Since 1995, I have been practicing shamanic healing, a form of spiritual healing found all over the world for thousands of years. Throughout those years, I discovered that a crucial aspect of spiritual healing is to address what Level of Self needs the healing. Without knowing this, healing is delayed or never happens because the real issues are misdiagnosed.

My work with the Levels of Self comes out of traditions of “parts work” from psychologists such as Fritz Perl and Hal and Sidra Stone’s Voice Dialogue work. It also comes from the arts: actor, singers and dancers learn to take on the energies of various personas when they play roles in theater. Many acting methods specifically train actors to do this.

The 9 Levels of Self that I have identified are divided into two general categories: Soul and Spirit. The Soul is related to the Individual and other people around him or her, while the Spirit is comprised of spiritual entities and the greater, more general Life Force.

9 Levels of Self

1. Integrated Self – who we normally think of as the individual; the chairperson of the committee of the sub-personalities; ideally, not the ego (superficial self) but rather the soul (essence of the person aligned with his/her mission in life).
2. Physical body – the physical body that can be seen and touched in physical reality. The body has a life of its own as well as being a major communicator of messages from the other Levels of Self
3. Emotional body – the individual self’s emotions
4. Spiritual body – energy (chi, prana, aura) in and around the individual’s physical body; it is its own body
5. Sub-personalities – one personality or soul part within individual self. Examples would be the individual’s Inner Child, Inner Critic, Angry part, Wise part
6. Imprints – other people’s energy that you have taken on and integrated. Example: verbal phrases, body gestures or thought patterns that you picked up, consciously or unconsciously, from imitating another person
7. Group energy – The energy/emotions of a group or place. This includes influences of one’s culture or subculture. Group energy can influence an individual in “real time” or from past experience/memory
8. Spiritual entities – a spiritual entity not part of a living individual or group. Spiritual entities may be a variety of beings, such as angels, ancestors, gods, goddesses. The phenomena of channeling is an example of working with spiritual entities.
9. Life Force – Pure energy, life-force; the Great Cosmic Soup that includes everything in existence; Spirit, Source, Creator, God/dess, Higher Power

One way of working with the 9 Levels is to start with an issue you would like to explore, something you’d like to break through in your life. For example, “What is the origin of the pain I have in my leg, since the doctor says there’s nothing physically wrong?” “Why do my spouse and I always argue (what is the underlying issue?” “Why do I sabotage myself just when I’m about to succeed?”

One can ask each Level of Self this same question, and then enact the answer through body movement, sound, words. I have led many groups in this exercise, and it has been known to produce phenomenal breakthroughs.

Joan Forest Mage is honored to serve as a shamanic artist, teacher and healer in her hometown of Chicago, where she is founder and Executive Director of Life Force Arts Center. She will be facilitating the workshop "The 9 Levels of Self" on Tuesday August 25 from 7 - 9 PM at Life Force Arts Center.