In my life, I have had two main interests, the art of drawing comics, and studying the topic of schizophrenia, my mother having suffered from the latter. Imagine my surprise when these two seemingly divergent interests merged. I had no idea that comics (or storytelling) was related to the other.

In the title of this essay I put schizophrenia in quotes as there is no set consensus as to what exactly this 'mental illness' is or what its causes are. The theories range from a chemical imbalance in the brain to a deep spiritual crisis, the symptoms usually being characterized by hallucinations, visual and/or auditory.

There are many doctors, psychotherapists, and people who suffer from schizophrenia who do not believe it is a chemical imbalance. In his book, Toxic Psychiatry, Dr. Peter Breggin challenges the alleged causes of schizophrenia, such as the theories of chemical imbalances, family genes, and 'bad' brains. He is not a lone voice in speaking out against the danger of the intake of neuroleptic drugs used for schizophrenia, or the harm in treating it as a disease, while ignoring the psychological.

"They (biopsychiatrists) search for signs of hyperactivity in the dopamine system of schizophrenics without acknowledging that if they find it, it could be the normal response of a normal brain to the prolonged expression of an intense emotional state." -- Breggin, Toxic Psychiatry.

In ancient communities found all over the world, the first storytellers were also the first healers, called shamans. Shamanism can be found in Asia, Africa, North and South America, Europe and Australia. A shaman would enter a trance, and bring back stories and guidance from the spirit realm, and these stories would be passed down from generation to generation. Here, there was a seamlessness between healing and storytelling. Modern culture has split healing in two: the medical profession and the entertainment industry.

Interestingly, one whom we today identify as a 'schizophrenic' would sometimes be recognized as a shaman with a natural talent for perceiving the inner dimensions of reality, but in dire need of guidance and training. This is not to say that all 'schizophrenics' are shamen. Many people are just very wounded.

"The shaman is the person who has in his late childhood, early youth, could be male or female, had a overwhelming psychological experience, that turns him totally inward. The whole unconscious has opened up and they've fallen into it. And it's been described many,many times. And it occurs all the way from Siberia, right through the Americas, down to Tierra del Fuego. It's a kind of schizophrenic crack-up, the shaman experience." --Joseph Campbell (leading historian and mythologist)

One of the causes of illness that a shaman is concerned with is called soul loss. The shaman knows that there is depth to soul (one can call it psyche) and understands that reality is not 'flat', but with infinite dimension. To the modern person, it may seem odd that the soul does function in interesting and mysterious ways. By and large, the ancient condition of soul loss still occurs, while the ancient tradition of healing does not.

There is a long and rich history of the shaman as 'schizophrenic'. Could it be that the understanding of schizophrenia has been known for thousands of years?

It is important to note that not all soul loss results in the experience of schizophrenia. Often, depression is cited as a type of soul loss. Also, in physical illness, soul loss may play an integral role.

Schizophrenia can be characterized as a dissociative state. From a psychological perspective, dissociation is when parts of the psyche are 'split-off' or fragmented. From a shamanic perspective, these split-off parts are not just psychological, but parts of the soul or consciousness that have left the body.

Dissociation is a type of out-of-body experience. A person may leave his body during a traumatic event, such as a car accident, or as a result of physical and emotional abuse. In the case of incest, many children will leave their bodies, so as not to experience the event fully. This has been documented in medical literature. Therefore, dissociation is a healthy defense mechanism, a 'blessed' way to escape reality.

If a child learns to dissociate, I believe it is a deeply unconscious behavior, something akin to breathing, and the experience can continue into adulthood. I would liken the soul to a helium balloon, where one keeps going 'out' during times of stress.

The surrounding loved ones of the schizophrenic may be baffled as to why she or he is having a breakdown for no apparent reason. It's a mysterious 'pull', the human spirit. Perhaps memories of the past can trigger a crisis.

To many people, after years of struggling with the pain of schizophrenia, therapy seems inadequate and the only recourse is the intake of the neuroleptic drugs. It may not occur to the disenchanted to question the kind of therapeutic help that's being enacted. Perhaps the added dimension of soul retrieval work combined with therapy, could be a missing element.

Sandra Ingerman, a renown modern day shaman, describes her vocation in her book Soul Retrieval - Mending The Fragmented Self. She describes the spiritual realm that the shaman journeys to as nonordinary reality. With the help and guidance of her spirit guides, she journeys to nonordinary reality, and brings back missing soul parts to her clients. Interestingly, she describes the storytelling aspects of shamanism: her spirit guides will show her an actual scene of the client's life, or a symbolic scene - like a play- portraying the root of the soul loss.

