Beyond Body-Mind Identification: Discovery, Not Dissociation. Nondual Therapy, Psychology, and the teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Nondual Wisdom and the Somatic Power of Effortless Presence: Blog Series Part 2

What does it mean to rest as this witnessing awareness in the midst of our very human journey - especially when the bodymind is experienced as carrying the imprints of trauma and stress? Can the ancient wisdom of disidentification from the body-mind coexist with a tender intimacy with our bodily sensations and feelings?

Q: What is the witness?

Nisargadatta Maharaj (NM): The witness is that which sees all things come and go — it itself does not come and go.

It is the changeless background in which all experiences arise and set.

The witness is not a person. It is the light in which everything is seen.

Q: Is the witness the same as the Self?

NM:The witness is a reflection of the Self in the mind.

It is a step toward realisation,

but not the ultimate. The Self is beyond the witness.

The Self is pure Awareness - beyond subject and object.

Q: Can the witness observe itself?

NM: The witness can only observe what is other than itself.

To know the witness as yourself is the end of illusion.

Awareness is not aware of itself. It simply is.

Q: How do I become the witness?

NM: You do not become the witness — you are the witness already.

Only you have forgotten. Pay attention.

Observe your thoughts, your emotions, your body.

Watch all as if it were happening to someone else. Slowly the false self-identification will drop.

Q: What is the value of witnessing?

NM: The moment you become the witness, you break the spell of identification.

You see things as they are — transient and superficial.

It brings detachment, clarity, and peace. You no longer drown in experience.

Q: Is awareness beyond the witness?

NM: Yes. The witness is still a form of consciousness — dualistic, dependent on the mind.

Awareness is beyond both the witness and the witnessed.

It is pure being, timeless and spaceless. It is what you are.

Q: What is the difference between consciousness and awareness?

NM: Consciousness is always conscious of something. It is partial and changeful.

Awareness is total, changeless, silent, and still. Awareness is not an experience.

It is the background on which all experiences appear and disappear.

Q: What happens when even the witness disappears?

NM: Then there is only awareness — pure and silent. The sense of separation ends.

No one remains to say “I am aware.” There is just awareness.

It is the Self. It is the real.

Q: Can this awareness be described?

NM: No. It can be known only by being it. It has no attributes.

You cannot see it, but without it, nothing can be seen.

It is closer than the mind,

closer than the 'I am'. It is your true nature

Modern psychology and neuroscience are illuminating how profound healing becomes possible through somatic awareness, trauma resolution, and the therapeutic power of presence. When we immerse this understanding in the nondual recognition we bring to it not only the immense and profound spaciousness of the infinite, but the deep embodied recognition that: this is what presence is; that this presence is all that is; that this presence, this incredible therapeutic power, is the one and only self.

The Witness and the Witnessed: Not Two, Not Separate

Nondual teachings often begin by pointing to the witness consciousness - the sense of aware presence, “I Am”, which observes all thoughts, sensations, and experiences. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj urged seekers to “hold on to the feeling ‘I Am’” and recognise that anything we can witness (the body, the mind, emotions, and so on) cannot be our ultimate identity.

How can that which changes be what you are fundamentally? You have always been here. As far as you experience tells you – have you ever not been present? This you that has been knowing experience has never changed. It’s the same you as when you were a small child – right? Yet the body has changed. What has appeared in mind has changed. But you – you have always remained here – knowing and observing what is appearing.  The knowing that is knowing this screen right now, that is reading these words – is the same knowing that was looking at your hands and feet as a baby, that was hearing the birds sing as toddler, that was listening to laughter and feeling hot tears on cheeks as a child, that was watching favourite movies as a teenager, that was knowing that feeling of loving a stranger in school, that was knowing the worry of exams and the fears about getting into trouble. This is the same knowing that is here now – looking at this, feeling the contact point of phone in hand or the sensation of seeing the computer on desk. It’s the same one. It’s the same you.

Can you feel this?

At first, it might feel like we as the witness are standing apart from what is witnessed, watching the body-mind from a distance. This practice of stepping back from obsessive identification provides a taste of freedom: you are not the angry thought or the aching body; you are the awareness knowing those experiences. In trauma therapy terms, this is akin (although far deeper and closer to reality) to finding an “observer” self - a safe vantage point from which to notice sensations or memories without being flooded by them. It is a relief to discover I am not limited to the storm of my thoughts or the tension in my body.

As our insight deepens, our understanding becomes more subtle and recognised beyond what we think - it is direct and self-evident that the apparent gap between observer and observed was only an initial stepping stone. Looking deeply, we find no distance at all between the witness and the witnessed, they are revealed as not-two, one seamless reality. In Nisargadatta’s words, “the ‘I Am’ and the world are not two”; the consciousness in me and the consciousness in you are one and the same. All perceptions, whether “inside” or “outside,” arise within awareness and as awareness. In fact, to say “I am only the witness” is ultimately incomplete – it’s closer to say there is only witnessing, only undivided consciousness unfolding as the present scene.

