The
Community's Inner Dragon
She'd experienced being raped was what
she'd told us. This
veteran consciousness explorer and trained facilitator had also
done a lot of regression work on herself.
Yet she related how, in one of her breathwork sessions,
she'd definitely had those feelings of rape . . . despite
the fact that she'd not been sexually abused in this life.
And this last part she knew.
It was not denial or repression.
The conference attendees were shaken.
It did not coincide with any common psychological, or
even transpersonal, models concerning healing or experience
they'd ever heard of. But
in her response, the panelist offered the idea that there is a
kind of storehouse of experience of collective pain that anyone
can tap-in to, if one is sufficiently open . . . and ready.
Since this type of thing has come up, as
well, in my own inner journeying, I would like to suggest that
what we're dealing with is a possibility, based on the evidence,
of a sort of "collective shadow unconsciousness," a
collective pool of pain, if you will, which has been built up
currently and in the past of distress that needs to be released.
Not long ago, a Santa Barbara-based
spiritual teacher expressed a similar idea.
As she put it, after you clear out your own stuff, then
you do it for the rest of the species, then for all living
beings in this world, then for living things in other worlds,
then for all entities, and then so on, and on, and . . .
Shamans, Sages, Tribal Kings,
and Prophets
Similarly, from history, the spiritual
literature, and anthropology we hear of certain
people—shamans, tribal kings, prophets, saviors, sages,
gurus—who, after dealing with their own inner dragons, can
tap-in to this collective pool and thereby help other people.
In resolving the negative material, releasing it and
integrating it, they can have a positive effect on their
community, and even the Universe as a whole.
I am reminded of how certain African
tribal "kings" (chieftains would be a better word), tribal leaders, and "clan
kings" would be sacrificed for their tribes to the point of
and including actual physical death.
Similarly, shamans would take on psychic tasks that they
would consider to be too dangerous or difficult for members of
their tribe to do. In this
way of looking at things, it is as if there is a group
mind, and that the shaman's duty is to resolve the
collective issues, to work through the unfelt feelings, so that
the rest of the tribe can function better.
It is as if everyone in a community does
not have to, or is not able to, “work” all of their own
stuff, but that a certain person can volunteer to face some of
those inner demons for the entire group, or at least for those
having difficulty.
Ah,
But Scapegoats As Well
In this respect I believe it is possible
to make a fascinating, albeit disturbing, connection between
this idea and scapegoats. In
the case of scapegoating, particular individuals are selected to
be this kind of lightning rod for the group's pain and psychic
distress.
So there seems to be both this tendency
for people to adopt this role for themselves and for societies
to put people in these roles whether they want it or not.
This indicates some kind of social, human need, or at
least a fundamental human expediency, that is to say, ego
defense.
It would seem, in any case, that there
is a right way and wrong way to do this.
And we can deduce that these attempts can have either
beneficial or negative transpersonal and psychological effects
depending on which way it's done.
Obviously there's a huge difference between a guru or a
savior taking the "sins" of their group upon
themselves to release their people in that manner, versus a
scapegoat being chosen to dump all the group's unwanted feelings
and shadow material on.
Sacrifices
— Animal and Cucumber
Other fascinating perspectives on this
arise from study of one of its variations:
This is the widespread phenomenon of sacrifice, and in
particular, animal sacrifice.
The Nuer of Africa, for example, as well as the
neighboring Dinka, created rituals for many of life's events
around the killing of sacrificial oxen.
If no oxen were available, a cucumber was often used; in
other cultures, lambs or other animals may be used.
At any rate, when the ox was slain, the carcass was then
split, with one half being consumed and the other half thrown
away from them into the bush . . . reputedly taking with it the
sins, indiscretions, and wayward elements of all those
assembled. Higher
forces were then called forth and entreated to remove the
carcass/transgressions; indeed, at times they were directly
invoked, then subsequently admonished to "go away" and
"be gone!"
Since the group or individual is said to
be identified with the animal, it is interesting to consider the
possible message here that one takes into oneself and incorporates
(integrates) only half of that which is of oneself; but one
seeks the Universe's help in disposing of the other half,
relegating it to "the bush." It is fascinating
to think of the common use of prayer in this respect, that is,
prayer where one invokes the Divine to take away or to
"handle" those things in life, or the parts of those
things, that one is incapable of handling oneself.
Apparently it is the rare individual who completely
integrates her or his Shadow.
It is important to keep in mind that all
of this idea of a group psyche is built upon a perspective, a
paradigm, in which subjectivity is primary: Experience or Mind
being the only reality. Such
speculation as engaged in here is not even conceivable within
the dominant materialistic paradigm.
Nevertheless, these possibilities have long . . . far
longer than this upstart of "objective materialism"
has been around . . . have long been the common currency of our
species, and have been so in the vast majority of human cultures
that ever existed.
Shared
Experience: Morphic Resonances and COEX Systems
But, getting back to the subject, people
having rape fantasies, both men and women, where apparently
there has been no sexual abuse, is becoming ever more common.
Is it that in some way when we are violated as children, psychologically and emotionally, that it's part of a gestalt or
resonance—Stanislav Grof[1]
would say a COEX system;
Rupert Sheldrake[2]
would say a morphogenetic
field or morphic
resonance—that includes actual physical
violations from a collective pool of pain?
