It is like hearing. If our hearing is sensitive then things will appear loud, while if we put ear defenders on to reduce our sensitivity then sounds will appear quiet.
When we are sensitive as in A above then a crisis will appear very significant and cause great distress as it overwhelms our senses (red). If we grow less sensitive B then that same crisis will seem quiet and we will feel on top of the "distress" and comfortable (green).
However while we may feel better, it is at the cost of our "sensitivity."
Sensitivity is like clarity of soul. When we are sensitive and vulnerable we see things clearly and we feel things deeply. Like being deaf will protect us from loud unwelcome sounds, but it does so at the cost of having no sounds at all.
Obviously within a crisis it is tempting (or even necessary at some level) to get rid of our experience of the crisis so we reduce our sensitivity.
With reduced sensitivity we feel less and we see less, but this is like turning down the lights or putting up a fog or dust screen. We cannot see clearly and we start to make bad decisions.
The longer we keep our Sensitivity Threshold "up" (in the diagram) as in raise the size of experience we need to register something, which is to actually to reduce our sensitivity then the longer we are operating in a semi-darkness and the more likely we are to walk off the path and get lost.
So this applies to all kinds of crisis and trauma. In a war we may start to experience huge stress so we raise of Sensitivity Threshold to reduce the level of things. But in so doing we become hardened our self and are more likely to take extreme action our self. This amplified across a whole population will lead to ever increasing violence and the chance of peace gets ever further away.
If we think of people after a war back in safe ordinary circumstances then their Sensitivity Thresholds start to reduce. However they will start to look at their war experiences with increasing sensitive eyes and so start a new stage of delayed crisis as they re-experience everything in a more vivid way. This secondary pain, after the crisis has gone, may be unwelcome and so people get stuck in an insensitive state of mind where they behave in a more violent and insensitive way. This will occur with any kind of abuse. To overcome the raised Threshold and lowered sensitivity will require a secondary stage of pain as sensitivity is restored. This kind of pain is intangible since their appears to be no cause. Its not like the rockets are still falling, the war is over and yet we feel worse now than during the war. We may even seek war out again to justify our insensitivity and avoid the pain of becoming sensitive.
SO the key solution here is to be aware of a secondary kind of pain that does not come from outside, but instead is associated with becoming more sensitive so that we see things more vividly.
Sensitivity as hinted above is another word for being truly alive and open to experience, to live fully with reality. But to get here involved processing a lot of pain that turns up as we become more aware of crisis and trauma. This pain is a massive block to facing reality and our true selves and I speculate this is the biggest block to spirituality. Walking the path to truth involves becoming sensitive and open and this will unlock a tsunami of pain that we have been essentually avoiding.
I wonder in mythology where this is symbolised. Certainly the hero must face demons, monsters and battles against which they will invariably almost! lack the faith to overcome. This is all fear. I wonder if the depression and negativity of facing the reality of traumas is fully codified in mythology. Perhaps Oedipus comes closest as the realisation of the magnitude of past actions comes to haunt him. But this is slightly different as it is dressed up in Tragedy and the necessary impossibility of the victim to escape their destiny. The negativity here is simply apparent as we become more sensitive and feel the same things as before just deeper.
Ultimately however once we break through then feelings and sensations become just feelings and sensations and we lose the grip on them which we normally feel will sink "us." If you hold a falling stone you will drown. Let go for it and it will fall quite naturally to where it belong without any drama. We can watch a falling boulder drop to the bottom of the crystal clear lake with a purely serene and sensitive mind. Things in this world do not actually carry any real crisis. The problem occurs when we are not sensitive enough yet to see that this is true. In the confusion of insensitivity we hold onto the boulder thinking it is important to us and get dragged into the depths. In the pain and panic we are even less capable of seeing that we just need to let go. That boulder of course is our "self" but it takes great sensitivity to see the truth of this and let go, and that involves experiencing a lot of pain first.
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