Elvis, Karma and PTSD

Often when I start to type Ben’s answer to a question I have no idea where it will lead. A long and winding conversation started with a question from one of Ben’s friends about Elvis Presley.  Several other people joined in as is often the case when Ben answers questions.  For this blog I left in some of the dialogue between Ben and me because it shows how I sometimes question what he is saying and sometimes resist writing it down.People sometimes ask about these matters.
 
I.N.  I don't know if you can answer this one, but it has been on my mind for a while. Has the soul that was Elvis, returned to human form again yet?
Dec.21, 2012
BEN:  Yes, Elvis has come back but you wouldn't recognize him. He's a sweet little girl who wants to be a nurse.
(Sometimes I can anticipate what Ben is going to say before I write it down.)
Donya: Are you going to say what I think you are going to say?
BEN: It's all right. Go ahead and write it down.
(Donya reluctantly types.)
BEN: Elvis was one of the little girls who was shot at the school in Sandy Hook. 
Donya:  Ben, did I make that up about Elvis?
BEN: I said it. 
Donya: But that's just weird and terrible. 
BEN: Elvis is exactly the kind of soul who would volunteer for a nasty job like that. You're not going to find ordinary souls in those situations. 
Donya: But it's awful. You just told us that Elvis was murdered.
BEN: Donya. Remember a long time ago when you were a little girl you saw a movie where a nice man was killed in an accident on a sailing ship? 
Donya: Captain's Courageous. It was Spencer Tracy. 
BEN: Right.  But you didn't know who the actor was then. And you cried and cried over him. And then years later you saw the same actor in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. And then you learned that the real Spencer Tracy had died and you cried about him. But not any more than you cried about Manuel on the fishing boat. You thought you were losing more because the Spencer Tracy who died after Guess Who's Coming to Dinner was the "real" Spencer Tracy. But he wasn't real anymore than Manuel was real or all those other characters Tracy portrayed were real. The real Spencer Tracy is the one you will meet in the Timeless, Spaceless Place. And that little girl played by Elvis Presley at Sandy Hook wasn't a real little girl any more than the King of Rock n Roll was real. Which is not to say they were fake. But they were temporary. It's all fine. We're all going to be who we really are when the drama is over and we come home. Okay?

