Shamanic Practitioner Work and Christian Healing and Discernment

Core Shamanic Practitioner


The term “shamanism” has emerged over the past forty years to describe a wide variety of ways traditional spiritual healers, men/women of knowledge, medicine men and women, and seers journey into spiritual worlds and build alliances with compassionate spirits for the well-being of people and the earth. The term “shaman” is derived from the Tungus of Siberia and now stands for that wide category of spiritual journeyers/seers/healers. There is a growing body of literature related to “core shamanism” which describes spiritual practices and understandings that appear in many or several shamanic cultures. Shamanism is not a religious faith tradition, but at 30,000-70,000 years old it is at the root of all our spiritual and faith traditions.

I am engaged in ongoing training as a core shamanic practitioner through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies’ advanced training workshops and learning from other expert teachers in the field of shamanism. I am near the end of the FSS's West Coast Three Year Program of Advanced Initiations in Shamanism and Shamanic Healing. This body of training in core shamanism (based on universal, near-universal, and common shamanic practices) draws on a lifetime of pioneering work and leadership by anthropologist Michael Harner. These practices have the intention of providing spiritual healing modalities, empowerment, and guidance for the well-being of ourselves and others and is only done after receiving a client’s direct consent or, if that is not possible, the consent of someone who can make decisions on their behalf. 

I do this work alongside being an ordained minister professing Christian beliefs as a follower of Jesus Christ, actively engaged in a spiritually vibrant faith community, informed by Christian mystical and contemplative theological traditions, and disciplined in Christian prayer and meditation practices, including various spiritual healing forms and spiritual discernment practices. I experience this work as a ministry flowing from and compatible with my vocation as priest and spiritual guide, and it is a ministry that is available to anyone without any religious expectation or restriction.

Shamanic practitioner work is a different spiritual modality from the usual work of a Christian spiritual guide or spiritual director. I find core shamanism has wide areas of shared practice and understanding with Christianity, but it has differences too that can expand our vision and experience beyond some narrow Christian suppositions and ways of operating within and understanding spiritual realities. My experience is that shamanic practice is compatible, complimentary, and enriching to Christian prayer and meditation practices and with modern Western health practices.  It is a wholistic approach that expands our understanding of the spiritual dimensions of life; and offers practical ways for God's unconditional love and the compassionate power of God's healing and wisdom to become manifest and active in our lived experience.

Some of the services as a shamanic practitioner that I offer include:

- Divination journeys (receiving spirit's guidance and knowledge for a particular concern).
- Spirit guardian retrieval (bringing a helping spirit, such as a power animal, to aid a person).
- Psychopomp (assisting deceased human souls in their journey to their next appropriate place).
- Meeting a departed loved one.
- Spirit Extraction (removing intrusive spirits that affect our health and well-being).
- Soul Retrieval (returning soul parts that have split off during traumas or chronic conditions). 
- Compassionate Depossession and relocating spirits that are interfering with a person or a place. 

All of these services are contingent on the guidance and assistance of my helping spirits.

Long Distance Shamanic Healing and Divination:

If you have a healing need or seek guidance about a situation you may send Daniel an email requesting long distance healing or divination. I will request the assistance of my helping spirits on your behalf or on behalf of the person you are writing about. If you are writing on behalf of someone else they must have given you their permission for me to use helping spirits. Give me the name of the person seeking help, the address where the person lives, and the desired healing the person wishes or the question the person is asking guidance about from my helping spirits. Further, if you (or the person you are writing on behalf of) wish me to request healing help from other shamanic practitioners simply let me know and I will pass the healing request to my colleagues.

I am also available to guide those who are seeking instruction in basic core shamanic practices and assist them in their own journeying. 


Christian Spiritual Healing and Discernment Ministry

There are various ways we can bring our healing and guidance needs to God and seek divine wisdom, grace, and power. Healing can be for our body, mind, spirit, or relationships. Some of the ways Daniel can help include: 

- Meditation journeys to visit the Healer's House or Wisdom's House.
- The ancient rite of Laying on of Hands and Anointing with Oil. This is a repeatable sacramental rite. 
- "Soaking Prayer." Sessions involving laying-on of hands and substantial focused silent prayer welcoming the Spirit's healing work.
- Meditations that envision Christ's/Spirit's presence and healing.
- Healing of Memories. Meditations inviting the healing presence of Christ/Spirit in our memories of traumatic or painful events.
- Prayer and meditations that help with relationship difficulties. 
- Situations involving death and dying, departed loved ones, or other significant losses.
- Healing prayer and meditation support in struggles with addictions and attachments.
- Spirit Release and Deliverance help in possible situations of spirit oppression, influence, or possession affecting either a person or a place.

I am available as a mentor to those interested in Christian spiritual healing prayer and meditation methods.

If you wish to discuss how I may be able to help you please contact me at dprechtel1@gmail.com or 224.636.2874 to set up a confidential appointment. 


