You Must Face Your Stories of Trauma

            One of the hazards of a spiritual journey is the attempt by ego to use it to avoid facing the painful memories, ideas, and beliefs in your mind. The initial “honeymoon phase” when the Light comes and all is love and peace and joy  make some believe they have arrived and there is nothing left to do. But that’s just the start. Soon, they slam into the wall of their own deep belief that ego-consciousness is real.

Every student of the Course becomes aware of the pendulum swing: You have an experience of Spirit, be it mystical or even just getting and answer or insight and this is followed by what I call an ego backlash. This is typical of any spiritual path as your mind swings between its sense it has two realities, ego and Spirit. Over time, as you recognize what is going on, and grow your awareness of Spirit, the swing shortens, and the backlash is less intense. But as long as ego is in your mind, this will occur.

A Course in Miracles is different from spiritual teachings that came before because it takes a two-pronged approach: As you approach God, your obstacles to God in the form of belief in sin and guilt and fear will rise up for you to face with Spirit and undo (forgive). This process is what makes it an expression of the Atonement, or the correction of the perception of separation from God. And this direct approach is what makes it a short-cut. It is much quicker to go through your obstacles to God than to go around them.

The Course is a psycho-spiritual approach to spirituality because it recognizes that our beliefs in sin and guilt and fear are buried in our personal stories, particularly the traumatic ones. These will inevitably arise as you approach God because these stories are what make the ideas of sin and guilt and fear meaningful—make them appear real. So, you must allow these stories to rise fully to conscious awareness, to be fully seen, and felt, and released. Sometimes this can be done with Spirit alone; sometimes this can be done with teachers and mentors on the path. And sometimes you need the help of a professional psychotherapist.

Some are drawn to a spiritual path hoping to avoid the painful memories and ideas in their mind that block God. They’re hoping to be cut of the process, that Spirit will just remove them. But the miracle is your awareness of Spirit and looking at these ideas with Spirit is how they are undone—and how you grow your awareness and trust in Spirit.

I do want to caution you, however, to allow false beliefs to arise organically as you go about life and to not go looking for them. Ego is more than happy to supply you with endless ideas of trauma, sin, guilt, and fear. You do not need to make more obstacles than arise naturally to play your part in the Atonement. In fact, facing whatever arises naturally is your part in the Atonement.

So, it is also not a failure if you do not remove them all and come to see the real world they hide. Every expression of consciousness is a perfect expression of the Atonement. Everyone plays their part perfectly.

 I hear from some students that there are advanced nonduality teachers who say the psychological work of a spiritual path is unnecessary. To this I say, if you wonder why your peace does not extend, you don’t have to look any further than your own mind and the false beliefs buried there.

 

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