Thank you so much once again to David Bedrick for sharing his insights and wisdom. I find what David has shared here to be so incredibly true. And needed.
One example: So many of us have friends and/or loved ones who have been pulled into the cult of QAnon. The deeper that I have researched QAnon, the more that I see the full range of adherents from New Agers to avid right wing Trump supporters. The one thing that explains this to me is trauma.
It makes so much sense that the focus on “save the children” arises out of a child within who once needed saving. And the lack of depth related to healing that childhood trauma is what I witness as the connecting link that makes countless people — and this certainly once also included myself — vulnerable to being pulled into belief systems which can appear to outsiders as deeply harmful and irrational. Our perspectives, however, change and deepen and expand as we look for the shared trauma under it all. At least this has certainly been my experience.
I’m incredibly grateful for the deeper understanding and compassion that David's insights and those of so many other wise souls offer. Rather than getting caught up in our judgments related to all kinds of fundamentalists and others who’ve lost their way, we can instead be empowered to recognize the trauma that underlies such harmful belief systems and actions.
And compassion is so needed in these times and the antidote to dehumanizing our fellow humans. As the Dalai Lama wisely states, “Compassion is the radicalism of our time.” So true, so true. — Molly
Did you know that trauma makes it more likely folks will turn to fundamentalisms and forms of spiritual bypass? Here's how.
Firstly, a traumatic event is often more powerful than anything we have experienced before; it is too big for us to cope with or to hold. In this way, it appears to be all powerful - omnipotent.
Secondly, the unyielding grip it has on our lives demands relief. As such, we are desperate for a kind of redemption - to be rescued, 'saved' from its torment.
Thirdly, wrestling with trauma leads us on a confused search for understanding, for meaning. It's impact transcends the mundane and all logic. It seems mysterious, numinous. In this way, our relationship with its impact may be interpreted as spiritual.
When we don't deal with our trauma directly, we abandon not only the terrifying and painful crisis, we also abandon ourselves. In this abandonment and trauma's seemingly spiritual dimension, we may reach out to a belief system that affords us some hope.
We grasp onto this belief with a religious zeal and are threatened by anything that calls that belief into question. We protect it with our lives, knowing somewhere inside of us that if the belief weren't there, we would fall back into trauma's abyss.
We become fundamentalists, proselytizing and ‘selling’ the insights, 'truths', and path that has saved us from our horror. However, in our blindness to our own pain, we also become blind to others. This is what I believe are the underlying dynamics of what is now called spiritual bypass.
— David Bedrick
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