Customer Reviews

Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual

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Reviewed by Roger Woolger, Ph.D.

William Baldwin's eagerly awaited book, Spirit Releasement Therapy, A Technique Manual is a brilliant, daring tour de force whose appearance I am delighted to celebrate. Dr. Baldwin has integrated an enormous range of techniques and much accumulated wisdom gleaned from past life therapy, spirit possession syndrome, soul retrieval, inner child work, multiple personality disorder (MPD), or dissociative identity disorder (DID), and traditional psychotherapy.

In the Introduction he offers a very useful and concise overview of spirit possession and its treatment throughout history. In section two, Regression Therapy, he presents an up-to-date survey of the principles and techniques currently used in present life and past life regression therapy by clinicians working in the field. Dr. Baldwin outlines induction techniques, ways of working though the life, remembered traumatic events, the death transition and many other techniques, and includes useful examples of how to apply them.

Section three, Recovery of Soul-mind Fragmentation, though relatively short, is in many ways the pivotal section of the book, theoretically speaking. Dr. Baldwin outlines and integrates the shamanic concept of "soul loss" in reaction to trauma with psychiatric views of personality splitting and the kind of dissociation to be found in extremis in MPD (DID). The key concept here is the idea of subpersonalities or fragmentary souls. This notion figured quite prominently in the early psychiatric work of Jung, Janet and Assagioli, and later came to form the basis of those techniques for the psychotherapeutic integration of the personality developed by Psychosynthesis, Jungian analytic psychology, psychodrama, Gestalt therapy, Voice Dialogue and, most recently, Inner Child work.

Section four, Spirit Releasement Therapy, is the longest of the book. It contains the highly original battery of techniques developed by Dr. William Baldwin during years of research and therapeutic practice. Because of its extraordinary comprehensiveness and mass of critical detail, will surely stand as a major reference source for years to come. Dr. Baldwin describes and illustrates therapeutic strategies for working with a huge range of possessing entities or psycho-spiritual formations. Most importantly, he provides specific lines of inquiry that enable the therapist to make a differential diagnosis in difficult cases (e.g. sub and alter personalities vs. human spirits, dark force entities, and those from "far away" that might be designated aliens or extraterrestrials).

This highly important breakdown of these confusing phenomena into three orders or types of possession necessarily implies a different metaphysical and metapsychological status for different possessing entities. There are different strategies for releasing a human entity and a demonic entity, or working with a multiple personality alter, for example. It is precisely such crystal clear differentiation between the different orders and types of attachment, along with an abundance of clearly illustrated case examples that makes this section so valuable and quite unique.

The notion of attributing numerous varieties of psychopathology and physical conditions to the intrusion of non-resident spirits or entities is one that has been assiduously resisted and ridiculed by main stream psychologists and psychiatrists for most of the century. If the straight psychological world scoffs at past lives and reincarnation it is openly contemptuous about practices that go by the name of exorcism, depossession, or spirit releasement therapy (Baldwin's own user friendly coinage). After all, they would say, haven't the great advances in psychoanalysis and the grounding of psychological research in empiricism and scientific method come about precisely because the old superstitions about ghosts, witchcraft and magic have total discredited?

Apparently not. Much of the populace at large still continues to believe in "the presence of other worlds" (to borrow a phrase from Swedenborg) while the open antagonism of the split between religion, channeling, esoteric healing, etc. (the perspective of spirit) and psychology (the perspective of soul or psyche) refuses to go away. The very fact that Dr. Baldwin does not publish separate books on past life therapy and spirit releasement therapy is of crucial significance in and of itself. And secondly he implicitly recognized that regression therapy and spirit releasement therapy complement, in the sense of complete each other. They are part of a greater endeavor, as Dr. Baldwin himself puts it:

The purpose of regression therapy is to heal the scars of the soul. Nothing is left out, no human experience is denied; the aim is uncovering the truth. No amount of narrowly defined professional training, no restrictive religious training, no arbitrary limits of any kind can be allowed to interfere with the exploration of the spiritual reality (p.38).

This long overdue reintegration of the spiritualist/shamanic perspective back into psychotherapy and spiritual healing is, I believe, the next and essential stage in the development of psychology, a kind of return to the source. And right at the vanguard of this reunion we have William Baldwin's remarkable book. It is a milestone we will all look back to. I predict it will be referred to and argued about for years.

This book should be on the shelf of every hypnotherapist, particularly those who deal with past-life regression and spirit releasement.

