Article: Soul-Mind Fragmentation and Recovery – William J. Baldwin (Is.13)

by William J. Baldwin, D.D.S., Ph.D.

Dr. Baldwin is no stranger to our pages or to members of APRT. In the paper below he presents his findings on the condition he calls soul-mind fragmentation and makes some concrete and useful suggestions for diagnosis and treatment. In this paper, he pulls recent research on Dissociative Identity Disorder, spirit releasement, past-life therapy, and fragmentation therapy together in a novel and effective way.

Soul-Mind Fragmentation and DID

The concept of divided or multilevel consciousness has been studied extensively in recent years. The divisions of consciousness have been labeled variously as ego states, subordinate personalities, subpersonalities, alter personalities, fragments, special-purpose fragments, mind fragments, inner children, compartments, parts, voices, complexes, and selves. An emotional or physical trauma can cause parts or fragments to split from the core personality. These fragments of consciousness are active in the daily functioning of a “normal” individual. These partial personalities, or subpersonalities, retain the person’s age and characteristics at the time of the split. They strive to fulfill the unfulfilled need that led to the split, and continue to maintain the emotional mood of the traumatic event. These subpersonalities are literally stuck in the incident (Crampton, 1981).

Subpersonalities do not become the personality in charge nor do they take control of the behavior. Rather, they manifest as subconscious urges, and can cause variations in mood, physical energy, sociability, likes and dislikes in food and drink, unusual eating habits, and many other aspects of physical and emotional conditions and behavior (Assagioli, 1965; Ferrucci, 1982; Brown, 1983; Stone & Winkelman, 1985, 1990).

In cases of extreme physical, emotional, or sexual abuse during childhood years, the dissociation can become complete, resulting in two or more separate and distinct personalities. The alter personalities “switch” as each recurrently “comes out” and takes full control of the person’s behavior. This condition is termed Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), formerly Multiple Personality Disorder (APA, 1987). Between 95% and 100% of diagnosed cases of DID have a history of childhood incest, torture, or other severe and long-lasting abuse (Putnam, 1985).

Currently, the condition is more often recognized, correctly diagnosed, and successfully treated as a specific mental disorder (Kluft, 1985; Braun, 1986; Bliss, 1986; Putnam, 1989; Ross, 1989).

In the dissociation of DID, reality contact is maintained through either the central or primary personality or an alter personality. The split is said to be massive or molecular; that is, each alter personality is complete, or nearly so, with the memory of its own history and relatively distinct and integrated behavioral and interpersonal patterns (Campbell, 1981).

Dissociation is considered a coping mechanism for a traumatic or overwhelmingly stressful situation. Not all people who suffer this kind of abuse develop DID; it seems to depend on the capacity to dissociate in response to the post-traumatic stress of the abuse (Braun, 1986; Kluft, 1986).

DID and the Out-Of-Body Experience

The out-of-body experience (OOBE) occurs in at least half of patients diagnosed with DID. In persons who are not psychiatric patients, about 10% report OOBE’s associated with traumatic circumstances (Twemlow et al, 1985). In several surveys, primarily with college students, at least a quarter reported having an OOBE (Hart, 1954; Green, 1968; Palmer & Dennis, 1975). In another survey (Shiels, 1978), such experiences were found in over 70 non-Western cultures and showed a high degree of similarity. People describe the experience as watching themselves from a distance, usually to one side, from above or from deep inside during traumatic situations (Putnam, 1985; Loewerstein, 1991; Ross, 1989). In a survey of near-death experiencers, Sabom (1982) found that 30% of his respondents reported viewing their bodies as if from the outside. It seems that a personality or a fragment of a personality can separate from the physical body and describe accurately its surroundings outside of and separate from the body.

In some reported cases of OOBE’s, people perceive a “cord of light” connecting their physical body with the location of their consciousness outside the body (Grof & Halifax, 1976). The Bible describes the silver cord that attaches the soul to the body (Ecclesiastes 12:6). A part of this cord, a silver thread, seems to remain connected with the separated fragment in most cases of OOBE.

