Trauma and Spirituality: What SPIRITUAL TEACHERS Don't Get Right about Trauma!

you're right! when they talk about 'there is no self' or 'let go of the self', I'm always like, 'wait, but I have not even have a strong sense of my self yet, I have not even seen my self truly reflected on the outside yet, I've not even truly experienced it yet, and you're telling me to let it go?"

I had the worst c ptsd meltdown last night and found your page this morning. I’d consider this a real blessing thank you

What an amazing content!! It was so healing ❤… Thanks for integrating these subjects so beautifully!!

I think there's so much emotion we want to express. We want to be heard and understood. I needed permission, (at the time), to let it all out. It's bright and messy.

Agree! I could completely blank my mind, I even spent 5 months in a plateau experience ("enlightend") but the whole trauma was still there, behind a barrier. It was later that I experienced what real healing was.

Well said Karuna 🙏🏼🌺 Similar spiritual/healing/recovery path here. With CPTSD many of us don’t even get to experience the development of individualization during toddler puberty as a 2y.o healthily. We can’t break down what we don’t have and have to learn things that others learned by example at a young age🙏🏼🌺

Tolle's the Power of Now and later, for me, Stillness Speaks, was a huge part of my healing journey. He gave me the signposts to quiet my racing mind and my cruel internal critic and to find some peace. However, to your point I think, this peace was short lived because my (then) unaddressed trauma would trigger an emotional flash back that made me feel like a crazy person. No meditation could ease this pain that I had no understanding of. "You can feel better Now" Tolle says, by being present. This is not true for us. It wasn't until I discovered the CPTSD and good therapist AND THIS CHANNEL that I found relief. Thank you for this!!!'

Yes! Thank you. Spiritual bypassing hurt me so much that I regressed. I have stayed away from all spiritual people recently as deeply wounded by my experiences with them.

I get this. I feel there’s a bit of me still missing because I’m still fighting myself. Shame is hard to sit with but I sit with it and look to see if it’s actually mine then pit my hand on my heart and love myself knowing I’m doing my best and I am now seeking solutions, finding better ways to move through childhood trauma and better ways to look after my own stepson and my husband. Loving yourself better means you can love others better. Something I also know is - I have taken on some of the behaviour of toxic parents and I have to step back very quickly and make a better choice realising that it is unconscious patterning and I have a choice. ❤️❤️❤️ thank you so much

For me it was very destructive with the spiritual teacher. It was eye- contact meditation..and often i was heavily triggered and but when i asked for a sign to stay silent or no hugs, the teacher laighed at me: you should stay in contact. Also the group laughing at me that i prefered being at the forest during the breaks. I was exhausted. i was i can see that now dissociating and full of energy from others and needed first to learn to feel myself, acknowledge my trauma and my needs. My "no" was frozen, or non-existent. I felt very guilty that i was tired all the time and could not help as much as i wanted. When memories of early chikdhood abuse came back in my memory and i finally had the courage to tell the teacher, it was bagettelised.. Continue practising... But i felt very unsafe inside, while believing as the group energy was also loving it was best to push and continue... Also once i said No to the touch of an assistant and she did not listen. It happened again. And the teacher did not understand why i said no and i should not make it complicated. For me it was very good that i said no.. It took me years to not blame myself for all of this. I did not dare to tell group members as I did not really understand what was going on but suddenly i felt i never go. And as they squirrel so much and see this path as the path. First time i write this down.

Thanks for making a video about it! Spiritual practices that I experienced weren't trauma aware and done more harm than good. Even closing eyes and relaxing can bring multiple flashbacks and panic attacks, not to mention when someone who is guiding the group says to scan the body. Yoga as an exercise gave me a lot of empowerment though.

Karuna, you make excellent points, and I appreciate your essence beyond tangible description. There was a point where I was feeling free and able to be open and connected to my spiritual side, but the material world and the personal relationships I had proved to challenge that much more than I was able to handle; I had been trying to overcome the material, relational, and emotional hurdles largely on my own- but all of the noise had proven to be a stronger force than what I could take on, and so it pulled me into a depression greater than any I had felt before. I had hoped it was going to turn over into another experience of the dark night of the soul, but it turned out to be one long, dark night, playing hide and seek with my spirit- and when I sense her there, just around the corner, a rope wraps around me and pulls me back to where I started, discouraging me to search again after it has happened over and over. The rope that wraps around me has chains attached to itself like ornaments, and on the other end are the tools I need to be able to cut that rope- but they are either too far down, or they do not reach. I remain in the night, trying to feel alive this way, and it's failing. Please, return. 💓

I am so sick of these guru's! The last place I look for spirituality is the 'spiritual community' In my experience, it is largely a cult movement and I am lucky to have escaped with my life 10 months ago! Ram Das was the only guy I ever felt comfortable with because he speaks to you as a friend. I also like Krishna. Rd is just like a friend in the room sharing experiences and concepts.. So glad more and more people are calling this nonsense out. I am so done with reading all the comment sections and people worshipping these guru's that they do not even know. I don't want to listen to anyone claiming I can never be like them and they are enlightened, plus stinking rich. Demonising the ego but they wouldn't be where they are today without it. You couldn't get a job without an ego. You couldn't function in society and the economy without one. You never hear these teachers saying anything of substance about trauma, spiritual bypassing, personality disorders, mental illness, etc. Eckhart once said that computers were linked to autism, I didn't touch a computer until I was 11 years old I am autistic! I have watched eckhart squirm and redirect the conversation so many times and all I see are people commenting how cute he is.. Its like I live in a different dimension!!!! What does that have to do with anything? The spiritual community inflamed my cptsd. Once I came away from it and saw it for what it was which was an illusion, I was able to help myself.

Thanks for expressing this... I’ve found certain teachers like Adyashanti, Jeff Foster, Susanne Marie, Paul Hurcomb and Jon Bernie a bit more trauma sensitive

I love this. Couldn’t agree more. 💯

Oh my goodness. I have totally gone to enlightenment and bliss. Yet the conflicts that were so deeply imprinted in me I still snap, Rubber band is great. In your other videos you say that we can share our experiences. My trauma was over the first 20 years of my life. I never had a moment where I was safe. starting in the dungeons of France, yes dungeon . And being burned by fire on my bottom . I still have the scars today . I am sixty. Then I was moved at the age of 3 to New York City sex trafficing and porno photos. I was born into this. Some call it ritual abuse. I call it cool what a life. I would not be who I am. I got really far. I almost thought I was cured. Then I moved to Maine where it is quit and beautiful and so far away from triggers. Then I found out I am still so angry. SO ANGRY. I thought I was ok. Could it be that it is true this is the one thing that has no cure. How horrible if it was. I thought I could break the ceiling and fully heal. Yet heart I am pouring my anger out trying to still be recognized. I apologize yet thank you for this opportunity to carthaticly release a little more. But I don't want it to end when I am dead . I Really wanted to end the anger sadness It would make my husband happy not to mention my heart . Not desperate but in need of new insights. And it seems to me that your vibes are good and i you like what you say. It hits home. Thank you. I hope this does not upset anyone. I tried not to get into details but the point. Thank you.

RESPECT

Brilliant!

I was just reading hypo-egoic being vs. hyper-egoic being.. I feel shame that I'm not in the hypo-egoic way of being, because I still have to do individuation and boundaries work.. I feel like I should jump straight to hypo-egoic being, but I don't think I can yet.

Thank you so much Karuna. Your wisdom always touches me. ♥