The Sapwood of Synchronosophy 18/18
Structures of Knowing
Our comfort zone is a lovely place,
but nothing ever grows there.
〰 Lady Edwina Grosvenor 〰
Post-traumatic Growth
Prenatal traumatisations prevent us from living our life.
〰 Franz Renggli 〰
Researching the term post-traumatic growth (PTG) I was surprised to discover that this expression, and even the concept, are rejected by some trauma experts as well as trauma-survivors themselves.
One night in 2006, Rebecca Fogg, working in financial services and living in New York, fell victim to a freak accident in her own bathroom. An explosion partially amputated her right hand. Her book Beautiful Trauma, is a diary of the accident and her story of recovery.
“My primary concern with post-traumatic growth, though, is the tantalizing term itself,” Rebecca Fogg writes. “Interpreted through the lens of my national culture of origin—which detests unhappy endings and insists that anyone who works hard enough can achieve whatever they want—people could therefore misconstrue the theory as suggesting that traumatic experiences hold the possibility of unequivocally positive outcomes, and that those who don’t experience them have only themselves to blame.”
In other words, Fogg feels uncomfortable with the term post traumatic growth (PTG), because it makes trauma victims expect a happy ending of full recovery as ‘the norm’. This creates pressure. Something they have to live up to. On top of all the shit that has already happened to them.
I get it. However… what if this is only their interpretation of PTG?
In Eastern studies of Consciousness, the relationship between trauma and spiritual growth has a long history. The relatively recent Western ‘discovery’ of post-traumatic growth gives hope to sufferers of PTSD, hinting at the possibility of a way out of the trauma trap.
PTG sounds like a promise not only of a life after trauma, but potentially a better life than before the trauma. A bright ray of sunshine on the horizon of the dark night of the soul.
In the latter half of the 20th century, stories of PTG began to circulate. Some people who had been through serious catastrophes reported full recoveries and became instant celebrities.
In the early days, such accounts sounded magical, on a par with legends and fairy tales. Were they myths, or based on truth? And if they were true, could other trauma survivors achieve the same?
Aaron Antonovsky and Peter Levine, among other trauma researchers, were some of the first to explore and understand such ‘miracle cures’.
In the 1990s, Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun, two American professors of psychology, focused their research on PTG and found, it was not all that uncommon. “People who endure psychological struggle following adversity can often see positive growth afterward,” they reported and gave it the name everyone uses today ~ post-traumatic growth.
Being a ‘relatively common trauma response’ means, the phenomenon existed before it received an official blessing via its christening with this ‘scientific’ name.
All major religions talk about the transformative potential of suffering. However, there is a major difference between this religious transformation and what we call PTG here.
Faithful followers of many world religions tend to believe that suffering in itself is good or beneficial. It allegedly purifies the soul. Christian traditions even glorify a life full of woe and hardship in this world as a price to pay in return for a better afterlife.
PTG is absolutely not about glorifying traumatic experience in any of its many expressions or guises. To prevent us from slipping into the religious mould, Tedeschi and Calhoun emphasise four caveats as follows:
“1st – PTG and distress will coexist. The growth emerges from the struggle with coping, not from the trauma itself.
2nd – Trauma is not necessary for growth. Individuals can mature and develop in meaningful ways without experiencing tragedy or trauma.
3rd – In no way are we suggesting that trauma is "good."
4th – PTG is neither universal or inevitable… – we are not raising the bar on trauma survivors, so that they are to be expected to show posttraumatic growth before being considered recovered.”
In psychology, PTG is now defined as ‘positive change as a result of struggling with highly challenging and stressful life circumstances.’
In his book Healing from Trauma, Peter Levine mentions five categories for PTG (and explains each in detail):
1 - personal strength
2 - improved relationships with others
3 - appreciation of life
4 - new paths and possibilities
5 - spiritual change and a new understanding of life’s meaning and purpose
Swiss prenatal therapist Franz Renggli points out that “prenatal traumatisations prevent us from living our life. At the same time they bury our greatest potential, our creativity, our intuition, and our capacity for love and connection.”
Post-traumatic growth is ~ according to Renggli’s professional experience spanning half a century ~ a natural side effect of trauma healing. In other words, if there is no inner growth, the trauma wounds may have scarred over, but true healing hasn’t happened, yet.
