Goodness Unlocks from Somatic Therapy

I call them the Guardians of Goodness for a reason.

It may seem that our guardians protect us from a whole lot of badness: a sea of despair, a volcano of anger, or a pit of writhing serpents.

Dick Schwartz, founder of Internal Family Systems calls this as the “veneer theory of psychology,” which prevailed over much of the last century. The veneer theory goes that our ego rightly represses our deeper animal or primal nature, which would be unreasonably hedonistic and destructive if we let it loose. Well, if you cage and mistreat an animal for centuries it will have built up some steam!

The western psyche is deeply alienated and distrustful of what lies beneath our guardian structure, that is, our very nature. This insecurity is the mark of deep collective trauma that pervades our world at this time.

If we look at the animal kingdom, we see that, unless they have been greatly traumatized, animals do not overeat, lie about depressed, or war unnecessarily. There is a reason that animal videos dominate the internet. They are TRULY LOVABLE. It is our guardian structure, not our deeper nature that is our problem.

Thankfully, we now have a lot of data on what happens when people do access their deeper nature. This is the explicit agenda of depth and somatic psychologies. What we find in clinical work is that the deeper we go through layers of trauma, fear, sadness, and anger, the more we gain access to a subterranean life-spring, an inner-sun of pure source energy.

This is our inherited life force, a veritable fountain of goodness, love, kindness, trust, healing, and wisdom. This is true for both individuals and groups that manage to overcome their traumatic imprinting and appease their guardian systems. Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche calls this quality Basic Goodness, which lies at the center of human consciousness.

When we access our deepest nature, or basic goodness, we do not disappear into a haze of sex, drugs, violence, and self-destruction. Our underlying nature, freed of trauma, seeks to promote life, as it does in animals. Our psyche ultimately wants to heal and grow. Guardians give way to wisdom and peace flourishes. We begin to crystalize and manifest our passions into the world. Human potential is realized.

So where does evil come from then? The answer is obvious when you look at the profiles or school shooters, political tyrants, and hate group members. These folks are deeply disconnected from their own nature. They are walking suits of armor. They need to destroy life because they are so cut off from it.

Last week we explored how guardians block us from our emotional core. This is the first of a number of goodness unlocks that happen when we connect to our deeper nature.

We can conceptualize the positive aspects that come online as parts or sub-personalities, similar to Guardians but not playing any defensive role. They could be matured guardians or they could be new capacities that have been waiting in the wings.

I’ll call these new parts the Goods, to distinguish them from the Guardians. Don’t take my word for it. Explore your own system. But here are some common ones that I’ve observed:

• Emotional Core

• Self-Resonance

• Self-Regulation

• Self-Care

• Vitality Affects

• Inner Child

• Inner Guru

• Creative Genius

• Spiritual Essence

We’ll be exploring each of these in turn, interspersed with a few more guardians that want to have their say.

First up will be the Creative Genius, a capacity that lies in each of us.