Aloha kakoua,
I am making a separate discussion thread for this, which is very speculative. One thing I learned this weekend is that people in emergency situations are thrown into a sort of involuntary trance state (perhaps as a part of the "shock" people experience). So that if you come upon someone who has been injured, they are already very susceptible to suggestion. For example, you can tell them that their blood has done its job of cleansing the wound and can start clotting now, and this will very likely happen quickly.
So, what about psychic and emotional injury? Now, I am wondering about the "trance" states that resulted from the trauma of occupation, and which may still result from that -- for example, because the trauma is ongoing. No sooner do you get rid of one issue, then another one crops up. In fact, there are so many traumatic issues going on all at once, all over the place! Continuous stress, in other words, resulting from dire threats to the land, people, families, community, culture -- you name it. And we all know how bad stress is for you!
Does this continuous psychic (physical, economic, political, cultural, legal, etc.) assault on Kanaka Maoli create a kind of trauma trance "suggestibility" that makes it even easier to confuse or quash some folks? I mean, if you constantly are barraged with messages that are negative and threatening, do some of them lodge and damage you, even when you are doing your best to fight them off?
Could there be a value in deliberately going into trance for just a few minutes, everyday, to feed yourself positive, strengthening messages to counteract those that are being aimed at you and your community? If most everyone in an entire community took this on as a practice, would that community grow in strength and surety?
I feel as if Maoli are fighting so very hard, trying as hard as they can to stay strong and true -- and yet they are subjected to a constant, corrosive barrage of b.s. What tools are of value, what can help in a situation like this? Could ho'akaku be of use? Thoughts, anyone?
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This is a very interesting subject. In my opinion, I think the way that some people deal with trauma depends on the individual. Some people have a very strong deep conscious and no matter what happens to them, things can be suggested to them which don't mesh with their core beliefs, and those suggestions can be completely repelled by them. However, I can see how in the very early moments of post-trauma that any person can get lost or thrown off - depending on the situation. Somehow, even in these situations though, some people still have the ability to make the right decisions. It's like these people have a survival mechanism which causes them to react in an almost super-human way. In fact, I would think that most people have this ability - it's like a hardwired human capability that we've all had to develop through evolution.
As for how this works on a large scale and over time with large groups of people, its sounds like what you are saying is that the collective sub-conscious can be effected by some kind of mass trauma. I think it's important in thinking of this though to really look at what is "trauma." I think if you look at what is happening today, the things happening to the Hawaiian people are no longer really "traumatizing." What we go through today is something really bad, but traumatizing I think is a word reserved for much more extraordinary circumstances. The events of the past certainly were traumatizing though, especially during the time when Hawaiians were dying off in the 10s of thousands back in the 1800s and another majorly traumatizing event was having our entire country stolen. Throughout these circumstances, however, I think what I was talking about earlier - about how some people have the ability to tap into a type of survival mechanism, was very strong during this time period. This can be reflected in some of the decision making that was happening during this time - the way the Hawaiian people got together and signed the Ku`e petitions and how Queen Liliu dealt legally with the U.S. and whatnot. When we Hawaiians are currently going through all of our struggles, I don't know about anyone else, by I am constantly amazed at the clear mindedness in which actions were carried out by Hawaiians and how their actions were so perfect in so many ways that we can now built an incredibly strong foundation on these actions today.
However, I think if you really elongate the process of trauma and you think about what takes place long after and think of how truly traumatizing events have effected our people, it's possible to see how its effects have been passed down through the generations and I think this does effect us today. In combination with the active efforts made by outside communities to reorder the way we Hawaiians think, I think we can think of many instances where people were acting in a post trauma way. I think you can parallel what has happened to the Hawaiian people with what happens in families when there is physical abuse. Someone can get totally beat up by a bad spouse, make all the right decisions so that they can survive that beating, but what happens when you have somehow lost your right to get a divorce and you can't get the bastard out of your house? How does a person act to continue to survive in the long run? How much of that person's actions become not as strong minded over time knowing that for no fault of their own, they could be put in serious danger again? This person's actions over time might be a lot less rational than the actions that person took in the early moments after trauma, and through no type of trance state, but in a state of total consciousness, the actual core beliefs that people have can begin to be reordered. This makes it so that in a condition which is not even really traumatizing, a person can begin to act irrationally.
So - to summarize - I think that our actions are effected by past trauma's, and that our thinking in one way or another, because of the inheritance of that trauma and because an effort has been made to continue to oppress us, has become irrational at times. I don't think, however, that we enter new post-tramatic trance states today through political actions that are being taken against us.
However, I do believe that individual Hawaiian people experience true trauma in their personal lives, which hurts our collective forward progress, which I believe is a result of our whole society's past trauma. I also believe that what you are saying about going into trance for a few minutes everyday to deliberately feed ourselves positive strengthening messages may also be very helpful. This goes back to that reordering of our deep conscious, both so that we can be strong if we need to react positively in a truly traumatizing situation and also so that in the long term process, we can heal ourselves and become more rational in all that we do. In addition to hypnosis, I can think of a lot of things people could do to heal themselves and I actually see our collective taking these steps. These include educating ourselves and making efforts to unite our community and also our continued effort to protest our situation.
Waihili > Kelea K. Levy-SandfortMarch 22, 2009 at 2:30pm
Aloha e Kelea,
Wow!!! I love your thoughtfulness and what you bring to every conversation! Thank you so much for posting the above.
