Kolo Self Informed Trauma Care involves female social collective, the creators of culture with corresponding oral memory traditions, a ritual science. According to many of the women elders [wise women] I worked with across the globe report dreams are the best therapists for healing PTSD. In my kolo trauma care, dreams and cup readings with Bosnian women war crimes and war survivors are cited as the source of tacit knowledge.

Bosnian Cup Readings, Artist: Erin Hilleary

Biosemiotics state tacit knowledge is the” biology of perception” where epigenetic (we shape our environment and the environment shapes our DNA) inheritance via feelings states and experience.
The male dominated sciences are just now supporting the women’s tacit knowledge about dreams. The recent study on traumatic dreams of former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners published in the Journal dreaming, shows dream are a source of knowledge and heal PTSD. According to the study, “ Only 26% of the dreams were dreams about Auschwitz — and most of these dreams occurred after they had left the camp. While they were in Auschwitz, the survivors reported dreaming more often about things they had been forced to leave behind, such as their homes and their relatives. “In the camp, I dreamt about being free. Nowadays, I sometimes dream about the camp,” one survivor explained.” Unsurprisingly, the dreams about Auschwitz were more terrifying than other dreams. Fear and apprehension were the overriding emotions in most.”

Cover and this painting of his dreams by Auschwitz death camp survivor – David Olère

In fact, the study with Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners according to the authors cite “ the main goal of this study was to test the hypothesis—based mainly on Hartmann’s (2001a, 2001b, 2011) theory—that even such terrifying nightmares can have adaptive and healing potential. This hypothesis has been confirmed: The dreams about the camp have therapeutic potential, as they weave in new material into the dreamers’ traumatic memories, and especially the so-called “comeback dreams” (those in which the dreamers are aware that they come back to the camp for at least the second time) seem to have adaptive effects, mainly because of their near-lucid character “.

Auschwitz death camp survivor – David Olère

In 2010, I was in Haiti six days after the earthquake, with an international trauma response team with the Jamaican. Digicel the largest employer of Haitians employed my kolo trauma care during the day and in the afternoons I was among the Haitian survivors. One Digicel employee spoke up in the group stating, he had just saw the movie earthquake and thought this was a dream, the movie asking me to please wake him up. While others in the group smirked and thought this man was nuts, I understood his dream and movie was his source of healing. Years later, the digicell employee is doing well and promoted many times. However, in his group of 9 male employees he is the only one still employed. 4 are deceased and 3 have according to his input are dealing with serious drug abuse issues.