Highly Sensitive People may be the Healers, Seers, and Shamans of the Modern World

“The proclivity towards vilifying and pathologizing intuition on the one hand and claiming it as an exotic and monetizable gift useful for attracting internet followers on the other — all of this is a function of the othering of intuition in the modern world. Societally, we would do well to rediscover the central role of the seer. For if we lose our ability to learn from the visions of seers, we lose the feeling body of culture —  the very thing that drives culture forward.”  

• Josh Schrei, The Emerald Podcast: For The Intuitives 

The western colonized world does not know what to do with spiritually sensitive people. We are pathologized and othered by mainstream society, and placed on a pedestal by the spiritualized counter-culture. We are told we are sick, or we are told we are special. The truth is, spiritual sensitivity alone does not make us sick nor special. We are the seers of the modern world. And our world does not know our importance or our place. 

Because of this, almost none of us have had access to the kind of social, cultural, or spiritual guidance we need to fully integrate our gifts and capacities. Many of us develop chronic health conditions, mental health struggles, or are boxed into the helpful and validating but limiting boxes of neurodivergent, ADHD, on the spectrum, learning disability, empath, or HSP. While these designations help us organize and explain our experience in a cultural body that offers us no other path of integration and belonging to our social role, they do not open the doorway to exploring the full range of our spiritual capacities. 

The traits of a HSP in particular are congruent with the qualities once known by other peoples to be the defining traits of a shaman or seer. The primary role of the shaman was to act as a healer, but they were also known to serve as intermediaries with spirits, leaders and facilitators of communal rituals and rites, soul guides, divinators, and sorcerers. Shamans acted as a bridge between the material plane and the realm of the unseen. 

Although shamanistic roles and abilities may appear special in a society where we have been starved of mystery and mysticism, the truth is, this way of being is very normal. The seen and unseen are always interacting with one another, informing one another, co-creating one another. Dropping anthropocentrism (the belief that human constructs and perspectives are the center of the universe) allows us to recall the animacy of a living world staring back at us, the reality of relationality, and “locate” ourselves in a complex ecological/cosmological scope of systems within systems. 

Those Who Walk Between Worlds

By design, becoming a bridge between worlds requires heightened senses. The traits of a HSP–sensory and emotional sensitivity, profound empathy, perceptiveness, a rich inner life, rapid information synthesis and systems thinking, an impulsive need to seek and create meaning, among other things–are all qualities that allow us to open and close the gate between the realms of the seen and unseen, the known and unknown.

Many HSP’s experience intense overwhelm and periods of contraction or depression as a result of these gates flying open wildly in the wind, with no consent or control over the flood of input we receive from everything and everyone around us. Part of the work of the culturally under supported shaman is to learn how to develop better boundaries around this constant flood of stimuli, to know how to dampen or cope with overstimulation in a world insensitive to our sensitives. 

Permeable Beings: Sensory Gating and a World Outside Our Window of Tolerance

“This was something I understood intimately as a child. I seemed to notice more. More bugs. More smells. More texture. More noise. More micro expressions on adult’s faces. More birdsong. More temperature fluctuations….I just knew that, for better or for worse, I seemed to be highly attuned to my surroundings. Yes, I watched doors, constantly monitored adults around me, and scanned rooms for signs of danger. But I also was transfixed for hours by dirt spangled with mycelia, air scintillating with dust, slugs leaving behind starlight-slick stories on the porch. I could read the breathing patterns of our cats and dogs, keyed into the smallest fluctuations in their wellbeing. Blue was more blue. I could feel a cat’s purr in my belly. Frog song vibrated below my tongue. The blooming lilac was so bright a smell it almost made a sound. A song. Life was often agonizing. But, much to my confusion, it also seemed more available to me than it did to others. Why was this?” 

- Sophie Strand, The Body is a Doorway 

Inside our brain there is a gatekeeping mechanism that determines which sensory input is important, and which sensory input is unimportant. This gatekeeping mechanism is what allows our brain and nervous system to filter and prioritize which aspects of our environment receive our focused attention, and which are extraneous. It’s how we can hyper fixate on writing an essay in a busy, noisy coffee shop, and how we can attend to our screaming toddler in the sensory overwhelm of a grocery store. HSP’s, people who have experienced trauma, and neurodivergent people do not have a gatekeeper.

Basically, ALL stimuli is categorized as “important” as our brain’s way of keeping us attuned to every subtle fluctuation in our surroundings. It is how our nervous system learned to keep us safe. And while this comes with gifts such as heightened pleasure, the ability to “read” emergent phenomena, and inherent wonder that emerges through immersing/merging our own body in the “external” world, it also comes with challenges. 

Those challenges show up in the form of burnout, illness, and fatigue, as well as a lingering, haunting sense of being “set apart” or “not belonging.” Learning how to take care of ourselves and honor our sensitivities is essential to our wellbeing as HSP’s. Being sensitive is not a weakness. It allows for a rich, nuanced, and abundant experience of being in and of the world. Although the wound of the modern shaman develops around feeling as if we do not belong, the very thing that sets us apart from the people around us is evidence of our intrinsic interconnectivity. 

Redefining the Role of the Shaman

So what does the role of the shaman look like in a contemporary, western world? This is a question with no singular answer. Many modern shamans become practitioners of healing modalities like breathwork, somatic experiencing, tantra, yoga, and meditation. Others become teachers, educators, therapists, coaches, and mentors. Some are drawn to midwifery and end of life care. Most realize that some form of artistry and creative self-expression is as essential as their need for water, air, and food. 

The good news is that the “what” is not as important as the “how.” Whatever path the HSP takes, they will bring their unique perspective and gifts to the endeavor. HSPs often express multipotentiality– meaning, we can excel at any number of things that are congruent with our core traits, interests, and values. HSPs can be as successful at podcasting as working with animals as holding psychedelic medicine spaces. But we thrive within a certain, specific set of supporting conditions:

1. Having a circle of close friends, peers, and colleagues who see us as clearly as we see them (who can tolerate seeing and being seen and who match our hyper sensitivity).

2. Ritual practices and containers that provide stability, shape, and structure to the spiritual phenomena we experience.

3. Tools for taking care of our nervous system and sensory processing needs.

4. Access to groups of like-minded people who allow us to feel safe and help us integrate our best qualities in a way that brings us into self-harmony.

If you feel starved for all of these forms of support, you can gain these social nutrients by joining our group: Nourished.

Post by Alyssa Allegretti, and Anna Day