THE

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Daniel Goleman

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Candace Pert

Gary Small ,Lynne Mc'Iaggart

__ Jeanne Achterberg

Dr. Peter Levine, author of Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma: The InnateCapacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences, asks the compellingquestion: What do meditation, sex, death, and trauma have in common,and how are they all related to enlightenment? Explaining his discoveriesfrom decades of study, Dr, Levine provides compelling evidence aboutthe interrelated nature of trauma and spiritual states, noting that thevery brain structures that are central to experiencing trauma alsomediate "mystical" and "spiritual" states, In a series of fascina~ingconnections rooted in clinical research and science, he also uses animalbehavior to analyze the nature of human trauma and spirituality,

Trauma and Spirituality'PETER LEVINE, PH,O,2~.If you bring forth that which is within you,Then that which is within youWill be your salvation.If you do not bring forth that which is within you,Then that which is within youWill destroy you. -the Gnostic Gospels

In working with traumatized individuals for nearly forty years,I have been struck by the intrinsic and wedded relationshipbetween trauma and spirituality. From my earliest experienceswith clients suffering from a daunting array of crippling symp-toms, I have been privileged to witness profound and authentictransformations. As these individuals mastered the traumas

TRAUMA AND SPIRITUALITY 85

ofactsciaspe:in

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. that had haunted them-emotionally, physically, and psycho-logically-unexpected "side effects" appeared. Seemingly out·of nowhere, these surprises included ecstatic joy, exquisite clar-ity, effortless focus, and an all-embracing sense of oneness. Inaddition, my clients described deep and abiding experiences ofcompassion, peace, and wholeness. While many of these indi-viduals realized the classic goals of enduring personality andbehavioral changes, the transcendent "side effects" were sim-ply too potent and robust to overlook. I have been compelledto follow these exciting and elusive enigmas with wonder andcuriosity for many decades.

For this chapter, I've elected to chronicle this mysterious jour-ney of inquiry: a passage which has been clinical, scientific, andpersonal (including an exploration of diverse spiritual traditions).About two months after the lunar landing in 1969, an unex-pected event occurred that changed my.worldview, in a way thatseemed no less significant to me than the images of the Earthseen perched upon the moon's horizon. A chance encounter initi-ated an exploration into the nature of how instinctual reactionslie at the root of human trauma. It also brought to light the evo-lution of a therapeutic methodology.' This approach enrolled theorganic processes of invigorating resilience and restoring naturalequilibrium. It promoted self-healing and catalyzed transforma-tions, which could be described as "spiritual."

This story began when a psychiatrist, aware of my keen interestin the nascent new fields of stress and mind/body healing, referredone of his patients to me. "Nancy," who had been sufferingfrom frequent migraines, hyperthyroidism, and fatigue, was alsoplagued by chronic pain" and debilitating PMS. Her difficultlife was further diminished by severe panic-anxiety attacks and"agoraphobia" that kept her tied to home.

I had been developing some body-oriented relaxation/stress-reduction procedures that the psychiatrist thought might be

86 PETER LEVINE, PH.D.

beneficial to her.' They were not. On the contrary, they ledher straight into a major panic attack. At first I had helped herbecome aware of, and then learn to release, her chronically tenseneck muscles. She seemed to be relaxing deeply. Her heartrate dropped and her (shallow) breathing deepened. However,moments later she became extremely agitated; her heart rate'shot up, pounding wildly, to about 150 beats per minute. Herbreath was rapid and she was gasping erratically. Then, abruptly,she froze in terror. As I watched helplessly, her face turneddeathly white, her' fingers icy blue. She appeared paralyzed andbarely able to breathe. Herheartseemed to almost stop, drop-ping precipitously to about 50 beats per minute." Fighting myown impending panic, I was at a loss as to what to do. '-,",\,

"I'm dying; don't let me die," Nancy pleaded in a small; taut ~voice. "Help me, help me ... please don't let me die." Suddenly,in my mind's eye, a dream-like image appeared. A crouchingtiger, preparing to strike, materialized out of the far wall of theroom. "Run, Nancy ... a tiger is chasing you," I commanded.without thinking. "Climb those rocks and escape." Bewilderedby my own outburst, I gazed in amazement as Nancy's legsbegan to tremble, then undulate in what appeared to be sponta- \neous running movements. Her whole body started shaking, firvs\convulsively, then more softly. As the shaking subsided (over the .'better part of an hour), she experienced a feeling ofpeacefulnessthat, in her words, "held her inwarm, tingling waves."

Later, Nancy reported that during the session she had seennightmarish images of herself as a four-year-old child, strug-gling to escape the grasp of doctors who held her down inorder to administer ether anesthesia for a "routine" tonsil-lectomy. Until that moment, she recounted, this event hadbeen "long forgotten." To my utter amazement these unusualgyrations turned Nancy's life around. Many of her symptomsimproved significantly and some disappeared altogether. The

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panic attack that occurred during the session was her last,and there were also dramatic improvements in her chronicfatigue, migraines, and menstrual symptoms (which I notedwhile following her for two more years until her graduation).In addition, she reported that she "felt more aliveand happierthan [she] could remember."

