Through the history of human spiritual traditions there has been a belief that there is a nonphysical existence that parallels the physical universe. People considered this world to be filled with spirits. In the Assyrian cuneiform texts from about 2500 BC are the first known written accounts of the treatment of illness. Ceremonies to the tribal gods and direct confrontation of demons through prayer were the rituals used to heal people of negative spirit influence. In the North American indigenous shamanic traditions there is still a belief that mental and physical sickness is caused by either the possession of evil spirits or the soul loss of one’s own spirit.
The shaman and healers of the indigenous cultures perform rituals and healing ceremonies to cast out the spirits so that the ill person can become balanced and heal. These rituals are called extractions. They are still performed today. The shaman, in a non-ordinary state of consciousness induced by drumming, dancing and at times the use of natural herbal hallucinogens, joins the world of the spirits to be possessed himself by his helping spirits and power animal spirits so he can communicate with the patient’s intruding spirits to dislodge them and release them back into the spirit world, freeing the patient of the draining and toxic influence of the spirit’s presence. In some traditions the spirit is dislodged by the shaman sucking out the spirit and illness by placing the mouth directly against the patient’s body. The Lummi tribe in the Northwest Coast of North America uses another approach for releasing attaching spirits that are the result of a sorcerer’s curse. The shaman usually has other healers helping him, as the task of releasing spirits is considered very difficult. The shaman or medicine man becomes violent and frenzied as if animated by some unseen spirit force. When he has found the possessing spirit he falls into a trance and tells how the spirit is affecting the patient and the patient’s family. When he gets the force under control the person is healed and the family is free from its influence. The captured spirit is either put in a spirit bundle of cedar-bark and the medicine man shoots an arrow through the bundle, or he destroys the spirit by putting it in a rock that has been heated and then breaking the rock by pouring water on it, or he holds the spirit in his hands and twists it as if he were breaking it up after which he throws the parts in opposite directions. Sometimes, the spirit is sent back to the person who sent the evil spirit.
As a psychotherapist I have been doing a modern version of spirit extractions with my clients since 1986. I have been trained in a more clinical approach, which uses the non-ordinary state of hypnosis. In the hypnotic state the client becomes his or her own shaman. The process is called Spirit Releasement Therapy. Through doing this work I have found that disembodied spirits attach to humans for many reasons. The spirit may not realize he is dead or he may have some spiritual codependence issue that remains after death and he may not be able to let go and move on, or he may have an addiction that keeps him bound to the physical plane to satisfy his addictive needs. In all of these cases, the spirit is waylaid and stuck and the host is drained of energy and is influenced in ways, which inhibit his life force and free will.
There are many symptoms of spirit attachment and the clinician must have skills to differentially diagnose the client with the symptoms, which could also be from biological and psychological causes. Some symptoms are low energy, hearing voices, physical symptoms that seem to have no physical cause, compulsions, and mood swings. Let’s face it: a good case of PMS could create the same list of symptoms! When a client presents any of the mentioned symptoms I will do an extensive interview to find out the history of the symptoms and I will especially ask if there were any deaths or any energetic openings in the client’s life about the time the symptoms began. Energetic openings could be: an accident, use of drugs or alcohol, surgery, extreme emotional states, loss of consciousness, or out of control psychic experiences. These types of experiences cause a disruption in the energy system, which weakens our protection, making us more vulnerable to an entity attaching itself to our energy system.
Once we have ruled out any possible physical or emotional cause of the symptom we will investigate the possibility of a spirit attachment by having the client perform his own energy scan. In a light state of hypnosis he closes his eyes and using his inner seeing, feeling and knowing “scans” the body and energy system for any intruding energy. The intrusions are typically experienced as darkness, fuzziness, blocked energy, or heaviness. Last Thursday I worked with a 48 year old client who grew up living in an apartment above her father’s funeral home. Seeing dead bodies before and after embalming and cremation were a daily thing for her. Children at school teased her ruthlessly about what her father did for a living and she was very isolated and lonely as a child. When we did the energy scan process she noticed a feeling and image of a dark energy clinging to her between the shoulder blades where she typically feels tension and back pain. We proceeded to telepathically communicate with the entity and she verbalized the messages she received, just as the shaman would telepathically communicate with the spirit and tell about its influence. We discovered that there had been a spirit of a dead man who died in a truck accident. His body was brought to the funeral home and was buried. He was confused and angry and attached to my client when she was four years old. At the age of four she had had a hernia surgery and that was the energetic opening for the spirit to attach. Through more communication we discovered that the spirit was afraid of moving on into the Light because he didn’t want to let go of what was familiar and comfortable after all these years. The client dialogued with the spirit and she told him that he was no longer welcome to stay and that she wanted him to move on. We called upon the spirit of the entity’s dead grandmother to come get him to take him with her to the light and eventually he exited through what felt like the area of the client’s lower back, and moved on. My client felt a big release and as if there were more room in her to be in her own body after the releasement took place. The darkness and tightness in her back were also released. These types of effects are common results for the client.
