Clairvoyance

Maybe I have a very slight telepathic inclination...  but this morning I've discovered that I can even predict the future!

On Saturday October 22 I posted part one of a story, the sequel of Haesito in Medio:   Journey with Unknown Destination . This time I didn't get stuck in the middle, I got stuck at the beginning, haesito in ovo.
I have the tendency to put certain things off: from getting up to doing chores. When I even think about them, I get a weird sensation...  The story I started in October was to help me find out why I have this tendency and how I can get rid of it. I  Introduced a young dog, not properly house trained, to make sure that the main character would be forced to get up and act... but I never wrote down the scene.  Like a nasty chore it just hung around in my head, making no headway at all.
Little did I know... when two weeks ago my son bought a kitten, a young 'persian prince' called Diego...

I decided to 'sleep in' this morning  -sorry, yesterday morning we just passed midnight-.  A decision my pets didn't appreciate. In protest the degus starting throwing the sawdust out of their cages. And the walking furball, beg pardon, the persian prince,  dragged the spillings all over my room -a bedsitter- . If that were all. When the royal highness walked over my face I noticed he smelled bad and his feet were dirty with something that makes you lose your appetite for breakfast. So I cast a glance over the edge of my bed ....  oh no... the prince had scooped some of the crown jewels out of the litter box.  I still wonder how he did that.
Just as I had imagened for my story, the leading actress just had to get up and DO something. Roll up her sleeves, after getting dressed of course, her nighty has no sleeves that can be rolled up-  grit her teeth and start working her way out of the sh.. Literally and  as always it worked figuratively as well. Because the work actually did her a lot of good. When she was finally hosing down the litterbox under the shower, her rotten mood  vanished. Down the drain with the rest of the muck.


Thank you Your Highness, for messing up so much.  I shouldn't have chosen a puppy for my story, but a kitten. 
While I wrtie this, the prince is paying a visit to the family in my 1:12 scale log cabin...

*****

Telepathy?  I've had some experiences and done some experiments that point in that direction. But I guess you can also throw them on the pile of 'coincidences'. Well alright, just one example, the rest I keep under my hat. Marked private.


When I was still living in Haarlem, - a glorious time with the Hells Angels as my back door and next door neighbours - ,  my mother went to a group of amateur poets . Once a week, on tuesday night.
Afterwards she would drop by my place, for a last chat before going to sleep.  There was no set time for her arrival. Sometimes she walked alone from the poets society, or with someone else, or she'd get a ride. At times she stayed with her fellow artists for a drink, other times she'd leave straight away.
I remember it distinctly, one evening, a picture of her shot through my mind. Something was up. Without hesitation I put on my coat and walked out. That is odd. I'm the one who hesitates, especially when negativity is involved. Yet this time, though I was aware that something was up, I was not afraid or stressed. 
Just around the corner, under the railway viaduct, I ran into my mother. It was pretty dark there. And out of that darkness, from the sidewalk,  a motorcyclist appeared, looked right at us and then 'he 'hit' the road.
"Thank God you came looking for me, " my mother said as the motor guy disappeared.  " That man has been following me. Close to the station he even followed me riding his motor on the sidewalk."
In her fear, she had been thinking of me. That's when she made contact.

Rotten, fearful feelings are often called 'presentiments'. But they are not. They are just thoughts, that stick to you because you're in a bad or sad mood. If you give in to that moodyness... then your ideas will become self fullfilling prophecies. That has nothing to do with clairvoyance. Clairvoyance conveys images that do not involve your mood. The picture is short and clear. So clear that it'll stick to you a long time.  But it does not bring along fear. Just info.

Some people believe that the gift of clairvoyance is reserved for a selected few. Just as other special -esoteric- gifts. This is what the theosophists claimed. Rudolf Steiner, once a theosophist himself,  believed that we all are gifted. This caused him to break with theosophy. And hence the name anthroposophy, indicating that all men -anthropos- have special gifts, not just a few, selected by God -Theos- .
It's just that we live our lives too much on autopilot and walk around with our mental eyes closed too often.

My Old Umbrella

My son, the first years of your life,
you and I go together day by day.
Sometimes the sun will shine,
and you'll be frisky, glad and gay.
But at times the light wears out,
the rain is coming in.

I don't know why it is, my boy,
but my umbrella is not as bright and good
as others' you might have seen.
Perhaps God was in a joking mood,
when he handed mine to me?

It opens well and can stand a storm,
but rain keeps seeping through.
We won't stay dry and warm, my boy,
when the clouds are full and blue

Hush, let me share a secret now.
While other kids
keep their neat shields free of stain,
we both sneak out into moonlit nights.
In search of muddy pools,
those remnants of the rain.

