Innerwords Newsletter: Getting Your Soul Right

“You’re not going to be happy if you don’t have your Soul right. The soul can’t be right if blocked off traumas are allowed to surface and triggers are allowed to play a role in creating bad life choices.” The quote comes from a high level Spiritual Guide of a former client. While utilizing hypnosis in the healing of childhood wounds, a realm of non-physical helpers emerged to guide me in the healing process. As a psychotherapist, I have remained grounded in Dissociation theory because it provides the best explanation of the manifestations of childhood trauma. Direct communication with guides, helpers, protectors, and past life energies has also aligned me with a Spiritual Psychology, a perspective that combines psychological healing and spiritual growth.

I was given a gift early on in my work of this level Spiritual Guide which I will refer to as S’s Dominant (un-referenced bold faced quotes are from this source). The Dominant not only guided me as the external helper through a complicated case that included trauma from this life time, as well as past life energies, but would share with me important information regarding healing at the deeper soul level. I had already had communication with guides and helpers in other clients and began to see a clear systematic process in the healing of childhood wounds. S’s Dominant would serve to validate what I was concluding about the dynamics of unresolved trauma from this life time as well as previous lives. This Guide would further enlighten me with knowledge and wisdom important to the earth’s current transformation. I had always inherently known that you have to get to the underlying source of the symptom for psychological healing and spiritual growth to occur. With much humility, I understand that this non-physical realm rises in a hierarchy way beyond that which we can comprehend. They give us what we need.

“Simply discard the notion that you have a single personality. Notice the variety that is you. You will find a lot of experiential validation when you drop the outmoded theory of one person-one personality.”

David Reynolds (Playing ball on running water)

What I am about to discuss is not about multiple personality in the psychiatric sense but the multiplicity of our personality. As Zukav writes in Seat of the Soul, “the soul creates a personality from those parts of itself that it wants to heal in the physical environment and from those parts of itself that it lends to the process of healing in that lifetime.” In this sense, we are all multiple parts- layers- personalities.

A Spiritual Guide and six child helpers enter the physical body upon our first breath. They have been pre-assigned to us at the Soul level. (I knew you before you were born) There are also external helpers, protectors, and teachers that accompany us during our life’s journey. Departed relatives may show up from time to time to help out and watch over us. Often a carry-over energy, usually from the family line, is brought into the system for healing. “The universe brings back energies so the human race can evolve. Genetic patterns are repeated.” An Oversoul oversees our system like a supervisor. On rare occasion have I directly communicated with the Oversoul.

It is our Spiritual Guide our essence that guides us through this incarnation. It lives and sees through the sixth chakra, the third eye. It knows our purpose and mission and serves to move us towards integration and wholeness. It speaks to us through our hunches and gut feelings. “I’m the in-between of the body and the universe.” The six helpers are paired up and pre-assigned to the emotional chakras, the second, third, and fourth. As we progress through developmental stages, the helpers sequentially light up and give us traits, gifts and abilities. (see Carolyn Myss’ Anatomy of the Spirit for the most incredible explanation of the chakra systems) The child begins its journey back to original wholeness, certainly not without trials and tribulations, because we are here along with our helpers to learn lessons. The reality is that none of us get through childhood without some wounds and scars.

Unfortunately many children experience overwhelming stress and or traumas, albeit from emotional, physical and or sexual abuse. Witnessing domestic violence and family disruption can also leave an indelible imprint on the psyche. When a trauma occurs, alarms go off, survival mechanisms kick in, and dissociation and fragmentation ensues. Often the Host, the conscious child, is placed in a theta trance, a suspended state of mind, unaware of what is going on. This accounts for the amnesia associated with childhood trauma. Many who experience early trauma have cognitive recollections of the events, but it is the blocked off feelings that cause the symptoms. The overwhelming stressor or traumatic experience is then divided into thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. The feelings are then subdivided into different frequencies. For example, the middle helper assigned to the negative emotions in the fourth chakra, comes out of position to hold the hurt, blame, and shame feelings from the trauma. Understand that the primary emotions triggered during a trauma in childhood are very powerful emotions. Anger is rage, fear is panic, and sadness is despair.

The following is an excerpt from a middle helper of an adolescent who experienced both sexual and physical abuse as a child. The Host is always in a suspended theta trance when I am communicating with the non-physical helpers or the Dominant. The helper is addressing the mother.

“Why didn’t she protect me?”

“She never gave me love.”

“I felt isolated. I feel worthless.”

If not resolved, these feelings would have continued to manifest in symptoms and behavioral reenactments. Child helpers can not return to their positive productive position until these feelings are resolved. The feelings remain in a time warp and when triggered, feel contemporary. The reader needs to understand that when the helper is talking to me, the negative energy associated with the powerful feelings is being processed and released at a deeper level. The power that the traumatic feelings had over you is diminished. Talking to child helpers is not necessary for healing to occur. Some helpers can’t or don’t want to come into physical reality. However, I always direct communication to each particular helper that is being addressed during the hypnotic abreaction process. I know which helper is being addressed through my knowledge of chakra patterns. The Spiritual Guides are not always able to communicate directly through the physical body so ideomotor signals are often used. Remember, this inner world is an invisible intelligent life force. They have more important work to do than to talk to me. Their guidance and input is always welcomed.

