66 - Re-evaluation Counseling

Welcome to the January Present Time. It's a wonderful issue, sparkling with the thinking 

and actions and creativity of Reers all over the world. We are reclaiming our intelligence 

and our power. 

It was a pleasure for all of us to put this Present Time together. We hope you will find it 

useful and inspiring. If you don't already subscribe, think about doing so. If you know 

RCers who don't subscribe, nudge them. If you know someone who would be encouraged 

in her life if she read Present Time, sell or give her a subscription. We'll appreciate 

your help and we'll get a dandy discount from our printer as we sell more copies. 

Articles and art and workshop information and address changes for the April issue 

need to reach us by March lOth. 

Ann Steele 

719 Second Avenue North 

Seattle, Washington 98109 

USA 

NTENTS ::•,•• ' 

• i Articles about Counseling —3-11 . 

Taking D e s i r a 

:;• : •,. _4- bg 5 l Key e : Actions • That •;••••,'?'•• •••:•••••••'•••:(.! • Offr Destra 1• 

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' . W. Ahat cHappened t i ous Reusng n s Marx Ni •.7- 6-8 

.. .. ... 

1 Counseling 

H . a. Practice , •-• 

r v e. 12-26 :••••2 

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Pleasure, Not Duty Eitan Colman *--1:2-13 . • 

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Wide . . 

, • , World Changing - 

. iRacism 

. and n RC sRita 

Stair *-31-32 ' ' 

. - Liberation . t o 

7 2: ' ' . . —38150 •::::::',;•:ʻ. ' ,'•: • • • • • : . : :'••• :ʻ • • • • • • 

• Accommodating B9 

- 3 7 . 

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People With Disabilities Marsha Saxton - - 38- 

, Counseling . e . Theory —51-50 :::: • : • ••••••:: • :• : ••• :•••'•• :. 

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• 42 e , 

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es 

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t From Shouldn't 

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n s the MGood ai l Language — 6 1 4 4 P.: 4/ways' ••:ʻ,-.•••• it • ,.. clvative : # • 

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i.Appretiating . 

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and Using Bestimaiations Jessican Colman —66-67•••• 

!! 'Teaching ae r v 

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e yLeading J 

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a c k iand n s Community 7 Building —75-78 - . - - : : • 

• •:••••Poems d z a —7 49 53 72 '.:: •• ::: '' 

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A• T 

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- sWorkshops 5 2 

• w —85-86 

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• Publications . 7 --87-93 

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Reference , u5 

8 ' Persons For Organized Areas —94-96 

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Teachers s Outside of Organized Areas —96-101 

n 4Contacts 

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—101-102 

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APPRECIATIONS d 

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Layout: Ann Steele eand 

Katie Kauffman 

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'typesetting: Valerie 

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aJaworski 

Proofreading, shipping, t ' 

d and other help: Marie Hart, Mary Hodgson, Susan 

Hutchison, i Gordon . 

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Jackins, Leslie McGovern, Laura Thomas 

Cover photo: near o ; Mount • Rainier, Washington, USA, by Harvey 

Jackins r 

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Drawings by: John 

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Fehringer, , Katie Kauffman, Fred Keller, Diana 

Lyon, M ah C •a Ramakrishna, i 

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Vivien Richmond, A n n Steele, 

Tamara Thiebaux, o • 

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: Li Xinru, unknown artists 

PRESENT TIME (ISSN 0899-2490) is published quarterly In January, 

April, July, and October for $10.00 for a one-year subscription Inside the 

Photographs by: oHarvey 

• : 

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' Jackins, Mary Ni, David Pascale 

U.S. and $12.00 for a one-year subscription to other countries, including 

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postage, by Rational island Publishers, Inc., 719 Second Avenue North, 

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Seattle, Washington 98109, USA. Second-class postage paid at Seattle, 

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' 

Washington. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PRESENT TIME, 

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PO Box 2081, Main Office Station, Seattle, Washington 98111, USA. 

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Copyright 

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" by Rational island Publishers, PO Box 2061, Main Office Station, Seattle, Washington 98111, USA 

$2.50 (USA), $3.00 (other countries) 

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A L I T T L E GIRL'S DREAM COMING TRUE 

My life is great. It's wonderful being offered more and more opportunities to meet exceptional people, 

to assist people in their growth, and to learn about everything. It's my dream as a three-year-old child—to 

have lots of friends, to be excited about every day, and to offer love unabashedly. 

In September I conducted the afternoon of a day-long workshop for the women of the Waianae Coast. 

It was a resounding success with many questions from women who were curious about the "methods" I 

use. I also met with the planning committee several evenings and wisely suggested that I do an evening 

workshop for the facilitators of the conference. I got very close to many of the activist women on the coast 

through this work. So last week, they asked me to be on the Board of Directors for the Maili Housing 

Project. This innovative project houses the "beach people," all local people made homeless by the 

economic oppression here. By the end of the first meeting, I had a good assessment of what I can offer 

them. This promises to be challenging work as it involves politics at the city level. 

My workshops at the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women conference were successful. I 

wanted to jump and shout! At ,10:30 the evening before the conference, I received a phone call from the 

commissioners requesting that I present workshops at all three time slots instead of just two. It felt just 

fabulous to be able to relaxedly say, "Sure. That'll be easy." So I presented "Power through Alliances: 

Crossing Race, Age, and Class Barriers" twice and "Patient Myth/Doctor Myth: Taking Charge of Your 

Health Care" (with Alan, my husband) once. Two women from the first workshop 'immediately asked 

about where they could take RC classes. One is now in Aaronetta's class. 

One woman called me with comments that provided me with several important insights. "You are so 

unassuming and yet so incredibly powerful. You are able to get people to work together so well. The work 

you present is subtle and yet powerfully moving." I realized that that is exactly how I want to work. 

Eighteen years ago, I gave up leadership in frustration and unhappiness. Leadership seemed filled with 

mountains of dissension, lots of self-centeredness, waves of confrontational standoffs, icy isolation, and 

the inevitable "burnout." Retraining for leadership based on RC theory has given me the tools to restructure 

my skills and those of leaders around me. To start, I base my work on the principle that everyone 

desires and hopes to work cooperatively but just gets sidetracked sometimes. Repeating this principle to 

non-RC leaders always brings discharge. 

The key for me in the wonderful work that I do is to stand clear of my distress. During a workshop 

when I hear what sounds like an attack on me, I gently (and sometimes urgently) remind myself that this 

is a "person separate from the pattern." It works. The pattern lunges forward at me, but there is nothing 

for it to sink its fangs into (as long as I steer clear of "Oh, oh, I did sqmething wrong" or "Eeeek! They're 

attacking ME."). Being a counselor several times a week, week after week, for five years is certainly good 

practice. I always wondered how other RC leaders were persistently rational in the face of irrational 

behavior. And now that I'm less desperate and more openly hopeful I've 'even been able to let go of my 

"oldest" pattern of telling people exactly what to do. So I label myself a "facilitator"; people are much less 

restimulated by that title. 

My latest excitement is that this week I was asked by a San Francisco Bay area film maker to work with 

her on a series about the Nisei during WOrld.War IL I have great admiration for this woman and her persistence 

in blatantly presenting the human side of human beings on film. This will be so much fun for me! 

APRIL SASAKI 

AMA, HAWAII, USA 

3

TAKING KEY ACTIONS T H AT TRIGGER 

OTHER DESIRABLE ACTIONS 

4 

— Harvey jackins 

As we become more effective and more influential in the dual process of our individual re-emergences 

and the building of world-class communities centered upon our individual leaderships, we will occasionally 

be faced with the apparent difficulty (and sometimes the reality) of there being too much for us to do, 

Many of us by now have already had the experience of taking on responsibilities beyond what we had 

been doing, eagerly carrying them out, and then finding that we are working long hours and getting inadequate 

rest, exercise, and recreation as a result. The phenomenon of over-fatigue and "burn-out" is an 

almost universal accompaniment to the job of leader in the institutions of the oppressive society. It has 

been far too frequent a companion to our most responsible and effective leaders in RC as well. 

Two years ago we evolved the counseling technique of "standing guard" as a way of helping each other 

discharge recorded fatigue patterns. These, because they are able to be restimulated by new tiredness, can 

make a little new fatigue seem overwhelming. The "standing guard" technique, when utilized by an effective 

counselor, has dependably led to discharge of the recorded fatigue patterns and to recovery of one's 

inherent zest and endurance. 

OTHER PATTERNS 

There is often more to the difficulty, however, than old recordings of fatigue. There are other patterns 

such as "having to do it all one's self" or "feeling no one else can be depended upon." These can be discharged 

and eliminated, too, with good counseling. 

There often is also the reality of there being far too much work within the usual operation of a leadership 

role for one individual to carry it out adequately, given only one person's time and strength. 

LEADING LEADERS 

Here one helpful approach to date has been the realization that a leader who wishes to lead a worldclass 

community must lead leaders; that leaders can be produced from followers and followers thus 

trained to be leaders can in the process be trained to become leaders who train other leaders, Each generation 

of leaders can learn the possibility, the necessity, and the means for training and enhancing additional 

leaders and leadership. 

STILL LOTS TO DO 

There is a residue of difficulty, however. The onrushing proliferation of nuclear arms and the accelerating 

collapse of the oppressive 'society produces, within the ruling classes of the society, an enormous pull 

toward war and the use of nuclear weapons. The more aware we become, the more tasks we see that need 

doing. There is a great deal more to do than one individual, acting alone, can hope to accomplish. 

Fortunately the dynamic nature of reality offers some clues to a workable solution of this dilemma. The 

development of the future proceeds with great complexity, influenced by all the past events that created 

the preconditions of the present and the future, but with a continuing interaction with the events that are 

taking place currently and with our anticipations of the future. In this complexity, certain "key" events 

can be located or estimated, events which, if accomplished, will necessarily trigger the carrying out of 

other desired events or courses of action. 

THE RELEASING OF OBSTACLES 

These key events will sometimes be the releasing of obstacles that have developed in the work. 

In past years in the northern United States, logs were often cut in the woods in winter and sent to 

market by floating them down river in the spring. Lumberjacks would shepherd and guide vast quantities 

of timber down the fresheted rivers. On occasion the mass of logs would jam at some point in the river

and great pile-ups would develop. It became a crucial skill to find the "key log" in the jam, the removal of 

which, with peavey, pry bar, or dynamite, would free the whole mass of logs to continue on their course 

downstream. 

The progress of events and the development of movements are subject to similar obstacles. The untangling 

of "key difficulties" which are holding up progress on a broad front can be compared to the freeing of 

the "key log" in a log jam on a river. If a person playing an important role in a movement becomes nonfunctional 

through accident, illness, preoccupation with distress, or unforeseen circumstances, to restore 

that person to functioning or to replace that person in the role with a functioning person is a key activity 

that releases the development of many other activities. 

THE CREATION OF PRE-CONDITIONS 

Creatioh of pre-conditions for eyents which one desires to take place has a similar effect. 

If one wishes to produce a motor car, for example, it will be necessary to find (or even construct) an 

iron mining operation, smelting of the iron, mills to produce steel, and the casting or forging or machining 

of parts in order that the manufacture of an automobile can proceed. In other kinds of manufacturing 

• 

tthe 

desired product to be attained. 

h 

Leading a large number of people in a world-class community organized around one's self to achieve 

e mass re-emergence, eliminate nuclear hazards and construct a rational society will certainly have 

tanalogous 

pre-conditions at every stage. 

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aINCISIVE 

COUNSELING 

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One pre-condition that comes quickly to mind is establishing communication and association with 

sother 

able, rational individals. The key steps to this pre-condition will include the counseling of otherwise 

able people who are limited by distress patterns. We know hoW often this has marvelous 'results in freeing 

p 

and enhancing the abilities of the person counseled to perform, to act, to lead. 

o 

r (This is one of the great advantages that the RC leader enjoys above all other leaders, the possession of 

tthe 

tools and skills of counseling. This often enables one to solve problems with considerable ease that are 

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regarded as insoluble in the wide world.) 

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TRAINING AND EXPECTING 

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Another triggering action which creates the pre-condition for desired activity is the training and production 

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of new leaders. Almost all humans are leading difficult, despairing lives at present because of a 

lack n of leaders and leadership. The skills and knowledge about producing new leaders that we are acquiring 

, are priceless. We are learning to provide the safety, the modeling, the encouragement, the counsel- 

wing, 

and the relaxed high expectations that develop additional leaders quickly. 

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MANY OTHERS 

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There are many other obvious types and examples of "key actions" which a leader can take to multiply 

the effects of his or her efforts. All will lead to the recruitment of additional forces and the enhancement of 

desired h activity, including the building of one's own world-class community. 

o 

u We have much to learn about this process, but the insights We have so far are valuable. I conjecture 

that s if you and I as leaders actually correctly determine the "key actions" or the "nodal points" of our situations, 

and move on them we can indeed live every moment well, 

i 

n We can take only actions that we enjoy taking, we can avoid fatigue and burn-out, we can retain sufficient 

g leisure for rest, recreation, and enjoyment. 

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We can, at the same time, operate with ever-increasing effectiveness as leaders of an ever-increasing 

throng of other leaders who are leading other leaders who are constructing and developing world-class 

communities n and, in the process, solving the key difficulties confronting the human race. 

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—Mary Ni 

think the trip that Harvey and Tim and I made to China was quite a success from a number of perspectives—organizationally 

as well as personally. In pursuing the organization of lectures, It was 

clear that no one, not even the people in China; knew quite what to expect. Yet, from the people who 

came forward and expressed interest in learning more about RC, I think we may have found the cutting 

edge of RC leadership in 

China. It is clear to me that peo- The thrust of Harvey's discus- was doing. I n this way, they 

pie were able to relate to and unsions 

seemed t o be towards were all able to understand how 

derstand the solidness o f RC three different types o f audi- the theory is applied, and what 

theory as It applies to their lives ences. The first type, such as kinds o f distress barriers can 

the talk at An Ding - 

and work. The enthusiasm ex- was H o scertainly p i t a l , to the most "pro- given, a direction that c ould 

pressed b y the various audi- fessional" group of people: old- elic it discharge. 

.ences, through their questions er a intellectual n d and cadre types. 

and their desire to have more While d these o professionals might I think that as a team, Harvey 

meetings, was also very promis- be mor e embedded I n their and Tim and I worked out well. 

c o m e 

ing. I think that if we can encour- ways, they will certainly be help- Tim's clear thinking around the 

age the growth of this beginning ful u in spreading p RC through "of- trouble s pots and h is great 

interest, a grassroots Movement ficial" w channels, h e and by broad- thoughtfulness i n seeing t he 

will easily develop. e n i n n g connections through their bigger picture (and us in it) sure- 

As with any idea that one is large networks and established ly added an important perspec- 

Interested in disseminating t o relationships. 

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t i v e to everything that occurred. 

peOple with different language c lH i i s calmness and humor and 

backgrounds, t he problem o f Te h e talks n given t at the Beijing ability to laugh through the tight 

translations is a crucial one. In Institute of Physical Education • spots were certainly also wei- 

that respect, the Interest and 

ian 

N o r mY a l d at Beijing Nl Universit come traits. 

abilities of LI Mel Ge and Chen s 

c a p t u r e er generation. d the Interest T h e of students' a young- Pinglun in their initial colabora- A l t h o u g h I know I still need to 

fresh thinking, sharp questions, Improve m y language s k ills 

tive effort i n translating The and clear desire to learn more greatly, I think I was useful with 

Human Side of Human Beings about how to apply RC theory to what Chinese d i d know, in 

Into clear Chinese, and Li Mel their lives make me think the helping to negotiate our way in 

Gels future plans to organize the schools and colleges in China, and around Beijing And in doing 

translations of all the other RC particularly places like these in- the translating for a few of the 

books, will do much to promote stitutions where students are meetings. Also, I think my oresthe 

understanding and practice being trained t o be teachers, ence and familiarity with certain 

of the theory. • would be exciting centers where situations might have helped to 

Li Mel Ge is a solid and re- RC c ould b e enthusiastically ease some of the politeness that 

sponsibie woman. She thinks taught and acquired. c o u l d have kept people more 

clearly and has incorporated the a p a r t . 

kinds of principles into her life T h e n finally, there were the 

and ac tions t h a t encourage more intimate, personal connec- A n d Harvey. Well, he was the 

trust and motivate people. She tions Harvey made with Individu- axle about whic h everything 

brings with her, in her associ- els through the smaller group spun. By his willingness to give 

ates, Chen and Pi, two more meetings. Kao Yi and his family people time, t o answer quesstrong 

women who are definite- learned much from one short tions, to speak frankly and from 

ly interested in learning and us- v is it from Harvey and Tim, and I his heart —I think an important 

ing RC. As with many competent k now h e and Ka o Yue, h is dynamic was Initiated that will 

people, LI Mel Ge does not lack daughter, are eager to help with assure that the development of 

for, o r shirk, responsibilities, t h e translations despite their RC In China is clean, clear, and 

rusty English. Also, the meet- a practical human means of co- 

Through continued communica- ings with Li Mel Ge and Pi and operative behavior that people 

tions her own with re-emergence her, and support and de- for Chen were so good, in that they can use in working together to 

velopment as a world leader, as were not only given opportuni- achieve their highest ideals. 

well as with the financial back- ties to ask the many questions 

Ing Harvey has offered to her In that they had, but also were R e g a r d in g next steps, I think 

regards t o accomplishing the given the opportunity to expert- that encouraging and keeping 

translations, I believe much can enc e being counseled well, communications open between 

be accomplished, 

along with clear explanations of interested peopl 

e why aHarvey n d was g rdoing o uwhat p s he c o n t i n u e d 

i n 

6

BEIJING 1986 

Did you like the bicyles, 

rolling, rolling 

quiet endless streams 

of dark-haired people 

Wheeling by? 

Did you like the give and take 

the watching-out-for 

order 

of the business? 

the almost silent flow? 

Did your eyes sparkle, 

heart warm, at what 

Mao did 

seen in the 

bicycles breaking boundaries? 

Did the whispering 

cars of the people 

assure you of 

peace 

of possibilities 

of pleasures to be had 

of plenty? 

Did it make you smile? 

Did you like the bicyles? 

MARY Ni 

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photos by Mary W a nd Hervey Jackins

continued 

China is crucial. Keep the momentum 

alive. People need to 

practice the theory with each 

other in order to understand it 

well. Since Li Mel Ge is our main 

contact and leader, she could 

probably use as much Information 

and practical counseling 

time as she can fit into her life. 

One way to do this besides 

sending literature—Is to have 

her meet and counsel with good 

AC people who are already In 

the area. Another would be for 

her to get good sessions from 

people who happen t o travel 

through Beijing. Then, also,' if 

workshops are going on that she 

might attend, her participation 

• in them would be a big boost for 

her. Since she is still relatively 

new to AC and discharge and 

the Co-Counseling process, any 

practical support and encouragement 

she can get now will go 

a long way. 

I think It would be helpful for 

the appropriate people in China 

to receive practical letters from 

Harvey and other key people 

(Pam Roby to colleagues, Diane 

Balser to women, etc.) that have 

to do with special Interest Areas. 

I write to you to express the gratitude of my 

group of people, and mine. You gave us a wonderful 

lecture on Re-evaluation Counseling. Particularly, 

you made me learn a lot of new thought and 

a new viewpoint of human beings. You have led 

me to a completely new field of psychology. It excited 

me and made me full of hope for our future. I 

will put all my heart to the studying, teaching, and 

practising o f Re-evaluation Counseling. I will 

spread this kind of marvelous method in China, at 

least in our province, as far as possible. 

Sometimes goals are clear, but 

the steps to the goals are not. 

Directing Li Mel Ge and other Interested 

group leaders to specific 

literature and ideas about 

how to lead and what to do In 

AC meetings would be useful. 

Encouraging • everybody to set 

Up Co-Counseling relationships 

and really do AC as they become 

more and more familiar with the 

theory is so Important': .• 

• 

I was filled with ideas and 

feelings an d t h e wonderful 

realization of the hopefulness of 

our visit. I knew that AC theory 

does and can work with all people 

despite our various cultural 

barriers, but to see it work so 

well ,again and again, despite 

language problems and translation 

difficulties, despite o u r 

great Chinese sense of propriety, 

despite the tremendous walls 

of reserve kept i n place b y 

cultural patterns of embarrassment 

and humiliation, despite it 

all I t just works so nicely. 

Should I have another opportunity•to 

go back to China this 

summer with my mother, I will 

certainly plan to do anything 

From Beijing Normal University 

helpful that I can in this area to 

encourage things along. If circumstances 

don't permit my return 

so soon, I know I'll be back 

eventually, with my Harvard degree 

and all, and even better 

than ever. I ' m enthusiastic 

about the wide-open possibilities. 

Now, I return to my studies 

with renewed vigor and direction. 

I don't think I'll ever be able 

to be a proper Intellectual, but I 

can see more'clearly how I can 

use this time in school to further 

my own aims, as opposed to getting 

molded into something pretentiously 

insecure and superficial, 

as I was beginning to fear 

might be happening to me. I'd 

like to see AC theory and practice 

take their rightful place in 

the world (and in academia!) and 

this will be one of my pursuits. 

Allston, Massachusetts 

USA 

I want to study Re-evaluation Counseling under 

your guidance. I know I still have a long way to 

realize this. Now I am studying Social Psychology. 

In my spare time, I'm translating into Chinese 

the books and literature you presented to us as a 

gift. I will send to you the translation copy in the 

near future. 

Sun Jian Min 

Belling, China 

We have discussed your report with our group WOMEN'S FEDERATION OF CHINA 

of people several times and we have Co•Counseled 

with each other. I found It both difficult and In February next year we will have a nationwide counsel- 

useful, just as you said in "A Welcome to Re-evaling class for the workers of the Women's Federation. In this 

uation Counseling." I shall do my best to be a Reevaluation 

Counselor. 

class we will also introduce 

plan - y to o uask r Li CMel-ge o - to _Speak on this topic. 

Pt XIAO-MING 

C o u n s e l i n g 

BEIJING, CHINA 

t h e o r y 

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8

REPORT FROM A BUSY WOMAN 

I have an unexpected moment as I wait for 'the 

Dean of Women to arrive to talk with me about the 

participation of the students in her school in my 

November weekend called "Young Women As Leaders." 

I decided I would take a minute and reflect on • 

the success so far of the five projects I initiated this 

summer, all to take place this next four weeks. 

Later— 

So much for that moment. It's now two weeks 

later. I am in the middle of a small dream come 

true a weekend liberation workshop in my hometown. 

Anyway, back to my projects. I organized five 

major workshop/lecture/meetings for October, all 

focusing on liberation, most for women, most with 

enough time to incorporate counseling theory and 

demonstrations. 

Last weekend I was in Lubbock, Texas. A former 

student of mine had gotten wind of my workshops on 

women's liberation and asked me to do one for sixtyfive 

women on the Texas Tech campus. She then set 

up a lecture for me to give on Women As Leaders in 

the city, for female leaders of the city. There was 

concurrently a Texas women's conference called 

"Prime Time For Women," which focused on political, 

economic, legislative, and personal issues of 

women's liberation. She put me on a panel with two 

other women, a professor and a banker, and we discussed 

"risk taking." You can guess what risk I challenged 

them to take. I talked about the challenge of 

truly reclaiming our power and risking the upheaval 

that implies. The rippling inspiration and determination 

my talk seemed to generate was noticeable. I 

know that a brief hour like that is a mere blip on a 

screen compared to the effects of ongoing groups 'and 

community, but it was more than a fair beginning. 

And out of it have already come plans for me to lead 

a city-wide workshop called 'Women Without 

Limits" for March 1987. That might actually be a 

firm start on my Lubbock community. I am eager. 

—Nancy Kline 

women of color and women of many class backgrounds 

and a range of ages from twenty-three to 

eighty. We are meeting in the public library, so it is 

common city turf for people. And are we turning the 

complacency of this sleepy, sexist, classist town on its 

earl At least for this weekend, things are happening. 

Some have said it is what they have waited years for. 

Most of these women have never been together as 

peers. Some have been each other's maids, each 

other's grocery checkers, each other's customers, 

child caretakers, teachers, employers, county commissioners, 

nurses—but rarely if ever each other's 

peers. And of course our commonality as women 

makes an initial safety. The diversity, though, is 

what excites a lot of us. In a few minutes (we're in 

the middle of support groups now) we will address 

the diversity using separate caucusing and report 

back to the entire group structure. I can't wait. 

These women are not typical articulate feminists. 

They are deferring, growing, changing, and trying 

to figure out what to do with their lives. Some are 

deep in sexist conditioning and represent millions of 

others who vote reactionary because they are immersed 

in internalized sexism. Most are workingclass. 

Some are owning-class. But today they are 

(after learning how to listen and take turns) opening 

up, admitting the unthinkable, and considering, 

even demanding, change. I will be sure there is a 

support group and then a leadership counseling 

group that develops from this. I'll do a workshop or 

evening class or leaders' group each time I come to 

visit my dad. • 

I want to keep figuring out how to make change at 

the deepest level and to grow significant leadership. 

I am especially challenged by the mainstream terror 

of doing what is good for everyone, the provincial 

view, the tendency to categorize as "radical" (and 

therefore "bad") the commitment to everyone's liberation. 

I want to help get people working for a new 

economic system and I think this is a good way to do 

it. We'll see. 

