Liberating Consciousness From The Body, Part V
Liberating Consciousness From The Body, Part V
Pain is protection; the suppression of pain is called trauma.
This is part 5 in a 5 part series. Click here to read Part IV and here to read Part I.
I just had to get in.
Rushing through high alpine canyons in the Weminuche Wilderness of Colorado, Elk Creek looked more like a river to me: a wide expanse of dancing water hurtling itself over boulders the size of small cars.
Deep turquoise pools close to the trail beckoned; the icy water felt exhilarating on my naked body. Gasping in shock, I only lasted thirty seconds or so before scrambling to dry rock, where a familiar feeling of aliveness coursed through my whole being as my skin met the cold air.
Clothes back on, shoes off, I stood up and relished in the feel of my bare feet on smooth rock; the rhythmic percussive sound of water carving its path through earth and stone; the fragrance of high altitude pine, which smells of orange cream and vanilla...
Snapped out of my reverie, instinct turned my body 180 degrees where I locked eyes with an imposing black bear walking out of the woods, sure footed and fast, very close and heading directly toward us. One fateful step backwards sent me slip-sliding between algae covered rocks where my left foot got caught as the water took me in the opposite direction.
Shock waves of pain electrified my body as something violently gave way in my knee.
Pain is protection.
The suppression of pain is called trauma.
We've been exploring this theme over the course of the last four newsletters. But...
✦ What exactly does this mean - practically speaking?
✦ What does this mean for acute injuries, like the MCL rupture described in this bear encounter story of mine from 2020?
✦ Does the same thing apply to chronic pain? Mystery pain? Autoimmune pain?
✦ What about emotional pain?
I'll attempt to answer these questions today.
In order to answer these questions, we have to look at a little physiology and pain science.
And, since modern science doesn't adequately satisfy my desire to know the whole truth about pain, I will also add my current theories and interpretations of the science applied to living phenomena.
by what mechanism does pain occur
~ in the human body? ~
Modern science tells us that pain occurs by way of sensory nerve receptors called nociceptors.
Nociceptors detect potentially "noxious" stimuli in our tissues; they exist just about everywhere in the body and are activated by mechanical, thermal and chemical stimuli that could indicate a risk of harm.
For example:
Let's say you're very inflexible and you decide to begin a stretching routine.
One day you yank too forcefully on your hamstrings in an attempt to elongate those stubborn fibers, and your body's nociceptors detect potential injury by way of overstretching (which can lead to muscle and/or tendon tearing); as a result of detecting this mechanical stimuli in the part of your body where danger has been detected, your body might ping you with sharp pain or muscle spasms designed to get your attention quickly so that you STOP what you're doing before you get injured.
Pain is protection.
Too much heat or too much cold and we could die; we all know this. Walk into a fire at your own risk.
Pain is protection.
Yet...
...there is a lot of subjectivity and adaptive flexibility available to us in relationship with these so-called "noxious" stimuli.
Tens of thousands of people walk on fiery coals every year; a rare few spend 10+ minutes swimming among icebergs in the arctic; and near-mythical figures like Wim Hof "The Iceman" hike up Mt. Everest in shorts and sandals.
We can train ourselves to redefine our perceptions of heat and cold, and in doing so experience either an absence of pain or feelings of pleasure while we are exposed to them. Whether or not we should is up for debate, but it is indisputable that we can.
The same is possible with mechanical stimuli; it's true: some people experience physical torture as highly pleasurable.
Scientific papers on nociception use words like "potentially" and "could" and "may" and "might" (for example: nociceptors detect potentially noxious stimuli that could indicate a risk of damage).
This is honest scientific reporting for those who have eyes to see, and it is one of the most important data points about pain that modern science has to offer us:
There are no consistent cause/effect relationships that science has proven unequivocally between nociception (or any other measurable physiolgical data for that matter) and our experiences of pain.
We can feel pain without the measurable presence of "noxious" stimuli; and we can feel no pain (or, feel pleasure) while our body is exposed to all kinds of "noxious" stimuli.
Stimuli is stimuli; whether it is "noxious" or not is subjective and largely (perhaps entirely) a result of our interpretations of what we feel.
the missing piece in modern pain science:
~ the soul element ~
How we react to what we feel and how we interpret what we feel play a far greater role in whether or not we experience pain (at all), and determine how long the pain lasts.
This is because nature gifted us with a brain (which is both an asset and a liability), which allows us to think (also an asset and a liability).
The ability to think about what we sense (feel) makes us human.
That's why this is a series about "liberating consciousness from the body."
