Discussion Question #10--Would you take a drug that destroyed your memory of a traumatic event?

This is an interesting question for me. I have experienced many traumatic events, and my mind has "blacked" them out. They are still there, and I am currently doing trauma work to remember them. This allows me to process them and make them less traumatic. It is extremely difficult, painful, and draining, yet it is a rewarding process. My question would be does it really make you forget it? How can you erase these traumas, as they make an imprint on your mind whether you remember them or not?

Wow, what a thought-provoking question. As a survivor of a good bit of trauma, I must say the idea is tempting, but I think no. Our hurts and hardships, along with our other experiences, are so integral in making us who we are, that to eliminate our memories of them would be to hide from our own moral development.

NO! I have lived through many tragic events but I choose not to forget, these events have made me. When seventeen I lost my parents in a house fire, I myself jumped from a third story window while on fire. I still suffer from the memory but it is mine. Without my many memories how I would I know why I am so thankful for my life. How would I appreciate the miracles I have witnesssed. No, I think I'll keep mine.

Great question, dear Carla... and the best response could be found in one of the most popular Russian SF novels, "Andromeda's Nebula". The protagonist, Erg Noor, a spaceship's commander, is in love with Niza, who, after suffering a serious trauma on a strange planet, is in deep coma. The doctor, seeing his obvious pain, suggests to remove it using the most advanced metods of the future medicine. But, after some hesistation, Erg refuses, uttering words which have become a kind of motto for me even since the school years: "I will never give away all the richness of my feelings, no matter how much suffering they cause to me. Suffering, if only it is not beyond your strenght, leads to understanding, understanding to love - thus closing the circle. You're so kind, but... please, don't!" ;-)

Hugs and blesisngs - S.

Don't think I would,be afraid it would make me forget everything,,

Absolutely not ... for all of the reasons given so far. (and probably then some).

No..and I would refer you to Sveta's explanation. It could not be better said.

I think it's interesting that everyone has said "no". When I think of the traumatic events in my life, they are all defining moments for me. They have truly helped to shape me into the person that I am today. Although, to me it is not as much the event as how I chose to deal with it that made the big difference. Some of the decisions that I made early in life I might have done differently if I'd had the wisdom and maturity that I have now at the age of 50+, but I know that I did the best that I could with what I knew at the time.

NO!!!!
I believe that all things happen for one reason or another. I also feel with pain & sorrow come understanding, wisdom. I am who I am due to all events that have come into my life. God doesn't give us more than we can handle. It is called Faith & Trust in God. I had loss my son which would have been my daughter twin brother. I loss many friends, family for one reason or another. I will never question God will nor why? God is my father who I can come to, talk to, find strength & wisdom to allow me to enter into the next chapter of my life being 50. Thanks for this interesting article. God Blessings
God Bless
10*

I have to agree with the others who have responded. Our experiences are what make us unique. They can also be a way to help others who are traveling a similar path. Once again, this question is a great one.

I don't know. I think when you love someone so much, you need to remember the pain, but when it bevomes debilitating . . . I dunno; good question.

Dancing with my Dream (Vote Round Two)" Please stop by to read and rate. Thanks.

Personally I would not take a drug to erase memory. For professionals who counsel others it raises ethical questions.

My answer is the same as everyone else; our life experiences make us who we are.

Suzie

In my spiritual healing practice I deal with such memories all the time. They are, as Sveta and Carla and others have indicated, the "bitter medicine" which deepens each person's path. A person with no painful memories - why, that would be Ken and Barbie, plastic people!

Anyway, one of the ways I work with such memories (besides soul retrieval and past-life healing) is to guide the person I'm assisting to go back in time, in meditation, and see the incident again - but this time, they're to call on any kind of spirit help they choose....Jesus, Archangel Michael, Green Tara, Durga, a power animal, whoever. They are to work with their spirit helper to shift the picture and the energy, and assist their own selves in that past incident.
This procedure does NOT take away the traumatic memory. That is priceless, and necessary for soul growth.
What the procedure does do is create a positive memory bank using the same picture, so that if energy has been blocked by the fear-memory, now it can flow freely through the transformed memory.
This will make sense to some - to others, just let it pass, with my blessings.

I don't think I would want to take this drug. I think who we are today is a result of all the experiences we had in our life journey. If we feel less about our traumatic experiences then we would be less affected by them, and the part of ourselves that became stronger or learned from that traumatic experience will be lost. I love the person I have grown up to be and those difficult times are part of why I have matured the way I have. I think we all have to learn to accept our tragedies and move on, to accept the person we have become and be the best we can be with the resources we have been blessed with instead of taking a pill to be able to fast forward through the whole process.