Soul-Mind Fragmentation

Soul retrieval is a shamanic approach to healing. In native traditions of shamanism, illness was an indication that the soul had vacated the body. The shaman journeyed into the upper world, the lower world, or wherever the soul could be located, to retrieve the soul and return it to the sick person, restoring wholeness and health (Ingerman, 1991).

Soul-mind is a term coined by Bletzer (1986) and for convenience the concept will be used here. Soul-mind is defined as the mechanism that records the sum total of a being’s experiences through incarnations. It is a permanent intellect or consciousness that composes a person’s character or individuality and that never dies. It may be synonymous with the subconscious mind.

During our human lives, most people experience pain, mental, physical, and emotional. In working with clients, I find that they report that physical traumas that lead to soul-mind fragmentation can be any bodily intrusion with a real or imagined threat to survival such as surgeries, organ donation and receiving organ transplants, amputations, beatings, or damage to any part of the physical body. Fragmentation can be caused by sexual abuse such as rape or incest, torture, battlefield experiences such as wounds, atrocities, or death by explosion or decapitation. The fragment of the soul-mind associated with a severed body part remains with the body part, and is still connected by a thread to the main consciousness, wherever it is. This fragment carries heavy emotional residue from the original trauma.

The emotional trauma caused by these physical violations can lead to dissociation, splitting of the consciousness and the formation of sub- or alter personalities as a coping mechanism. Emotional trauma following the loss of a loved one, or the sight of a loved one being seriously harmed, can also lead to fragmentation. The experience of the trauma seems to be literally stored in a fragment of the consciousness, a subpersonality that becomes separated and isolated from the main consciousness.

The percentage of fragmentation can range from minor to total, and there can be any number of separate fragments. Trauma is not confined to children or young people; fragmentation can occur at any age from conception to death, and the fragment will feel itself to be of the age at which the trauma occurred. The silver thread that connects each fragment to the main consciousness is a fiber of the larger silver cord that attaches the soul, the contracted spirit, to the body. This link is maintained even after the soul leaves the body at death, when the silver cord is disconnected from the physical form.

A fragment can become partially dislodged and remain partly in and partly out of the body; it can follow a person like a balloon on a string. It can remain in some distant location or structure; it can also attach to another living person. A fragment that separated during a trauma in a past life can remain in the setting of the prior lifetime. A person can be born into this lifetime missing a fragment that separated in another incarnation. After a past-life trauma, a separated fragment can actually go to the Light, as described in the death experience during past-life therapy. The fragment might still be in the Light. In most such cases of separation and evacuation, the silver thread remains connected, and it is this link that makes possible the recovery process.

In clinical practice, this condition of “soul loss,” or fragmentation, is easily discovered. We find that most people who have suffered trauma have some form and degree of soul-mind fragmentation. No one symptom is diagnostic, though a combination of symptoms may be indicative. In the altered state of consciousness, a high percentage of our clients discover parts or fragments missing, a percentage far higher than the reported 10 to 50% reported in the surveys cited above. Survey questions are answered in the “regular” state of consciousness, but people in altered states have expanded access to memories of such experiences. This is a new area of exploration, and new methods have been devised to discover, diagnose, and treat the condition. The results are promising; the effects on clients are beyond expectation.

When located, separated fragments can communicate through the voice of the client. The accounts and descriptions of the traumatic causes of the fragmentation and the effects on the client tend to validate the condition described in the shamanic traditions. Sometimes fragments that separate from the body during traumatic events have refused to return to the body-mind space, for fear of further trauma.

Clues to Fragmentation

When there is fragmentation present, clients often describe feeling “a void, a space, an emptiness, a hole in the heart,” or some similar description. The English language contains numerous metaphoric descriptions of the condition of fragmentation, and clients often use them to describe their feelings. The phrases above are good examples. Other phrases to note are being “all broken up, shattered, torn up, falling apart, broken hearted, feeling empty, not all here, beside myself, not hitting on all cylinders,” or needing to “get my head together, pull myself together, pick up the pieces, gather my thoughts.” A client may describe feeling “spacey, ungrounded, disconnected,” feeling like they are not in their body, or feeling like they are not all there.

