Friday, October 10, 2014
More on the Levels of Consciousness
Years ago, when observing Primals, I noticed that there was, first of all, a resonance where one level triggered off similar feelings on lower levels. This was not random; it was as if the system were reaching back in its memory bank to find help and/or a more efficient defense to combat current trauma. It was reaching into its memory to find the best solution. To combat and adapt. It reaches to see what we did before when the going got tough.
So first, it drops to childhood to find answers and ultimately it reaches down to the brainstem to see how we handled danger and threat, originally. Back years I noted that a woman whose car ran off the road, totally froze and could not take the wheel to save her life. It was the parasympathetic nervous system that dominated. The other example I used was the man whose business was failing and decided to use up all his money pursuing a useless lawsuit; he was constantly aggressive and fighting all the time. He was driven by his brainstem survival mode of struggle. He could not stop because “stop” meant death. There are variations to all of this, but the point is that we revert to lower brain levels in the face of danger.
Why is this so important? New research that tells us that, (“Cancer evolved to protect us.” Scientific American, Oct. 2, 2014. Z. Meraldi, see http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-cancer-evolve-to-protect-us/). What? We get cancer as a means of protection and adaptation for survival? It could be.
They want to go back to evolution to explain the appearance of cancer. And guess what? They recommend treatment with oxygen, inter alia. They never said or knew that perhaps oxygen deprivation during gestation could be one cause of afflictions. They simply tried to rethink cancer from the “bottom up.” (Paul Davies, Arizona State, C. Lineweaver, National University of Canberra and Mark Vincent, London Health Sciences).
And we think first, from the bottom up and then the top down. For example, we take a certain belief and trace it down through the patient’s feelings. We know how the feeling builds into belief systems later on and how to treat it, if it indeed needs treating. Resonance works in both directions at all times. Without this concept I don’t know how anyone could treat a patient.
Let’s get back to cancer; even though I think the concept applies to many catastrophic diseases, meaning that they have their origin when threats were life-endangering and catastrophic. And catastrophic input usually means catastrophic output, or symptoms. That is why Alzheimers Disease has, in my opinion, such early beginnings. And why the worst diseases are so opaque; they have very, very early origins. And we cannot imagine that womb-life predominates. Experience before we have words to explain to doctors seems so distant and non-verifiable.
Oops, I said I was getting back to cancer, so I’d better. Here is what the article says: “The effects of oxygen levels on cancer have been independently investigated for many years and appear to support Davies’ ideas.” They noted that slightly elevate oxygen levels can begin to induce leukemia cell death without harming normal cells. When they supplied a little extra oxygen it helped in cancer therapy with human patients.
They also recommend immunotherapy to bolster the immune system to fight off newly developing cancer cells (research we did in England). Theirs is what they call, the “atavistic model”. When cancer starts to appear key cells revert to their primitive origins; and here is what is crucial: when this happens, more recently evolved gene cells lose their function. Top levels, in short abdicated their function and ceded to primitive coping mechanisms. That is my leitmotif, as well. Which is why the lady who went off the road froze and could no longer help to save her life. Only in in my therapy we permit the regression and understand it as healthy, not an aberration. And they are not driving a car while going back in time; and they really do go back until eventually they lose all capacity to articulate language. We understand the bottom-to-top top-to bottom relationships. We need oxygen during the trauma and we add it now to treat it, even though the cause is unknown to so many. It is called evolution.
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A person having gone through birth trauma, possibly doesn't want to remember how difficult it was growing up for them, how sick they were, how they had a hard time speaking and socializing with people. Perhaps when they reached their late teens into mid-twentites....18-24 (somewhere in there) they actually thought they were "better". The socializing was better because they were able to "party" and go out on dates , go to college, etc. But they couldn't see that "this was not them really" who are they kidding at that age. Their parents could tell it wasn't them. Of course parents don't want their child to stay the same, but yet the "party" years or college years one almost becomes a totally different person to the point where they are worse off and actually think they are better. They make the wrong decisions, get together with the wrong mate, suaded by peers and the wrong mate, but in the end of these years, the family wins. Family reminds them of how they had to watch how they were growing up; how sick socializing actually made them feel at times. The cancer could be a protective measure for the person, or any illness that one may get at a time in their lives. One cannot change so drastictically because they are only "fooling themselves, and if there isn't a family member to remind them of "who they are" , a family member looking out for them (protecting them with love), then they could just go on and on to make the biggest mistakes of their lives. People use illness that they get at times , it seems, as protection, whether it is really bad or not. Protection from other people, protection from socializing, a true excuse as to how they have to be careful now; just like when they were growing up. If one doesn't pay attention, and doesn't get primal therapy, their lives could be at times too overwhelming for them, unable to cope, deal with normal situations that they actually believed they could (not even giving a thought that they couldn't until it is too late (well, I don't really want to go into that.....I like to hope for the best ). But believe me, the family member as well as the person having gone through birth trauma both know that a lot more help is needed than just a reminder of "how that traumatized person was". I'm not saying that they should be stereotyped or catagorized, but it does help the traumatized adult, if they do look back. It would help them, along with serotonin (if their levels are nil or very low), and they cannot get primal therapy at the time. I know cancer is a bad disease for anyone to go through.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI have been wondering if there are distinct gating systems between the three levels. Perhaps each with differing cocktails of hormones. I wonder also if the 'symbolising process' we humans are famous for (in dreams, art and expression in general) is a consequence of different balances of hormones in different combinations of gates between the three levels. . .
