The brain evolved as a complex organ for an organism to integrate its internal and external environment, and to integrate past experiences into future predictions. Human cognition involves the coordination of the inside and the outside, the past and the future.

By nature of the perilous environments humans have inhabited throughout evolution, our brains and bodies evolved ways to process threat, respond to stress, and return to stability. In circumstances we did not know if we could survive, our brains also evolved specific ways to remember that threat, via a process we call ‘trauma’ today. The human brain functions in the context of these stories: stories of danger, terror, belonging, or safety.

The purpose of this lecture is to contextualize the modern neurobiology of trauma into a wider understanding of how the human brain and human consciousness process storytelling, belonging, and survival throughout evolution and development. This lecture will explore the relationship between the Autonomic Nervous System the ‘survival body’, and the human capacity for consciousness; we will explore the healing potential of altered states of consciousness for the healing of ‘trauma’. This lecture is for anyone working with trauma either personally or professionally who is interested in broadening their understanding of trauma and the human brain.