I took Betsy Bergstrom’s Compassionate Depossession class last weekend. Betsy was recommended by two shamanic practitioners I have a lot of respect for: Alida Birch in Eugene, Oregon, and Ana Larramendi in Madison, Wisconsin.

I’m going to talk here about compassionate depossession and some of the insights I got from taking the class. Let’s start with the two parts of compassionate depossession: depossession and compassion.

Depossession comes from the realization that it is possible for other souls or spirits to join with our soul. Sometimes the other beings want control of what we do. Other times they are lost and hurting — just looking for a safe place to hide. The problem is that even the beings that are just looking for safety can bring some negative things into our lives.

The compassionate part looks for ways to remove the possessing beings gently. It is very different from exorcism, where the being is treated as a demon and cast into the fiery pit of hell. For some, probably understandable, reason they don’t want to go and can put up quite a fight. What Betsy has seen is that most of the beings are not trying to cause harm. They are happy to move on because there are much better places for them to be. Compassionate depossession is all about Continue reading and add your comment →