Phrases like these can alert the therapist that the client may be suffering from fragmentation. That they are common metaphors in our culture may also indicate a collective subconscious awareness of the condition of soul-mind fragmentation. In fact, conversely, it is considered a compliment to describe a person as “having his stuff together,” or being “a really together person.”

The appearance and demeanor of the client can also suggest the condition of fragmentation and separation. The eyes may appear vacant or lackluster; the senses may seem muffled. Short attention span, both in daily life and in therapy sessions, can indicate fragmentation. Such people may sleep a lot and feel apathetic toward life; feelings of depression or a vague sense of loss can result from fragmentation.

Soul-Mind Fragmentation Categories

The degree of fragmentation and separation as a result of trauma ranges across a spectrum of severity from minor to total. The following categories are defined to assist the clinician in diagnosing and choosing treatment approaches. They are admittedly arbitrary. We have found numerous instances of these categories in clinical practice, but there is evidence of many other forms of fragmentation. There is much more to learn of this condition and the appropriate treatments.

Subpersonality

These are the classic fragments; they remain within the confines of the person’s body-mind at the level of the subconscious mind. A subpersonality is defined as a structured constellation or agglomerate of attitudes, drives, habit patterns, and belief systems, organized in adaptation to the internal forces (needs and desires) and external environment (perceived abuse or neglect). It is considered to be crystallized energy that has become split off from the whole of the personality, usually at a young age as a result of some unmet basic need or drive or emotional trauma (Crampton, 1981). The subpersonality is self-aware and remains intact at the level of the subconscious mind as a latent mental system or personality, perceiving itself as being the age at which the trauma occurred, thus remaining as an inner child. It can influence the governing mental system (conscious mind) of an individual, by attempting to meet the original unmet need, even though many years pass. When the behavior of this subpersonality manifests, it may seem regressive and inappropriate.

Submerging

This subpersonality is often discovered as the severely damaged inner child. Careful and sensitive work is required with this vulnerable inner child; it has submerged deep inside. Trust is a major issue with this little one (Stone & Winkelman, 1985). The adult client may deny the existence of this subpersonality. Thus, its very existence may at first be rejected by the only person who can really understand its pain. The initial stage of therapy involves the adult and is aimed at recognition and acknowledgment of the early dysfunctional family, and especially identifying the abusers. Failure to recognize and treat this submerged inner child may result in physical illness. This fragment of consciousness may have submerged as the result of a trauma in a past life as well as the present one.

Shifting

A common condition among traumatized people is the state of being partially out of the body. They feel as if they are not quite all the way “in.” Such clients may feel “spacey” much of the time or describe themselves as being “airheads.” In sessions they may seem to drift away or attention span may fluctuate. This is the situation of an overlapping fragment, slightly ajar in some direction, usually upwards or sideways.

One forty-year-old client talked about herself in this way. She described “floating up” so that her feet were at just about chest level. She had endured numerous surgeries in her life, and was allergic to many medications and other things. Her father had begun molesting her when she was 18 months old. This began as “fondling,” but he finally penetrated her in sexual intercourse when she was 13 years old. This continued until she left home at 18 to marry. She had not developed DID as a coping mechanism; instead, she had used out-of-body fragmentation to escape the experience of the abuse.

Fading

This is similar in some ways to the typical everyday behavior of some children in dysfunctional families. These children want to fade into the woodwork, to vanish into the furniture. They literally try to disappear, to become invisible; they do not engage in life. It is a behavior that continues into adulthood. The person is very quiet, may dress plainly, attract no attention, and others may even have difficulty recalling their presence in a group. By the time they are adults, they have achieved some success at this defense mechanism of fading. They have become “invisible,” and a fragment of their souls has faded out of sight as well. Some forms of group therapy can be somewhat effective with these clients, but their “invisible” soul fragment is a deeper issue and is best dealt with through individual therapy. The client is guided back to the actual trauma when the personality fragmented and separated. That fragment literally faded in and out of the personality, subsequently blending and then leaving again, but never completely returning to fully integrate. The trauma in the present lifetime and the subsequent fragmentation and fading as a coping mechanism may also be an echo of similar past-life trauma.