People have attempted to write dream interpretation books because there are similarities and patterns in the content of our dreams. Jung and jungians in particular have documented "archetypes" and use these to ascertain where the patient is in their 'process'.
I am not a jungian but I have had a Jung influenced Body work therapist on and off for a decade or so and have become familiar with the language of my own dreams. Art said it is the feeling that is most important in dreams, I agree. But I also feel that dreams often represent in symbols what we are missing out on. IE dreams sometimes offer what we are not getting. A starving man dreams of food, a lonely man dreams of a lover etc etc (that one is all too familiar with me!)
Anyway, my particular interest is in the way Primal trauma builds personality and how this "partial self" links into predictable behaviours with other "partial selves"; ie: relationships and 'compatibility'. There are many personality typing systems; I have studied most of them and attended workshops where on panels we 'descended' to core feelings as a consequence of having identified our "chief features". . . .
I wonder if personality typing plays a role in Primal Therapist's way of helping patients gain access. That's not to say I believe putting labels on people would be useful, that's not how the knowledge I refer to is applied on the panels I attended. . . on the contrary we all found ourselves 'drawn in and down' as a consequence of examining our blinds spots and these were definitely predictable. Once learned they formed in us a certain essential self reference which is hard to dismantle. . . Therin lies the hazard of acquired belief systems. Even if they are based on reality they may present obstacles in and of themselves, particularly if they do not ultimately refer to the 1st line imprints.
But I always reckoned from the first day I got onto this blog that Arts summation that conventional therapies miss out or even deny the 1st line is the MAIN PROBLEM. It is the main problem. One could say ab-reaction and acting out is the predictable consequence of society at large remaining unaware and in denial of this ORIGINAL PROBLEM.
Paul G.
Yep! Art
DeleteThe cognitive activity is a dilemma of fear to feel!
ReplyDeleteCognitive activity limited me and still do to an "emotional fraud". It to keep emotions away from awareness... it depending on the intensity of emotional pain.
The cognitive fraud focuses me on other things... what ever... in sense to not experience "mom is not here/there for me". The cognitive activity was at time a process against overwhelming pain... it in the process for now and then survival.
The horrific discovery "mom doesn't want me" cemented me at anything... whatever possible... it for my life how much I wanted her! Is it possible to understand? No!
It now cognitive activity the possibility to feel if I can learn how! What I've repressed around my need for mom!
Frank
So,
ReplyDeleteI put My Body Work therapist onto the Wikepedia quote about epigenetics under PTSD and he then put me onto "Radix" and Chuck Kelly. . . third generation Reichians. . .
I chose Body Work Therapy because I had been influenced. . . By the Primal Scream and had imagined that all therapies would have incorporated Primal Theory into their methodology. . . I was told that by a therapist at the London School of Primal Therapy in 1993 (another bunch of charlatans).
How wrong I was. . . Anyway; so I checked out the 'Radix' website and there's even a reference to Primal which is woefully inaccurate. To be honest Art & France should do something about this woefully inaccurate quote on the Radix website. It's easy enough to find and frankly it is tantamount to libel.
But that's not my point. My point is that this reference to Primal on the Radix website perfectly illustrates the way IDEAS can reflect the truth about the BODY whilst totally MISSING the mark.
It is as if those who have stumbled across a good idea are more interested in extrapolating the idea rather than pursuing the reality of the idea. Therein lies HOW repression works. Ab-reaction & Act outs become the 'norm' because all circulates without access to the 1st line.