This spirit releasement process was pretty typical and undramatic. At other times I have had spirit releasement sessions be profound and almost miraculous. Here are several other cases: A woman client complained of burning pain on the right side of her body. She had exhausted all medical and alternative healing sources and had received no
amelioration of the pain. In regression hypnosis she discovered the source of the pain. When traveling in Japan and touring the area of the Hiroshima atomic blast, she picked up a “hitch hiker” who had died in the blast. The right side of his body was facing the blast and had melted. It was his pain that was registering through my client’s body. After he was released into the light, her pain was gone. (The entity was confused. He went into the light of the bomb blast, not the spiritual light of the afterlife and he was lost. He attached to my client because he saw her as a compassionate being that knew about healing. He thought he might get some help.)
And then there was the man who was ritually and sexually abused as a child in the Jehovah’s Witness church. A Catholic priest referred him to me for a clinical depossession. Several psychologists thought he might be a multiple personality because of his abuse and the angry dark energy that commonly took over my client. During the abuse, my client was told that he was the Devil, and that all of their sins would go into him during the ritual and sexual abuse. He grew up feeling all of this negativity and hate and felt that his whole life was blocked of any success and love. The session was intense and very frightening. At one time the client actually levitated off the chair from the intense anger and attacking energy of the entity. It was through regressing the entity back to its source of love that the releasement finally took place. The anger and negativity dissolved and the entity cried in the pain of remorse for what he had caused my client. With forgiveness and love, he moved on into the light for his own healing. My client was free!
After the releasement my client’s life totally changed. He was finally able to heal from his abuse and have a life that was productive and whole. There were no more symptoms of being a multiple personality after the demonic entity was released. He became a student at HCH, was trained in Hypnotherapy and Spirit Releasement Therapy, married and has a practice of doing the spirit releasement work professionally, hoping to help others to be free of the bondage and drain of attaching spirits.
I have released thousands of entities with the help of my and my clients’ spirit helpers. The main ingredient in the clinical spirit releasement is LOVE. It is through our larger collective connection in spirit, whether we are in physical form or not, that the healing takes place. Today, in the therapy offices of clinically trained licensed psychotherapists and certified hypnotherapists, healing rituals take place that come from the lineage of the shamanic traditions of indigenous peoples from thousands of years ago. These therapeutic “technologies” are rooted in a basic belief and premise of most spiritual traditions: we are spiritual is essence and we are able, through our spiritual practices, to realize our spiritual nature and divine source. My work as a hypnotherapist and psychotherapist is that of a modern day shaman; it is the work of restoring spirit and reconnecting it to its divine source.
Spirit Releasement sessions:
Interested in receiving a session in Sirit Releasement Therapy? Holly offers sessions in her private practice at HCH and interns also affer sessions in the Low Fee Community Clinic. Call for appointments. 925 283-3941
Spirit Releasement Training:
Students in the HCH Certified Hypnotherapy Training learn the techniques of Spirit Releasement Therapy. Holly also teaches an advanced training in Spirit Releasement Therapy yearly. Seee the "Advanced Training" page on the HCH website for details. www.HypnotherapyTraining.com
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Holly Holmes-Meredith is a Doctor of Ministry and a licensed Marriage family Therapist who trains hypnotherapists at HCH Institute in Lafayette CA. Learn more about hypnosis and its many therapeutic uses by reading her other blogs on Past life Therapy, Spirit Releasement Therapy, Manifesting your dreams and more.
Visit www.HypnotherapyTraining.com to learn about HCH Institute and its California state approved and registered certification trainings and classes for personal growth in hypnotherapy, energy therapy and parapsychological studies. And listen to her pod cast and samples of Holly's Hypnosis CDs which are available on-line.