when spirits speak ~ beyond diagnosis

iyiniwak (Indigenous people) globally have always carried wisdom about communicating with spirits, including ancestors, other-than-human and more-than-human beings, and what may be referred to as the source of life or great mystery.

whether through ceremonies, dreams, meditation, or other moments of connection, we can ask spirits to help us, teach us, and share their knowledge with us. we can also direct them to leave and set boundaries with them. just like their human counterparts, spirits can be troublesome, helpful, or anything in between. iyiniwak have always had ways of working with these relationships.

depending on their teachings, a person may honour these connections through offerings in the form of tobacco or other medicines, food, cloth, or other gifts, alongside a commitment to use the messages from spirits in a responsible way.

when Eurosettlers arrived on Turtle Island, they immediately pathologized these iyiniwak ways of knowing, being, and doing. over time, ceremonies and other cultural practices were outlawed, and institutions were founded in attempts to extinguish iyiniwak ways.

in addition to institutions such as residential and boarding schools, psychiatric institutions also became tools of colonial assimilation. the Hiawatha Asylum for Insane Indians in Canton, South Dakota was established as a federal psychiatric institution exclusively for Indigenous peoples. many gifted ceremonialists, medicine people, and other Indigenous relatives were incarcerated and lost their lives in these hospitals.

iyiniwak ways of knowing, being, and doing were systematically targeted for extinction through interconnected systems of legislation, education, medicine, psychiatry, religion, and institutionalization, with particularly systematic implementation beginning in the mid-nineteenth century in both what are now Canada and the United States. this included the severing of practices that mentored community members who had gifts of directly perceiving and communicating with spirits.

while iyiniwak activism and advocacy continues to push back on these systems and has created critical changes, oppressive colonial frameworks continue to dominate in many of these settings today—including medicine, psychiatry, and psychology.

if someone is being bothered by harmful spirits, and/or is hearing voices, seeing spirits, or speaking with them, they may not have access to the familial or community supports that were in place prior to the imposition of colonialism. these relatives may end up interacting with the current mental health system, where their experiences may be considered a form of psychosis or a symptom of psychological disorder. such relatives may further be institutionalized and/or medicated, rather than offered cultural mentorship that could support their ability to manage their experiences and relationships with spirits.

this ongoing pathologizing of spiritual communication is particularly ironic given that, from the late 1970s onward, multiple peer-reviewed international studies have found that people diagnosed with schizophrenia in several non-Euro-Western and lower-income settings—particularly study sites in India and Nigeria—experienced better average clinical and social outcomes than people treated in many European and North American centres. researchers have proposed family acceptance, lower levels of criticism and hostility, shared caregiving, social inclusion, meaningful community roles, and culturally intelligible understandings of voice-hearing and other spiritual experiences as possible contributors to these differences (references below). this research suggests that the meanings communities make together—and the ways they respond to those experiences—may be just as important as the experiences themselves.

importantly, when someone is experiencing difficult relationships with spirits, troubling visions, frightening dreams, or negative energies, iyiniwak ways are not simply to leave them alone with those experiences. rather, people seek support from kihtehayak (Elders), knowledge carriers, ceremonialists, trusted family members, and the land itself through ceremony, reciprocal relationship building, and repair. during ceremony, helpful spirits may be asked to provide protection, guidance, and teachings that restore balance, while those that are causing harm can be directed to leave. throughout these practices, the person is supported by community rather than isolated from it.

despite colonialism's best attempts, there continue to be medicine people, ceremonialists, Elders, knowledge carriers, and community members who carry these teachings today. many continue to support relatives who experience communication with spirits in ways that are grounded, ethical, and deeply accountable to community.

however, not everyone has access to those networks of support or mentorship. many iyiniwak have been separated from their languages, ceremonies, families, and communities through generations of colonial disruption. for these relatives, learning practical tools to strengthen spiritual boundaries, develop discernment, and work with their own medicines and inherent power can become an important part of rebuilding those relationships in safe and healthy ways.

at maskihkiy wellness, we work from the understanding that every person carries inherent wholeness, practicing from genocide-informed care. rather than beginning from the assumption that extraordinary experiences are necessarily symptoms to be eliminated, we begin with curiosity, relationship, and respect. our role is not to tell people what their experiences mean, but to walk alongside them as they reconnect with their own teachings, communities, medicines, and sources of balance. 

the maskihkiy wellness team includes Elders, therapists, and knowledge carriers who are experienced in supporting people navigating these experiences. to learn more about genocide-informed care, we invite you to read our may 31 full moon medicine blog post.

this post is inspired by The Soul Medicine Podcast, episode 12: when spirits speak: walking with gifts beyond diagnosis with kihtehayah (Elder) Richard Wright.

‍note: this article is not intended to suggest that every experience of hearing voices, seeing spirits, or communicating with spirits reflects the same process. there is a time and place where Euro-Western mental health approaches—including medication and other interventions—may be appropriate, particularly when there are concerns about safety or significant distress.

references

Cohen, A., Patel, V., Thara, R., & Gureje, O. (2008). Questioning an axiom: Better prognosis for schizophrenia in the developing world? Schizophrenia Bulletin, 34(2), 229–244. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbm105

Harrison, G., Hopper, K., Craig, T., Laska, E., Siegel, C., Wanderling, J., Dube, K. C., Ganev, K., Giel, R., an der Heiden, W., Holmberg, S. K., Janca, A., Lee, P. W. H., León, C. A., Malhotra, S., Marsella, A. J., Nakane, Y., Sartorius, N., Shen, Y., … Wiersma, D. (2001). Recovery from psychotic illness: A 15- and 25-year international follow-up study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 178(6), 506–517. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.178.6.506

Hopper, K., & Wanderling, J. (2000). Revisiting the developed versus developing country distinction in course and outcome in schizophrenia: Results from ISoS, the WHO collaborative followup project. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 26(4), 835–846. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.schbul.a033498

Jablensky, A., Sartorius, N., Ernberg, G., Anker, M., Korten, A., Cooper, J. E., Day, R., & Bertelsen, A. (1992). Schizophrenia: Manifestations, incidence and course in different cultures—A World Health Organization ten-country study. Psychological Medicine Monograph Supplement, 20, 1–97.

Luhrmann, T. M., Padmavati, R., Tharoor, H., & Osei, A. (2015). Differences in voice-hearing experiences of people with psychosis in the USA, India and Ghana: Interview-based study. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 206(1), 41–44. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.113.139048

Sartorius, N., Jablensky, A., & Shapiro, R. (1978). Cross-cultural differences in the short-term prognosis of schizophrenic psychoses. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 4(1), 102–113. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/4.1.102

Wig, N. N., Menon, D. K., Bedi, H., Ghosh, A., Kuipers, L., Leff, J., Korten, A., Day, R., Sartorius, N., & Ernberg, G. (1987). Expressed emotion and schizophrenia in north India: I. Cross-cultural transfer of ratings of relatives’ expressed emotion. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 151(2), 156–160. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.151.2.156

Wig, N. N., Menon, D. K., Bedi, H., Leff, J., Kuipers, L., Ghosh, A., Day, R., Korten, A., Ernberg, G., & Sartorius, N. (1987). Expressed emotion and schizophrenia in north India: II. Distribution of expressed emotion components among relatives of schizophrenic patients in Aarhus and Chandigarh. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 151(2), 160–165. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.151.2.160

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