Now I am in Clovis having given a two-hour lecture 

Later — 

live - here. The workshop I am in the middle of lead- 

ting h is fifteen hours for women only, called 'Women Well, it's ten days later. The women's workshop 

Without Limits." What is important to me is that was a loud success, with ten women wanting to take 

e I've made sure that it is a relatively diverse group, leadership t o form support groups and leaders' 

enormously o more diverse than ever a group has been groups and t o organize a follow-up evening in 

tin 

this town before. We've made a point to especially December for women who are leading. I also led a 

hinvite 

and make sure o f their attendance—eight 

continued . . 

e 

r 

n 

9 

i 

g

conti nued 

four-hour event, "Young Women As Leaders," pulling 

together twenty high school women (nine black, 

fifteen working-class, representing every clique in 

the school). In the first four hours they listened well 

enough to each other, shared experiences relating to 

sexist conditioning, appreciated themselves a bit, 

and broke into caucuses and reported back. They 

were a transformed group by the end, having begun 

with icy looks, sighs of regret for having even decided 

to come, and whispers delineating the little 

groups among them. They left appreciating each 

other across every "boundary," and planning for 

some kind of second meeting that would bring them 

together again. There may not be a strong bond 

there because the time was short, but it was a unique 

experience, giving them a real glimpse of each other 

and a look at their power, which I expect they can 

build on. I will keep in touch and see what to do 

next. 

Tomorrow I take a second group of young women 

students to the mountains for a workshop. I'll have 

thirteen .this time, representing five schools. I am 

looking forward to it very much. Breaking the barrier 

between schools will be an additional bonus at 

this workshop. 

Later— 

I gave a speech and led workshops for a convention 

o f housing cooperative board members last 

month in Chicago. I gave a keynote address for an 

hour called "We Are All Leaders." I took advantage 

of the title to challenge them to reclaim their powers 

to see themselves as leaders who could decisively affect 

the policies of the U.S. and to take back the nation. 

I began by asking them two questions: "If you 

were in charge of this country, what would you do?" 

and "Since; in effect, you are in charge, what do you 

I have returned to Maryland. Never was I so happy 

to see my bronze and rusty, golden, deep orange think 

woods and to smell the wet earth as I was that night. - lead the country safety into the next century?" I talked 

There is nothing like returning home, uncondition- i 

for 

s 

a few minutes about the logic of our being in 

ally welcomed, after a job well done on the frontier 

charge and about the lies • of internalized prejudice 

t 

of my growth. I've cried a lot since. 

which h limit our view of our power._ And then I sug- 

e gested that a , 

Two days' after my return, • I led the first "Young sl 

their e a dpower e r ' s and the major skill is creating a thinking 

Women As Leaders Workshop" for a local school — kenvironment, 

so that people can come up with fresh 

j 

sixteen teenage women for a weekend in the foothills ideas 

o 

and 

b 

policies good for everyone. 

i l s 

of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It worked beautifully l 

and I think we now have sixteen, certainly fifteen t I had o only forty-five minutes total to speak and so 

women there, who will keep the process and chal- mh 

could enot speak l fully about the components of a 

lenge growing. One of the things that came out of it op 

thinking environment. (I have 'a list of fifteen, which 

was a project to create a group which would oversee present 

s 

a challenge to leaders,) But I did mention 

p 

the rights of women in the school, starting with the and elabrate e on three: (1) seeing to it that before 

t 

hiring of women for some of the top positions on the 

opeople pcreate l policies they know the truth about 

e 

faculty. 

each e other's lives, the ,histories of their people, and 

sr 

their dreams e and goals, (2) reclaiming their power, 

This week I've begun a new series of leadership maintaining s an unabashed ratio of ten to one appre- 

counseling classes with seven new people and two 

ciation 

c l 

to criticism, and (3) taking turns, hearing 

ea 

i 

experienced. This is .my "RC"— the heart of my 

from everyone. It was good. I grew from it because it 

n 

world community. This round I hope to teach one of 

was m the first time I had spoken in such a formal set- 

the experienced people to teach so we can have two 

tting 

on these topics. I don't think I'll be that scared 

full classes by spring. I am pleased with the quality 

again. i 

and workability of this set up. I am making sure that a 

my workshops and classes start out with a high pro- 

I led two short workshops after that, each with'six- 

l 

portion of people of color and working-class people ty people. Even with such large numbers, people 

i 

so that perhaps we can avoid some of the problems were taking in the information and learning skills, 

RC has experienced in sustaining large numbers of applying f them to their lives and Work very well. One 

non-white people in the Communities. 

y 

o 

u 

a 

r 

e 

10 

g 

o

workshop we called "Increasing Community Participation." 

I suggested four conditions under which 

people tend to want to participate: 

1) when the event addresses an issue of importance 

in their lives or leadership • 

2) when they grow closer to other people because 

of real and mutual interaction 

3) when they are inspired to go beyond limits in 

their lives 

, 

4) when they have actual power in the situation. 

The other workshop we called "The Art of Asking 

Questions." In the short hour and a half we had, we 

covered the questions which give meaning to socializing, 

questions which help eliminate prejudice, 

questions which clarify thinking and increase love, 

and questions for maintaining a sound relationship. 

Not bad for a short afternoon. 

Out of all that have come two good contacts for 

my leadership counseling network. And, I hope, 

many others who will be a little bolder and will take 

turns now and then listening to each other and 

maybe even ask questions instead of interrupting. 

I am gradually beginning to build a network, a 

community of leaders using these skills (and many 

others, a full range of RC skills) to lead and to lead 

leaders. I am particularly enjoying working with 

women because I think women need to see their 

IF You COULD REMEMBER 

My teachers' and leaders' workshop went well. I focused much of my attention on the established 

leaders who are already doing well and gave them good counseling. I was pleased with Myself. 

I asked this question of some people and it seemed helpful: 

"If you could remember that re-emergence is possible and the reclaiming of your complete 

humanness and power inevitable should you decide to do that, what would you do now?" 

It set a good tone and things bubbled along. 

1 

1 

leadership as the next and pivotal development for 

the world. 

I am pleased and constantly inspired. Things are 

happening very nearly as I had hoped and planned 

three years ago. My own support is strong—both in 

the receiving and the giving. My friends and loves 

who are doing their own version of building liberation 

communities are the people whose support is 

most effective. I have always felt most supported by 

people who are themselves on the front lines. Doing 

at least fifteen minutes of counseling each way with 

someone every day is proving effective and vital as a 

way to review goals, take stock of successes, and 

plan next steps, as well as discharging a bit on what 

seems hard. 

I am relentlessly busy, but I am proud of the quality 

of each detail of my work and of the solid foundation 

I think I am setting in place. Somehow, partly I 

think but of a commitment to be a model of the 

theory I espouse, I am also managing to rest, to rejuvenate 

myself at intervals, to be better loved than 

ever in my life, and to sing and dance. 

I am in flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico to 

lead an RC workshop there. What with sleet, vector 

flying, too little gas forcing a premature landing and 

delays on every end, I am three hours late. The 

workshop will start without me. Crashing, however, 

would have delayed things decidedly more, so all is 

well. 

SANDY SPRING, MARYLAND, USA 

• BETH EDMONDS 

FREEPORT, MAINE, USA

COUNSELING PRACTICE 

I just finished reading your article "Who Is In 

Charge of a Session?" in Present Time No. 65 and 

am finding myself getting more and more irritated. 

I do not disagree with anything you write. You 

describe very well the functions and responsibilities 

of each person during the session. So then, I 

must be restimulatedi I could work it out In a session, 

but I've decided to take a radical stance and 

suggest that being restimulated may also be a 

useful tool which I may use to look at what Is happening 

in me and perhaps to come to some creative 

thoughts. 

What I read in this article which irritates me are 

words such as "responsibility," "take charge," 

"think clearly," and "make the commitment." I 

have nothing against these Ideas in principle, but 

I do seem to hit a concrete wall in a session when 

confronted with the feelings that these words 

evoke in me. I have spent many sessions working 

on these feelings and on my oppression as a man 

who was expected to be in charge of just about 

everything. These sessions have helped me somewhat 

t o clarify my thoughts, to separate past 

Messages from present realities. So now the wall 

seems out of bricks rather than concrete. It still 

stops me. The Judea-Christian ethic of hard work 

and responsibility has been for me a heavy load to 

bear and I would like to share with you a different 

point of view which has helped me to be confident, 

committed, respectful, and relaxed while 

keeping my high expectations and being delighted 

and loving, both as a counsellor and as a 

client. 

AS A COUNSELLOR 

I have noticed that I was most effective when I 

took real pleasure in my relationship with my 

client. I can also add that I stopped being effective 

as a counsellor when I ceased deriving this 

pleasure. When I experience real pleasure (delight, 

love, interest) in the counselling relationship, 

the following things happen: 

• I experience delight: I see my client as a truly 

unique, creative human being trying her very 

• best to solve some of her complex individual 

conflicts. 

• I feel relaxed, even When she dramatises. I 

see her dramatisation as a dance (a series of 

gestures which she uses to communicate the 

particular conflict she is experiencing between 

her desires and the inner and/or outer limitations 

that she sees to these desires). 

PLEASURE, NOT DUTY! 

12 

• I feel respectful, knowing that each dance 

has its evolution (the time necessary for the 

dance to be danced) — until it has expressed all 

that It needs to say and then loses its significance 

and therefore its reason for being. 

• I feel confident: I know that my client's full 

wish is to resolve her conflicts. I am aware that 

as my client sees my delight and approval of 

her (my reflection of the present as truly benign 

with my being totally unafraid of her patterns) 

several things begin to happen: 

—She takes heart and throws even more of 

her patterns into the dance.. She allows herself 

to elaborate and even exaggerate her 

patterns. 

—When she sees that I am still unafraid and 

that, in my delight, I encourage her even further, 

her fear seems to subside and the balance 

of her attention between her past and 

the present seems to be restored. 

— Discharge quickly follows and so does reevaluation. 

• My commitment to my client comes from the 

pleasure I take and not from wishing or needing 

him to resolve his problems. I know that he will 

do it when he is ready— at the very best possible 

occasion that he sees. 

• My high expectations come from truly knowing 

that the world is benign and that all dramatisation 

dances have their rightful end. If I experience 

some impatience, I have stopped taking 

pleasure in the exchange and it would be 

better for both of us to stop the session and 

work on my restimulations. If I take real pleasure 

in the exchange, time passes like a flash 

and the distances I feel between the dramatisations, 

the discharges, and the re-evaluations 

are small. 

• I experience the session I gave as easy, effortless. 

—I am not spending my time and effort 

"trying" to find contradictions; at the proper 

time, contradictions come to me. 

—I am not "pushing" for any result; they, 

too, come in their due course.

— I can really let my client know each time 

that I don't understand something he says 

or does, so that I can hear clear messages 

and don't need to spend any energy or time 

"trying to decipher" hidden meanings. 

—I am committed to my client simply because 

I have decided to be, because It 

gives me pleasure, not because I need to 

be, nor because she needs me tn be committed 

to her. 

— I don't make any "errors" in counselling. 

Some of what I say or do is accepted and 

used; other material cannot be used. There 

are no problems here since each attempt I 

make allows us t o communicate more 

clearly, to discover each other, and to Identify 

and eliminate patterns. 

AS A CLIENT 

• I know that I come to a session to resolve some 

of my painful conflicts. The very fact that I arrive 

at my session is a guarantee that this wish is 

there. Here again I see my work as often starting 

with a dramatisation dance or two. This dance 

allows me as the client to establish a feeling of 

safety for me in the relationship. Here is what I 

often observe myself doing: 

• I dramatise: It is important for me that my 

counsellor sees this and lets me know that he 

sees It and that he accepts It and takes delight 

in my creativity. 

• I continue to dramatise, bringing in more 

material representing my inner conflicts as I 

realise that my counsellor is unafraid and encouraging 

and takes pleasure. I may even exaggerate 

my patterns, testing the limits of my 

counsellor's trust in me. If I see no limits to her 

trust, I will often discard my first choice of more 

superficial patterns and switch t o patterns 

coming from deeper and more fundamental distresses. 

• The real pleasure I see in my counsellor reduces 

the fear I feel. 

13 

• As the fear Is reduced, my attention becomes 

more balanced between my past restimulations 

and the benign present reflected to me by my 

loving counsellor. I allow myself to feel the 

emotions tied to the conflicts and to discharge 

the fear, anger, embarrassment, and grief 

which come. 

• As I continue to discharge, I start being able 

to see clearly the past and present as distinct 

and to form some new ideas about what happened 

to me in the past: re-evaluation. 

• I now see clearly the present as rich and '• 

beautiful and benign. • 

Many of the ideas which I have expressed are 

already a part of AC theory. Below are two ideas 

which I have found effective for me and which I 

believe are worth checking out and elaborating 

further! 

, 1) That certain concepts such as '"restimulation" 

and "dramatisation" are not negative to be 

endured, not neutral to bear with a grunt, not 

simply a positive means for reviving unresolved 

and undischarged conflicts. They are a useful 

and perhaps even necessary tool, used in the 

present to establish a safe and rational contact 

between client and counsellor on the road to re- 

:emergence. 

2) That we may be Very much influenced by 

Judeo-Christian culture In the way we think 

about AC theory in suggesting that AC Involves 

"responsible" and "tough" work (at least in the 

language that we use). I am suggesting 'openly 

what seems to me has previously only been 

hinted at or whispered between a certain few; 

mainly that counselling is pleasurable and easy 

and should at no time become hard work. 

• , 

I WOU Id appre6late yotjr thinking and sharing Of 

some , of these ideas with those around you 

would love to hear from you I continue to be 

thoroughly admiring of your beautiful leadership 

and dedication to glear, thoughtful, and sensitive 

thinking. ,


On Interpreting for RC Workshops and Classes 

It was a great experience to interpret 

for the Buenos Aires conference. 

I learned so much standing or 

sitting beside t h e speaker a n d 

transmitting information. I could 

almost see his mind work as he interpreted 

cues from a client even 

through the cumbersome language 

barrier. I could also see how much 

he lo ve d each person. I f e l t 

challenged to make the barrier as 

unobtrusive as possible, to make 

the work easier. 

I found that by paying attention 

to everything carefully, in order to 

interpret, my attention was drawn 

completely to the subject at hand. 

Even when the counselor worked 

with a client on material surrounding 

torture and repression, and 

there were tears streaming down 

my face, I stood behind the client 

and passed his words, in the midst 

of his discharge, on to the counselor 

without interruption. 

I would like to share what I 

learned about interpreting in RC 

workshops and classes. I f others 

.have writte n about t h is a n d I 

missed it, then let this add to existing 

information. 

To begin with, for the work in 

the first Latin American Teachers' 

and Leaders' Workshop, we kept 

two interpreters on duty. Several 

people in the workshop were bilingual 

in Spanish and English, (Unfortunately, 

we had no representative 

from Brazil, where Portuguese 

is spoken.) 

One interpreter, a native Spanish 

speaker, translated English into 

Spanish; the other, a native English 

speaker, translated Spanish into 

English. We rotated interpreters 

to some extent. Because I had some 

experience, and my spoken Spanish 

is fairly complete, I did quite a 

lot of the Spanish-to-English interpreting. 

In the group there were a 

few people besides Ha rve y who 

didn't speak Spanish we ll a n d 

many people wh o d id n 't speak 

English. 

When Harvey presented a class, 

he would speak in phrases, which 

the English-to-Spanish interpreter, 

sitting beside h im, wo u ld then 

translate in to Spanish. Wh e n i t 

came time for questions, the Spanish-to-English 

interpreter wo u ld 

also move up front and interpret 

the questions. 

Hav ing t w o int erpret ers l e s - 

sened the strain for any one interpreter, 

but also insured that speakers 

o f either language would receive 

information correctly stated 

in their own language (regional differences 

aside). 

For Harvey's demonstrations, 

both interpreters concentrated on 

"their" language and interpreted 

between counselor and client, not 

only so the two could communicate, 

but also so that the workshop 

could follow what was happening. 

Those of us who interpreted this 

workshop d i d a good jo b a n d 

worked hard. M y suggestions for 

interpreters a t o th e r b i-lin g u a l 

workshops are as follows: 

• 1 ) Remember that interpreters 

play the role of instrument, serving 

the presenter and the participants 

of the workshop. The most effective 

interpreter is one who can 

translate and transmit information 

with as few of his or her own patterns 

getting in the way as possible. 

Remember that the interpreter is 

not the originator of the information—her 

job is to pass it on with 

as little change or deformation as 

possible. I f possible, t h e in te rpreter 

should copy the tone, attitude, 

or expression of the original 

speaker. 

2) The interpreter should b e 

careful not to change the content of 

interpreted material. "What have 

you done to prevent nuclear war?" 

should not become "Have you done 

anything t o p re ve n t n u cle a r 

war?"— a minor example, possibly, 

but the two questions are quite different. 

15 

3) I t helps if the interpreter is in 

a position to watch the face of the 

person they are interpreting. This 

means fewer mistakes, besides reassuring 

the speaker that the interpreter 

understood. 

4) When interpreting during a 

demonstration, tone and attitude 

are especially important. The in - 

terpreter should be in a position, 

sitting or standing, where she can 

hear (often difficult (Airing heavy 

discharge). Th e person interpreting 

what the client says must support 

the role of counselor by not 

having an expression or tone that 

distracts the client, either from the 

work at hand or from the real counselor. 

T h e person interpreting 

what the counselor says must also 

support the role of counselor, especially 

because what he says is what 

the client hears and understands. 

Consequently, t h i s interpreter, 

too, should be careful to transmit 

information with all attention on 

the client, and attention o f f his 

own distress. 

• I t ' s hard to keep one's attention 

off one's own distress while interpreting, 

b u t bored facial expression 

o r tone, negative body posture, 

or in any way disconnecting 

from the people one is interpreting 

for is a sign of one's own desire to 

be paid attention to. So save it for 

your own session and get your attention 

on the client in front o f 

you. 

Workshops with interpreters are 

challenging, but rewarding, as RC 

becomes a truly international movement. 

The benefit for those of us 

who are hi-lingual is the chance to 

hear information twice. 

conti nued


continued 

One difficulty is the limits placed 

on non-hi-lingual speakers to reach 

across language boundaries without 

a third person present. To this 

end, interpreters should demonstrate 

the utmost respect for both 

speakers and not fall into answering 

questions themselves—just interpreting 

— unless the question 

was really directed at them. In addition, 

interpreters should refrain 

from "editing" what they interpret, 

even if it contains terms or phrases 

that we, ourselves' don't use (for 

example, sexist language). T h e 

place to challenge such language 

usage is not while interpreting to a 

third person. Workshop participants 

must trust interpreters or 

they will not fully participate in 

the workshop. 

We will always be living with interpreters, 

but as we build our RC 

O 

Vao l 

t 

My main thought yesterday and today is this: 

every person is always trying to help. I would add 

this: they are in fact helpful and will have an 

even better effect on the world if their help is aecepted 

by another person. We know this is true 

because we know that love is the way people naturally 

feel about each other. I think it's fair to say 

that helping is a natural part of loving. 

I think it is an insult to people not to accept 

their help; we deny their basic humanness when 

we deny their help. People are naturally loving, 

caring, and helping. To deny this is to deny our 

connection to others. 

We also know that we do not have to accept 

something just because someone says it is helpful. 

We know the fundamental difference between 

people and patterns. Patterns are not loving and 

helpful. We are not obligated to respond to a pattern, 

including a helping pattern. We may choose 

to appear to respond to it with the idea of reaching 

out to a person. 

Perhaps sharing some of my personal experiences 

will be helpful here. I made many important 

decisions in 1985. One decision I made was 

to always give good counseling. Another was to 

always get what I want when I am client. These 

decisions have a lot to do with giving and receiving 

help. I have learned a lot as I've moved toward 

my goals. 

My view of the counselor role has been relatively 

easy to maintain. I take the view that the 

Margaret Grammer-Valtejos 

S IP 40 B u e n o s Aires, Argentina 

% . 

0 

EVERY PERSON MEANS TO BE HELPFUL 

16 

movement locally, we will rely less 

and less on outside resources to get 

things going. 

Harvey finally came to Latin 

America. Soon we will be calling 

on others of you, who have expertise 

in specific areas (my own goal 

is family workshops), as soon as 

our Communities gr ow large 

enough to have specific constituencies. 

It's finally happening here! 

client is always right and always good. I assume 

that if the session isn't going well that it's because 

of something I am doing or not doing. The client 

is always trying to get what's best for her or 

him—that's clear. I notice the client's patterns, 

but focus my attention on the person. I am willing 

to take all kinds of risks for my client, including 

feeling dumb, admitting I am stuck and 

getting a minute of counseling for Me, and dis- • 

charging as much as it will help the session, 

which is sometimes quite a lot. I assume that anything 

the client tells me is meant to help me see 

her or him more clearly. I assume that I am trying 

to be helpful, but I don't assume that I am in 

fact being helpful. I listen to what the client is 

saying and watch the discharge. These attitudes 

have worked better and better each week, so I 

assume they are truly helpful attitudes. There are 

a few Co-Counselors whom I have done poorly 

with, but that's because I swerve from my basic 

attitudes as counselor. 

My general attitude as client is this: you will 

give me all the attention I need for the next time 

period; you will act completely outside of any and 

all distress patterns; you will counsel with me and 

not with my patterns; you will be your real self; 

you will discharge ag much as you need to accomplish 

your mission; you will recognize when you 

are not fulfilling these expectations and you will 

get counseling from me then, with the goal of returning 

to the role of counselor. I think these are 

reasonable expectations. These expectations help 

counselors. I am proud that I expect every experienced 

Co-Counselor to meet them.

I am, unfortunately, not so reasonable when 

they don't get met. This makes it hard on the 

counselor and me. I am never tr y ing t o be 

unhelpful; nor is any client. The more successful 

counselors have realized this, taken the blame 

(which neither of us, of course, deserves), and 

made some changes. My less successful counselors 

have told me I am being unreasonable or critical 

or that I have frozen needs. They are right, but 

telling me those things doesn't help as much. I t 

does make me realize that I am not going to get 

what I want from them unless I change my ways. 

Even as client, it has never helped to argue with 

someone's distress patterns or to act as though 

they can't possibly help. 

I'll take a sidetrack here to say something I 

haven't said before. It hasn't always been easy being 

in RC. I've never regretted being in RC or 

wanted to quit, but i t hasn't been easy at all 

times. One of the most difficult things to deal 

with has been the sense that I get from a lot of 

people that it's wrong or bad to talk much about 

the client role. I think people are confused. 

Harvey jackins has emphasized that we should 

emphasize giving good counseling. That seems correct 

to me and I think that we have been doing 

that in the three years I've been in RC. But he 

hasn't said that being counselor is better than being 

client. And he hasn't said that you should 

always talk about what you do as counselor and 

never about what you do as client. And he hasn't 

said that the counselor is always right and the 

client's main motive is to fill frozen needs. And he 

hasn't said "insist that you are in the counselor 

role even if you are not actually being counselor." 

I'm getting fed up —no, I've been fed up with all 

the people acting as though these have been suggested 

or are true. The truth is that being client is 

just fine, that one can learn about the counseling 

session from either role, that anyone who concentrates 

mainly on a client's patterns is not counsch 

ing, and that you either are counselor or you're 

not —insisting you are is meaningless. 

I've learned an awful lot the past two years 

from new RCers about helping (or counseling) 

and receiving help (being client). Mos t of the 

people I have taught have been brand new to RC. 

Where I have lived, I think we have encouraged 

some very smart people to try RC classes. I may 

be the teacher, but I tend to get taught the most. 

It would be easy to be disrespectful of newcomers 

when they are being client because they 

think I know what I am doing. They trust me to 

17 

be helpful as counselor. They have good reason to 

trust me. It's important that I let them know 

what I know, but also let them know when I don't 

know, when I've made a mistake, and when I 

need their help during their session. I am a great 

client when I get stuck counseling them. I am 

relaxed about quickly putting my junk out of the 

way and returning to counseling them. When I 

am honest with them, trust is quickly built between 

us. 

It would be easy to be disrespectful of newcomers 

when I am client. They figure I know how 

to be client. To some extent, they look to me for 

guidance. Sometimes at the beginning of a session 

my guidance goes like this: you know me already; 

you have seen me for a couple of hours; you know 

where I am strong and I am clear; you know what 

is hard for me; you saw all of this before I ever 

spoke a complete sentence; knowing what you 

know, what would you have me do now?; trust 

your intuition; I guarantee you it's good. That's 

being a good client. I am offering relaxed, high expectations, 

and a willingness to receive help. The 

counselors have responded uniformly. They express 

a lack of confidence and then offer a simple, 

brilliant contradiction. I do not exaggerate here. 

• The new counselors need a bit of a push to get 

them to relentlessly provide the contradiction, 

but this doesn't take a whole lot of time or effort 

on my part. To me, the greatest disrespect would 

be to act as though the counselor could not contradict 

my chronic distress patterns — 

to though a he c or t she acould s offer little or no help. I f I did not 

think carefully about who I invited to RC classes, 

perhaps this would not work so well. Perhaps it's 

a criterion I intuitively use in screening people. 

It has been Interesting to notice that this approach 

as client has not worked as well with experienced 

counselors. They tend to dramatize lack 

of confidence, peer at me (or say something) as 

though to say: "What frozen need are you trying 

to satisfy now?", and miss the good thoughts that 

I think came to them immediately. But the more 

important point to be made here is what I have 

learned from newcomers: when I have high expectations, 

but leave my urgency at home, I am 

offered and receive great help. continued


continued . . 