This is the nondual recognition that experience is undivided. The seer and the seen are one substance, like the ocean recognising its waves were never separate. Here, the suffering of seeking drops away. Why? Because the seeker was itself a wave in this ocean – a pattern of thought striving for something “other.” When we awaken to the truth that “you would not seek what you already have… You yourself are the Supreme Reality”, the frantic chase for completion yields to a natural completeness. There is a blossoming of contentment and peace when we realise that the very ground of now is full and enough. In this ground of being, you stand as the silent witnessing presence, one with all that is. This is a realisation that is both humbling (nothing to personally claim) and empowering (nothing is truly outside of you). The non-separate nature of experience is not a philosophy but a felt reality: life is whole, and you are life.

Discovery, Not Dissociation

A core facet of Nisargadatta’s teaching is: “You are not the body, you are not the mind; you are Pure Awareness.” At first encounter, this can sound dismissive of our human experience – as if we are meant to ignore the body and mind. It’s crucial to understand that disidentification from the body-mind is not dissociation or denial of experience. Rather, it is an invitation to discover the bodymind's true nature more fully, not less. Dissociation, in conventional terms, points to not being consciously aware of the experience of the body, a survival mechanism that momentarily cuts us off from awareness and truth in the moment as a means of coping with extreme discomfort. This mechanism then sticks ' and becomes our lived experience of being a someone in the head. Unless we are consciously aware of the body experience, beyond the identification with the story that it is holding, we arrest the opportunity to reveal to the body, the here and now, and so live in its patterns of the past that have been created as a means of protection. From what? from HERE. Whatever happened - it happened here.

In other words, non-identification doesn’t mean not feeling – it means feeling without the usual filters of judgment and story. It means being presence and reality through the body experience. We stop identifying with the pain or story, and instead we identify as the spacious awareness holding the pain. This provides a gentle buffer of safety while still allowing the experience to be felt. Far from being a cold detachment, it is a warm and compassionate presence with what is – akin to keeping company with our sensations and emotions rather than banishing them. This is the radiant parent as presence – which, with earnestness and repetition, recognise to be what we are.

Let’s clarify this with an experiential inquiry into the nature of “body.” Close your eyes for a moment and bring attention to the sensation of your body sitting here. Without referring to memory or mental images, simply feel the direct tingle, pressure, warmth, or vibration that is present. Do you find a solid “thing” called a body, or is there a flux of sensations? Notice, for example, the play of sensations in your hands or face. The mind might label “hand” or “face,” but in direct perception there is just tingling, pulsing, warmth – pure sensation happening now. This is the felt sense of the body, beyond the story. The story of the body includes all our concepts – our name, gender, appearance, history, diagnoses – but the raw living experience is a tapestry of changing feelings and perceptions in the present moment.

Disidentification means we stop taking the story to be the whole truth; we recognize the “body” as largely a conceptual overlay on a field of sensation and perception. By questioning our assumptions in this way, the rigid sense of “me, the body” softens into an open curiosity: what I call “my body” is an experience appearing and disappearing in the awareness that I am. The effect of this insight is profoundly grounding and healing. Instead of dissociating from the body, we are actually more intimately connected with what is real in experience. We drop underneath the conceptual idea of body into the living energy of the body. This is intelligent engagement as your own inherent radiance.

Ironically, many of us are normally more dissociated than we realise – we live in our concepts about the body rather than in its real feelings. Trauma survivors in particular often oscillate between numb disconnection and overwhelming sensation. In one case, the inner body is “muted” or cut off; in the other, it is chaotic and intense. Both are forms of suffering that stem from a lack of safe, conscious embodiment. Nondual inquiry offers a remedy by encouraging a loving witnessing of bodily experience, free of identification. You learn to feel fully, but without the belief “this defines me” or “this will destroy me.” This moves us beyond the idea of ‘trauma recovery’ into a direct energetic recognition of nonseparateness – meeting the ‘original trauma of separation and associated splitting of the psyche at its root. This is a radical befriending in deep unity with our sensational experience – and it needs gentleness, a light touch, and the gift of timelessness this eternal and ever-present witness. Through recognising the nature of these ever-present conditions of wholeness, there is a natural relaxation and release of the defensive energetic mechanisms that appear as tension – there is relaxation as the true safety of being this that does not change or go anywhere, is revealed. ‘The past’ is not coped with – it is released and returned to its source as all love and wisdom.

True nondual insight beautifully resonates with this. Healing requires reconnecting with the body as the intelligence of being through sensation and energy, within a compassionate field of awareness. By resting as the witness – which is inherently safe and untouched – we create a context of inner safety in which the frozen tension, fear, and pain held in the body can begin to thaw. When you are the pure “I Am-ness” only, there is no fear, and in the absence of that fear, the body can finally relax its guard. This is the discovery that beyond the thought of “my body” lies the direct experience of aliveness, and beyond the thought of “me” lies this infinite awareness. Nothing is rejected; everything is included in the light of seeing. Disidentification is thus a profound act of love: it is saying “I am not limited to this pain” while embracing “Here is pain, let me feel it and care for it within the space of what I truly Am.”

If you would like support and guidance in nondual therapy and experiential inquiry - you can read more about my approach here - or book a one to one session here (concessions are offered for those who wish to engage on an ongoing basis or for a focused piece of work together).

If you would like to train as a practitioner in the nondual therapeutic approach - you can book your place on our next Reclaiming Wholeness Practitioner Training Here.