The High Cost of Mental Comfort: Western, Abrahamic & =External= vs. Eastern, Meditation-based & =Internal= Attunement for Emotion Regulation. Buyer Beware.

Not knowing until about the last half century how to manifest internal control over the fight, flight & freeze mechanisms of the autonomic nervous system, most of the people of the Abrahamic "West" continued to rely upon external sources of psychological attunement and affective soothing. Which opened them up to all manner of cynical and profit-making manipulations, including everything we've come to know and love (not) in the world of fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity, Orthodox Judaism and Shi'a Islam.

Knowing as they have for at least 2,600 years, how to manifest internal control over the fight, flight & freeze mechanisms of the autonomic nervous system, some (not all) the people of the Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist "East" are less reliant upon external sources of psychological attunement and affective soothing. Which makes it more likely that they will not be so affected by such cynical and profit-making manipulations...

Unless they have become caught up in a cultic echo chamber of Groupthink, Social Proof, Implicit Social Contract & Unquestioning Acceptance of Authority that may look and sound different from the Abrahamic "style," but which is actually no different at all. (See, for example, The Human Potential Movement Gone Awry as well as Abuse of Narrow Focus Meditation for Mind Control.)

I was already waaaaay "deconverted" from both Western Abrahamic and Eastern meditation-based affect regulation when I learned about things like the following, but I still needed such tools to get me through the night:

Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing,

Pat Ogden's Sensorimotor Processing,

Deb Dana's Polyvagal Resilience Therapy, and

Choiceless Awareness for Emotion Processing.

All of which can be used to yank myself out of the lingering upshots of Religious Trauma Syndrome in minutes, if not seconds. And none of which are administered by any guru, and -- truth be known -- don't even need to be administered by a psychotherapist if one can read and follow written instructions.

Resources & References

Dana, D.: The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy, Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation, New York: W. W. Norton, 2018.

Levine, P.: In An Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness, Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2010.

Ogden, P.; Minton, K.: Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy, New York: W. W. Norton, 2006.

Ogden, P.; Fisher, J.: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment, New York: W. W. Norton, 2015.

See also... Abgrall, Atack, Conway & Siegleman, Galanter, Kramer & Alstad, Lalich, Langone, Lifton (2019), Meerloo, Mithers, Sargant, Singer et al (1990 and 1996), Stein, and Taylor in A More than Basic Cult Library... and Aldwin et al, Armstrong (1993), Arterburn & Felton, Batchelor (1997), Bellah (2011), Durkheim, Ehrman (2018), Epstein (2013), Goleman, Hoffer, Jaynes, Krishnamurti (both), Mishra, Pals, Prothero, Sargant, Strausberg, and Wathey in Recommended on Religion from Outside the Box.