Possessors Of Vast Treasures
ANOTHER VIEW OF RE-EVALUATION COUNSELING
From one interesting point of view, Re-evaluation Counseling is an accumulation of knowledge, of lore, about human beings, about their relationships to each other, about the nature of the universe in which human beings exist, and about the implicit possibilities for interactions between human beings and with the universe.
This accumulation of lore is very valuable to all human beings. It can, in the future, be the critical element in determining if human beings can survive past their development of advanced enough technology to permit the construction of atomic weapons.
This accumulation of lore is very valuable to all human beings. It can, in the future, be the critical element in determining if human beings can survive past their development of advanced enough technology which has permitted the construction of atomic weapons.
Whatever the reason, the knowledge has accumulated, and we who participate in discovering it and using it are periodically moved to re-evaluate the accumulation and see it from a fresh viewpoint.
The Patterned Illusions We Are Emerging From
All human beings, both those who possess RC knowledge and those who do not, still operate within a great web of patterned illusions, which have been imposed by the cultures and societies of the past. Some of us are still accepting some of these unwittingly; others may already be suspicious of them, or we may be fighting wholesale against some, having them pretty well divorced from our own minds but still battling to free the minds around us from acceptance of these illusions.
What are some examples of the great web of illusion that has been woven around us? That societies are omnipotent, eternal. That people are what their patterns represent them to be. That we "canít change human nature." That weíre powerless. That reality is bad, is threatening. That we can protest, we can try, but we canít win. That people are no good. That life is meaningless.
OUR ACTUAL HUMAN ROLE AND FUNCTION
What is our actual situation? We are an integral, leading part of a lovely, interesting, benign, challenging universe. We are completely powerful, lovable, admirable, intelligent, capable. We are in charge. Societies are transitory and always collapse of their own contradictions. Distress patterns can be transitory. They occurred for understandable reasons and can be disposed of.
Life is filled with meaning. The only challenge placed before us by possessing this great boon of being alive, intelligent, and aware is to live every moment well. This is sufficient. We are not obligated to anything or anyone. We are the leading edge of the upward trend in the universe.
OUR FREEDOMS
WE ALWAYS HAVE FREEDOM TO MAKE A CHOICE. This is ever-present. Nothing can ever take it away from us. Regardless of the "seemings," in any circumstance we are free to choose a new viewpoint. In any situation we can make decisions. We are free to decide with careful logic. We are free to decide on intuitive hunches. (We are even free to decide on painful emotion. We are even free to make a decision following a model of someone else and not thinking ourselves. We are free to decide "in the teeth of the evidence." We are free to decide against our own best interests. We are free to be cranky or perverse in our decisions.) The freedom to decide is a powerful, total freedom. Nothing can take this away from us.
We are free to recognize and remember the basically benign character of reality at any time, regardless of how this nature of reality is obscured by distress patterns, or misinformation, or propaganda, or by the ghastly results of patterned behavior. We are free at any time to recall this conclusion once it has been reached. Reality is benign and any indications otherwise are superficial and result from the accumulation of patterns and patterned behavior on individuals, groups, and societies.
We are free to contradict distress, our own or other peopleís. We can set directions against the behavior of the distress pattern. We can use different tones of voice. We can use different words to go against the recorded messages of the distress pattern. In the midst of the greatest confusion we can take a look at how we are acting while in distress and do exactly the opposite. We can "steer by our wake in the fog."
We are free to accumulate theory, free to learn from each successful experience of reemergence, free to continually add to our growing body of valuable lore.
We are free to communicate this lore widely. We have a community network for passing on information. We have Present Time and many other journals. We have audio cassettes, video cassettes, video tapes. We have workshops. We have gather-ins. We have lectures. We have support-group meetings and classes. We have the information on how all these can be conducted well, accumulated over a long period of time. We can make use of radio and television whenever it suits our purposes. We have teletype, long distance telephoning, and facsimile transmission. We have great communication technologies available to us.
We are free to counsel other people. We are free to teach other people to counsel. We are free to train our own counselors to counsel us well, in spite of any feelings that this is too difficult or should not be necessary.
