Transformation Through Turmoil
When Post-Traumatic Growth is Sudden and Dramatic
October 29th, 2021
By Steve Taylor, Ph.D.
Guest writer for Wake Up World
One of the most well-established concepts in modern-day psychology is post-traumatic growth (PTG). This refers to the long-term positive effects of traumatic experiences.
Research has found that almost half of people experience some positive after-effects of trauma, such as an enhanced sense of appreciation and meaning, more authentic relationships, and a broader understanding of perspective. PTG occurs typically very gradually. It sometimes takes years to manifest itself. Although it can co-exist with post-traumatic stress, it usually arises once a person’s traumatic symptoms have diminished.
However, over the last 15 years, I have been researching a form of PTG that occurs in a much more dramatic way. This is what I call transformation through turmoil. I also sometimes refer to it as post-traumatic transformation, not just because it usually occurs suddenly but also because it causes a more drastic and deep-rooted change in people.
I summarise my research and provide many cases in my new book Extraordinary Awakenings. For example, at the age of 42, Irene Murray was diagnosed with breast cancer and told that she might only have a few months left to live. Irene reacted to her diagnosis unusually. As she described it,
It was the first time I’d seen death as a reality. I thought, ‘I’m just so lucky to be alive.’ The air was so clean and fresh, and everything I looked at seemed so vibrant and vivid. The trees were so green, and everything was so alive. I became aware of this energy radiating from the trees. I had a tremendous feeling of connectedness.
Irene expected the feeling to fade, but it didn’t. As she put it, “It was really intense for the first few weeks, and it’s remained ever since. It just blew me away. I used to just sit and think, “This is amazing, that things could just fall into place so quickly.’”
Fortunately, Irene’s cancer went into remission, but her sense of appreciation and well-being remained. She felt like a different person and gave up her IT career to retrain as a counselor and therapist. More than anything, she felt a new sense of connection to other people and nature and a new enjoyment of solitude and doing nothing.
A woman called Eve had a similar experience after reaching rock bottom as an alcoholic. After 29 years of addiction, she felt physically and emotionally broken and attempted suicide by walking in front of a coach. Somehow, this encounter with death brought up a shift inside her. Her mother assumed Eve needed a drink to ease her withdrawal symptoms at her parents’ house and gave her a glass of wine. But Eve couldn’t drink it. She was given high doses of sedatives to deal with her withdrawal symptoms, and after a few days, she felt like she had become a new person who was free of addiction.
As she told me, “Mum sat me down in front of a mirror and said, ‘Look at yourself, you’re an alcoholic.’ I looked at myself, and I had no idea who I was. I felt like a completely different person.”
Eve was slightly confused by her transformation at first, but soon it settled down, and she began to feel liberated, with a heightened awareness and an intense sense of connection to the world. She has never felt the urge to drink again and has been sober for ten years.
In my research, I have found that transformation through turmoil (TTT) occurs across a wide range of contexts. I have seen many examples in soldiers, prisoners, bereaved people, addicts, suicidal people, and others who have had close encounters with death. It’s almost as if people take on a new identity. It’s as if their normal identity dissolves away amid intense suffering, and a new, higher-functioning self takes over.
People feel a new sense of gratitude, meaning, and purpose. They often take up new hobbies and careers. They become less materialistic and more altruistic. It is important to note that there is nothing religious about TTT. One could perhaps think of it as a spiritual awakening, although it usually takes place outside the context of any spiritual practices or traditions. Essentially, it’s a psychological experience related to a breakdown of identity.
More specifically, I believe that TTT is related to the dissolution of psychological attachments (such as hopes and ambitions, status, social roles, beliefs, possessions, other people), which sustain our normal sense of identity. The breakdown of attachments and identity is usually a painful experience, but it may allow a new identity to emerge in some people. (See Extraordinary Awakenings for a more detailed explanation.)
Skeptical observers might argue that TTT is due to self-deception. They might argue that it’s the result of dissociation in response to trauma or that it is due to a desire to believe that painful experiences have been worthwhile and meaningful. However, there are several reasons why I don’t accept this. TTT brings a deep-rooted identity shift that sustains itself indefinitely (up to fifty years in some cases I have investigated). The transformation is much too deep and consequential to be the result of cognitive reframing or self-delusion.
Also, if TTT resulted from dissociation or self-delusion, this would imply a retreat from reality. However, TTT brings an increased engagement with reality, including heightened awareness and connection. Finally, TTT is sometimes a difficult process, with a transitional period that involves confusion and disturbance. These difficulties indeed wouldn’t feature if TTT were the result of self-delusion.
