Earlier in this thread I mentioned that Trump and Hillary were the loyal opposition to GOD. Your remark registers I believe a similar response and there may be a theme that wants to repeat itself with some variations.
Chris Hedges speaks about trauma. I want to add something about trauma, trance and transcendence. This is very tricky. I take a detour into uncharted territory because we have very few maps for healing trauma and almost none for dealing with collective trauma, wars, famine, ecological disaster, etc.
I had a disastrous childhood, raised by awful people in virulent racist, homophobic, Alabama in the fifties and also endured the assaults of the Reagan and Thatcher years during the AIDS epidemic in NYC. There was a steady drum beat of death, death, death, during two dark decades in NYC. I learned much about what happens when you belong to marginalized, targeted group, targeted by Church, State and Science. We organized, we resisted, and in many ways we lost a lot of talented young people, and that unfulfilled talent, has haunted me, like a phantom limb, that is not there but can still itch.
So I come from a deep Emersonian radical utopian drive which is often triggered by the Trumps and Clintons and Bannons of this World, hence my reference, to their loyal opposition. They wake us up and we must resist and preserve life, and drop into the pelvis and kick ass. We have to disentangle from the dark side of the Warrior ( which Hillary and Thatcher embodied) and start to cultivate the Warrior who fights for something that is Within and Beyond.
As an out of body explorer I have come across the dark warriors who do return to Wall Street in droves and manipulate as much as they can the rest of us in the physical world. I see much of our problems coming out of the liminal zones, the cracks, the in between and I have hosted many encounters with these demonic entities.
They tend to have little influence except in the lower astral and Planet Earth. There are other dimensions where they have no space to act out the way they do here. We can bypass them if we stop giving away so much energy to them. We have to find our center, and protect that center. The dark forces do knock us off center and we must be vigilant in returning to center and refuse to get lost in the field of all possibilities without a good contact with center. Drugs, sex and rock and roll are dangerous for example without a center. The field of all possibilities can sweep us away. Too many lovers without healthy warrior skills!
Our culture wars are basically a replay of these strategies to distract by the field of all possibilities, get to the mall, go shopping, buy the new gadget, etc. The Clintons and Obama have made deals to exempt themselves and have sold us down the river and Chris Hedges sounds the alarm beautifully. Trump arises out of that failed attempt and we are seeing I believe the death struggles of the civilization who’s unearned wealth has clogged the pores of the eco system. Let’s remember that the Master needs the slave, cant create anything without the slave, but can the slave see this and disentangle from the clutches of the Beast?
I think the Healthy Imagination is the key to a successful disentangling. The protective sheath of humanity has been torn and the aliens ( you are no good, the world is no good) and the dogs of war enter through the tear and how we deal with this is crucial. Protect the life force, find center, hold a clear intention, and open to the field ( the Imaginal Realms) and the wounds will heal, and our potential can be cultivated and released.
About working with trauma and trance. When in transition trance states are common and even necessary. Art and Trance are kissing cousins. Cultivating high quality trance states that release resilience is imperative or we slide into chaos. We can have Wholeness without self awareness. ( unconscious) Self awareness without Wholeness ( Ego) and we can enjoy Differentiation and Wholeness ( Generative Self). It seems to me the Imaginal realms respond generatively when there is a centered intelligence, with a clear intention that is open to the dance. Trauma blocks and inhibits this generative capacity. That is why I have advocated the use of Clean Language and Metaphor work on this site and other places too.
We have discussed this Clean Language philosophy, Marco, before and I am open to further developments as I believe it can be used in this process we are in the midst of to articulate desired outcomes and to purify the speech of our tribe. Fiction, story telling, the language arts are crucial for the Generative Self to arise from the ashes. So I will elaborate further some notes that I’m making that reference some of our previous conversations. Please appreciate the impromptu nature of these comments and I hope they are of use for they reference those previous discussions on Clean Language and how I believe they can be employed to train the Imaginal Intelligence and turn trauma into transcendence, indeed there is an element of trauma that may be necessary to activate this intelligence. I’m working out this perhaps controversial idea in the following notes. Patience is required!
Some people have one trauma and can be served best with developing a metaphor for that traumatic episode.
Persons who have had multiple traumas, especially as children, have learned how to use hypnotic skills to dissociate ( go somewhere else)This can be triggered at the mere hint of another traumatic episode about to happen.
Dissociation as a strategy for coping with multiple trauma is a great survival strategy, you can float up to the corner of the room and watch it from there. Often this talent can also be developed in non traumatic experiences, in art, theater, fiction, we use the same processes to deconstruct and reconstruct identities creatively. We can go into to other worlds.
Working with dissociation was one of David Groves keen interests and when he worked with me he used a lot of Clean Space. I have found the interplay of Clean Space and Clean Language has worked best for me.
I strongly resist the notion that experts know best. I worked with experts without Clean Language and they are often terrible with trauma. After working with an expert I developed a Tourette’s-like syndrome that lasted for a decade.
I found a good CL practitioner with a beginner’s mind and an open curiosity can work wonders with traumatic events. Luckily, I have had the good luck to train someone in using CL and after he worked with me once a week for three months my symptoms disappeared. I have been free of symptoms for over a year. I much favor peer to peer relationships than to the more traditional ways of working. Someone with an arts background and CL is much better than anyone who has immersed themselves in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual.
So having reviewed these notes in public I see I have a lot of work to do as I move through the personal multiple traumas I have struggled with, cultivating good trances and finding reserves. And how that learning become knowledge that can serve the groups I am a member of? Not sure. Thanks for this forum and may we continue to bring our Best Self to this Mandala of Generative Selves in the making-