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Most learning occurs unconsciously or instinctively. During the attack Dr X ‘learned’ certain things. A tiny structure deep within her brain called the amygdala caused a massive fear response. It encoded memories of the near death assault. In future, anything at all that reminded her amygdala of the initial trauma would produce strong feelings of fear and drive her to take avoiding action.
It’s a common assumption that your thoughts determine your feelings, but actually your amygdala produces emotion before your thinking brain gets a look in. It needs to be quicker than the speed of thought for basic survival.
Dream like horror
During a traumatic experience we respond instinctively, without thinking. A particular brain activity called the ‘orientation response’ occurs and things can seem dreamlike and unreal during the emergency. Time becomes distorted and seems to flow more slowly. This dreamlike feeling of unreality is key to how trauma becomes encoded in the brain. Recent research by psychologist Joe Griffin has shown that instincts are programmed into us through the REM (rapid eye movement) state. REM consciousness doesn’t just happen when we dream at night.
Hardwired instincts (instincts you are born with) are programmed into a REMing foetus before it is born. To learn new instinctive responses (such as automatic fear of something we were not previously afraid of) we need to go back into the REM state. Hypnosis and shock are both ways to access the REM state. Trauma is entrancing because attention is entirely locked. So during the trauma trance, instincts learn to fear.
Next, Taking Out Trauma