OBSERVATION

toacquire knowledge, one must study;but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. -Marilyn vosSavant.. ("Highest IQ" since 1986, Guinness Book of World Records)

The astonishing event with Nancy initiated a search that turnedinto my life's work. I was struck, of course, by the dramaticabatement of her symptoms, the intensity of her positive feel-ings,and her sense of aliveness and wholeness. I was alsosurprised by my "hallucination" and gripped by a curiosityabout its effects on her physiological responses. I recognizedthat my vision, which prompted the spontaneous commandfor Nancy to run, was informed by some study material onpredator/prey encounters from a class I was attending at thattime. This zoology class in comparative animal behavior hadbeen taught from the perspective of evolutionary biology andethology (the scientific observation of animals in their naturalenvironments). Simultaneously, I was developing a keen inter-est in brain physiology, most particularly those areas involvedwith stress and the autonomic nervous system. I realized Ineeded to learn more in order to make sense of Nancy's death-like descent, rapid recovery, and improbable transformation. Ibegan a journey of a thousand steps by ensconcing myself deepin the musty stacks of the graduate library, learning what ani-mal behavior and brain physiology might suggest about suchvigorous resilience.

88 PETER LEVINE, PH.D.

In the investigation that followed, I came across two forma-tive scientific papers that laid a foundation for the dual pillarsof my inquiry: naturalistic observation and the physiology oftranscendent states. The first article was a transcript of theacceptance speech of the ethologist Nikolas Tinbergen, recip-ient of the 1973 Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology."Tinbergen, whose life's work was to pioneer the observationof animals in their natural environments, implored scientiststo observe human behaviors as they occurred naturally (asopposed to under the "controlled" conditions of the labo-ratory). As I continued to see other trauma sufferers in theyears following Nancy, I was inspired to hold to this essentialprinciple of "raw" observation of peoples' bodies. It echoedthe message of my childhood baseball hero, Yogi Berra(the catcher for the New York Yankees, circa 1950s), whoquipped, "You can observe a lot just by looking." And so, Idid just that.

Because the formal diagnosis of trauma, as Post TraumaticStress Disorder (PTSD in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manualof Mental Disorders III), was still over a decade away, I didn'thave a preformulated set of pathological criteria to distractme. I was freer to observe in the tradition of Tinbergen and theethologists. From this vantage point, and without a premeditatedlist of symptoms, I was able to monitor my clients' bodily reac-tions and self-reports as I participated in their transformativeprocess of healing. I began to recognize that as a group, theywere manifesting physiological responses similar to reactions ofthe animal prey that I had been reading about. Observationsof an~mals ~hd discussions with ethologists", veterinarians, zoo-keepers, and wildlife managers confirmed my hypothesis thatthese responses represented the resolution of stress followingpredator-prey encounters. The highly charged reactions includedshaking, trembling, and dramatic changes in temperature, heart

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rate, and respiration. In both animals and humans, I was toinfer that these involuritary physiological reactions restored theirequilibrium and promoted a relaxed readiness, an aptitude thatis cultivated in Zen and martial arts such as aikido. The physi-ological reactions deactivated the intense arousal associated withthe survival actions of "fight or flight."

My clients frequently had endured decades of frozen suf-fering before being able to restore their equilibrium. Withsupport and guidance, they were able to "discharge" and"thaw," releasing powerful "survival energies." In sortingthrough these types of involuntary, energetic, and deeplymoving experiences, I realized that their reactions manifestedwhat was right and normal-rather than what was wrong andpathological. In other words, they exhibited innate self-regulatingand self-healing processes, similar to animals in the wild. Andas the animals went on about their business after such dis-charge reactions, so too did my clients re-engage into life withrenewed passion, appreciation, and acceptance.

In addition to my role as observer, I learned to engage myclients in becoming aware of their bodily sensations and thentracking them during these spontaneous reactions. In ourshared efforts, my clients were consistently able to engageand transform their traumas. At the same time, they fre-quently touched into a variety of experiences that I learnedto appreciate as spiritual encounters, such as Nancy's feel-ings of aliveness, joy, and wholeness. In moving toward anunderstanding of this intrinsic relationship between trauma("survival energy") and spirituality, I was excited to comeacross the second formative article, published in the presti-gious journal Science, by Roland Fisher. Together with theTinbergen transcript, a surprising and unexpected tenetemerged: that spiritual experience is welded with our mostprimitive animal instincts.

90 .PETER LEVINE, PH.D.

TRANSCENDENTAL STATESYour deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding,the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings.

