Dementia from a mental and emotional perspective

From a mental and emotional point of view, dementia is far more than a medical condition, more than symptoms (as is the case with all “diseases”). It is not a defect of the brain, not a mere loss of memory, not a “loss of personality”. It is a movement of the soul. Slowly, consistently and deeply.

A retreat movement

“From a mental and emotional point of view, dementia or Alzheimer’s is a withdrawal from life.”

The spirit gradually withdraws from the material world, like a stream that breaks free from its riverbed. It no longer flows where it was previously forced to flow, in routines, in responsibility, in adaptation. Instead, it seeks its own way back to that which lies beyond thought: the spiritual home.

When functioning has replaced life

Dementia often manifests itself where a person has functioned for decades. Where duty, control, reason and responsibility have shaped life, but not the living self. Where the wild, creative, free being has never really been given space.

Many of these people led a life that was outwardly “right”: they were reliable, hard-working and decent. And that doesn’t have to be a bad thing, it can be a very successful and seemingly fulfilling life. With everything you could wish for.

But inwardly, much remained unlived. Desires (which can be completely unconscious) were postponed, feelings suppressed, dreams rationalized. The soul carried all this until at some point it said: “I don’t want this anymore.”

Then the consciousness begins to unburden itself. People do not withdraw suddenly, but gradually, first from conversations, then from obligations, and finally from themselves. In this sense, forgetting is neither a failure nor a “falling ill”, but an unconscious withdrawal from a role that has been too narrow for too long.

Forgetting as an escape from the burden of decision

Deep down, dementia means: “I don’t want to have to decide anything anymore.” No more responsibility, no more expectations to fulfill, no more direction to seek.

The ego-consciousness, which has been bound to norms and control for decades, dissolves and with it the feeling of being an independent being with tasks, goals and boundaries.

People become permeable again. Although they lose their bearings, they gain freedom on a spiritual level.

But therein lies the tragedy: this withdrawal does not happen out of conscious choice, but out of exhaustion. The soul withdraws because the person has never learned in life to be free in full consciousness.

Sneaking out alive

In contrast to physical illnesses, where the soul leaves the body while the person dies, something different happens here: the body remains, but the soul slowly departs. It is as if someone leaves the room in full consciousness while their body remains seated.

Sometimes you can sense this when you look into the eyes of someone with dementia. There is something “no longer here”, but at the same time something that is deep and peaceful somewhere else.

In many traditional cultures, dementia is therefore not seen as an illness, but as a transitional phase. As a gradual gliding of the soul into another reality. The body remains as a vessel, while the spirit is already preparing for the next state.

What we see and what really happens

This process is painful for relatives. They see a person who no longer recognizes them, who is confused, who loses themselves. But what they actually see is a soul leaving a world in which it has been too overwhelmed, too narrow or too conformist for too long.

Dementia is not an act of chance. It is an inner cry for relief, expressed through the silencing of thought.

When you meet a person with dementia, you are not meeting someone who is “lost”. Rather, someone who consciously or unconsciously leaves the structure of this world because it has become too narrow for their soul. A person who no longer thinks, but “just is”.

The silent call back to life

But before this process becomes irreversible, there is a threshold. A time when the person still feels that “something is wrong”. They realize that their thoughts are no longer working, that they are withdrawing, that they are less and less present and at the same time feel a deep sense of relief.

This is the moment when change is possible. Because as long as there is awareness, you can stop the inner retreat, not through medication or memory training, but through real mental work. By seeing the person on a spiritual and emotional level, so to speak. By reconnecting with this level.

This means:

* bring back the repressed parts of the self

* connect with your own inner foundation, your own pain and your own longing

* recognize the reasons why you were never really allowed to live

* and learn to be present again

An example from my practice

A woman came to see me in her early sixties with incipient forgetfulness. Medically, everything was still “normal”. But she felt that something inside her was “stopping”. She had cared for others all her life, was reliable, hardworking and never a burden. She herself never felt this was a burden or unnatural.

It was her life and she was happy with it. She was fine, she managed everything. Raised children, grandchildren. Everything was always fine the way it was. But now she realizes that something is wrong.

The shamanic work revealed that she had unconsciously decided to “slowly disappear” because she no longer had the energy to make an effort. Deep inside her, patterns were at work that made her “function”. She had a “job” in this life from the very beginning.

She never realized this because this “job” was never really difficult for her. It always corresponded to “what you just do”. What she never really realized was that she wasn’t just this “job”. That this “job” is not everything.

She is a spiritual being who came here to earth with a whole bundle of energies, abilities, tasks, desires and her very own life path. Like every human being. But she only lived a very small part of it. This went unnoticed for a long time.

In the course of our work, she has learned to differentiate between “what you do”, her “job” so to speak, and what SHE IS. She has rediscovered parts of herself that she was never aware of. She has found her own energetic basis.

She has found herself. Which does not mean that she now regrets her life. It has been a good life so far, but she is now moving on with her full, very own life energy. Into a whole new life, a more fulfilling life. Full of joy, strength and energy. And fully conscious.

Her memory became clearer again, she began to make decisions again. But above all, she was completely “there” again.

What you can and cannot do

Dementia cannot be “cured” like the flu, and certainly not from the outside. It is not a “disease”. But you can understand why it comes, what it wants to say.

As long as the person is still “there”, be it mentally, emotionally or energetically, they can begin to stop the retreat. Not by fighting, but by becoming aware.

* Recognize where you have already withdrawn from your life. You may still be functioning, but you have long been tired inside.

* Feel what you no longer wanted to feel. The fear, the anger, the sadness, the disappointment. Everything you have suppressed binds your strength.

* Find the courage to be yourself again. Even if that means giving up control, showing yourself, becoming uncomfortable.

These steps are not intellectual, they are not based on methods or lists or active ingredients. They happen at the level of the soul. And it is there, in the depths, that all healing begins.

The return to conscious life

Dementia is not a fate that simply “happens”. It is a sign. An invitation to wake up in time before the mind decides to retreat.

If you feel that you are drifting away from yourself, from the world, from life, then now is the time to return. As long as you can still ask yourself what is happening to you, you are still there. And that is exactly where you can start: on a spiritual level, with deep, shamanic work.

Because the way back to life is not through memory, but through the heart, through feeling, through connecting to your own soul and energy base. By rediscovering the parts that you thought you had lost and that are just waiting for you to finally bring them home. Let’s walk this path together for a while: info@gerhard-zirkel.com