Breaking the Spell of Religion

This book is about taking a stance, standing up for ourselves and facing the consequences of having been brought up in a controlling religious environment. This book is for all who have suffered through the plethora of hurts and abuses handed out by church authorities over the course of our lives as indoctrinated adherents. I’ve been through this myself. I am an ex-catholic and have suffered the trials and tribulations associated with such trauma.

In this book we address questions such as:
Have you long suspected you’ve been a victim of religious trauma?
Have you become aware of Religious Trauma Syndrome as a newly defined life experience?
Have you wondered why you feel guilt and shame for the smallest things and negative about your self-worth?
Are you sick and tired of being defined as a Sinner?
Are you ready to see that these negative harmful effects are “Not Your Fault?”
Are you ready to face the truth of your religious history and begin to heal that Trauma?
Are you ready to Love and Accept Yourself, Just as You Are and live from your Heart?

I easily answered Yes to all of those questions when my quest for True Spirituality began. I realized that Catholic Guilt was my demon and have since met many individuals recovering from Scientology, Pentacostal Christianity and Jehovah’s Witness’ to name a few. Having the advantage of being a trained Psychotherapist I could readily see all of our common denominators. This is my introduction to what lies ahead in this epic piece of research that has recently come together after decades digging into and writing about these effects. This includes my practice years where I met so many people dealing with these very issues, and the differing backgrounds they all came from. They, along with myself, had been traumatized by the religion of their birth and were now ready to deal with that Elephant in the room – their Religious Trauma.

In these pages you will find evidence of how this harm happened, what you saw and felt as you went through it and, what you’re feeling now as you look for answers to all those questions swirling in your heart. Yes, you’ve been abused. Yes, your religion hurt you. Yes, it caused you to doubt yourself, to feel bad about yourself, to feel inadequate and unworthy. “How can that be” you may ask “when it was always advertised as a Saving Grace?” Don’t worry, that’s part of the journey of Deconstructing Religious Trauma.
Contradictions everywhere you may begin to realize, also called “Double Binds,” designed to twist you up and keep you from knowing your True Self, including the real world of “Inner Spirituality” and not the one they made up. “Yes” you might soon be ready to say, “I’ve been through hell, a hell they created and saddled me with!”
This book addresses those questions and more, putting you in touch with who you are at a foundational level, where your Heart lives. This is designed to help you see Religious Trauma and Spiritual Abuse as blocks to your True Self, that Little Voice inside that begs for your notice. That’s your Inner Child who took all the hits. Yes, your Heart and your Soul are waiting for you to recover, to be reconnected with your own Source Power, where we all live at those deepest levels.

It’s time to rescue that part of you, hurt and buried under so much Doctrine and all the “Must Do’s” they saddled you with. You were an innocent angel back then, as we all were. What happened to you was Never Your Fault as you were being indoctrinated to Their World View as opposed to Who You Really Are at the Heart level. Organized religion was the enemy here, having turned you away from your Primal Self, that part of you that knows and understands that “Love” holds the real answers and “Is” the basis for healthy living.” Sin was their message, whereas Love is the Message here.