It's interesting to watch how I react when I 

first meet experienced counselors. I feel safe with 

them, but don't feel safe enough to throw my distress 

in their faces. I've been trying to take what 

I've learned with newcomers and apply it in all 

sessions. I was able to do this yesterday and I had 

a great experience as client. 

I was in a three-way session with two women I 

had just met. I liked them very much and grew to 

like them more during their turns as client. Their 

patterns didn't bother me when I was counselor, 

but before we started, I had noticed their patterns 

and thought, "Oh, no, she's going to do such 

and such when I'm client if I try to go for everything." 

I felt when I was client that I would have 

to either do battle again or settle for something 

mediocre, which angers me even more than fighting. 

Then I had an interesting thought. 

I decided I would not say a word, because I'm 

always trying to reason with my counselors, or 

more accurately, trying to argue with their patterns. 

T h at was contradiction number one: 

against my pattern of using my great verbal ability 

to shut down my own discharge. 

I decided that I would not pay any attention to 

patterns in their facial expressions or in what 

they said. That was contradiction number two: 

against my tendency to focus attention on distress 

in my counselor instead of on the person. 

I decided that I would discharge whatever was 

on top, regardless of how they reacted to me. 

That was contradiction number three: don't 

assume people's fears are fear of me—go ahead 

and be me. 

This all worked great. I discharged a lot of fear 

and embarrassment while they checked me out 

and figured out what I was doing. They started 

18 

talking with each other a bit about me, which 

sounded as though they were using each other to 

overcome internalized sexism they had attached 

to me. They moved closer to me and talked with 

each other about how that affected me. They 

started using humor in their conversation. When 

they asked me something, I didn't answer. 

Time and time again I was tempted to tell them 

what to do or what not to do or how not to look at 

me, but I just kept looking past their patterns to 

the women, discharging fear and embarrassment 

all the while as I ignored the words in my mind. I 

also started to discharge same anger. 

Then, things seemed to shift. They went from 

not getting in my way much to providing very 

good contradictions. I t seemed that they dove 

right for the earliest incident I have remembered. 

They were very aggressive and very smart. They 

held me in the right places, with the right firmness. 

They looked at me with the right expressions. 

They said the right things. They stopped 

trying to get verbal responses from me. They told 

me to make the angry sounds I had been making, 

to push against them, to open my mouth wider. 

They kept getting smarter and smarter. I kept 

discharging and looking at them, regardless of 

what came to mind. I finally cried as they revealed 

their full intelligence (I always cry when 

people act brilliantly and I notice it.), and as I 

saw how smart they were compared to my parents 

thirty years ago and how safe I was in the present. 

My conclusions are these. Every person is always 

trying to help me, regardless of how it feels to me. 

If I ask for help and accept what is helpful, every 

person can and will give help. We experienced 

Co-Counselors really understand discharge. We 

may get hung up on words, but we understand 

discharge. 

Jim Shackelford 

Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA

Handling the Additional Workload 

That Comes with Success 

As we succeed in all our work, we find new op- t h e roles which we have filled in the past. As soon 

portunitles and responsibilities being thrust upon a s we know how to do a thing well, we should be 

us which we are eager to take up. The question passing it on to others whom we can teach how to 

constantly is, "Can we handle all of it?" Will we d o it equally well. We can remain their guide, their 

have the time, the attention, and the ability to do it mentor, their supervisor, or their leader, but we 

all and do it all well? I speculate that we will, that s hould no longer be doing the actual work of that 

we can, that there is a way of organizing ourselves job. This constant movement to separate ourto 

meet all the challenges. s e l v e s from the work that other people can do, 

while mastering the art of putting forth correct 

There are several elements that are part of the polic y and developing leadership and initiative in 

program to meet the challenges: o t h e r people at the fastest possible rate, is critical 

to our achieving all of the things each of us 

NOT WASTING TIME WITH PATTERNS h a s in mind. 

Our major waste of time is still on our patterns. T h i s is not, In any sense, exploitation of other 

The worrying, using addictions, obsessing, escap- people. Developing new leadership requires caring, 

clearing up the messes our patterns have in g deeply and consistently about those leaders, 

made, or whatever else we do as a result of our thinking about their development, counseling 

patterns, still waste enormous amounts of time, them if that's agreed upon In the relationship, giv- 

In fact, we don't have to waste a minute on our in g them an opportunity to do something well 

patterns. There are several things we can do in- whic h presumably they have also chosen to do. 

stead. We can, of course, take the direction of not This is a gift, not an Imposition. Developing new 

paying attention to "the ancient habit-pattern" of leadership, as we ajl know, is the single most imattending 

to our distress. We can, the moment we portant function of existing leadership. What we 

notice the pattern moving into our minds, take the c an do is limited only by the number of competent 

counter-pattern direction so that we are re-emerg- people who are willing to join with us in doing it. 

ing rather than submerging ourselves in old distress. 

We can replace It with a long, self-appreciative 

direction; we can discharge; and we can work. 

ELIMINATING ADDICTIONS 

That is, when our patterns are interfering with our E v e r y addiction which we still possess wastes 

minds, we can then discharge, or take a direction our time and drains our energy. Every time we take 

against the distress, or actually do the work in a cigarette or a cookie, or whatever else our addicorder 

not to waste any time on patterns. One per- tions are, we feel a pang of self-disgust and reson 

quotes Harvey as answering the question, stimulation of all our self-invalidations. This pulls 

"How do you achieve s o much in your life?" our attention away from our fulleSt functioning 

Harvey's answer was, "I never lie in bed awake do- and makes us feel bad about ourselves. 

ing nothing." 

This is completely unnecessary. When we slim- 

ORGANIZING THE WORK m a t e these addictions once and for all, through 

commitment to ourselves and our lives, we feel 

We need to take our work and ourselves seri- great liberation, joy, and energy. There is power 

ousiy enough t o ensure that we have enough that comes from knowing you have overcome a 

money to pay for enough staff and up-to-date self-destructive habit. 

technological support. If we need it, we should 

buy the computer, buy the dictaphone, purchase 

the typewriter that has the self-correcting ribbon, INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS 

hire the typist. Whatever it is we need to hire the O u r own work goes infinitely better if we have 

people to do, we should go ahead and do it with- joyous, close, mutually re-emergent, personal re• 

out embarrassment or self-effacement. l a t i o n s h i p s with people we live or work with. 

Whether it's partner, family, close roommates or 

DEVELOPING NEW LEADERS w o r k m a t e s , there need to be relationships which 

are harmonious and supportive. Every minute of 

Whether we hire people or whether we inspire time we put into creating intimate relationships 

people to assist us as volunteers, we'll need to multiplies our productivity in other spheres. 

develop them fully as leaders who can move into 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA 

19 

— Dorothy Stoneman


TRY TO BECOME A TRUSTED LEADER,• 

NOT A "GURU" 

Can a leader secure, enjoy, and make use of growing trust and confidence from the people whom he or 

she is leading without dependency patterns and declining-to-think-for-oneself patterns developing among 

these people? 

In the early years of the Re-evaluation Counseling Communities there seemed to be a tendency for 

people, when hearing me propose new developments of theory, to immediately voice intense criticism of 

the proposals. It seemed that people who supported the proposals were quiet while people who spoke were 

critical. It was not because the proposals were bad, because the critics almost always later came to be enthusiastic 

supporters and users of the proposals they had criticized. 

This has changed in the last seven or eight Years. Currently, large numbers of people respond positively 

to the initiatives I propose. If the proposals are contained in an article in Present Time or some other 

publication, people write to me with enthusiasm about the new suggestions. If I advance a new idea at a • 

workshop the workshop attenders usually applaud and often start applying the idea at once. 

Feeling-wise, I find this pleasant, of course. Everyone likes to be appreciated. Everyone likes to be supported. 

Everyone likes their thinking to be agreed with. I also become a bit uneasy. I wonder if a kind of 

rigid pattern is intruding into the relationship between me and the people who agree with me and applaud 

me so easily. 

Oppressive societies in many cultures of the world have demanded agreement with, and unquestioning 

loyalty to, the rulers. Soldiers in feudal nobles' armies were conditioned to be ready to give their lives at a 

leader's command. These are obviously patterns installed by oppression and are not likely to confuse us. 

We have also heard about "gurus," the well-publicized leaders of various movements, cults, and 

ashrams who are simply "adored" by their followers. A long "profile' article appeared in The New Yorker 

magazine describing the relationship between the Rajneesh and his Oregon commune of followers. There 

have been good detailed accounts of the functioning of Chassidic communities around their rabbis. More 

on the fringe, the horror of the Jonestown affair caused us all to flinch at the unquestioning "willingness" 

of hundreds of people to commit suicide at a leader's suggestion. 

A possibly much more subtle example of unthinking support concerns me. Chou En Lai was a brilliant 

thinker and thought independently for many years. However, at one point in the famous Long March, 

after Mao Tse Tung's policies had been rejected repeatedly by the central committee, with disastrous 

results, Chou En Lai made a statement something like this: 

"I have opposed Comrade Mao's thinking on many occasions in the past and have come to different 

conclusions than he has done. I have supported him sometimes also; but every time that I have opposed 

him he has been right and I have been wrong. Henceforth he will have my complete support in the leadership 

of the Central Committee and of the Eighth Route army." 

This was a turning point for China in that Chou En Lai's commitment put leadership of the liberation 

forces of China firmly in Mao's hands. Chou En Lai's support for Mao from then on was unstinting. 

This certainly had many good results, but, as far as I can tell, Chou never thought independently from 

then on. It seems to me this was a mistake. It seems to me that it must have been possible to have given 

wholehearted, unstinting support to Mao's correct positions and still gone on making contributions of his 

own. I speculate that this could have strengthened the liberation forces and perhaps have prevented the 

counter-revolutionary policies which followed Mao's death. 

20 

—Harvey jackins

There seems to be some kind of addictive allure to finding someone you can trust, someone who appears 

intelligent, and then letting that person do your thinking for you. Since RC leaders are becoming more 

and more dependable and intelligent, this phenomenon is likely to attach to them. 

This concerns me. I am speculating about it in print in the hopes of drawing attention to it and discussion 

about it by other RC leaders. How can we accept and use the support which our correct policies and 

our consistent actions have earned us and will earn us and which certainly strengthens our efforts for 

world-wide liberation and the prevention of nuclear holocaust, yet, at the same time, prevent the people 

who have come to trust us from simply accepting our thinking and stopping doing their own independent 

thinking? 

The enthusiasm of supporters is not a dependable indication of the thoughtfulness of supporters. The 

accounts of Chassidic males' devotions to their beloved rabbi's sermons indicate that they thoroughly enjoy 

their enthusiasm for the thinking of someone for whom they hold such affection, but they show no indication 

of thinking independently for themselves or doing anything beyond accepting the thinking of the 

rabbi. The rabbis, by all accounts, often think well, at least in a limited way, but operate on certain fundamental 

assumptions which narrow their area of interest far too much in a world as complex and dangerous 

as today's is. 

How can we RC leaders accept the support, the unity that comes with it, the focused activity that an 

agreed-upon program brings; how can we enjoy the comfort of being appreciated and still keep clearly 

before our associates and assistant leaders the necessity of them continuing to think independently and 

critically themselves? 

Possibilities I have thought of so far include: 

I) When we propose policy, we use language such as "I would like your critical appraisal of the following 

ideas," or "Here's a proposal that needs to be thought about." 

2) We ask such questions as, "Where do you think this will lead us if we put it into operation?", "Are 

there some possible dangers or difficulties that will appear if we follow these policies that I am proposing?", 

"Can you see another rout,F that will have as good or better effects if we follow it?" 

3) We make such statements as "I know you have different viewpoints than I do because you have different 

backgrounds. If you examine this situation from your background, what policies do you come up 

with? What similarities are there between your policies and the ones I am proposing here, and what differences? 

Perhaps we can use large posters over our workplaces that remind us and our associates, "There is at 

least one elegant solution to any real problem, and probably an infinity of them," or "I need your thoughtful support, 

not your unthinking agreement." 

••••;', GN.9 C '•. USE CHALLENGE FOR GROWTHO-S!:'?"- 

9 a g t s 

- 

t s - 9 

"In taking on a task that is tougher than you think you can handle, you learn the depth of your 

resources. The work has entered your body, as the German phrase puts it. You don't retreat from 

the objective demands of the job to protect your personality. You express your personality in the 

proper performance of the job, or you transcend your personality so that you are no longer at its 

mercy." • C h a r l e s Merrill 

, 

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21 

, , , 

"The Walled Garden" 

(sent in by Pat Woodrull) 

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a


I've been Co-Counseling fo r 

many years, secure in the knowledge 

that it's made my life better, 

particularly as a parent. However, 

I had no idea what it meant to ensure 

"that everything I am in contact 

with works well" until my 

father died. 

This story begins on a Sunday 

morning in May. I was spending 

the weekend with my parents, two 

weeks after we'd all learned that 

Dad had lung cancer. My mother 

had gone to church, so I was the 

person to whom my father called 

when he began to feel "funny." I 

found him listing to one side in his 

chair, unable t o hol d himself 

straight. I calmly settled him back 

into the chair, called his doctor, 

called my brother down the street, 

and dispatched a family friend to 

pluck my mother from the choir 

procession at church and drive her 

to the hospital. 

My father had had a stroke, 

paralyzing the left side of his body, 

and his doctor feared he had a 

brain tumor. I listened patiently to 

Dr. S — describe his despair at not 

being able to "save" Dad, until Dr. 

S — could begin to think (ordering 

diagnostic tests, etc.). Meanwhile, 

my father was transferred from 

ambulance to emergency room examining 

table and I followed him 

everywhere he was wheeled. I held 

his hand, I answered his questions 

—he was understandably disoriented 

by all that had happened 

and the many moves — and I asked 

my own questions of any hospital 

staff who approached us. In addition, 

my mother was beginning to 

discharge (for the first time) about 

the possibility of Dad's imminent 

death. I held her while she cried 

and talked (whenever I couldn't be 

with Dad). Eventually Dad was 

wheeled away for a CAT scan, affording 

me the time to call the rest 

of my immediate family, who began 

to mobilize to join us. I relentlessly 

pursued Dr. S a n d was 

rewarded for my efforts with the 

information that Dad did not, after 

all, have a brain tumor, a source of 

TAKING CHARGE OF A FAREWELL 

hope to all of us. However, Dad remained 

paralyzed a nd therefore 

unable to return home, so late that 

afternoon he was transferred to a 

hospital room. 

The next morning I arrived to 

find him quietly talking with a 

woman he had once helped to train 

for the priesthood. I had observed 

other people at Dad's bedside, during 

previous hospitalizations and 

never had I seen him so comforted 

by anyone as he was by her. I resolved 

to designate her as "his" 

priest, suspecting that she might 

not know how important she was to 

him. Later, when I spoke to M — , 

she told me that she had in fact 

been deferring to Dad's more senior 

colleagues. However, she readily 

accepted my reading of the situation 

and agreed to visit around the 

clock, whenever she could. (At that 

point, I was mistakenly assuming 

that only clergy could ignore the 

hospital's visiting hours.) 

I decided that I could no longer 

afford to leave in Dad's hands the 

gathering of medical information 

from Dr. S — I stayed with Dad 

until Dr. S— made his daily visit 

and asked every question the family 

had thought of and also asked 

him to arrange for a second opinion 

from another doctor, without 

alienating or threatening him. 

My sister arrived, with her small 

son, and took on the important role 

of screening phone calls and supporting 

Mom when she was a t 

home. (Eventually, I called three 

of Mom's closest friends and officially 

designated them "Mom's support 

group." From then on, they 

accompanied Mom on every hospital 

visit and spent hours talking 

with and listening to her.) M y 

sister and I went to visit Dad and 

learned that he was being transferred 

to an intensive care unit, 

where a newly-discovered heart 

problem could be closely monitored. 

He was scheduled for surgery 

that evening. 

22 

The intensive care unit was a big 

change from a regular hospital 

room: more rules, more machines, 

more serious illness, more distracted 

and overworked staff, and lots 

more opportunity for restimuladon* 

I went to work immediately: 

taping family pictures and cards to 

the wall at Dad's feet, befriending 

the nurse who was caring for him. 

We watched as Dad was finally 

wheeled to surgery at 10:00 PM, 

long after visiting hours had ended, 

but by this time Dad's nurse 

(very much our ally) offered us the 

option of spending the night there 

if we chose to! 

Dad survived the surgery but 

was seriously weakened by it. I t 

was at that point I decided that my 

task (privilege) was to be with him 

every minute that I could and to 

invite the rest of our 

, close f afriends m i l y to do the same, I 

a 

called 

n 

my 

d 

husband to come with 

our children (and arranged with 

the hospital staff to waive their 

usual policy of barring children 

younger than twelve); I convinced 

my sister to bring her son as well; I 

called all of my father's brothers 

and sisters (some hundreds of miles 

away); I spread the word among 

Dad's parishioners a nd friends. 

Most important of all, I held Dad's 

hand and listened. 

Whenever he mentioned someone 

by name, I contacted him/her 

and made sure that Dad got his 

chance to touch that person once 

more. He brought up all the causes 

that he had worked for during his 

lifetime and waited for my assurance 

that those causes would continue 

to be served after his death. 

When he brought up disarmament 

and I told him that I was working 

on that, he looked me in the eye 

and said, "I know it's safe in your 

hands."

In addition to a ll of this, Dad 

made jokes and wry comments on 

his situation that made us (and the 

staff) smile and laugh. He requested 

(and got) an a cappella concert 

of "Amazing Grace" from everyone 

who happened to be at the hospital 

that afternoon, in clu d in g h i s 

brother and sister wh o "never" 

sing. He taught me what it truly 

means "to make one's peace with 

the world." 

Friday afternoon h e slipped 

quietly out o f consciousness, and 

eventually life, as those of us who 

had vigiled with him night and day 

looked quietly on. When i t was 

over we serenaded each other with 

"Amazing Grace," wh ich a p t ly 

describes our experience with Dad. 

Having gotten into the habit of 

taking charge during Dad's dying, 

I continued to simply go ahead and 

do whatever occurred t o me. I 

called one person fro m each o f 

three distant parishes where my 

parents had close ties, and as a 

result a number o f very special, 

longtime friends were able to attend 

Dad's memorial service. I 

wrote letters of appreciation to the 

hospital staff. I compiled a huge 

scrapbook of pictures and memoirs 

of Dad from every friend and family 

member I could locate, and 

presented it to my mother a couple 

of months after Dad's death. 

Dad's ashes were buried in October, 

in an unmarked grave on the 

grounds of a retreat and conference 

Have Things Well Close at Hand 

"From now on, I will sec to it that everything I am in contact with 

works well, and I will not limit or pull back on my contacts." 

23 

center wit h which he had longstanding 

tie s. T h e b u ria l wa s 

scheduled the day before an annual 

"walk to feed the hungry" which 

my father had helped to organize 

ten years before. Th is year's ten 

kilometer w a l k wa s in fo rma lly 

dedicated to Dad's memory and it 

was a source o f great pride (and 

benign reality) t o my husband, 

children, and me to wa lk every 

kilometer of the distance, remembering 

Dad and what he stood for. 

Judy Nichols 

Newton centre, Massachusetts 

USA 

A friend once wrote to me saying, "I spent a lot of time repairing and decorating my house. I could really 

enjoy that, but the world is in such a state it is a fool's paradise to concentrate on such immediate 

things." I realized that there are probably a lot of people who feel that way, so I decided to write about 

this. 

First, I disagree that it is a "fool's paradise" to concentrate on immediate things or personal things. I 

think it is important, especially with the world in such a state, to do things for ourselves and our immediate 

environments. • 

, Wid e world changing can be a slow process. It's easy to experience burnout and depression after exerting 

large amounts of energy and seeing little progress. I n repairing and decorating the house you see 

results almost immediately. There's a feeling of accomplishment. You can see the product of your time and 

labor. 

Cut the grass, fix a leaky faucet, plant a flower or tree. Intersperse little accomplishments among your 

world changing endeavor* to rejuvenate your feelings. I f you're making positive changes in your personal 

world, you're making a piece of the world more beautiful. 

Young people are very perceptive. If they see our houses in disrepair, or that Mu m is no longer doing 

things that give her pleasure, what will they think? That Mu m has given up, and if Mum (or Dad or the 

other adults in their lives) has given up and sees no hope, why should they have hope? 

It's not foolish to be concerned with immediate things. Those immediate things help to build a sense of 

accomplishment, and hope for the future. 

Jim Seger 

Tucker, Arkansas, USA


Melissa Penman, a Co-Counselor from the 

U.S., spent a year and a half in Buenos Aires, a 

period just completed this week when she and her 

.husband went back to the U.S. I n the eighteen 

months that Melissa and I were Co-Counselors, 

many important developments happened in my 

life. Those developments affected my life directly 

and became beneficial to the local RC Community 

in ways I haven't yet completely realized. 

During that period she counseled me on the 

one chronic that hadn't been successfully interrupted 

yet, most probably because it is such a 

widespread cultural phenomenon here: my worries. 

She simply stopped me from worrying. Incredible 

things can happen when you reduce your 

worrying activity, such as being able to make 

plans, put them into practice, and not notice (or 

not act upon) the feelings that tell you "no matter 

how hard you try it'll always be of no use." 

I would like to add that I really felt taken care 

of with intelligence in an area where I couldn't 

think clearly and which had become an obstacle 

to reaching for my own power. Other developments 

have occurred ever since whic h have 

shown me the extent of this "leap" I was helped to 

take, but there is one I would like to mention. 

One morning recently I noticed that I was planning 

my day without drawing the customary 

emergency plans in case the long-feared, anxiously-expected, 

and seemingly inevitable disaster 

occurred. I t was very striking to realize that I 

had been, on and off, operating on this attitude 

for some time without noticing it. It became obvious 

to me how chronic behavior can be interrupted 

without its bearer even being aware of it. 

As far as I can see Melissa took the decision, at 

an early stage, that she would support Community 

growth by counseling the existing leadership, 

being a sort of low profile "ghost" Area Reference 

An Effective Expatriate 

24 

Person, counseling on the main difficulties, encouraging 

(coaxing sometimes), modeling rational 

behavior. She was a model client, too, for 

never letting her own difficulties from being in 

an alien environment be an obstacle or show anywhere 

else than in her sessions, She supported 

Community activities in other ways such as attending 

some of the classes taught locally and - 

counseling or spending time with two of the people 

who are now RC teachers too. At our request 

she led a, day workshop on Counseling With Supervision. 

When Melissa arrived in Buenos Aires last 

year, although I was very involved in developing 

leadership in wide world liberation activities, I 

had not been teaching RC for well over a year, 

nor been doing much work 'toward organizing a 

new class. By the time she is leaving us, we have 

had an international workshop led by Harvey, 

there arc four authOrized teachers in the Buenos 

Aires area and fundamentals classes have been 

taught, virtually non-stop and sometimes two at a 

time, for the year just gone. 

It would be only fair to say for the local counselors 

that Melissa received good attention too and 

that we counseled her well. For me at least it 

became a matter of survival to make sure that she 

did get the best counseling I could possibly ensue 

up with, and I am certain that I improved a lot in 

the process. 

It is good to tell stories with a happy end, but I 

want to say that, had this one stopped any time 

before now, it would have been a happy end all 

the same because we made permanent gains at 

each step. It was an excellent partnership and for 

me a good example of how to snake the best out of 

one's own resources. 

Francisco LdIrez-Bustos 

Buenos Aires, Argentina

LATIN AMERICAN RC! 

The first Conference of Latin American Leaders of RC was held in Buenos Aires November 14-18th. 

Twelve people were present from Argentina, six from Mexico, five from Peru, two from Sweden, one from 

Nicaragua, and one from the United States. 

It was an excellent conference. The translation was handled as described by Margaret Grammer-Valiejos 

in another part of this Present Time with one person translating from Spanish to English and one person from 

English to Spanish. Much of the proceedings were videotaped, and some very fine discussions and demonstrations 

occurred as well as the lectures. A number of people decided to begin teaching RC in their countries, 

Francisco Lopez-Bustos undertook overall responsibility for developing new leadership in Argentina as an 

Apprentice Regional Reference Person, and Rogelio Acosta undertook the same overall responsibility for 

Mexico at an Apprentice Regional Reference Person there. There will be teachers in Mexico City, Puebla, 

and Irapuato in Mexico, in Managua in Nicaragua, in Lima, Peru, and in Buenos Aires. 

RCers who wished to attend, but were unable to, plan activities in Equador and Brazil. Maribel Arrelanes 

from Irapuato is undertaking to develop a network of women leaders in Mexico. 

A next planned overall activity will be a series of workshops in different locations in about a year, which I 

have promised to lead. These workshops will be of about two days duration each and should involve many 

more people than we can afford to bring together in one conference. 

I want to express my warm appreciation to all the participants in the conference and especially to all the 

translators and organizers who helped the work go forward and helped bring people together. 