It beggars the question why more ex patients of these pseudo therapies don't complain? Is it because they have paid more money than they have sense? Is it because those who do not re-invent themselves (successfully?) as a consequence of sticking with their pseudo therapy quietly drop out of it feeling foolish and perhaps carrying on wiser but still 'imprinted'? Is it because there are no effective complaints bodies for handling the actual fall out from pseudo therapy? Is it because most people who have serious imprints end up on long term anti-depressant drugs any way? Is it because they find a new companion in life and benefit from falling in love. . . ? Is it because they get seriously ill but have no idea that their therapy was not effective and that had a link to their imprints (which they remain blissfully unaware of)?
Is it because human denial is such a powerful force and obvious consequence of repression and so many people , ex pseudo therapy patients have indeed RE-INVENTED themselves and happily continue to keep old imprints pushed down & apparently dormant, some-how?
Without access to 1st line imprints and without acknowledging and AIMING at that hidden reality, human life will remain a history, a litany of manipulation and crime, both petty and serious. The attempt at trying to expose this produces a depressing effect, after a while one begins to shut the f**k up because the silence on these matters is so frequently deafening.
Nevertheless I for one refuse to "shut the f***k up" because my imprints rage at me every day and I now understand why and what the solutions are.
The truth hurts but I would rather know the truth (and hurt) than capitulate with the lies so many other people tell to avoid the truth. F*****s!
By the way, it's Sunday afternoon and I will have to return my daughter to her mother and this will set off my childhood grief again. Every f*****g fortnight. . . boarding school loss of Mum and family all the way down to a difficult birth and infantile separation trauma. Every f*****g fortnight !
Ah well. . . Here I go again. . .
Paul G.
Paul, you have answered all that with your questions. I cannot go around correcting every false idea about primal. that is more than a full-time job. art
Deletei suppose that below inability to speak lies inability to use lungs because the lungs are not formed in first trimester of gestation. so if patient, during regression, naturally stop breathing - it could be from the beginning of gestation. in this situation the choking could be coming from the present to remind hir that there is a one or two minutes limit to stay there... in the dark. this is possibile?
ReplyDeleteSome people have much worse gestation than birth so the gravity of events during first few weeks in uterus is pulling hir stronger than the birth trauma so at some moment some patient could care less for oxygen then for some kind of danger from first or second trimester.
Yep. Art
Deletewith as little regression experience as i have i still think i finally begin to understand the panic mechanism. there should be more people knowing something about it.
DeleteHi vuko & Art,
Deletethis is fascinating and very useful because I get a kind of 'sleep apnea' cessation of breathing sometimes. Not just shallow breathing. . . this also happens when I am 'relaxing' in the bath sometimes. . . which I can get quite addicted to. Yes, a hot bath is quite a bit like the womb for me.
Paul G.
Hi Paul,
Deletemy uncle got depressive in last couple of years... his daughter during the visit accidentally noticed that he stops breathing during the night (i think longer than minute). maybe this kind of apnea is not dependent on sympath/parasympath type of system.a memory of young fetus? i don't know.
i wouldn't be surprised if proper breathing/relaxation could add years to our lives.
i read somewhere that over breathing is not good at all. so much important information that could be more a distraction than really useful.
about bath: warm bath helped me a lot... some genius invented it )). it could be because it is both soothing and encouraging the descent. in my case, i think, the face-up restriction while in the water is not ideal for the full descent (i can't fall to sleep on my back neither, but why?).
again, it is a kind of self regulation! trying the non aggressive. to never be far from the feeling zone, from ourselves.
What a terrible tightrope I have gone through to keep myself alive around completely crazy people... of course in their own suffering... but without my knowledge of it... a suffering like no other!
ReplyDeleteLearning everything that is wrong for needs without goals need to find other ways! Ways like the invisible force of gravity proves it to be... it from a point of impossible... exept the one where I get anxiety!
Now a search for humans! That is not so easy... but better alone than alone around others!
Frank
An email comment:
ReplyDeleteThis is an absolutely fascinating article. So when you go into a feeling and you are gasping for air breathing like a freight train, does this relate in some way, perhaps, to cancer? I notice shallow breathing with a constriction like a heavy feeling in the chest it feels like if I breathe I feel more pain. So does primalling perhaps help people to breathe more normally? Also, could not wanting to breathe deeply be preventing us from getting the kinds of exercise where we breathe hard? This I have heard can be very healthy and equal a lot of slower forms of exercise in losing weight and keeping healthy. Sorry that I can't site this.
Dr. Janov,
ReplyDeleteIf adrenaline causes harm the only counterpart would be oxytocin.
Way back then, during gestation and after birth, did we get enough oxytocin? Did we enter the world with Plasma Catecholamines out of balance? Are our neuro-oxytocin receptors damaged?
