Edward Absehave remained constant, whatever the cause: it leaves one deprived of
the intentional faculties of the will, and of the source of one’s renew-
able energy or “strength,” both of which are necessary to the capac-
ity for effectual activity in the world and, ultimately, to physical sur-
vival itself. The most immediate and unmistakable signs of soul loss
refer to a disturbed state of mind and waning sense of self. The more
commonly reported complaints are a strange tiredness that overtakes
one early in the day, general listlessness and a sense of heaviness in the
body, a lack of appetite, nightmares, and any one of a number of de-
bilitating phobias. Furthermore, chronic bodily symptoms may also
be attributed to this condition, whether indirectly, because of the re-
sultant decline in physical resistance to disease, or directly, as a man-
ifestation of the actual location of the displaced soul. For example,
erysipelas, a deep red inflammation of the skin accompanied by high
fever, is associated with graveyards, and may be understood to arise
from a sorcerer’s having deposited one’s soul there among the dead.
The details that bring out in sharp relief the more subtle and elu-
sive dimensions of change manifest in the sufferers’ anguish are most
vividly described in dreams that present the experience of soul loss
from the externalized soul’s point of view. Visions in the sleep of the
afflicted reveal a complex symptomatology transcending that of the
body, while at the same time providing the significance of waking-life
complaints. I was often told by shamans and others that “while the
body rests, the soul wanders,” and that dreams are effectively the ex-
tra-corporeal adventures of the soul. Sometimes, however, to dream is
to wake up to the fact that the soul is already elsewhere and in peril,
lost and/or immobilized in some way that prevents it from returning
to the body. In such unfortunate circumstances, the perceiving soul
of dreams, captured in the designs of sorcery, almost invariably ex-
periences itself as trapped, somehow forcibly contained in a certain
evil, enchanted, and enclosed space, far from the familiar surround-
ings of home and the company of fellow human beings. The sensations
or emotions that stand out in the telling of such dreams are a near-
suffocating claustrophobia and the terror of being alone, in trouble,
and cut off from communication with others.