-Rumi, "Bird wings"

Roland Fischer's article, titled "A Cartography of the Ecstaticand Meditative States,"? described a schema for showingthe association of various parasympathetic and sympathetic(autonomic-instinctual) activities with mystical and meditativeexperiences. While the details of his work are well beyond thescope of this short chapter, suffice it to say that I suspectedhis view of the psychophysiological underpinning of variousmystical states paralleled the range of "transpersonal" experi-ences that my clients were encountering as they unwound andreleased their traumas.

Trauma represents a profound compression of ("survival")energy: energy that has not been able to complete its mean-ingful course of action. When in the therapeutic session, thisenergy is gradually released (the term I use is "titration") andthen redirected, one observes (in a softer and less frighteningform) the kinds of reactions I observed with Nancy. At thesame time, the numinous qualities of these experiences con-sistently integrate into the personality structure. The ability toaccess the rhythmic release of this bound energy makes all thedifference as to whether it will destroy or vitalize us.

Primitive survival responses engage extraordinary feats offocused attention and effective action. The mother who lifts thecar off of her trapped child mobilizes vast (almost superhuman)survival energy. These same energies, when experienced throughtitrated body-sensing, can also open to feelings of ecstasy and bliss.The ownership of these primordial "oceanic" energies promotesembodied transformation and (as suggested in Fischer's method-ology) the experience of "timelessness" and "presence" known in

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meditation as "the eternal now." In addition, it appears that thevery brain structures that are central to the resolution of trauma.are also pivotal in various "mystical" and "spiritual" states.

In the East, the awakening of Kundalini at the first (or "sur-vival") chakra has long been known to be a vehicle for initiatingecstatic transformation. In trauma, a similar activation is pro-voked, but with such intensity and rapidity that it overwhelmsthe organism. If we can gradually access and reintegrate thisenergy into our nervous system and psychic structures, then thesurvival response imbedded within trauma can also catalyzeauthentic spiritual transformation. In a practical sense, gradualtherapeutic movement in this direction provides a vital resourcefor helping people engage back into life after the devastationof trauma.

As I began to explore the relationship between trauma-transformation and the Kundalini experience, I searched forconfirmation of this connection. Around that time I met a physi-cian named Lee Sannella in Berkeley, California. He shared withme a large compilation of notes he had taken about individualswho were experiencing spontaneous "Kundalini awakenings."I was intrigued by how similar many of these reactions wereto those of my clients. Dr. Sannella's notes formed the basisfor his valuable book, The Kundalini Experience: Psychosisor Transcendencei'? This phenomenon has been described bygreat contemporary adepts such as Gopi Krishna." In addi-tion, the book by e.G. Jung titled The Psychology of KundaliniYoga12 (based on a 1932 seminar) gives an erudite expositionbut concludes, ironically, that Kundalini is unlikely to ever beexperienced in the West. However, Jung goes on to say: "Thelife of feeling is that primordial region of the psyche that is mostsensitive to the religious encounter." The essence of religiousexperience is an act of feeling the animating force-spiritus-within the lived encounter. When my clients experienced this

92 P.ETER LEVINE, PH.D.

elan vital surging forth from within them, it was not surprisingthat they also encountered aspects of the religious experience.

Over the years I had the opportunity to show some videosof my clients' sessions to Kundalini teachers from India. Thesewere wonderful exchanges. The yoga masters, with genuine anddisarming humility, seemed as interested in my observations asI was in their vast knowledge and intrinsic "knowing."

"Symptoms" frequently described in Kundalini awakeningsmay involve involuntary and spasmodic body movements, pain, .tickling, itching, vibrations, trembling, hot and cold alterna-tions, changed breathing patterns, paralysis, crushing pressure,insomnia, hypersensitivity to environment, synethesia, unusualor extremes of emotions, intensified sex drive, sensations ofphysical expansion, dissociation, and out-of-body experiences,as well as hearing "inner" sounds such as roaring, whistling,and chirping. These sensations associated with Kundaliniawakenings are often more forceful and explosive than thoseI observed with my clients. As I developed my methodology(called Somatic Experiencing="), I learned to help clients grad-ually "touch into" their bodily sensations so that they wererarely overwhelmed. In general, focusing inward and becomingcurious about one's inner sensations allow people to experiencea subtle 'inner shift, a slight contraction, vibration, tingling,relaxation, and sense of openness. I have named this alterna-tion of feelings of dread, rage, or whatever one likes to avoid,and "befriending" one's internal sensations, pendulation (anintrinsic rhythm pulsing between the experienced polarities ofcontraction and expansion/openness). Once people learn to dothis, "infinite" emotional pain begins to feel manageable andfinite. This allows their attitude to shift from dread and help-lessness to curiosity and exploration.

The mystical text, the Hermetic Kybalion, says, "Everythingflows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and

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