Transforming Negative Mental Images after 9-11 Through Touch Drawing

by David Baum, Ph.D.

Done during a five day Touch Drawing Class as part of the Doctor of Ministry program at Mathew Fox’s University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, California.

David’s words:
Of all the painful images of 9-11, I was most profoundly affected by seeing people jumping to their deaths. I inwardly shuddered afterwards for weeks, imagining the unimaginable, the choosing of death by burning or jumping. For weeks afterwards this thought evoked deep sobbing. It was pain I could not move beyond.

Four months later in Touch Drawing, I found these unconscious images emerging. And when I lay them together, in one long storyboard, this poem emerged. By sharing the poem and images with my class, a deep and valuable healing occurred. I felt that a place inside had been released, a place that no amount of talking or therapy could ever reach. Touch Drawing, somehow, soothed much of the trauma of that horrible day.

click on thumbnails for larger view

 


There is this great power
 

The Poem

There is this great power
of deep connection
but when forgotten, we crumble
our balance
turning black
conflicts the heart
and people fall from the sky
eyes open to death
their spirits traveling
back to the great mother.

 

conflicts the heart

of deep connection

and people fall from the sky

but when forgotten,
we crumble

eyes open to death

our balance

their spirits traveling

turning black


back to the great mother.