I am therefore convinced that TTT is a real phenomenon. More than anything, it reveals the massive potential and deep resilience within human beings, which we are usually unaware of until we face challenges and crises. Although we are often afraid that crises will break us down, there is a good chance that they will wake us up.
Japan ENDS COVID Almost Overnight
drops vax rollout, goes to Ivermectin, 27 October 2021
The ongoing COVID-19 nonsense here in the United States exists solely and exclusively because our governments have failed to use the correct treatment. They used so-called "vaccines" when Japan has just proven, in less than ONE MONTH, that Ivermectin can wipe out the disease.
Sweden's Public Health Agency on Wednesday recommended a temporary halt to the use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine among young adults, citing concerns over rare side effects to the heart. It said the pause should initially be in force until December 1, explaining that it had received evidence of an increased risk of side effects such as inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) and inflammation of the pericardium (pericarditis). {link to CBS News (Secure)]
Finland, Denmark and Norway have also moved away from the COVID vaccines.
Finland last Thursday joined Sweden, Denmark and Norway in recommending against use of Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine in younger age groups, citing risks of rare cardiovascular side effects they said warranted the precautionary steps.
Finland’s Institute for Health and Welfare said last Thursday it would pause use of the Moderna vaccine among men under the age of 30, following a similar step last Wednesday by Swedish regulators. Denmark last Wednesday said it wouldn’t offer the Moderna vaccine to under-18s as a precautionary measure.
Norway on Wednesday advised that all under-18s shouldn’t be given the Moderna vaccine, even if they had already received one dose, and recommended that men under 30 consider getting the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech instead. Norwegian officials cited U.S., Canadian and Nordic data, saying the absolute risks remain low and calling the advice “a precautionary measure.”
The European Medicines Agency said Thursday that new preliminary data from the Nordic countries supports a warning the agency adopted in July that inflammatory heart conditions called myocarditis and pericarditis can occur in very rare cases following vaccination with Covid-19 shots made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.
By far, however, the absolute superstar among foreign nations dealing with COVID is Japan. Japan has PULLED the vaccines and substituted Ivermectin - and in one month, wiped COVID out in that country!
* Safe? Japan pulls Moderna vax, ends nationwide vax drive after “magnetic” “metals” found to contaminate jabs: [link to asia.nikkei.com (secure)]
* Three lots of Moderna jabs recalled in Japan over stainless steel contamination: [link to www.rt.com (secure)]
* Several Japanese cities report white stuff floating in jab vials: [link to www.zerohedge.com (secure)]
* Japan minister of health tells docs to recommend IVM: [link to rclutz.com (secure)]
* Japan now a MAJOR SUCCESS STORY after it BEATS COVID rapidly: [link to www.msn.com (secure)]
Any questions?
Just so you understand the timeline.
By September deaths from the COVID-19 Vaccine jabs were being investigated.
At roughly that time, the vials were under scrutiny and metal "magnetic" material was found in them.
Very shortly thereafter, the Japanese minister of health announced doctors could prescribe Ivermectin.
A month later, the Western press is shocked that COVID has all but disappeared from the island.
Get it?
Understand?
This is what it looks like in a country that still has rule of law. The governemnt responds to reports of death and contaminated vaxes, moves to real treatment, people get better, and the virus disappears.
Now compare that to what is happening in the United States and in Australia and New Zealand. All three countries are in dismal failure in their handling of COVID-19, and that failure has resulted in staggering loss of freedom and destruction of commerce.
This is the biggest news story right now.
Japan has ended COVID. It did it after it stopped the vax rollout and went to Ivermectin.
Period. Hard stop.
Hal Turner Editorial Opinion
If your government really wanted to end COVID, if that was its true goal, it would do what Japan did.
You can use Japan as a case study any time someone starts yammering some crap about how the vax is about helping you help yourself from getting others sick with what they've been vaxed against.
You use it as a case study when they try to make some lame argument about how the government is really really really trying its best to end COVID and it is the MAGA crowd that is causing the variants and keeping the virus around.
Japan stopped vaxing. Japan went to IVM. Japan is COVID-free. It did it in less than a month!
So if your government won't do what Japan did, now that JAPAN HAS BEAT COVID, what does it say about your government?
It says the conspiracy theorists were right! They were right. It is a damning conviction of the narrative that the government is somehow a benevolent force against you getting viruses.
No, because we now have historic precedent of a government doing the right thing and getting the WIN.
If your government won't do it, it is because the vax is about something other than the public good.
Hmmmm. What could it be about? How about totalitarian control!
Japan got started vaxing later, and quit earlier than Massachusetts. Massachusetts is still fighting COVID with a couple thousand breakthrough cases per week. Japan is done.
