Rape

Rape is on my mind, in the news and all around us.

In Somalia, Rwanda and India; in choir lofts, cars and confessionals, in homes, on streets and on a college campus near you, rapes are happening at a frightening rate.

What can have happened to a human being to make him (or her... for not all rapists are men) think that THAT was a good idea? What can have tortured these souls, who are walking around with such seething rage, that they feel justified in violating another so violently?

When you touch someone’s insides with the intent to subjugate her (or him... for not all rapes are perpetrated against women), you must know that you sever her connection with herself on a very deep level. You transform her from a human being into something she does not recognize as Self. She feels like trash - without value; thrown away, relegated to the rubbish heap. 

It takes a long time to heal from forcible entry into our innermost core. It takes a very long time.

Again, I ask, “What can have happened to a person to make him/her grow up to be a rapist?”

One theory is that sex addiction is a brain imbalance - much the same as any addiction. The compulsion to find relief for too much energy building up in one part of the brain must be acted upon, the part of the brain that should decide that forcible sex is not a good idea is without enough energy. The rapist rapes, but the relief is temporary and so short-lived.

Another theory is that rape is a time-honored way of subjugating and integrating conquered tribes into the dominant culture.

My theory is that a paradigm shift is on the wind. The patriarchy is faltering - perhaps sputtering to a halt. We’re beginning to glimpse the dire consequences of our actions against our mother. Each rape of the earth, whether it is preceded by defoliation ( à lá Agent Orange) as foreplay or not is felt by the Mother of us all as a painful insult to her being and body. By drilling for oil, damming and polluting her waters, spewing chemicals into her lungs and strip-mining her breasts for coal and copper, we seal our fate. We kill her. No earth: No human race.

Could it be that Earth is revolting against the way she’s been treated by her children who plunder under those who brainwash us that humans are meant to have domain OVER all creatures? Could all the seismic activity, hot-flashes (global warming) and the extreme cold shoulder treatment she’s been giving us be her way of saying, “Get off my back, you vomitous vermin!?"

As she bucks and hisses, Mother Earth frightens her children. Scared kids have a lot of adrenaline coursing through their veins. Fear makes us behave bizarrely. Our brains CAN get out of balance - with the executive functions shutting down completely - only fight and flight are active options. We seek whatever will help us calm the imbalance. Forced sex can become a go-to behavior. This is true for pedophiles, date rapists and overly forceful husbands/wives. Remorse and self-loathing after the fact are optional. Some folks have it, some do not. 

I’m intrigued by the idea that condemnation is not helpful, but understanding is. If we frame addiction in terms of a brain imbalance, and if that imbalance can be corrected, then a person might come to recognize his interconnectedness with all beings, discharge excess energy in a healthy way, and become a more balanced being - hurting no one - including himself.

Lee Gerdes, in his book Limitless You: The Infinite Possibilities of a Balanced Brain, spells out some brain-treatment protocols to restore balance where it has been disrupted. Peter Levine, in Healing Trauma, offers ideas for restoring self-regulation.

PTSD is increasing world wide. Famine, drought, war, genocide, natural and man-made disasters are taking a toll on us humans all over the planet. If we could learn to do trauma first aid for all victims of violent upheaval, I believe we’d begin to stem the tide of acting out that seems to be drowning us in more and more violence.

Gaea, the Goddess of Earth is emerging. The feminine is rising. It’s not surprising there would be some hearty upheavals in the death throes of the patriarchy. My hope is that the yin will balance the yang. My deepest hope is that we will begin to recognize our interconnectedness. Can we see the futility of punching a hole in our enemy’s side of this blue marble life raft adrift in a peculiarly indifferent Universe? Can we see our neighbor’s fate as our own?