Trauma is a Trace Left in the Bodymind

Summary

The script delves into the concept of trauma, its existence within the body-mind, and its potential origins from personal or collective experiences. It discusses how trauma can be inherited culturally or familially and exists as a trace in consciousness. The speaker uses the metaphor of the mind as a perforated circle to illustrate the relationship between waking consciousness and deeper subconscious elements. Healing is likened to waves washing over sand, as meditation allows for the surfacing and awareness of these hidden traumas, impacting not just the individual but also the collective consciousness.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Trauma is not just a resistance to past events but a trace left in the depths of the mind or body, which may or may not be resisted.
• 🌐 Trauma can be inherited from family, culture, or collective fields, indicating that it's not always of personal origin.
• 🌊 The mind is likened to a perforated circle where the finite mind is porous and localized within the broader field of consciousness.
• 💭 The waking state is just a part of the total mind, with trauma existing in the space between the waking state and the broader mind.
• 🛌 Dreams and meditation can bring the content of the broader mind into the waking state, making previously unconscious traumas conscious.
• 🌈 Trauma can be both personal and collective, with collective traumas affecting subsequent generations.
• 🌀 The healing of trauma in one mind can have a ripple effect on all other minds due to the interconnectedness of consciousness.
• 🕊️ The concept of the soul in the Christian tradition is akin to the deeper aspect of the individual mind that informs the waking state but isn't experienced in it.
• 💡 Meditation is a process of relaxing the mind, allowing it to expand and bring unconscious traumas into the light of awareness.
• 🌌 The idea of death being similar to sleep, suggesting that there might be an intermediate state between death and infinite consciousness.
• 🔗 The interconnectedness of all minds implies that personal healing can have a broader impact on the collective consciousness.

Q & A

What is the speaker's perspective on the nature of trauma?

The speaker views trauma as a trace left in the depths of the mind or body by past events. It may or may not be accompanied by resistance and can originate from personal experiences or be inherited from family or cultural history.

How does the speaker relate trauma to the concept of consciousness?

Trauma is likened to an etching in the sand that is not easily washed away, existing as a trace within consciousness. It's a deep-seated imprint that affects the individual's experience, even if not consciously recognized in the waking state.

What is the role of meditation in addressing trauma according to the script?

Meditation is described as a process that relaxes the mind, allowing it to expand and bring previously unseen or unconscious content, such as trauma, into the light of awareness, where it can be acknowledged and potentially healed.

How does the speaker explain the inheritance of trauma across generations?

The speaker suggests that we are not just physical beings but also 'mind born from minds,' implying that the content of one mind, including deep-seated trauma, can be passed down through generations.

What is the analogy used by the speaker to describe the finite mind and its relationship to consciousness?

The finite mind is compared to a perforated circle on a piece of paper, which represents the localized consciousness of an individual. The perforations symbolize the porous nature of the mind, allowing for connections with the broader field of consciousness.

How does the speaker connect the concept of the soul to the discussion of trauma?

The soul is presented as the deeper aspect of our finite mind that is not experienced in the waking state but influences it. It is the repository for experiences and traumas that are not consciously acknowledged but affect our behavior and reactions.

What is the significance of the 'larger circle' in the speaker's analogy?

The 'larger circle' represents the collective consciousness or the realm of archetypes and Platonic ideas that all individual minds share. It is the source of content in our dreams and experiences that cannot be traced back to personal waking life experiences.

How does the speaker interpret the relationship between individual healing and the collective?

The speaker suggests that healing at an individual level can have a ripple effect on the collective consciousness due to the interconnected nature of all minds. This is likened to Rupert Sheldrake's concept of morphic resonance.

What is the implication of the speaker's discussion on trauma and consciousness for the concept of personal identity?

The discussion implies that personal identity extends beyond the waking state consciousness and includes the deeper layers of the mind that carry the imprints of past experiences and inherited traumas, shaping our behaviors and reactions.

How does the script relate the experience of death to the process of falling asleep?

The script suggests that death is akin to falling asleep, where the conscious experience of the waking state fades, but the individual may still experience a dream-like state of consciousness before returning to the infinite consciousness or being reborn into a new existence.

What is the practical implication of understanding trauma as described in the script?

Understanding trauma in this way suggests that healing practices like meditation, which aim to bring unconscious content into awareness, can be beneficial not only for the individual but also for the collective, as changes in one mind can influence others.

