Structured Abstract

• Background: The Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM) defines addiction as a conditioned bond to a pathological dissociative state, initiated by trauma as a survival imperative.¹ Phenomenological inquiry reveals that individuals in this state often describe the compulsion as an “Elemental,” “pure nature,” or “god-like” force.¹ This qualitative experience—the pursuit of the absolute—clashes with a modern quantitative worldview that mislabels functional survival responses (e.g., Absence Seizures, Fading Memory Disorder, and “pseudo-seizures”) as pathological or “fake” disease.
• Hypothesis: The pursuit of a God-Like State—the feeling of omnipotence, timeless safety, or ultimate reality—is the deepest expression of the body’s innate, trauma-driven survival mandate, mediated by the Endogenous Psychedelic System (EPS). This EPS, incorporating the interdependent Endogenous Opioid System (EOS, for pain/numbing) and the Endocannabinoid System (ECS, for regulation/healing) ¹, creates a powerfully conditioned, addictive-dissociative bond that is a relentless force of nature.¹ This compulsion to reenact the original trauma-survival moment proves that the Past is Present Today. Furthermore, to resolve this, Today Must Be Present for the Past—meaning the conscious, present self must engage in therapeutic memory reconsolidation (MR) to integrate the implicit, time-locked memory.
• Conclusions: The State and its institutionalized quantitative Science act as a False God and Church, respectively, by providing fear-based, absolute dogmas that mimic the certainty and control the trauma survivor craves. This system perpetuates the addictive cycle (industrialized comfort conditioning) by suppressing the qualitative wisdom of the embodied unconscious. True resolution and the capacity to find “God honestly” is achieved only through healing and integration (love), which breaks the systemic, addictive need for external authority.

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1. Introduction: The Theological Impulse in Addiction

The human search for meaning, purpose, and relief—the theological impulse—is universally acknowledged. When this impulse is filtered through the lens of trauma, it becomes pathologized. Participants in phenomenological studies of addiction often describe the addictive compulsion using language associated with ultimate authority: “It’s pure nature like God,” or an overwhelming force that has “taken on a will of its own” and is “relentless and unsympathetic.”¹

This paper argues that the pursuit of this God-Like State is the ultimate expression of the Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM), functioning as a survival-driven reenactment. The State, in turn, has appropriated this universal theological impulse, using quantitative science as its dogma to create a collective denial system that punishes the very trauma-based behaviors it should seek to heal. The central philosophical question is who holds the authority of truth: the quantifiable, fear-based metric of institutional science, or the qualitative, love-based wisdom of the embodied unconscious.¹

2. The God-Like State as Endogenous Survival

The “God-Like State”—the pursuit of an all-powerful, all-safe, and all-knowing feeling—is chemically mediated and rooted in the survival biology of the human organism.

2.1. EPS, Dissociation, and Ultimate Reality

The Endogenous Psychedelic System (EPS) provides the neurobiological infrastructure for this experience. Dissociation is the mechanism that allows the organism to momentarily access this state of Ultimate Reality—a neutral, objective reality-as-it-is, detached from subjective, time-bound value judgments.¹

• The Opioid-Addiction Bond (Pain): Trauma is addicting because the overwhelming experience activates the EOS, releasing natural opioids to induce peritraumatic analgesia (numbing).¹ This pain relief is immediately conditioned, creating the core addictive bond—a dependence on the dissociative state for safety.¹
• The Cannabinoid-Healing Regulator (Relief): The ECS is simultaneously involved in mediating rest, repair, and emotional regulation.¹ The unconscious body uses the numbing of the EOS to create the physiological conditions for the ECS to promote a state of healing (tear and repair). Addiction is, paradoxically, the relentless pursuit of this healing state, forcing the organism into chronic reenactment.¹

The God-Like State, therefore, is the visceral, powerful experience of the unconscious body (the Emotional Part, EP) assuming absolute control over the conscious mind (the Appearing Normal Part, ANP), which the ADM states is precisely the mechanism of active addiction and pathological dissociation.¹

2.2. The Trauma Cycle: Past is Present, Today is Past

The theological and temporal dimensions of this pathology are captured by a critical dialectic:

• The Past is Present Today: Unresolved trauma memory is not stored as a narrative (explicit) but as implicit, emotional, and somatic material. This trauma memory remains active—like an echo in the present moment—compelling addictive reenactments until it is resolved.¹ Symptoms like cravings are intrusive reminders (flashbacks) of the relief previously found in dissociation.
• Today Must Be Present for the Past: This is the core therapeutic breakthrough. To resolve the time-locked trauma memory, the memory must be retrieved and paired with the safety of the present moment (therapeutic Dual Attention).¹ The conscious self (ANP) must be present, grounded, and integrated to finally offer the safety and resolution that the past self (EP) was denied. This act of MR facilitates true healing and breaks the conditioned addictive bond.