HARVEY JACKINS 

25


THE FREEDOM OF DECIDING 

It seems to me that one of the things we're after in giving 

attention to deciding is to experience that we have the 

power and freedom to decide anything and in any way we 

want, For this, the actual content of the decision is not as 

crucial as the person's awareness that they are in fact 

deciding something, of their own volition, and it is some- • 

thing right for them at that time. When some people have 

taken their turns to say, " I don't want to decide right 

now," it has seemed reactive, and in a different kind of 

turn I might assist them to discharge past distress around 

feeling like they're being told what to do. My thinking in 

this context is that it's important for people to give their 

attention to the fact that they are deciding, so I asked them 

to say proudly, I've decided that I don't want to decide right 

now." Once people are aware, as a personal experience 

and not as a belief or hypothesis or axiom, of our power 

and freedom to decide, there is a firmer sense of personal 

power as a foundation for making the larger decisions 

concerning one's relationship to past distress and making 

things right. 

Stating the decision. in present time, "I am deciding" or 

"I have decided," rather than as "From this moment on," 

has been effective. 

Going for a joyful tone of voice, delighted, free, light, 

simple, pleased with oneself, and making the announcement 

for the pure joy of expressing it have been useful to 

some people, including me, in stepping outside of weightiness 

and pretense. 

• A t the end of theAveek I'll be joining the Peace March 

for their entry into Washington. It was good meeting the 

Peace March folks from the Netherlands and, the United 

:-.States when they were in New York and joining with 

them to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. Igave another potluck 

'international peace party for about : 

fi f t y 

, p e o p l e , s o 

t h e y 

PLEASE PASS THE BUTTONS 

26 

could meet New York folks. They planted a tree in Prospect 

Park. Symbolic actions, but they seem to involve and 

move people to think and to take the next step. (As Ellie 

Wiesel said, "I believe in symbolic actions, I am proposing 

that Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Hiroshima.") 

I'm moving ahead with the commitment I made last 

summer after the Peace and Disarmament Workers' 

Workshop to participate in non-violent action, and have 

applied to go with the Jewish Witness for Peace delegation 

to Nicaragua in March. Besides the solidarity action, it is 

a good challenge for my continuing to discharge and act 

outside of fear of physical hurt, to communicate with 

others about why I am going, and on my return will give 

me a strong base of experience from which to reach out 

even more to the Jewish community. 

I continue to investigate my motivations for doing this 

work and discharge anything other than being real and 

connected to humanness and being alive. I am acting and 

most of the time feeling in charge. My relationship to my 

family, to work, to Judaism, Buddhism, and RC is satisfying. 

• L y n Fine 

New York, New York, USA 

"To lead, inspire, and organize all people to eliminate every form o f humans' harming" 

humans." 

Thanks for this idea. I plan to use the enclosed buttons as starting points in "reaching out"— if 

people are interested, I will give them a button and ask them to pass the idea along. 

Harvey Whilten 

Philadelphia, -Pennsylvania, USA

NOW! NEW! 

RC Videocassettes will now be available in all the principle formats used around the world. Until 

now we have offered them in the NTSC format which is used in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan, 

Nicaragua, Peru, Colombia, etc. 

We have arranged to have all existing and future videocassettes electronically translated into 

both the PAL and SE CAM formats. 

The PAL format is used in England, Australia, China, Belgium, Ireland, The Netherlands, Scandinavia, 

Israel, Germany, New Zealand, Italy, India, etc. 

The SECAM(L) format is used in France, Poland, Greece, the USSR, etc. 

We have decided to subsidize the added cost of the translated cassettes, and make the price of all 

RC videocassettes uniform at $25 (U.S.) per cassette. This will make it possible for all Areas and 

Regions to purchase them and loan them (or rent them for a small fee) to individual classes, gatherins, 

support groups, etc. 

The cassettes are marvelously effective at communicating information and skills, that have previously 

only been available at International workshops, to the smallest fundamentals class or sup- 

. p o r t group. Wherever they have been shown, Co-Counselors are highly enthusiastic about them. 

Where language translation is also necessary it is a fairly simple matter for hi-lingual people in 

the non-Englishspeaking country to prepare a translation (using as many voices as necessary) on 

an audiocassette and play it along with the videocassette with the sound of the video turned down. 

• 

- See page 89 of this issue for the large selection of videocassettes available, (Seven new ones announced 

in this issue!) 

27

Appreciating Present Time 

The richness of Present Time Increases with each issue. 

Thank you for the loving care in putting it together. I never feel 

alone or far away when I spend time thinking of and being with 

all of you and your authors. 

June Niro 

Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada 

Present Time is a consistent inspiration to me and it is a privilege to 

contribute to it, 

Judy Nichols 

Newton Centre, Massachusetts, USA 

Thank you for publishing Present Time. it is the perfect complement 

t o my Co-Counselling practice and teaching, and 

keeps me In touch with Co-Counsellors all around the world, 

PAMELA SMITH 

NOTT/NGHAM, ENGLAND 

I'm extending my subscription to Present Time. Keep up the 

good work; it's always an inspiring event. 

DALE BENNETT 

METALf NE FALLS, WASHINGTON, USA 

•.• 

I appreciate the thinking of everyone Involved with PRES- 

ENT TIME. It's the best back-up service to liberation I know. 

Kam Kiley 

de,1441o) mie) 

BRIAN SS/RATON 

RANIELTON, IRRIAND 

a 

Incline Village, Nevada, USA 

I 

t 

April Sasaki's PRESENT TIME article about her goal-setting 

and work In Micronesia moved me forward and moved me. 

I really loved Harvey's ,article on the roles of client and counsellor 

in the October Present Time. I have used it in my fundamentals class 

as a way of pulling the theory together, It's tremendous reading. 

w 

a 

LYN FINE 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, US A 

V I7V VW 0 L o n d o n 

John Hackett 

, England 

s 

a The article claikying the roles of counselor and client in the most recent Present 

Time war good. 

g 

JAN POHL 

r 

. 

e 

A 

I've just re-read the October Present Time—so many inspiring articles. 

'Understanding and Using Organizational Forms" is so exciting! I 

still feel awkward about utilizing the Wygelian leaders' group format, 

but that's just a matter of naturalizing it for myself, "Who is in Charge 

of a Session" is excellent; my functioning as a client benefits enormous- 

• 

a 

t 

O 

N 

PRESENT TI M E GIVES ME A FEELING C OF BELONGING TO THE 

RC COMMUNITY AND I ENJOY FEELINGMDEAS H EXPRESSED BY 

RCERS THE WORLD OVER. SOMETIMES I OREAD 

A LINE OR AN ARTI- 

1"run 

their own sessions," one of the mistakes I make. And Nancy Kline's 

y 

article, "Transcending Owning-Class Distress," it exactly what I needed 

to read! Her clarity of thinking on elassisin is precious; her article filled 

. in a lot of blanks for me, 

c CLE BY SOMEONE I KNOW, SOMEONE I HAVE R MET; I AM THRILLED. I 

April Sasaki 

t 

A 

o P RE S E NT TI M E UPDATES M Y KNOWLEDGE G ON R C THEORY, 

GIVES OUR GROUP EXCELLENT IDEAS TO ETHINK 

ABOUT, AND HELPS 

b 

US TO KEEP OTHERS INFORMED ABOUT , THE ACTIVITIES OF OUR 

e GROUP. 

A 

r 

L Ramakrishna dyer 

P 

A Bombay, India 

S 

r 

K 

e 

Thanks so very much for "Taking Our Bearings" A (Present Time No, 

s 64). It had the wonderful knack of putting , ideas wc have "known" 

e previously in new and thrilling ways. It's U like looking at a gem 

,s. n through different facets in different light S—beautiful 

any way you 

A 

t 

look at it. Thanks again. 

$ 

FoxFilit ZOHAV 

T 

o 

• AFTON, VIRGINIA, USA 

i 

) 

m 

: • Present Time CONTINUES TO BE INSPIRING. SOMETIMES I OPEN 

e 

, IT AT RANDOM AND, AMAZINGLY, WHAT I READ IS APPROPRIATE TO 

. MY MOOD OR MY NEED. IN THE LAST TWO YEARS I HAVE ALSO 

w 

Aiea, Hawaii, USA 

a 

rve been reading Present Time for nine years. It's one of my 

s 

links with the changing outside world (I've been in prison these 

epast 

nine years). I appreciate all of you who contribute to this 

sterrific 

newsletter. 

p 

Jim Seger 

e 

Tucker, Arkansas, USA 

c 

I greatly appreciate Present Time. I am also very glad to be able to con- 

itinue 

to list my name and address and phone number in the Contacts 

alist. 

It has meant a good contact for various people coining through New 

l 

Orleans. It has also meant that two women who moved to town in the 

l 

last year or so and I have gotten together regularly for two- or three-way 

sessions. 

y 

d Present Time is a wonderful input of good thinking and ideas, especial- 

ely 

in our situation with no formal class, workshops, etc. 

l 

Alice Alm:feed 

i 4 t e r 

DOUBLED THE SALE OF P resent Time IN OUR AREA AND WITH THE 

PROFIT MADE I PAID OFF HALF OF OUR LITERATURE DEBT WITH RA- 

TIONAL ISLAND PUBLISHERS. 

Nuccia Foulkes 

Abingdon, England 

g PRESENT . " . • TIME Is consistently interesting, inspiring, and 

hchallenging. 

• • I look forward to reading it and! thank you for pro- 

tducing 

• " it. 

e . . . 

Jacqueline Shepherd 

Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada 

d N . . . 

Please! Don't stop sending Present Time, It's the only news fit to 

print (or fit to read)! Enclosed is my three-year subscription. 

0 

Vera Matick 

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA 

a 

w Present 

. 

Time Is very inspiring, Informational, and exciting. I 

wouldn't i „ " swant 

to miss a single issue. 

t d N 

Alice Howard 

h i 

Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA 

t , _ 

The October Present Time is just spectacular—full el brilliance 

in every way. 

Tam Kistler 

• 1• 

Albany, New York, USA 

• 

h 

e 

i 

n 

. 

N 

e 

w 

• 

f O 

o r 

28r 

m 

l 

e 

a a 

n

WIDE WORLD CHANGING 

At the January workshop, you asked who of us 

would make a commitment to bring ten Aboriginal 

people into RC. I said I would and I'm well on the 

way. After coming home from the World Festival 

of Youth and Students in Moscow in September 

1985, I made a commitment that as a white 

Australian, my life work must from now on be 

around fighting racism in Australia. It's true I was 

already working towards that, but of course a conscious 

commitment is necessary to go all the way. 

This year I've been teaching a fundamentals 

class t o two Koori friends, Evelyn and Gwen. 

They've said it's made such a difference to their 

lives. They're strong leaders in the local Koori 

community. The exhaustion of their work and the 

frustration about the internalised oppression in 

the community is great. Nevertheless, it's their 

pride in their people, their culture, and heritage 

that makes them beam. Evelyn and Gwen have 

The other rewarding class I've had has been 

through the Department of Technical and Further 

Education. Another group of Koorl women asked 

for a confidence•building class and I was asked to 

teach it. It's being run at a local Koori community 

centre. It was initially for six weeks, but it's gone 

so well that the group asked for an extension of 

two weeks. After that we're having lunch together, 

and so it goes on. Next year the course will continue. 

The women say that this is the first time 

that a Koori women's group has been able to meet 

consistently and successfully because the men 

are so threatened by their getting together. This 

time they've let the men deal with it themselves. 

The men have tried to take the room away a few 

times, but the women have protested and won it 

01-8 

"THE TREASURE'S IN ME" 

29 

back each time. We've also been able to have 

child care and that's been a first too. 

In last week's class a lovely woman, Shirley, described 

how the class has been for her. She said 

that for her it's been like finding a treasure. The 

treasure is at the bottom of the sea covered in barnacles. 

In the classes, we've chipped away at the 

barnacles, carefully, so as not to ruin the treasure. 

"And I've found that the treasure's in me," she 

said. It was beautiful. Shirley has raised nine 

children, is raising two of her numerous grandchildren, 

has had to deal with domestic violence, and 

struggled with racism and poverty all her life. 

We've covered basic Co-Counselling practice 

and theory in the classes and - 

tpression a l k e d and ahow b oit is u used t to mistreat people. 

They've decided to set up a project to combat 

odomestia p violence - I n the community and o f 

now booked Into the January RC 

course I've had lots of opportunities to interrupt 

spite , w othe r great k s hdifficulty o p , it is for them to attend internalised oppression, to everyone's great relief. 

something that's attended by mostly whites. Next 

year, d ethey -will 

be assisting me in another funda- I read parts of Heritage No. 2 to them. They • 

mentals class. There are three other women and a loved it and want copies. They said their stories 

man Interested so far. I think that then as a group are as good as the ones In Heritage and so they're 

they will be able to take RC and make it their own writing them for the next class. They want to see 

and take it more widely to the local Koorl com- them in Heritage. They want the world to know 

munity. They're reading the literature but say they about Koori people. Next year, at least some of 

like to read it very slowly. So far they've had little the women will continue in the next fundamentals 

access to education beyond early high school class with Evelyn and Gwen. 

years. They like me to read to them and talk about 

the theory as we read. They loved Heritage No. 2. There's been a core of about eight women in the 

class who attend every week. There are usually 

twelve at each class so there have always been 

some new people. Two women have had babies 

between classes and came back the next week, 

with the new babies. The women who are new are 

usually so surprised at the receptive atmosphere 

that they can't stop talking for a while. Then they 

see about taking turns_to talk and listen and they 

take part really well. 

It has been an immense privilege for me to be 

teaching both classes. These Koori women have 

been hungry for this information and recognised it 

as the truth straight away. Now they want the men 

to have a class, too. 

tkiske' 

Cathie Roll 

Hamilton, New South Wales, Australia


Supporting Each Other in a Tough Situation 

The biggest thing in my life these days is that I am doing a group in a maximum security prison 

in Connecticut. I come there as a medicine man under the banner of ecumenicism, since other major 

religions are represented. After many years of trying, my friend Slow Turtle got this group 

established two years ago and asked me to come build a sweat lodge and conduct sweat ceremonies 

there last spring. Since then, in addition to having an evening circle twice a month, we do a sweat 

once a month, with a dedicated group of inmates. The men that have been in the group for the past • 

year are really solid. The format we use is to pass a talking stick, and everyone is to speak from his 

heart. The core members have all stopped the gaming and pretense that seems to mean survival in 

such an institution, and are completely real with each other. They arc not afraid to weep when they 

are moved, to speak of their fears and their struggles. Since I am conducting the sweats, I am able to 

take time individually with the men and counsel them for maximum discharge. At the last evening 

session (the sweats have about a dozen inmates attending and the evening circle around forty, including 

about fifteen from a nearby medium security prison) I introduced a mini-session of five 

minutes each way. I was pretty terrified, but determined and relaxed, and it went smoothly, much 

to my total amazement, considering the range of consciousness there. I offered to teach a little counseling 

during each circle if they wished. I gave a very brief glimpse of the advantages to them in 

taking power in their lives, and most of them showed a real interest. So little by little, patiently, I 

hope to begin introducing more information with a mini each time. Perhaps I will also be able to do 

some demonstrations soon — I have to feel it out, because this is totally new territory for me. 

I am wondering if there has been RC work in prison, and if so, if there is anyone I could contact 

or any printed matter about that experience, or if you have any ideas that might be helpful. 

It's such powerful work. I am learning so much. The men are beautiful; the growth and the 

closeness is amazing. My life has an extra dimension of richness and love because of them. One example: 

the other day, before the sweat, I had each,of the men speak about something he wanted to 

be healed in his life. One was silent until after everyohe spoke, and I called on him to share. He 

recited a long grievance against the guards who had recently given him a bad time. He was feeling 

victimized and full of rage. He said the next time a guard did something to him he would "take him 

out." I asked the other men if they had any reaction, and these tough, old timers all said that they 

loved him and they thought that if he allowed the guards to goad him into fighting back he would be 

forsaking his own goals of getting on with his life and taking care of his family. He heard all that 

silently, and later in the sweat everyone encouraged him to express his anger. At the end of the 

sweat he said he had made a change. He heard what everyone said, but he had to go inside himself, 

and, even though he still felt the anger, he felt now he could control it Everyone, rejoiced, and 

afterwards he was glowing and full of lightness and energy. 

It's good working with Slow Turtle, supreme medicine man of my people. We have a great deal of 

respect for each other, and balance each other well. He is light and humorous' and totally dedicated, 

and is doing great work. I also organized a social for my band in New Bedford, which turned 

out very successfully, so I plan to do more this winter. From these gatherings and the prison group I 

hope to find ways to introduce more direct teaching of Co-Counseling. 

Medicine Story 

Greenville, New Hampshire, USA 

30

Billie Mayo's and my work is going well. The workshops are effective. Everyone 

wants us back for five-day workshops. They want to learn the "consultation 

process." So far we have been In Indianapolis, Dayton, and St. Louis (three 

times). We are scheduled for Phoenix in December, which will be a conference 

on racial harmony. Three thousand people are expected to attend. January we 

go to a Bahai Midwest teachers' conference for a workshop on multi-cultural 

alliances and another on empowerment (the "consultation process"). i n 

January we are also going to Witchita for a seven-hour workshop for Belles. 

February is Chicago; Atlanta Is setting something up, as is Portland. Right now 

we are doing these workshops free. They pay all our traveling expenses. 

We have submitted a grant to Ralston Purina Company requesting funding 

so Billie and I can do this work full time. The proposal Is well done. We hope to 

pilot test our workshops in the St. Louis school system working with an the St. 

Louis high school teachers and the students on the student governments. 

This coming weekend we are going to lead an RC workshop here in St. Louis 

For our local Comthunity. Billie and I are doing such a good Job counseling non- 

RCers, it will be interesting to see how we do with the pro's. Billie is such a 

natural for creating safety for the blacks that she has worked with. 

I am enclosing the St. Louis RC newsletter article by me on what we in RC are 

doing right in regard to our development of theory, I am so moved by what you 

and the Community in general have done to refine such a workable theory. The 

Information on oppression alone moves people. The discharge process and reevaluation 

keep them going. I am proud to be a part of this organization. The 

more I work with others, the prouder I am. 

Rita Starr 

St. Louis/ Missouri, USA 

We in RC have a lot to be proud about, especially in 

regard to our work tO end racism. True, many of us may 

not have done much work in this area yet, black and 

white alike, but the theory and information in regard to 

racism are solid, workable, and effective. 

Billie Mayo and I have developed a workshop called 

"Building Multi-Cultural Alliances to Eliminate Racism" 

for non-RCers. In these workshops, we present the AC 

theory of oppression and teach the discharge process 

which we call a communication process or a consultation 

process, depending on the groups with which we 

work. 

RACISM AND RC 

What we have discovered in doing these workshops is 

that the AC theory of oppression and the discharge and 

re-evaluation process move mountains—mountains of 

mistrust, disunity, and low self-esteem. That's why I say 

we in RC have a lot of which to be proud. 

I have become prouder of AC as I have experienced 

what other groups are doing in regard to. eliminating 

racism. In developing our workshops, Billie and I attended 

a number of workshops offered by many different 

people. For the most part, we did not learn any addi- 

31 

— Rita Starr 

Ilona! information (theory wise) that we could add to our 

already effective workshops. We did learn some of the 

reasons why many workshops of this kind are ineffective, 

if not downright destructive. I came to understand 

better why many people are so frightened to work'on 

eliminating their own racism. (i.e., Guilt, fear, hopelessness 

are often the results when people attempt to work 

on racism in a traditional, non-RC manner.) 

I would like to share with you some of the things 

which I observed that did not work, as a way of helping 

you to appreciate what we in RC have already accomplished 

and perhaps to assist you in overcoming any 

guilt, fear, and hopelessness that you may have in 

beginning or continuing to work on ending your own 

racism or internalized racism. • 

The most common problem of most non-RC workshops 

is, of course, their lack of information on the 

theory of oppression. Without that information, there is 

little place to go in order to explain why people, in this 

case whites, would awarely or unawarely participate in 

the gross mistreatment of black people. Because of this 

lack of information, guilt and blame are the motivating 

'factors used to "arouse" white people from their racism. 

continued,.

WI DE WORLD CHANGING 

continued 

As we well know, guilt and blame do little to motivate 

people or help them change their behavior. For some 

whites who already have !ow self-esteem, looking at 

their racism from the point of view of guilt and blame 

actually forces them into the more blatant form of racism 

(justifying their racism out of a need to hold their 

already shaky egos intact). Many whites carefully avoid 

any other experience such as other workshops that 

focus on racism because those experiences foster more 

feelings of guilt, fear, and hopelessness. - 

Succinctly, stated: 

Employing guilt and blame is not only useless, it is 

destructive to the elimination of racism and Internalized 

racism. A common byproduct of such an approach is 

disunity and hopelessness. 

Because of the 'lack of information In regard to oppression 

and how people are forced into the oppressor 

role, non-RC workshops cannot touch upon the problem 

in any depth. Without this vital information in regard to 

oppression, a workshop can only discuss the problems 

of racism. "Discussing" the problem often creates more 

disunity than may have already existed on the surface. 

This experience of greater disunity causes blacks and 

whites alike to shun doing more work on racism or internalized 

racism. Superficial solutions only heighten the 

already existing feelings of hopelessness. 

Merely discussing the problem and offering superficial 

solutions can cause more problems than it solves. 

And last, without knowledge of the discharge and reevaluation 

process, hurtful experiences a re often 

brought to the surface and rehearsed, but not discharged. 

This leaves everyone more upset and sunk. 

Along this same line, since this need to tell our stories 

in regard to racism is so strong, a disruptive competition 

usually unveils itself, with everyone trying to talk at 

once. We all have experienced how unpleasant and unuseful 

that can be. 

Taking turns telling one's story and re-evaluating in 

safety helps workshop participants to move out o f 

dramatizing and into healing, unity, and empowerment. 

Now that i have shared with you what I found to be so 

ineffective in other groups' work on eliminating racism, 

I'd like to review RC theory as it relates to racism and 

the resulting internalized racism. 

* All human beings are born with the capacity for loving, 

cooperative, zestful relationships. 

* No person is born racist. People develop racist feelings 

and thoughts through systematic mistreatment 

and misinformation when they are young, by the adults 

closest to them. 

* Racism is a constant source of pain and invalidation 

for black people. 

, F e w blacks have been unaffected by racism, regardless 

of their economic position. 

* Any group who is systematically mistreated over a 

period of time will internalize the mistreatment and 

pass it on, often to those closest to them. 

32 

* Internalized racism is one of the most serious problems 

facing black people today. Black people have more 

cooperative, powerful, appreciative relationships with 

each other as they address this phenomenon. 

* The process of re-evaluating racist behavior and attitudes 

will assist white people In healing and empowering 

their own lives. 

* Racism and internalized racism can be discharged 

(actually healed) so that reclaiming our natural birthright 

of loving, zestful, cooperative relationships with 

all people can be realized. • 

All this is pretty neat, very true, and most effective as 

a starting point o f moving out o f racist feelings, 

thoughts, and actions and into more personal power in 

every area of one's life. • 

What is your next step to eliminating racism in your 

life? Perhaps Its forming a weekly or monthly counseling 

session devoted to discharging your racism or internalized 

racism. Perhaps it's starting a class that will 

focus on racism or internalized racism. Or, perhaps it's 

coming to the December 6th workshop that Billie and I 

will be doing for our local RC Community. 

Wherever you start, know that when you do any work 

on racism or internalized racism, you are doing work 

that will move you through one of your biggest pieces of 

the powerlessness that you may carry. Eliminating your 

racism or your internalized racism eliminates powerlessness! 

St. Louis, Missouri, USA 

reprinted from "Threshold," the St. Louis, 

Missouri, USA RC news fetter

Things are going well. I would 

not want to be anybody else apart 

from me in the world. I was doing 

an introductory evening the other 

day. You know the picture in The 

Haman Side of Human Beings of intelligence 

with it all clogged up except 

for the 10%? Well, I suddenly had 

this picture of that line moving up, 

inch by inch, and the clear space 

getting bigger a n d bigger. Th e 

amount o f intelligence I bring to 

bear on my daily life is getting bigger, 

seems like every day. 

Nowhere is that more apparent 

than in my job. I look back at me 

eighteen months ago, and I hardly 

seem to be the same person. The 

level of challenge at which things 

get difficult gets higher and higher. 

So, on the one hand things get easier 

and easier, and on the other my 

vision gets bigger and I take on 

new challenges. 

Success is so sweet. It was pointed 

out to me at Easter that I have 

an anxious responsibility pattern. 

Boy, is that right! When it gets out 

of hand it really gets out of hand! 

Anxious responsibility could well 

lead me indirectly to my death if I 

let it. Fortunately for me success 

begins t o stare me i n the face 

Easier and Easier, Better and Better 

whichever way I turn. O r the beginnings 

o f success, a n ywa y — 

good, solid, building blocks toward 

concrete change. By 1988 we will 

have transformed our seventeenth 

century Town Hall (not built with 

wheelchair users in mind!) into a 

fully accessible building. No mean 

feat, just in terms of architecture, 

but it means much more than that. 

It's the decision-making seat, and 

we're saying that disabled people 

have a right to be in on the decisions. 

I hope to use it as a model for 

the whole country. We've got the 

beginnings of a programme of developing 

childcare provisions that 

could begin a min o r revolution. 

There's a long way to go yet, but 

it's possible, and I intend tO do it. 

There's movement a l l around, 

everywhere I lo o k. I haven't 

caused it—it's there because of the 

policies of our City Labottr Party. 

But my p a rt i n it , now, I a m 

Pleased with. 