Growing in Consciousness
Our ordinary mind always tries to persuade us that we are nothing but acorns
and that our greatest happiness will be to become bigger, fatter, shinier acorns.
But that is of interest only to pigs.
Our faith gives us knowledge of something better: that we can become oak trees.
〰 E.F. Schumacher 〰
From the 1960s onwards, personal growth/ development and spiritual growth/ development became buzzwords of the human potential movement. Books in the spirituality, new age and selfhelp genres were flooding the market with titles like: Spiritual Growth, Being Your Higher Self, Principles of Spiritual Growth, Dreams and Spiritual Growth, Discovering your Spiritual Gifts, Teaching for Spiritual Growth, Laws of Personal Growth, Steps to Personal Growth etc. At the time of writing this chapter, the stream of new titles on the same theme is still going strong.
Generally speaking, teachers, authors and followers of the ‘grow your consciousness’ movement have been lead to believe that consciousness can be divided into several levels (also called frequencies, or dimensions).
In line with various Eastern traditions, the ultimate goal of the spiritual seeker is to reach ‘enlightenment’, or the ‘highest frequency of consciousness’. In Western practice, the anthropocentric translation of such a spiritual endeavour tends to become infused with hierarchy, supremacy, the knowledge of good & evil, and similar values embedded in our culture.
The temptation to avoid the emotional stress of processing one’s own traumatic experiences (rather than transform them) and achieve enlightenment through rigorous spiritual practices has lead to the criticism of various disciplines as paths of ‘spiritual bypassing’.
We don’t need to go any further into examining any of these teachings, since they are irrelevant for the practice of Synchronosophy. We only have to keep in mind that when we speak about ‘growing in Consciousness’ here, it is unrelated to any of these popular theories.
In the map of the Noctarine there are no hierarchies. We don’t differentiate between conscious and subconscious. There is no ‘false self’, ‘true self’ or ‘Higher Self’ either. Our goal is not to detach from ‘lower frequency’ emotions, or to become ‘enlightened’.
Our understanding of growth is in alignment with the natural processes we can observe in any living creature in nature, rather than an attempt to leave behind a ‘lower state’, which is unwanted and replace it with a more desirable ‘higher state’.
Post-traumatic growth literally means growth after trauma ~ in the sense of an inner and outer unfolding and enfolding ~ which implies › increase in personal strength and resilience › improved relationships › more appreciation and a more positive attitude towards life in general › the opening of new opportunities › and a deeper sense of purpose and meaning.
Growth, in this context, is not an increase in quantity (like growth of economy or population). It is not the development of something unwanted or threatening (like a tumour). And it is most likely not an increase in physical size (like a growing child).
Growing in Consciousness ~ in the understanding of Synchronosophy ~ relates to a development in maturity. It means quite simply, turning our attention to those inner creatures, who have been frozen by trauma and left stranded in the inner permafrost. It means bringing them home ‘into the fold’ (= enfolding) and nurturing them into growing up.
Post-traumatic growth can happen spontaneously because the impulse comes from within the organism. The process of PTG must activate something that already exists within individual Consciousness. It may exist in the form of an encoded seed-information, or an untapped resource, otherwise there is nothing to grow from. This is what we call dormant potential.
For this reason, traumatic experiences can stimulate a growth spurt in individual Consciousness (= unfolding) ~ if the experiencer is able to transform the impact and information of the shocking and overwhelming, challenging or stressful experience into a valuable personal resource.
Growing in Consciousness is therefore effectively a healing process from the wound of trauma, via awakening the dormant potential, towards the actualisation of that potential, which we call entelechy.
Five Ages of Becoming
Every obstacle contains a clue towards a personal task
which is meant to facilitate our maturing process.
〰 Jean Gebser 〰
In 1932, Jean Gebser, a German poet, mystic, and cultural philosopher, conceived the idea for his life’s work The Ever-present Origin in a flash of inspiration. The work, describes the evolution of human Consciousness throughout history from its ‘ever-present origin’ to our current civilisation.
Jean Gebser (1905-1973) identified five distinct forms of expression, which he observed in art and literature throughout the recorded history of human culture. He called these different expressions ‘structures of consciousness’.
Here is an overview of Gebser’s five structures with parallels to the development of individual human Consciousness:
Archaic Consciousness – The archaic structure refers to the period when the soul is ‘dormant’ in the sense of not having any awareness of itself. It is a ‘zero-dimensional’ condition. Consciousness is not separate from its source, which is the ‘ever-present origin’, perhaps comparable with the state of ‘blissful ignorance’ of Adam and Eve before eating the ‘forbidden fruit’.
