Are there patterns emerging from Collective Spiritual Awakening?

What Can Spiritual, Kundalini and Non-Dual Awakenings Teach Us About Trauma?

A year after my awakening, I traveled to the Sinai Peninsula. Many strange and serendipitous things had happened to me previously, but I had no clue that on that quiet, calm beach at night with the Red Sea in front, I would have the most extreme experience of my life. As if the first year of the process had been preparation, I began to move spontaneously and fluidly, like every movement was in sync with the world. I felt the full moon on me and my brain felt hot, and I felt liquid come out of my crown. I had a non-dual experience that lasted all night. Many things occurred. I remember observing that time was non-linear and the planet was conscious, and everything was one. For the next five days, I saw meaning and connection in everything, every grain of sand and every drop of water in the sea. When we returned to Cairo, I began to crash. I couldn’t sustain this experience, and it took me years to integrate and even begin to understand it.

Over the next few years, I knew I had to understand what I was experiencing, so I followed a call to backpack around the world. It gave me time and space to try and figure out what had happened and why I felt so strange. I had no previous interest in Tarot, but I kept having insights into depicting certain archetypal deities, planets, trees, and crystals. I became fascinated with mandalas, geometric patterns, platonic solids and other polyhedra.

However the most beautiful, life-transforming blessing was not altogether obvious to me, rather it first actually felt more like a curse than a blessing. I felt pulled to radically change my life, to face fears that I had been running away from for years.

My feelings towards people began to shift. For example, some friends and business partners suddenly felt difficult to be around as I began to see completely new sides to them. Conversely, I felt the need to make a huge effort to build bridges with family members I had previously had challenges with. This stage of my life was the most difficult, as it involved letting go of businesses, security, friends, and partners I thought I had great relationships with. It involved forging new relationships with family members, along with all the anger, guilt, judgment, and trauma that entailed.

I didn’t understand the word trauma at the time and didn’t understand what was happening. Coming from a background and education that valued security, money and status this was so challenging for me I often questioned my sanity, but I was guided but an energy that was kinaesthetic, like a new language I had to learn.

Many years later I can see patterns emerging from my own experience and from the many stories of spontaneous spiritual awakening and near-death experiences I have read about or have now heard from people in our community. One of the most life changing seems to be related to the nature of trauma and how we could approach it.

I want to first define trauma in this context. It is not just a physical issue but what can best be described as a block in our energy system, much like the idea of sick qi in Qi Gong or blocked prana in the Vedic subtle body system. This model suggests that all living things have a corresponding energetic body and all our negative experiences, that is emotional, psychological, physical, environmental and ancestral are stored as blocks in this energy system. This idea also links to the model of the universe that suggests that the fundamental nature of reality is non-material and that in these non-material dimensions everything is connected.

This matches with people’s description of non-dual experiences that alter our perception of spacetime. In these states, people see layers of connection between all things across space and time. Some return from this experience with a deeper understanding of trauma, both in themselves and others. They perceive trauma as a part of life, an experience to process rather than shut off from. They might suggest that there is no duality between us and our trauma.

Here is an example list of well-known authors, speakers, and teachers who have had spiritual awakenings, non-dual experiences and / or near-death experiences (NDE), subsequently gaining insights about humanity’s relationship with trauma:

Anita Moorjani: Offers profound insights on trauma based on her NDE and subsequent recovery from cancer.

Eben Alexander: A neurosurgeon who had an NDE while in a coma caused by severe bacterial meningitis.

Mary Neal: An orthopedic spine surgeon who had an NDE during a kayaking accident in South America.

Nancy Rynes: An author and artist who had an NDE following a severe bicycle accident.

Eckhart Tolle: A spiritual teacher and author known for "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth."

Byron Katie: An author and speaker known for her self-inquiry method called "The Work."

Ram Dass: A Harvard professor and psychologist who became a spiritual teacher after a transformative experience with psychedelics and subsequent exploration of Eastern spiritual traditions.

Neale Donald Walsch: Author of the "Conversations with God" series.

Bonnie Greenwell, Katie Mottram with her work with ‘Emerging Proud’, and many others.

Just to take an example from the above list, Anita Moorjani's perspective of time and space during her near-death experience from cancer was profoundly altered and expansive. In her book "Dying to Be Me," Moorjani describes her NDE in great detail, highlighting several key aspects related to time and space. Firstly she experienced a state where time was non-linear, described as an "eternal now," where past, present, and future happened simultaneously. She also felt that time did not exist in the same way as in our everyday reality, with no sense of urgency or progression, only a continuous, timeless state of being.