Outlines

00:00

🧘‍♂️ Understanding Trauma and Consciousness

The first paragraph delves into the concept of trauma, emphasizing that it is not merely resistance but a lasting trace left in the mind or body by past events. It may originate from personal experiences, such as childhood, or be inherited from collective sources like family or culture. The discussion highlights that trauma is not confined to the individual but can be part of a collective consciousness. The healing process is likened to the gradual washing away of deep etchings in the sand, where meditation and yoga serve to bring awareness to these buried traumas.

05:26

🌀 The Multilayered Nature of Consciousness

This paragraph explores the multi-dimensional aspects of consciousness, using the analogy of a perforated circle to illustrate the finite mind and its porous boundaries. It discusses the waking state as a smaller circle within the larger expanse of the total mind, suggesting that trauma exists in the space between these circles. The narrative also touches on the idea that our minds are not isolated but are part of a broader consciousness, where experiences in one mind can affect others, even across great distances.

10:29

🌐 The Collective and Archetypal Mind

The third paragraph expands on the concept of a collective mind, suggesting that our individual minds are part of a larger consciousness that includes archetypal ideas and Platonic forms. It proposes that dreams can sometimes draw from this collective mind, offering content that is not rooted in personal experience. The discussion also considers the impact of cultural inheritance on the mind, noting how historical traumas can be embedded in our psyche, influencing behavior even without direct experience.

15:35

🛌 The Soul and the Afterlife of Consciousness

Here, the concept of the soul is introduced as the deeper aspect of our finite mind that is not experienced in the waking state but informs it. The paragraph draws parallels between the process of falling asleep and the experience of death, suggesting that consciousness may transition through various states before returning to an infinite state. It also touches on the idea that healing in one mind can resonate through the collective consciousness, affecting others, much like the experience of love transcends physical distance.

20:39

🕊️ Healing Trauma Through Expanded Consciousness

The final paragraph focuses on the healing process during meditation, where the mind expands to encompass previously unconscious content. It likens this to the exposure of buried traumas to the light of awareness, allowing for healing. The discussion concludes with the notion that individual healing can have a ripple effect on the collective consciousness, referencing the idea of morphic resonance and the interconnectedness of all minds.

Keywords

💡Trauma

Trauma in this context refers to deep emotional wounds or distressing experiences that leave a lasting impact on an individual's mind and body. It is integral to the video's theme as it discusses how trauma can exist beyond enlightenment and is passed down through generations. The script mentions 'round trauma' and how it can originate from personal experiences or be inherited culturally, illustrating the complexity of trauma's existence within consciousness.

💡Consciousness

Consciousness is presented as the fundamental awareness that underlies all mental processes and experiences. It is central to the video's exploration of trauma, suggesting that while trauma exists within consciousness, it may not always be present in the waking state. The script uses the metaphor of a perforated circle to describe the porous nature of finite minds within the broader field of consciousness.

💡Healing

Healing, in the context of the video, involves the process of addressing and resolving the effects of trauma. It is depicted as a journey of bringing hidden or repressed traumas into the light of awareness through practices such as meditation. The script discusses how healing can occur by expanding the mind's awareness to encompass previously unconscious aspects of trauma.

💡Enlightenment

Enlightenment is mentioned as a state of profound understanding and spiritual awakening. The video suggests that even in enlightenment, the effects of trauma can persist within the body and consciousness. This concept challenges the notion that enlightenment automatically eradicates all forms of suffering or distress.

💡Inheritance of Trauma

The inheritance of trauma refers to the transmission of distressing experiences or emotional wounds from one generation to another. The script discusses how collective traumas, such as those experienced by persecuted groups, can be passed down and influence the experiences and behaviors of subsequent generations.

💡Meditation

Meditation is presented as a tool for healing and expanding consciousness. The video describes meditation as a process that relaxes the mind, allowing it to expand and bring previously unconscious traumas into awareness. This practice is likened to bathing the etched traumas with the 'warm water of awareness.'

💡Awareness

Awareness is depicted as the active state of being conscious of one's thoughts, feelings, and surroundings. In the video, awareness is posited as a healing force that can illuminate and transform the effects of trauma when brought to the surface through practices like meditation.