In individual human Consciousness (IHC) the archaic structure includes the prenatal and perinatal phases of human development. All Faculties of Consciousness are in their embryonic state during this period.
Magical Consciousness – The magic structure captures the experience of human consciousness after its separation from universal consciousness. Here the individual develops ‘self-consciousness’ by becoming aware of having a certain level of independence from the whole. This ‘magical state’ is comparable with a first ‘awakening’ to one’s own identity as separate from the environment, while still being embedded within the whole.
In IHC, the magic structure is comparable with infantile Consciousness, the period when the individual becomes aware of their own Self, while mirroring the ‘tribal Consciousness’ of their family and community. The development of magic Consciousness is driven by physical needs and attempting to process one’s own experience, stimulated by the innate drive to become independent.
Mythical Consciousness – In the mythical structure, consciousness discovers the drive to detach itself further. It is marked by the discovery of polarities, leading to conflicts and rebellion against the environment. In our recorded history this structure is well represented by the Greek myths of humans being under the constant threat of vengeful goddesses and gods. This detachment of the individual from the clan is also captured in the first stages of the myth of the ‘heroic journey’, described by Joseph Campbell and illustrated in infinite novels and movies.
At the individual level, the mythical structure expresses itself during adolescence. This is a period marked by rebellion against the tribal structures the awakening of intense emotions at a previously unknown level, and a search for identity. In Synchronosophy we refer to this as juvenile or adolescent Consciousness.
Mental Consciousness – The beginning of the mental structure has been identified by Gebser as the discovery of perspectivity. During the Renaissance, artists began to see the world as a three-dimensional space (until then the paintings were rather ‘flat’ like child’s drawings without the depth of perspectives). The discovery of three-dimensionality was closely linked with a shift in the intellectual attitude, which lead into the so-called Enlightenment Era.
In IHC, the mental structure relates to adult-Consciousness. This period in life is driven by the quest for purpose and meaning. As the personal ‘heroic journey’ takes its course, the individual has the opportunity to revisit the beliefs inherited from their tribal Consciousness, and to ‘re-invent themselves’, in accordance with an unfolding new understanding.
Integral Consciousness – In Jean Gebser’s language, the integral structure is a ‘diaphanous state’. Diaphanous mean translucent. In this structure, human Consciousness has the capacity to see ‘beyond the veil’ of everyday awareness. It is no longer restricted by three-dimensionality, or any perspectives. Instead, this is the dawning ages of a new consciousness marked by ‘a-perspectiveness’.
Since collective human Consciousness has historically not yet reached this structure, it is hard to imagine or describe it. Does the enlightened state of the Buddha offer a glimpse? Maybe. Having had a highly unusual experience of human life, the Buddha can only offer limited clues of how to be in the ‘real world’ and handle ‘real human suffering’.
The human race is, according to Gebser, currently experiencing the ‘degenerative phase of the mental structure’. The destination of the diaphanous structure is not to leave the mental, mythical, magical and archaic behind, but to integrate all the ‘younger structures’ into this more evolved state of being.
The integral structure corresponds with what we call elder-Consciousness in IHC. Instead of setting our eyes on ‘enlightenment’ as a goal, the primary objective is the integration of any aspects, or parts of the ‘inner population’, which are frozen in trauma and cause trouble and suffering in our inner and outer worlds.
The synchronosophic practice is designed to stimulate the integration of all embryonic, infantile, juvenile, and adult entities who live in the inner world of IHC and are unable to unfold of their own accord ~ due to stuckness in the inner permafrost. Such stimulation is best achieved through a gentle nurturing rather than any kind of rigorous practice.
Timing and Sensitive Phases
We do not grow absolutely, chronologically.
We grow partially. We are relative.
We are mature in one realm, childish in another.
〰 Anaïs Nin 〰
The subjective human experience of trauma is suspended in time. When individual human Consciousness is affected by a traumatising event, the impact of this interference remains present in the organism’s memory, mainly in the Faculties of the Body, Instinct, and Intuition.
If the incident happened in the prenatal period or early childhood, the memory of the event doesn’t reach awareness. However, the information is stored in the cellular memory of the Body, the emotional memory of the Instinct, and the notional (= known as a belief) memory of the Intuition. All of these levels of knowing are subliminal and not accessible to the Intellect in waking awareness.
