Trauma as Belief Rather Than Physical Scarring

When you spoke about residual feelings and what Eckhart Tolle calls ‘the pain-body’, you said they’re not really in the body, they’re more in the mind. Could you say more about what you mean by the mind in this case? Rupert says: ‘I was referring to a deep belief in the mind that you should be traumatised, that you should be struggling with it. It is the mind that is keeping you stuck to the traumatised events that happened many years ago. The events are not happening anymore. They haven’t scarred your body, they’ve scarred your mind, but the mind is much more fluid than the body. It’s belief. The mind is beliefs and ideas. We often carry around an image of ourselves that’s a mixture of our parents’ ideas about what we should do in life. So, we build up this image of who we should be based on beliefs absorbed from our parents or broader culture. But it’s just a belief. Much of our trauma is in the same category – the mind not understanding, not realising that the event that traumatised us has come to an end and that we are free, we have not been scarred by it.’

From event 30 August - 06 September, 2025 Seven-Day Retreat at Mandali, 30 August–6 September 2025

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