Tumescence starts when undigested material in consciousness, extreme experiences, or repeated negative experiences accumulate and get stuck. When these pockets of undigested experiences are activated, the resulting response is disproportionate to the stimuli. This undigested material is backed-up energy just waiting to explode. We become highly reactive. The pockets of undigested material can be activated in two ways.
The first is when a situation occurs that is of the same tenor as the situation that caused the block originally. The wound is reactivated, and our response is not only to the situation in front of us.
Alternately, the tumescence can be activated when a random influx of energy, positive or negative, can enter and trigger the existing accumulation.
Any time there is an increase in energy, such as when we experience a coveted event like falling in love, that influx of energy opens the pocket of backed-up pain. We often have the faucets so tightly closed because with so much backed-up energy, the moment anything opens, it only causes pain. We live mired in learned helplessness.
Once triggered, if the activation of energy is stronger than our attention, it will act through us, taking on a quality that is automatic and nonvolitional.
The actual danger is simply having the inability to match attention to the level of activation. It doesn’t have to be our own attention. It can even come from someone else. Activation is done well when we are connecting with an attention stronger than our own.
With attention and holding, this energy can be cycled back into our system and converted to energize everything in our lives. More often, though, we constrict or try to block energy activation because we have no idea there is a way to meet it and then be able to utilize it for our benefit.