The altered perception of time and space provided her with profound insights into her life and the nature of existence. She understood the root causes of her illness and trauma, deeply connected to her emotional and spiritual state. Her cancer went into remission. Moorjani also felt an overwhelming sense of unconditional love and acceptance during her NDE, helping her heal from trauma by understanding she was fundamentally loved and accepted as she was.

Although all our experiences are different. Looking at the patterns emerging from what these people are saying, here are a few conclusions.

Understanding Trauma: Emphasising the importance of understanding trauma not just as a physical or psychological event but as an experience that deeply affects a person's emotional and spiritual well-being.

Emotional Impact: Unresolved emotions, such as fear, guilt, and unworthiness, can contribute to physical illness. Trauma can create emotional blockages that prevent individuals from fully experiencing love and joy.

Inner work and the Healing Process: Healing from trauma involves inner work - acknowledging and processing these deep-seated emotions. This process often requires a shift in perspective, where individuals learn to embrace self-love, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Self-Love and Acceptance: Cultivating self-love and acceptance is crucial in healing trauma. Many people who have experienced trauma struggle with feelings of unworthiness, and addressing these feelings is essential for healing.

Spiritual and Shamanistic Perspectives: Viewing trauma as a catalyst for spiritual growth and transformation, and spiritual and shamanistic practices as potentially healing. The recent integration of shamanic and spiritual practices into trauma therapy systems, be they meditative, psychedelic, breath work or otherwise has been evidenced by scientific studies, and the reason could be because humans have energetic bodies that stores traumas as blocks. These practices developed in systems that acknowledged this model and are therefore effective.

Life Purpose and Outer work: Understanding one's life purpose in the context of trauma. Experiencing trauma can lead individuals to discover deeper meanings and purposes in their lives leading to a more authentic self. If processing and healing our trauma is inner work, then we will soon move on to do outer work with our families, friends, communities.

Societal Change: On a collective level, trauma can act as a mechanism for societal transformation. Historical and collective traumas, when acknowledged and addressed, can lead to greater social cohesion, justice, and healing. The process of collectively facing and healing trauma can unify communities and foster a deeper sense of interconnectedness. I believe that as our awakening communities grow, knowledge and wisdom from our shared experiences is going to help create social change in this arena.

This is not however the whole story.

It is of course easy to write about the healing of trauma but it does not take away from the profound struggles people are having after a spiritual awakening. What is the relationship between those going through a spiritual awakening and trauma?

1) Trauma seems to be a catalyst for some people’s awakening. With mine it followed a ten year ‘long dark night of the soul, which ended with severe sciatica and made me question everything, including my life and purpose. Many individuals report that their spiritual awakening was preceded by intense suffering or a traumatic event. This suggests that trauma can act as a catalyst for profound personal transformation and spiritual growth. The process of facing and integrating traumatic experiences can lead to a deeper understanding of oneself and the nature of existence.

2) While trauma can be a catalyst for awakening, spiritual awakening can also be a catalyst to release suppressed trauma, which can be extremely challenging and is what we come across a lot here at the Kundalini Collective.

From my own experiences and listening to others, the challenges can last for years. Why might this be?

From an energetic body perspective where all things are interconnected, maybe we are not just healing our own trauma but helping heal those around us. This means, like a shaman, we are grounding and processing the energies of not just ourselves, but possibly our families and communities, as well as addressing ancestral and collective traumas in a way that no normal therapy can do. Also, the challenging times last longer and can be harder as there is no validation of these experiences coming from our families or communities, nor many systems set up to help. I believe that this will change over time as more people have these experiences, more research is done on spiritual awakening and society becomes more aware of the phenomenon.

Conclusion

Many people who have spiritual awakenings are sharing a similar experience and message about trauma. This message is that humanity should recognise and reframe trauma as a catalyst for positive transformation. If it does so individually and collectively, maybe we can bring about real social change.

Retrospectively I can say that the experience in Sinai helped me reframe my life to let go of relationships that were draining and reconnect with those that were good. It gave me an innate compass to follow, one that involved constant surrender. If I tried to fight this compass, the energy would shut me down. I learned this through painful trial and error.

Now I understand that a non-dual experience somehow reprogrammed me to face my fears and lean into my trauma—family, friends, money, relationships, career, ancestry, etc.  I just had to surrender to the process, and one that was not intellectual, but emotional and energetic. I wasn't taught about trauma, I had to experience it real life situations and find ways to heal. This process was non-linear, with great strides forward, strides back, and then steps forward again.

Overall my Kundalini journey has has been positive and life changing. It has given me tools to help work through deep seated pain, even if I couldn’t see it at the time, and helps me sit with these feelings and process them. This journey can be really difficult, but it is real, transforming and ultimately connecting. There still may be difficult times ahead but I would not change it for anything.