3. The Addiction to Authority: Government as False God

The conflict between the body’s raw, implicit wisdom and the external, rational world is exploited by governing institutions that crave control. This institutional structure acts as a False God—demanding unquestioning adherence to its dogma (quantitative science) and suppressing the qualitative truth of human experience.

3.1. Science as the Church of Control (Fear)

The legal and medical professions maintain psychological ignorance by adhering to fear-based quantitative metrics. This bias minimizes the wisdom of the embodied unconscious:¹

• Minimizing the Qualitative: Labels like “Absence Seizures” or “PNES” (Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures) are misdiagnoses that dismiss a genuine functional collapse of the thalamocortical circuitry induced by trauma-related dissociation. The legal system, reliant on quantifiable evidence (deductive reasoning), adopts this mislabeling, calling the client’s survival response “pseudo” or “fake” because it challenges the system’s ability to categorize and control.
• Institutional Denial: Government education departments are complicit by failing to mandate a trauma literacy curriculum that teaches citizens the fundamental reality of dissociation and trauma memory. This failure to educate (appeal to ignorance) ensures that the public cannot confirm, justify, or validate the choices, behaviors, actions, and laws that govern their lives, reinforcing dependence on the external, institutional authority.¹

3.2. Industrialized Comfort Conditioning (The Societal Addiction)

The ultimate expression of this institutional addiction is Industrialized Comfort Conditioning. This is the collective pursuit of predictable, external relief—economic stability, pharmaceutical regulation, and social conformity—which mirrors the individual’s addictive drive for predictable chemical dissociation. This cycle of dependence must be broken for society to truly “inherit the earth and heal.”¹

• God-Like States Are Addictive: When the Government acts like “God,” it offers the certainty and control the trauma-addicted citizen seeks, creating a codependent system. Citizens are conditioned to surrender their sovereignty in exchange for the predictable comfort provided by the State/Church, perpetuating the intergenerational cycle of dependence.¹

4. Reclaiming God Honestly: Healing, Doubt, and Love

The path of the Wounded Healer (PWH) provides the ethical framework to break this cycle.

4.1. Finding God Honestly through Healing

The search for God is the search for the absolute truth and ultimate safety. This truth is not found externally in institutional dogma, but internally through integration. Healing means resolving the trauma memory through MR, thereby neutralizing the addictive, survival-driven need for a false, external source of power. When the ANP and EP are integrated, the individual achieves the wholeness that is reflected in the philosophical concept of Ultimate Reality—the true nature of self, free from fear-based distortion.

4.2. Doubt and the Wisdom of the Unconscious

Those who doubt the quantitative-only system are exhibiting the wisdom of the unconscious. Doubt is not a lack of faith; it is the instinctive resistance of the Emotional Part (EP) against the flawed, fear-based logic of the rational mind (ANP). It is the body protesting the narrative that denies its trauma. The therapist’s role (PWH) is to validate this doubt, recognizing it as a key to accessing the suppressed emotional truth.¹

4.3. Breaking the Institutional Addiction

The ultimate recommendation is the Separation of State and Science, where quantitative metrics are divorced from institutional dogmas. By valuing qualitative wisdom (Recovering Common Sense) equally with quantifiable data, scientific inquiry is freed from the fear-based need for control, enabling the compassionate, embodied therapies necessary for MR and full trauma integration. This is how the individual and society break the inherited cycle of dependence and heal the addiction to control.

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References

O’Brien, A. (2023a). Addiction as Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Phenomenological Investigation of the Addictive State. International University of Graduate Studies. (Dissertation). Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2023b). Memory Reconsolidation in Psychedelics Therapy. In Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/

O’Brien, A. (2023c). Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2024a). Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2024e). Path of the Wounded Healers for Thrivers: Perfectionism, Altruism, and Ambition Addictions; Re-education and training manual for Abusers, Activists, Batterers, Bullies, Enablers, Killers, Narcissists, Offenders, Parents, Perpetrators, and Warriors. Re-Education and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

O’Brien, A. (2025). American Made Addiction Recovery: a healer’s journey through professional recovery. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/

*This is for informational and educational purposes only. For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional.