Written by Carl Greer
Reviewed by Nancy Eichhorn
“Healing isn’t just something that comes from medicine or surgeries; it comes from a shift in the way we perceive ourselves and our connection to our health and our bodies” (Melinda Ring, M.D., FACP, Greer, 2018, pg. 15).
Shamanism and Jungian analysis—the transpersonal realm and the unconscious. As George Hogenson, PhD, notes, Carl Greer offers “A remarkable melding of Jung’s analytical psychology and the ancient, and global, traditions of shamanic healing . . .” in his newest book, Change the Story of Your Health: Using Shamanic and Jungian Techniques for Healing.
Similar to what he did in his previous book, Change Your Story Change Your Life: Using Shamanic and Jungian Tools to Achieve Personal Transformation, (see SPT Volume 5, number 2, Spring 2015), Greer shares his personal experiences and the experiences of others. He provides a cognitive experience with plenty of information. The book is written in a way that is easy to understand and provides a bodily presence with numerous exercises (shamanic journeys, meditations, visualizations) to support the work. One familiar practice is what Greer calls a “ritual” to use before doing any of his “expanded awareness practices”: opening and closing sacred space, cleansing your energy field, and doing mindful breathing to prepare. Within this in-depth book written to explore our health story and choose a more desirable one, he also offers the potential for new experiences, be it:
- Improving health and well-being
- Maintaining wellness as you age
- Managing chronic conditions
- Dealing with having your health story suddenly rewritten by events you did not expect, such as accidents and diagnoses of conditions or diseases (pg. 18).
Greer uses the language of “story” as a frame for discussion. He talks about chapters, themes, characters, settings, plotlines, conflicts and resolutions, as well as conclusions. The act of, or perhaps the art of, storytelling is ancient. Narratives carry our past forward and set a pretense for our future.
Stories, he says, are fashioned from events in our lives, and they are created from our perceptions and interpretations of those events.
Greer maintains that you can change your “story”—the story of yourself, your health, your emotional well-being—by delving deeply into the roots of those stories, exploring the story lines and the characters involved, having dialogues with your inner healer—that wise inner self that has insights into your healing—and more. If you change your beliefs, revise the stories you tell yourself, and review and assess the stories you carry (perhaps those told verbally and/or passed on as a legacy via genetics and cellular encoding), you can live a new story.
To read our complete review, please CLICK HERE
To purchase the book, please use the link below. The few pennies we receive do help offset costs so we can continue to bring you quality reviews, reflections, interviews, articles and more.
