Spiritual Work’s Role in Trauma

In this video from the “Collective Trauma Summit,” Thomas Hübel Interviews A. H. Almaas about the potential of spiritual work to heal trauma, as well as its limitations. Scroll down to view the video and summary of highlights.

Summary

As the Diamond Approach path began to reveal itself, Almaas explains, he was already immersed in the study of various spiritual modalities and forms of psychology, which the path naturally integrated into it. One realization was that what separates us from our spiritual nature are our neuroses, our rigid psychological patterns and our conditioning. Working through them creates more transparency to our inner being and, in that way, becomes a big part of healing. 

It is the arising of qualities of spirit or being that complete the healing. Otherwise, the healing is just psychological. This arising is what dissolves the patterns and conditionings. With regard to trauma – a very big topic we are understanding is more prevalent than we had known – I see it as a particular region of human suffering. Not all human suffering is trauma. Since spiritual work encounters our psychology and the fears and conditionings implicit in it, it will also encounter trauma. 

But trauma work is a specific therapeutic psychological modality that is considered legally and practically separate from spiritual work. In our path, we can deal with light trauma, arriving at it through its symptoms, dissociation or frozenness for example. But it is not within the realm of our teaching to deal with it. Instead, we refer people to trauma specialists because the student cannot do spiritual work without grappling with their trauma. Also, if one is traumatized, they cannot handle spiritual energies that arise in the process of the spiritual work. 

Throughout history, when a teacher had 80 to 100 students, only a couple became realized. A big reason for that is trauma, which was probably even more prevalent then because of the less evolved conditions of humanity. Most teachers simply did not know about trauma and concentrated more on transcendence than healing in this human life. In our path, we understand that full realization and – more importantly, actualization – in this life are not possible if we do not resolve those traumas. 

Having access to your spiritual resources to ground you in your body and beyond can be a support to weather traumatic times without being overwhelmed or terrified. It helps us live more effectively.