Family imprints

Caution: This text offers a brief explanation of the model of imprints and conditioning inspired by pre- and perinatal therapies in the context of Non-Duality.

Using this model as a guide to explore our mental experience proves to be very useful. However, it is crucial not to confuse mental representation with reality.

The narrative of gestation, birth, and the cycle of human maturation is merely a frame of reference, subject to questioning, and ultimately must be perceived as illusory.

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The Absorbing Mind

The creation of an individual perspective, or of an individual, remains a mystery, although certain recognizable tendencies seem to emerge.

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• Ancestral Imprints
  Children often share physical, behavioral, and mental resemblances with their parents, even if they have little or no contact with their progenitors. There seems to be a kind of transmission between generations, which I call "ancestral imprints." These imprints are passed down from generation to generation and serve as the foundation for the construction of the body and psyche. They become the basis of our individual identity, of the person we identify with as "me."

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• Family Imprints
  Next, family imprints come into play. People who are responsible for our survival and integration into the world leave a deep imprint on our individuality. This goes beyond their behavior, as their mere presence and quality of being leave their mark.

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• Environmental and Social Imprints
  Finally, the mind is influenced and absorbs its natural and social environment, thus becoming a living representation of the place where it evolves.

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Exploring Imprints in the Body

The vast majority of imprints are "stored" in the body. This stems from the fact that the gestation period, birth, and early years of life are essentially somatic. During this phase, the child has not yet developed language skills, structured thought, or organized mental experience. Communication with parents and caregivers is exclusively through the body. Moreover, this is the period when the body is most receptive, without barriers or the capacity to establish healthy boundaries.

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Therefore, exploring imprints from this preverbal period requires great sensitivity. It not only requires learning to navigate these dimensions of pure sensations but also exploring the foundational imprints of the "self" that we have built to defend ourselves against reality and survive traumatic emotions (see the page "Somatic Experiencing").

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Exploring Imprints in the Psyche

While most imprints are somatic in nature, the importance of psychic imprints in the construction of the individual should not be overlooked, as they constitute the essence of identity. These imprints represent the mental structure that subjectively defines the individual and allows them to experience a unique personal experience.

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Thus, it is from these imprints, from this "self," that our thought process is structured. Consequently, they influence how we perceive ourselves, how we see others, how we apprehend the world around us, and how we interact with our environment. This can also be referred to as our belief system.

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So what?

What I have outlined above may seem obvious to many, but it generally does not evoke deep existential questioning. Three major reasons explain this situation.

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• Belief in Personality
  Most of us, without thinking, say or think "I am me," referring to the physical (body) and psychic (thoughts) imprints we have acquired since birth and which manifest in our experience. We identify with these imprints to the point of forgetting our true nature. This habit of thought and feeling has been ingrained for so long that it is rarely questioned. Even when doubts and questions arise, the habit is so powerful that it is easier not to change anything, despite the suffering, stress, and dissatisfaction that this habit may cause.

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• Doubt
  Contemporary society is entirely based on this belief of personality. State, social, and religious structures favor, encourage, and sometimes condemn any other possibility. Therefore, every social stratum reproduces this attachment to the dogma, including within families. A person seeking to discover their true nature and to question certain beliefs must not only contend with their own doubts but also resist familial, social, and traditional pressures.

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Attachment to Rituals, Rules, and Traditions

To undo this belief and overcome the obstacles related to doubt, many people join or adopt a spiritual tradition. While this may be helpful for a while, it can also become a hindrance.

Instead of exploring for themselves whether they are a person or not, or if that person exists, the question becomes: how to become a spiritual person to attain a vague transcendental experience or a distant paradise.

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The spiritual quest, while initially justified and healthy, can go astray because it is not about transforming, changing, or improving oneself, but about clearly seeing what we truly are. This requires a direct insight into our own experience.

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Masters, books, and techniques are there to help us explore our experience and lift the veil of ignorance. They are tools for navigation and must be discarded at the appropriate time.

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Small Digression

Also, be vigilant regarding attachment to the master, loyalty to ideas, as well as rituals and rules, which can become comfortable crutches when joinging into a tradition.

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And the imprints in all of this?

Those who embark on a spiritual or therapeutic path do so for similar reasons. Even though the forms may appear different, the goal is the same: to reduce their suffering, improve their experience to be more fulfilled and happy. In other words, they seek to modify, restructure, and integrate their imprints. What could be more natural?

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However, the belief in an "I" existing in a body separate from its environment, endowed with autonomy and independent will, and doomed to death, functions like a hemorrhage in our mind. It drains our energy and generates suffering, thus overwhelming all attempts at healing.

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Even though therapies and spiritual paths work to a certain extent, and undoubtedly have their place and function, they are often ineffective in addressing the belief at the source of suffering. This is why some people feel a stagnation that leads them to resign themselves to an unsatisfactory existence despite years of therapy or spiritual practice.

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Non-duality, or spirituality in its original sense, focuses on two very specific aspects: seeing clearly what we are not and intimately knowing the essence of experience. This path of revelation puts an end to identification with imprints, to this separate "self." and allow us to realise in our direct experience our true nature.

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This is not a miraculous solution that exempts us from all therapeutic work, especially on beliefs and emotions, but it stops the hemorrhage of fear and suffering. Even though this step is not the last, it represents a radical change of paradigm in our existence.