Memory Part 3
February 13, 2025
Memory Part 3
When we re-play the movies of our memories, we re-experience emotions we had when the memory was made. Some of us have terrible memories whose emotions sweep over us, sending us into sadness, guilt, grief, anger, and more. Many come in the form of unwanted flashbacks brought on by specific places, people, sounds, smells, and even odors. Emotions that we can’t work through are not healthy for us. But when we work through why the memory is so destructive, it can become an agent of healing and wholeness.
The soul can use the “movies” that disturb or trouble us by exposing the memory to the healing light of the divine. Many people have done this in their spiritual practice, and with support from friends and professionals. We can make use of spiritual direction, special support groups, sacred conversations with clergy, or choose various forms of psychotherapy.
The more that a terrible memory is exposed to the light of love, the less charged that memory will be. The light of love uses the truth to deactivate the memory’s negative energy. Truth comes through insight, shock points, experience, epiphanies, revelation, other people, and from within our soul. Truth and love are so spiritually powerful they transform our response to the memory.
After a terrible incident is impressed into the soul, its initial intensity is repressed so as not to overwhelm us. Then, the memory is relegated to the level of the conscious, preconscious, or subconscious. Because the initial shock is ameliorated, we can gradually accept the reality of the incident. When and if the memory is triggered, it elicits the emotions associated with it. This is when we must treat the memory with the healing light. Agnes Sanford wrote a classic book which addresses this type of healing: The Healing Light.
The following is a simple structure that I have experienced in the ongoing healing of my most difficult memories: The memory is triggered. Then comes the surge of emotion, followed by negative thoughts. But if I have done the work of self-inquiry about the memory, I cling to the truths I learned in the inquiry rather than to the negative thoughts and emotions.
Such truths include the following possibilities — the larger picture that I could not comprehend then, the unconscious states of others involved, my own unconsciousness, self-forgiveness and forgiveness of others, self-compassion and compassion for others, trust in the mystery, and acceptance of divine order. If the memory persists and/or brings up other painful aspects of the occurrence, that is a signal that more soul work is needed to be done.
Spiritual practice: If you have a memory that continues to disturb you, consider what soul work would help the healing of that memory. In discernment, make a plan for healing.
Self-inquiry: How do your “bad“ memories affect you? Why would you want this continue?
Dear God,
May your love reign over all our memories. I pray for the healing of those memories which would harm us. Amen
