What is the Medicine Place?

Native American Ritual of Meditation, Healing, Psychic Communication

Jan 12, 2009

Native American healing traditions involve a "medicine place," an inner sanctum where a shaman can meditate, connect with guides, perform psychic surgery, and more.

Story has it that when the leaders and elders of the Native American tribes decided to meet, they didn't send messengers to arrange a time or place. No one carried letters, or travelled amidst the tribes to tell anyone where to be. Instead, they communicated with each other in their medicine places. Each of the leaders arrived at the same time and place without a physical message or messenger ever having to be sent.

The medicine place is a meditative inner place where a shaman, healer, or anyone can go to do inner work from a more centered, private attunement. It is a place of strength, a place where it is easier to connect with one's guides or do deep healing work on yourself or someone else from a distance.

Beginning with a ritual visualization to enter the medicine place, a person can use the deep meditative state of the medicine place to communicate with the spirit world, ask their guides questions, or perform deep healing (such as so-called "psychic surgery") on themselves or another person.

Spirit Guides – The medicine place is a safe place to meet your spirit guides and teachers and to ask them questions about your life directions or difficult choices you need to make. A spirit guide may be a deceased grandparent or someone/something entirely different. They will usually have a message or insight to give.

Animal Guides – Everyone has animal guides, usually several important animals that act as instructors throughout our lives. The medicine place can be an equally good place to communicate with these teachers. For more information on animal guides, see Animal Spirit Guides and Guardians.

Psychic Surgery – Hands-on healing can sometimes involve "cutting" or "scooping" negative energy, poisons, tumors or damaged body parts and replacing them with clear-flowing energy or new, healthy organs. This kind of "psychic surgery" can be done in person during an energy work session, or it may be done at a distance by working in the medicine place. You can also imagine or create any kind of potent medicine or remedy and give it to yourself or a sick person via the medicine place.

It is usually helpful, at least at first, to have someone guide you through the steps of "walking" to the medicine place. Several healers have recorded tapes of drumming, chanting and visualization guides for the journey to the medicine place (Scroll down to the last item on the page).

It is best to do a medicine place journey in a quiet place – usually a room at home where you feel safe and know you will not be disturbed. Asking God, Great Spirit or your spirit guides – aloud or in prayer – for their assistance before you journey to the medicine place is always a good way to begin.

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The copyright of the article What is the Medicine Place? in Traditional Healing is owned by Victoria Anisman-Reiner. Permission to republish What is the Medicine Place? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.