In my bad moments I feel like 

someone in a circus spinning plates 

on sticks, badly, rushing from one 

to the next, and having them crash 

down all the time. In my good moments 

I feel like a calm, wise chess 

player, moving this bit so it will affect 

that bit, deciding which bits 

33 

it's okay to discard, and knowing 

exactly where I'm going. The reality 

is probably somewhere in between. 

I manage to keep a lot o f 

plates spinning, and it's exhileratingl 

I wo rk long hours. Sometimes 

my attention is lost way, way back 

in some ancient struggle. But other 

times my attention is way out and I 

will sit in my office and let tears 

stream down my face and shake 

enough to rattle my chair as I just 

notice what a privilege it is to be in 

a position to effect so much change. 

Sometimes I 'll be sitting in some 

meeting looking across a vast, polished, 

wooden table at some man 

whom I have done battle with and 

our eyes e a n 

, battle, our humanness touches and 

my heart could just soar off out the 

rTown n e e t Hall tower! 

a n d , 

d Do e you s pknow 

the best thing RC 

ihas t given e me so far? The re-iterative 

decision. Sometimes I'll wake 

t 

up in 

h 

the morning and my atten- 

etion 

will be gone, oh so far away. 

And I just say it out loud, and 

yawn and yawn, and I can haul 

myself back into the present. Now 

that is a gift. Thank you for that. 

Terry Day 

Manchester, England


Effectively Being Friendly 

I have saved our nursery from closure due to the 

demise of the General London Council. I chose key 

Tory councillors to win over and it really wasn't so 

difficult. First I did all the contact with them. I find it 

easy anyhow to chat with people; I listened to all their 

troubles with money and got a basic agreement of the 

necessity fo r under-fives provision. Then I let the 

young people do the rest. The result was we received 

two-thirds of the grant we needed (about 10% of all 

that was going for voluntary organisations). Come 

May, there was a landslide victory for the Labour Party 

in this borough and they gave us the remainder. 

Let 'me tell you about my relationship to the Labour 

Party in my local borough. I'm not a party member 

and to date have no intention of becoming one. About 

a year ago I began to go along to the women's committee 

meetings, which are open to the general public, set 

up by a few women labour councillors whilst still in 

opposition. They were in the process of drafting a 

Manifesto Pledge to women in the borough when they 

got in. I joined these discussions, influenced this and 

that, and generally made friends, particularly with 

the chair of the committee. (The chair of the women's 

committee came to Diane Balser's day workshop for 

women RCers and non-RCers here in London, loved 

it, and reports on improved functioning of her committee 

since —of course!) One of their major frustrations 

was not already being in power. As many of 

them were new to the job, it seemed to me a distinct 

,advantage that they learn about being a politician 

whilst still in opposition, so that they didn't have to do 

the whole thing at once. I communicated this and generally 

this got them viewing the whole thing more positively. 

In May they got in and the women's unit is in 

the process of being set up, which will influence policy 

and thinking in the borough. 

Meanwhile I a m n o w o n th e working p a rt y 

(through my union) thinking about Lesbian and Gay 

rights in the borough— a wonderful position, the place 

to plan and be. The group already agrees to adopt the 

strategy that the rights of Gay men and Lesbians can be 

expected to be achieved without any necessary approval 

of lifestyles, etc. 

I know a number of people in key positions in my 

community just by being there, thinking well, and being 

friendly. I haven't had to join anything or even do 

that much, and it's all growing. 

- A n n i e Potter 

London, England 

34 

S E T T L I N G I N 

I'm fine, I think, objectively speaking. We now 

have four RCers in Bloomington, all of us artists. 

I'm president of the Ethnomusicology Students' 

Association on campus and just recently resigned 

as editor of our graduate employees' union newsletter. 

With both, people have said that they like 

the tone I set. People like the way I lead meetings, 

how I seem to be In charge all the time, they 

notice the way I've taken the patterned rhetoric 

out of our union's newsletter. Last month, I did a 

workshop on internalized oppression for the state 

coalition against domestic violence. My teaching 

of undergraduates goes well and I am beginning 

to see how the internalized oppression works for 

college teachers—that feeling of never having 

done enough or of never doing it well enough. I am 

a primary encourager to my black women colleagues 

who are writing dissertations. We are a 

great group. 

EILEEN HAYES 

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA, USA 

Appreciating the Literature and Video 

We've shown No Limits, Taking Charge 1, 2, 3, and 4, and 

The World of Women videotapes, all at East-Bay-wide gather- 

Ins, and all went well. The current quality is very good. We've 

been able to pay for the $25 purchase price plus flyers and 

postage almost every time Just by doing one showing and ask- • 

ing for $3•5 per person. (We had free rent—In a home.) We've 

Just ordered the tape on commitments and will show it soon. 

Keep up the great work! 

Nancy Lemon 

Berkeley, California, USA 

We had an enthusiastic response to Taking Charge No. 3 when we showed it 

in my house. The fifygelian WOMeteS meeting was particularly interesting for people 

who had not previously understood what it was all about. FINETTE MALOFF 

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, USA 

I ,am gradually working my way through the last Present Time. The 

October issue is simply splendid. I have given away or sold quite a 

few copies and am insisting that a couple of "old" Raleigh RCers subscribe. 

If they don't, I will do it for them. No one should be missing 

this world wide report of information and tales of re-emergence. 

The letter from Brenda Cortes or Nicaragua was so well written. I 

have read it several times. The information is succinct, useful and 

her last paragraph deeply moving. I plan to read it to several groups 

in the next months—Social Workers for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament; 

NOW; Peace and Justice group leaders in Raleigh. 

Anne Alaskie 

• Durham, North Carolina U M 

I found your book on the "Co-Conseil" to be very, very good. You 

have good ideas on life, in general, and you bring to the people so many 

hopes. 

I thank you for all that you Mink and writein this book. 

(Mile Osio-Gratakup 

Lyon, France

USING SCHOOL STAFF MEETINGS 

Life is going well. I remind myself often that if I am 

not enjoying what I am doing, then I need to change 

what it is that I am doing. 

One of my latest successes has been at the school 

where I teach. The staff meetings are tedious. All of us 

are exhausted at the end of the day 

, head a nteacher d bis enot ca strong a u sleader, e most of the time is 

ttaken hup by e people trying to discharge about their day 

and going round and round in circles. The deputy 

head teacher is aware of this problem, but has felt 

powerless to do anything about it. Finally, at the last 

meeting, he suggested rotating the chairing of staff 

meetings and wanted me to lead the next one. The rest 

of the staff wanted that too. I agreed to lead one 

meeting, but said I was not in favour of rotating 

leadership because I thought it would become confusing. 

I took the opportunity to suggest leading staff 

meetings with a Wygelian format and said that we 

could start the meeting with each o f us telling 

everyone what it was that made us such good teachers. 

This brought immediate discharge at the very idea of 

it. One teacher said she thought I was being unfair to 

her because she felt very unsure of herself and could 

only see how bad she was. I told her that luckily I 

could see how good she was and how all her selfdoubting 

really didn't suit her. She said she wanted to 

cry, so I encouraged her. I took the opportunity to 

give people information about discharge. I am looking 

forward to leading the meeting. 

Later — 

The staff meeting took place after school, so I knew 

everybody would probably be restimulated by their 

day. I was punctual and ready to start, which is different 

from what usually happens. I got everybody to 

tidy and reorganise the staffroom before we started 

and then said we would take it in turns to speak and 

that it would be helpful if nobody interrupted. We had 

two rounds o f what we enjoyed doing outside of 

school, by which time most people's attention was 

away from "their day." We then had a round of what 

makes us good teachers. People started to protest or 

groan, but I persisted and everybody discharged 

embarrassment. One person said she could see what 

was good about other teachers on the staff, so next we 

had a round of each person validating every other 

member of staff. One teacher said she wanted to cry. I 

gave everybody information about discharge and 

everybody "let go" from then on. The validations were 

good and a feeling of trust was starting to form. 

Then I asked the question "What would education 

look like if we had all the resources we needed?" The 

response was a united deep sigh. Everybody, without 

exception, said they didn't think schools would exist 

in their Rresent form and everybody looked , at how 

society would have to change. I t was great $eeing 

everybody starting to look at oppression and society's 

oppressive structure. The purpose of the staff meeting 

was to write an education policy for the school. I n 

previous meetings people had been trying to read 

books and find experts to tell us what kind of philosophy 

we should have. At the end of this staff meeting it 

was obvious that we are the experts and are quite capable 

of using our own thinking. I suggested that the 

next meeting should be a brainstorming session to 

start working out our policy. I intend to duplicate 

Julian Weiseass' article from Present Time for us to consider 

as well. 

DEBBIE WILSON 

DEVON, ENGLAND 

35

WI DE WORLD CHANGING 

Preparing Special Literature and Translations 

Here is the written information (aside from RC literature) which I used in the series of workshops 

I led in Micronesia (see Present Time No. 65). 

Two sheets of information were given at each island. The first is titled "Conflict Resolution" and 

was translated into Marshallese and Kosraen by Alice Buck and into Pohnpeian and Trukese by 

her father. "The Human Side of Human Beings" was given out in English only. (Alice and I were 

pressed for time before departure.) When we arrived in Truk, a committee there revised the 

Trukese interpretation. The Pohnpeian translation may need revision, too. Below is the English 

version of "Conflict Resolution." 

I. The true natural relationship between any two people is complete cooperation. 

2. Every human being has the ability to solve any problem he/she wishes to. 

3. The process of solving disputes between people is simple, but not always easy. 

4. Listening and really hearing what each person feels and thinks is very important. 

5. Sometimes what a person feels is so strong that he/she cannot think about what is the sensible and 

right thing to do. 

6. But if you can listen very well to this person, he/she will be able to 'figure out the problem. 

7. I t is important that each person be able to speak with the loving support of all the other people. 

0 

TRUKESE 

APUNGUPUNG WON EW OSUKOSUK 

Ike a wor aninnIs me tipeew fengen nefinen 

ruomon aramas, a pwarata ennetin ar 01801 

(engem 

Meinisin aramas ra tongen1 sin& pungun ar 

kewe osukosuk, ese nifinif In met sokkun, Ika Iml 

wesewesen mochen sinel. 

Mi mecheres an ruomon aramas repwe tipeew 

fengen Ike ml wor ar osukosuk fengen, nge fan ekkoch 

ml we're& • 

MI fakkun namwot ach sipwe rongorong ngenl 

me wewe ngeni met len me eklekin emon me emon 

aramas. 

Nupwen met len emon aramas a kon pochokun, 

fan ekkoch a tongenl arukano an eklekoch me forl 

mettoch ml pung. 

Nge ika ka tongeni ausening och ngent el sokkun 

aramas, lwe epwe ne tongenl pwisin kuna 

pungun an kewe osukosuk. 

36 

• • • 

— April Sasaki 

k O S I 

AKMISYE . MA FOS 

I A E 

1. Luma paye inmasrlon met luo pa Inge: oasr par 

in akasrul sie sin sie, N a wan gin inse srisrik. 

2. Sie met el ku in suk ore yen kutena ma upa nu 

set, el twin sang insiel nu ka. 

3. Tie ma upa tu kut in kalem ke inganek in 

akmisye ma met u akukuin ka, tusruktu kutu pal u 

upa in oru. 

4. Kut enene In arulanu PORONGO kas tun kals 

sie met ke elos lwakak nunak lalos a ma elos 

pulakin Insielos, 

5. Kutu pal u, ma ale met el pulakin Maid/ yok na 

paye se!, a el tia ku in NUNKU ma (wall ku sumwoe 

Ian oru, 

6. Ke pal ou Inge, KOM Iwin ku in mute yurol a 

long mugena ma el twak, el a Nies ku In silwanu 

konolak ma (wall Ian ow. 

7. Arulanu yok sr/pc tu kais sic met in pulakin la 

met nu kemwa su oelul mute In pal el sramsram, 

elos akkeyel a oasr lungse Insielos nu set.

P OHNP E IAN 

KAPIVUNGALAHN PIVUNOD AKAN 

L Riemen aramas, sohte lipilipil ihs ira, re uhdahn 

kak miniminpene oh sawaspene l e t wehwehn atail 

popohlpene ni mehiel. 

2. Aramas koaros kak kapwungala repenpwung nanpwungarail 

ma itail uhdahn men dehdehki. 

3. Riemen aramas kak miniminkipcne ni mehkot ira 

kin sohte dokpene, ahpw ekei ahnsou e sobte mengei. 

4. Me kesampwal mehlel atail pahn rong lokaian 

emenemen aramas oh dehdchki mwahu eh pepehm 

akan oh lamalam akan en nan kapehde. 

5. Ekei ahnsou pepehm akan en emon aramas uhdahn 

pahn kehlail, en i e pahn karompwehsang i h e n 

dehdehki oh kapwaiada dahme pwung oh loalokong. 

6. Ahpw ma kowe pahn kanaiheng duwen omw kin 

rongorong lokaian soangen aramas menet, pein ih 

pahn kak diarada pwungun eh apwal de pwunod 

akan. 

7. Ahnsou me cram pahn kasansalehda eh lamalam 

akan, koaros me rongorong en kanaiheng kasansalehda 

arail limpoakong oh kupwur kalahugan ong • 

ih. 

, • • 

THE HUMAN SIDE OF HUMAN BEINGS 

MARSHALLESE 

jerbal in Kellajrak 

1. Ruo armij remaron rank dron, jekdron won. Eindrein 

kotan eo emol ibben ruo amij. 

2. Kaljo armij emaron lo kilen 1,commone jabrewot men 

eo ej inebata kake, dame ekonan. 

3. Wawen kellajrak abnono ko ikotan armij ej juon men 

eo ejjab bin ad melele kake, botab jet ien ejjab bidrodro 

ad kommone. 

4. Ekanuij la p tokjen bwe je n KARONJAKE i m 

kolmenlokjen kin men ko kajjojo armij rej ba ilo air 

kwalok men ko rej lemnaki im men ko rej injake ibbeir 

make. 

5. Jet ien men ko lb buruen juon armij rej binej kainelij 

en an bwe en jab maron in LEMNAKE men eo ejejjet im 

emmon bwe en kommone. 

6, Elane KWE kwo maron bok len non am lukkun ionjake 

armij in, innem arinij co enaj maron in make lo men 

co ekkar bwe en kommone ikiiien men eo ear buk kake. 

7. Elap tokjen bwe Ho an kallojo armij konono, ren kile 

bwe ro otemjej rej bed ilo ien co eor burocn yokwe ibbeir. 

1. Every one of us is in the beginning intelligent, enthusiastic, cooperative, and loving. 

2. We do not always act loving because we have been hurt in some way. 

3. When we were children, sometimes we were given examples of behavior that was not 

smart, enthusiastic, cooperative, and loving. We began to believe that we and other people 

are not intelligent, loving, cooperative people. 

4. We can heal those hurts completely. 

5. Healing happens when we CRY, LAUGH, 'TREMBLE, TALK WITH ENTHUSIASM, and 

FEEL ANGRY. 

6. We can help each other to heal by listening to each other. 

7. As each of us heals, more and more of our GOOD THINKING, our ENTHUSIASM FOR 

LIFE, and our LOVE FOR OURSELVES AND EACH OTHER is uncovered and SHINES forth. 

37

LIBERATION 

ACCOMMODATING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES 

Marsha Saxton 

International Liberation Reference 

Person for Disabled Persons 

The issue of accommodation to the needs of people with disabilities is arising in the RC Communities. 

Examples include wheelchair ramps, wide bathroom doors for wheelchair users; low dust, 

chemically-less-contaminated environments for people with chemical sensitivities; sign language 

interpreters for hearing-impaired people; taped materials for blind people; etc. People with disabilities 

are not the only group with need for some type of accommodation in RC. Other groups Include 

parents, people with non-mainstream languages, and young people. The particulars are different but 

the issues are often very similar. The Community must decide how to provide accommodation, and 

how best to support members of these groups to develop their own resources where possible. 

A Community naturally attempts to respond to its own constituency's needs. For example, a multilingual 

Community will regard the use of translators as natural and necessary and will go about creating 

these resources as a priority. 

Difficulty arises when there is a dominant constituency with a certain set of needs, and then a 

non-dominant constituency (sometimes only one person) with a different set of needs. The dominant 

constituency may regard the needs of the non-dominant one as unreasonable, or feel that it lacks 

the resource to meet these needs. 

In evaluating the "reasonableness" of a request for accommodation, the issue of "resources" is 

often brought up. In terms of the RC Community, "resources" relevant to disability Include such factors 

as: 

finances to pay for changes and time to do them, 

the number of people in the Community and the skills of these people,' - 

the local environment (from the quality of the air to the local architectural accessibility, etc.). 

It also Includes the clarity, stamina, readiness for change, the access to information and access 

to good counseling of the individuals in the Community. 

In some cases, lack of resource is a valid reason for a Community's inability to make an accommodation. 

But in most cases, "We don't have the resources," is necessarily a temporary reply. Often, 

too, it is a disguise for such feelings as "That's too hard," "It's too much work to change it now," "We 

don't know anything about that," "That's a waste of time for Just one person!" or "We've always done 

it this way." Such assumptions are based on lack of information and confusion and to maintain them 

as a position holds the whole Community back. 

The issue of deciding whether to make an accommodation or not, especially for a persoh who is 

disabled, is a very restimulating one for an able-bodied person. It brings up such questions as, "Is 

this person worth our effort?" "Can we/I possibly meet these needs?" "Do we want her in the Community 

if she's going to need this?" And such underlying less-conscious feelings as "Would the 

Community (or the world) do this for me if I needed this?" "Am I worth it?" These questions are painful. 

Better to acknowledge that this is what we're dealing withi than to hide behind, "We don't have 

the resource!" 

Should a Community make accommodations for only one or a few disabled persons, perhaps not 

very active members? in fact this is essential to begin to counteract the oppression of people with 

disabilities. Just as in combatting racism or any other oppression, People In the so-called oppressor 

group must take specific actions to demonstrate their increased awareness. Waiting for there to be 

"Reasonable accommodation" Is a concept In the wide world that Is used in many places, Including U.S. 

legislation, regarding the provision of adaptations to the needs of people with disabilities. It is intended to be a 

flexible concept; often used in employment, to provide such things as an adapted environment, special equipment 

or flexible working hours to allow a disabled employee to work effectively. "Reasonableness" is determined 

in terms of cost. The cost of accommodations for a particular disabled person's needs for a small 

business may be relatively high, where for a large company, for the same disabled employee, this may be quite 

negligible. 

38

"enough disabled people" to make an accommodation seem worthwhile is a self-perpetuating dilemma.* 

Accessibility must precede the disabled person's participation, sometimes by a long time. 

Ten years ago, wheelchair users' need for ramps, accessible bathrooms, etc., was regarded by 

many communities in the wide world, and in RC, as excessive and unreasonable. The people ten 

years ago who made those assumptions were not bad or stupid, they had limited resources, including 

their access to accurate information. We mean not to excuse their limited awareness, but to view 

it in the broadest context, Now, It is more commonly recognized that such needs are reasonable, acceptable, 

and can potentially be met, The awareness of the community shifted and resources for 

change have begun to be provided. Later In this discussion I'll provide suggestions on ways to counsel 

on these issues and to take action. 

THE ISSUE OF RATIONALITY 

A distinct issue from the one of assessing and developing the Community's resource is the issue 

of whether a particular person's request for accommodation seems based on a rational need. The 

question we are addressing is: "Should we make accommodation for someone's condition if it is the 

result of a distress recording?" 

RC leaders must confront requests for accommodation all the time. Examples of requests for nondisability-related 

special needs include "I have to have a room with Sally," "I have to leave early," "I 

have to get time in front of the group," "I need a scholarship." Such requests may be expressions of 

real needs or of distress; thus they may be pleas for counseling. 

We have no test to determine the rationality of a person's request except our own judgment. We 

have to use our best thinking. With regard to disability we must acknowledge that this topic is a very 

restimulating one, about which we don't yet have a great deal of clarity. We must be particularly 

thoughtful in decision-making. 

The purpose of accommodation Is to allow an individual to participate and to function with the 

group in her current condition. Some of the fallacies that affect decisions about accommodations 

Include that if we accommodate to a person's condition they won't "try to get better," or conversely, 

having activities in inaccessible places will "motivate" them to try to readapt. Another unproductive 

line of reasoning is that "Eventually, they'll get over this and won't need accommodation." None of 

these is a useful perspective. 

Many physical conditions may be the result of distress recordings. Examples are some types of 

cancer, asthma, allergy, etc. I've counseled with people who believed, and ithink correctly, that their 

condition is the result of distress recordings and is potentially dischargeable, with sufficient counseling. 

This doesn't mean necessarily that for everyone with these conditions, the illness can be discharged, 

even with substantial counseling. We don't know that. 

One person's condition may have been originally caused by genetic or environmental factors. 

Another person's condition may have been triggered by a distress recording, the result of abuse, oppression, 

unmet needs. In both cases the individuals resisted the distress to the best of their abilities. 

They may present very similar conditions, outwardly. We may never find out the source of the 

difficulty. 

*This issue has become a classic bind in the oppression of people with disabilities. An example is in the public 

transportation system, in relation to wheelchair users. It is much more cost beneficial for a city to purchase and 

use lift-equipped busses, than to continue to outlay funds for a separate ("but equal") van service for disabled 

passengers. But cities will argue that their lift-equipped busses are underutilized by disabled riders and therefore 

an unnecessary expense. Often what actually happens is that disabled passengers will attempt to use that 

system, the drivers will be.unfamillar with or intimidated by the equipment and/or act confused or frightened 

toward the disabled passengers and dissuade these passengers from using the system again. Then, the less 

often the equipment is used, the more likely it is to malfunction, further frustrating both drivers and passengers. 

In order for this system to work, the equipment must be kept in working order, the drivers adequately trained In 

its use and in helpful attitudes and behaviors toward disabled passengers. This must be maintained long 

enough for the disabled passengers to feel welcomed and try out the system over time. 

39 

continued .

LI BERATI ON 

conti nued 

If someone in your Community has physical symptoms that You suspect are "just distress" (that 

is, a distress recording only), is it ever useful to tell him that? Yes, if it provides a contradiction to his 

distress, and brings discharge. Yes, if it is accurate information for that individual based on scientifically 

obtained evidence, which you can present clearly and thoughtfully and consistent with a 

contradiction to his distress. 

No, if your motivation comes out of your frustration or impatience with him for not functioning the 

way you want him to. These are your feelings restimuiated by the person's difficulty. That's about 

your need to discharge. 

Also, no, if your motivation comes out of your exasperation that he Is asking for an accommodation 

which you feel is unreasonable or which you or your Community cannot provide. 

' Often telling someone that his disability or Illness Is "just feelings" Invalidates the person's own 

perceptions, his own reality, and his own best thinking about his needs. It can sound so much like 

the oppressive messages that people with illness commonly experience. ("Your disease is all in your 

head," "Your needs are a burden," etc.) Hearing this from a well-intentioned Co-Counselor may further 

increase the person's despair.* 

Even with the very best persistent counseling on a regular basis, some distresses can take 

months or years to discharge. (Physical distress patterns are not necessarily "worse" or harder to 

discharge than emotional distress patterns, they just restimulate our fears of death and loss more, 

and are often more outwardly recognizable.) 

We must realize that our culture is one obsessed with cure. We have been trained to focus on 

eliminating outward symptoms, often at the expense of the person's overall long-range well•being. 

For many individuals learning to adapt to a particular condition or creating a conducive environment 

Is a more meaningful goal and more in line with their re-emergence. "Total physical well-being" is 

not necessarily a meaningful priority for everyone. Other challenges may rationally take precedence. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR COUNSELING AND ACTION 

How can a Community accurately assess and expand its resources to meet the needs of its disabled 

constituency? 

Where there is a challenge in the Community, there are individuals for whom meeting that chal- 

• lenge is the appropriate one for their individual re-emergence. Leaders sometimes get caught in the 

assumption that they personally have to take on the challenge and do the work. Delegating is the 

key, not only to getting the work done, but to training new leaders. 

Set goals to develop resources in the future within a specified time period and create a plan with 

responsible individuals identified. Sometimes our despair at not being able to include certain people 

now or at the next workshop, gets in the way of our ever thinking strategically and relaxedly 

about the future. 

The following are suggestions to move us toward clarity. They are divided into suggestions for 

allies, and for those with need for accommodation. 

*Note that people with chronic conditions are extremely wary of the tendency of others to offer advice based on 

little real knowledge of the situation, for example, in asking questions like "Have you tried Vitamin C? Exercise? 

This or that treatment?" Members of the alternative healing communities must become aware that such 

prescriptive statements are as oppressive to disabled people as some aspects of the mainstream medical 

system. if you cannot control your impulse to give advice, at least first ask the person If she is interested in your 

opinion. Better, take some counseling time with someone else on your feelings about her problem. Best, stay in 

the role of counselor. 

V 

i 

e 

40

FOR ALLIES 

When you are asked for an accommodation that seems unreasonable, in session carefully examine 

your feelings about the request. Do you feel you have to do any extra work yourself? Would delegating 

provide good challenges for others? (For example, a work team to build a ramp, thoroughly 

clean a site, find a better place, etc.) 

What about the person's needs restimulates you? is it her vulnerability, neediness, boldness, etc.? 

How does it trigger your distress? 