Would I trust such a drug? No way. The only way I can make my memories of the past end anywhere new is if I make them part of the present. What happened is part of me, and by the grace of God I am far more than the sum of what has happened to me.

Carla, great question! Hmmmm. If there were no side effects and it was just too painful --maybe? I am a firm believer in feeling everything & working your way though it with God's
help and support. But, if it could lesson the pain for a while -- I don't know?
Okay, I am going to say no...work it through with God's help, my family love and friends support. And, my own inner strength.

Never. Some of my most traumatic experiences have been the most defining in my life. I started 12 Step work 24 years ago -- and it was part of what led me to inner work for various sorts and then into Unity -- and I am now an ordained Unity minister.
I lost two sons, Matthew in 1986 and Daniel in 1987. Both died shortly after birth from unrelated and nongenetic birth defects (Matthew had a defective heart and Daniel was a Trisomy 13). That led to using a grief support group and then (when my daughter Jessica, born in 1988, was about 18 months old) to leading the group for almost 5 years. I held each boy while he died. Are the memories still sometimes painful? Absolutely, though nothing like the pain right after it happened. Would I give the memories away courtesy of a drug? Never. It is part of who I am, part of my spiritual path.
Doing drugs to ease pain starts sounding like Aldous Huxley's book Brave New World -- Soma to ease the pain and modify the behavior. No, I am here to stand up and be an adult -- and to be responsible for my own life. No drugs, thank you!

Lynn, my friend, I did not know about your sons. I can only imagine how gut wrenching those two years must have been in your life when you lost your sons. I know that those losses have given you the compassion that I have seen in you. And what a blessing Jessica was after those two difficult years. Thanks for sharing your personal journey.

No. I am pretty certain I would not. I do not believe I am who I am based on truama, but I do believe my character has been influenced as a result. Too, if a memory is not within our realm of understanding, still the reactions to it might exist and we'd have the reactions without the reasoning behind them. No, this seems too risky to me. I'd rather deal with what I have to deal with and get the peace of knowing what it is when I understand it, even if there is emotional pain attached. .

In a book that I am reading, the author writes about the Greeks and how they believed that souls, on their way through Hades, crossed the River of Lethe (means forgetfulness, oblivion) and drank of its waters, washing away their memories, and all pain, in preparation for their next incarnation. She goes on to write that freed of their pasts, they become like stone and their voices become inaudible. Their past is lost and with it, all knowledge of how life is lived, and why.

In response, cults emerged in which the initiates were trained to withstand great thirst so that they would not be tempted to drink when it was time to cross the river. Instead, they were encouraged to continue their journey and choose the waters of the River of Mnemosyne, the river of memory. As they drank this water, they remembered everything that had ever happened to them with absolute clarity, suffering again the sorrows and the joys of life, and in remembering, attained omniscience. Grief coming to wisdom. Wisdom without reckoning with the past.

this is a tough one to answer...i went through a lot of heartache in the last several years. basically i lost everything i had worked for...my small farm, all my horses and ponies and my way of life. there was divorce and several deaths mixed in there. i think i have gone numb from all the stuff i have gone through. it's all there but i don't really take it out and look at it. not sure that is the best way to deal but it's too raw emotionally for me to deal with it. now i just focus on getting through each day and hope someday i will feel the way i used to feel. mine wasn't an instant trauma but a cumulative chain of events that happened over a long period of time. i never got to recover from one thing til something else came and knocked me for a loop. would forgetting what i went through make a difference? i don't know...

NO Carla, I would not to lose sight of what I have experienced from the trauma's that I have experienced in my lifetime.

I am a Christian and believe that with faith in the Lord above we can learn to overcome the fears, pain and guilt that we may have regarding our trauma's. Inspite of how much time one may spend with a Psychiatrist or Psychologist they can not take the pain away or even erase any memories that may haunt you as a result of said trauma.

I am on a spiritual journey also and so seek out knowledge from other religions, philosopies and cultures in order to find the mechanisms in which to learn about life and experiences in life in order to grow and accept these new ideas.

Thanks for the invite to share in this discussion. (I certainly hope that this makes sense as I am very tired and it is now 4:54 a.m. Eastern time).

No, I would not, I have been through several very traumatic events in my life, but I think that is what makes me the person I am today, I experienced great fear, loss and trauma, and survived it in one piece, so I became stronger with each event, perhaps that is what is meant to be, and some that black out memories and recall them later, were probably not able to deal with them at the time. I think a drug like that would take away much of life we are meant to remember, I wouldn't want to forget anything that happened, and as years go on the memories are there, but the pain is lessened some.

No, I would not take such a drug. Traumatic events, like the wonderful events we experience, helps to build our character and makes us wiser and better people. I will say that suffering awful events in my life--death, failure, illness has made me more sensitive to the situations and needs of others.