I.N. If Elvis volunteered for it - it is obviously a planned in TSP (Timeless, Spaceless Place)  event. What was the reason they planned and performed it? 
M.B. It makes a kind of sense. It created huge changes in our world. Folks band together in an effort to create a better existence for all. It awakens compassion. 
I.N. I have trouble  understanding TSP logic. Because gun control did not really happen There were a lot of speculations on conspiracy sites about it being a NWO operation to implement gun control in USA...
BEN: It was planned in the sense that a situation was set up that, like every situation, had a lot of possible outcomes. But everyone knew going in that there was a distinct possibility that they would die violent deaths at a young age and that a lot of energy would be raised around the issue of weapons violence. It wasn't planned like a film production with a director telling everyone to find their marks and then Lights Camera Action. It was more like that TV series where the voice says, Your mission, should you choose to accept it is...... 
The worst part about being one of the kids is that there was so little they could do to affect the situation. Almost anybody would prefer to be someone who might have been able to do something to change the outcome.  It wasn't just about gun control.  And the fact that no legislation was passed does not mean that the mission was a failure. The situation has changed what people are saying and thinking. It has changed the environment in which decisions are made. And yes it has spawned new conspiracy theories. Lots of new possibilities have been generated.
I.N. But these situations create a lot of fear - in survivors and everybody else...I just got a ride to Seattle from a guy whose ex-girlfriend was in Columbine school shooting....many years later she is still in therapy and suffers from PTSD and can't sustain relationships. It really injures people's psyches. Does "creating new possibilities" override generating lots of negative energy?
BEN: In a way, I.N.  it really is better. It's like when there is a lot of dry brush building up near a populated area. Or when an old building is ready to fall down. Sometimes a controlled burn or a planned explosion is better than letting the situation build up and happen on its own. The negative energy was already there. All the planners did was to bring the various components closer together in time and space so that it would happen sooner rather than later.  A lot of people were stockpiling weapons in an effort to protect themselves against persons they feared might become dangerous because of the economic situation. A lot of young people were becoming angry and restless. There might have been more weapons and more shooters and more victims.
I.N. But now they are stockpiling MORE weapons and talking about giving guns to school security...
BEN: The incident was not arranged instead of something pleasant. In fact the people involved would not have attracted the event if they had not already been living lives "of quiet desperation" that is, lives filled with anger and fear. Each of these "explosions" is an indication of what is happening below the surface.
The woman in the Columbine shooting may be troubled but she has time to get therapy or to do some deep study and meditation and to begin to understand life in a way that had previously eluded her. If she had not been part of Columbine she might have been killed by a drunk driver or quietly mugged going home from work without anyone noticing.
I.N. So was it her KARMA to experience some sort of violence? - and for some reason it was better to do it in a terror setting than street crime or accident? But she needed for some reason to experience it? Why? Was she a murderer in a past life?
T.G.  Are you saying this was a form of punishment for being a murderer, I.N.? If so I don't think it works like that. It seems from all my reading that we choose what we do for life lessons only, and not as a form of karma.
BEN: I'm not talking about Karma. And if I were it would be something different from what most people think is. Think of it as a shopping list. Or a travel brochure. Or a map of Disneyland. You get back to the TSP, you rest up, hang out, maybe play a little racketball. Then you start thinking about what you want to do next. "What haven't I done before?" Or "What have I done before that I would like to do again only better?" So you get together with the other planners and they say something like, "Early in the 21st Century in America there is a big load of shit piling up and when it hits the fan there is going to be a mess to clean up."  And somebody will ask, "Does it have to be that bad? I don't think the world wants to do WW2 again."  And somebody else will say, "How about a pressure release valve?"
Donya: Is that what you said, Ben?
BEN: Yes. Thank you for asking.
Donya: Sandy Hook school was a pressure release valve?
BEN: Yes.  But it didn't have to go there. If the people had made some other choices and paid more attention and had found different ways of dealing with issues the whole situation might have gone in a different direction and resolved itself quietly. But since people didn't make different decisions and everything did move in the direction of greater and greater violence we (and that means you and everyone who was involved) allowed a lot of ingredients to come together in that small place and produce a tragedy that would give people an opportunity to wake up and decide they don't want that to happen again.  Nobody who was involved was being punished for anything. Everyone who incarnated into that community knew that there was a very high risk that something big and terrible might happen. And they also knew that if they played their parts well and there weren't too many unforeseen influences the tragedy might be averted. 
The woman who was traumatized at Columbine wasn't singled out for special treatment. All humans live in a dangerous world. To a certain extent how much that danger will affect you depends in part on the actions you choose consciously, in part on what you attract unconsciously and in part on what is written into your script before you arrive. And then there's all those other people's scripts. And all the weather and volcanoes and earthquakes that seem to pop up randomly.
But life on earth in 3D doesn't just hurt you. There are all sorts of opportunities for healing and for pleasure and for celebrations and for cake frosting. Ask anybody who plays computer games. Isn't level 12 more exciting than level three because there are more awful things that can happen to you. Don't ask Donya. She played a stupid King Arthur game a few times and kept getting drowned in the frozen lake.  That was enough for her.  But people who like games understand. One of the coolest things is to have something bad almost happen to you. Or to have something bad happen and to be friends with a magic elf who will trade you the healing potion for something you didn't need anyway. But the only way those cool things can happen is if the possibility of danger exists. 
I.N. What is the best way to heal post traumatic stress disorder? This is both professional and personal question. Is it better to shift the focus to positive and happy things - or you need to 'excavate" the original trauma and work with it? I have seen articles on the Net stating - the 'less therapy - the better" for PTSD...like being in therapy only makes it worse. I can see how long-term therapy can reinforce 'the victim" position...
J.B. I'd love to hear Ben’s take on that... I think it needs to be a balance, because if you only try to be positive then it's almost like denial, which isn't good, but acknowledging it and grieving it and then taking a positive stance is probably best. Easier said than done, though!
BEN: Every time you think a certain thought about an experience you reactivate the vibration of that experience. At a certain level you relive the experience. Each time you reactivate that vibration it's easier to reactivate it the next time. The best therapy will help the patient to break the chain. Instead of thinking about how awful it is every time you have a flashback it's important to minimize the emotional reaction and to have other subjects to direct one's attention to.
T.G. Re-purposing your thought process. Knowing about the afterlife, as we do, would certainly be helpful in being able to change your emotional reaction to events.
Donya:  Julia Assante writes about the remarkable recovery soldiers afflicted with PTSD experience when they are able to talk to someone who was killed in battle.
T.G. Just like that post from Erik about loving yourself. It's not the events that are messed up, it's how your mind is reacting to it that is messed up.
Donya: This is the same basic principle that Bruce Lipton and others teach from their work in "Epigenetics." Genes can express themselves in various ways based on environmental influences. But more than the environment, the most important factor is how the environment is perceived.
BEN:  Perception creates the thoughts and emotions that create reality. 
Donya: Want to say anything else, Ben?
BEN:  Just thank you to all the lovely peeps who keep me alive and active with your challenging questions.