With today’s relatively inexpensive and the enormous number of vital tests available, my question is why newborns are not DNA-heath and Plasma Catecholamines tested. A DNA-heath test is available for $ 99. A simple blood test, blood taken from the umbilical court, could give “caring” parents guidance and doctors would not have to guess “what’s wrong with the child” when parents complain that the baby is permanently crying.
Also, we could begin early with balancing the hormone level before permanent damage (cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease, Crohne’s disease etc.) is developing.
In regards to lack of oxidant at birth, caring German mothers have always known that “crybaby’s” lack oxidant. Old midwifes encouraged mothers to blow gently in a child’s face when the crying will not stop. Today, crybabies receive oxidant treatment even at home.
Science believes that lack of oxidant, most of the time starting at birth, causes many illnesses. The Uni-Klinik Duesseldorf specializes in “Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBO)”, http://www.uniklinik-duesseldorf.de/en/unternehmen/institute/hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-hbo/
I ask, can we really correct early inflicted damage later in life or are we exercising palliation.
Sieglinde
where is or will be the line between PT and present or future almighty health care?
Deleteis it clever to let someone outside us decide what is normal and appropriate? i can't see other answer except - NO. A touch here and there YES, but at the service of self regulation - connection.
again, where is the line? what is the right measure so access is supported and regular feeling can be sustained?
An email comment: (Part 1)
ReplyDeleteI found your blog on More on the Levels of Consciousness and the article on whether cancer (and other catastrophic diseases) evolved to "protect us" most interesting; though I think "to protect us" could easily be misinterpreted (by lay people). Many years ago, I wrote an article (no publishing attempt) on suicide I called, "The Rage To Live".
I contended that the "intellect" could not Die...primarily because it never Lived, (the brain itself --the only place the intellect resides-- being immune to pain, thus brain surgery can be performed while the patient is awake [Penfield]) and it was --only-- the intellect that "decided" to kill oneself. By way of explanation, I did of course cite the Origins of the original life and death situation as the prompter.
All the intellect "knows" is that the body is in terrific --life threatening-- Pain, and needs to take action to rid itself of the pain. Every action a living creature takes is self preservation oriented, so suicide seems to be a clear contradiction --to this rule.......as would "dying" from a heart attack, or any other killer disease. Or, Art, am I saying two different things?
But looking at cancer (etc.) as (self) protection, would seem to basically be saying the same thing; except that cells/genes going awry I would think would be more attributable to a dysfunctioning (biological) system. Whereby, suicide, while obviously based on a screwed up system, would be a Positive action taken by the intellect. As for the origin, the two examples you gave of the woman "freezing", unable to take the wheel, thus save her life; and the businessman who couldn't "stop"...their actions (inaction) were obviously based on their (body's) prototypic response to imminent death.
Part 2:
ReplyDeleteActual suicide, however, would be the --grownup-- intellect taking the kind of action, the infant/fetus obviously could not do...and Would not do, because it's an "anti-survival" action. So the person who commits suicide is --an intellect-- that Triumphs over pain. I said grownup intellect, but I remember in your early literature reading about the Man who recounted at 5 years of age intentionally riding his tricycle in the path of an oncoming car; so this would seem to illustrate that the intellect is already developed enough --at this age-- to take such actions. The difference, I would imagine, is that the 5 year old (intellect) Knew what it-he was doing...and quite powerless to stop, while the adult-intellect Knows what it's doing --preparing to "kill" itself--, but undoubtedly doesn't really know Why it needs to...other than to stop the pain. So when people exclaim someone "took their life", to complete the sentence, I would add...into their own hands.
In a way then, the "cancer/heart attack" patient, if they do the same thing, I'd think their survival rate would be higher. As to whether they "listened to", and took (all) the advice of their doctor...or become their own doctor (which obviously your ultimate goal is for every Primal patient to do) would seem to again be based on the prototypic experiences...i.e. succumbing to "outside forces". I'd see Alzheimer's as an example of this. The (eventual) "regression" to becoming a helpless --infant, seems so telling.
In my own case, Art. I'd almost be willing to say that Primal Therapy "saved my life". Or at least knowing what the "Primal Reality" is all about has kept me from "following my doctor's advice" in regards to my seeming colon cancer. I may be living on borrowed time, but had I had part of my colon removed and/or subjected myself to chemo-therapy I'm inclined to believe I'd be worse-off now. I'm fairly symptom free (I've done nothing to treat it) and really think I didn't suffer devastating trauma --in the womb (mom didn't smoke or drink). As for my difficult birth (mom almost died delivering this 8lb. 13 oz. bundle of joy) that's something else again. I was "born" with a heart murmur that I outgrew.
That was a clever method Robin Williams chose for himself.