When we have a traumatic experience from a shamanic perspective parts of our soul separate in order to survive and escape from the painful consequences of what has occurred. The point is that traumatic experiences are not exceptional events. They are the norm and take place right from the start of our human journey. Birth itself is a most traumatic experience and so are all the various stages of childhood and adolescence, as well as further common critical events in life.
As a matter of fact physical life per se is soul loss. We identify ourselves with separate physical bodies, bound to get ill and die, losing contact with our true self, unified and whole. Our soul is exiled, frozen, lost, no matter whether we have ouvert traumatic experiences or not. Soul loss in this world may be inevitable. This may appear rather depressing. Yet at the same time physical life can become a most adventurous and luminous experience of retrieval, the gestation process and final delivery of our most blissful and authentic self.