We are free to create directions, frameworks, and commitments. We are free to exchange information with each other. We are free to exchange counseling with each other. We are free to think, to organize, to initiate, to take charge, to be decisive, to reject limits. We are free to win.
We are free, each moment, to begin a completely new future, untrammeled and uninfluenced by any of the distresses of the past. If we do not eliminate all past distress influence the first moment we try, then the next moment offers another new, fresh opportunity. The future, arriving at the present, presents us with an endless series of such fresh opportunities to make completely fresh starts on completely rational futures.
OUR TOOLS
We have four great tools available to us. We have our power to be intelligent, to think. We have the power of making decisions. We have the power to recognize and remember the basically benign character of reality. We have the tools of Re-evaluation Counseling and the vast and varied lore which has accumulated around using them.
WE HAVE OUR BASIC THEORY.
We know:That intelligence consists of the production of new, accurate, successful responses to new situations, and that it is the normal way for humans to function. That recordings of everything that goes on are made by experiences of hurt which interrupt the intelligenceís functioning. That intelligence can refunction if the recording can be discharged through the physical processes dependably indicated by crying, trembling, laughing, storming, yawning, talking. That re-evaluation is spontaneous whenever at least one other intelligence is paying attention and the distress is contradicted sufficiently by this or by other factors. That re-evaluation always follows discharge and proceeds spontaneously to the extent that the discharge proceeds. That if two or more intelligences pay attention to one personís re-emergence, discharge and re-evaluation take place. That the role of the person paying the attention is simply to pay enough attention to see accurately what the distress is by the testimony, behavior, or appearance of the client, to think of all possible ways to contradict that distress, and then to contradict it sufficiently. That discharge is almost all that the person needs help with, but that information and direction and persistence can also be furnished from outside.
WE HAVE OUR FRONTIER THEORY.
We know:That the client can undertake to educate and train his or her own counselor, and does not have to wait passively for the counselorís parallel emergence to bring the counselor into being effective for the client (The client can yield his or her own session to counseling the counselor and require discharge on the distress that interferes with the counselorís counseling of the client.)
We have the beginnings of understanding:
That the most serious obstacle to experienced counselors counseling each other well is the habit of (in some sense) remaining client when they have committed themselves to be counselor. That the habit of always paying attention to oneís own distress was established for understandable reasons, by a determined attempt to have oneís distress ready in case some attention came by so it could be discharged. We know that this habit was reinforced with frustration and other distresses to the point that it seriously interferes with the counselorís carrying out the commitment to pay attention to the client. That these habits or patterns (or "habit-patterns") are reinforced by the fear of humiliation if we ever look at how poorly we have carried out the commitment we make to our clients. That both these bundles of distress can be discharged. That in the case of the habits of paying attention to our distress at all times repetitive thoughtful decisions made over and over again, when one is client, constitute a hopeful avenue for eliminating the habits.
WE HAVE OUR FUNDAMENTAL PHILOSOPHY.
We have concluded:That it is a great boon to be alive. That each person is in charge of the universe which is concentric upon that person. That the initiative can always be taken by first person singular. That people love people inherently, and any contrary appearances are challengeable distress. That the universe exists apart from our paying attention to it or viewing it, but that it is infinitely amenable to our wishes. That one does have a freedom to choose. That the past is determined and deserves no time spent in regret. That the future is free choice. That there is an upward trend in the universe, fueled by the forces of entropy and disintegration, but rising much faster qualitatively than the downward trend proceeds quantitatively. That we intelligent humans are the leading edge of this upward trend.
WE HAVE TIME.
We have all the time there is. We have as much time as anyone else. We have time enough. Even though there are many things we wish to do, each is a part of living well. All we have to do is live each moment well and everything will get done. We can prevent nuclear warfare while we eat our dinner.
WE HAVE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF WHY AND HOW OPPRESSION OPERATES AND HOW IT CAN BE ELIMINATED.