Separation

Very severe trauma may result in a significant percentage of the soul-mind escaping and not rejoining but just following 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, empty headed.”

A person in this condition is quite vulnerable to entity attachment or possession. Without the full consciousness in attendance, it is easy for another consciousness to enter, become established, and take some degree of control.

This kind of fragmentation may be diagnosed from severe depression or suicidal urges, explosive anger, or violent words or actions. It is caused by major trauma such as wartime combat, amputation, severe beating, incest, or rape; the trauma may be found in either the present life or a past life of the client. Interestingly, a separated fragment from a past-life trauma may remain attached to the past life location; this is considered an evacuation.

Evacuation

Terror can lead to fragmentation and evacuation, a distant separation. It can result from trauma in the present life or a past one. Although the fragment has stayed in the location of the trauma, it remains connected to the body through the silver thread. A significant percentage of the soul-mind can also abandon the physical body and attach to another living person. Severe depression can actually cause such a fragment to move into the Light; it is a kind of “little death.” Death of a loved one can also bring about this condition.

Sometimes people in relationships are found to exchange fragments; this is a form of evacuation. The relationship can be of any kind, but it was meaningful to the client. When one of the partners in such a relationship dies, and the newly deceased spirit moves into the Light, the attached fragments of the surviving person are carried there with it. These fragments can be recovered and reintegrated with the survivor.

Physical

Any physical trauma, whether from a past or present life, can lead to fragmentation. This may be especially severe when a body part is lost, whether through surgery, accident, or warfare. Transplant recipients not only lose a body part, but it is replaced by someone else’s. They may feel as if someone is following them; it may be a fragmented part of the donor. A fragment may remain attached to any body part after it is gone.

Diagnosis of Soul-Mind Fragmentation

Diagnosis of soul-mind fragmentation is fairly straightforward. As a client recalls and describes a traumatic event, the therapist can ask questions such as the following:

“What happens to your spirit as your body is being touched like that?”

“Where do you go when that happens?”

“Where are you as you watch?”

“What happens to you, deep inside?”

Some clients can recall incidents of childhood molestation during which they stood across the room or floated near the ceiling observing the abuse. One woman recalled watching from the corner of the bathroom as her grandfather fondled her little body as she sat on the toilet. Another client reported leaving her body lying in bed while her father was touching her; she just went outside and sat on the roof until he went away. Then she came back into her body.

In some cases, the separated consciousness rejoins the consciousness but forms a sub- or alter personality the age of the child at the time of the abuse. In others, the fragment remains separate and does not rejoin. But it remains connected by the silver thread.

The therapist needs to know the severity of fragmentation. This can be discovered by asking something like: “What portion of your essence is standing in the corner watching?”

The word “portion” is a useful one for this question because a “portion” is a non-linear, “right brain” concept. But the answer will often be expressed as a percentage, such as 30%, or 60%, or even 90%. It may also be a fraction, such as one half, or one fourth.

Two Cases

Female clients with a history of sexual abuse will nearly always exhibit signs of fragmentation as well as spirit attachment by both earthbound and demonic entities. This first brief case history exemplifies the condition.

Cindy

At thirty, Cindy was hardly functional. Divorced, she was raising her five-year-old daughter alone. Cindy was depressed to the point of being suicidal. She was aware that she was an incest survivor and had been working on that issue in therapy. Her deceased stepfather had been the abuser. It is not unusual for a deceased incest abuser to become an attached entity after his death. His guilt surrounding the incest is often the impetus for the attachment to the victim; it is an attempt to gain her forgiveness. In some cases, however, this spirit claims to own the woman and demands the right to treat her as he pleases. This is a typical sign of the influence of a dark force entity.

