual opening (possibly shamanic) are medicated out of the experience because of the professional's limited viewpoint of the shamanic experience and/or the fear of the unknown.

I caution that the shamanic path cannot be catagorized or analyzed, it is fluid and changing; it is chaotic in nature-if you don't know "the way". I suggest that if you are a professional go out and journey for yourself, explore the path, draw your own conclusions.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Review by Bernie P. Nelson
Comment: 'Journeying' combines the oldest healing tradition with present-day psychology. The book provides a dynamic, vital model for healing and psychological growth for anyone interested in self-improvement. The information is highly understandable at the meeting point of shamanic animal symbolism, including the psychotherapeutic experience of altered states of consciousness-'journeying,' and psychology.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A candle in the darkness
Comment: I don't have to write a wordy essay to sum up what this book is
and what it did for me. Over the last fifteen years I have accumulated
a virtual library of material on shamanism and psychology. All I
needed was three books, this being one of them.I wish and hope a
multitude will read and use the material in this book. Thank you
Jeannette Gagan. P.S. The other two books are, The Way of The Shaman by Michael Harner, and The Vision Seeker by John Lame Deer.

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