If you feel your Community simply cannot provide the requested accommodation, simply say so, 

but be honest and take responsibility for the decision. Saying "I'm sorry, but finding a wheelchair-accessible 

site is not my priority for this workshop," is much preferable to saying, "We don't have the 

resources." it may seem harsh, but ultimately it Is clearer, less oppressive, and more productive for 

you and the wheelchair user to be open and to have to confront the feelings involved. 

Don't apologize excessively for your limited resource, unless It's clearly a contradiction for the 

person asking for accommodation. Your vehement apology may be unaware clienting. Keep asking 

questions for information even if you risk appearing foolish. Keep trying to "get it" no matter how 

long it takes. 

Take clienting time with others you can feel safe to blurt 

clarity \ f eabout e l i the n gissues, s owho udon't t agree wwith i all t your h distress. , To do this you will probably have to 

counsel your counselor on these issues. 

b u t w h o 

hA suggested a technique: v e 

sImagine you o have mthe condition e of the person who is asking for accommodation. What's it like? 

Imitate their behaviors or limitations irreverently. (We have so much patterned propriety about disability. 

This is really internalized humiliation. Discharge it, It's about you, not the disabled people, 

they just restimulate it.) Of course, it's important not to do this in the presence of a disabled person, 

unless he has expressly agreed to counsel you on,it in this way. Also, read Complete Elegance and 

Well-Being. 

FOR DISABLED PEOPLE WANTING ACCOMMODATION 

Identifying and formulating your needs and then asking for help are important steps in overcoming 

internalized oppression and functioning effectively. However, asking for what you need and getting 

it sometimes have to remain distinct Issues. You may need to ask and keep asking until the 

resources and the clarity are available, and this may take awhile. 

Remember that your allies are doing the best they can. Acknowledge them for that. 

Provide Information, ideas, suggestions for changes that will benefit you 

Don't blame others for your limitations unless you are in the Identified roth of client. Complaining 

with allies often backfires; it triggers guilt, resentment, and powerlessness in the allies and they will 

stop thinking about you. Get counseling support from others who comprehend your needs and are 

familiar with the oppression. Good allies are trained by youl 

When you write about your disability to educate others, stay clear of the role of client. It's too easy 

for the reader to misinterpret your tone as whining or kolding. Your own story must. be framed as 

your experiences, not as what other people did or didn't do to you. Offer clear information and suggestions. 

• 

If you have a condition or needs that are very restimulating to many people, you are subject to an 

active oppression. This is difficult, but there are things you can do to move the situation forward. It 

conti nued 

41

LIBERATION 

conti nued 

Is helpful to contact others, even If only in letters, who have similar experience. Call or send your 

name, and the name of your condition to me or Rational island Publishers, which has a computer 

data file of 'people by disability (those who've agreed to participate in this network) and we will try to 

match you up with some buddies. 

If you believe that a leader is blocked in thinking about your needs, focus on what resource you or 

others can offer to help that leader gain clarity; can you offer counseling, e x t r a 

done, 

- 

etc.? 

h eOrganize lp t o and train g ea group t of t allies h from e your wCommunity. o r The k best contradiction to your internalized 

oppression (and the best challenge to the actual oppression) may come if you lead your Community 

on this issue. 

If you require an adapted environment, persistently invite your Community to come to you. Unflaggingly 

remind them you are there! 

Eventually, able-bodied people realize how very valuable you are. 

4 Armory St. 

Brookline, Massachusetts, USA 

42 

QUelery C,Cfr Kij& 

- by Vivien Richmond

We are the great mass of professional, 

bureaucratic, semi-professional, 

service, middle-management, 

small business and some 

farmer classes who do our best in 

our small spheres to be competent, 

to help people, to succeed, and to 

raise our families. 

We hold everything in place in 

society. it is our role to validate the 

existence of the society, of the particular 

social system of which we 

are a part. We are expected to provide 

the stability and the resistance 

to change. We are expected to silently 

support the ruling class — provide 

services to everybody—from a 

position o f comfortable, earnest, 

hard-working, grateful, patriotic, 

religious insecurity. 

As long as we are content and 

comfortable, the capitalist ideology 

can claim that society is going very 

well. From the United States ruling 

group's point of view, the existence 

of a satisfied middle class in newly 

developing co u n trie s Ju stifie s 

almost any kind of government, no 

matter how miserable the poorest of 

the people are. It is not that the 

capitalists think. the society exists 

for the middle classes, it is that the 

middle classes are used as the proof 

that all is well. 

We are very often removed from 

certain realities. We neither exploit 

brutally, nor are exploited brutally. 

The harshest realities of our society 

are obscured. We instead work with 

other people who are doing their 

best to make things around them a 

little better, or to make their own 

lives a little better. Many of our families 

have risen Into the middle class 

by hard work, scratching up from 

the working class, either through 

great struggle or through enormous 

conformity with the authorities who 

bestow privileges on us. Others of 

us have fallen fro m the owning 

class. Either way, we have considerable 

fear that our positions are not 

secure. We are, in particular, afraid 

for our old age. We work very hard to 

make sure that we can be self-sufficient 

and take care of ourselves. We 

work hard to make sure that when 

we are old there will be money to 

take care of us. We also work very 

hard to make sure that our children 

get the best possible education. Our 

REPORT FROM THE MIDDLE-CLASS CAUCUS 

AT THE 1985 WORLD CONFERENCE 

security in old ago and the education 

of our children are the driving 

economic motivations which keep 

our noses to the grindstone. 

Fear is not the only force which 

motivates us. We have been trained 

to be useful and responsible, never 

to be parasites, and to carry ourselves 

with self-respect. We are 

meant to be frugal and conforming. 

There is a continuing thread of competition 

which runs throughout our 

distresses because we have had to 

struggle to maintain our position, 

We are always being ranked one 

against the other, and always somewhere 

in our minds we are wondering 

where we stand and how we're 

doing i n comparison t o others. 

Class is rarely mentioned and carely 

acknowledged among the middle 

class, but it is an underlying distress 

that pervades all interactions, 

particularly taking the form of underlying 

unease and competition. 

In RC we still have a lot of work to 

do in discharging our confusion and 

our distresses about our class backgrounds. 

We could analyze much 

more closely a variety of interesting 

effects of being middle class. However, 

in this caucus, we decided to 

step over that process and to try to 

think together about what kind of 

movement would attract the middle 

classes. We decided our job was to 

think how t o liberate the middle 

classes from our role as the glue 

that holds the oppreasive society together—not 

how to liberate individuals, 

ourselves, from middle-class 

patterns, rather, how to liberate our 

class from its role. We considered 

how to maximize the participation 

of middle-class people in a movement 

for a just and humane society. 

We addressed the questions: 

What kind of movement would 

not terrify the middle class? 

What kind of movement would 

attract the middle class? 

What particular elements of a 

political program would deal 

with the issues most urgent for 

the middle class? 

These questions stimulated considerable 

discussion about whether 

the middle classes could or would 

be likely to take a leading role in a 

43 

movement for a better society. We 

remarked on the fact that the peace 

movement, the white allies in the 

civil rights movement, the women's 

movement, the anti-nuclear movement, 

the student movement, Gay 

liberation, and Re-evaluation Counseling 

have all been made up of predominately 

middle-class people so 

far. 

In answer to the question "What 

kind of a movement would attract 

middle-class people?" we said, "One 

that Is loving, based on decency. 

One that calls for decent lives for 

all, One that allows its members to 

play a manageable and defined part 

as a piece of a well-organized whole. 

One that tries to get for everyone 

what middle-class people have." 

in answer to the question, "What 

program issues would appeal t o 

middle-class people?" w e sa id , 

"Peace, the environment, anything 

affecting children, a n d anything 

that would relieve the fear of dependency 

in old age or the pressure 

around providing educational opportunities 

for their college-age young 

people, or relieve the fear of inadequate 

health insurance 

In the immediate future we felt 

what is needed t o move forward 

with middle-class liberation is the 

following: 

1. Discharge o u r middle-class 

distresses; stop apologizing, take 

pride; do the AC work in our local 

Communities; discuss and develop 

the draft liberation policy. 

Develop a better theory about 

the potentially strong role of the 

middle class and enlarge the program 

to liberate us from our role. 

3. Counsel each other to take full 

charge and step out as visible world 

leaders who care about peace, Justice, 

and freedom for all. 

4. Begin to educate members of 

our class outside of AC about the 

reality and the potential f o r alliances 

with other peoples. 

We were, as a group, delighted to 

begin this move in the direction of 

affirming the role o f the middle 

class in supporting and leading the 

movement fo r a better world fo r 

everybody. 

Dorothy Stoneman 

New York, New York, USA

LIBERATION 

I AM INCOMPETENT. NOW WHAT? 

In reading through Present Time No. 65, I came across "A Commitment Against Pretense," and the 

discharge it brought focused my attention more clearly on something I have been thinking about 

for a long time. But I think the reason I discharged was not because of having the same distress as 

the commitment's drafter intended to attack. I see how this commitment could be very effective in 

combatting the pretense of rehearsing optimistic platitudes (as client as well as counselor) instead of 

thinking up and using effective contradictions that hammer at the core of distresss. But to make 

what I'm saying clearer I need to tell you a little bit about myself. 

I was introduced to RC by my sister Anne Luna who at the time had just discovered RC. I had a 

sample session with Don Kurtz and was lucky enough to attend a one-day workshop that same 

week. Since then I've been involved in RC off and on, mainly in Orange County, California, where 

my regular counselor has been Alan Hansen. I also spent a year in Puebla, Mexico where there was 

a small Community led by Azril Bacal. Two and a half years ago I also taught a successful fundamentals 

class (before leaving for Mexico). The reason I was attracted to RC was that I saw it as a 

means for dealing with the extra pressure of a life-threatening, disabling illness (Lou Gehrig's Disease). 

What has kept me involved have been the ramifications of RC theory in terms of a world of 

people and a beckoning universe. 

For the purpose of this discussion let us atsume that I will recover from my illness (I am becoming 

more confident of this.), but that the disabling damage of the illness will remain. (I suspect this 

will be true.) 

• W h e n I read the first lines of the commitment I find that although they are meant to be a 

mockery of self-demeaning distress recordings, they apply very accurately to my situation. I am 

completely incompetent and inadequate, physically, to handle the challenges which reality places 

before me. In fact, without help it would be impossible for me to survive. I realize that there is a 

high degree of interdependence among people in general (This is seen very clearly in the discharge 

and re-evaluation process.), but I think I am talking here about something qualitatively different 

or at least about vast quantitative differences. I think RC policy has not addressed this issue. 

In RC, when members of an oppressed, group get together, a powerful contradiction is to revel in 

what is good or great about belonging to that group. For most groups I can think of many reasons to 

celebrate membership. The exception that comes easily to my mind is people with physical disabilities. 

I can't think of any reason to rejoice that is specifically related to .a physical disability. I think 

the problem lies in not making a clear distinction between physical differences and physical disabilities. 

I can easily see a group of short people listing many reasons why it's great to be short in 

spite of being mistreated in a rigid society. But I don't see a group of amputees discussing the advantage 

of stumps over limbs. 

This became clear to me in the autumn of 1984 at a workshop for people with physical disabilities 

held in Connecticut, USA. No other workshop I had been to has had this same flavor. There was a 

great amount of camaraderie, but I think this camaraderie grew not from a pride of being a member 

of the group but rather from being in an environment where everyone else struggled at least as 

much as you did and because there was a greater sensitivity to people's needs than in the wide 

world. 

There is also another aspect of RC theory that doesn't quite mesh with the reality of being 

physically disabled. As I understand it, one purpose of RC is to reduce the influence of past hurts 

on our present-time lives. But what if the hurts are compounded daily? There are many aspects of 

human life that depend upon physical ability— everything from nailing together the frame of a 

house to decisively hugging a loved one. So, for a person with a physical disability there is little 

chance of leaving behind past hurts barring some sort of "miracle," because the source of some of the 

hurt is constant and unavoidable. 

44

It may seem that I am a bit strident on this subject, so I'll just say as a footnote that I think that I, 

as a person with a physical disability, can figure out a way, and gain the support to live elegantly 

and lead decisively. I just think that I have a point here and I'm not simply looking for someone to 

say, "Yes, it's obviously too big a job for anyone, so don't worry about it too much." Actually, as I'm 

sure you know, I would love for someone to pull out the lynch pin of my argument so that I could 

watch my disenchantment crumble before my eyes. But if that doesn't happen I am still sure in the 

knowledge that I am the best person available to deal with these challenges. 

45 

DANIEL FLECK 

UPLAND, CALIFORNIA, USA 

photo by Day d Pascple

LI BERATI ON 

THE OPPRESSION OF SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS 

I have written this article with 

two aims in mind — firstly, to relate 

my experiences as a working-class 

man receiving a scientific 

training, and secondly, to 

present some reflections on the 

nature of science and the situations 

which currently face scientists. 

My own interest in things "scientific" 

began i n m y junior 

school when I was about eight. 

Through r q y fr iend Eddie, I 

became interested In space. The 

first book I borrowed from the 

school library was about space 

travel; I was Intrigued and began 

to read about our solar system, 

the planets, comets, asteroids, 

and various other bodies. I 

learnt t h e names o f a ll t h e 

planets, t h e ir s iz e, dis tanc e 

from the sun, the number o f 

moons (If any) that each one 

had, and various Ideas as to how 

ail this had come into being in 

the first place. With Eddie, I 

wrote a small book of our own, 

summarising w h a t w e k new 

about astronomy a n d s pac e 

travel. This I still have. 

My inter es t c ontinued t o . 

develop and, after many months 

of saving, I bought my first telescope 

for about Ca My mum and 

dad encouraged me in my hobby 

tremendously and It was with 

my dad that, after saving for 

another year or two, I went over 

to St. Helens (where he worked) 

to buy a really grand model, a 

three-inch refracting telescope 

with its own tripod. I spent many 

a night with the telescope out In 

the garden looking at the stars 

and picking out the moons of 

some of the planets that were 

not visible to the naked eye. 

My wish to become a scientist 

had by now taken root. By the 

time I went to senior school, it 

unfortunately became a lot harder 

to pursue my interest. Science 

in the first year of school 

was pretty dreadful. The teachers 

didn't appear at all enthusiastic 

about what they wer e 

teaching .us. This struck me as 

strange, because it seemed so 

obvious to me that finding out 

about the world was an exciting 

thing t o be doing. Luckily, in 

subsequent years I actually enjoyed 

the lessons much more, 

and always did well in the exams, 

usually finishing t op or 

, 

near it 

When I first chose to study 

sciences amongs t m y " O ' 

Levels, I wished to study art as 

well. I had always loved drawing 

and had been good at it. Alas, 

the powers-that-be would not 

allow this. Art, they said, was 

not for scientists. At our school 

(like many others, I suspect), 

this was the point when the divisions 

between arts and science 

were first installed. Up to this 

time (age fourteen), they had 

always seemed to co-exist perfectly 

well. The same phenomena 

carried on when I came to 

my "A" Levels. I wished to study 

Maths, Biology, a n d History, 

but, alas, History got the chop 

and it was Chemistry instead. 

Having successfully passed 

my "A" Levels, I headed off to 

university in Sheffield to study 

Psychology. By now, my interests 

had turned fr om outer 

space to inner space. 

University was a big shock for 

me. On my first day ,l was Insulted 

for my Liverpool accent 

and realised that it was not going 

to be a friendly place. Unlike 

school, there was little r eal 

camaraderie between the students, 

arid the timetable for studying 

was thrust upon you like a 

British Rail sandwich—serving 

some purpose perhaps, but not 

necessarily palatable. Despite 

this, I retained my interest in 

Psychology. When my final year 

came, two Incidents in particu- 

lar led me to see that, contrary 

to my beliefs (nurtured since I 

first looked up to the night sky, 

encouraged by my parents and 

by many of my school teachers) 

In academia i n general, and 

science in particular, one's own 

ideas were not wanted and were, 

in fac t, actively discouraged. 

Choosing a topic for one of my 

final year extended essays, 

was shocked to hear my supervisor 

tell me before I put pen to 

paper what mark I was to receive. 

This was followed by accusations 

of cheating when the 

results of my experimental project 

failed t o conform t o the 

wishes of the lecturer who was 

supervising that. 

My experience a t Sheffield 

left me feeling pretty bad about 

education, and for the first time 

In my life I had some feelings 

that I was stupid. Something 

kept the belief in me going that, 

despite big appearances to the 

contrary, I was correct in believing 

t h a t science w as really 

about the excitement of learning, 

exploring, and understanding 

the world. For helping me 

keep that belief alive, I received 

'great support from my friend 

Mary, who persisted in validating 

and encouraging my thinking 

and sharing many long discussions 

with me on particular 

topics I was interested in. 

I was lucky enough after a 

year of unemployment following 

my graduation to be accepted 

on an M.Sc course, Although the 

course was not perfect, I made 

some lasting friends on It and at 

last found that my thinking was 

beginning to be appreciated as 

exceptionally creative. I w as 

rewarded with a distinction in 

my degree, an article published 

on the basis of my work and 

another year's unemployment 

before b e in g ac c epted b y 

Leicester t o d o research o n 

dreaming.

I like to think that in some way 

I have now come full circle in 

studying the mysteries of the 

night: f r om t h e infi nities o f 

space t o the infinities o f the 

mind. Leicester, partly thanks to 

several working-class people 

who were In the Psychology Department 

there, was easily the 

best academic environment I 

have worked In. Here, much to 

my surprise, I found out that 

most university-based research 

doesn't actually consist of people 

investigating w h a t t hey 

would lik e to, b u t rather investigating 

what they will be 

given the money to do and/or doing 

what somebody else has 

suggested they do. It struck me 

then that, if more working-class 

people were in our research institutions, 

then a lot more of the 

work conducted would be related 

t o people's interests and 

needs. After one abortive a t 

,tempt and two further years out 

of full-time work, I submitted my 

work again and received m y 

Ph.D. I feel very proud of myself 

that, after all these years o f 

perseverance, I have actually 

achieved what' I set out to do.- 

This has convinced me that all 

other goals must logically be 

equally attainable (and maybe 

they'll even take less timely 

I'd like to relate some of my 

thoughts about science and scientists 

and how we fit into the 

overall picture of liberation of all 

peoples. 

* Science can be a wonderfully 

•exciting and potentially 

liberating discipline. It aims at 

increasing our knowledge and 

understanding o f t h e wor ld 

through action and thought, outside 

o f the influence o f distressed 

behaviour and thinking. 

I would say, therefore, that science 

is not that different from 

art. Both build upon the knowledge 

and techniques found to 

be useful in the past, but do not 

limit themselves to these, Both 

have t h e ir o w n v ar iety o f 

media—contrast physics, chemistry, 

biology, psychology with 

sculpture, painting, music, literature, 

dance. 

* Working-class people make 

the best scientists. We ask the 

best (and the most) questions, 

and are not satisfied with anything 

less than the best possible 

answer. 

* Scientists are an oppressed 

group, and in fact are subjected 

to many of the same influences 

as are artists: 

The practitioners o f both 

are stereotyped as crazy (e.g., 

the mad scientist, the weirdo 

painter, actor) and different 

from the ordinary person. 

, Both are considered to be 

experts, doing something that 

ordinary people don't do. This 

is nonsense. Whoever has not 

written a poem, painted a picture, 

Mended a fuse, figured 

out something they didn't 

know before just by thinking 

from what they already knew? 

Both art and science are 

underfunded. Scientists do, 

however, work under unique 

circumstances. Much of their 

work has been brought under 

the control o f the military: 

something lik e half o f a ll 

physics research i n Britis h 

universities is funded by the 

Ministry of Defense. The production 

of new ideas and new 

ways of perceiving reality are 

construed as dangerous by 

the oppressive societies, who 

therefore s eek t o lim it o r 

directly c ontr ol s c ientis ts ' 

work. 

47 

* As a result of (or in conjunction 

with) all of the above, scientific 

workers are isolated. It Is 

rarely appreciated or acknowledged 

h o w muc h s c ientifi c 

thought arises in the context of 

other people's think ing a n d 

ideas. 

* Some scientists feel very 

much out off from their feelings. 

Most scientists are men and 

have been trained to disregard 

personal feelings as having little 

to do with their work, in addition 

to the similar pressures which 

all men are subjected to. Only 

under s uc h conditions c ould 

anyone contemplate designing 

and building weapons with terrible 

destructive capabilities. I 

know from my own experiences 

that, in order to continue thinking 

as best I could, I often had to 

resort to focusing attention on 

academic work rather than my 

feelings. 

I encourage everyone t o remember 

that scientists are feeling, 

thinking humans. They are 

not robots. They like to be asked 

about their work. What do they 

enjoy about it? What aspects do 

they fi n d m o s t interesting? 

What problems do they face in 

It? What are their current ideas 

as to how to solve them? if they 

weren't doing their current work, 

what would they really like to be 

working on? What issues do 

scientists face in conjunction 

with everyone else? 

in our efforts to be in touch 

with reality, to be rational, to act 

outside of distress, and to act in 

conjunction with others so that 

we may do this, we are all scientists. 

Ron Roberts 


reprinted from For Men the RC 

Southern England men's magazine

L IB ER A T ION 

"THE OLD NET IS WORN OUT 

THE ) 1NEW 1 ; 4NET 

HAS GONE .FISHING. 

•* 1 ; t 

Atkitv? 

To the Re-evaluation Counselling Communities throughout the World and Re-evaluation Counsellors of 

Aotearoa 

TENA KOUT 

< 0 1 . 1 

I believe that the kaupapa 

T 

of 

E 

RC 

N 

is the kaupapa of my Tupuna. We are not a conquered people. As the great 

fighting Rangatira Rewl Maniapoto, when called on to surrender at Orakau, refused, saying, "Ka whawhal tonu 

ahau kia koe ake ake ake." A 

K O U 

I see AC as the means to continue our kaupapa, a kaupapa within a kaupapa; and just because your eyes do 

not see the moko, that doesn't T Omean L it's not there. 

I 

My Tupuna lived pure RO Ttheory, 

ritualised, but living. That was okay while only Maori occupied Aotearoa. 

Since the coming of white people, my people have suffered abomination and desecration in the name of white 

economics, health, and justice. E 

N 

I see AC as the avenue to help bridge the cultural gap for Pakeha New Zealanders. For Maori Reers to be able 

to discharge the complete oppression A of racism, I would like to see evidence that Pakeha RCers have been and 

are working on and discharging K racism. 

O 

The sacred challenge (working on racism) has been laid before all people in Aotearoa. No one can not face it. 

It is before people on radio, Utelevision, 

newspapers, magazines, books, korero, korero, kotero; it's in the air you 

breathe. I am speaking about T Te Maori— Te Hoki Nga Mal. Our Tupuna wept (rain), the world rejoiced (the sun 

shone), the spiritual challenge O was sent forth and acknowledged (the earth trembled in an earthquake). Yes! All 

these things occurred in succession when Te Hoki nga mai ano was publicly opened in Whanganui-a-Tara. 

U 

I would like to see RCers Kof 

Aotearoa meet that spiritual challenge. For me, that challenge is what AC is all 

about: total re-emergence. 

A 

The art of listening patiently, T with undivided attention and total approval, listening in silence, no interruptions, 

waiting for one's turn Oto 

speak, receiving time and getting the same attention, and the results— korero, 

crying, laughing, shaking, sweating—are all basics of AC theory; they are WO cultural practises centuries old, 

still practised by tangata whenua & of Aotearoa. 

Cultural practices they are, practices which have been and continue to be abused and taken advantage of. 

Maori RCers are being "double dosed." -Because along with our natural instincts, an overriding pattern has 

emerged. That is, our natural courtesy of non-interruption as a cultural practise is being reinforced by oppression 

as targets of racism. I feel our practise of non-interruption needs interrupting where we are the targets of 

racism, or internalised oppressive behaviour. 

I now realise that Pakeha Reers do not know what I would like as a Maori RCer or how I would like them to 

behave so that what I hold culturally sacred is not offended and my internalised oppression added to by restimu- 

!anon. 

I also recognise that because of my internalised oppression, I am unable to confidently tell Pakeha Reers 

what and how to do this. 

So it comes back to this, I can help you; you can help me; and we can all be comfortable in each other's company. 

If racism is not tackled in AC throughout Aotearoa, we can forget about "no limits"! 

However, I will now make a confident beginning and tell Pakeha RCers to: not expect Maori RCers to correct 

mistakes in Te Reo (e.g., tahl, rua, toru—kotahl, e rua, e toru, etc.). 

• For Pakeha RCers to help avoid the mounting crisis in Aotearoa, I would like to see you start thinking, behaving, 

and proclaiming yourselves as White Polynesians. To sink one's roots into our earthmother Papatuanuku 

and feel the cleansing tears sent down from the heavens by flanginui around your heart, is to combine with and 

be powerful allies of Tangata Whenua. The Karanga continually being sent forth around Te Ao of peace and love 

of all humankind is the Karanga of Re-evaluation Counselling. 

Kia kaha, kia manawanui. N o reira T e n a koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa, 

To rangimarie kia koutou A r o h a n u i 

Na Dianne Cameron 

Ohakune, AolearoalNew Zealand 

reprinted from the Aolearos AC Community newsletter 

48

RAP FOR NANCY KLINE 

I SAID I WROTE THIS RAP FOR NANCY KLINE 

'CAUSE NANCY KLINE IS MIGHTY FINE. 

SHE'S LEADIN' A MOVEMENT 

STRAIGHT FROM THE SOUTH 

OF ITS SUCCESS I HAVE NO DOUBT. 