Ingerman says that it is important for a person's vital essence to be within the body/mind, in order to receive the healing that therapy can offer. As a licensed therapist, she realized that it is very difficult to help a person whose parts of self are not 'home' to receive the help.

"The ancient practice of soul retrieval and modern psychology potentially have much to offer each other. By restoring lost soul parts, the shaman can give the psychotherapist a whole patient with whom to do psychological work, thus making possible faster and deeper results. Conversely, the psychotherapist can help patients build healthy self-esteem and healthy life-patterns that allow them to stay alive and present in their body once their souls have been restored to them. Adjusting to being fully in the body again, learning healthy ways of relating to the self and others, can certainly provide a good deal of work for the psychotherapist and the client." --Ingerman, Soul Retrieval - Mending The Fragmented Self

It may be difficult to visualize nonordinary reality. Often, nonordinary reality is described as the collective unconscious, and the shaman is one who is awake in the collective unconscious.

In the revelatory book, Jung and Shamanism In Dialogue, Michael Smith explores the striking similarities between Jungian psychology and shamanism. Indeed, Carl Jung's forays into the unconscious are surprisingly similar to a shaman's venture into the lower world of nonordinary reality. It is uncanny.

Carl Jung primarily believed that schizophrenia is of a psychological origin, rather than physical.

"It was Jung's intimate acquaintance with the phenomena of schizophrenia which led him to postulate a 'collective' unconscious." --Anthony Storr, The Essential Jung

Another way to visualize nonordinary reality is to imagine being awake in one's dreams, but in three dimensional form. Wherein in a dream or nightmare, anything can happen, and the shaman is one who moves these dream energies around.

As Sandra Ingerman states, "When shamans enter nonordinary reality, the rules of the outer world are suspended. Horses fly, plants talk, fairies and leprechauns abound. Time as we know it is suspended."

To understand the philosophy of Life as Dream, it is helpful to consider all of reality as perceptual: looking out at the world through one's eyes, and inwardly, with eyes closed. To understand reality as Whole, with the perceptual separation necessary in order to experience it.

Drawing, painting, singing, writing, anything that one can do to explore the inner self, can bring you 'within'. I have met people who have experienced altered states of consciousness through praying. I believe it's the same inward focus, the same tunnel inside. I believe it can be learned like learning to play the piano. Lucid dreaming techniques can help, as well as recording one's dreams.

I have friends who have experienced altered states while walking deep within the forest. I think nature facilitates these experiences. Although it may seem uncommon as our collective focus is so 'outward' on day to day living and separate from nature, many people have these experiences.

I believe thought functions differently in nonordinary reality. For the schizophrenic, it's as if his consciousness learns the 'tricks of the trade' in nonordinary reality, and those shadow parts come bursting forth into the ordinary world. The schizophrenic could be described as 'engaged in conversation' with nonordinary reality. It's illusory, but what I am saying is that the drama is not necessarily taking place within the physical brain, but that somewhere 'other'. I believe these experiences would cause thought disorder, confusion, depression, disorientation, and fear.

I think if one has not experienced altered states of consciousness it may not occur to him/her that reality can be experienced in different ways. I think this is key to understanding the 'schizophrenic' experience.

For I believe, at it's bare essence, that schizophrenia is an experience of reality.

I have a cartoonist friend whose mom is a therapist. She read one of my mini-comics, issue number eight, and she said that I have a deep understanding of schizophrenia. This really surprised me, as I did not intend to write a comic about schizophrenia and my friend did not know about my interest in the subject. Nowhere in the comic do I say "This comic is about schizophrenia" or "Schizophrenia is a chemical imbalance." I presume she deduced it the old-fashion, Jungian way. I feel perhaps, that I have an unconscious understanding of the subject, as one who had been 'mothered' by someone who suffered from schizophrenia.

The leading mythologist Joseph Campbell found that the study of schizophrenia opened new doors for him. He declares that there is a type of 'story' that the schizophrenic follows during his psychospiritual crisis.

"...the imagery of schizophrenic fantasy perfectly matches that of the mythological hero journey, which I had outlined and elucidated, back in 1949, in The Hero With A Thousand Faces." --Joseph Campbell

One may ask, how does a chemical imbalance create this kind of 'story'?

In the artwork of schizophrenics, I was surprised to find many trees and crosses. This can be described as primal. A painting may be of a cross in the fiery pits of hell, or a tree in a barren landscape.

