Taken from http://shamanhelp.tripod.com/id1.html
Purpose
This exercise teaches you how to retrieve and heal your energy. Shamans consider it a never-ending process.
There are two reasons to do this. One it can be used for self-healing and the second it steps a person off on the path of the shaman. Shamans see recapitulation as a more natural means of dealing with events. Stalk the memory, and take back your energy and let it become just a memory, with no life, no power to invoke a response from the present.
The theory of recapitulation is that in every interaction you have had with other people in your life tied up personal energy. Each memory you have requires energy to keep it alive and maintain the emotions you have about the encounter. Over the course of a lifetime you invest enormous amounts of energy in these things and they drain you, and make you miserable.
Some shamans see it as purification, or being reborn into the world. It is often combined with other process or techniques during shamanic initiations.
Shamans know, or have seen, that we, as human beings, do not have an infinite amount of personal energy. We need every little scrap available to us in order to live life effectively or for shamans, to accomplish the tasks that they feel lie before them.
The pulling back re-ignites those strands of energy in you and the memory. The exhale when it has the intent to break that connection and take back what is yours then pushes out the foreign energy and breaks the connection.
Conditions
Recapping is best done awake, alone, or at least at some distance from others. It is also best done with compression and attachment to earth energy. Don’t recap in water. You will need a space that compresses you energy, such as a closet or even a thick heavy blanket over you.
Make a list of people, experiences, and life events and follow it. Stay away from really intense events to begin with. It is suggested to start with your day and the people in it. It gives you a feel for the process and allows you to gain a sense of how you expend your energy in just a normal day going about your business with people.
How To
Quiet your mind and relax, setting the intent to retrieve your energy trapped in your past. Bring up a specific memory or event. Get it pictured right in front of your face in as much detail as possible. Such as colors, sounds, smells, people involved, etc.
Turn your head to the left and exhale. Then slowly turn your head from the left to right drawing in the energy of the scene in front of you and as you do inhale.
When your head is completely to the right again turn slowly back to the left exhaling the foreign energy that is not yours that exists from the scene. Keep sweeping the scene until you feel done with it.
Continue on to the next event on your list and keep doing this until you have worked through each one. Be aware of what you are doing and stay focused. If you’re just starting the recap, then fifteen to twenty minutes a day just to start out, give it two weeks, and then take stock of where you are.
Aftereffects
You may feel slightly lightheaded, that’s normal, it means something is changing.
You will also find that people you recap intensely suddenly make unannounced appearances back in your life, like they wonder where the energy went and come to investigate.
The energy released can actually cause nightmares to others but it is not a connective issue. But it can pass through a person, especially in dreaming.
Eventually you will come to the point where you even wonder if you had a life, or whether you are simply a pale reflection of the wants and needs of others. This will be a powerful part of the healing process but not always a comfortable one.
If the memories you’re working with are especially painful or traumatic it may take a number of recaps to completely suck the energy back out of them. You will know it is working when you recall one of the memories and find that the emotions it was evoking in you have lessened, or even completely disappeared. Sometimes they may even feel like they aren’t even your memories, they seem as though they happened to someone else.
The memory remains; in recall it does not disappear it is simply not draining you any longer. You create new connections based on a different insight into the relationship, especially with children.
Purpose
This exercise teaches you how to retrieve and heal your energy. Shamans consider it a never-ending process.
There are two reasons to do this. One it can be used for self-healing and the second it steps a person off on the path of the shaman. Shamans see recapitulation as a more natural means of dealing with events. Stalk the memory, and take back your energy and let it become just a memory, with no life, no power to invoke a response from the present.
The theory of recapitulation is that in every interaction you have had with other people in your life tied up personal energy. Each memory you have requires energy to keep it alive and maintain the emotions you have about the encounter. Over the course of a lifetime you invest enormous amounts of energy in these things and they drain you, and make you miserable.
Some shamans see it as purification, or being reborn into the world. It is often combined with other process or techniques during shamanic initiations.
Shamans know, or have seen, that we, as human beings, do not have an infinite amount of personal energy. We need every little scrap available to us in order to live life effectively or for shamans, to accomplish the tasks that they feel lie before them.
The pulling back re-ignites those strands of energy in you and the memory. The exhale when it has the intent to break that connection and take back what is yours then pushes out the foreign energy and breaks the connection.
Conditions
Recapping is best done awake, alone, or at least at some distance from others. It is also best done with compression and attachment to earth energy. Don’t recap in water. You will need a space that compresses you energy, such as a closet or even a thick heavy blanket over you.
Make a list of people, experiences, and life events and follow it. Stay away from really intense events to begin with. It is suggested to start with your day and the people in it. It gives you a feel for the process and allows you to gain a sense of how you expend your energy in just a normal day going about your business with people.
How To
Quiet your mind and relax, setting the intent to retrieve your energy trapped in your past. Bring up a specific memory or event. Get it pictured right in front of your face in as much detail as possible. Such as colors, sounds, smells, people involved, etc.
Turn your head to the left and exhale. Then slowly turn your head from the left to right drawing in the energy of the scene in front of you and as you do inhale.
When your head is completely to the right again turn slowly back to the left exhaling the foreign energy that is not yours that exists from the scene. Keep sweeping the scene until you feel done with it.
Continue on to the next event on your list and keep doing this until you have worked through each one. Be aware of what you are doing and stay focused. If you’re just starting the recap, then fifteen to twenty minutes a day just to start out, give it two weeks, and then take stock of where you are.
Aftereffects
You may feel slightly lightheaded, that’s normal, it means something is changing.
You will also find that people you recap intensely suddenly make unannounced appearances back in your life, like they wonder where the energy went and come to investigate.
The energy released can actually cause nightmares to others but it is not a connective issue. But it can pass through a person, especially in dreaming.
Eventually you will come to the point where you even wonder if you had a life, or whether you are simply a pale reflection of the wants and needs of others. This will be a powerful part of the healing process but not always a comfortable one.
If the memories you’re working with are especially painful or traumatic it may take a number of recaps to completely suck the energy back out of them. You will know it is working when you recall one of the memories and find that the emotions it was evoking in you have lessened, or even completely disappeared. Sometimes they may even feel like they aren’t even your memories, they seem as though they happened to someone else.
The memory remains; in recall it does not disappear it is simply not draining you any longer. You create new connections based on a different insight into the relationship, especially with children.
