Effects of the Soplado
Q: I have a question about what you did with my head [during the ceremony], because I have thoughts about what happened, but I really don't know what it was. The effect was very unexpected to me.
J: What was your experience?
Q: In that moment, as you know, I was feeling anxious and panicky. I sensed some physical manipulation, but suddenly, I relaxed and zenned out. I felt a sensation moving from my neck through my head, which made me instantly calmer. How did that happen? I had no expectations and wasn't thinking that you were going to do anything special. So, I didn't have any prior knowledge of what you were going to do.
J: It was magic!
[Laughter in the room]
J: I performed what we call a soplado, a type of limpia, which involves cleaning or blowing to move the energy. This practice varies in different traditions, but fundamentally it's about connecting with you and assisting your body and mind to relax into spaciousness. Your being comes again into contact with awareness, with presence. Presence is what is healing. A significant part of it is helping your nervous system track and orient its whereabouts in reality, which can disrupt a psychological loop.
For example, you were in an agitated state, and first I moved you from where you were sitting, where you were comfortable, to the centre of the room. Sometimes, when we are too comfortable, we get stuck. What I did in this particular instance involved the Agua de Florida, a flower-infused alcohol. First, there is the fragrant aroma, which triggers and brings you into a different sensory part of the brain. Then there is the tactile sensation of the cool liquid and the breath blown over it, followed by the alcohol, which affects the nervous system simply because it is a poor conductor of electricity. It “cuts” the energy, so to speak. Physical manipulation and touch further transform this state by giving your being something to push back on and then something to relax into and be held by. While some may describe this as mystical and shamanic healing, I see it as the therapeutic impact of close physical proximity and touch, which helps co-regulate our nervous systems, shifting us from one current state to another. Essentially, this is the same in traditional terms as the soplado or limpa, which aims to cleanse the physical energy, bring psychological clarity, and restore balance.
Q: Thank you for explaining that. One of my initial intentions was openness, and when it comes to energy work, I really didn’t buy into it. I was very sceptical about it. However, since you performed that on me, I've experienced a cognitive dissonance because I felt and experienced its effect, and I cannot deny that.
***
A word of caution: be wary of projecting something special onto someone and calling them a great healer. For sure, by proximity to someone of great presence vibrationally we can be moved. However, it is not necessary to project ideals on to others, but rather to see the place that projects, to see from where the light shines for the film to be projected. That is the healing place. When you are near someone who is aware of that light, it can be moving because momentarily you forget the movie and return to the source of your awareness. You bathe in the cleansing presence that is reflected, but it is your own awareness, it is your own eternal presence that emerges.
Like this, some spiritual teachers have a knack for putting on a show for you to see what you did not see. If that person played the game of their own self importance and fed the notion of them being great and you needing them, then that is to be looked at. That dynamic is slippery and somewhat disempowering. You can only be let down by what you have been leaning on and everything external to you will fall and topple over. Listen now: What does not fall is not external to you.
Excerpt from Walking the Forest Path: Volume 1, available in early 2025.
