Beyond the fear....

Wed Aug 19 15:38:59 CDT 2009

Gregg Braden has a great new book about time and the ending of an  
age  -  noted by the Hindu tradition and the Mayan.
An ending of 5200 year cycle: urgency is to awaken now to the  
present, the unfolding all around us.
Urgency to awaken is to awaken from the sleep and from the anxiety,  
not to it.

E

On Aug 19, 2009, at 3:46 PM, thana ag wrote:

> Kaballa says we have  less than 300 years to accomplish  the   
> "radical" change in our consciousness,which is a blip in cosmic  
> time,a mere  milli second..
> But urgency creates anxiety,and anxiety promotes stupidity to  
> resolve it.
> Raising  consciousness  by informing of  choice ,and providing the  
> means for it-is my preferred mode.
> Warmly,
> anath.
>
>
>
> From: edwschreiber at earthlink.net
> Subject: Re: Beyond the fear....
> Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:43:39 -0400
> To: sewell.2 at osu.edu
> CC: list at grouptalkweb.org; ablatner at verizon.net
>
> I received this from a colleague, Keller Allan.  It speaks to the  
> issues of present and future and the "fierce urgency of now".
> Keller writes:  I remember this experiment from physics class.  If  
> you put a pot of ice water on the stove and turn on the burner the  
> water will remain at a fairly constant temperature until the last  
> bit of ice melts, at which point the temp of the water begins to  
> rapidly increase.  We only have a finite period of time to reverse  
> this before drastic circumstance ensue.
>
>
>
> On Aug 10, 2009, at 11:38 PM, REGINA SEWELL wrote:
>
> Adam,
>
> I would love to read what your draft on resistance to consciousness- 
> raising.   Recently, I have been highly influenced by Joanna Macy's  
> work on eco-psychology in regards to consciousness-raising.  And,  
> in my role as a self-defense instructor and a member of a feminist  
> bookstore collective, one of the things that I learned is that  
> people don't really want to think about, acknowledge that they are  
> at risk.  They don't want to think about it.  I remember, doing  
> research on anti-gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered  
> harassment and violence and hearing people say they'd never  
> experienced anything, only to regale me, 10 minutes later, with a  
> horrible incident.  I still remember one young man, a high school  
> student, tell me that he wasn't allowed to go into the bathroom at  
> school if anyone else was in there -- bullies threatened to beat  
> him up.  He told the principal and the principal's response was  
> something to the effect of, "Learn to fight or have someone knock  
> before you go in."  He had no idea that this was a basic violation  
> of his humanity.
>
> This is, I think, part of Ed's push...  to raise awareness to the  
> issues.  Perhaps this displays my cultural background, but my  
> experience is that when it comes to things that are painful and/or  
> scary, to smash them on the head with the facts (like with the PETA  
> films) is to overwhelm them and shock them and leave them feeling  
> powerless, hopeless and paralyzed.  (I actually had a social  
> movements professor write something to this effect on one of my  
> early papers on the anti-gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered  
> violence movement...  and then she broke down in tears in class  
> describing having been raped because some men perceived her to be a  
> lesbian.)
>
> <<AB: This merges with thoughts I've been having about the  
> resistances to consciousness-raising or maturity-development, what  
> they are and how they might be thought about. I'll soon post a  
> paper on my website on this. Would you or anyone else like to see a  
> draft and to comment, make suggestions about what should be revised  
> or added? I was just writing about it this morning and adding some  
> new elements myself.>>
>
> <<The key point is how specifically can we help people move past  
> fear and guilt--- especially regarding warming-up to becoming more  
> psychologically-minded.>>
>
> This is where Joanna Macy is really helpful.  I actually put  
> together a workshop on this for a group in Columbus called Simply  
> Living.  I might still have the outline if you're interested.  I  
> think Kaya out in AK has done work with local organizations to help  
> them get on with the business of social change.  My plan focussed  
> on Sociometry, Playback Theatre, and sociodrama and Boal's theatre  
> of the oppressed.
>
> << Of course we do so implicitly in building a treatment alliance  
> with those who go out of their way to seek help. (i.e., they  
> voluntarily enter the sick role). Even then, a significant number  
> of patients, as Fritz (Perls) noted, "... don't really want to stop  
> being neurotic; they just want to get better at it." I take this to  
> mean that many patients suffer from the consequences of deeper  
> character patterns, misleading aims, entrenched games they play--- 
> which they don't experience as mistaken; but they want relief from  
> the anxiety and depression that follow being fired, having their  
> partners or friends leave or give up on them (disgustedly, hurt,  
> bewildered, angry), and so forth. They don't want to look at why  
> they were fired or abandoned, note, but just don't want to feel so  
> bad. I wonder what percentage of clients you see who would be more  
> like this? 20,  40,   60,   80% ?
>
> I respectfully, and perhaps blissfully in denial, disagree with  
> Perls.  I believe that we as beings move towards balance and that  
> we want wholeness and health and that we don't go there out of  
> fear.  Think Carl Rogers.  I never met Fritz Perls but I did have  
> the "pleasure" of being in a group led by a very confrontational  
> Gestalt therapist.  What I learned in the group was to shut up,  
> look at the floor and how NOT to do group therapy.  I was afraid to  
> put myself out there for fear of being shredded by either the group  
> of by the leader.  Given my limited exposure (a few films of Perls  
> assaulting clients), I'm guessing that many of his clients felt the  
> same way.
>
>  <<So envisioning our goal is good, but we need to envision quite  
> specifically, concretely  If we envision an abstract idea it won't  
> work.
>
> I totally agree here!  You have to envision the board your punching  
> through, not a random something....  the landing strip you are  
> trying to land on, not magically landing safely....
>
> <<    Well, about your role as a sociometrist: I've been having  
> some further ideas about that issue---in part because I've become  
> increasingly impressed with how deep the associated sociodynamics  
> and psychodynamics of tele are!--- so let me know if you'd like to  
> pursue that. Warmly, Adam
>
> Tell me more here....   My dream/vision is to create an action/ 
> creativity oriented class on psychoneurobiology bringing in, among  
> other things, what Moreno sensed by didn't have the capability to  
> demonstrate re:  interaction and Ann Hale's work on psychodrama and  
> interpersonal neurobiology
>
> Peace,
> regina
>
>
> regina sewell, Ph.D.
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