In the last post, A’riquea talked about individuals and trauma. On the heels of the Thanksgiving holiday, it seems important to also hear what she has to say about historical trauma.

Historical trauma is a massive upheaval that is experienced both by individuals and by the collective group to which the individuals belong. Additionally, it is experienced not just by the group that is traumatized, but also by any group causing the trauma. Both the cause and the effect have wide and long-lasting effects. It occurs in the past but is carried forth across generations into the present by culture.

Native Americans, for example, did not just “lose the war.” They experienced mass extermination of their communities and their culture, much of which was carried out with intention over centuries. Black history, too, is full of the brutal trauma of slavery and loss of ancestry and person-hood. White Americans carried out these cruel actions against their fellow humans. All of this is our shared, collective history. 

Internationally, there was the persecution of the Jewish people in the Holocaust, which continues to have ripple effects all over the world, and now there is the mirror persecution and genocide of the Palestinians. Although women’s legal status has changed in many places, they carry the genocidal legacy of the Inquisition, and their bodies are still treated as public property and items of social economics. White males have their own kind of trauma history––created by the cultural cage of limited emotional expression and the brutality that males visit on each other. Obviously, every person has the opportunity to grow through these experiences, to see a broader context and choose compassion. But how does historical trauma fit with spiritual evolution?

A’riquea:*  Groups do have their own way of thinking, although this is not very visible. People in a group know that things are done in a certain way, but the reasons may not be clear. Many thoughts and behaviors keep group identity in place and offer stability. Hopefully, these thoughts and behaviors also promote growth.

When groups of people are traumatized, each person has to cope with the trauma, but there will also be a coping by the group. Just as there is the possibility of disagreement and dysfunction, there is also the opportunity for new ideas and more cohesive relationships. Trauma stretches the coping skills of the group. Anything not healed in one generation will be passed on to the next generation. There is always the opportunity to heal both the present and the past. This applies to individuals and to groups. 

It seems that trauma that is not healed and is passed on becomes less specific. The experience is less direct, and what is inherited is a feeling. People don’t know how to address these vague feelings of pain and discomfort. 

That is because the group has lost its place. The group has forgotten what specifically occurred. This can result in the pain getting attributed to the wrong cause. It can become generalized and develop into a victim culture. You are wondering why such a thing would be necessary or desirable in the scope of spiritual evolution. It is not necessary or desirable. It is human nature. It is the outcome of the difficulties that occur when spirits inhabit physical bodies. 

Every group has their own version of historical trauma. Some are more severe than others. But they all involve the need to redefine the group within the context of healing. There needs to be a return to balance. First there needs to be a desire to return to balance, which is a desire to return to a spirit-fueled life.  

Dysfunction occurs, for individuals and for a groups, when the coping mechanisms rely on an ego-driven life. For groups, leaders are important. The group will choose a leader who is either ego-driven or spirit-driven. Individuals will choose whether they will be head-driven or spirit-driven. It is all about the motivation for living. 

People may not have the same connections to the old ways that used to guide their choices. There may not be the spiritual elders available to guide them. But choosing to travel a spiritual path, even though it is amateur, is better than not choosing to travel a spiritual path. 

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*Traveling Light, Moving Our Awareness Beyond The Five Senses, p. 156 – 58.