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Namah Memories from beyond: ‘unseen’ effects of trauma

their ancient practices to be acknowledged the way we interpret experience: our theories
and honoured. of illness causation influence our health-seeking
strategies for mental wellbeing, our access to
For decades in UK, Australia and USA, the healthcare and our acceptance of diagnosis
dominant model for extreme experiences was and treatment.
assumed to be bio-medical, and we mistakenly
assumed our diagnoses and treatments were How do we move forward?
transferable throughout the world. But we
were wrong (18, 19, 20). Practitioners are I hope it is possible to further open the
more aware their bio-medical training doesn’t discourse around mental wellbeing: to explore
fit the current zeitgeist, and many are starting consciousness beyond the brain and ways
to question the original diagnoses of their it influences people who are deemed by
professions. Now we need a cultural U-turn materialist ways of understanding, to have
towards more insightful cultural awareness ‘mental health problems’ or schizophrenia. Let
training at our medical and healthcare us meet together with all stakeholders around
educational institutions. the same table, compare the phenomenology
of experiences (with or without distress) and
Changes are starting to happen: The British discuss any outmoded basic assumptions
Medical Journal reprinted an article entitled around human experiences. Let us have an
‘Drop the language of disorder’ (21), and open-ended enquiry around human inner
the Council for Evidence Based Medicine earlier experiences towards an expanded science,
published a report (22) on ‘Unrecognised beyond a materialist worldview.
Facts about Modern Psychiatric Practice’.
The practice of group discussion with consent A recent PhD awarded to Brian Spittles (24)
has recently taken off throughout Western by Murdoch University in Australia made
countries (23), although for millennia, it was a significant contribution towards a better
a normal practice for addressing distress by a understanding of psychosis. The author
council of elders in African countries and in provided us with systematic substantive
USA, New Mexico elders had sacred spaces arguments as to why radical change is
(kiva) where they performed a ceremony and required. He gathered evidence which
held discussions. Today there is a greater enabled us to examine psychosis through
understanding of a spiritual dimension, a range of materialist and metaphysical
which some people access deliberately, contexts. He explored the historical ebb
some by chance, while others may become and flow of beliefs around psychosis; he then
distressed, particularly if they have no suggested Western psychiatry limited our
conceptual framework for understanding scope for understanding psycho-spiritual
the experience. In recent times there is a experiences.
greater understanding of the trauma triggers
of distress, plus the role of social, political, As well as acknowledging insights by Western
and economic inequalities. scholars, Spittles also presented metaphysical
perspectives from indigenous peoples and
Our personal beliefs are important: they inform Eastern Buddhist philosophies. He invited a

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