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Oct 16, 2020

"The subtle source is clear and bright, the tributary streams run through the darkness.

" --Shitou Xiqian

Judith Blackstone on Trauma & The Unbound Body

As a professional dancer in the wake of a devastating back injury Judith Blackstone found herself lying on the ground in a state of prayerful grief, and desperation. It was then that, by releasing her weight to the ground, she discovered subtle currents of energy could be felt arising from the floor, moving her body organically towards balance. Since childhood she had been aware of a numinous presence in the world. Now she was beginning to feel it within her. In the decades that followed she dove deeply into various ancient spiritual traditions and contemporary mind-body therapies. The Realization Process that evolved organically out of her explorations, was a response to her own crisis of healing and the varied needs of her students. "The body is both the arena of psychological defense and the arena of spiritual awakening. So in the Realization Process, we regard psychological maturity and spiritual awakening as one and the same process. They both involve freeing the body of the defensive holding patterns and attuning to the most subtle, primary level of being." Judith shares more about this ground of being and her own healing journey and lifework here.