Below is an e-mail I recently sent to Tim Jackins. He replied positively and encouraged me to keep doing this work.


Dear Tim,


Thanks for your e-mail reminder (reprinted below) about the Guidelines for communicating RC to people outside the RC Communities. I was wondering about the group e-mails I send to about thirty of the people I met in Morocco during the Sustaining All Life project at COP22 [the November 2016 United Nations climate talks]. 


Recently I’ve been including (1) a personal “new and good,” (2) something a bit hard in my life recently, and (3) a little RC theory. About fourteen people have written me back, and some of them do so fairly frequently. Some include their “news and goods” and recent upsets, too. A few include photos. One person wrote me from the Czech Republic, where he is studying temporarily, and thanked me for the “wonderful e-mails.” For people who have replied, I usually add a line or two to the group e-mail specifically for them and send the e-mail individually. Occasionally I write them separate notes. 


In the “buddies to Moroccans” conference call that Teresa Enrico leads, I had asked about doing this and was encouraged to send RC theory to my five or so (at that time) buddies. I then assumed it would be okay to do so with all my contacts. I don’t think we’ve consulted with you about this since it has grown in numbers. I’d appreciate hearing what you think about it in terms of the Guidelines and my continuing this kind of contact, which I enjoy. Below is an example of the theory I have shared.


Human beings are completely good, intelligent, powerful, loving, and cooperative and have a great ability to enjoy life. When people seem irrational or have painful feelings or do bad things, it is because they have been hurt and confused and have not had the opportunity to heal completely.


When we are hurt, we may have feelings of sadness, fear, embarrassment, anxiety, anger, boredom, or physical pain or discomfort. In Re-evaluation Counseling these painful feelings are called “distress.”


Distress comes from three main sources: (1) accidents, for example, physical injuries or diseases; (2) contagion, from the distress and confusion of other people; and (3) social hurts, from the distress and confusion of the society.


Most of our distress comes from systematic mistreatment by the society because of the groups we belong to. This is called “oppression” in Re-evaluation Counseling. A few examples of oppression are racism, sexism, classism, national oppression, imperialism, the oppression of Jews, the oppression of young people, the oppression of parents, ageism, the oppression of men, oppression based on physical disability, oppression based on sexuality, and oppression from the “mental health” system.


Below is the e-mail from Tim Jackins that I was referring to.


Victor Nicassio
Pasadena


Dear Co-Counselors,


Re-evaluation Counseling continues to grow well and in many parts of the world. People are figuring out ways to convey RC information directly to more people all the time. 


While we want everyone to have these ideas, we want to be sure that they are conveyed directly to people (rather than through mass media). We want people to get accurate information about RC, we want them to get more than a superficial version of RC, and we want there to be ways for them to continue learning RC if they are interested. To help insure that these things happen, people are required by the Guidelines for the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities to discuss their plans with a Reference Person before undertaking or even committing to undertake spreading RC ideas to groups of people (as opposed to individuals). See Chapter I of the Guidelines, “Communicating about Re-evaluation Counseling Outside of the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities.”


This helps ensure that the steps are well thought out ahead of time and that people get a useful picture of RC at the beginning. 


Thank you for being part of our Communities. 


With love and appreciation,