Ancient Africans and their descendants up to pre-colonial times had healthy and self-confident mindsets--both clear indicators of lacking any element of self-doubt or emotional problems. Because they operated out of Spiritual Energy with its associated "Aliveness" there was an ever present eagerness to learn in a manner that corresponds to striving for excellence. This eagerness caused the people to be open to new ideas. Then came the evil Europeans, appearing friendly and offering new religious ideas--but for a price--a price giving them in-roads into taking over Africa and its riches. Their ploy was to instill the evil seed of Doubt in each African's mind. Since the significance of the word "Doubt" is under-appreciated, let us pause to look at it more closely. In 13th century English it meant "be afraid of; dread; hesitate; fear; and waver in opinion between two possibilities. Using the senses within these concepts, Europeans fabricated negativity concerning Africans' Religion/Spirituality/Philosophy. By never having been exposed to evil people and thus not prepared to defend against them, Africans were so eager to learn that they accepted Europeans' messages. The price for this was to back off their healthy self-esteem and embrace a mindset lacking in conviction pertaining to matters of belief, customs, and practices. This filled them with self-uncertainty which rippled into being suspicious of fellow Africans. This + not being told what Europeans promised to teach caused afflicted Africans to lean on the Europeans for (bad) answers.
Since Traumatized Thinking (TT) per se was not part of the thinking in African Tradition, what is seen in afflicted Black Americans today is the result of African American slavery's Maafa. Among other things, the Enslaved had to rely on the captors for answers which implied they lacked certainty about anything. Some of the answers were like machine-gun bulleted messages into the Enslaved about being inferior in every way and that anything the Enslaved or their Ancestors thought, felt, expressed, or did was wrong and savage. Because of their new self-doubts and the GUN power of the captors, it was an easy next step for many of the Enslaved to believe the captors were right about the demeaning stereotypes attributed to them--about this being their own fault--and about this was their fate. Meanwhile, all the Enslaved experienced Spiritual Pain stemming from innumerable causes. All doubt had been removed of them ever having a better future and from ever being reconnected with their African past. The "no doubt" which engulfed their past, present, and future led them to make peace with doom and that devoured the spirit core of their Selfhoods.
The most severely afflicted Enslaved gave up all of their emotional security and sense of power in becoming resigned to lingering in this unresolved state. Such a mindset of "Hopeless Hopelessness" and "no doubt about the bad" set off a chain-like series of effects in the Enslaved--effects of enslaved thinking and living culturally transmitted into many of today's descendants. One concerns the paralyzing of any desire to better a given situation for oneself and loved ones. What of course follows is developing a corresponding lifestyle which afflicts not only oneself, but ones family, and ones community. The effects of ones mindset and lifestyle makes one more vulnerable to lesser and lesser degrees of mental trauma. Each time a big decision is made TT designs it into a vicious cycle which, in turn crushes ones desire to make decisions alone. Out of living life in fear comes Desperation--a reckless readiness to run any risk + rash or frantic actions which magnify ones problems. But because one wants to be "safe" (whatever that means), one goes to others seeking "advice" and "protection" from religious leaders, friends, or seminars. Or they may take up with disrespectful and even mean people. TT makes for doubt, hypersensitivity, and frustration in forming any decision about anything of significance in ones life.
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