What is spirituality and healing?
Spirituality points to the layers of ourselves that are beyond the physical body and the senses. If an experience happens on deeper layers, we call it spiritual. Healing points out to the state of balance in these deeper dimensions. There are a lot of techniques and traditions that deal with the spiritual and healing part of life. Nevertheless, this article is about the yogic, tantric and shamanic knowledge of spiritual healing. We can also connect them to an ultimate summary how to start this process ourselves.
A yogic perspective on spirituality and healing
From the perspective of yogic science, spirituality and healing is deeply tied to understanding the koshas, or the five layers of our existence. These sheaths illustrate the journey from our body to the soul.
- Annamaya Kosha (Physical Body): Healing begins with nurturing the physical body through proper nutrition, exercise, and rest. Practices like yoga asanas bring balance into the body.
- Pranamaya Kosha (Energy Body): This layer focuses on the flow of prana (life force). Techniques like pranayama help to remove energetic blockages, promoting harmony and vitality. Prana is also the main enegry in Yoga that moves through all the koshas. We could say that the spiritual part starts in this kosha.
- Manomaya Kosha (Mental Body): Negative mental patterns can cause many problems. Mindfulness techniques and meditation can bring our mind into a quiet state. Even if we do not relate thoughts and emotions to spirituality, it is already an important part of it, that also comes into our awareness.
- Vijnanamaya Kosha (Wisdom Body): Engaging this layer helps uncover universal truths outside of logic. Practices like contemplation or spiritual study can bring insights. You could also argue that it brings spiritual knowledge – an higher knowledge than human logic.
- Anandamaya Kosha (Bliss Body): The ultimate goal of spiritual healing is to connect with the blissful state of unity and divinity. Healing happens here because we are able to release blockadges on a deep energetic level. That is also the state of Samadhi through meditation.
Healing through the koshas emphasizes that the spiritual journey is about peeling back layers to uncover the divine essence within, making the work both introspective and transformational. This process is also described in Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali. From the coarse to the subtle.
The Tantric Perspective – Gunas and Spiritual Healing
From a tantric perspective, spiritual healing revolves around balancing the gunas—Tamas (inertia), Rajas (activity), and Sattva (harmony)—which govern the qualities of nature and influence our spiritual well-being. These energie are part of nature as everything has to move, to rest and find to balance in between. These are the ground energies of the universe.
- Tamas (Inertia): Tamas can manifest as stagnation, ignorance, or dullness. Spiritual healing helps dissolve tamas through energizing practices like dynamic breathwork, bodywork or energetic mantras.
- Rajas (Activity): Rajas fuels ambition and motion but can also cause restlessness and overactivity. Calming techniques such as yoga or meditation are used.
- Sattva (Harmony): The cultivation of sattva is the ultimate aim of tantric healing. Sattvic practices like mantra chanting, sacred rituals or devotional acts purify the mind and soul.
By aligning the gunas, we work with the main energies of all objects in the universe, which includes then also the spiritual aspects of human beeing.
The Spiritual World and Healing
From a shamanic point of view, spiritual healing involves working with the spiritual world, a dimension intimately connected to our own. This realm is where our souls originate, where spirits dwell, and where we return upon death. The spiritual world has many mysterious concepts and some of them are more impotant for healing then others.
- The Spiritual World: The spiritual world isn’t a distant or abstract concept but a dimension existing parallel to our physical world. This interconnected realm influences our lives through ancestral energy, spirits and universal forces. The influence on us humans it not totally clear. For healing purposes many spiritual healers use rituals to ask for support from this world. As a healer myself I have learned over the years the importance of respect, when we decide to contact this world.
- Soul Energy: Shamanic healing can influence the healing process of the sould through pranic energy, fire and rituals.
- Spirit Beings: Working with spirit beings such as ancestors, animal spirits, or elemental energies allows healers to access guidance and protection. These relationships are very important for a shaman. They play a main role in the topic of spiritual healing.
- Death and Beyond: Shamanism acknowledges that death is not an end but a transition. Understanding the spiritual world helps us heal our fears of mortality and connect with the eternal essence of our being. This knowledge can even strengthen our body and mind, if we can build faith out of that knowledge.
Shamanic spiritual healing highlights that the spiritual world is deeply woven into our lives. It serves as a source of wisdom, strength, and transformation, enabling profound shifts in our physical and emotional well-being.
Integrating Perspectives for Spiritual Healing
Whether viewed through the lens of yogic science, tantra, or shamanism, the essence of spiritual healing lies in understanding and working with the deeper layers of existence. The koshas reveal the journey inward, addressing physical, energetic, mental, and spiritual layers. The gunas guide us to balance the qualities that shape our thoughts, emotions, and actions. The spiritual world connects us to a dimension of infinite wisdom and healing energy.
Each perspective offers unique tools and insights, but together, they form a holistic approach to healing that is deeply transformative. If you want to learn more about these topics, you can also contact me or follow my social media channels. NAMASTE!