We know:That every person in the present societies operates within rigid roles fixed by accumulated distress patterns, both in oppressive roles and in oppressed roles. That no one agrees to function as oppressor, except by first having been oppressed and then manipulated into the other role in the distress recording. That oppression applied externally can become, through the medium of the distress recording, internalized oppression, in which the person continues to invalidate, hurt, or oppress himself or herself or his or her fellow members of his or her group or other equally oppressed groups with which the oppression has urged him or her to compete.
We have learned:
That unity between oppressed groups cannot be achieved effectively by first coming together in the same body or organization. That real unity is only achieved by each oppressed group first working separately to review their mistreatments, achieve a program for the correction of the mistreatments, and seek allies for carrying this program out, and then, and only then, meeting with other groups to listen to each other at length and with mutual respect. Division and separation need to be as detailed as the oppressions exist.
We have learned the key characteristics of the oppression of women, of the oppression of young people, of the oppression of blacks, the oppression of Jews, the oppression of elders, the oppression of Gay men, of Lesbian women, of the working class. Weíve learned to counter these oppressions with directions or commitments that strike at the heart of them. Weíve learned that there is no oppression so small or affecting so few people as not to deserve attention from everyone.
WE HAVE OUR LITERATURE.
We have achieved:Thirteen books of theory published, some of which have been translated into seventeen languages. Twenty-seven journals started. A substantial library of audio tapes, video tapes, and video cassettes.
We have recognition:
That our literature is of interest to all people. That it is written well enough to be read and understood by all in the languages in which it appears. That it will be welcomed if we make it available to other people. That it will communicate persistently with great effect to reinforce our individual person-to-person communication. That it is possible, easy, and very rewarding to take an additional twelve copies of each piece of literature we buy and "spread the good word" by selling it to our friends and acquaintances.
WE HAVE OUR GEOGRAPHICAL COMMUNITIES.
We have built a relationship:That opens communication with people in many different parts of the world, that gives us a minimum structure and a set of agreements to make it safe for us to relate to each other. That makes it possible for us to become and remain united in outlook and actions. That breaks through the isolation and divisions which this society has imposed on our different groups of people. Our geographical communities and the Guidelines and the other relationships which they have developed have proven the possibility of a united humankind.
WE HAVE OUR WYGELIAN COMMUNITIES.
These are called this because they are growing into a form, undefined as yet, of groups of people of a particular culture or background, organizing themselves around groups of leaders of the same culture or background (for which background we use the generic term "Wygelian"). This set of Communities is developing wide constituencies and achieving unity across many barriers (through their occasional joint workshops).
WE HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH EACH OTHER AND THROUGH THE COMMUNITIES.
We know, by now, that our Communities are not boxes with people rattling around in them, but consist of the ties of love and confidence and shared information and goals. We know that theory is most effective and most accepted by others when it is personified, i.e., when one lives the theory and wins peopleís confidence, affection, and support by so doing. We know that the solid strength of the Communities lies in the individuals who are loved and trusted by others and in the others who love and trust them.
WE HAVE OUR ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE.
We have a vast lore of guiding people to relate to each other effectively.Some examples are:
That in any discussion meeting no one speaks twice before everyone has spoken once. That each person must be treated with respect. That opinions can be criticized, but not the person holding the opinions. That enforced agreement is not workable. That it is much better to have a working consensus than a parliamentary majority by vote. That people think well in groups which are self-assembled, that is where a topic is proposed by a convener but only those people attend who are interested in that topic. That a wide range of proposed topics allows people to follow their own interests.
That people who have been divided by oppression can not unite in one step without great difficulty. That there is a need for oppressed groups to meet in separate meetings to discharge and work out their programs and then come together to listen to each otherís group reports with respect.
That every policy statement should be a draft policy, always subject to revision and improvement. That a policy can best be worked out by involving the people for whom the policy will speak in its preparation, and that the people can be united in this same step. That it is also true that someone outside the oppression can often expedite the working out of policy greatly by preparing a first draft for people inside the oppression to revise. That people can become good communicators by being listened to when they communicate and good writers by having their writing published and read. That the collection of necessary finances can be built into community activity at key points to become a relatively painless and accepted process. That workshops or conferences can have a set general form but still be flexible in all details. That the tools of counseling can be used everywhere and continually as mini-sessions, news-and-goods, etc. That meetings can be made more effective by the applications of small uses of counseling that require little time.
