by William J. Baldwin, Ph.D.

Shamanism is an ancient form of spirituality and healing practiced in indigenous cultures around the world. Soul retrieval is a shamanic approach to healing. In the tradition of shamanism, illness is an indication that the soul has vacated the body. The shaman enters an altered state of consciousness through the rhythmic beating of a drum or by ingesting a plant substance such as peyote or ayahuasca. The shaman is able to journey into the upper world, the lower world, or wherever the soul is located, to retrieve the soul and return it to the sick person, restoring wholeness and health.

In 1989, I heard a lecture on the work of Sandra Ingerman, as described in her book, Soul Retrieval. As the presenter described various forms of soul loss, it became clear to me that these conditions were a part of my practice that I had never recognized. Mind fragments of living people are sometimes discovered as attached entities, yet I hadn’t considered the other person who had lost the fragment. I found confirmation of this type of attachment in Ralph Allison’s book, Minds in Many Pieces, and Adam Crabtree’s classic work, Multiple Man.

Alter and subpersonalities are the standard fragments; they remain within the person’s body/mind at the subconscious level—except sometimes when they leave the premises. For the purpose of clarity in my own understanding and way of presenting the material, I describe several categories of fragmentation.

Submerging

This subpersonality or soul fragment is often discovered as the severely damaged inner child. Careful and sensitive work is required when dealing with the vulnerable inner child that has submerged. Trust is a major issue. The adult client may deny the existence of this subpersonality. Its very existence is at first rejected by the only one who can understand its pain.

The initial stage of therapy involves the adult and is aimed at recognition and acknowledgment of the dysfunctional family, especially abusing parents. Failure to recognize and treat this submerged inner child may result in physical illness. The child is the foundation for a person’s life, and this fragment of consciousness may have submerged as the result of past-life trauma.

Candace was a highly intelligent, efficient, well-grounded, no-nonsense business woman in her late thirties. She had engaged in a few romantic affairs but had never committed to a serious relationship. Then she met Rick, an affable, open-hearted Italian, and things quickly changed. Passion became part of her life, and she was seriously contemplating marriage.

Candace was troubled; in intimate moments she found herself becoming numb, almost mechanical with Rick and his affections. Planning her life with him, turning her affections toward him exclusively, and facing a life ahead, Candace was puzzled by this behavior. She felt vaguely angry at some of his behavior and his inability to make sound judgments.

In past-life exploration for the source of the anger and numbness, she discovered a scene in which she saw herself holding his body and wailing loudly. He had lost his life in a senseless battle. It felt like part of her had just died inside. For the remainder of that life she was mechanical, devoid of emotion. It was safer; feeling was too painful.

Guided back to circumstances leading up to this trauma, Candace recalled a terrible argument the night before in that life. The argument was about his decision to engage in this battle. He had pledged himself militarily to the unscrupulous leader of their people, believing military duty to be more important than staying with his family. She did not share his loyalty to the leader. She knew the danger of the coming battle and considered his decision to be stupid. Although she knew he would not survive, she could not put this into words. He and many other peasants fought with pitchforks and clubs. They all died in the fields.

Candace scanned her present-life body. There was an emptiness and a huge hole in her heart. There was buried anger, deep sadness, and the familiar numbness. The fragment had submerged deep inside, becoming dormant, numb—almost dead.

Dr. B.: “Help her up. Help her like an old woman. Help her gently. Has she seen all this? Does she understand?”

C.: “I think so.”

There was wonder and surprise on Candace’s face.

Dr. B.: “What does she want from you?”

C.: “She wants me to voice the feelings. The things she couldn’t say then.”

Dr. B.: “What will she give you in return?”

C.: “Joy.”

With a smile beginning to form, Candace deeply felt the transformation of sadness, anger, and feelings of numbness. This was the beginning of major change for Candace. As she later described it, “The walls came tumbling down.”

Shifting

Among traumatized people, a common condition is feeling partially out of the body or not quite all the way in. The client may describe feeling “spacey” or “airheaded”. In the session they may seem to drift away, and their attention span may fluctuate. This is a shifted fragment, slightly ajar in some direction, usually upward or sideways, sometimes back from the body.

Chandra, forty-five year old female client, talked about herself in this manner. During one session, I felt that I should focus my eyes about four feet above her head to look at her. I asked where she was in her body. She described floating upward, her feet at about chest level. She had endured numerous surgeries and was allergic to many things, including some medications. Her father had begun molesting her at eighteen months. It started as fondling, but at age thirteen he actually penetrated her. This continued until she left home at eighteen to get married. She had not developed MPD (multiple personality disorder) as a coping mechanism; she had gone out-of-body to escape the abuse.

Fading

This is a typical behavior of children in dysfunctional families. They describe wanting to fade into the woodwork, to vanish into the furniture. Literally they try to disappear. They do not engage in life, and such behavior continues into adulthood. Such people may be quiet in a group. They dress plainly; women use little or no makeup. Others have difficulty recalling their presence. They just fade from one’s awareness.

Melissa attended a three-day seminar. Plainly dressed, she wore no makeup. Her skin was pale, her thin hair a colorless blond. Participants arranged the chairs in a circle. Melissa moved her chair back from the circle. In a demonstration session on the second day, she revealed she had been living with a man for seven years but with no intention to ever marry. She discovered in the altered state that she had never committed to be in this life at the time of her birth. This happened before I learned about soul retrieval, and I had no knowledge of how to recover her soul essence. Melissa did not show up on the third day of the seminar.