WE'VE GOT WHITES AND BLACKS- 

MORE THAN JUST ME. 

MY SISTERS IN THE TREES ARE CALLING ME. 

CALLIN' ME HOME AND SETTIN 

1 MARCH M E ON CHILD, NO NEED TO WAIT. 

S T R A I G H T . 

FEATURES OF THE SOUTH - 

CRICKET AND SQUID 

CRAWFISH, LADYBUG AND KATYDID 

WE'VE GOT PORGIES AND MULLET 

PEACH PIE TOO 

SWEET MILK, CORNBREAD AND HONEY DEW. 

I CLAIM CREOLES AND NATIVES 

CAJUNS TOO 

TEXANS ARE MY ALLIES AND SO ARE YOU 

As JULIA COOPER SAID SO LONG AGO 

"WHEN AND WHERE I ENTER, THAT'S WHERE 

FREEDOM GOES." 

ALL OF MY SISTERS, UP THERE IN THE TREES 

POPPIN AND A-BOPPIN AND A MAKIN' THE BREEZE 

CALLIN' ME HOME AND SETTING' ME STRAIGHT. 

MARCH ON CHILD, NO NEED TO WAIT, 

As SHIRLEY CHISOLM SO POINTEDLY SAID - 

"DON'T GET MAD, GET EVEN INSTEAD." 

ALL OF MY SISTERS, UP THERE IN THE TREES 

POPPIN AND A-BOPPIN AND A MAKIN' THE BREEZE 

CALLIN' ME HOME AND SETTIN' ME STRAIGHT. 

MARCH ON CHILD, NO NEED TO WAIT. 

MARCH ON. DON'T WAIT. 

MARCH ON, MARCH ON, WE NEED NOT HESITATE. 

49 

Eileen Hayes 

Bloomington, Indiana, USA

LI BERATI ON 

JEWISH LEADERS' 

CONFERENCE, 1986 

On October 31.st, and November 1st and 2nd, a hundred RC 

Jewish leaders from five countries gathered in New Hampshire 

with Cherie Brown and myself to review Jewish liberation 

policy, Jewish participation in RC, and the placing of RC theory 

and tools in the hands of the wide-world Jewish communities. It 

was a splendid conference and there will be many reports of its effects 

in the future, both in Present 71me and Rah Hadashah. 

We were saddened that the expected Australian RCers could 

not attend because of the sudden illness and death of Stephen 

Minz, and we send our condolences to his family. 

Some very controversial problems were dealt with and complete 

unity and working consensus was achieved. In behalf of the 

whole RC Community, I congratulate Jewish RCers everywhere 

for the splendid leaders they have developed. 

-HARNEY JACKINS 

FOUR L A N D MARK ESSAYS NO W AV AILABLE 

I N P AMP HLE T FO RM AT $1 E ACH. 

The Art of Listening 

The Good and the Great in Art 

A Rational Theory of Sexuality 

Where Did God Come From? 

FOURTEEN EARLIER SEMINAL PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE 

AS P AMP HLE TS AT $ I EACH. 

The Postulates of Re-evaluation Counseling 

The Distinctive Characteristics of fie-evaluation Counseling 

The Complete Appreciation of Oneself 

The Communication of Important Ideas 

• Who I n Charge? 

The Flexible Human in the Rigid Society 

The Logic of Being Completely Logical 

Co-Counseling for Married Couples 

The Nature of the Learning Process 

The Uses of Beauty and Order 

The Necessity of Long Range Goals 

Letter to a Respected Psychiatrist 

Is Death Necessary? 

Multiplied Awareness 

50

COUNSELING THEO RY 

More on "Organizational Forms" 

In response to your request for additional organizational forms, I'm sure others have mentioned the 

topic group from which so much good thinking has come and also the think and listen, which I think has 

been defined carefully elsewhere. I keep remembering a couple of think and listen times which were important 

breakthroughs for me. Now, I think that I often use my session time to think without interruption, 

so I don't set up a think and listen specifically anymore. I think the idea of no one ever referring to 

the thinking of the "thinker" again is a very important form in a society where most people are really very 

afraid to say what they think, most so afraid that they don't remenzber what they think! 

The topic group is a widely used organizational form which has produced valuable exchange of information 

and has often inspired development of sound policy in particular areas of concern. The basic content 

is determined by the group in advance and can include any topic of concern to humans. The 

topic group follows two simple guidelines: 1) No one speaks twice until everyone has spoken once; 2) No 

one speaks four times until everyone has spoken at least twice. Participants can think about the topic or 

use the time to discharge distress related either to the topic or to participation in the group. A recorder can 

take the job of preparing a report of the meeting. A topic group can be arranged in almost every gathering 

of people. 

The other form which I am not sure you would include in "organizational forms," but which seems to 

me to belong there is publishing. The literature of the RC Communities alone is so valuable a contribution 

to the world, that lithe whole Communities fell apart, it would certainly assure much good happening 

and probably the renewal of the Communities very soon. 1 

-from 

people's letters to you, while maintaining close supervision of the soundness of the overall theory and 

'o 

content 

m 

of 

y 

publications 

m i n 

is 

d 

one of the 

t 

most 

h 

exciting 

e 

and empowering organizational forms in RC. Many of 

us have become'involved in efforts to write well, some of us are learning editing, layout, distribution, etc. 

iI assume d hundreds e a of thousands o of people f have benefited from reading RC literature. 

p r i n t i n g 

e I think x we c would e all rgain pfrom ta definition/description s 

of literature as an organizational form. 

And More— 

Here are some other organizational forms I see. 

The topic group: people sharing information 

without interruption or arguing. I saw the need for 

this form at a recent non•RC workshop I went to. 

The leaders were splendid, but at meal topic 

tables they and a few extroverts dominated the 

conversation. Not only did some people get left 

out, the information shared was not communicated 

well. 

The policy of each person talking once before 

anyone talks twice; each person talking twice 

before anyone talks four times, which we use In 

topic groups, is an organizational form. I've used 

It a lot In meetings and discussion groups Outside 

RC and It works well. We need to use it more in 

topic groups in RC. People try to be spontaneous 

and free form sometimes in RC topic groups and I 

• haven't seen it work very well. 

The think and listen: each person talks (perhaps 

I should say thinks) without being interrupted or 

evaluated in any way, including nods of approval. 

I find that this speeds up meetings where people 

51 

Anne Mackie 

Durham, North Carolina, USA 

need to do some thinking and know what everyone 

else thinks. Discussions bury good Information 

under mountains of responses and debates. I 

was Just in a meeting that took two hours. I think 

an hour and a half was discussion. I think we 

could have shared all of our thinking in three 

minutes apiece and we would not have needed 

discussion. We didn't get a chance to truly evaluate 

our ideas until the end of the meeting because 

everyone had been evaluating Ideas before they'd 

quite left someone's mouth. 

Brainstorming: we do this in RC, but I've seen It 

done better outside RC. Still, the general population 

doesn't understand it well. The basic rules 

are these: any idea is okay, there is no evaluation 

of any Idea in any way, you say the ideas as fast 

as we can write them, you stop and give someone 

a chance to speak or think if they are being silent. 

Brainstorming is a great way to encourage creative 

thinking. Tremendous creativity gets stifled 

by our habit of evaluating ideas long before any 

evaluation is neaded. Most meetings and classes 

would benefit from brainstorming. 


Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA

COUNSELING THEORY 

SHOULDN'T GOOD LANGUAGE ALWAYS BE CREATIVE? 

— Harvey Jackins 

The other day during a client's session the client and myself were struggling to communicate to 

each other about her situation. I was trying (probably wrongly) to suggest formulations or words that 

might express for the client exactly what she was trying to say. Suddenly she came up with a sentence 

that perfectly described the situation for herself and one that I could hear well also. I felt a 

great surge of communication. It eliminated the temporary difficulties between us and ended the 

danger of my speaking "for" her. 

Following my satisfaction at hearing the situation described so clearly, I had a flash of understanding 

about language that was different than any I had previously had. it may not be new to any 

of you readers, but it was new and important to me. 

THE "RIGHT" WORD 

I had been "educated" to think that there was always one exactly right way of expressing any particular 

idea, any particular thought, and that within that context the problem was largely one of "finding 

the right words." I had grown up on a farm speaking a fairly limited dialect of U.S. English. In the 

ninth grade I attended the first school that had any proper equipment. I became very enamored of 

the great Webster's Dictionary. Sometimes the teacher would allow me to take It to my desk If I finished 

my work early. I read through much of the dictionary Just delighting in the enormous number of 

words there and to some extent memorizing them. 

(Unfortunately, I had never been taught to Interpret the marks which Indicated pronunciation so I 

usually invented my own pronunciation for the ones I memorized. I have ever since embarrassed myself 

regularly by mis-pronouncing words for which my audience knew the correct pronunciation. 

That embarrassment has lessened somewhat in recent years. I've discovered that many English 

words are pronounced differently in different English-speaking countries. If I just look confident 

when I attempt my own uninformed pronunciation, people in England will assume it's a U.S. pronunciation, 

and people in the U.S. will assume that I've "picked up" an English pronunciation. As I say, 

the embarrassment has lessened.) 

I did accept the attitude in these school years that to communicate well required finding the "right 

words" or the "right word." For a long time I sought to improve my communication by finding a larger 

stock of words and wider array of synonyms. I have felt fortunate for many years that I have learned 

at least some varieties of English, a language of a great many words and a great many synonyms. I 

didn't realize the great difference between languages in this respect until some of my own books 

began to be translated into the languages of the smaller countries of Europe. The translators often 

begged me to use "standard English," not only because my dialect was difficult, but because I was 

using a wide array of synonyms. The translators would expostulate with me that English often had 

twenty synonyms for a particular word but their language had only two or three and it made their 

task of translation difficult if I used less common English words. 

CREATIVE EXPRESSION 

What I realized in that flash after my client's beautiful formulation of her thinking, however, was 

that really human use of language must at all times be creative. I finally saw that repeating the "right 

word" is almost always done by a pattern. It may be a broad chronic pattern which uses "proper 

English," for example, or it may be a limited narrow pattern, which repeats the same phrase over and 

over on all occasions, but it will be patterned and less than intelligent in either case. Using language 

well will mean, to reach for a new set of words with a new modifying effect upon each other in the 

sentence or paragraph or article or talk, that communicates the whole idea frankly and well. The 

words and phrases can and do modify each other in the context in which they are used and this 

mutual influence gives to the whole a distinctly different and Inflective meaning than the words and 

the phrases would have had by themselves or in other contexts. 

To achieve a fine piece of communication once In a well-thought out lecture or article or conversation 

or poem certainly, deserves respect and, sometimes, repetition. There is nothing wrong in quoting 

and repeating an excellent formulation. We all intuitively recognize this in our enjoyment of certain 

pieces of poetry. We quote them correctly or read them accurately when we can. 

52

FREE OUR USE OF LANGUAGE 

As we are communicating with each other, however, as we are thinking afresh, we must also turn 

our language loose to be continually creative. Every word we use reflects on and modifies its neighbors; 

and not only from the present. It has connotations from past use of the word in poems or other 

masterpieces of thought and literature, There maybe a "right word" but only in this particular context. 

It will not be "right" for a similar communication at a later time. If we think it is (as I had been 

educated to think) we will be slipping into a pattern and failing to communicate at our best. 

I think that I have sometimes been intuitively creative in the past. I have sometimes spoken well. 

People have enjoyed my use of language. I have written a poem or two which expressed an important 

idea creatively. I think, however, that I have been hampered and inhibited in doing this all the 

time or doing this at my best by the unaware notion that I had accepted from my early education that 

there was always a "right word" or a "right way of saying things." I was dragging along an unaware 

assumption that I would necessarily use the same words that Abraham Lincoln did if I were to give 

the Gettysburg address, that I would fail short of Shakespeare's eloquence if I did not use his identical 

words in my treatment of a subject which he had already treated in a sonnet or a passage in a 

play. 

I would like to hear your thinking about this. How can we encourage each other to master the use 

of language by being continually creative, continually flexible, not only in our choice of words but in 

our tones of voice and our vocal Inflections and the expressions on our faces as we speak? How can 

we use cadence, loudness, pitch, and all the other characteristics which can be impressed on 

language to make our use of language and our communication be eloquently fresh? 

DOGMAMIS BEBEGE 

Petekte bir gornec bal gibi olacak Oile d 

Eller; okaeak beyaz gilfler gibi klicticiik 

Yuregi anasi gibi bilyfik mu bilylik 

Gillecek seygiyle clilnyaya 

BABY IN THE WOMB 

Her eyes are going to be like hon,ty in the comb, 

Her little hands like white roses, 

Her heart as big as her mother's, 

•Smiling to the world with love. 

0 kliclik eller g ü cl gunlerin yaraticisi 

Those little hands will create a beautiful future. 

yaz kisilik bir kogusta ilk seklini aldigini Are you going to remember that • 

hatirlayacak mi 

Ilk kelimelerinin bu kadinlari heyecanlandirdigini 

bileeek mi acaba 

you took your final shape in prison among 

a hundred women? 

Will you know that your first sounds • 

were our delights? 

• 

Ten 

gfizel kapisini acsin anana, 

e 

— Yeter Kant 

k 

Yeter is an RCer .(Turkish now living in Germany). 

tThis 

poem was written while she was in jail for being a 

nwomen 

's liberation activist in Turkey. 

e 

l 

e 

b 

e 

b 

e 

Kick baby kick. 

So that your kicks will open the door 

to the most beautiful days for your mother. 

— Yeter Goksu (translated from Turkish by Sake Goksa) 

k 

t 

e 

k 

53


GIVING UP ANXIETY, TA K I N G LEADERSHIP 

Reading the challenge to a number 

of individual leaders in the RC Communities 

who have owning-class backgrounds 

wa s interesting t o me , 

Thank you for your thinking and 

sharing it. I especially picked up your 

insight that the patterns left on owning-class 

people by their oppression 

as children are sometimes emulated 

by middle-class individuals a n d 

working-class individuals. 

One of the ways this affects me as a 

middle-class person is the way I feel 

about anyone who takes leadership. I 

feel pulled to be around people who 

take leadership, and at the same time 

I feel confused and inadequate around 

such people. The adultism I encountered 

when I was a child, and the violence 

and mistreatment, plus the lack 

of correct information I experienced 

in the "public school" type education I 

had, left me feeling confused and uncertain 

about myself or the universe. 

(By "public school," I mean the type 

of boarding school based o n the 

English model to which I and many 

of m y southern I rish Protestant 

brothers were subjected.) 

At the recent men's workshop in 

Malvern, England, led by Charlie 

Kreiner and organised b y Geoff 

Babb, Charlie put the question to us 

"What would it feel like for you if you 

were not leading?" That brought up 

lots of distress for me about having to 

lead in order to prove myself, and in 

order that making things right for 

other people might somehow magically 

make things right for me. Now I 

am understanding the amount of distress 

I have internalised as a result of 

the early adultism and the school system. 

I knew that those hurts were 

there, but I have never before had 

such a clear sight of them, What I ant 

understanding is the way I ant working 

at freeing myself from the effects 

of the internalised oppression while 

holding myself out as the interruption 

of the classism which operates a t 

every level in our society. I can see 

how my own delight in me is the contradiction 

of the internalised stuff as 

well as the interruption of the classism 

which is manufactured by the society. 

Coming home in the aeroplane 

after the workshop, I remembered a 

remark one man had made during a 

report-back session about "small" 

men. I don't just have feelings about 

people who by reason of their positions 

in the class system seem to be 

"above" me. I also have distress about 

being a "small" man. Somehow I connected 

"small" with being inferior. 

This has to do with ways I was treated 

by some men who were bigger 

.than I when I was younger. There is 

this confusion for me around men: 

those who are bigger than I physically, 

and those who I feel have a higher 

position than me in the class order. 

The other side of this is.the feelings I 

have around men, and other people, 

who I have been given to understand 

are inferior to me in the class structure. 

I also have confused feelings 

about people wh o are physically 

smaller than me. One of the pieces of 

this business of "small" or "little" people 

is the stories we have in Ireland 

about the "little people," o r the 

fairies. When I was a child I used to 

read lots about the little people and 

somewhere along the line I began to 

think that there was something confusing 

about this. Now I think these 

stories have to do with how Irish people 

were oppressed and made to feel 

small, and how smallness came to be 

associated with being inferior. 

I am using a direction to get rid of 

the internalised stuff around my having 

to prove myself, o r earn my 

place, which is " I was conceived, 

born, have always been and I am now 

completely responsible for myself and 

the whole universe, but not for any of 

the patterns." For my feelings about 

my size, I'm taking the direction, "I'm 

delighted to be five feet seven and a 

half inches tall." (I'm reminded of the 

Biblical remark "Is there a man o f 

you who by anxious thought can add 

a foot to his height?") 

This brings me to thinking about 

anxiety or worry. What is anxiety? I 

think anxiety is about not trusting 

one's own thinking. Charlie gave us a 

direction about aloneness, or loneliness. 

"Aloneness is a distress pattern." 

Neither aloneness nor anxiety is a 

function of the universe. I can see 

how I am responsible for myself and 

the universe, Without aloneness or 

anxiety, leadership is simply a natural 

function of human beings. As a 

white, Protestant, Irish man, leadership 

is part of my natural function. 

Leadership is not a position I have to 

take in order to secure my place in 

the universe. Accepting my piece in 

the universe means giving up anxiety. 

At the same time it seems that anxiety 

is a major part of the oppression 

of the class system. Part of the function 

of the class system is to manufacture 

anxiety. As a man I' have been 

taught to act as wit is necessary to be 

alone, and also to be anxious. This is 

the basis of the kind of pain and hurt 

I feel as a man and, I suspect, that 

most men feel, and which we are encouraged 

to inflict upon one another, 

on women, on younger people, on 

Gay people, on older people. According 

to the class system, leadership is 

based upon having to secure one's 

place, to feel anxious and alone, to 

use violence and so to continue the 

oppressive pattern. Deciding to be 

what I am, a delighted white, Irish, 

Protestant man is a big step forward 

for me in contradicting all this stuff. 

Nancy Kline's thinking in response 

to your challenge is good. Her understanding 

that the primary role o f 

owning-class people in changing society 

is to support working-class leadership 

is important for me. I appreciate 

your working through this stuff, 

Nancy, and sharing it with us. I like 

the way you and Harvey show that 

men and women can think together. 

The fact that owning-class oppression 

is being recognised and ways are being 

found to discharge the internalised 

stuff is an important advance for 

me. 

One of my goals is to get together 

with people working in religion to 

decide together to accept our place in 

the universe, to discharge the oppressive 

internalised stuff and to hold 

ourselves out as contradictions of the 

oppressive functioning o f religion 

within the class system. At the men's 

workshop I suggested a Liberation

Planning Group (this is a new idea 

which Charlie came up with, and a 

successful one at that) on men working 

in religion. There weren't enough 

takers for that, but what did evolve 

was a Liberation Planning Group for 

men working in institutions. Using 

Charlie's directions, "How will you 

lead yo u r own liberationfre-emergence 

as a male, O u r group liberation, 

and men's liberation fo r a ll 

men?" We came up. with specific 

identification of our internalised oppression, 

the external (institutionalised) 

oppression, a n d th in kin g 

around how to build our own world 

community and develop strategies 

and policies for men's liberation— rational, 

non-oppressive social policies 

to replace oppression. 

Thinking about this now, I see that 

the majority of middle-class people 

are involved with institutions re ligion, 

education, multi-national coinpanies, 

civil service, armies, etc. 

These outfits are bastions of the class 

system, and the business of organising 

and developing leadership is a 

natural function of human beings for 

people working in institutions, rather 

than the anxious, lonely business that 

is portrayed in institutions. This is 

Where the decision to support work- 

_ ing-class leadership will help to decisively 

change the world. 

• Wh a t I am doing is •making per 

'sonal contact with men and women in 

RC who work in religion. fain sharing 

with them my own vision of a 

society free from oppression, based 

on my own understanding of religion 

being a way of seeing the inherent 

reality and acting upon i t (loving 

God, loving your neighbour as you 

love yourself). I am making contact 

with people working in my own religious 

institution and .I have already 

had a meeting with a small group in 

which we listened to each other and 

shared our strengths and what we 

found hard for us. I have made contact 

with people working in religion 

NOTHING TRIVIAL ABOUT IT 

You're right that it's just a feeling to say that It's I feel excitement in seeing an idea of such Im- 

"trivial" t o suggest eliminating every form o f portance come into the hands of a group of peohuman 

harming human. There can be nothing p ie uniquely equipped, through our understanding 

more fundamental, more basic t o our undis- o f the discharge process and distress patterns, to 

tressed humanness than the principle that we do p u t its concept to use in a way unmatched before 

no harm. The best that we are is based on this, now. We know what we know in a way that is 

will always be based on it. The extent to which we unique and we are in a position of pivotal impordeviate 

from this guideline is an exact measure of lance, 

the toll taken by distress. 

For the first time in human history, perhaps, not 

Many truly revolutionary Ideas may be decep- only do we know that It Is Important to eliminate 

tively simple. Ideas of equality, freedom, and truth a l l aspects of human harming human, but we 

do often seem elementary when stated. What k now also why we do harm, and how to change 

could be simpler than "from each according to t h e situation. In addition, we have a beautifully 

ability, to each according to need," or "liberty, s imple guideline to use as we make our way. Anyfreedom, 

and Justice for all," or "life, liberty, and one can ask the question, "Does this do harm?" 

the pursuit o f happiness"? Yet each o f these and use the answer as a guide. 

Ideas turned the world upside down. So, also will 

this idea (that no harm is to be done by human T h e discovery of the North Star and the magnetagainst 

human as we pursue our goals in life) l c principles of a compass gave people a powerful 

create upheaval and great change as it gains t ool in navigating the physical world. The use of 

adherents. It will come to be understood on many t he principle of "do no harm" offers a tool of equal 

levels and will be seen for the complex, deeply power to navigate the social/emotional world. 

significant idea that it is. V i c k i Myers-Canfield 

• Spok ane, Washington, USA 

t g l 

W 

a l 

55 

in other parts of the world and I am 

sharing my thinking with them, and 

encouraging them to share their visions 

and dreams. I am also continuing 

to hold out to the people in my 

local community, myself, as a living 

interruption of the distress. I hope to 

get the Irish people in RC who work 

in religion together in the new year. 

Doing this is an important part of 

making the best use of workshops for 

myself. The speed of this process is 

directly related to the time I take to 

eliminate my internalised oppression. 

I know that there is a fund of information 

and good will in the religious 

network world wide and that powerful 

loving and loving power is what 

we all want. 

Brian Smeaton 

Ratnellon, Ireland


1 

1 

s 

i 

Responsibility Means Power, Not Fear 

How good it was to read the leading article in Present Time No. 84. Especially the thought about 

taking responsibility as an Individual and not sinking "comfortably" Into group escapism. I hadn't 

thought of it that way before, and it makes lots of sense. For me, it Is particularly potent, as it urges 

me to eliminate my feelings of resentment which come up when I put effort into motivating others, 

and then don't see their own self-starters functioning. It looks like we need to have it explained many 

times, and in several different ways, the specific information that we have been confused around. 

Then one day, it gets said in a way that we can actually hear for the first time. If I'm responsible, then 

I have no one else to dump the blame onto. instead of causing fear in me, It gives me a great sense of 

relief. I'm still trying to catch onto It as my own thinking, and so It constantly crops up for me to think 

over. 

Victoria Howlett 

North Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia 

No MORE "HUMANS HARMING HUMANS" 

• I continue to think the commitment about humans 

no longer harming humans is tremendously 

significant. I suppose some people think that 

e = mc2 was not very exciting either. The simplicity 

of it makes it easy to communicate to people. 

It is especially clear to children and my son finds 

it more Useful to figuring out what to do in a situation 

than my former long-winded explanations 

about patterns and whatnot. Personally, I think 

it is an extremely challenging commitment and 

something that makes life an exciting adventure 

in not caving in to distress, Reflect for a moment 

on how much energy in law and ethics and philosophy 

is spent discussing legitimate excuses or 

special circumstances or, responsibility-establishing. 

This cuts right through it all as far as I can 

tell. The rationalizations we indulge in that go 

counter to this commitinent are enormous. 

Perhaps one reason the commitment might not 

be accepted is that there is such confusion about 

how to deal with people who have harmed other 

humans. Revenge is one example of a feeling that 

makes us want to abandon the commitment right 

away o r keeps us from ever agreeing to it . 

56 

("Somebody has got to suffer like I have! I") Similarly, 

the preoccupation with blame, establishing 

responsibility, guilt, etc., is destroyed in one fell 

blow by this commitment. 

I also find the commitment anti-utopian in the 

sense that it cuts through any idealism that once 

we create the rational society, life will be all easy 

and everything will be wonderful and there will 

no longer be any tough decisions. Thinking and 

decision will always be required. Even in a society 

better than any we have ever known, we will 

need this commitment. Imagine making this the 

motto of a government! 

One last implication is that it unequivocally 

establishes my goodness. Any harm I have endured 

has been wrong. And I would never want 

any other human harmed. That has always been 

true of me. And this commitment reminds me of 

this truth I've always held on to, even in the face of 

death. 

Judy Kay 

Berkeley, Calflomia, USA

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

Dear Harvey, 

At the moment I am grieving the cot death of my beautiful eleven-month-old grandson. 

