From the shaman’s point of view, our lives are an externalized extension of all that we think, believe and anticipate. Mike Dooley in his book, Infinite Possibilities, says “thoughts become things.” When we notice what keeps showing up in our lives, negative and positive, we are noticing the manifestation of our thoughts and beliefs.
Our actions are also an extension of our thoughts and beliefs. When we pay attention to our actions, the things that we do and the ways we behave, we are seeing our thoughts and beliefs in motion. Our thoughts and beliefs create the map we live by.
Andean energy medicine teaches that we are surrounded by a luminous energy field (LEF) that contains the imprints of—or information about—everything that has ever happened to us. This information influences and affects the chakras, our energy centers, which in turn influence our physical and emotional worlds, causing us to repeat these patterns in our lives. The Andean shamanic tradition identifies nine energy centers, seven of which are located in the physical body. An eighth is located above the head—within the luminous energy field but outside the physical body. The ninth energy center is also above the head but outside the luminous energy field. When they are clear, the chakras are spinning energy centers that receive and transmit subtle energies necessary for physical and emotional health.
In the Illumination process, the shaman locates the chakra where the client is holding the imprint of the issue they need or want to work on. As the client focuses on the issue, the shaman holds a hand over that chakra center and, by turning the hand counterclockwise relative to the client, helps clear the energy imprint, pulling it out of the chakra. This releases the energy that has been keeping the client trapped in the event or pattern. The shaman then encourages the client to breathe into whatever is coming into their awareness. As they exhale, they should imagine that they are untangling and freeing themselves from this past while the shaman continues to clear the energy center.
The intent is to remove the negative content from the imprint and set the client free from repeating the story of the original wound. Following the clearing, the shaman pulls energy through the eighth chakra—known as the Wiracocha and the source of the sacred in Andean shamanism—and transmits that energy into the previously affected chakra, illuminating it. This transmission of energy into the chakra raises its vibration and reorganizes the chakra’s energy, which results in a shift in the client’s awareness and a healing of the former narrative.[1]
With each Illumination you are changing your map for how you will live in the world. Your new map consists of the shifts that happen during the Illumination. You are creating a new blueprint energetically in your luminous energy field by clearing out the negative information in an imprint. All imprints carry information. This information organizes the Luminous Energy Field which becomes our map. This map becomes the matter (i.e., the manifestation) of our lives.
After the illumination, it is important to notice what has shifted. What do you notice? What changed for you? What do you feel? How do you feel? What thoughts are you thinking? What beliefs shifted? It is important to apply these shifts and put them into practice by thinking, feeling and behaving differently. For example, consider the person, who after an illumination said, “For the first time that I can remember, I felt love for the child that was me and compassion for her. I felt love for me and compassion for me. I didn’t just think I should love myself; I actually did love myself.”
This client continued, “I went outside to leave and felt a strong need to sit on the ground. It was a warm November day, and the ground was dry, so I sat on the grass between the office building and the sidewalk (something I never would have done in my past because “people just don’t do that in that space.” Somehow it wasn’t proper). As I sat on the ground and drank from my water bottle, I was aware I had changed, and not just because I was sitting on the ground outside an office building. I felt like I was looking out through different eyes, seeing differently, feeling differently. After about 10 minutes I moved to my car and sat a little longer. I flipped the visor down and opened the mirror to see myself, and I looked at my reflection with love for the first time.”
If you felt love for yourself for the first time, how would your thoughts change? How would your behaviors change? Would you have more confidence? Would you walk straighter in the world? It is important to notice how your thinking, beliefs and behaviors change after an illumination. This is your new map.
Allow your new map to inform you and behave accordingly. New actions reinforce the new beliefs. Dooley continues, “Our every action is recorded in its finest detail and assimilated through the layers of our beliefs. Your behavior, like your thoughts, especially when repeated, is recorded and these recordings then prove and reinforce the belief that you hold that says, “this is the way life is now, [the new map].” And despite the contradictory circumstances that may surround you, if you can gather the courage to act even a little out of step with your old belief, as if to say, “this is not the way it is going to continue”--you will record, document and carry a message that says “from now on things are going to be different.”[2] This is both the invitation and the power of the illumination process.
[1] Villoldo, Alberto. Shaman, Healer, Sage, 46.
[2] Dooley, Mike, Infinite Possibilities, 87.