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Old 03-06-2006, 08:00 AM   #15
Shemker394

Join Date
Oct 2005
Posts
416
Senior Member
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Dear Richard - A brief response to your most interesting post #406.
The visual sense is less well processed in so far as the images themselves are concerned, that is accurate. However, what I believe we also need to consider is that the emotions caused by or in response to the images are stored differently, in the older, limbic, part of the brain, and are extremely powerful. They become "knee-jerk" responses that are very hard to process because de facto they interrupt the chemical processing of higher brain activity from occurring. Hence the frequent persistance of the visual symptoms of PTSD.
However, it is very possible to process the emotional impact of visual experiences;, it takes prayer, self-reflection, and often, verbal processing to "move" the emotional memory into a (more) cognitively processed memory. {Not everyone is able to do this, however.} At that time the individual does have a measure of control and insight available again, and could presumably discern (on his own or with help) the origin of the emotional response. That would help with the necessary discrimination that Fr. Raphael mentioned in his recent post to Annick (may have been on a different thread): This is so that as much as possible we may live truly in Christ and not our own emotions and not (as we find in so much of contemporary Christian spirituality) confuse one with the other.
In faith and Christ's love,
Melissa
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