The Liminalist # 118.5: Becoming Conscious of Being Unconscious (with Aaron Soma)

Part two of a conversation with Aaron Soma, on discovering trauma in the body, a somatic intervention, beneath the mind, False Memory Syndrome, the body doesn’t lie, a combination of trauma & taboo, Whitley Strieber and how trauma becomes a literary industry, the realm of phantasy, archetypal imagery, making the abuser good and the self bad, a vision of Jesus, escaping the original assault, the psychic self-care system, the two faces of the guardian, Christ & Antichrist, the struggle for wholeness, a hyper-religious child, Judaism, an ancestral heritage, circumcision as ritual abuse, internalized sexual shame, intimacy & libido, ancestral possession via sexual abuse, poison containers, disowned fragments, a journey towards authenticity, a no-identity self, ancestral mannerisms, sequencing, energy loss, a preordained universe, becoming conscious of being unconscious, imagining a trauma-free world, the challenge of parenting, screen-free child-rearing, figuring out how to live in the world.

Songs:  “The Kommema and his Religion” & “Of the Lakes,” by SunWalker;  “The Body Breaks” by Devendra Banhart; “Back from ’91” by Pete Lund.

2 thoughts on “The Liminalist # 118.5: Becoming Conscious of Being Unconscious (with Aaron Soma)”

  1. Incredible podcast….

    Enjoyed Mr. Soma’s story of rehabilitation from a an excess of orthodoxy. As a former body worker (therapist) myself, I too appreciate his understanding of the body’s strange somatic “recordings”.

    I wish him well in raising his children screen-less. I think the goal here is to allow the kids to develop their bodies and neurology without the confusing liminality of media.

    This being said, trauma is an inevitable problem of life and nature; learning to deal with it is a life skill. Some people do better than others.

    For an example of someone who doesn’t do a very good job, review Hamlet (the play). Hamlet’s coping mechanism from his trauma initiation (death of father, mother’s infidelity), results in a lot of people getting dead…

    Think what it would be had Hamlet been self-aware. He might of said to himself “These people are crazy, I’ve got to get the hell out of here; I’m going to France to get an apartment!”. Clearly this would’ve been a better choice. Instead, he festered within the trauma, acted upon his impulses, and magnified the tragedy!

    There was an interesting show on PBS about elephants in Africa whereby some herds were comprised only of elephants orphaned by poachers in the ivory trade. These herds, without an experienced matriarch by default, appointed the resident oldest orphan female as the leader.

    Her lack of experience put them perpetually at risk. Behaviors that would not be allowed in a herd with experienced matriarchs, were allowed in the orphan herd. Young, for example, were allowed to roam freely beyond the herd thereby being put at risk of lion attack; this would never be permitted in with a normal herd.

    I suspect we humans find ourselves in this “orphan herd” situation much of the time. For the long-lived elephants, the habitat imposes a relentless discipline. It cruelly punishes mistakes.

    If we find ourselves crippled from early trauma and orphaned in the world, we have no easy way to bridge the experience/wisdom deficit which will result in bad decisions. We unwittingly find ways to magnify the tragedy.

    I think this podcast, as well as so many others on Jasun’s website do a lot to help us orphans accumulate some wisdom to help us make better decisions.

    Thanks!

    RT

    Reply
    • thanks RT

      Think what it would be had Hamlet been self-aware. He might of said to himself “These people are crazy, I’ve got to get the hell out of here; I’m going to France to get an apartment!”

      LOL. Cue shot of Hamlet smoking a Gaullois at a Parisian cafe with Henry Miller. In a perfect world, there’d be no art.

      Reply

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