Thanatotherapy — for life, not for death

Myth 1. This is when someone is buried alive in the ground

“There are such beliefs, I have been fighting them for many years,” notes Vladimir Baskakov. — Burying, throwing off bridges is an imitation of death. And the word «thanatotherapy» itself is translated as «help in restoring contact with the processes of death and dying.» It is the art of modeling these processes. It is difficult for us to contact death, it is like grasping a hot frying pan with your hand: this contact is immediately broken. Death can only be contacted when it is not recognized. Then psychological defenses are not included. The art of thanatotherapy is to bypass the defenses and open access to a special state: those who have experienced it describe it as pleasure, joy and happiness. It arises from the experience of those characteristics of one’s body that the bodies of the dead possess: the complete disappearance of muscle clamps and tensions, the rejection of overcontrol (which our consciousness usually exercises), the ability to feel one’s body as a thing, as an object. The influences used by the thanatotherapist are minimal, this is “bodily homeopathy”, slow, smooth, soft, gentle touches.

• Homeopathy, obvious and inexplicable

Myth 2. Thanatotherapy helps only from the fear of death

Yes, it helps, but it doesn’t stop there. The scope of thanatotherapy is much wider. For example, it is used in dealing with sexual problems. Many people today go into the head very strongly, identifying themselves with the intellect. It is difficult for them to experience themselves through the body, it is even more difficult to feel their body as an object, an object of desire for another person. It’s scary to lose your «I», to give up control. This is the misfortune of many smart women, because of this there are problems with orgasm, conception, and bearing. Thanatotherapy helps them learn to let go of control, open up to their partner and their own feelings, removes fears. Also, thanatotherapy is used in the treatment of depression, alcoholism and drug addiction, osteochondrosis, when working with pain, in family therapy.

• Why talk about death

Myth 3. This is a dangerous method.

Is sleep dangerous? The action of thanatotherapy is similar to the action of sleep. The healing of sleep is based on the fact that at this time our body relaxes, due to which the healing structures of the unconscious are activated and the bodily energy is activated. In the waking state, we usually suppress it or, on the contrary, splash it “over the edge”, and in a dream it is balanced and redistributed throughout the body. However, in modern life, we are so tense during the day that we do not allow ourselves to completely relax even in a dream, although we urgently need it. Natural self-healing of the body does not occur, or it is not effective enough. Thanatotherapy restores the body’s ability to relax and recover using its own internal resources.

Myth 4. Thanatotherapy is a section of body-oriented psychotherapy

No, this is an independent method, with its own theory and practice. The main difference is the holistic approach that thanatotherapy uses. Whereas the approach of body-oriented psychotherapy is based on the so-called «problem anatomy», when it comes to a table of correspondences of psychological problems or diseases to certain parts of the body and internal organs. It is believed that problems manifest themselves in the form of muscle blocks and chronic tensions, which are targeted. And thanatotherapist acts on a person (his body and psyche) as a whole, no matter what part of the body he touches. Methods of influence also differ. For example, body-oriented therapy often uses techniques that can be quite intense. While most thanatotherapeutic techniques are based on the principle, which, if reformulated by the homeopathic doctor Samuel Hahnemann, can sound like this: “minimum impacts in terms of strength and amplitude lead to feelings and experiences of maximum strength.” Their goal is to initiate internal changes that lead to healing.