This proved to be the situation with Cindy, although it was not discovered immediately. As she recalled the incest experiences she described fragmenting and separating, and estimated the fragmentation as about 60%. When the separated fragment was discovered, it was a six-year-old subpersonality, Cindy’s age when the incest occurred. It had remained at some distance from Cindy since that time. The fragment was invited to rejoin Cindy but adamantly refused. When asked what prevented it from coming in Cindy reported that the stepfather was still there as an attached spirit clearly visible to the separated subpersonality, and it was afraid to come any closer. It agreed to remain nearby and observe.

Attention was then focused on the attached entity. As sometimes happens, the abusing stepfather was found to be afflicted with an attached dark force entity that had caused distortion of his thinking while he was alive. The stepfather entity seemed belligerent at first, claiming dominion and ownership of Cindy. This is an almost certain sign of the presence of a demonic entity. He was directed to look within himself. He discovered the dark force entity and it was appropriately released. As this interference was removed his own values were restored and he became immediately remorseful and apologetic.

Communication between Cindy and her stepfather at this time began to relieve her anger and the stepfather’s overwhelming guilt. When Cindy’s fragmented subpersonality was finally willing to forgive the man who had violated Cindy as a child, he was also willing to forgive himself. Then he could be released into the Light. But it was only after he was gone that it was safe for the young fragment to return and reintegrate with Cindy. Cindy’s condition began to improve immediately.

Tina

This case is unusual in its outcome. It demonstrates that we all have the final judgment as to what is right for us.

Thirty-five-year old Tina described a serious automobile accident in which her friend Annie sustained massive injuries. Annie had not been expected to live following the accident, but she hung on to life despite terrible pain. Tina visited Annie in the hospital and in her love and compassion for her friend, expressed her desire to help:

“Oh, I wish I could take some of your pain.”

After that visit, Tina began to experience pain that seemed to relate to Annie’s injuries. In the altered state during a session, Tina discovered that a 30% fragment of Annie’s consciousness had joined her. Annie had apparently fragmented severely in the accident and one fragment accepted Tina’s invitation. But once she understood the situation, Tina did not want to release the fragment for fear that Annie would die. She did not return for another session, but perhaps she will when she is ready.

Treatment of Soul-Mind Fragmentation

There have been many approaches to the treatment of mind fragments; these are different from the treatment methods used for DID. Voice dialogue can be an effective approach to working with subpersonalities and the inner child (Stone & Winkelman, 1985, 1990). Psychosynthesis is a method of treating and integrating subpersonalities developed by Assagioli (1965; Vargiu, 1974; Crampton, 1981; Brown, 1983). Healing the ego-state or the inner child is becoming recognized as an essential part of psychotherapy (Federn, 1952; Berne, 1961; Whitfield, 1987; Abrams, 1990; Bradshaw, 1990). Yet these current methodologies do not address the problem of the separated, out-of-body, fragment.

In an altered state, the client is instructed to scan the body. He or she may discover dark or shadowy spots, voids, holes, hollow tubes, or empty places. These are the etheric spaces left by soul-mind fragmentation. The client is instructed to focus on these spaces. In about 20% of such cases, clients spontaneously report seeing some kind of threads leading out of the spaces. Those who do not immediately report seeing these are instructed to look for them. About 40% of clients can visualize the threads. When the threads are found, some will appear dark, some light. Joyful or happy episodes can sometimes cause a fragmentation, and the threads leading to these fragments may appear light, even silvery.

The client is then directed to choose the thread that seems the most prominent, brightest, darkest, thickest, or that in some way stands out from the others. This one is followed first. The thread will lead to a scene, an event, a trauma in this or another lifetime. The client will recall the event, then observe and describe the fragment and its separation.

