Recently I’ve been talking with my Buddha-mom Patricia about heading over to Switzerland to offer her community shamanic medicine work.
She’s a very studied Jungian psychoanalyst, and told me stories about her time living with Jung’s grandson to spending time with Yogananda’s close disciple, Swami Kriyananda.
I am always struck by her work with children, where she uses symbols to heal the psyche. For instance, there was the time a 4 year old was afraid to go to sleep due to ghostly visitations at the foot of the bed.
Through teaching the 4 year old a third eye meditation, doing symbology work and dream analysis, the child was finally able to sleep.
We spoke about her awakening experiences; where for an entire year, she was able to perceive the breath of trees and could sense the vibrational fields underneath ordinary reality.
Through her 77 years on the planet, she has devoted her life to the healing of the psyche in the non-traditional sense. Her time with shamans in the Arctic and Siberia has enabled her to perceive the subtle realms of energy.
And we can access these subtle realms if we pay attention to the symbols within.
Symbols through dreams and meditations are not random, as much as the modern world tries to pathologize them. They are encrypted messages with which we can have dialogue.
Carl Jung always said, “the soul does not express itself in words, but in images.” And so, the question is, are you paying attention to them?
A Client Who “Never Has Visions”
One woman wrote to me after a recent experience in her shamanic breathwork journey.
She had joined last minute, and had never done anything like this.
She mentioned how she doesn’t usually visualize, even when reading books.
And yet during the session, she found herself transported to the Philippines, her ancestral homeland, a place she has not visited since childhood.
As she stood before a giant balete tree, she felt electricity in her hands.
Strong women encircled her and covered her with leaves, sending healing from her body.
Then, she dove into the water and passed through an underground tunnel, emerging renewed.
When she wrote to me the next day, feeling recharged and revitalized, she said:
“I believe they were ancestors. I felt part of a lineage of strong women. I carried them in me.”
This is the soul remembering itself.
When symbols arrive with deep feeling, they carry healing medicine that allow you to move forward in life with an inexplicable trust that the Universe always has your back.
The Body as the Master Archive
In shamanic understanding, the body is your soul’s archive.
As Bessel van der Kolk famously wrote in The Body Keeps the Score, trauma and memory are stored somatically.
But so is the healing strength and wisdom of your lineage.
During her journey, this woman did not merely “see” images.
Her body coursed with life force and moved with the symbols.
This is the difference between knowledge and wisdom.
Knowledge is informational (studied by the head)
Wisdom is embodied (includes the heart and body).
The Healing that Comes from Remembering Lineage
The modern issues of war, disease and environmental destruction arise from forgetting where we come from…
forgetting that our actions impact generations before and after us.
forgetting the wisdom traditions that we each carry as a unique expression of divine life force.
Through the sacred principle called Ayni — the law reciprocity from the Q’ero tradition of the Andean shamans…we are not isolated individuals, but rather expressions of an unbroken continuum.
In a few weeks, my parents and my brother are returning to China to perform tomb-sweeping ceremonies — honoring ancestors, making offerings to heal the bloodline.
Across indigenous cultures, when ancestors show up in your dreams or vision, it means they are calling you to remember them.
In this remembrance, you can heal them, and in return, they will heal you. It’s a beautiful dance of balance and true reciprocity.
Symbols as Tools
Open your inner eyes, and practice looking at all the events in your life as waking symbols. Your helping ancestral spirits are always conspiring on your behalf for your highest good.
You simply need to drop the analytical mind, and pay attention to the mystery within.
A weekly practice of remembering where you come from, simply by reflecting on your blood line can do wonders.
Create an ancestral altar by placing images of loved ones. Beautify it with offerings of flowers, incense and candles to honor them in your own way.
When we reconnect to lineage, we restore balance, and act from a place of continued strength rather than fearful egoism.
Follow your symbols to step into a life that is richer and more meaningful than you could have ever imagined.
If you’re called to explore your inner world, join the upcoming Shamanic Breathwork Journey
Shamanic Breathwork Journey with Live Cello Mar 15, 2026
With deep gratitude,
Johnson Chong
Instagram | www.johnsonchong.com |
Upcoming Events:
Shamanic Breathwork Journey with Live Cello Mar 15, 2026
Blue Mountains Shamanic Medicine Retreat Mar 27 – 29, 2026
1 Day Shamanic Medicine Retreats in Sydney (Apr 11 & May 16 – email for details)
Bhutan Awaken Spirit Retreat May 28 – June 4, 2026