Lamb & Lion Spiritual Guidance Ministries

Things to Consider about Your Healing Journey
by Daniel L. Prechtel, D.Min.

When I work with someone who is requesting spiritual healing there are several things that are important to understand. 

•Spiritual healing is one resource that can help but other resources may also be needed.

•The client seeking help must actively work for their own healing and wholeness.

•Often the healing work we do together results in resolving the problem; but there are situations when the presenting need for healing is not fully resolved and other avenues should be explored.

I have employed Christian healing prayer and meditation practices on many occasions for the help and relief of people suffering from a variety of concerns. Other people have come to me requesting help in my capacity as a shamanic practitioner in private practice. Some people are requesting help for a physical problem, but many are suffering from emotional or relational or spiritual or mental difficulties and want relief. In truth, most people who want alleviation or cure are being affected on multiple levels. 

When you come to me asking for spiritual healing help, I will be treating you as a whole person who has physical, mental, emotional, relational, social, and spiritual dimensions all interacting to make you the person you are at this time. The work we do together will reflect that understanding. The following points will help further explain this dynamic treatment approach.

Spiritual healing is one resource that can help but other resources may also be needed.
Some approaches to healing view things in only one dimension of the person and tend to approach their treatment as the only way healing can happen. That is too narrow and misses the interactive wholeness of a human being. Spiritual healing practices need not be at odds with the contributions of western medicine, psychiatric and psychotherapeutic help, and healthy relationships and social networks. My spiritual healing practice is complimentary to other health resources, and at times using those resources are going to be necessary as part of your healing path. For example, if you are taking a physician-prescribed medication I will not discourage you from using that resource. I encourage you to let your physician know that you are also seeking my help for the spiritual dimension of your situation. Spiritual healing may be the primary resource for some conditions but secondary and supplemental to conventional western medical treatments in other conditions. We may also explore the roles exercise, nutrition, engaging nature, religious or spiritual communities, and personal relationships play in your situation. 

The client seeking help must actively work for their own healing and wholeness.
Let me personalize this—you are as much responsible as I am for how your healing progresses. I cannot be effective in my healing art if you are not “all in” on doing your part in the healing practices, and fully desiring and working toward your healing. We need to be a team that is active and eager to discover and practice together whatever your path is toward health and wholeness.

These spiritual healing practices center on Spirit’s power to bring healing. The divine healer, Jesus, commended some people for their active faith, which he said made them well (Luke 17:11-19; Mk 10:46-52; Mt 9:20-22). He was astonished at others for their lack of faith and was unable to heal them (Mk 6:5; Mt 13:58). Spiritual healing draws upon faith, which I understand to be an active trust in God’s healing power and purposes. The healing practitioner needs to operate on that trusting relationship with God and the spirits given by God to perform the healing work. But the client seeking healing also needs to desire healing, welcome the Spirit’s activity, and trust that the Spirit is bringing about some form of healing in our work together.

I often give my client visualization exercises and other spiritual practices designed to help them build stronger spiritual health and greater wholeness in their lifestyle. These practices are meant to be done regularly and with sincerity. They are intended to be a vital component to their healing path. If the client fails to exercise the discipline and desire for healing that is required for these practices to be effective it is likely that the healing work will be diminished. Jesus tells the story of the successful exorcism of a demon but the person who is delivered presumably fails to change his lifestyle and the demon comes back and invites seven others more evil than itself to join in taking over the person’s life (Mt. I2:43-45; Luke 11:23-26). 

Often the healing work we do together results in resolving the problem; but there are situations when the presenting need for healing is not fully resolved and other avenues should be explored.
Frequently my clients experience healing from our work together on the spiritual dimension. However, not every situation presented to me results in a cure, whether I work with a client using shamanic or Christian prayer and meditation techniques. There are many reasons why this can be. 

Often, we will need to meet for a series of sessions. There can be preliminary practices that help with your core wholeness, strengthen your spiritual well-being, and provide you with access to helping spirits in non-ordinary reality before addressing more difficult needs. I will work to provide you with new support and resources that you did not have beforehand and the quality of your life will hopefully be strengthened. You might receive greater clarity about the nature of the problem and how it can be dealt with in a way that is better for you. 

It can be helpful to differentiate between the words “cure” and “healing.” Curing an illness is a condition where something thought to be a problem is eliminated. Healing does not always come with a cure and yet significant relief and even transformation can be experienced. Since we are complex beings where our body, mind, spirit, emotions, and relationships all interact dynamically healing in one dimension affects our wholeness even in the absence of a cure. Also, spiritual healing may be a secondary but helpful service that you use while you are working with practitioners from other health-related disciplines in dealing with a condition you hope will be cured or overcome in some significant way.

You might consider that your visits and work with me is part of the life journey you are taking toward greater health and wholeness. Our work together may be one step along your way on that greater journey. 

rev. 8/5/2020