In this insightful interview with MysticMag, Veronica Brands shares her profound journey into the realms of rebirth, death doula services, and shamanism.
Her story is one of early spiritual connection and resilience in the face of life-altering challenges, including a diagnosis of Lupus and the loss of multiple pregnancies. These experiences, combined with a deep-seated curiosity and an insatiable quest for healing and transformation, have shaped her unique approach to guiding others through life’s most profound transitions.
Join us as we delve into Veronica’s world, where shamanic wisdom, personal healing, and spiritual guidance converge to illuminate the path of rebirth and end-of-life care.
What drew you to specialize in the fields of rebirth, death doula services, and shamanism?
We all have a mission in this life. Sometimes, we don’t hear the call, other times we don’t want to hear it, and occasionally we don’t believe what we feel is true. It can also happen that we feel several calls and must choose. I did many things: I was a primary school teacher and then specialized in special needs, I was a designer, artist, singer, and student of philosophy, anthropology, theology, and Buddhism. In the UK, I led a large women’s group and fulfilled other roles in a Buddhist organization. All these experiences were calls that I loved and enjoyed, and they are still very useful today.
However, from a very young age, I had a strong connection with the spiritual and invisible world, a relationship that took me years to understand clearly. My hands eased the pain and provided relief and comfort. By the age of 15, I was already guiding groups of young people, children, and even adults in their search for the Divine. By the age of 16 or 17, I was part of the leadership of the catechumenate of the diocese.
Illness was born with me, causing constant clinical conditions and deep crises. At the age of 12, I accepted the diagnosis that predicted a life in a wheelchair and a life expectancy of less than 50 years. At 25, I was diagnosed with Lupus, a complex autoimmune condition with no clinical cure, which also caused the loss of six pregnancies and profound distress. Years later, I decided to forget the diagnosis, heal, and live a healthy and free old age.
Illness as a teacher, the invisible and mystical worlds as allies, and my insatiable curiosity led me to study and practice numerous healing and evolution tools. In the year 2000, the great economic depression forced me to leave my home, family, and projects in Argentina. That time brought clarity about what my true calling was. Once I embraced my path, life brought me my healing, a child, and those beings who, with my guidance, would share their own transformation.
How do you incorporate shamanic practices into your work as a death doula?
Shamanism is, first and foremost, a way of understanding and relating to existence, life, and also death. In my practices, I learned to perceive the being as a unit where body, mind, and spirit coexist and form the Self. Shamanic wisdom is used not only in rituals but also in the dialogues that arise during a spiritual counseling session.
My accompaniment combines all my tools with the needs, beliefs, and issues to be resolved by my client. Some people enjoy shamanic journeys, rituals, and ceremonies; others prefer vibrational therapy sessions or simply dialogue. Each person is a world full of emotions, thoughts, conflicts, and satisfactions.
My mission is to accompany them in finding the inner peace and compassion necessary to navigate the time of illness or the process of death, open the heart to forgive and forgive oneself, heal family bonds, and, sometimes, get to know themselves. The most important task as a death doula is to dignify every moment of life, integrating death as a creator of eternity.
When a person is trapped in the pain of the soul, they cannot find love in what is happening to them. The shamanic vision detects where the blockage is, or in shamanic terms, what their demon is. Once located, it is possible to create a space for dialogue and cleansing so that the being can transcend into the light for their highest good and the highest good of all involved.
Can you describe a particularly impactful experience you’ve had while assisting someone through their rebirth or transition process?
A few years ago, someone requested an online interview with a friend in the terminal stage of cancer. He did not accept his reality and was determined to heal. It only took seeing him to feel clearly that there was no turning back. During that first meeting, I explained that the important thing to heal was the soul and that his body would react to that healing as it saw fit.
Two weeks later, he was here for a private month-long retreat, in a simple setting surrounded by nature and old olive trees. It was a challenge. I met a 68-year-old man who had closed his heart since childhood. He was angry with life, and despite being an artist, had forgotten the beauty of humanity. Each day we worked together for six hours or more. He practiced and improved his English, and I learned several keywords in German. We used Akashic Records reading, regression hypnosis, healing sessions, prayers, rituals, ceremonies, and countless hours of counseling. Throughout this process, he managed to forgive, recognize himself, appreciate himself and others, see his children as he never had before, and let go of fear and resentment towards death.
Upon returning home, he began painting, accepting his new and limited abilities, and learned to appreciate the results. He established a loving relationship with his children and grandchild, said everything he had never dared to say, and put his daily affairs in order.
About six months later, one morning, I received a call from one of his sons, with whom he had the most conflict. We had never spoken before. That call was to inform me that my dear “P” had passed away during the night while offering Daimoku, a Buddhist prayer I had taught him for the peace and happiness of all. He also told me that those last months were the best he had shared with his father in his entire life. That was a true healing process, even though it ended in death.