💡Perforated Circle

The perforated circle is a metaphor used in the script to represent the finite mind, illustrating its porous and interconnected nature with the broader field of consciousness. It helps to explain how individual minds are both distinct and part of a larger consciousness, affecting the understanding of personal and collective trauma.

💡Waking State Mind

The waking state mind refers to the conscious awareness and mental content that an individual experiences while awake. The video uses this concept to differentiate between the limited content of waking consciousness and the broader, deeper aspects of the mind that may hold unacknowledged trauma.

💡Soul

The soul, in the context of the video, is described as the deeper aspect of an individual's finite mind that is not experienced in the waking state but still influences it. It is related to the video's theme by suggesting that the soul can carry personal and collective traumas that are not immediately apparent in daily life.

💡Morphic Resonance

Morphic resonance, a concept introduced by Rupert Sheldrake and mentioned in the script, refers to the idea that changes in the content of one mind can influence the contents of all other minds within the same consciousness field. This concept is used to explain the collective impact of individual healing processes.

Highlights

Trauma is described as a trace left in the body-mind by past events, which may not always be resisted but are inherent to our experiences.

Trauma can be inherited from family or culture and is not necessarily of personal origin, highlighting the concept of collective trauma.

Consciousness is likened to a field where individual minds are born, suggesting a porous and interconnected nature of our minds.

The analogy of the perforated circle is introduced to explain the finite mind's relationship to the broader consciousness.

Trauma is situated in the space between the waking state mind and the totality of the individual mind, often hidden from direct awareness.

Meditation is presented as a method to bring hidden traumas into the light of awareness, akin to waves washing over etchings in the sand.

Anita Moorjani's near-death experience is mentioned, emphasizing the importance of consciousness in understanding trauma and healing.

The concept of the soul is explored as the deeper aspect of our finite mind that is not experienced in the waking state but influences it.

The idea that after death, we may experience a dream-like state before returning to infinite consciousness is proposed.

The interconnectedness of all minds is discussed, suggesting that healing in one mind can have a resonant effect on others.

Rupert Sheldrake's concept of morphic resonance is introduced to explain the impact of individual healing on the collective.

The Christian tradition's view of the soul as an aspect of our finite mind is compared to the discussed concepts of consciousness and trauma.

The potential for a microcosm of death in the sleep cycle is considered, with the dream state serving as an intermediate realm.

The importance of recognizing the nature of one's self as a service to humanity is highlighted, as per Ramana Maharshi.

The discussion emphasizes the role of awareness in healing and the interconnectedness of individual and collective experiences.

The transcript concludes with the idea that our actions in our own minds have a ripple effect on the broader consciousness.

Transcripts

but my question is I sorted it out in my head  and then what keeps coming back is round trauma  

and there are a couple of things you said. The  first was you said that trauma often exists in  

the body beyond enlightenment. And then yesterday,  talking to Colin, the whole conversation around  

trauma from his childhood. And I know that nothing  exists outside of consciousness, so trauma can't  

exist outside of consciousness. And in my head,  I kind of see trauma as resistance to something  

that's happened or a feeling or an emotion. And  I just get a little bit confused around healing. 

I'm just a bit confused about it. I wouldn't  define trauma as resistant to something that  

has happened. Trauma is the trace that something  that has happened leaves in the depths of the mind  

or the body. There may or may not be resistance  to that trauma, but trauma is the trace that an  

event leaves in the body-mind. And that trauma may  have its origin in something that happened to us  

personally, for instance, something that happened  to us when we were a child. But we also inherit  

trauma from our family or from our culture.  So, for instance, if a group of people has been  

persecuted, their collective trauma is passed on  from generation to generation. Why? Because we are  

not bodies born from bodies, we are mind born  from minds. So, the content of any mind passes  

itself on, or some of the content, particularly  that deep-seated trauma, can pass itself on from  

one generation to another. And that trauma is  then felt in the experience and the body of the  

next generation. So, trauma isn't necessarily of  personal origin. It can come from the collective  

field, whether that collective field is a family,  a nation, or a race. How does that relate to  

consciousness? It's like a trace in consciousness.  It's like the stick drawings in the sand that Ray  

referred to last night. It's like the etchings in  the sand that are not readily washed away by the  

tide. The drawings are etched deeply into  the sand, and the waves have to pass over  

them many times before the etching disappears. So,  meditation, and particularly our yoga meditations,  

are the bathing of these etched traumas in the  body-mind with the warm water of awareness. 

