16 Comments

As a healer of collective trauma who has taken courses with Thomas, you describe the process of healing in a group context very well. The answer to your questions is more complex... More of us are doing the work in circles and groups, including those doing the Work that Reconnects.. Healing in community is not quite the same as "collective healing". Many individuals in the group may have experienced healing as you did. "Collective healing" also refers to healing shared traumatic and historic wounds. So, for example, children learning about and working through their feelings about climate change in circle processes, can support healing their collective grief and anger around climate change. Changing our education systems to encourage that would be even wider collective healing...

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Eimear thank you for this observation; very helpful for me to think in more precise terms about the distinction between "healing in community" and "collective healing." Would love to hear more about the work you are involved with, particularly on climate change. I wrote a very tentative article a few weeks ago to draw some connections in this sphere: https://www.desmog.com/2022/09/27/collective-trauma-healing-climate-change-activism/

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Wow, thank you so much for your precise and touching words to describe the experience of last week. I feel blessed🙏

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Thank you for putting words on, how we as a collective can experience healing as a beautiful - and necessary - process.

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Thank you Matthew. I felt great resonance with your words and wittnessing your great talent to summarize what seemed not summarizable to me, fills me with great joy and helps me to explain better to my loved ones what actually happened last week. Thank you 🙏🏻❤️

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I'm very energised to here this! I was trying to find words to explain what happened to people who haven't necessarily engaged with this kind of experience. Hard to capture in words but I'm very encouraged to hear you found this a useful resource.

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I find it increasingly inspiring to discover who is doing this work and how profoundly the impact is on those who study with Thomas, as well as those within their relational sphere.

I’d love to hear more about how these teachings, and perhaps your new awareness/openness emanates or shifts over time.

Thank you so much for this graceful expression and for closing with such pertinent questions.

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Yes, my life has been the 'odd duck' experience of temporary jobs, temporary roles, temporary friends, temporary homes, temporary friendships, as if i am just an amusement for a weekend and then thrown away, the people leave or they force me out to reinforce their circle of familiarity. I can't be 'negative' by reporting the actual moments of horror, and I can't seem to translate the collective bliss that is possible when people come together with the right intention. I don't know what to do anymore. So...I cook. And if someone needs food, it's here. Otherwise, I eat it. So now, I'm fat and my loved ones want me to lose weight, whoever they are. After a long period of interpersonal deprivation, I just don't care about 'zero trace' or 'world peace.' It's as if nothing i do has any impact, people just want me drive here, drive there, etc. I need more intimacy than that. So, I have to choose between personal love and the hide-and-seek game my relatives play, where they give the advice and are gone. But this report is a gift b/c I didn't even know that B-22 was about those ducks!

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I'm no expert on Bingo, but I do recall 11 is "Legs 11" followed by a wolf whistle.

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I deeply appreciate the respect of this description of a process I treasure. Thank you for putting our special TWT retreat into beautiful words.

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So glad to hear my description landed with you. TWT is hard to capture in words, but hopefully this kind of experimentation will help convey the essence of the work. Thank you for your support.

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“Healing can happen in batches” is a powerful statement and really lands with me. I really feel this potential as well, and can see how transformative it would be in our world. At a time when we sorely need a global digestion and upgrade, I see this as a way to manifest that.

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I agree; this "technology" -- if that's the right word -- seems to be (re)emerging at just the right time, and not a moment too soon!

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Thankyou for the report! I would like to know when next opportunity to participate in i similar retreat is.

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Hi Matthew,

I'm in the US cohort and also recently had a retreat with Thomas. I think you explain the process and experience very well. And I appreciate that you want to be creative with your speech and writing.

Thanks! Oh, yes, and I like the 2 ducks bingo analogy. It works.

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Thank you for bringing all of these voices to the table AND sharing your deeply personal healing wisdom with the world, Matt, Sunita and Kosha!👍This is the kind of Resonant World Bodhi and the Muse feel inspired to BE a part of - doing our share of the savoring and sharing of insights for ancient futuristic ways ! We do believe healing personal ancestral collective trauma fields liberate us to show the love to our Mother Earth in fiercely collective and compassionate actions! Cos That’s how we resurrected our Self once again to be an actively engaged guardian a steward and an ally in this time of world healing. We look forward to chiming in more soon 🙏🙂

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