Religious Trauma Syndrome: How Some Organized Religion Leads to Mental Health Problems

reply to post by CornShucker

I liked the remark about the impossibility of the same man crossing a river twice. By the time he has reached the other shore, the river has moved on and he is no longer the same man...

I like that! Thanks for contributing to the thread.

reply to post by CornShucker


Wow. You just reminded me of a conversation with a friend I hadn't recalled for nearly twenty years. One of his favorite sayings was, "A man cannot cross the same river twice." Same meaning as what you describe. He was an extremely wise 14 year old. And I was a somewhat less wise 14 year old privileged to be his best friend.

Funny, I was just thinking of him and posted about him in another topic before I saw this. Thank-you so much for kindling the memory.

Sorry for the off topic post, but had to thank you for that. Peace.

Originally posted by AceWombat04
reply to post by CornShucker

 

Wow. You just reminded me of a conversation with a friend I hadn't recalled for nearly twenty years. One of his favorite sayings was, "A man cannot cross the same river twice." Same meaning as what you describe. He was an extremely wise 14 year old. And I was a somewhat less wise 14 year old privileged to be his best friend.

Funny, I was just thinking of him and posted about him in another topic before I saw this. Thank-you so much for kindling the memory.

Sorry for the off topic post, but had to thank you for that. Peace.

Hope it's not OT to reply, but thanks for the nod. Synchronicity always makes me smile when I bump into it.

reply to post by CornShucker

It's okay. The thread has kind of run its course. But, thanks for reading it, friends.

But actually, I just was looking at Wrabbit's thread about young Tsarnaev and his older brother (the suspects in the Boston case).
I'd call the story we've heard so far about them a case of Religious Trauma Syndrome. Tragic.

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by CornShucker

 

It's okay. The thread has kind of run its course. But, thanks for reading it, friends.

But actually, I just was looking at Wrabbit's thread about young Tsarnaev and his older brother (the suspects in the Boston case).
I'd call the story we've heard so far about them a case of Religious Trauma Syndrome. Tragic.

I'm still spiritual. I still have faith. In fact, I'm still a born again Christian. What's sad is that very few churches would agree with me. I paid attention while I attended. Prayer doesn't have to be public, in fact we're admonished not to be prideful about it.

As far as I'm concerned, things have become so muddied with the kind of crap that just comes from human nature that organized religion is 50/50, at best. If it plays a positive role in someone's life without making them a drag on anyone else's then it is a good thing. That seems to be the exception instead of the rule, though.

Man seems to be hardwired to the awareness that there is more. Religion is an attempt to understand what, but I believe there are some things beyond Man's understanding. On a forum I used to frequent, another member that I'd had frequent disagreements with actually came to my defense in a thread on religion because the guy taking the other side of the debate is a physicist. I'd made the argument that the word "mystery" is in the dictionary for a reason and I am sanguine with that. He'd made the remark that apparently his "awe factor" was a lot higher than mine.

There's a good Ted Talk by a guy who goes into how some have made science their new religion but stubbornly refuse to call it that.

Are you familiar with EMDR? I've been reading up on it lately. It is already in use with PTSD therapy.

It could have true value for someone dealing with the shame, trauma, shunning and abuse from organized religion.
There was a time when they thought the visual cortex only had a very small "window of opportunity" during very early childhood and then it lost its plasticity. Turns out it isn't as static as they thought.

For the layman, I can give a simple comparison... In "old days", Radio Shack's hard disk for the TRS-80 had a reputation for being a bit flaky. The drive wouldn't actually go bad, but a file that was accessed often would become unreliable. Apparently it just had to do with spots where the magnetivity(sp?) started to get weak. The usual fix was a batch that looked like this (I NEVER had a customer do this... ):
copy customer.dat customer.sav
del customer.dat
ren customer.sav customer.dat

That moved the data to a fresh spot on the drive and you were good to go for a few more months(or less..).

EMDR does something similar. By taking specific memories and having the client focus on hand movements while thinking of the incident, it can help break the cycle of repetitive trauma associated with a particular memory.

reply to post by CornShucker


EXACTLY. Yes, I'm familiar with EMDR - my mother was a certified EMDR therapist for years, and it is proven effective, especially with PTSD and similar "trauma" related problems.