If the threads are not visualized while focusing on the voids, the client is instructed to feel the emotions and memories connected with one void or empty place. This will usually uncover a traumatic event. For the non-visual person, the emotional or physical sensation associated with the empty space is uncovered, and this will lead to the painful memory.

The memory is then processed for the mental, emotional, and physical residues as for any other traumatic event. These residues are retained and held by the fragment, the subpersonality formed by the fragmentation. The exploration uncovers the circumstances leading to the event as well as the traumatic experience itself.

When the client recalls the event in childhood, the child at that age is perceived and described. The client is urged to visualize him or herself kneeling down and reaching to the child with open arms; the child almost always runs into the client’s arms to be hugged. When the conflict resolution is complete, the fragment is invited back into the body at the present moment and welcomed wherever it belongs. It comes into the empty space inside, wherever that might be, sometimes the head, more often the heart.

The traumatic event is then reviewed by the whole consciousness and reframed in whatever manner necessary. If the fragment is a young child personality, it must be shown that it survived the trauma, it did not die, will not die, and that this adult, the client, is who it became. The primary fear of the child during the trauma was that it would not survive.

For the client who has lost a body part there needs to be discovery and exploration of the event, and then expression of the emotions associated with the loss. For all such clients there will probably be anger. In addition, for the surgery patient there may be fear; for the combat soldier, defensiveness and vengefulness; for the accident victim, resentment and feelings of injustice. A variety of guiding suggestions and questions can assist these clients in locating the fragment:

“Find the silver thread from your body to your ———”

“Locate the connection between you and your ———”

“Reach out, locate that part you left behind, wherever it is.”

An attached entity who suffered any form of dismemberment while alive may not want to go to the Light without its missing parts. The entity may blame the client for allowing or inflicting the injury in the present or a prior life. It is often easier for an attached entity to recall the surgery, accident, or injury that led to the fragmentation than for the client to remember it. Instructions like the following help in this process:

“Locate the missing part you left behind. What happened to you?”

With the recall of the original event, the trauma can be processed to resolution. The therapist then directs the entity in healing itself, using techniques similar to those described by Schwimmer (1992).

The client/entity can be instructed directly. For example, in a decapitation case, “Pick up your head. Place it on your shoulders. Does it fit? Brush it off, clean it, try again. How does that feel?” and so forth. Simple and direct, this often works.

If there was a shattering of body parts, as can happen in an explosion, the soul-mind essence may be scattered like dust, flower petals, or pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. This may require a bit more guided imagery. For example, “Gather the little scattered petals or puzzle pieces, fit them together.” The imagery and metaphor must be chosen to suit the individual circumstances, but they are very effective in this kind of healing. After all pieces are found and reassembled, a good direction is “You deserve to be whole and complete. You need to have all your parts when you return to the Light. You will need everything intact for your next lifetime.” The intact, whole, and healed entity will eagerly proceed to the Light.

Fragmentation and Past-Life Therapy

Some sub- and alter personalities claim to have been the primary manifesting personality in a past life of the client. The alter might have emerged in the present time to assist the present personality in coping with an unbearable situation. Some fragments split off from the core personality in a present-life traumatic event that was similar to the death trauma in a former lifetime. The fragment can recall the past lifetime and the circumstances that led to death in that earlier time. Past-life therapy techniques can help lead to integration of these fragments.

As the client explores the emptiness or inner void, the emotions and sensations that begin to surface can bridge right into the past-life situation. But if a fragment split off from the past-life personality in a traumatic episode and remained there, it cannot simply be brought back into the present time and integrated. It is still “earth-bound,” similar to a newly deceased spirit that does not go to the Light after death, but remains in the earth plane. In this situation, the fragment is guided to resolution of the trauma through normal regression therapy techniques. When there is no further emotion or physical sensation associated with the event, the fragment is invited to rejoin the past-life character; integration is accomplished in the past-life setting. The past-life narrative is moved forward to the moment of death, and the now-integrated personality moves into the Light.

