Imagine suddenly hearing voices, feeling waves of anxiety, or enduring mysterious physical symptoms. Some may relate these signs to an ancestral calling, but for others, they could signal an underlying mental health condition. However, what happens when mental health is misinterpreted as a spiritual calling, or vice versa?
Mental health symptoms are often misattributed to ancestral callings, says Dr Sinethemba Makanya, an indigenous healer with a PhD in medical and health humanities and psychology research on how indigenous healers perceive mental health.
Makanya says this is due to certain mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, multiple personalities, and major depressive disorders sharing symptoms with ancestral calling and spiritual awakenings.
“The common symptoms of a spiritual calling are hearing the voices of or seeing your ancestors, feeling as though you are multiple people, mood changes, or feeling dissociated in your own body. Because of this, many people who are displaying these symptoms could be misdiagnosed as being mentally ill.”
Dr Sinethemba Makanya
“This overlap between the symptoms of mental illness and spiritual experiences often leads to confusion, resulting in misdiagnoses. However, the mistake can happen both ways.”
The spiritual calling vs mental illness
Makanya notes that mental illness can put an individual in a “dreamlike state,” which may be mistaken by a healer for a calling, while a calling itself may also coincide with mental health challenges.
According to her, when a person with a genuine calling is put on medication or institutionalised, they may be unable to fulfil the wishes of their ancestors, leading to spiritual and familial repercussions. “The ancestors get affected as well because most times, through initiation, the ancestor gets cleansed or healed in some way.”
On the flip side, if someone suffering from mental illness is initiated as a healer (yothwasa) when they should be receiving medical help, their symptoms may only temporarily subside. Over time, the symptoms could return, often with greater severity.
Makanya adds, “If they don’t have a gift, they spend money ephehlweni (at the initiation school) but cannot pass through the different phases successfully, making them stay ephehlweni longer. If they manage to get through, you find that they cannot even practice.
The impact of such misinterpretations can lead to unnecessary hardship, both emotionally and financially. Yet, Makanya remains optimistic that an honest initiator can differentiate between a calling and mental illness.
“I believe if a healer is honest, they will pick up very early that the person is not experiencing a calling but is ill.”
Dr Sinethemba Makanya
Physical manifestations
Balungile Mini, a sangoma and gobela who facilitates initiations, speaks about the deep-rooted connection between one’s ancestral calling and the physical manifestations that often accompany it. Mini emphasises that a person is born a healer, and this calling typically reveals itself at a young age.
“There is no way that ancestral calling will only manifest in your 30s, for example. Most of us who have this calling were always sick growing up. It becomes so severe that, at some point, the family has to plead with the ancestors to alleviate the symptoms so we can continue with school.”
The ancestral calling manifests in various physical symptoms that may seem unrelated at first glance. Mini describes these common signs as headaches, stomachaches, burning feet, back pain, loss of appetite, fatigue, palpitations, fainting, burping, and anxiety.
These symptoms, she explains, are often linked to an ancestral calling but can easily be mistaken for ordinary illnesses. “This is why it’s advisable to consult more than one healer when such symptoms appear to ensure proper diagnosis.”
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Hallucinations vs visions
Clinical psychologist and traditional healer Nompumelelo Kubeka, stresses the importance of understanding one’s body and family history.
“There are people that would have a calling and a mental illness, and they exhibit the same type of symptoms that would represent a calling.
Nompumelelo Kubeka
“A person is always born with a gift; it doesn’t happen later in life. Your ancestors then groom you into being the person that you are. Go to people that you trust for consultation and spiritual guidance to differentiate between the two.”
She explains that a person that has an ancestral calling also has a low mood, psychological terms, things that are called visual and auditory hallucinations, but with healers it’s visions and also hearing messages from the ancestors.
“Some individuals undergo initiation when they have the calling, and then their symptoms completely go away, and some of them subside. Remember, with mental illness, there’s also a genetic predisposition, so sometimes a person can have the calling but still have a mental illness. These symptoms of the ancestral calling itself do cause a lot of depression because it is you being in between the spiritual and the physical.”
Kubeka says she has encountered individuals who were diagnosed with mental health conditions like bipolar disorder, anxiety, or depression before embarking on their initiation journeys. Unfortunately, even after initiation, some continue to experience these symptoms.
“I always recommend that people with a calling go for therapy to better understand themselves, their bodies, and to differentiate between the calling and other psychological issues.”
Nompumelelo Kubeka
When it comes to merging her dual roles as a psychologist and traditional healer, Kubeka carefully delineates between the two based on the context in which a person seeks her help.
“It depends on which space the person comes into,” she explains. “In my spiritual space, I can assist practically. But in psychology, it’s about exploring the person and sometimes referring them to traditional healers I trust.”
Despite her expertise in both fields, Kubeka adheres to the guidelines set forth by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), which prohibits dual healing in a single session.
“I don’t cross the lines between my spiritual and psychological practices because it helps me to self-preserve and to maintain a certain role in different spaces. Some people may do it differently, but I choose this approach because it works for me.”
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