Due to the subliminal nature of these acts of knowing, the indigenous natives frozen by trauma would be condemned to remain in their state of suffering, if the natural homœodynamics of our organism hadn’t provided a clever mechanism for the awakening of the old trauma.
Any unprocessed events of trauma memory can be accessed indirectly and autonomously. They get triggered by events in everyday life which stir the memory of the frozen inner creatures.
How do we know a trauma memory is being triggered?
It couldn’t be more obvious.
Every time you notice an emotional overreaction within your inner world ~ also known as inner turbulence ~ you can instantly tell with near absolute certainty that the ‘unreasonable emotional response’ comes from an inner creature frozen in trauma.
I have been able to observe this phenomenon within myself and a few hundred fellow humans with unfailing accuracy ~ so far.
These emotional irritations ~ usually brushed under the magic carpet as ‘irrational nonsense’ or dismissed as ‘annoying buggers’, which must be kept under tight control ~ are the most important signals we work with in the practice of Synchronosophy.
Any unreasonable or inexplicable emotional reaction* sends a reliable signal, letting you know that now would be a good time for that magic carpet to take off and carry your IHC to greater heights, towards genuine organic growth. (*= any emotional overreaction to a relatively small interference).
In all living creatures from the plant- and animal-kinships we can observe growth and significant changes in life cycles related to sensitive phases. Most fruit trees blossom in spring. Deciduous trees lose their leaves in late autumn. Baby turtles hatch from their eggs and find their way to the ocean mostly in the summer. Growth of living organisms is related to environmental conditions.
The living organism of human Consciousness is no different. Inner creatures who were not able to develop at an earlier stage in life and remained frozen by trauma are not dead. They are paralysed, waiting for an opportunity to join in with the dance of life, and make their vital contributions to your life.
When you, the host of your IHC, experience something that reminds you in some distant way of the original trauma, these paralysed inner creatures ~ these frozen cells of trauma memory ~ get triggered.
Whenever frozen cells of Consciousness stir your memory, they send a signal that now would be a good time to act on this. Here is an opportunity to integrate an aspect of personal trauma, to heal the old wound, and to awaken dormant potential.
Our subjective experience, in daily interactions with the ordinary world, is a very effective and ‘fool proof’ way to recognise those sensitive phases. It is as if our organism has a sense of its own timing, and we can fully trust that.
For this reason practitioners of Synchronosophy don’t need to worry about rigid schedules of a daily practice. We also don’t need to worry about ‘processing every little poops’ or irritation that comes our way. Never fear that you might run out of opportunities for conscious evolution!
Negative experiences have a habit of repeating themselves if they don’t get noticed the first (or 2nd or 13th) time round. They also have a tendency to turn the volume up if the host of IHC ignores the signals from their inner space.
The Power of Small Steps
Small shifts in the autonomic nervous system could have great effects.
〰 Peter Levine 〰
In his autobiography, Peter Levine mentions the importance of making changes in small incremental steps when it comes to healing trauma. He observed “that small shifts in the autonomic nervous system could have great effects on behavior, such as attack and fear, and that when these behaviors could in turn be altered, by slight changes, the autonomic nervous system balances.”
I have learned the same through my synchronosophic practice over 25+ years and counting. The anthropocentric worldview, the only one I knew before being catapulted into this project, makes us believe that we can make massive changes in an instant. And some cases give the impression as if this is indeed possible. But it’s neither the norm, and usually ignores a long back story.
The truth is, when it comes to healing trauma, what we are dealing with is usually a long history of intergenerational, cultural, historical trauma, in which our personal story is embedded. If your trauma happens to be a tragic accident, with no emotional trauma history whatsoever, either in your personal or family history, it might be a different situation. But that’s extremely rare.
For the vast majority of us, the experience of trauma has deep roots. Human Consciousness is not an operating system which you can take apart, throw out all the ‘bad bits’ and replace them with shiny new ones all at once. It is a living system, which contains all the knowledge for its own regeneration and growth.
In his students and clients, Peter Levine observed that slowly “titrating their traumatic sensations, emotions, and images, they would then enjoy greater stability, clarity, and forward direction in their lives.” Because this process of slow titrating (= continuously adjusting and balancing) would stimulate the phenomenon of syntropy in the organism.
