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Becoming Yourself - an interview with Jan Engels-Smith

Jan Engels-Smith is a shaman, teacher and the author of Becoming Yourself, The Journey from Head to Heart. She believes we consciously create our lives, that we are all accountable and as Gandhi said “We must be the change we want.”

Connie: How did you get started working with shamanism?

Jan: I had a vision and was told was that my life was going to dramatically change. As a psychologist, I wanted something different than long term therapy for my clients. I had been in therapy myself, for many years. It made me sad that people were spending so much of their lives in therapy.

I was given Ingerman’s book Soul Retrieval and it just felt right. Though I didn’t have the vocabulary at first, I knew I had done this type of work in past lives. I asked my clients if I could use this method on them and see how it worked. All except one person said yes. I did it with these clients and in a month everyone was through with therapy. But, I was a hard sell to the spirits. I did a hundred experimental soul retrievals: people who came to my office and could only tell me their name. Through doing those sessions I built a tremendous trust because what I was receiving from the spirits was so accurate. The process made me a believer. It’s how I teach my students to do soul retrievals, without knowing much. It builds trust in the process.

C: What is your definition of shamanism?

J: Shamanism is a Siberian word that means someone who sees in the dark with their heart. Shamanism is not just one style. You learn to be a really grounded healer. Your senses are opened up and you become what you are actually supposed to be on the planet, which is alive, vital, aware and awake. It’s a calling.

C: It’s interesting how you knew you had done it in a past life. I used to teach drum making. When I made my first drum I knew I’d done it before. I remember as a kid I wanted to play drums, but was told girls don’t play drums. It was great to get a chance to work with drums later in life.

J: That’s a perfect example of how we get turned down in this culture. Through childhood experiences we loose the ability to really see and hear. Those senses get turned off. So, soul retrieval allows you to begin to see and hear and learn how things are really inter dimensional.

C: Can you say something about creating change?

J: I have chapters to say about that! I spend a lot of time teaching this in every type of voice that will impact people. The book was something that the spirits really wanted me to do. I never considered being a writer. English was always difficult for me, but the spirits were insistent. Their sense was that there are foundational things people need to understand to create their lives. Yes, the universe is in control, but so are we. When I revised the book last year the spirits wanted me to replace the words co-creator with creator. People have to realize they are in charge of the reality they create. So with that, thinking differently is an absolute foundational base point in helping you have a different life. You are not just one little ship on the ocean of life. You are the commander of that ship.

People tell me they want to be able to manifest, but they are already manifesting. Spirits say we all manifest 24/7. You are manifesting with every thought you think and word you speak, every action you take is going somewhere. You don’t have to have anyone around, you don’t have to be in a class, you don’t have to be doing anything except asking where your thoughts are going? Am I taking myself on a downward spiral or am I moving things in a direction that I want? With manifestation, people manifest more things that they don’t want than they want because the don’t wants get more attention.

Beliefs are really important. Belief is a broadcast from your chakras which fills your auric field. The law of attraction states that whatever you broadcast you will attract more of that to you. Millions of people in this country are broadcasting that they don’t have time. If this is your belief you are getting all of the stress from the others who believe it as well. It’s huge, and magnetic, and we wonder why we’re so anxious. We need to start the day off with intentions like “I have abundant time” or “Things are going smoothly for me today with peace and beauty.”

C: What will your workshop be about?

J:  Well, we’re going to work with the material on my new cds. The package has three cds: 1) The Brilliance of You, 2) Reclaiming Yourself and 3) Dreaming the New Dream. What I try to do is get people to realize how amazing they are. In the first cd you are guided to unburden yourself and become your core, your brilliance. I show you how to do that on a daily basis. After this work you begin to broadcasting from your unburdened self instead of that burdened place.

The second cd is about taking out and putting in. We try to maintain this most important part of you which is your soul or spirit or life force. It needs to be taken care of. We bring you to brilliance so your broadcast is divine, which makes you attract back to you the soul pieces that have been lost. We get you vibrating so you can call home the parts of you that you might have lost that day or when ever. In shamanic cultures, soul retrievals were done within three days after any major life incident--but today we may be scanning 60 years of a person’s life. If you take care of yourself right after something happens you don’t have to go searching out in the cosmos for soul pieces.

The third cd is about creating our lives. If you don’t like what’s happening in your life what would you like to have happen? If you don’t have a specific in mind, I just guide you, using the senses so you can see it, taste it, feel it, hear it and try to activate your power which is in your senses. So you are actually creating from that place. I want students to become empowered. I don’t want them to be dependent on me. You can do this--let me show you how.

C: Jan, thanks for taking time to talk with me.