Individuals emerge within every culture who heal the sick and foretell the future. They are the Shamans: the intermediaries or messengers between humanity and other realities. For 50,000-100,000 years, humans have communicated in this way with the spirits of the Earth and the heavens. In parts of North America, Shamans use altered states created by rhythmic drumming or psychotropic substances — to access the realms, energies and forces which transcend everyday existence. The transpersonal knowledge thus gained is accepted as guidance by the culture. Shamans are the quintessential healers using altered states for physical, emotional and spiritual healing.

Creative illness typically occurs among Shamans, mystics, philosophers and creative artists. A creative illness often succeeds a period of intense stress, preoccupation or search for a certain truth. It can take the form of physical illness or depression. Its termination is often rapid and marked by exhilaration. The person emerges from the ordeal with his or her personality tranformed, and the conviction that a great truth or a new world has been discovered. Fundamentally, the metamorphoses undergone by Shamans still occur today through the process of physical illness.

For example, Sigmund Freud underwent a creative illness between 1894 and 1900; he emerged with the foundations of psychoanalysis. Carl Jung experienced a creative illness during the period from 1913 to 1919. During these periods, both Freud and Jung restricted their ties with universities and professional / scientific organizations. Both suffered physical and/or emotional symptoms: Freud spoke of his “neurasthenia” or “hysteria”; Jung spent long periods brooding by the lake, building little stone castles. Each used his own method of psychological exploration: Freud utilized free association; Jung used active imagination and dream interpretation. Both emerged transformed.

Creative illness is one of the processes by which the individual and collective human consciousness evolves. Joseph Campbell describes this universal process in the following discussion of myths.

“...the passage of the threshold is a form of self-annihilation.... Here, instead of passing outward, beyond the confines of the visible world, the hero goes inward, to be born again. Once inside, he may be said to have died to time and returned to the World Womb, the World Navel, the Earthly Paradise.... No creature can attain a higher grade of nature without ceasing to exist.” (The Hero with a Thousand Faces)

“A terrifying symptom is usually your greatest dream trying to come true.”
-Arnold Mindell 
(Working with the Dreaming Body, 1987)

Imagery is the world's oldest and most powerful healing resource. Through imagery work, we can access and unfold the meaningful flow of life which symptoms and illness express. Through imagery, we can communicate with our symptoms and illness.

What messages do our symptoms
and illness have for us?

What do we communicate
to our symptoms and illness?

Drs. Beck and Colli view illness as a potentially life-renewing, creative process. They utilize imagery work and hypnosis as communication mechanisms to help bring about bodily change.

Dr. Janet Colli specializes in life-challenging processes. She was diagnosed with cancer at the age of thirty. Seeing her cancer as a creative challenge, instead of merely a threat, was the beginning of a new life. Her course of treatment included swimming with dolphins, and facilitating encounters with Beluga whales.

Dr. Thomas Beck has considerable experience in helping people deal with the realities of living with HIV. His doctoral research included counseling residents and staff of a leading AIDS facility in Seattle. He views HIV and AIDS as the ultimate opportunity to discover the purpose of one's life and to share that purpose with others.

For counseling or consultation, Drs. Beck and Colli can be contacted in Seattle.