'The Cosmic Tree', or 'The World Tree' is a classic universal symbol in comparative mythology. It also depicts the three-story cosmology of nonordinary reality that the shaman journeys to: The Upper World (tree tops or the ethereal) The Middle World (trunk,center) and The Lower World (roots,unconscious). Carl Jung suggested the Tree as a symbol for the Self.

"The tree is a means of access, a ladder of ascent/descent into the other world (of the collective unconscious), and it is at once a symbol of the archetypal Self, a central point of orientations (axis mundi) uniting the opposites (of lower and upper worlds)..." --Michael Smith, Jung and Shamanism in Dialogue

In the tortured paintings of the schizophrenic, it is as if she/he is saying "This is where I am at. This is how I feel. My center is askew."

It's the same 'place' that the shaman 'goes to'. It's an experience that is so similar yet polarized. To paraphrase the words of Joseph Campbell, it's the same archetypal waters, whereby the schizophrenic is drowning, while the shaman is swimming. The shaman is centered and in control, the schizophrenic is frightened and out of control. And I believe the heights of spiritual understanding the schizophrenic experiences while 'riding the waves' are genuine.

Again, how does a chemical imbalance create this kind of art?

"Psychiatric theory can always take refuge behind real or alleged organic disorders of the brain and thus detract from the importance of the unconscious" --Carl Jung

I experienced an altered state of consciousness that I believe is related to drawing the symbol of twins. I was studying twins, in an informal way, and drawing twins in my comics. (If you are curious, all the drawings of twins on this web site were drawn before I had my experience.)

With a few, simple meditative exercises, I had an out-of-body experience. My consciousness left my body, and passed through the walls of my room. I experienced thought as form, thought as color, thought as sound, again, not inside my head, but outside my body. I was very surprised, as I did not know that thought could act this way. The experience felt natural and I was wide awake. I also saw my dream body, which I learned later is called the astral body. After the experience, I fell asleep, and when I awoke in the morning, my first thought was "Oh, I saw my twin! (last night)."

Later, I described my experience to a shamanic practitioner, and she confirmed what I had already suspected; I had experienced an SSC, or a Shamanic State of Consciousness.

Most importantly is how the person who suffers from schizophrenia feels. Usually, he believes his experiences are real, while his doctors insist that they are not. He feels his doctors can't even begin to comprehend what the experiences are like. Over the years, I have read accounts in books, articles, and even on the Internet of schizophrenics who identify with the shaman's experience. At long last, the experience has been explained to her or him in a way that makes sense. It is very touching.

I have barely touched upon all the intricacies of schizophrenia, shamanism, and the state of the mental health industry. Please refer to my reading list for more information.

I do not want to give the impression that going to a shaman is an instant cure. Sandra Ingerman states emphatically that therapy in conjunction with soul retrieval work is very important. The process of healing can take years. When I talked with a student of shamanism, she said a person with schizophrenia could be hurt by an inexperienced shaman. It is recommended that one research the topic, and choose a shaman that is a teacher and has degrees in professional psychology. Also, it is dangerous to abruptly stop taking the drugs used to treat schizophrenia. Whether you are for or against the use of the neuroleptics, both sides agree (albeit for varying reasons) that it is mandatory to be assisted by one's doctor with any attempt to stop the intake of drugs in exchange for alternative healing choices.

All of this notwithstanding, I am excited and hopeful about the emergence of the modern day shaman. Although shamanism is very old, the advent of the modern day shaman seems to be a new and growing movement that started blossoming in the 1990's.

Can the mental health industry embrace the modern day shaman?

Could there be a shaman-in-residence in mental health facilities to assist the therapists?

Could shamanic healers make house calls to help the schizophrenic and educate the surrounding loved ones on the dissociative process?

We live in an age of Fad. And the psychiatric industry is not immune to fads. Industries such as entertainment, advertising, and even fashion, seep their way over a thin partition into the medical professions, including psychiatry. Combined with the pharmaceutical industry, it is a multi-billion dollar business, pressured by profit, the demand for solutions and new product.

The concern is that we are drifting farther away from the inner self. In regards to illness, the modern view focused on the physical is often seen as superior, while the belief in the psychospiritual, as antiquated. It seems to me, that there has been longer periods in the history of mankind, where people believed in spirit as that which is tangible and with consequence. I feel that belief in the human spirit and it's capabilities is watered down by the culture that surrounds you.

The topic of schizophrenia may seem narrow, but it's implications reach far and wide. What would you do if you or your loved one had an illness that was treated primarily as physical, yet was deeply spiritual in nature?

It begs a question that one must not only ask but respond to:

Is the interior world of Self really outmoded?

Jennifer Daydreamer
June, 2001