Why Is the Unconscious So Mysterious?

I know why. As one blogger put it: the body keeps fighting to tell me what happened in my life but my brain/cortex keeps fighting back and refuses to hear. It is not a willful refusal. The cortex just whips into action when pain levels get too high. And it reaches over and down into the limbic structures to keep them at bay, spritzing chemicals here and there to make sure feelings don’t get out of hand. Sometimes, that doesn’t work; feelings do get out of hand, and what do doctors do? They reach into their pharmacy for more of the very same chemicals (SSRI’s) that are lacking in the person, dosing him up so that feelings are again in control. Never seeing that those feelings, when under proper care, are liberating. All the person knows is that she is anxious; what the doctor and she do not know is that it comes from deep in the brain and needs exit in slow methodical ways. If they both only see anxiety then they are both lost. If they understand what it is, then they are on the track for proper resolution of the problem.

Generally, it is often the troublesome first line brainstem memories/ imprints that fight their way to the top, only to be put down again. And these memories rise with no words to them nor any scenes from childhood. They emerge from the dark depths where no words exist nor ever existed. They are pure forces, amorphous, no recognizable shape or sound, but they want out. They remain mysterious just because there are no verbal accompaniments with them. They need to connect to the prefrontal cortex. They “speak” of what happened to us at the start of our lives, impressions so vivid and strong, so menacing of death and so catastrophic and painful as to be overwhelming. A carrying mother drinking or smoking or going on crazy diets, all endangering the baby’s life.

That is why after a time in therapy when these sensations begin to rise up in therapy they can be severely disturbing to the whole system. And this is how we know how devastating they are, enough to cause serious ailments years later. We can see and measure their force; how it raises amplitude of the brain waves, how it speeds up the heart and raises blood pressure, and how when these sensations threaten to intrude into awareness, the person sometimes feel he is going crazy. And in cults, where they have no idea what is happening, they can go crazy. That terrible confusion is what the fetus feels— disoriented.

Now we have an idea why a person under constant stress can get very sick. The person imprinted with first line trauma can get sick because he has suffered chronic imprinted stress from the start of life that never leaves and never lets go. It is tenacious because it needs connection, to be integrated and be done with; the sensaton/ feelings needs connection so that it no longer stays an alien force. So in their infinite wisdom many shrinks help them stay unconscious by drugging them and repressing the early experiences. They do that because they have no idea that there are such deep forces hidden and barricaded by neuro-chemicals as strong as prison bars. This means that they think there are results with no ultimate cause; that symptoms just come out of the air. Why? Because they cannot see that mysterious deep unconscious.

And it is these aleatory, primal imprints that can cause massive drug addiction; and so we see the heavy use of painkillers to calm the symptom, but not what is driving it. Calm is not cure. And it takes a strong drug to hold down these pains because they are massive; they are nearly always life and death—a pregnant mother taking drugs or seriously depressed. These maternal habits are catastrophic for the baby and often result in equal and opposite catastrophic illnesses down the line. And sadly, they are a mystery in our field. The reason they remain a mystery is that the professionals have no idea of how to approach or get to these early imprints. Worse, they don’t know they exist. Even though the field of epigenetics should tell us something about it. So if I as the doctor spend a life-time repressing my pain, and it happens automatically, then I have no idea that anything is there.


 Of course I don’t put anything in question, I believe that there are only childhood memories and that’s it. This is as if there is no 9 months of gestation and absolutely no experience that affects the fetus during that period. And yet, in our research in many articles in the last few years and in our therapy, those first line imprints are critical.

If we want to change the world we better be aware of gestation and how to manage it, we must be conscious of the first line. Above all, we must change the birth practices. Automatic cesarean by appointment is a no-no. So is cutting the cord prematurely, so is bad diet and drinking. In the NY Times Sunday in the Science Section, for Christ sakes, there is a shrink saying it is OK to drink while pregnant. This counters everything we know. And what if she is wrong? Imagine the damage that can happen. My guess she is exculpating her own drinking while pregnant. How on earth can a major newspaper cite such nonsense. It is one thing to be fair but quite another to run pieces that can be dangerous.

We cannot see first line unless we are in a therapy that aims for it. We do see the results. Do we go on ad nauseam beating down the symptoms to make them disappear and then pretend they do not exist? What does cure in these cases mean? Certainly not beating the symptoms down. It means getting at the generating sources—the imprints. It is that simple and that complicated. Otherwise, it is whack-a-mole all over again. The symptom pops up again, and we smash it again with drugs and surgery and shock. Or the weakest of all—talk it to death.

In our field the first order of business is to help professionals be aware of the deep unconscious. They need to learn how we get there. It can be a protracted trip but it is a sure one.