That validation is an almost universally safe mode of communication to another person. That physical well being is intimately linked to and dependent on emotional and mental flourishing. That every discussion or meeting is best started with each person having a turn to say something positive or successful in order to hinder patterns from dominating the meeting. That all persons must handle their own lives themselves but do not have to do it by themselves. That "the word from outside," from other intelligences, is important leverage against the patterns or for re-emergence from them.
WE HAVE THE EAGERNESS OF THE WORLDíS PEOPLES FOR INFORMATION, FOR POLICY, FOR LEADERSHIP.
Everyone is eager to hear, accept, and use our knowledge. Any difficulties they ever seem to have are always caused by patterns on our side interfering with our effective communicating and we are free to attack and eliminate these in our counseling. Our literature is easy to understand and is welcomed everywhere. It is being translated into more and more languages.
WE HAVE OUR WIDE-WORLD INFLUENCE.
It is a fact:That RC has come to be respected and used in many areas of the world through the leadership of RCers and the good will of the people who have observed us work. That where we have done our work well large numbers of people will assemble around us, will purchase our literature and use its contents, will come to and consult leaders of our Communities, will bring them into their wide-world organizations to do workshops and conference-leading.
WE HAVE POWER.
We were conceived and, in most cases, born with a sense that the universe was responsive to our wish. Only distress has occluded that sense and it can be recovered by discharge of that distress.Our flexible intelligences are certainly more powerful than inorganic matter or non-thinking life. They must be more powerful, since they are flexible, than rigid, unthinking patterns. Certainly the appearance of the oppressive societies having power over us is only impressive to us because of the powerlessness patterns installed on us when we were young. These can be discharged.
Our influence is far beyond our numbers at this point.
Such are the tools available to us.
OUR IMMEDIATE PROSPECTS
Some of the immediate prospects before us are for a qualitative increase in the use of our literature by RCers and for circulating it in large numbers in the wide world. Such use of our literature will incidentally build our communities much more rapidly in the process and will solve some of our logistic and financial publication problems.
We have immediate prospects of empowering and guiding and emboldening the wide-world preservation movements, such as the environmentalist movements, the anti-nuclear weapons movement, the political movements for protecting people from the economic distresses of the collapsing societies. We have the prospect of stabilizing and multiplying our existing geographical Area Communities as we actually apply the knowledge we have gained and as new leadership, assimilating this knowledge, matures and takes responsibility. We have the prospect of launching a very large number of Wygelian communities around each of our existing geographical communities and around each of our experienced leaders. We have the prospect of immediately accelerating the emergence of much larger numbers of powerful leaders from the people who have been in Co-Counseling for an extended period of time or people who are able to grasp and apply the theory much more rapidly than in the past because it is being communicated better and because on the average more competent people are being attracted to RC. These are immediate prospects.
OUR LONG-RANGE PROSPECTS
We have the long-range prospect of disarming all nuclear weapons and with the time and experience thus gained finding and applying solutions for all the other major problems facing humankind. We have the long-range prospect of RC knowledge spreading universally, both explicitly and implicitly, reaching every corner of the earth. We have the long-range prospect of a new society replacing the present collapsing one. This new societyís fundamental structure probably will be an enormous network of topic groups coming into being on every problem that needs resolution. We have the prospect of thousands and thousands of clear powerful leaders united in a great benign, confident sisterhood. We have the long-range prospect of support groups being organized and operating everywhere, and of Wygelian leadersí groups operating everywhere. We have the prospect of eliminating the regressions back into oppressive practices which have threatened every attempt to break out of the oppressive societyís domination up until now. We have the prospect of relationships of complete closeness and complete openness developing among larger and larger numbers of RCers. We can expect a deep love and understanding and confidence in each other such as, until now, have only existed temporarily or in fantasy for most people. We have the long-range prospect of an elegant world, a rational society, of leisure and challenge and plenty for all.
OUR LONGEST RANGE PROSPECTS
At a longer range we have the prospect of exploration and colonization of the universe.
Harvey Jackins
August 1, 1983