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Tilling Mustard Seeds

About Raya Faith

The Gentle Rise

Isaiah Lived Resurrection

Resurrection Micro Miracles

Painting with God

Captivity-Informed Theology (Roots)

Incarnational Neurodivergence

Spiritual Physics

The Captivity Lens

Captivity Glossary

Rare Spiritual Predator Glossary

Resurrection Lexicon

Resurrection Ethics

Captivity-Informed Ethics

Embodied Truth

The Incubate Response

Naming Wounds

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You Are Held

Gentle Psalm Journey

Sanctuary Home

This is a sanctuary of sacred breath and resurrection soil.
A place to lay down what’s heavy,
to let your soul breathe again,
and to tend mustard seeds
not in performance — but in presence.

This is The Gentle Rise —
a transition from trauma into restoration,
from captivity into clarity,
from surviving into being God-raised.

The table is still here.
The soil is still holy.
And Jesus is still the one holding it all together.

There’s no need to rush.
No need to explain.
You are welcome — just as you are.
You are already home.

The Somatics of Religious Gaslighting

By

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Institutional, Systemic, and Spiritual Abuse & the AuDHD Nervous System

Religious gaslighting does not only distort memory or faith — it disorients the body. Here, we explore how religious gaslighting fractures the neurodivergent body, and how truth restores regulation.

When sacred language is used to deny harm, the nervous system short-circuits. What should be a sanctuary becomes a site of danger. The heart races, breath tightens, and muscles brace, because the body recognizes contradiction long before the mind can name it.

For the neurodivergent body, especially the AuDHD nervous system, this rupture is devastating. We are wired for attunement — to sense authenticity in tone, energy, and truth. When Scripture or spiritual authority is weaponized against that internal knowing, the body enters a prolonged state of somatic dissonance.

It’s not merely confusion; it is flooding. The body feels the betrayal as shock. Cortisol and adrenaline surge, while the soul pleads for coherence.

The survivor’s mind may still say “God is love,” but their body feels terror — the conflict between divine truth and human distortion.

Over time, this inner warfare produces chronic collapse, autoimmune distress, and dissociation. It is why survivors often describe religious trauma as “spiritual death.” The body keeps the score, but so does the spirit — and both ache for alignment.

Healing begins when truth is no longer exiled. When the nervous system finally encounters safety, the body starts to trust again that truth will not be punished. And in that sacred stillness, the spirit can finally breathe — freely, wholly, and without fear.

This process is not automatic. It takes time for the cells in the body to learn this new rhythm of safety through micro-repetition with mind, body, spirit working in new synergy.

Every series in our weekly rhythm in the online sanctuary reinforces these micro-repetitions to build the healing arc that allows for this synergy to take root and begin again the return to self and Source. Securely attaching to Real Jesus who breathes Living oxygen into our being, who co-regulates with us.

Wherever you find yourself in your healing journey, you are welcome to rest in Presence with us and breathe in the stillness your body, mind and spirit are craving.

With Love,

Raya

Your Seat At The Table

Author Note

This reflection expands on Raya Faith’s lived-theological and neurodivergent trauma research. Her work — including The Fifth Trauma Response (The Incubate Response) and Incarnational Neurodivergence: Spirit at a Cellular Level — explores how trauma, faith, and the AuDHD nervous system converge in the work of embodied healing and sacred restoration.