I can't even begin to describe how much this post hits home, and how meaningful it was to see myself written in your words. Thank you for sharing this; I feel a profound sense of being "seen" and a renewed desire to reclaim the parts of my soul that I've lost. I really appreciate your work, Julia. Thank you, again.
Chelsea, I'm so glad this resonated. I, too, am deeply familiar with the sensation you're describing of feeling seen through other people's words, it doesn't happen often but when it does happen, the comfort it provides is one-of-a-kind. It's the reason I write. To hear that you feel the same way about my words makes my heart flutter. The journey of soul retrieval is a beautiful one and I'm excited for you to continue on it....it's the most important work we can do here.
Hi Julia: I ALWAYS enjoy your emails (and look forward to them). I would love to experience a Shaman ritual to retrieve parts of my lost soul. They are so many unreputable people on the internet, I would hesitate to try and find one. Unfortunately, I don't have anyone to give me a recommendation. Can you recommend (at least) a resource where I could find like minded people who may be able to give a recommendation?
Hi Gina, thanks so much for the kind words! I've personally not undergone such ritual (without plant medicine) so I don't have any direct recommendations, perhaps reaching out to the author of the book I reference would be a good first avenue? She is legit and has a few online resources, as well as a (low key) Instagram presence through which you may be able to reach her directly. Hope this helps!
Great article, Julia! I especially liked your reference to the collective soul loss in this country as a source of the mental health epidemic.
That epidemic has a political manifestation. A significant portion of the collective American psyche is infected with fear, hate, irrationally, and a death wish. Some might call this energy Windigo.
I’m concerned that through some uncanny circumstances, the dark forces of hate and destructive will seize the levers of power after the next election.
I believe we are in this mess because industrial civilization forces us to live in ways that brutalize our Primal Being and drive it from consciousness--causing immense suffering in its absence.
Our Primal Being evolved over millions of years to live in emotionally bonded small groups, close to nature, and in contact with the spiritual essence that pervades the universe.
Primal Being is the soul modern people have lost. Will the worldwide spiritual awakening and reconnection with the core of our being be sufficient to save us?
Hi George, thanks for sharing your reflections! I think a lot about what you call "Primal Being" and how far modern life removes from it (and what the implications of that are). What do you mean when you say it forces us to "brutalize our Primal Being"?
Modern life brutalizes out Primal Being in many ways. It’s important to remember that humans are apes in total denial of our animalness! (An astounding, highly destructive delusion— too big to discuss here).
We are designed by evolution to live deeply embedded in nature. The fact that we are profoundly separated from nature is traumatic—some have proposed Nature Deficiency Disorder to describe the resultant suffering.
For example, all of our ape cousins live a leisurely life in harmony with the cycles of nature—night and day, etc. Even hunter-gatherer life was slow paced with people working 15 to 2O hours per day. And the work usually consisted of enjoyable group activity where social needs were met.
The regimented, clock-driven, high-pressure life involving interaction with other damaged people that we are not emotionally bonded with is brutalizing to our Primal Nature.
Our social emotions evolved over at least 8 millions years of living in small tight-nit groups in which we depended upon each other for survival. Strong pro-social emotions evolved which guided our behavior.
Remember that culture based on language and conceptual thought did not arise until—anthropologist guess—about 100,000 years ago, a blink of an eye in evolutionary time.
Think about this: our ancestors found food, raised kids, and survived the elements and predators, without a single thought in their heads! This shows a stunning degree of emotional and instinctual intelligence.
Anyway, pre-verbal group interaction required incredible emotional and perceptual sensitivity to body language, including facial expressions, to meet our emotional needs and stay on good terms with the people we depended on for survival.
This highly sensitive, intimacy-based operating system is a terrible hindrance in our anonymous, alienated culture and must be brutally repressed to prevent constant hurt feelings and unhelpful emotional reactivity.
The central problem is that we must repress Primal Mind to cope with modern life. Actually, this began long before modern times when we humans started living in our heads, in a culturally created reality based on language and conceptual thought. (The biblical story of the Fall—leaving Eden was brutalizing).
Our sensory, emotional, instinctual aliveness (including a felt sense of the numinous), has gradually decreased through the progressively alienating journey from pre-verbal primates, to hunter-gatherer humans, to agriculturalist, to hierarchical tribes and kingdoms, to industrial civilization.
Human animals are resilient, but modern conditions are intolerable, especially as traditional community support (as inadequate as it was from from a primal needs perspective) has been stripped away by industrialization.
There are only three options. (1) fit into society by major repression of Primal Nature, a zombie path taken by perhaps 60%. (It’s no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Krishnamurti).
(2) suffer emotionally, the path of sensitive people, including artists, addicts, and neurotics, perhaps 30% of the population who have serious problems adjusting to society.
(3) integrate Primal Mind into an ego that realizes it is the servant of Primal Mind and not it’s master. Perhaps 10% of people are on this path of spiritual awakening.
Sorry for the long answer but I was awake waiting for sleep. Lol! Plus, I’m passionate about this topic! I’m writing a book called, Primal Mind, Alcoholism, and Spiritual Awakening.
Keep up your great work, Julia, which I see as advancing the spiritual revolution!
I can't even begin to describe how much this post hits home, and how meaningful it was to see myself written in your words. Thank you for sharing this; I feel a profound sense of being "seen" and a renewed desire to reclaim the parts of my soul that I've lost. I really appreciate your work, Julia. Thank you, again.
