My ongoing work with trauma has raised a number of questions that hold import for the quality of our everyday lives. These questions involve the impact of sensory stimulation that we expose ourselves to and "are exposed to" in the various media of our daily lives. According to studies of the holographic nature of our perception (see Karl Pribram), the images we perceive as "external" to ourselves are the constructs of our "quantum creativity" and actually occur "within" our consciousness. All of the images we perceive in life occur within the parameters set by our own body-minds and perceptual processes – and all occur within. The images we see as "reality" are the constructs of our quantum perceptive act. Through my development of HMR, my ability to feel/sense the impact of an active trance state, present when a memory is "triggered" or accessed, has brought to light a number of major concerns regarding the nature and use of this "holographic perception."

 During my work with trauma survivors, the original trance state of an encoded memory is accessed. The wholly interactive nature of our holographic memories permits the ready access of an encoded memory simply by giving focus to one sensory fragment of the original scene. In physics it is held that every fragment of a holographic scene contains the entire scene. This has proven correct in our study of the manner in which memory is encoded; it is how we alter our states of consciousness daily in our efforts to survive. We reduce the overwhelming experiences of our lives to "manageable holographic fragments" (ex.: lump in the throat, knot in the stomach, vise around our head, etc.) which serve to contain our pain until we are able to deal with it. However, when such a fragment is engaged, the subconsciously encoded memory becomes dominant, momentarily flooding the nervous system with the sensory data of the original trance state. During such a triggered moment, the original states of the Autonomic Nervous System, the Endocrine, and the Immune System, encoded at the moment of the trauma’s induction, re-present themselves. During a flashback, for instance, a level of "adrenaline rush" similar to the original experience is evidenced. The subsconsciously repressed data of the original trauma surface within the nervous system, recreating, in various degrees, the emotional state present when the trauma was first encoded. 

The implication for this phenomenon is that our nervous systems, our endocrine systems may be profoundly activated by sensory stimulation similar to that of our encoded memories. In other words, if a trauma memory of a violent act, for instance, remains intact, a trigger similar or identical to the scene we encoded will produce some degree of "re-live" of the original trauma, including a recreation of the original adrenaline rush. For example, after the Oklahoma City bombing, the image of the "bleeding baby" triggered the memories of millions who immediately accessed their own emotional states of trauma, triggering an adrenaline reaction and "riveting" their attention to the scene. This subliminal activation of the original affect overrides the conscious mind and engages the "93% " subconscious, according to the intensity of the feelings we stored during the original experience. Unresolved memory triggers leave us vulnerable to such activation and, when regularly stimulated, can foster an attraction to such adrenaline-producing phenomena.

 An additional consideration is the fact that all trauma memories are encoded moments of "powerlessness" – that is, I could not "control" or alter the circumstances, and my nervous system, through the Limbic-Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal System, activated to protect me. It did so by "pausing" or "freezing" the conflicted scene (a subconscious and automatic process) within my mind, until I could return to deal with this event. All encoded traumas are moments of powerlessness, and when such a trance is activated, a "powerlessness" is again manifest, but with the force of the 93% subconscious – thereby reinforcing the original message and recreating the original sense of paralysis or immobility. Once activated, they reinforce the original negative message by returning us to this powerful "trance" state.

 The question arises, therefore, given the efforts and expertise of our media at displaying, producing, enhancing, highlighting, and "specially effecting" these powerful images: How much time are we now spending in trances created by the activation of our unresolved memories. Studies at Stanford indicate that it took nearly 2 weeks for the nervous system of the average student to return to normal after watching one particulary violent movie. What are we exposing ourselves to?

 I wondered why I ceased reading the newspapers and watching the news over these last few years as my work with trauma survivors increased. Originally, I thought it was because I just couldn’t handle any more exposure to trauma in a given day. But I now realize that, as I became more sensitive to the nature of trauma induction, realizing that we have all encoded some trauma – realizing how sensitive our nervous systems really are, I could not continue even passively "creating" these images indiscriminately within my mind. Now I realize that our television programs are feeding more and more on our unresolved traumas: programs recording the traumas of others – arrests, shootings, nightmares, beatings: live police arrests, violent constraint of individuals, treating people as "objects" are not the subject of "entertainment." Nearly every major trauma, particularly a global one, is an instant movie. At this point in time, the greatest money-producing film of all time is "Titanic" – a traumatic event of such magnitude that only the beauty and love of its roles came close to eclipsing the vivid images of death; the heroics gave some meaning to death -- a consolation.

Nevertheless, let us understand: the quantum mind is not "passive" – it creates! It creates in the fullness of the meaning. In our technological evolution, we are closer to the images; the images are clearer; they sound better – they are digital; they "fool" our senses better than ever before. But most of all: it is all happening within us. We court within our minds the images we entertain: there is an intercourse with every image we admit to our heightened senses, and there is an energy shift. Fantasy, day-dreaming are light self-hypnotic states in which we alter our states of consciousness. This can be good, healthy, wonderful … but what are we loving? We become like that which we love. Here is the question of responsibility for ourselves, our children, our media resources we let so easily into our homes. Here is the question of the media’s own ethical resposibility not to abuse the right to free expression? The media is close to it’s sensationalizing Waterloo. Papparozzi: are they the prostitutes of the human right to free speech? The question becomes: are we being violated … and without even knowing it?

In light of what we are now learning about the nervous system, each thought holds a creative power. My clients produce a pain sensation in my hands the instant they recognize the memory and their nervous system begins to recreate the trance state of the originally encoded trauma. The trance emanates outward from the physical body … it causes me pain. It’s a heavy, dense energy … it can be felt at quite a distance from the physical body. Understand, therefore, that the continuous stimulation of our individual and collective energies is having an impact – the continuous stimulation of our pain and trauma triggers will give rise to an increased effort in our society to medicate: an increase in addictions and other efforts to cope as our pain centers are stimulated and restimulated. Resources must be provided for the resolution of our trauma memories so that we can no longer be stimulated or our attention held captive by such "triggers." With our memories resolved, there would be no "sympathetic resonance." Gary Zukav in his book, The Seat of the Soul, indicated that humankind has largely evolved unconsciously from "unconscious intentionality." Such is the product of a society living in continuous stimulation of its unconsciously encoded triggers. Perhaps we need to be more alert to what we admit into our minds, our homes, our thoughts. And perhaps we need to remove that which we have already collected inside so that we might no longer resonate with that which does not serve our spiritual evolution. We are so powerful … but how are we directing this power, this focus? Let us discuss these notions and their implications.