I'm still a little bit confused about, you  know, you get what you think about or like,  

are you familiar with Anita Moorjani's story? Her  near-death experience, and she says her message,  

part of her message, was that she had to die to  see consciousness and bring that back to life.  

And I suppose I'm still like, how can there  be a trace unless you bring attention to it?  

Unless... isn't that where everything comes from,  from consciousness outwards into the body? So,  

that feels to me like it's separate consciousness. To think of consciousness like a piece of white  

paper, it has no form on it, it's just full of  potential, just a field of aware being, but with  

no forms on it. And then, draw a circle in your  imagination on this piece of paper, but draw  

the circle with a perforated line, so the circle  doesn't delineate a separate part of the paper,  

it just partitions the paper into a sheet of paper  into a space that is loosely delineated. Now,  

that perforated circle represents a finite mind,  that's each of us. But the finite mind is porous,  

it's not a sealed entity in its own right, it  is just a localizing of consciousness. Now,  

in this perforated circle, draw another  perforated circle, yes, a smaller one. So,  

you have two circles, one within the other.  The inner circle is our waking state mind.

the outer circle is the totality of our mind the  inner circle is that part of our mind that we  

experience in the waking state and the content  of our waking state minds is much smaller than  

the content of the entire finite mind. When we  fall asleep at night, the inner circle expands,  

and as a result, content that was outside the  inner circle during the waking state now appears  

inside the inner circle in the dream state.  Yes, so our trauma lies in the space between  

the outside of the inner circle and the inside  of the outer circle. It's the area that is within  

the mind but outside the contents of the waking  state mind, and that is why many of us who have  

these traumas, they're not evident to us in the  waking state, although they inform the waking  

state. So we may behave and react irrationally  in certain situations, and we don't understand,  

for instance, why are we so defended? Why are we  so afraid of intimacy? What we long for is to be  

divested of the sense of separation, but when we  become close to someone, we clam up. Why? Or do we  

fear? What can explain this resistance to the one  thing that we long for? It cannot be explained by  

anything that we experience in the waking state.  It is because there is an area of our minds that  

we don't have access to in the waking state. It  lies, as it were, deeper in the mind. It is where  

our trauma lives. It is, I sometimes call it,  something like it is buried in the body. What  

I mean is, it is buried out of sight, outside the  relatively narrow field of the waking state mind,  

but still within the individual mind. Now draw  another while we're on the subject, for another  

circle outside the original perforated circle.  So you've got the original perforated circle,  

the smaller circle, now draw another circle which  fills almost the entire page. This is the content  

of the entire mind, not any particular mind. It  would be, for instance, where the Platonic forms  

or archetypal ideas reside. And then all the  finite minds that come into existence come into  

existence within this largest circle. And some of  the information that penetrates our circle, either  

the outer circle or the inner circle, comes from  the contents of this larger circle. These would  

be the Platonic ideas or the archetypal ideas.  So, for instance, when we have a dream at night,  

sometimes our dreams consist of content that is  left over from the waking state. But sometimes we  

have very particular dreams, higher-factum dreams,  they have a particular kind of impersonal quality  

to them, where the content of that dream cannot  be accounted for by anything that you have ever  

experienced in your life. Sometimes, for instance,  you have a dream where you see a dance or you hear  

music that is unlike anything you have ever heard.  Where does that come from? It is not generated by  

experience that you've had in the waking state.  It comes from the broader, the broadest medium  

of mind before mind becomes localized. And this  is what I mean. This is the medium of mind that  

all individual minds share, the realm of the  archetypes, the realm of platonic ideas. And  

then we could draw another circle if you want to  get more detail, just inside the largest circle,  

which would be a circle that belongs to  our particular culture. So, for instance,  

if we are born into a Jewish family, we will  inherit from our culture some of the collective  

content of our culture's mind. And this will be  laid down, not necessarily in the waking state,  

because somebody born today will have no firsthand  experience of the traumas that many Jewish people  

suffered last century. But in the band just  outside the waking state mind, these traumas  

will be laid down in their own bodies, in their  own minds, and will account for certain behaviors  

in the waking state. So, there is very much more.  Not only is all mind experienced in consciousness,  

there is very much more to each of our individual  minds than simply what we experience in the waking  