I agree that there are a lot of healing things happening now - and they can be seen in the acceleration of activism and consciousness - yeah!
With regard to multi-generational trauma I will say my thinking has been greatly influenced by Nyrell Pattel (I gave you her piece the other night) and Andrea Smith, author of "Conguest- Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide." In particular Smith quotes Agnes Williams with regard to the term "ethno-stress" and then goes on to explain it as "the reality of our situation as Native Women, which is directly related to the process of colonization, sexual violence, dehumanization, and marginalizing who we are." I realize Smith is writing about folks here in the continental U.S., but there is some parallel, I think.
However, you are totally right to be emphasizing the individual and collective strength, wisdom and courage which is really rising and strong -- nearing, I think, the "tipping point." There is no doubt in my mind that the kingdom will be restored by this collective action, and perhaps even sooner than you expect.
Looking forward to more!
Amy
Replies
This is a very interesting subject. In my opinion, I think the way that some people deal with trauma depends on the individual. Some people have a very strong deep conscious and no matter what happens to them, things can be suggested to them which don't mesh with their core beliefs, and those suggestions can be completely repelled by them. However, I can see how in the very early moments of post-trauma that any person can get lost or thrown off - depending on the situation. Somehow, even in these situations though, some people still have the ability to make the right decisions. It's like these people have a survival mechanism which causes them to react in an almost super-human way. In fact, I would think that most people have this ability - it's like a hardwired human capability that we've all had to develop through evolution.
As for how this works on a large scale and over time with large groups of people, its sounds like what you are saying is that the collective sub-conscious can be effected by some kind of mass trauma. I think it's important in thinking of this though to really look at what is "trauma." I think if you look at what is happening today, the things happening to the Hawaiian people are no longer really "traumatizing." What we go through today is something really bad, but traumatizing I think is a word reserved for much more extraordinary circumstances. The events of the past certainly were traumatizing though, especially during the time when Hawaiians were dying off in the 10s of thousands back in the 1800s and another majorly traumatizing event was having our entire country stolen. Throughout these circumstances, however, I think what I was talking about earlier - about how some people have the ability to tap into a type of survival mechanism, was very strong during this time period. This can be reflected in some of the decision making that was happening during this time - the way the Hawaiian people got together and signed the Ku`e petitions and how Queen Liliu dealt legally with the U.S. and whatnot. When we Hawaiians are currently going through all of our struggles, I don't know about anyone else, by I am constantly amazed at the clear mindedness in which actions were carried out by Hawaiians and how their actions were so perfect in so many ways that we can now built an incredibly strong foundation on these actions today.
However, I think if you really elongate the process of trauma and you think about what takes place long after and think of how truly traumatizing events have effected our people, it's possible to see how its effects have been passed down through the generations and I think this does effect us today. In combination with the active efforts made by outside communities to reorder the way we Hawaiians think, I think we can think of many instances where people were acting in a post trauma way. I think you can parallel what has happened to the Hawaiian people with what happens in families when there is physical abuse. Someone can get totally beat up by a bad spouse, make all the right decisions so that they can survive that beating, but what happens when you have somehow lost your right to get a divorce and you can't get the bastard out of your house? How does a person act to continue to survive in the long run? How much of that person's actions become not as strong minded over time knowing that for no fault of their own, they could be put in serious danger again? This person's actions over time might be a lot less rational than the actions that person took in the early moments after trauma, and through no type of trance state, but in a state of total consciousness, the actual core beliefs that people have can begin to be reordered. This makes it so that in a condition which is not even really traumatizing, a person can begin to act irrationally.
So - to summarize - I think that our actions are effected by past trauma's, and that our thinking in one way or another, because of the inheritance of that trauma and because an effort has been made to continue to oppress us, has become irrational at times. I don't think, however, that we enter new post-tramatic trance states today through political actions that are being taken against us.
However, I do believe that individual Hawaiian people experience true trauma in their personal lives, which hurts our collective forward progress, which I believe is a result of our whole society's past trauma. I also believe that what you are saying about going into trance for a few minutes everyday to deliberately feed ourselves positive strengthening messages may also be very helpful. This goes back to that reordering of our deep conscious, both so that we can be strong if we need to react positively in a truly traumatizing situation and also so that in the long term process, we can heal ourselves and become more rational in all that we do. In addition to hypnosis, I can think of a lot of things people could do to heal themselves and I actually see our collective taking these steps. These include educating ourselves and making efforts to unite our community and also our continued effort to protest our situation.
Wow!!! I love your thoughtfulness and what you bring to every conversation! Thank you so much for posting the above.
I agree that there are a lot of healing things happening now - and they can be seen in the acceleration of activism and consciousness - yeah!
With regard to multi-generational trauma I will say my thinking has been greatly influenced by Nyrell Pattel (I gave you her piece the other night) and Andrea Smith, author of "Conguest- Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide." In particular Smith quotes Agnes Williams with regard to the term "ethno-stress" and then goes on to explain it as "the reality of our situation as Native Women, which is directly related to the process of colonization, sexual violence, dehumanization, and marginalizing who we are." I realize Smith is writing about folks here in the continental U.S., but there is some parallel, I think.
However, you are totally right to be emphasizing the individual and collective strength, wisdom and courage which is really rising and strong -- nearing, I think, the "tipping point." There is no doubt in my mind that the kingdom will be restored by this collective action, and perhaps even sooner than you expect.
Looking forward to more!
Amy