Separation

The soul is connected to the physical body by the silver cord. In the condition of fragmentation, each fragment maintains a connection with the core consciousness by a silver thread, a fiber of the silver cord. In separation fragmentation, a fragment leaves the body/mind, maintaining the silver thread connection, and it is this link that makes the recovery process possible.

The body can function as long as the silver cord maintains its connection, even if there is total evacuation of the fragments. In cases of total fragmentation and separation, the body is normally in coma, unless inhabited and controlled by a strong entity.

When the silver cord disconnects from the body at death, the fragments continue to be joined to each other by the silver threads, even after the being leaves the physical body. The soul fragment associated with a severed body part remains with the body part, yet is still connected by a thread to the main soul consciousness, wherever that is.

Severe trauma usually results in significant fragmentation of the soul essence. The fragment escapes and does not rejoin but follows at a safe distance, connected by the silver thread. This is the person who is “not at home”, “not playing with a full deck”, “out to lunch”, or “empty-headed”.

A person in this situation is vulnerable to spirit intrusion or possession. With such fragmentation, it is easy for another consciousness to enter, become established, and take some degree of control.

Separation fragmentation often happens following emotional trauma such as a “broken heart”, depression and suicidal urges, explosive anger followed by guilt over the behavior, or physical trauma such as wartime combat, amputation, severe beating, incest, or rape.

Evacuation

A separated fragment can remain in the location of the past-life traumatic experience. This is considered evacuation; it is a fragment separated by time and distance. Terror can lead to fragmentation and evacuation, although the silver thread remains connected. A significant percentage of the soul essence can abandon the physical body and attach to another living person in the present life. A soldier might leave a major fragment in a battlefield. Severe depression can actually cause a fragment to move into the Light; a kind of “little death”. Death of a loved one can bring about this condition.

People in a relationship often exchange fragments. The relationship can be male and female, parent and child, or any other close interaction. When one of the partners in such a relationship dies, and the newly deceased soul moves into the Light, attached fragments of the survivor are also carried there. Those fragments can be recovered and reintegrated with the survivor. However, these attached fragments with the survivor can act like a magnet to draw the newly deceased soul, causing an attachment.

Physical Mutilation

Decapitation as punishment had a terrifying history following the first use of the guillotine in 1792, ending in 1981 when capital punishment was abolished in France, where it was predominantly used. The device was invented by Dr. Anton Louis and named after Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, a humanitarian physician who argued for a quicker and less painful death than the commoners suffered by rope or the nobility by sword.

In earlier times, battles were fought between warriors armed with swords. Heads rolled. Serious accidents can result in decapitation. Surgical removal of body parts—small as teeth or appendix, or large as arms or legs—might lead to fragmentation and separation of the fragment of consciousness associated with the body part. Some heart transplant recipients report feeling that someone is following them. Often it is the soul essence or a mind fragment of the organ donor. Other mind fragments can follow other organs, attaching to organ recipients.

Atrocities in wartime reveal the savage nature of men. In the male mind, a commonly held misperception is that genitals make the man. Throughout the history of war, soldiers have mutilated enemy casualties on the battlefield; genitals are severed and stuffed in the mouth. This was repeatedly seen in the Vietnam War. American dead were discovered in this condition. It is a supreme insult meant to discourage and intimidate. It works.

Fragment Recovery

Some soul fragments that separate during traumatic incidents do not return to the body/mind space. The fragment sometimes refuses to return for fear of repeated trauma. This leaves a void, an emptiness, a hole in the heart, or some other similar feeling that can be felt and described.

The client in an altered state is directed to scan the body. They may discover dark or shadowy spots, voids or holes, hollow tubes and empty places. These are the etheric spaces left by soul fragmentation. The client is directed to focus on these spaces, to look for threads that lead out from the empty place. These threads can be perceived by about half of all clients. The client is directed to choose the thread which seems to be most prominent and to follow that one. It will lead to a scene, an event, or trauma in this or another lifetime. The client will recall the event, observe and describe the trauma, and experience the splitting away of the fragment.

If the client does not find the threads leading outward, the focus shifts to the emotions and memories connected with that void or emptiness. This will usually uncover the traumatic event. For the nonvisual person, the emotions and physical sensations associated with the empty space emerge, and this will lead to the painful memory.

Exploration uncovers the circumstances leading to the event and the traumatic experience itself. The fragment, the subpersonality formed by the fragmentation, retains the mental, emotional, and physical residues of that trauma.

As the client recalls traumatic childhood events, the child at that age is seen and described. The young subpersonality must be shown that it survived the trauma, that it did not and will not die, and that this adult—the client—is who it became. The primary fear of the child during the trauma is that it will not survive.

After the traumatic event is processed to peaceful resolution, the conflict resolved, and the painful memories healed, the soul fragment is welcomed into the body wherever it belongs. The client is urged to visualize kneeling and reaching to the child part with open arms. In the imagery, the child almost always runs into the arms to be hugged. Like every piece of a jigsaw puzzle, the fragment is an important part of the whole.

Each soul fragment locates its perfect place in the puzzle as it enters the empty space, wherever that may be—sometimes the head, more often the heart. The client will describe feelings of warmth, being fuller, more whole.

The fragment always brings a gift when it returns. The gift can be a characteristic or ability, such as playfulness, creativity, spontaneity, fun. The clients as grownups who are recovering their soul fragments also have a gift for the fragment or fragments who return. It is usually described as love, safety, security, attention, and the willingness to listen to the little part now that it is home.

Excerpt from Healing Lost Souls: Releasing Unwanted Spirits From Your Energy Body

See Part I here.