As for rebirth processes, there are many to share. For example: A young woman trapped in addiction to gambling and drugs, who through healing sexual and emotional abuse traumas, managed to free herself and start a life full of joy. Someone diagnosed with schizophrenia who used drugs to silence the voices and who, through Sacred Medicines, redirected her extrasensory abilities and became a special being, full of brilliance. A man who lived in fear of the world, feeling weak and inadequate, who with a time of inner travel, now makes clear decisions and acts bravely even in situations of great stress or some danger to his physical health.
Their victories fill me with gratitude and are the reason to continue fulfilling my mission as a soul guide.
How do you support families and loved ones during the processes of rebirth and transition?
It is unusual for the relatives of someone who decides to transform their life to request a consultation. However, sometimes they need support to understand and assume their role in the process, and if they wish, also transform their point of view and interaction.
The family and friends of someone in transition, on the other hand, face the pain and emotional exhaustion of witnessing the inevitable transformation of their loved one. Desperation, frustration, denial, anger, and many other emotions need to be expressed, recognized, and valued. These people play a crucial role in the death process. Learning to let go and find courage, love, and beauty during that time helps both the one who is leaving and those who remain, creating a new perspective on their own lives.
For these people, the tools are the same, always using spiritual counseling dialogue as a guide for actions to be taken according to their beliefs and individual needs. Channeling and mediumship are also very useful in these situations. For example, if the sick person is in a coma and someone suffers from not being able to say important things, it is possible to try to communicate with their Higher Self so that the pending conversation can take place.
I remember a very special case: a woman who committed suicide and was in a coma for 24 hours before passing away. Her brother felt guilty for not having accompanied her in the last years of her painful life. We opened the sacred space and requested permission to dialogue with her Higher Self. We found her trapped in a cold, damp place with no windows, covered by a dense fog. She was standing still, with her head bowed and her gaze fixed on the ground. We allowed her to express herself, and she spoke to us of her anguish, pain, and anger at having stopped all feelings for so long. Her brother said everything he wanted to say to her, and together we guided her to regain lost love and peace and to transcend into the light. Months later, during a sacred ceremony, her brother received her visit. She came to thank him for his love and guidance in transforming her state upon death. She was in a beautiful place and truly smiled.
What role does traditional shamanic healing play in your approach to rebirth and end-of-life care?
Shamanic wisdom, applied in all its practices, teaches us to perceive existence as an intrinsically connected unit. It allows us to let go of the great personal importance of the ego and understand the true value of responsibly assuming the life we have been given. The ceremonies and rituals of cleansing and purification, the energetic alignment offered by shamanic healing, and the vision and understanding of Master Plants are the legacy of our ancestors.
For centuries, the “conquest and development” of modern society have set aside shamanic practices, but these have survived in the memory of our DNA and have been preserved by surviving indigenous cultures. Nowadays, science is beginning to accept many of the theories understood in ancestral wisdom. Recovering the shamanic vision in our daily life, in our rebirth, and in our death process can be the way to live in peace and harmony with ourselves, with other human beings, and with nature.
How do you prepare yourself spiritually and emotionally for the deeply transformative work of guiding rebirth and transition processes?
Although my dialogue with the divine has existed for as long as I can remember, I am still a limited human being, living in everyday situations like every one of us. Therefore, I am aware that my path also requires constant cleansing, purification, and learning. I use
all my tools for my transformation, I apply my practices to myself, my guides and allies, interdimensional beings of light, are always present to advise me and also to remind me when I need to seek assistance and support from other beautiful human beings with whom I can consult. I know that we are in constant evolution and that there is much more to learn, even though we may have understood how the universe works, the timelessness or impermanence of all things.
I feel that something very important to fulfill this mission is detachment. I do not mean a lack of interest in people or situations, but the compassion that Buddhism explains so well: that which understands the lives and emotions of others while at the same time comprehending the need for those processes to occur. When we deeply understand that life is simply a story we tell, the character we create, and that we are also the narrator and director of the play, we realize that we can create a new story and write a happy ending.
It is essential to remember that we are particles of consciousness, experiencing the infinity of the divine mind. In this reality, the duality of good and bad disappears because everything is perfectly coordinated to complete the journey back home.
What is home? Home is dissolution. It is returning to the moment where inspiration contracts to the maximum and creation, as we know or imagine it, disappears completely, only to exhale again creating light, and with it new universes, new forms of life, and perhaps also new human beings. The pulse of universal life.
My task is to remember and learn to practice the state of inner peace to project it to my surroundings. I am a constant learner, sharing my findings, lessons, and experiences with those who might find them useful on their own path.
Find out more at: www.veronicabrands.com