Modulating between our mammalian brain, with its habitual, automated programming, and human "I" consciousness (the ability to think) is the soul; feelings belong to the domain of the soul.
Without our senses (ability to feel) we would have nothing to think about.
Through the body, our soul feels (senses); nerve receptors communicate those feelings to the brain, which gives us the ability to think about them.
Whether we think about what we feel reflexively (brain based thinking that prioritizes survival and is entirely subjective in nature) or initiate those thoughts from our individual "I" being (spiritualized thinking that is entirely objective in nature) determines our level of freedom in life.
When I know (at a soul level) that I am in the wrong relationship, my belly churns; ignoring my gut wisdom and persisting in self delusion, despite these intuitive feelings growing stronger day by day, belly churning turns into sharp sensations that make social activities unbearable; when I incorrectly interpret the gut pain as gluten intolerance and try to cure it by going gluten free (conflating physical pain with my soul's ability to sense truth), the tension climbs up my diaphragm, knocks the wind out of me and grabs me by the throat.
Pain is protection.
✦ ✦ ✦
Our feelings constantly push and pull at us through temptations, avoidance, emotions, sensations, instincts, impulses and intuitions unique to each of us as spiritually distinct individuals.
The human brain (nervous system) makes us highly susceptible to existing in a state of near total hypnosis, which is why we ignore pain and relationship warning signals alike (or, fixate on them); we're living as automatons carrying out learned behavior from childhood.
Estimates suggest that more than 95% of our daily thoughts and behaviors are reflexive, memorized neural programs that our brains compel us to repeat ad nauseam.
Feelings help us get our bearings in this world and nothing gets our attention like pain; only thinking - spiritualized by self initiation forged in pain - will lead us out of the brain (a labyrinth of subjectivity) into freedom (objectivity).
I've modeled that kind of thinking in this series.
Pain is [spiritual] protection.
the suppression of pain is called
~ trauma ~
When we reach for anything that we hope will take our pain away, we are causing trauma.
Trauma is what happens inside of us when we cannot bear pain and as a result, suppress it.
For example:
If I had taken painkillers when I ruptured my MCL, I might have done something stupid (unknowingly) because my protection system was dimmed or turned off, and caused myself worse damage or prolonged the healing process.
Had I used crutches for weeks or months and rested my left leg while overworking my right, I would have incurred all kinds of dysfunction. Muscle weakness, imbalances and gait discrepancies would have set in, with the potential to cause more pain (risk of injury) later.
Additionally, I might have felt victimized by the injury and started eating for comfort; and because I couldn't be active like I'm used to, I might have gained weight, and it's very likely I would have spiraled into depression and become extremely anxious about my self identity, my livelihood and my future.
When my mom emailed me, the grief that erupted represented thirty years of suppressed emotional pain related to parental abandonment that was not possible for me to feel fully at age ten; survival was the only option.
To survive parental abandonment at age ten, I shut off my feelings. Still unable to feel much of anything a few years later, I became the perfect target of a predatory male neighbor who was able to violate me in every way because he sensed correctly that I wasn't capable of protecting myself in any way.
The suppression of pain is called trauma; trauma begets more pain.
Pain is [a request for] protection.
what about
~ emotional pain? ~
Hopefully, if you've read this entire series and checked what's here against your own lived experience, you can see just how entangled our emotions and sensations get.
Our ability to bear emotional pain - and resist the temptation to suppress it in any way - liberates our body from bearing those wounds.
Most (dare I say all) of us have soul wounds waiting for us to face, feel and release that we suppressed at one time. They're not waiting in some mental cave; they're waiting for us in the hardened tissues of our armored bodies.
Emotions are felt physically, and if we embrace them, feel them fully and let them pass, our armored tissues will soften.
Soft is protected; hard tissues injure easily.
Suppressed emotional pain causes physical pain that grows the longer it is suppressed, causing debility, disease and early death. This has been well documented by the likes of Dr. Gabor Maté, Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk and many others.
Emotional pain is protection in the same way that physical pain is:
We can turn towards the feelings in order to learn about their nature, origins and what they're asking of us. While our physical body has physical needs, we have emotional needs that show up in all of our relationships: the one we have with ourselves, with our body, with our family, friends, society and this planet.
Emotional pain (felt physically) can point to boundaries that we need to set in our relationships; a longing to use our voice, speak our truth and let ourselves be seen for who we truly are; or a career change that tugs at our soul, to name a tiny few.
[Emotional] pain is protection.
