Carl Greer: Change Your Story, Change Your Life
OMTimes is proud to share this interview with Carl Greer, PhD, PsyD.
An Interview with Carl Greer PhD, PsyD – Change Your Story, Change Your Life
Doctor, Shaman, Philanthropist
Carl Greer is a practicing clinical psychologist, Jungian analyst, and shamanic practitioner. His shamanic work is drawn from a mix of North American and South American indigenous traditions and is influenced by Jungian analytic psychology. He has worked or trained with shamans on five continents and trained at Dr. Alberto Villoldo’s Healing the Light Body School, where he has taught. Carl Greer is involved in various businesses and charities, teaches at the Jung Institute in Chicago, is on the staff of the Lorene Replogle Counseling Center, and holds workshops on shamanic topics.
OMTimes is delighted to discuss his debut book with him; Change Your Story, Change Your Life published by Findhorn Press which is releasing on May 13th…
Exclusive Interview with Carl Greer
OMTimes: Tell us about your new book coming out?
Carl Greer: I’ve been involved in shamanism and Jungian psychology, and have practiced yoga, martial arts, and qi gong, for years, and I wanted to help people who have only read about others’ spiritual experiences to have their own.
Also, it struck me that people can have profound spiritual experiences that have meaning for them at the time but don’t result in any major life changes, which can be disappointing for them. When I thought about teaching shamanism, I realized I wanted to teach how to both have a spiritual experience and ground it in your everyday life. I believe that a fascinating mystical experience shouldn’t just leave you with a warm feeling that quickly fades—it should have a lasting, significant, practical impact on you.
OMTimes: What got you interested in Shamanism.
Carl Greer: I had been interested in Shamanism for many years, but I never felt I could leave my life responsibilities to go apprentice with a shaman. One day many years ago, my wife Pat gave me a book on shamanism, Alberto Villoldo’s Shaman,Healer, Sage.I was so inspired that I decided to train with him to become a shamanic practioner. After finishing my training, I taught on the staff of his Light Body School. I have since studied and worked with shamans on five continents. I see a natural blending of the Jungian and shamanic traditions. Both require going beyond the limits of the rational mind and encountering and engaging with the collective unconscious we all share.
OMTimes: When you say “change your story” what does that mean exactly?
Carl Greer: We’re all living a life about which a story can be told. So if you change your life, the story changes. It’s not just that your life takes a different turn, but that you see your past differently, too. You start to realize that the struggles of the past were helpful in getting you to a better place. Changing your story starts with conscious intention, and maybe even a specific plan, but you need to work with your unconscious to make that new story a reality. All of us can reach a point where we feel we have no role in writing our story. It’s as if we’re an actor in someone else’s movie. I believe that we can be the actor, director, and writer. We have a lot of power to change our stories to be more satisfying.
OMTimes: So “changing your story” means changing your life going forward, but thinking about your past experiences differently, too?
Carl Greer: Yes. You change the past, present, and future. In the present, you change your perspective, and that changes your future. You can also actively envision, and bring into being, a new future. As for the past, the way the story lives within you changes. The way you remember things changes. You’re able to gain insights about your past that inform the present and future. And then you’re no longer passively experiencing a story written by fate or someone else. Changing Your Life is about resolving that conflict so that you’re not unconsciously holding yourself back from what you say you want to create in your life. The truth is that there’s always some payoff in not changing, and your unconscious mind knows about it while your conscious mind may not.
OMTimes: The exercises in the book have the reader go into a different state of consciousness and encounter symbols or figures that are brought into your awareness from your unconscious mind. Are these figures or symbolizes real?
Carl Greer: A Jungian or shaman would say a figure or symbol such as a power animal is real, but you don’t have to believe that to do this work. What is definitely real is that the stories associated with archetypal energies can trap you, and when you work with symbols and what Carl Jung called inner figures in the ways I describe, you can get incredible insights and energy for change.
OMTimes: Why is it so important to work with the symbols of the unconscious mind instead of just trying to figure out why you’re stuck and can’t change?
Carl Greer: Because when you do this kind of shamanic and Jungian work, you can see your life from a much higher and broader perspective. Then, the emotions you have around a situation aren’t as intense. You create some distance from them, and they don’t get in the way like they might if you just tried to figure out a solution for your problems using your conscious mind. When you access your unconscious mind, you access some remarkable wisdom and energies.
OMTimes: One of the techniques you describe in the book is shamanic journeying. What is that and how do you do it?
Carl Greer: Shamanic journeying is a way to access different aspects of the unconscious by going into a mental state where you’re not thinking about everyday things—and your mental chatter becomes very quiet. Then, you travel to places where you can access archetypal energies and hidden wisdom. You do shamanic journey by setting an intention to travel beyond the limits of the conscious mind. Then, as I describe in detail in the book, you do mindful breathing, open sacred space, prepare your energy field by cleansing it, and enter into the journey. Afterward, you close sacred space, find the meaning in what you experienced, and apply the lessons to your everyday life. And you can take other journeys and encounter these symbols and inner figures again to learn more.
Shamans, Jungians, and even quantum physicists would say that at one level of existence, past, present and future are all combined into one. Now that’s something we don’t consciously recognize. It sounds preposterous, in fact! But if you journey, you may travel to the past where you lost some part of yourself, like your innocence, or made a deal with yourself you’re not aware of, such as not to trust other people again. So when you take a shamanic journey, you can reclaim energies and personal qualities that became lost.
OMTimes: As a philanthropist, you support many charities and “give back”. What is the Sanctuary Project?
Carl Greer: The sanctuary project is designed to preserve and archive traditions of the Inca shamans. These traditions are dying out as older shamans are not being replaced with younger ones. Once during a time when I was receiving initiations from these shamans, I offered to let some of our work be photographed for the archives. The sanctuary project also provided transitional housing for shamans who were leaving the high mountain villages to live in the cities.
Connect with Carl http://carlgreer.com
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