We'll turn my 'brella upside down
and when the  moonlight strikes the pool,
we'll sail into the white moon glade.
To enter a world sublime.
Where your soul's  the creator king,
running wild and free

We'll stay until your smile grows strong.
Than we go back, embrace our destiny.
Knowing that when the rain is gone,
there'll  be pools of mud.
just there for you and me.

Mathematics and Love just don't add up

It's in my genes. To live life without complying to the general consensus. I don't recognise it in time. Or may be I just don't understand it. And I don't like acting according to something that I don't understand.

I never received the 'How-to-act-when Guide'. Misdirected, I guess.

Let's give you a nice example of not going by the rule book, performed by a family member: my grandfather, my mother's father. He was born in 1911. He really ignored consensus when he decided to live with a woman born in 1953.

Dear reader, what have you been doing?

I don't need clairvoyance to tell. You have subtracted 1911 from 1953. But why on earth would you subtract my grandfather from a woman he's in love with? My grandfather being the oldest, subtracted from the youngest? That leaves nothing at most. Or in their case... negativity.

They started a relationship, so you should add them up. When they started, they were 74, not a bad number to start a relationship. And when my grandfather died, they were 136. O.K., not a world shattering record. Her fault.

I've had a relationship with someone 3 years younger than me. Ah, you relax now. That is far more decent. But my relationship lasted only two years. Our fight afterwards lasted much longer.

While my grandfather lived 31 years with his partner.

When thinking, talking, gossiping of a relationship please leave your pocket calculator at it's appointed place: in your pocket.

A relationship is something of the heart. If you must apply calculous, apply the right form.

• For starters do not subtract one person from the other. When a person is subtracted from a relationship it means the relationship is over.
• Subtracting is staring at the difference. You know 'subtract 3 from 7' is the same as 'the difference between 3 and 7'. You throw away the resemblances, similarities and parallels. But they fortify a relationship! Don't throw them out.
• In a relationship, people join forces. So adding them up is the logical way to go about it.
• Yes, in most relationships multiplication is only just around the corner.
• Differentiation? Doesn't necessarily have to be the end of a relationship. It might deepen it, expanding the roots. From square to cubic to the n-th level?
• Power ... a good healthy relationship can definitely give both partners a lot of power to express themselves in this world. Trust me. But it's not something you should be after within a relationship.
• Division... not a good thing. Being divided in two camps is not good. But seeing division as sharing... can go too far as well. What if everything is shared, the two becoming one? Sounds 'glib' and boring to me. Or maybe one of them is not really flourishing in this relationship, wearing a mask.

I have just one rule of thumb, when it comes to relationships: 
      it's never wrong to love someone.

Trust 3b: ... into Faith and Love

PSYCHOLOGY AND -GREEK- PHILOSPHY

Rudolf Steiner's 4-fold classification helped me shape the 'two level' idea of acting at either an animal level or a spiritual level. There are some types of behaviour that Steiner classifies as part of the 'animal kingdom' (the third class), while other types of behaviour are typical for the highest class: the kingdom of man (the fourth class).

The third class, the astral body is the seat of the soul, and the repository of human desires, emotions, and feelings.  
Primitive feelings like anger, fear and lust belong to this class

The fourth class, the Spiritual Self is the true spiritual essence of each human being.  
For instance art, man's creativity, is said to reside at this level.

The ideas of Neale Donald Walsh (Conversations with God) and Barry Neil Kaufman (Option and Sonrise) fit well in this scheme. If you look closely at what they say, you read the message:

you may feel that your reactions to any situation, are limited, implied by a mechanism, but they are not. You choose your own reactions.

Bears Kaufman points out how easily we tell ourselves that our feelings are determined by others. “You make me so angry!” Nonsense, anger is a choice, because you may believe that anger puts you in the winning position. No one can make you angry, you do it to yourself. Alas, it can be such a habit that it happens subconsciously. Making it hard to quit, but not impossible.

It becomes a habit when anger has paid off in the past. Then we easily tend to go for this reaction to get our way. But we can examine ourselves and decide that somehow anger to get what we want is not necessary. Or not the best way. Staying friendly and going your own way often is more effective than anger or even blackmail by using tears. Alas we just didn't learn that in our early years, when we were just starting to experiment with groupdynamics at kindergarten or at home.

Is it just a coincidence that I feel for both Steiner's and Kaufman's models? Steiner's theory is based on the ideas of Aristotle, who was Plato's student, who was Socrates' student. Bruce M. Di Marsico 's 'Option Dialog' which is refined by Kaufman and integrated in his Sonrise playtherapy, is based on the Socratic Dialog !

Neale Walsh argues that we either act out of fear (= animalistic level: survival) or love (= spiritual level: altruism). Ask yourself 'What would Love do now?' when pressured to make a difficult choice. I did and I chose to act out of love. Putting myself in big trouble with some law enforcers and other authoritive figures -who were used to people blindly following their instructions- but in the end it worked out wonderfully for my son and me.

