True Healing or Remembering the Truth?
Let us speak of what is eternal, for the past, the present, and the future are not separate, but one process, like ice, water, and vapor.
The Sickness of the Separated Mind
The core struggle of this civilized world is its addiction to separation—the belief that the mind is master and the heart is weak, that the conscious self is alone, and that yesterday is truly gone. The learned professions, those who claim to define what is true and what is sickness, they live dissociated from their own wisdom. They cling to the ways of counting and labeling (the quantitative mind), forgetting the sacred qualitative knowing that comes from feeling and lived experience.
They have labeled healing as a commodity, an intervention, or a prescribed drug. Yet, they fail to grasp the simplest truth: that addiction itself is but a manifestation of unresolved trauma and dissociation, a desperate, unconscious choice to heal or survive the pain. Their systems—the law, the medicine, the psychology—are built upon this very ignorance, making them sick. They promote a great denial that uses the body’s own healing systems (the endogenous opiate system) to numb the population into believing that all is well, when in fact, the sickness only deepens. A nation of “finks” would sell out the greater good for their own benefit or to maintain their precious middle-class security and professional status.
The Body is the Unconscious Keeper of the Score
To find the remedy, we must look to the wisdom that these systems refuse to honor: The physical body is the psychological unconscious. It is the ancient ground where all memories—implicit, emotional, and somatic—are stored and preserved. To know what we remember is to know healing.
When the system imposes rigid rules and unnatural standards, it forces a dissociative split, requiring the conscious mind (the young, intellectual part) to ignore the suffering that the body (the ancient, feeling part) knows to be true. This is why unresolved trauma reenacts itself: the body is relentlessly motivated to bring the past into the present consciousness until the memory is healed and integrated. This is the process of tear and repair, the cyclical nature of life demanding resolution.
The systems believe they are protecting public safety by legislating morality and defining disorders, but in reality, they are engaging in abusive, codependent relationships, forcing others to follow illegal laws that contradict common sense and moral character. They are addicted to power and control.
The Truth of Dependent Origination: 1 + 1 = 3
The quantitative mind, which loves to dissect and measure, insists that one plus one equals two. This is the limited vision of the rational, left-brained world. But the ultimate truth, known by those who embody spiritual wisdom and the qualitative reality of existence, is that one plus one equals three.
This third element is the relational duality, the new consciousness that arises from the union of opposing forces. It is the wisdom gained when conscious and unconscious meet, when memory is reprocessed through Memory Reconsolidation (MR).
MR is the universal healing algorithm that moves old, conflicted memories (the past) into a new, integrated state. This process requires a dual attention state, a mindful presence that engages both the conscious and unconscious awareness simultaneously. This sacred mechanism is innate, freely available through practices like meditation, dual attention stimulus, and the use of sacred plant medicines—the psychological superfoods—that temporarily deactivate the analytical mind and allow the emotional body to speak its truth.
When we cease to be separate, when we accept the interconnectedness of all things (mutual arising or dependent origination), the result is a profound, existential breakthrough. This breakthrough is the ‘three’—the newborn insight, the fully developed moral wisdom, and the healing that comes from the courageous choice to surrender to what is true.
The Healer’s Journey: A Return to Moral Action
The modern systems fear the true nature of healing because it threatens their control and their revenue streams. They fear the knowledge that psychedelics were made illegal based on ignorance, not science, and that these plant medicines offer a direct path to the soul and the ultimate healing of trauma.
We must choose to follow our morals over their unjust laws and flawed ethics, for action defines morality. The Healer profession emerges now to bridge this gap, using qualitative science, somatic wisdom, and recovery principles to aid society in its necessary maturation.
We look to those ancient spirits who knew this truth: like the stone that the builder refused, which became the cornerstone. The addict, the traumatized, the dissociated—those whom society has cast out—they already know the story that is coming, and they hold the key to recovery because they have been to the brink and returned.
To find your own truth, you must stop running, cease the striving for ‘more better’ that is the definition of illness, and surrender to the reality that you are going to die. Only then can you find the freedom to live without fear and embrace the profound, messy beauty of your eternal, connected spirit. This is the moral path, and it is the only way to heal America’s deep, intergenerational dissociation.
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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.