The client feels the past-life integration as a warmth, a fullness where there had been a void. Past-life therapy has been done on a subpersonality that fragmented in a past lifetime. The subpersonality has been integrated in another time frame, but the client feels the results here and now. In our counseling practice, recovery of soul-mind fragments and past-life therapy are complementary techniques that we use together very effectively.

Fragmentation and Spirit Releasement Therapy

Psychiatrist Ralph Allison has described numerous cases of apparent spirit possession affecting his clients diagnosed with DID. In his conceptual scheme of this phenomenon, one type of possessing entity is an aspect or fragment of the mind of a living person. Other clinical investigators have also discovered mind fragments of living people attached to clients. In many cases of mind fragment attachment the fragment proves to be a close family member, perhaps a spouse, or a possessive and over-protective parent in this or a prior life (Allison, 1980; McAll, 1982; Crabtree, 1985; Baldwin, 1992).

In clinical practice it is not unusual to discover a mind fragment of a living person with the client. As in Tina’s case above, this leads to a concern for the person who has lost or sent this fragment of consciousness. Normally, the attached mind fragment is returned to the body-mind space of the person who lost it, whether purposely or inadvertently, with the help of the true spirit guides of the person. The High Self is requested to assist in the reintegration of the fragment and the ensuing process of reorientation. It is good therapy to perform a remote spirit releasement (with High Self permission) before the return of the fragment. There is a better “fit” without intrusive entities present, and the mind fragment is less likely to return to the client at a later time. The following unusual case illustrates some of these situations.

Gwen

Gwen was well aware of the presence of Richie, her older brother who had died in an automobile accident some months earlier. Gwen had loved Richie deeply and she had welcomed him to join her after his death. A scan of Gwen’s past lives suggested that they had been lovers in other times.

With very little understanding of his situation and the effects he had upon his beloved sister, Richie expressed his love for Gwen. He said he was ready to separate from her and move into the Light, but it appeared too far away. Since there was no resistance on the part of either of them to the release, this was an indication of interference. It turned out to be another entity attached to Richie. As he explored within his own being, he discovered the nested entity, but could not identify it.

Questioning this nested entity revealed that she was their mother and she had attached when Richie was about two years old. As the mother was still living, this proved to be a separated mind fragment of her consciousness. Her overpowering love, together with her fears of inadequacy for the job of raising this child, her first, had caused her to fragment and attach to her tiny son. She agreed to leave and move back into her own mind-body space. Richie moved quickly into the Light after this. The change in Gwen was immediate and obvious to her, her husband, and her son.

Such cases provide an interesting twist to the classic concept of spirit possession, in which a living human being is considered to be influenced by the spirit of a dead person. In Richie’s case, the living mind-fragment remained connected to the spirit of a deceased person.

Fragments of the mind of a living person can be attached to one or more other living persons. The condition of fragmentation is not healed by the death of the fragmented person. This means that the newly deceased spirit, the discarnate entity, remains fragmented. This fragmented entity can then attach to still another living person. Thus, an entity can be attached to two or more living individuals. If this is discovered in clinical practice, the therapist must assist in recovering all the fragments before the entity is sent to the Light. In our practice, nearly all our clients discover these two conditions, soul-mind fragmentation and entity attachment. The condition of fragmentation adds a new dimension to the process of spirit releasement therapy.

Recovery of Soul-Mind Fragments and Holistic Healing

The term “holistic” stems from the word wholeness, meaning completeness, totality of body, mind, and spirit. Fragmentation as the source of illness is an important concept in the native healing traditions. However, soul retrieval, the shaman’s approach to healing soul-mind fragmentation or soul loss, has been considered by present-day mental health practitioners to be nothing more than superstition and magical thinking.

Clinical psychotherapy is derived from empirical observation and methods developed by trial and error from these observations. Unfortunately, in present theories and approaches to therapy, the ancient concept of soul retrieval has not been recognized. From a wider perspective, that of the spiritual reality, it is obvious and quite effective. Recovery of soul-mind fragmentation may prove to be an important addition to the field of holistic healing.

 

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