“If too much energy was introduced into such a metastable system,” Levine observed, “or if the energy was introduced too rapidly, the system would likely degrade into disorder and be potentially retraumatizing.”
From these observations he drew the conclusion that “positive transformation only occurred if the nervous system was stimulated enough to make a change in the system, yet at the same time not overstimulated.”
Again, my experience in working with ‘invisible’ childhood trauma confirms this hypothesis. For this reason, Synchronosophy is ideally suited as a practice to fit into everyday life, without the need for regular therapy sessions, or scheduled time slots in your diary.
Subjective experience itself offers guidance to inner growth of your IHC, if you know how to read the signals and act on them. Having said that, it is of course valuable and helpful to have companions with whom to share this journey, and the occasional therapy session ~ with a therapist who understands these principles ~ can provide considerable boosts and support.
Unfolding & Enfolding Perspectives
Whatever we experience, we enfold into ourselves.
〰 Valentin Tomberg 〰
Growth in Consciousness is a continuous process unfolding and enfolding. As we grow from embryonic to infantile Consciousness, from child to juvenile Consciousness, and from adolescent to adult Consciousness, we have the opportunity to witness this miraculous process firsthand.
This evolutionary process we call ‘inner growth’ never stops. As the organism unfolds its subsequent phenomenon of becoming, the previous being is enfolded. Which means, as we grow into childhood, we don’t leave the embryonic experience behind. The adolescent doesn’t strip off childhood like a dead skin. In adult Consciousness we carry the teenager, child and embryo within our memory.
This is what Jean Gebser means by integral consciousness. It also means that we can only grow into elder-Consciousness when we manage to integrate the experiences from our younger phases of life. This applies in particular to such events which left a negative impression on our organism at the time.
In other words, we need to grow (= unfold + enfold) in Consciousness (individually and collectively) in order to promote the healthy growth (= unfolding + enfolding) of our own Consciousness. To facilitate this integrative process, our IHC has access to 8 Perspectives ~ the autonomous properties supplied by the Intellect.
Missed the earlier chapters? Click the links
The Rootstock of Synchronosophy
Chapter 1 The Mycelium of Synchronosophy, Chapter 2 Sub-Soil of Synchronosophy, Chapter 3 Nutrients for Synchronosophy, Chapter 4 Adjustments to an Unnatural World, Chapter 5 Loss of Self and Identity, Chapter 6 The Destructive Trail of Trauma
The Heartwood of Synchronosophy
Chapter 7 Emotional Messengers, Chapter 8 Love Thyself, Chapter 9 The Birth of the Noctarine, Chapter 10 Subjective Experience, Chapter 11 The Inner Wilderness, Chapter 12 Polarity and Wholeness
The Sapwood of Synchronosophy
Chapter 13, Symphony of Senses, Chapter 14, The Rainbow of Consciousness, Chapter 15 Ancestral Will, Chapter 16 Acts of Knowing, Chapter 17 Powers of Knowing
Wonderful, Veronika. Thank you for this post; I found so much valuable information in it! I enjoyed every new aspect of it. Since I am more used to classical psychology, I crave the kind of information you provide. I will revisit all your posts to enhance my understanding. This <3: "Instead of setting our eyes on ‘enlightenment’ as a goal, the primary objective is the integration of any aspects, or parts of the ‘inner population’, which are frozen in trauma and cause trouble and suffering in our inner and outer worlds." It's so true!
This is similar, but from the ego's point of view. Erik Erikson’s Ego Stages of Psychosocial Development (stages of life) says that an unhealthy personality and sense of self can develop when one fails to adequately finish a stage, which in turn reduces one's capacity to adequately complete the following stages.
However, these stages can be successfully resolved later on.
"This is what Jean Gebser means by integral consciousness. It also means that we can only grow into elder-Consciousness when we manage to integrate the experiences from our younger phases of life. This applies in particular to such events which left a negative impression on our organism at the time."
Wonderful, wonderful job!
Oooh so good Veronika. Entelechy- growing in consciousness- unfolding. Yes to it all. Will read it a few more times. Gebser’s categories of IHC overlap Plotkin’s Wheel that fascinates me. In the west there is no magic and myth now. Thus we never fully develop spiritually. There will be no elders left soon. AI helping that happen. Bless you for this enfolding! You are a true elder! What comes after part 18/18? We need you 🙏❤️