The book has sections that deal with past-life regression, soul fragmentation, spirit releasement.

It describes circumstances in which attachments are most likely to occur and it provides step-by-step procedure for dealing with different cases - whether the possession is partial or complete and whether it involves human discarnate entities, fragments of human consciousness or non-human entities.

The difference between spirit releasement and traditional methods of depossession is that this is a compassionate approach and more-over the method is based on educating and enlightening possessing entities, instead of just tossing them out. The method creates a true win-win situation and as opposite to traditional methods of depossession which sometimes have rather dismal consequences, this method is safe.

The best part is that by the time you're done with this book, you will be enriched with greater understanding and you will have no fear of any discarnate entities. Rather than threatening them or fearing them, you'll be educating them and helping them in making a better choice for all concerned. You'll be sharing love and light and instead of engaging in fear and combat.

From the experiences in my own practice, I can attest that the method works wonders.

I am not going to try to add more details about what's in the book because the previous review covered it all. I can honestly say that I have learned more from this one book than any other book I have ever read. I have read so very many books on hypnosis, past life regressions, spirituality... you name it, I've read it. What makes this such a must-read is not it's significant background information (which it has), nor is it the specific examples of exactly what to say given different situations (these are invaluable - I wish I had read this book the first time I was suddenly confronted with an "attachment" because my skeptic self very much freaked!), but it's the many, many examples provided. So many! Not only did I discover a whole new world of knowledge but I didn't want to stop reading as there were so many stories. Every therapist needs to read this book. It is a masterpiece.

Spirit Releasement therapy gives very detailed descriptions and applications of what used to be unbelieveable concepts. Now it doesn't matter if you believe them or not, you can use the ideas to rid traumatized people of left-over distress. One incest survivor I have counseled for years, who still felt bad and dirty, was able to let these feelings out in the form of an evil spirit which had entered her through the perpetrator. She then felt "normal", as she would have if she hadn't been abused, for the first time in 60 years. The ideas in this book can be used successfully as truths or as metafors.

William Baldwin writes for the novice as well as for experts in the field of hypnosis. His technique for releasing blocks and "dark" energy is greatly enhanced with actual accounts from clients in his spiritual work. As a hypnotherapist, I recommend this book to anyone in the field of hypnosis and related modalities. Thank you Dr. Baldwin for your research and thoughtful writing.

This book covers EVERYTHING you need to know. The first part goes over the history and major people in the discovery and treatment leading up the the Therapy. It goes on to explain all the techniques in detail.
It is well worth the reading and study, in fact it was recommended to me and it is really a wonderful book. It will be in my resource library as I come across this and deal with it. Whether you deal with helping people and run across this or just wnat to increase your knowledge on the subject, you will find it very enlightening.

If you are a therapist and you perform Soul therapy, Spirit Release therapy, Invisibles therapy or whatever you want to call it and you have not read this book then get out of the theraoy business. This is a MUST read. There is everthing that you will EVER need to know on how to do a spirit release in this book. This book was a gift to the world. This book opens the world to the truth of what is out there, or should I say what is in there! If you study this manual and I mean study, not just read, but eat every word you will be the best therapist for your clients. READ IT!!!

All I have to say is "WOW". This is the best book I have ever read on the subject of posession, and I have read a few. Clearly written for both the professional and the lay person. If you are a professional who wishes to specialize in this type of treatment, or you just want to know more indepth on the subject, it is all in this book!

I ordered this book with great expectations, but was disappointed by the
fact that 75% of it was filler on the history of demons and demon releasement.

When you compare this book to Shakuntala Modi's work, it shows up the author's lack of professional background and knowledge on the subject
and leads the reader into thinking that hypnotherapy is the only route to healing. Don't bother with contacting them for remote healing either; William Baldwin is no longer and you would be better off throwing your money into a deep well.

This is definately not a technical manual, but rather a history on spirit releasement.

You would think that a psychologist would have superirior writing skills, but he settles for an inferior academic approach to writing that is often awkward and much unlike the language that we speak. Other than that the material in this book is of great value. I would like to see this book edited and rewritten by someone who knows how to write. The information therein is much too valuable to be lost to misunderstandings due to a poor writing style. I've done academia, and some there simply cannot write and this seems to be the case with this author. However I did understand everything even though the language was peculiar. Don't let the writing style stop you from reading this valuable book. It is indeed an eye opener.