Also we should consider all the current
stories of people being sexually abused; there seems to be an
epidemic of people claiming to have been sexually molested as infants
by their parents. No
doubt much of this is true.
The evidence is there to confirm it.
But is it also possible that people in processing their
stuff, or coming close to their repressed feelings, are at times
tapping into transpersonal resonances that are only similar in
quality to the corresponding real-life trauma?
This is a possibility we should consider; for I know it
to be the only plausible one in my own case, in the case of the
panelist mentioned at the outset, and in the cases of several
others whom I know personally or whose cases have appeared in
print.[3]
UFOs:
Is That Gaia Calling?
Another item related to this pattern is
the current UFO abduction experiences—the incidence of which
is also increasing.[4]
One interesting explanation for such experiences of being
abducted and then examined, probed, and sampled—which
corresponds to this collective pool of pain theory—is derived
from the idea that in fact the Earth herself (Gaia) has
consciousness and is therefore part of a collective
consciousness to which we also belong.
This idea of an earth hologram is propounded by Goddess
theorists and by others as well.
Joseph Chilton Pearce claims we have primary access to
such an Earth hologram as children and lose it later through our
normative indoctrination into society.
He writes:
The brain as a hologram is representative of
the Earth. So long
as this is undifferentiated, the personality, or consciousness
within that brain, receiving its perceptions from that brain, is
literally an undifferentiated part of the hologram effect.
It is part and parcel of the world system, which, because
it radiates out from the child, places him at the center of
thought, with the world a body extending from him.
The clarification of the hologram (to use that model) is
a period of breathless wonder and excitement for the child
because he is discovering his larger self. . . .
[5]
The primary process is the function through
which we are conscious of the Earth as a thinking globe, the
flow of life, the general field of awareness, and almost surely,
even larger ecologies of thought.
The primary process is also past, current, and potential
possibility and experience.
Other cultures have maintained a much greater openness to
the primary process than Western culture has. . . .
[6]
Nevertheless, the potential for access
to this "primary process" always exists, since it is
repressed but continues to exist in the unconscious.
With these things in mind, is it
possible that UFO abductees may be inadvertently stumbling into
primary Earth process and picking up on the feelings of Earth
herself as she is being poked, violated, measured, and having
things inserted into her in this modern, high-tech,
resource-exploiting era.
If so, one has to wonder whether some of
the feelings of the Earth herself might not be being expressed or
be trying to be integrated by her through these people.
Is it possible that these people have become unwitting
channels for Mother Earth's pain—to help to express and
integrate it—as she is systematically being defoliated,
polluted, violated, and destroyed?
This may sound farfetched, but then,
considering our actions in the face of global disaster . . .
well, so are the times!
Volcano-Jumping
for Bliss and Profit
Anyway, I offer these speculations in
the hope of stimulating renewed appreciation of our roles as
journeyers and shamans. It
may just be that what we do on our "inner" forays into
consciousness has significance in the "outer"
world—in these incredibly delicate and precipitous times—far
beyond what we normally think.
Indeed we may be volunteering for an ancient role, and in
these days, perhaps, a very much needed one.
Like Joe in the Tom Hanks movie, "Joe Vs. the
Volcano," we may find ourselves "jumping into the
volcano to save the community."
But also like Joe, and my experience attests to this, I
believe we will find that the Universe provides, not death, but
rather bears up and rewards with renewed life those who
voluntarily sacrifice themselves this way.
NOTES
Copyright © 2004 by Michael D. Adzema
Biographical
Note
MICHAEL ADZEMA is an independent scholar whose articles have appeared
in a variety of international and regional magazines and journals. He
is also a primal breathwork facilitator whose experience in experiential
psychotherapies such as primal therapy, rebirthing, and holotropic breathwork
extend over thirty years. He has done doctoral work in psychological anthropology
as well as Master's work in psychology, religious studies and philosophy and has an M.A. in Interdisciplinary
Studies (combining anthropology, psychology, and philosophy) from Sonoma
State University. He taught Pre- and Perinatal Psychology at
Sonoma State University. Michael has written extensively and combines his
focus on psychological growth with an equally long-standing interest and
involvement in mysticism, shamanism, and the anthropology and philosophy of
consciousness, writing in depth on the relation of psychology of
spirituality. He was the
editor of the print version of the journal,
Primal Renaissance: The Journal of Primal Psychology, which now appears
on this site, and of the magazine Primal Spirit, which likewise appears
on this site, as an e-zine. The foregoing article is
excerpted from a work-in-progress titled Womb
With a View: Spiritual Aspects of Prenatal Experience.
Michael's extended bio can be found at
Mickel Adzema's writings
. E-mail, click on mickel@primalspirit.com
.
** Editor's Note: This
article had previously been published in The Rose Garden, July-September,
1996; Spirit of Change Magazine, September-October,
1995; The Inner Door: The Newsletter for the Association
for Holotropic Breathwork International; and had been
discussed and received honorable mention in the publication of
the Association for Research and Enlightenment -- the
foundation for Edgar Cayce. [return
to text]
Editor's Note:
Shaman art by Peter Radford [return to art]
Related Article: Go to "Planetary
Survival and Consciousness Evolution: Psychological Roots of
Human Violence and Greed" by Stanislav Grof, M.D.