The anger from the same traumatic experience is blocked off in the third chakra and is held by a teenage helper who is called to duty before its time. I refer to it as the teenage helper because under normal circumstances, this helper would awaken in early adolescence. This frequency can range from frustration to rage. The anger generated by a trauma at an early age, by the biological family and or trusted family member can be extremely powerful and difficult to control. The system tries to contain this specific emotion until early adolescence. The anger and rage associated with the rebellious teenager is the anger that is dissociated during the childhood trauma. When this anger manifests, it is time to get your teenager the deeper help, not meds and talk therapy. This is the part of the self that can seek drugs and alcohol for relief. The extreme rage is associated with a “murderous revenge fantasy” and is all too often acted out as in the Virginia Tech case. This anger and rage can also be turned back on the Host through self-destructive and self-sabotaging behaviors.

The same trauma can require one of the second chakra helpers to hold either despair and or panic. Because the narrative is dissociated from feelings, the adult who has a panic attack does not know why they are feeling that way. Again, it feels contemporary and is confusing for the Host. Remember, the blocked off powerful emotions remain in their primary form until they are accepted and expressed into consciousness. These emotions can remain internalized and manifest in depression and physical problems.

These parts of the self make decisions for you, usually not good ones, because they draw you to experiences that replay but never resolve the original stressor and or trauma. You keep living in the past. As long as you remain fragmented-different parts of the self holding an array of powerful emotions- you will never feel content. The female survivor goes from feeling like the self-blaming hurt little child to feeling like a rage filled teenager. When blocked off feelings are triggered or activated, they color your reactions and perspectives with the emotions of that specific helper. You can be partially or completely amnesic for these depersonalized episodes.

It is the middle helper in the juvenile sex offender who propels the Host to act out with his five-year old step sister. The offender more often than not does not remember his or her own trauma at age five. With domestic violence, both partners are reenacting their childhood trauma –same struggles, different roles. (see my blog on domestic violence) It is the middle helper who eats to feel good, causing the Host to have a weight problem. It is the part of the self that holds the powerlessness from the abusive dad, who causes the Host to be the bully at the schoolyard in a futile effort to triumph over that powerlessness. It is the past life story that awakens and causes the teenager to revisit a torture from the 1700’s through self-mutilation.

Our symptoms are telling us that there are parts of our Soul that need to be healed. The child helpers need to release their darkness before they can return their positive position in the system. This is the Shaman concept of Soul retrieval. Blocked off feelings have to be accepted into consciousness. Only then can we experience true healing.

My clients who have suffered childhood trauma understand this inner world. They know the parts of their selves through their feelings and reactions. For those five sense thinkers who reject an inner life, I won’t try to convince you. Be grateful that you feel that sense of wholeness that my clients seek. Or perhaps you are just unconscious. We have become a psyche-phobic society included the psychology world. (see my blog-psyche-phobic pysch world) As Woolger writes in Other Lives, Other Selves, “the fact that many people find the very idea of an inner world and other selves both disturbing and distasteful, is alas, a sad commentary on how very un-psychological and antipathetic to the psyche-and by extension, the spirit-our society has become.”

The essence of this article is expressed in the following quote from S’s Dominant/Spiritual Guide: human beings have so much pain that they are carrying around with them when they were a child and they are not letting go of it and not realizing their full potential. That’s what hypnosis is- that is what the trance work does; it releases that… To get a grip on your feelings you need to “disconnect” the conscious mind in order to get to the root of the problem in the sub-conscious mind.

The Shamans have long understood the use of altered states of consciousness for healing. African tribes utilize a “radical ritual” (hypnotic-abreactions) to release the negative energetic debris. Scientists currently understand the importance of the trance state in order to clear up the emotions trapped in our chakra system for mind, body and spiritual healing. At the turn of the century Pierre Janet coined the term “dissociation”. He understood that trauma was blocked off in altered states of consciousness and would manifest in horrific symptoms if not integrated through hypnosis. Clinical psychology has lost its way. How about this acronymic technique-DSH, deep soul healing!

The trance/hypnotic state simply connects us to the power and resources we have to heal. The trance state aligns us with the forces that bring things to us. For healing, it is the state of mind that allows the abreactions to occur. The abreaction, not induced by the therapist but by the guiding forces within us, is a controlled and systematic release of blocked off aspects of the trauma. Vivid dreams are often abreactions. Child helpers are systematically brought forth for healing and returned to their positive function in the system. The traumatic experience is integrated and placed in the mind as a narrative of something that occurred in the past. Upper chakras are cleared of old images and thought patterns so that these energy systems can function properly in bringing the Host personal power, a voice, and insights. Cognitive restructuring techniques are more productive during this phase of the healing process. The journey towards authentic power and wholeness can proceed. Psychological and spiritual balance is achievable.

We are in the flux of a paradigm shift towards a new dimension of consciousness, a higher awareness and understanding. Mother Nature is not allowing any more denials. Blocked off feelings are emerging in horrific behaviors. Human beings are going bonkers. Tap into your power and rid yourself of the negativity. Don’t let fear rule your life. Take responsibility for all the parts of yourself. Commit to a healing process that puts you on that path.

There is a Wellspring of Knowledge, the essence from which everything flows. Consider meditation and hypnosis as methods to expand your knowledge of self, grow in awareness, and connect to your soul as you heal your childhood traumas.

William Jump is a clinical psychotherapist and hypnotherapist. In his two decades of private practice, he has utilized Ericksonian Hypnosis techniques for the treatment of child, adolescent, and adult survivors of childhood traumas. His work has aligned him with both Dissociative and Transpersonal perspectives.

His book is: Beyond the Violation of the Self: Getting Your Soul Right.

He formerly worked for a State CPS Child Sexual Abuse treatment team. Special interests include couples and family therapy and parent-child discipline. Bill currently maintains a private practice in Maryland and is available for presentations, consultations, and media interviews. www.wmjump.com