Let's hang on to Love, it comes closer to our Faith and Trust Journey than you think.

THERAPY: DIRECTIVE & CONDITIONING or UNCONDITIONAL LOVE?

Some of our most used psychological therapies function at the animalistic level. I hate that. Any therapy that involves either punishments or rewards, makes the hairs in my neck stand up!! Like behaviorism and some popular forms of cognitive therapy.

It means the therapist is not just conditioning the clients behaviour, he is teaching the client that motivation lies outside of him or her. This creates a dependency of the client on his environment, or worse the therapist. That's not healing, that's disempowerment!

Apart from that, rewards and punishments reinforce our feelings at animal level: lust for rewards and fear for punishments. This is not the level at which you want to live.

I prefer the humanistic psychology of Carl Rogers:

Rogers rejected the deterministic nature of both psychoanalysis and behaviourism and maintained that we behave as we do because of the way we perceive our situation. [Grand opening for SPD and autism treatment!]

"As no one else can know how we perceive, we are the best experts on ourselves."

Carl Rogers believed that humans have one basic motive, that is the tendency to self-actualize - i.e. to fulfill one's potential and achieve the highest level of 'human-beingness' we can^@.

From his theories, Virginia Axline developed a form of playtherapy based on unconditional acceptance of the child in therapy. Because the therapist has FAITH in the healing powers of the client, even if it is a child.

The child chooses the way a therapy session is filled in. Since the child alone knows what it needs. And it will generally choose a game that will help him develop himself. 'All' the therapist does is be present and be empathic with the child. Unconditionally.

The unconditional love helps the child to strengthen his self esteem and he becomes able to overcome his problems by himself. And this way the client, the child, becomes independent of its environment! What a beautiful effect of unconditional love. And faith^#.

Bears Kaufman's Sonrise works with the same principles. Only the frequency, duration and intensity of the sessions is higher, He developed this playtherapy for his son. To help the boy find his way out of his autistic 'enclosure'. And it works.

CLOSING THE CIRCLE

There is something about love, being either conditional or unconditional, that is parallel to trust and faith, to animal versus spiritual … I quote an article on Carl Rogers, by Leighna Shmidt

"Carl Rogers was an American Psychologist who largely contributed during his life, theories and practices on how unconditional love can change us. Unconditional love can heal us from the inside out. Rogers most important work was with the "love" referred to by Greek philosophy as agape. Greek Philosophy distinguished between two kinds of love. Ero and agape. Ero is characterized by the desire for something that will fulfill the lover. It includes the wish to possess the beloved object or person. Agape , on the other hand, is characterized by the desire to fulfill the beloved"

Ero obviously corresponds to my animal level, whereas Agape fits in at the spiritual level. 

 

THe relation between Rogers' theory and my exploration in Trust, has more connections than Ero and Agape. Watch: there are 3 elements to Carl Rogers therapy of love:

• genuineness,
• empathy
• unconditional positive regard

Please let me continue quoting the article. It's about genuineness. The bold script is put in by me:

It is important to be truthful, honest, to be aware of thought processes that occur while in the presence of another. The more fully self is understood, the more genuine (honest) someone can be with self and those who are loved. A genuine person shares his/her thoughts and feelings without pretense. In the presence of a genuine person there is trust. With trust comes the willingness to "expose ourselves" . A genuine person serves to invite one to let their self be known for who they really are.

It is not just about trust. It is about people who know themselves. It isn't hard to understand that a genuine person (Rogers') is a person with high self esteem. Clearly self esteem, trust and love go hand in hand.

Trust and love both can be practised at two levels. At a level where two people have to reward and reassure each other regularly. Where control and possession play a role.

Or you may rise to a level where faith and love are given unconditionally.

If you manage to lift your life to a higher, spiritual level, your trust will become pure. It will turn into faith. You will be free from the need to be reassured, free of the need for proof and satisfaction.

Your love will be unconditional, with all its healing powers.
And you can act freely, undisturbed by the judgements of those who still are at the other level.   Of course we, mere mortals, can hardly live at this level continuously. But that's no reason not to try, right?

Where does self esteem stand in the two level theory? That's a nice one to think about on sleepless nights or in crowded trains.  I think the conclusion will be that at a higher level there is no room for a negative self image. Could low self esteem keep you from moving from the animal level to the spiritual one? I don't think so. I think stepping up the ladder may help you get rid of low self esteem.

Anyone disagreeing? Please speak up!

@ http://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-rogers.html

# Was it faith? Yes the therapist firmly believed in the childs capability; even if it was a child in need of therapy. A child that not yet had proven what he is capable of...