What possible good could come from forgetting who I am? I am both who I have made myself, and who my experiences, mostly the result of my choices, have made me. I have lost everything of value to me at one time or another--friends, family, children, parents, livelihood, status, money--and the losses have always precipitated growth. Growth is notoriously painful, but without it, you have arrested development. Sorry, not interested.

What a group of courageous people! I am in awe of your wisdom, insight and level of consciousness.

Absolutely not . Those memories are how we live life and grow as people. ALl our experiences weather good or bad are what make us who we are!!!!!

My CURRENT opinion...always open to belief-system upgrades:

I'm very impressed with how this SE family group [MY family group} responded to this great question. I see we have Spiritual Warriors here--YAY!

Earth life ain't no sippin' tea. We did not manifest here (as a volunteer) to sit still on the porch admiring the distant mountain view...but to climb the mountain. Climbing the mountain is often hard and painful...until we learn how to navigate through the hills and valleys.

If you can look at/feel your childhood (so-called "past") experiences TODAY, and agree that although some were very painful and disabling at the time, you would no longer wave "a magic wand" and change even ONE of them, you are well on your way to mastering the Earth adventure.

Life experience is the unfoldment of Spiritual DNA...our mutually agreed, improvisational life blueprint. To numb that, except for temporary, immediate life-saving purposes, limits our expression of wholeness and potential. You are GREAT today because of how you have responded to challenge and creative opportunity. Free-flow with Spirit (Soul-mind software) requires fully functioning hardware (brain).

Yours for a more empowered, joyous, accepting, FUN NOW!
Dr. Larry
www.soulmanlarry.com

Amen, Larry! And well said.

My answer is no. I too have been through many traumatic events in my lifetime.. As painful as they were I believe I was meant to go through them. I think they have made me the person I am today.

As tempting as it sounds, erasing a traumatic event from one's memory would be selfish. Why? Simply because I feel then I exist. I exist then I "digest" pain. I digest pain then I share how I did it. I share that then lots of people may benefit from my experience and avoid falling into the traps I've fallen into throughtout the healing process.

I am. I am what has been and will be. Anything changed and I would not be who I am. Thanks

I frustrate my family now by forgetting the bad and remembering the good. If forced to do so, I can remember. But often at the first reminder of such events, I just look at my family quizzically. Guess I don't need a drug.

No I won't want this drug. There are many traumas in everyones life that serve to make up who we are and who we want to be.

No. I think all of our experiences make us who we are. We all have scars and hurts and it helps us deal with life from one experience to another.

Samy, your comment is very interesting and puts a different slant on this question. That it is "selfish" to take the drug because of how, through your painful experience, you can then help others. This is beautiful and powerful.

Paul, hey it's not "Carla's pill" okay? :-) It's only my question... but it's a great reply. And you make an important point about the vets. Perhaps such a pill could help them with PTSD. But on the other hand, perhaps those individuals, with their memories, would help to keep us out of war again in the future. Those who remember are important to those of us who do not know.

Marilyn, I think that you have something to be grateful for--the ability to focus on the good rather than dwell on the painful and disappointing. We can all work to accomplish that.

For the most part, many of you have said that your experiences and traumatic events make you who you are. I would agree and then go beyond that and say that you are more than that. That you have a power and presence within you which is greater than all of your experiences, that strengthens you in dealing with these life challenges. We exercise our spiritual muscles as we handle these challenges and as in any exercise, we are strengthened. What is within us is greater than what comes at us from the outside world.

ABSOLUTELY not! My firm belief is that everything happens for a reason, even though we may not know that reason until we pass on. Even the traumatic things happens for a reason. Who am I to try and erase or lessen any pain that was meant to be.

One thing that I'm learning is that light workers or spiritual leaders have more than likely been through extensive trauma in their lives. It's very unfortunate by ONE standpoint of "oh my goodness how can one person go through so much." But, any light worker that I've ever met has actually been very very thankful for those moments in life because it has... 1) put them where they are today 2) made them more compassionate thus able to do their spiritual work in a more productive and healing manner 3) given them the tools to survive anything that may come at a later date and 4) MADE them who they are... Besides, once I remembered being molested after I was raped... I realized that no matter HOW bad I felt at those moments in my life that it could ALWAYS have been worse and had they not happened, I wouldn't appreciate TODAY as much as I do.

Thanks, Paula and Shanelle. I agree that things happen for a reason and I trust that it is for our higher good. There is a book called The Little Soul and the Sun by Neale Donald Walsch. It is about soul agreements that we make with others to help us learn lessons. This concept makes sense to me.

no.never.although the bad memories haunt,but taking drugs
isn't the only way out .i'll try some other way out