The Sensory Window Has Closed

I feel that I have to bang on about the sensory window because it has only a brief lifespan.   That is why Marilyn Monroe was always headed for disaster.  All the adoration in the world was not enough; the expanse of her deprivation equaled her massive need for so-called love. And it could never be fulfilled because the sensory window had close years before.   So without knowing it she settled for applause, adoration, interest in her by world leaders and publicity without end.  And still she took painkillers by the truckload.   You can never love neurosis away. And all those substitutes for what looks like love are just that: substitutes.  They are symbolic and never fulfilling except for the moment, which is why there needs to be more and more.  And it can never be enough because the exigencies of the need, its asymptote, have faded away, buried with gates shut.

What we can do is offer enough caring and support to keep the pain at bay and well hidden.

So what does this mean in human terms?  That the open sensory window when need can be fulfilled has a brief short-life. That once it closes, the symptoms will go on and on.  For example, high blood pressure or migraines.  When they are of first-line brainstem origin, once the gates are locked we cannot cure the affliction; we can only ameliorate the expression of the symptoms.  There is no cure because nothing can penetrate to make a difference.   That is why addiction to heavy drugs is so unyielding and obdurate.  Once the imprint is locked-in there can be be no change;  the gating system makes no exceptions and has no mercy.   It is indifferent to other than its key task: to keep pain subdued.  Here biology dictates.  It keeps pain down so we can go on living and producing.  It makes life bearable.  And this is why all of the so-called rehab centers fail.  They dance around the expression of the pain without ever delving deep down into it.  They make the patient feel safe and protected for the moment, but that is the problem. It is momentary.

Until we recognize and accept the powerful force of the gating system we go on trying to do the impossible. Marilyn had the adulation of tens of thousands but when she came off stage she swallowed dozens of painkillers. Clearly symbolic love was and is evanescent.  There was the perfect example that we cannot touch emotional deprivation once the gates are closed.   She could say a thousand times, “I want to get off painkillers” but ideas and desires are cerebral and are no match for deep imprints.  This is assuming that she knew that she was in pain and that she knew where the pain came from.   It is never so obvious.   And even a therapy such as Primal is no match against the imprint unless the therapy takes place in-house where the patient can be watched and controlled.

That is why an addict needs a nonverbal approach, pills, and sadly, electroshock therapy.   We somehow need to get below the top verbal level into the strictly biologic.  I am not sure the exact length of the open sensory window but it matches the time when the need is at its height.  A mother who falls ill during the birth process cannot come back six months later and love the child daily and expect everything to be fine. There will be a residue of pain.  And to make clear, the deprivation of basic need produces unimaginable pain.   Of course her love will make an important difference but it may not eliminate the residue of suffering left inside the baby while the mother was away at a hospital. And this is what is diabolic about the human condition.  Parents can be loving but due to no fault of their own they have left a grain of pain that lingers.
The mother cannot nurse due to a whole host of reasons or she cannot be attentive because, alone, she has to go to work to help feed her baby.  The reasons are infinite but they still spell pure pain.   And that pain is a warning that there is unfinished business to be dealt with.  And wonderfully, it gives us the means to undo aspects of the imprint and allows us to have the means toward normalcy. It says, “deal with this and maybe you can be normal again and get rid of your addictions and compulsions.”  It is not a false promise; it is the promise  kept alive by our biology.

It does not give us a potpourri of choices, however.  It says we must return to the sender; the sender of pain by the imprint.  It is a narrow promise but one of great hope for our stability in life.  It says, pay attention, there is real hope. And one day as our research into deep imprints continues we may find that this is true of serious diseases such as cancer and diabetes, of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.   The reason these diseases have been so recalcitrant is that we have focused on the wrong thing; the symptoms the diseases gives out, and ignoring solidified imprint.
Why?  Until now we could not see it.  Now we can and as a therapist who has been there, I can deliver the key notes from the underground the accompanying maps, that may pave the way for cures.