Chronic pain, mystery pain and autoimmune pain are (from my research) a result of sensations and emotions getting entangled due to unresolved traumas - aka, the suppression of pain (physical and/or emotional).
With this series, I sought to illuminate all aspects of pain: acute injury; the close relationship between emotions and sensations; how childhood traumas turn into chronic pain and birth the survival programs occurring reflexively in adulthood that keep us stuck in loops (as we continue to suppress pain); and finally, how intuitive thinking - thinking that happens outside the influence of the brain/nervous system - helps us untangle ourselves.
Awed by the intelligence of the human body and humbled by the mysteries of spiritual realities made manifest there, my own body is - and continues to be - my best teacher.
Your body is just as wise, brilliantly designed and capable; may you come to know this through and through!
With love and courage,
Elisha
Elisha, thank you so much for this illuminating series, liberating consciousness from the body. It is full of wisdom and sacred knowledge. It nurtures my path a lot, I wish everyone would have this information 🙏🏽 . Sending all my love and gratitude for your Dhamma service🤍
Elisha, Very interesting story, I was expecting a quite different piece. Liberating consciousness, to me is more about that moment when you were outside your body looking down upon it as your body stepped backwards and slipped into the water. There was a moment where your consciousness removed itself from your body as you watched your body slip into the water. That was a clasic Out of Body Experience (OBE). Once in the water you returned into your body.
I was expecting more and easier ways to access that moment when our I AM transcends our body and we are just consciousness. I am in much agreement with your assessment of pain and injury. I have numerous scars, some totally healed and you would never know there was an injury there.
I had a major second and third degree burn on my left forearm and elbow when an aerial firework fell over at the same time I turned into the light of the exploding projectile, the second projectile went up the sleve of my coat and exited at my elbow, then exploded about 3-5 feet from me. If you looked closely at my left arm you wouldn't be able to tell me where the burn was.
On the other side of the spectrum I have a scar across the top of my left hand that goes from my wrist to my middle knuckel, it was only a scratch that scarred up. But that is dealing with this physical vehicle, this meat suit.
I was hoping for ways to remain conscious while being in a higher level of consciousness. I have experienced a Near Death Experience (NDE) and remember returning into this physical vehicle. We can access higher levels of consciousness and out of body experiences at night when we dream. A very vivid dream, one where when you awaken you aren't really sure which is real, the dream or the awakend state.
When we experience a very vivid dream, or flying dream, that is our consciousness accessing our bodies Dimethyltryptamine (DMT). DMT is the spirit molecule or God particle because it takes you to a higher level of consciousness, you are released from your physical vehicle and accesss the spiritual. You can also access your DMT through breathing practices combined with meditation. Or you can take DMT and get the quick access.
Basically DMT either your own bodies or external takes you to a higher level of Love consciousness. Because Love is a feeling of high vibrational frequency. I often say "Walk Your Day In Love" because most people are programmed to live their lives in Fear. We are programmed to various stages of fight or flight, never really getting beyond those fear based programs. Fear makes us easily manipulated. The Tell-Lie-Vision is a fear based mind programming machine. And most people are some form of zombies living a life of fear.
When we walk our day in Love, in a higher level of consciousness we access higher levels of information and we walk without fear. Love conquers fear. When you spend more time in a higher level of Love consciousness healing the physical vehicle is simple. Healing the broken spirit is a bit more complicated as you expressed through your series.
But there are faster and better ways. John Hopkins University Medical Center has been exploring and studying healing childhood traumas (my definition not yours) using psychadelics. My definition of Trauma is something that is beyond our ability to control.
I like to use an infant in the crib while Mom is doing housework. That child really needs mom's touch and security. the child cries out but mom is busy vacuuming or doing other chores and decides she will check the child when she finishes. That time of separation to that child is trauma. I
f not properly healed it can manifest itself in numerous ways. You can spend years of your life talking with a psycharitrast or psychologist and when you start to access the trauma, your emotions begin to re-live the trauma, you go from communicating with the higher thought process of the frontal lobe, to the basal reptilian brain. As your emotions re-live the events again.
Psychadelics can allow you to watch the trauma from a third person perspective that doesn't allow your emotions to allow the fear to pull you down into the fear. You remain an observer and see how messed up the whole situation was, you feel sorry for and heal that little child.
This level of spiritual healing is available through breath work similar to Wim Hoff's work and meditation. It helps us connect to our I AM and feel comfortable in that higher consciousness. I enjoied your series, but feel it was more about moving beyond the physical pain then liberating consciousness... Just my opinion, I look forward to reading more of your work.... Peace...