state. In the Christian tradition, it's what's  called the soul, that aspect of our finite mind  

that is not experienced in the waking state but is  still limited to our mind. It is the deeper aspect  

of ourselves. It is not yet pure consciousness,  it is not yet spirit, it is an individual soul. It  

informs the waking state but doesn't appear in the  waking state. That's where I was not understanding  

it because experientially, when you experience  it, I know that what you're saying seems to be  

true somehow, but I could never understand it.  Even what you're saying about the soul brings up  

another little piece for me because I was brought  up Catholic, and the soul lives on afterwards, but  

that's the individual, exactly, the unique part  of you that carries on afterwards. Yes, exactly.  

Just as when we fall asleep at night, we enter  first of all into a dream state before passing  

into deep sleep. This is a microcosm, or we could  consider this a microcosm of what takes place at  

death. In death, we, as it were, fall asleep.  The experience of the waking state disappears,  

our body disappears, the world disappears, just  as it does when we fall asleep. But we don't go  

directly back to infinite consciousness or God's  infinite being. There is a realm which, in this  

life, we experience as the dream state. There is  a realm that still consists of our personal mind,  

but it is outside the realm of our experience in  this body, in this world. It is a kind of dream  

state. It's still personal, but it is not the  experience of this body in this world. It is the  

experience just as we experience it in a dream.  We experience ourselves as a different body in a  

different world. So, there's nothing to suggest  that after death, we don't experience ourselves  

as a different entity in a different realm before  going all the way back to infinite consciousness.  

And, as I said earlier, just as sometimes we fall  asleep into the dream state and then we wake up  

again before going into deep sleep, there's  nothing to suggest that we may not experience  

ourselves as a different entity in a different  realm, which would still be part of our soul,  

and that we wouldn't then wake up again and find  ourselves as a new body in a new world. That  

makes a lot of sense to me. When you take that  back to healing and your response, let's take,  

for example, yesterday, and you said, "In his  meditation, he needs to meet that." Yeah, so I  

think I've kind of answered that. So that's kind  of like the waves going over the sands. King sure,  

as many times we stay too with this diagram. In  meditation, the small compass of the waking state,  

our mind relaxes, and as it relaxes, it expands.  And as it expands, more of the content that was  

previously outside our waking state experience  is now experienced inside. In other words,  

it is a time when traumas that were just inside  our mind but out of sight, so to speak, or what  

I rather called "buried in the body," they come  up into the light of awareness. In this model,  

they come into the sphere of our waking state  experience. We become conscious of them,  

where previously they were inside consciousness  but outside our waking state experience. So, in  

meditation, the mind relaxes, and as it relaxes,  the content that was previously unknown to us  

becomes conscious. We become aware of these traces  and residues, the scars in the back of our mind,  

so to speak. They become exposed to the light  of awareness and the warmth of awareness. That  

is the bathing of these scars with the warm water  of awareness. And just another word about that,  

because all of our minds are connected, because  they are all precipitated within the same field,  

localizations of the same field, and because each  of our minds is drawn with a perforated line,  

each of our minds is connected. Therefore, if  one mind heals the trauma within itself, that  

has an effect on all the other minds. It's what  Rupert Sheldrake used to call morphic resonance,  

the fact that if the content of one mind changes,  the contents of all other minds change. And those  

minds don't need to be in close proximity  in space. They could be on the other side  

of the world, because in consciousness, there  is no space. So, a mind that is at a distance  

in physical space is not at a distance to two  minds that are Earth. And a distance in physical  

space are not at a distance from each other in  consciousness. We know this in the experience of  

love. If someone you love goes astray, you feel  that they just live in your heart. They haven't  

moved away from you. This isn't just a silly  idea. It's actually true. When someone dies,  

they come to live in your heart. You sometimes  feel very close to the person who has died,  

not that they've disappeared from them. So,  what we do in our own minds has an effect,  

and that effect radiates out from our mind  and touches all other minds to a greater  

or lesser extent. This is true whatever the  size of the constellation. If it's a family,  

then even if one person heals the trauma that  is in their family, then that has an effect,  

at least to an extent, on the rest of the  family. And this goes for a nation or a race  

or a species. That's why Ramana Maharshi, sorry  to introduce my... Ramana Maharshi said the best  

service one can render humanity is to recognize  the nature of one's self. That's super helpful.