Hello, Shangriballa Family! I have a feeling many of you will be as excited about this as Patrick and I are. We've heard countless times how much the Trauma-Informed Non-Dual sessions at our retreats have helped you gain not only profound insights but also integrate them upon returning home. It's the critical link between the cushion and real life, right? Well, we took those deep-dive sessions and recorded them! We packaged them up so you can revisit the wisdom, or catch up on what you might have missed. Think of it as your ongoing integration support, available right here in our classroom. Here’s what you get: - Part 1: The Blueprint of Trauma. We explore what it means to be trauma-informed and understand the very foundations of how the separate self creates and holds trauma, - Part 2: Connecting the Threads. This is where the magic happens! We examine closely how trauma affects every aspect of your life and skillfully connect those threads to the core understanding of non-duality. - Part 3: Working with the Body. It's not enough to just know this stuff. This final piece shows you how to bring all this information together, embodying it and working with it actively in yourself to dissolve the mist. Who gets access? This entire three-part workshop is a gift for our retreat alumni. If you've joined us at a Shangriballa retreat, drop a comment below saying 'Access, please!' and I'll personally grant you entry. Don't let those amazing insights fade; keep the integration flowing! What part of the trauma work did you find most helpful at your retreat?" https://www.skool.com/shangriballa/classroom/a3ed6c1e?md=229b53aa895c48e08cebe9f0922c7d0a

My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists" ~ Nikola Tesla ​Nikola Tesla, one of history's most brilliant inventors, saw his mind as more than just a thinking machine. He saw it as a receiver, an antenna picking up signals from a universal source. This wasn't just a quirky saying; it was how he genuinely felt his groundbreaking ideas came to him. He wasn't just inventing things; he was discovering them, pulling them out of a vast, unseen ocean of information. ​This idea of a universal "core" of knowledge sounds a lot like what philosophers call non-duality. Non-duality, or "not-two," is the idea that everything is fundamentally connected. There's no real separation between you and the universe, or between your mind and the source of your thoughts. Our individual minds are just small parts of a single, unified consciousness. ​Beyond the Light Bulb Moment ​We often think of creative breakthroughs as a sudden flash of brilliance, a "light bulb moment." But Tesla's quote suggests something deeper. He felt a direct connection to a source of pure knowledge, a wellspring of ideas that wasn't limited by his individual experience. He would get vivid visions and insights that seemed to come from outside himself, which he would then work to bring into reality. ​This isn't a new concept. Many great thinkers, artists, and innovators throughout history have described similar experiences. They've spoken of feeling like a conduit for a higher power or a universal creative force. Tesla simply put it into a framework that blended his scientific mind with a spiritual understanding of the universe. ​The Science of Oneness ​Tesla even hinted that future science would explore these non-physical connections. In fact, his fascination with these ideas was sparked after he met the Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda. He was so impressed by Vivekananda's explanation of Advaita Vedanta, a school of thought centered on the concept of a single, non-dual reality, that he began using Sanskrit terms like Akasha and Prana in his own work. He believed that if science could ever truly study these non-physical phenomena, we'd make more progress in a decade than in all the centuries before.

Hi everyone, I thought we could use this thread as a space to share books or other helpful resources (podcasts, documentaries, articles etc) as we go through integration processes. I have two recommended to me by my mentor - a Buddhist therapist who has experienced non-dual states. I haven’t read these yet but am planning to. Would love to see your recommendations too. The Wakeful Body: Somatic Mindfulness as a Path to Freedom https://amzn.eu/d/6p8ODXQ In Touch: How to Tune In to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself https://amzn.eu/d/cTI6c9x (Apologies for the Amazon links - I would search for these on Abebooks or Worldbooks instead)

Very occasionally, I have lucid dreams. I had one a couple of days ago (don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with lots of details 😉). It started in a busy bar, where I ordered a drink and just sat, listening to the conversations around me. The content isn't important, but what amazed me, being fully conscious and aware, was that it was identical to waking reality. Not similar, completely identical. It made me realise that our instinctive suspicion of the concept of Maya is unfounded - there is nothing about reality that can't be a dream. Anyway, I've bought a book about lucid dreaming because it's something I would like to do more. I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has had similar experiences. Peace. 🙏

THE PROCESS OF EMOTIONAL INTEGRATION: A PATH TO REALISATION ( Patrick Boulan) When we face a difficult situation, a challenge, or a conflict, and this situation brings forth strong emotions or feelings within us, along with a high level of inner turmoil, it's most often because our nervous system reactivates energy charges corresponding to old, unintegrated emotions. When the nervous system activates in this way, it operates in "survival" mode, locked into its automatic response mechanisms to the perceived threat (primary responses are fight or flight, then the system freezes if we can't implement either of these options). In this activation, the intensity of the energy is so strong that it leads us to regress into older parts of our psyche – those wounded parts connected to the unresolved emotions we are experiencing – and to behave as if what these wounded parts perceive is reality. As long as we remain in this state of identification, we are trapped in cycles of action and reaction, where everything we do aims to suppress the activated emotions and feelings. Furthermore, identification leads us to believe that our emotions tell us something true about the situation (and for the mind, this can only be true since our feelings confirm it). As a result, the thoughts and emotions loop remains constantly activated and continues to fuel the emotion with energy, maintaining the system's activation. This prevents us from gaining the necessary perspective to recognise that the emotion speaks of the past, not the present situation. When these emotions don't activate, they remain latent, as if hidden, lodged in our body and energy system in the form of charges, tensions, and contractions. They will crystallise even in our cells, which then reproduce with this energetic imprint, thus transmitting traumatic memories from generation to generation. Generally, we are so invested in the activity of thoughts and in maintaining our personality structure that we don't consciously feel these emotions and feelings. Yet, we have an intuition of their Presence, as thought constantly processes this information, seeking its resolution in our relationship with the outside world. However, we often remain terrified at the idea of engaging with them, imagining that delving deeply within ourselves will awaken something bad and dysfunctional, causing us to sink or annihilate ourselves. These fears keep our attention fixed on the periphery of our Being: in the mental activity that creates and maintains the sense of personality and in the construction of the innumerable strategies and mechanisms that this personality generates to try to compensate for or keep all these memories at a distance.