Chelsea, I'm so glad this resonated. I, too, am deeply familiar with the sensation you're describing of feeling seen through other people's words, it doesn't happen often but when it does happen, the comfort it provides is one-of-a-kind. It's the reason I write. To hear that you feel the same way about my words makes my heart flutter. The journey of soul retrieval is a beautiful one and I'm excited for you to continue on it....it's the most important work we can do here.
This is just so beautifully and thoughtfully written. I really appreciate your efforts and your willingness to share. Thank you!
Jason, thank you for your kind words. They mean more than you know.
Hi Julia: I ALWAYS enjoy your emails (and look forward to them). I would love to experience a Shaman ritual to retrieve parts of my lost soul. They are so many unreputable people on the internet, I would hesitate to try and find one. Unfortunately, I don't have anyone to give me a recommendation. Can you recommend (at least) a resource where I could find like minded people who may be able to give a recommendation?
Hi Gina, thanks so much for the kind words! I've personally not undergone such ritual (without plant medicine) so I don't have any direct recommendations, perhaps reaching out to the author of the book I reference would be a good first avenue? She is legit and has a few online resources, as well as a (low key) Instagram presence through which you may be able to reach her directly. Hope this helps!
Great article, Julia! I especially liked your reference to the collective soul loss in this country as a source of the mental health epidemic.
That epidemic has a political manifestation. A significant portion of the collective American psyche is infected with fear, hate, irrationally, and a death wish. Some might call this energy Windigo.
I’m concerned that through some uncanny circumstances, the dark forces of hate and destructive will seize the levers of power after the next election.
I believe we are in this mess because industrial civilization forces us to live in ways that brutalize our Primal Being and drive it from consciousness--causing immense suffering in its absence.
Our Primal Being evolved over millions of years to live in emotionally bonded small groups, close to nature, and in contact with the spiritual essence that pervades the universe.
Primal Being is the soul modern people have lost. Will the worldwide spiritual awakening and reconnection with the core of our being be sufficient to save us?
The answer is blowing in the wind.
Hi George, thanks for sharing your reflections! I think a lot about what you call "Primal Being" and how far modern life removes from it (and what the implications of that are). What do you mean when you say it forces us to "brutalize our Primal Being"?
Modern life brutalizes out Primal Being in many ways. It’s important to remember that humans are apes in total denial of our animalness! (An astounding, highly destructive delusion— too big to discuss here).
We are designed by evolution to live deeply embedded in nature. The fact that we are profoundly separated from nature is traumatic—some have proposed Nature Deficiency Disorder to describe the resultant suffering.
For example, all of our ape cousins live a leisurely life in harmony with the cycles of nature—night and day, etc. Even hunter-gatherer life was slow paced with people working 15 to 2O hours per day. And the work usually consisted of enjoyable group activity where social needs were met.
The regimented, clock-driven, high-pressure life involving interaction with other damaged people that we are not emotionally bonded with is brutalizing to our Primal Nature.
Our social emotions evolved over at least 8 millions years of living in small tight-nit groups in which we depended upon each other for survival. Strong pro-social emotions evolved which guided our behavior.
Remember that culture based on language and conceptual thought did not arise until—anthropologist guess—about 100,000 years ago, a blink of an eye in evolutionary time.
Think about this: our ancestors found food, raised kids, and survived the elements and predators, without a single thought in their heads! This shows a stunning degree of emotional and instinctual intelligence.
Anyway, pre-verbal group interaction required incredible emotional and perceptual sensitivity to body language, including facial expressions, to meet our emotional needs and stay on good terms with the people we depended on for survival.
This highly sensitive, intimacy-based operating system is a terrible hindrance in our anonymous, alienated culture and must be brutally repressed to prevent constant hurt feelings and unhelpful emotional reactivity.
The central problem is that we must repress Primal Mind to cope with modern life. Actually, this began long before modern times when we humans started living in our heads, in a culturally created reality based on language and conceptual thought. (The biblical story of the Fall—leaving Eden was brutalizing).
Our sensory, emotional, instinctual aliveness (including a felt sense of the numinous), has gradually decreased through the progressively alienating journey from pre-verbal primates, to hunter-gatherer humans, to agriculturalist, to hierarchical tribes and kingdoms, to industrial civilization.
Human animals are resilient, but modern conditions are intolerable, especially as traditional community support (as inadequate as it was from from a primal needs perspective) has been stripped away by industrialization.
There are only three options. (1) fit into society by major repression of Primal Nature, a zombie path taken by perhaps 60%. (It’s no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Krishnamurti).
(2) suffer emotionally, the path of sensitive people, including artists, addicts, and neurotics, perhaps 30% of the population who have serious problems adjusting to society.
(3) integrate Primal Mind into an ego that realizes it is the servant of Primal Mind and not it’s master. Perhaps 10% of people are on this path of spiritual awakening.
Sorry for the long answer but I was awake waiting for sleep. Lol! Plus, I’m passionate about this topic! I’m writing a book called, Primal Mind, Alcoholism, and Spiritual Awakening.
Keep up your great work, Julia, which I see as advancing the spiritual revolution!
George
Thanks for sharing your perspective in more detail, George. Especially the categorization in the end resonates a lot.