Many have heard of Alejandro Jodorowsky, an incredibly prolific artist who has excelled in disciplines as diverse as comics, literature, film, music and theatre. However, he is perhaps not as well known as for his role as therapist, as creator and sole master of a psychological and spiritual healing technique rooted in shamanism, psychotherapy and the mysticism of experimental writers like Gurdjieff and Castaneda. As Jodorowsky himself says, this therapy that is much closer to art than medical science; however, this doesn’t imply that it is not incredibly effective in many cases.

Psychomagic is based on the principle that to cure psychological or spiritual conflicts it is not enough to locate and name them as is done in traditional psychoanalysis: a psicomagical act, usually in the form of performance, should also be undertaken. In this way, the unconscious mind can react and symbolically solve the patient’s conflicts with a theatrical catharsis. The basic idea is that the unconscious does not understand the rational logic of words, but does respond to the chaos of dreams, art and imagination … For example, one way to overcome a pathological fear of one’s father would be facing an actor dressed as the father and beat him in a symbolic struggle … A Krishnamurti phrase reflects one of the main bases of the psychomagic technique: “Do what you fear and the fear will die.”

Jodorowsky created some controversy years ago by claiming that only he and his son Christopher were able to exercise psychomagic therapies, but with the passage of time that assertion has proven wrong, and there are extremely capable people who can evaluate people and recommend psychomagical actions. In Madrid there are sometimes workshops and seminars offered on psychomagic technique, however, they are not offered on a fixed schedule and often they are given with very little advance warning … The best way to find news of upcoming events is to go to Jodorowsky´s official website (in the ClubCultura page on the FNAC website). There, you can find some common meeting places (such as the Arunda Veryeni cultural association), my recommendation is to rent apartments in Madrid and get involved…