Thanks for bringing it up. Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing. It's been around for a while now, and is a "specialty" that only some practitioners know how to use. I'd highly recommend it for anyone seeking help with past trauma.

reply to post by CornShucker

Precisely!
I just a few moments ago stated my case in another thread:

"The research is showing that people and the studied animals are born with morality. It is possible that is due to whatever Created us arranging for the brain's wiring.

I cannot and will not refute that, because I don't know "why" morality exists innately, but, in fact, it DOES exist innately.
Remember, I am not an Atheist, logical7. But my stance is firm, that a person who is never exposed to "religion" can be every bit as moral and good as someone raised with "religion."

My problem with "religion" is that it also has the ability to produce violence and hatred and intolerance in otherwise "normally" wired human beings.

I have lived a life based on my own integrity and desire to be helpful. It is part of who I am - and I'm fine with saying and accepting that it is a "Divine Spark" that dwells within me and is part of my soul - where that "Spark" came from is the unknowable reality, but I DO know that I had a loving mother and father, who nurtured and cared for me -- and parenting is the foremost 'teacher' for us.
Next to parenting, experience and observation molds a child into who they will be.

I believe that LOVE is that "Divine Spark". Religion IS NOT what instills LOVE into people; obviously religion just as readily instills violence, hatred and injustice. Therefore, religion is unnecessary for a person to be good and loving."
I'm in agreement with you.
Here's that thread: www.abovetopsecret.com... if you'd like to have a look at it. It's been interesting and lively along the same lines as this one.

Originally posted by wildtimes
I believe that LOVE is that "Divine Spark". Religion IS NOT what instills LOVE into people; obviously religion just as readily instills violence, hatred and injustice. Therefore, religion is unnecessary for a person to be good and loving."
I'm in agreement with you.

Here's that thread: www.abovetopsecret.com... if you'd like to have a look at it. It's been interesting and lively along the same lines as this one.

edit on 2-5-2013 by wildtimes because: (no reason given)

A lot of reading to do on that other thread. Interesting so far. I have a lot more to read.

To your point of Love being the true answer, I've upset more fundamentalist friends (than I) in the past by questioning the actual message that Jesus had was too simple to allow him to live. Loving others as you love yourself doesn't require priests or temples. You can follow pretty well all of HIS teachings without a structured church even existing. If everyone looked at it like the peanut butter jar of the ocean used in Venice Bloodworth's "Key To Yourself" (based on Jung's principle of the Universal Consciousness) example, then we'd all understand the connection to our fellow brothers and sisters and there would BE no need for religion.

Originally posted by wildtimes

Winell: Religion causes trauma when it is highly controlling and prevents people from thinking for themselves and trusting their own feelings. Groups that demand obedience and conformity produce fear, not love and growth. With constant judgment of self and others, people become alienated from themselves, each other, and the world. Religion in its worst forms causes separation.

Thanks for quoting this stunningly accurate and profound description of what religion is. Of course, the above applies to almost all religions.

Religion relies first and formostly on control due to the fact that it means "forcing" people into the belief of others by "belonging" into a certain religious group.

This is in extreme contrast to spirituality where the individual person needs to experience, learn and grow BY THEMSELVES. Religion does indeed attempt to hinder people to experience "real "truth" by themselves, and it does that because it is a power structure that cannot simply tell people "you don't need a church or priest to experience god/the creator"...because doing so would mean to lose power and authority...OBVIOUSLY...

(Similar as a teacher who would tell his children they don't require a teacher/school).

The fact that religion alienates and in fact is responsible for that we, as humans, actually lost the genuine connection to ourselves, our origin/purpose etc....well nicely said.

The kicker is, one cannot "find" god or the greater meaning and purpose of life without this effort on your own. You MUST trust your feelings and must think for yourself to find god. Therefore, religion is as "Anti God" and "Anti Truth" as it can even get. I know it might sound outrageous (I notice you saw the need to apologize multiple times for your posting, why??) - but IN MY OPINION....institutionalized religion has MUCH more to do with the devil than it has to do with god. This is my true opinion and if one opens their eyes to see, they will realize this sooner or later.