This is a fact, a reality, a present-time occurrence. It is not an old distress; it is not rest/mu- 

'allot]. 

With attention away from distress, I can say that his life was short and bright, that he 

was surrounded by love and delighted attention all his life. I can rejoice in the gentleness 

and strength displayed by my son, his father. 

However, I cannot deny the event, that would be pretense—distress. 

There have been some few Co-Counsellors who have given acknowledgement to the reality 

of this experience, but I have had from many, including some who counsel with me, an attitude 

that this is something to only be talked about in sessions. Some Co-Counsellors 

coming across me for the first time after the death have given no acknowledgement of my 

loss. 

I believe this is incorrect and reinforces society's denial of death and bereavement. With 

people who give no acknowledgement outside of sessions, I no longer feel any safety to 

work on any matter. 

I know that I am not the only Sydney Area Co-Counsellor suffering bereavement at this 

time, and I would like to see Co-Counsellors being human for each other at times of real 

loss. 

Please tell me what you think. 

Joan Mobey 

Annandale, New South Wales, Australia 

Dear Joan, 

I agree with you completely that it Is the Co-Counselors' fears that lead them to an incorrect 

attitude and incorrect theorizing about how to handle bereavements such as the death 

of your grandson. The present time needs to be a time of discharge In every way and for Co- 

Counselors to express their concern is simple politeness; to offer an opportunity for the 

bereaved to discharge should not at all be limited to formal sessions. The fact is that It Is 

hard to face such a loss and to be encouraged from outside to weep is excellent. To allow 

you to talk about your wonderful grandson or to reminisce about the good times with him, 

as a contradiction to the grief that will allow the tears to flow, Is simply elemental thoughtfulness. 

You have many goodbyes to say to him before the grief can all be gone and I send 

you all encouragement to say them well and thoroughly. 

Harvey 

"Tnnakee e ndi ng" by John Fehringer


Dear Harvey, 

I'm back in Berlin. It was a wonderful October 

with very special light and often sunshine. 

Co-Counseling in West Germany Is going very 

well. Cornelia Gross Is doing good work, decisive 

and clear. 

There is something I want to ask you. In my 

theatre work, I am confronted with permanent 

Judgment of me and of my colleagues by friends, 

teachers, and "Important" people like Journalists. 

Also, I like to know If people liked our play or not. 

I completely lose my clear thinking in this situation 

about having talent, about my teacher, and 

about acting. If you could tell me your thinking in 

this and if you know some good direction in getting 

independent of other people's opinions, I 

would like very much to know. At the moment I am 

very confused in this theatre atmosphere. 

Kerstin 

Berlin, West Germany 

Want to Help Transcribe? 

I have assumed responsibility for transcription 

of the proceedings of the Second Southern U.S. 

Liberation and Pride Workshop last spring, in 

Atlanta, Georgia. As a transcriber, I can do some 

or all of the work myself; but I'd rather share It, and 

I'm writing as a means of letting people know that 

they can help with the transcription if they are so 

Inclined. There are ten 90-minute tapes from the 

Workshop, and I can duplicate them and send one 

or more of them to any interested person who will 

guarantee their transcription within a four-month 

period. If you want to hear some of the workshop 

(and it was a real gem), this is an excellent way to 

do so, and you'd be helping out a great deal, besides. 

With each tape I'll Include transcription guidelines. 

If you are a good typist, it will take three to 

four and a half hours to transcribe a 90-minute 

tape, so gauge your capability accordingly. 

Meg Barnett 

561 El Dorado Avenue 

Oakland, California 94611 

USA 

Dear Kerstin, 

On the questions you raise about not being vulnerable 

to the patterns in the criticism of journal- 

Is% theatre-goers, and other people toward your 

art, it Is difficult and all artists suffer from this difficulty. 

The artist's job Is not only to create, but 

also to communicate what he or she has created 

to other minds. And whether you've communicated 

it well or not is in part evidenced by the kind of 

feedback comment you get from others. So you do 

need to hear it, but it is difficult to be vulnerable to 

the patterned content which is also in there. And 

of course this becomes internalized on artists and 

they are oppressive of each other by competing, 

invalidating each other, and so - on like that. 

If you have read my article, "The Good and the 

Great in Art," you will know what I have come up 

with in terms of one possible basis for making 

some judgment on art. (Many artists do not like 

this. They feel too afraid to risk any judgment at 

all.) I have said that one can feel accepting of the 

person who produces non-art simply to earn a living, 

that is, someone who simply copies other 

people's production and doesn't create anything 

herself, because often one has to do that to earn a 

living; that one cannot be satisfied with being a 

poor artist who presents painful emotion and distress 

as if it were the human; that one can be 

pleased and somewhat satisfied with being a 

good artiet who presents distress in her work but 

•makes it plain that the .human being is distinct 

from the distress and makes that distinction; and 

one can be overjoyed at being a great artist who 

presents something new, something that is helpful 

to all human beings that is outside of the distress. 

Certainly the artist cannot stand to be submissive 

to the invalidation of others because it interferes 

with his essential role, that of creating, and 

also it is no good being defensive.. When one is 

relaxed enough that one can say to the invalidating 

critic with a warm voice, "Thank you for pointing 

that out to me. I don't know what I would have 

done without your help in seeing that," while at 

the same time not believing the invalidation one 

little bit, but only using the words to interrupt the 

dramatization of the critic, then I think one suffers 

very little. 

Harvey 

58


Dear Harvey, 

I am a Co-Counselor from Virginia and a physically 

different woman who stutters. 

I was told by Sheella Mierson, who is in my local RC 

Community, that people who stutter have been able to 

discharge almost completely their distress about stuttering. 

What do you know about this? I f trite, are there 

special methods or techniques which are effective in discharging 

about this particular distress? Do you know people 

who have been successful in this area? • 

I would appreciate any information you have on this 

subject, so I can continue my re-emergence in this area of 

my life. 

•"' 

Patty Kipps 

Williamsburg, Virginia, USA 

Dear Patty, 

'Stuttering responds to good counseling very, very 

well. The problem is, it's difficult to find a counselor 

who is relaxed enough to play a good role. Stuttering 

is siniply caused by anxiety that has been put on the 

person, usually very early. The thing that works is for 

the counselor to request of the stutterer one word 

which they never have trouble with, and then have 

them say the one word, not anything else, not anything 

additional, just stick with that one word while 

the counselor praises and enthuses and exclaims with 

delight about how the person pronounces it perfectly, 

over and over and over. The client then will laugh on 

and on and on and on, and shaking will follow the 

Cpvt5ft, Yvvil 

laughter; the stammering will begin to disappear. It's 

simple. But in the wide world and unfortunately in 

counseling also, almost everyone who tries to be counselor 

gets tense and "expectant" which signals to the 

client that the counselor is anxious and restimulates 

the client's anxiety. 

If you can ever get to a workshop of mine, I will be 

happy to show people how to do it and start you out, 

but show this letter to your counselors and remind 

them that just to have you pronounce the one word 

you never stutter on, over and over and over while 

they wildly enthuse and are pleased with you, will be 

enough to keep you laughing and eventually shaking 

right out of the stuttering. 

7 

1 

- 

r 

- 

Harvey

THE HALFWAY POINT 

REPORT ON THE RE-EVALUATION COUNSELING TAPING PROJECT 

The RC Taping Project has reached the halfway point: 

half of all the journals and books, published by Rational 

Island Publishers, have been recorded by volunteer 

readers onto cassette tapes. These 77 journals and 

seven books are available to sightless and other printdisabled 

Co-Counselors who are using the tapes to be 

Informed and current on RC theory and practice. (The 

tapes are also available for purchase by individuals and 

Communities.) 

To bring the Taping Project up to date, sixty more 

readers are needed. These sixty readers are in addition 

to the readers currently working on twenty journals and 

four books and the six to nine readers needed each year 

to record the new issues of Present Time and other journals 

as they are Issued. 

Please think about taking part in the Taping Project: 

one way is by recording a journal or book. You may have 

your choice (first come, first served) of the journal 

issues that remain to be done. Old and new Issues of 

Present Time are available. Books and special publications 

yet to be completed are Liberation I and II, The 

Meaningful Holiday, Caivinwood I, "A New Kind Of Communicator," 

and "Permit Their Flourishing." 

Readers receive Instructions about recording when 

they receive their assignment, and I am available for any 

questions that come up during the taping. As for time, 

the rule of thumb is that ten to fifteen pages take an 

hour to tape (depending on the size of the print and the 

number of illustrations). For example, an 80-page journal 

will take about eight hours of work, including making 

and correcting mistakes. 

What are the benefits to you of being a volunteer 

reader? You get to read a journal (maybe one you've 

been putting off or have been curious about) all the way 

through, you take concrete action on being an ally to 

disabled people, you use your voice as an artistic tool, 

and you make a lasting contribution to the RC Community. 

Many thanks to the people who have recorded literature: 

Jamie Alexander 

Steven Angelides and his class 

Jean Ann 

Berkeley City Club Foundation 

Che Blaine 

i t 

e 

d 

d 

e 

q 

4 

o 

t 

,tocee-0 *olio 

t ttot( 

60 

Jean Cline 

Carol Conger 

Caryl Friedman 

Mary Godwin 

Isobel Goldberg 

Annie Godwin 

Andrea Harm in 

Betty Hauck 

Richard Horobin 

David Jewell 

Jewish Braille Institute 

Maxine Nunn Kaufman 

Pat Lentz 

Mac McMilan 

Guy Man nheimer 

Ellie Marsh 

Barry Mike 

Vicki Myers-Canfield 

Nancy Parker 

Una Parker 

Ryia Peterson 

Barbara Reid 

Doug Robb 

Bob Schloss and his class 

Joy Schroeder 

Jonathan Shaw 

Jo Somerset 

Laurie Talcott 

Michaele Talley 

Joyce Terwilliger 

Krista Thie 

Barbara Watson 

Louise Winchester 

Judy Lazarus Yelion 

Special thanks to the people who have assisted the 

Taping Project and me In other ways: Steve Angelides, 

Allan Creighton, Ellen Deacon, Caryl Friedman, Marilyn 

Golden, Laurence Hyschuk, Marty Klein, Lynn Korai, 

Finette Maloff, Paul Pierce, Patty Ratliff, Marsha Sax. 

ton (Taping Project Coordinator Emeritus), Susan 

Schacher, and Michael Sweeney. 

I invite you to contact me for more information on 

how you can become a part of the Taping Project. 

Isabel Auerbach 

Taping Project Coordinator 

3112 Anza Street 

San Francisco, California 94121, USA 

Tel. (415) 386.6994 

See page 84 for a list of literature available on tape,

FROM T HE MA IL 

LIVING AND WORKING COOPERATIVELY 

I'm on a plane flying to St. 

Louis, Missouri for a meeting of a 

group called The Federation of 

Egalitarian Communities. M y 

own small community of fourteen 

is seeking membership i n this 

federation. 

As I read the October Present 

Time on the plane, I want to 

share m y thoughts w it h you. 

Several articles provided insights 

which were timely. 

Reading Nancy Kline's article 

on owning-class distress encouraged 

me to renew again my corn— 

mitment to continue creating a 

model society of worker ownership. 

Our family businesses are all 

worker owned. White we continue 

to work out the problems that 

come up from the pull to play the 

old roles we learned of unequal 

distribution o f power and re7 

,sources, we are relentlessly determined 

to continue improving our 

situation. O ur goal in the next 

five years is to establish these 

businesses s o s olidly i n a l l 

areas — economically, organizationally, 

humanly—that we can 

begin to include the vast talent 

and work energy around us in this 

small New England town, where 

many are employed in factories or 

travel long distances for other 

jobs. • • 

Another good direction we've 

taken is to virtually end the oppression 

of parents here at home. 

Chuck Esser's lead article encourages 

me to keep being completely 

outspoken on not settling for any 

less privilege than any other community 

member because I am a 

parent and to continue insisting 

on excellent attention available 

for our four children. I have spent 

hours counseling adults. Early on 

I changed my resentment of having 

to do this to joy. At first I 

didn't notice there is no better 

work to do. 

Harvey's words on organizational 

forms reminded me that my 

thinking is sound. As a parent, 

the most important work to be 

done, along with counseling and 

playful, loving attention for the 

children, is to relentlessly counsel 

the adults on their hurts as children. 

This is often and easily accomplished 

by watching to see 

where stuck places occur while 

these adults are with children. 

The most dramatic inspiration 

from Present Time came from 

the article sent in by Jean Cline 

titled "Wisdom From Another 

Culture." A person who sought 

membership in our community 

left angrily several months ago 

when his membership was not accepted. 

Ele returned to our area 

and from a neighbor's home acted 

in a way that was harmful to us 

We immediately called a meeting 

of the neighborhood and explained 

to him carefully in the presence of 

others in this loose-knit, but mutually 

supportive rural outskirt of 

a small New England town, why 

hurting each other leads to more 

and more hurt and mistrust. We 

apologized for any hurt he felt and 

assured him we were not to blame 

and that we would not allow him 

to continue to hurt us. We asked 

our neighbors t o affi r m o u r 

unspoken, but evident agreement 

of mutual support and caring— 

very much an old tradition here in 

New England. 

We weren't sure how much of 

this got through, but T — agreed 

to stop what he was doing. We encouraged 

him to openly address 

the community with his grievances. 

The '-- day o f the "grievance" 

meeting I Was wondering what 

form it should take. As I sat at my 

desk wondering, Present- Time 

'came and a family member circulated 

the article about the Babemba 

tribe's way of enforcing justice 

61 

by appreciation. We agreed to use 

a similar approach. After listening 

to T— talk for a long time about 

how we'd hurt him, we took turns 

enthusiastically appreciating him 

(despite his protests that we were 

not sincere). I saw him close to 

tears for the first time in two 

years. It was a moving experience 

and by that I mean something 

really moved inside us and inside 

T— 

I feel that the support of the RC 

Community, in this case through 

the brilliant sharings of Present 

Time, is a great support for the 

radically growing and loving life I 

lead on the front lines of change. 

The men's and women's commitments 

hang on the wall of our 

. 

cthousands 

come through every 

oyear 

for workshops and gatherings. 

I a m s o proud o f us. 

n 

Although community living is a 

fstruggle 

sometimes, I refuse to 

esettle 

for anything less than ab- 

rsolutely 

everything. I intend to 

continue taking the learning I've 

e 

done about making alternatives to 

noppression 

work for real (not just 

cin 

theory) out into the larger 

e world community. 

c 

We had our first snow flurries 

e 

yesterday. As I look out over our 

nlovely 

land I can imagine the 

tsoon-to-come 

snow blanket laced 

ewith 

the intertwining footprints of 

r 

animals and people a l l going 

about our business. I feel truly 

hblessed 

to be alive. 

e • 

Emmy Rainwalker 

r Greenville, New Hampshire, USA 

e 

w 

h 

e 

r 

e

FROM THE MAI L 

A RICH, WELL-ROUNDED LIFE 

All is going wonderfully well in my life. I led my first 

workshop last weekend and I was pleased with how it 

went. I called it a Leaders' and Potential Leaders' Workshop. 

There were fourteen of us— two people came from 

Dunedin, one from the coast, and the rest were Christchurch 

RC Community members, We had a wonderful 

workshop venue, a new lodge built especially for people 

with disabilities in a hot pool resort village near Christchurch. 

Ou r main lightness and exercise activity was 

visiting the wonderful hot pools a ll steaming away 

together while gentle rain pattered down on our heads. 

The theme of the workshop was getting good discharge— 

moving ahead with our re-emergence. I . 

treally h i nachieved. k t h The a t Christchurch w a Community s is becoming 

bigger and stronger. Pm teaching a fundamentals 

class with eleven members and Leslie Carr as an assistant 

teacher. Leslie is a wonderful assistant, always there to 

assist me with her brilliant thinking. Three of the class 

members come from my work. One is the Education Officer 

and she has been including some RC ideas in our 

work courses. 

Things have gone well for me at my work. I have been 

chosen to go on a Teachers' College course called "Teaching 

People with Special Needs." It's a year-long course 

and I will be on full pay. It's a wonderful opportunity to 

learn how to do my job better. Although the 'university 

year has yet to finish, I have already passed the two 

papers I am studying as I have A grades for the two-thirds 

already completed. The re-evaluation I had in one counselling 

session has meant that for the first time in my life I 

have received A's and A I have made quite a few 

friendships with older women students at university and 

have modelled for them that we older women can get as 

high marks as the younger "brightest" students. I also 

shared with them lots of RC theory about ,learning. 

Three weeks ago a dear friend and neighbour died after 

a wearying struggle with caner. It was a distressing time 

for me, but I was able to say farewell to her in a way that 

was totally right for me; I was called from a short holiday 

to her bedside to farewell her while she was alive. Her 

husband thought she was waiting for me and she died an 

hour after my last kiss and "I love you." For four days her 

body lay in the house and I visited each day to watch the 

gradual totalness of death. The family were unsure about 

having women pall bearers. Rather than push my case, I 

just told them that for me it could be a wonderful honour 

to do such a job. When it came time to choose, they asked 

me and another woman friend to join four men as pall 

bearers. I felt so honoured carrying the coffin. After the 

coffin had been placed in the grave and I had cried all my 

tears, I stayed at the graveyard with four other friends until 

the grave diggers arrived. They sensitively allowed us 

62 

my final wish and we furiously shovelled all the earth back 

over the coffin. Once we had laid the sods back in the 

earth I felt a great feeling of completeness and the satisfaction 

of a job properly done. 

My family life is satisfying. My children are completely 

delightful; they bring me joy. M y relationship with 

Gerald has been really different since the January workshop. 

There is much more love and closeness between us. 

Using RC has really worked wonders in my life, Tonight 

my life feels so rich; I have everything I want and more. I 

have been thinking how lucky I am to be able to listen to 

music from so many different countries and to eat such an 

amazing variety o f food from so many different lands 

while living in peaceful New Zealand. My garden is a 

gently rolling sea of forget-me-nots and bluebells; I wish I 

could send you some. 

stephanie Perrot( 

Christchurck New Zealand

PRIDE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SERBIAN HERITAGE 

I am new in AC and in many respects doing well. • 

I have been reading Ruah Hadashah No. 5 this evening. The tears started to come when reading 

the counselling on the holocaust. 

I feel certain now that I will get good counselling (I am determined!) on the toiture and murder of 

Serbs in the concentration camps and villages of Yugoslavia during the same war. I am sure it must 

be possible for me to discharge completely, while at the same time wanting to make people in AC 

and in the wide world aware of what happened and have It acknowledged as historical fact. 

Six hundred thousand Serbs died in this way, for being Serb, and few people know It. 

i am proud of my Serbian heritage, and proud for reclaiming more and more of it for myself, and for 

learning more of the history. I speak Serbian well and I can write in the Cyrillic alphabet, despite having 

lived all my Me In England with only my parents as the Serbs around me. 

I think that I can become a good ally of Jewish people. I am looking for allies for me as a person of 

Serb descent and I am aura I will find them. 

Anica Gavrilovid 

Nottingham, England 

In the New Delhi workshop, cOnducted by Pam Roby, 

from August 23-26, 1986, one of the important topic 

groups was "RC and Brahmins," A lot of discussion on 

"Brahmins" as oppressors and oppressed led to this topic 

group, the highlights of which were as follows: 

Among the reasons members of the group said they 

we're happy to be a Brahmin were: 

• having a sense o f cleanliness, organisation, responsibility, 

discipline 

• our inheritance of rich culture, customs, and traditions 

• our accumulation of wisdom, kindness, and tolerance 

toward other religions 

• the opportunity to be educated at higher levels, 

i.e., spiritually educated 

• intellectual advantages. 

Critical Examination of Brahmini sm 

The difficulties we experience today as Brahmins are: 

• Brahmins did not take care of educating other people 

in the society and discriminated against other 

groups for no explained reasons, so the very sense of 

Brahminism has been lost. 

• Brahmins are discriminated against in education 

by their merit not being considered. We are oppressed 

also by the government. 

63 

• We often have guilty feelings toward other groups. 

• Brahmins were never after money and, hence, 

have become economically weak. 

• Brahmins have oppressed women* Brahmins have evolved over the ages and there is a 

difference between past and present Brahmins. ,, • 

• 

We also discussed similarities between the Brahmin 

culture and RC: 

• Both are intellectual activities. 

• Both keep us away from addictions. 

• Both must be practised if one is to become more effective. 

Differences between the Brahmin culture and RC include: 

• Brahmins .perform many ceremonies where discharge 

takes place, but Brahminism does not specifically 

encourage discharge. 

• Brahminism brings discipline by imposing fear; 

RC encourages self-discipline in people. 

• Brahmins often consider themselves above other 

castes; in RC everyone is equal. 

Ramakrishna lyer, I.B.V. Lakshmi, Mahatakshmi, 

G.R. Subbaraman, S. Kanakam 

India 

• .4 

• 0 

1 

k ,


I've got this new job I want to tell 

you about. I met you at the working. 

class workshop in Leicester in 1983 

when I was working as a trade union 

Journalist. I've been in RC about six 

years and have been a teacher 

though I'm not teaching any classes 

these days. I am leading the Northeast 

London parents' support group 

and doing a great job as mother of 

my twenty-month-old daughter, 

Rose. 

Back to my job. It's as a writer on 

a brand new London paper called 

the London Daily Times due to be 

launched on February 12. At present 

there is only one newspaper which 

covers a ll o f London, a rubbishy 

evening paper called the Standard. 

The new paper, which is being funded 

by a millionaire named Robert 

Maxwell who already owns a number 

of papers and magazines, is going 

to be an evening and a morning 

paper. I believe there are already 

some such twenty-four newspapers 

in the US but there are none here 

yet. 

Anyway, a number of radical journalists, 

including me, have been 

recruited to this paper and it looks 

exciting. I've already written a 

thoroughly researched piece on the 

boom in private old people's homes 

over here and why it is not a rational 

way to assist very old people, and it 

A NEW CAREER IN JOURNALISM 

THE Joy OF TRANSCRIBING TAPES 

I never thought I would say this, but thank you for asking 

me to transcribe some of the tapes from the peace 

activists' workshop. I originally took this on because it 

needed to be done. I hated it at first, and still hate sitting 

still, typing, and trying to figure out what people are saying. 

On the other hand, I did not find it at all boring to 

listen to what I had already heard. I found listening to the 

tapes was inspiring and informative. To make sure I 

didn't miss any words, I had to back up to a spot before 

when I had last stopped the tape. Because of this and the 

necessity of listening usually twice (at least) to hear all the 

words clearly, I heard nearly every sentence three times. 

This was not boring. I now have my two days of the workshop 

almost memorized and the most challenging 

thoughts are now part of my mental framework rather 

than evil, impossible sounding challenges that some daring 

and experienced person had thoughtlessly placed 

before me. 

has gone down a bomb. I'm either 

going to be appointed as women's 

news reporter, the first such post on 

a British newspaper a s fa r a s I 

know, or I'm going to stay with features 

and write a piece each week. 

I don't know how well you know 

London, but I was born here and 

have lived here most of my life and I 

love i t passionately. It's a rich, 

beautiful place full of brilliant, funny, 

loving people, as well as being 

stacked with greed, poverty, oppression, 

pollution, and cynicism. I'm 

planning to get rid of the last five 

characteristics in th e first three 

months from the launch. I'll have the 

chance to make a dent in them, anyway. 

I know that what I need to do to 

stay powerful as a journalist Is to 

organise real support for myself and 

I'm hoping t o jo in Cathy itzin's 

writers' support group. 1 

1the 

process of setting up a non-RO 

(as yet) support group for serious 

journalists m a l s committed o i n t o thinking 

and telling important truths. 

I also want to tell you about Brendan 

Martin, who I live with, who is 

also a Co-Counsellor, and what a 

good job he is doing as a full-time 

official of NALGO, Britain's biggest 

public sector union and the fourth 

biggest trade union in the country. 


Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA 

64 

Brendan is privatisation campatgns 

officer: h e i s employed t o stop 

publicly provided services such as 

the water supply and the social and 

health services from being contracted 

out as businesses to capitalists. 

He generated and led a brilliant 

campaign on the water industry, 

which drew in environmentalists, 

biologists, and public health organisations 

alongside trade unionists. 

The Government was forced to withdraw 

its plan to make billions of 

pounds t o cu t taxes t o get reelected 

(though they are now planning 

the same strategy with the gas 

Industry) by selling off the water Industry 

on the stock exchange. It was 

the first defeat this government has 

suffered on a major policy issue 

since they were first elected in 1979. 

I was inspired to write to you after 

watching you talk on a video about 

keeping attention off distress. I've 

found doing this solves so many 

problems for me, and in particular 

the fear I have o f being thought 

clumsy and stupid by middle-class 

and owning:class people on this 

newspaper. Once I decided) wasn't 

going to try to client on anyone, I 

didn't need to worry about that any 

more because as a counsellor I am a 

powerful person. i l l s only my distress 

that feels clumsy and stupid. 

Frankle Rick ford 


Spreading the Commitments 

JOYCE OWENS HAD A SUGGESTION THAT ALL THE 

DIFFERENT RC LIBERATION JOURNALS SHOULD PUT 

THE COMMITMENT FOR THAT PARTICULAR GROUP ON 

THE INSIDE OR BACK COVER. I THINK THAT THIS 

WOULD BE HELPFUL IN SHARING THE JOURNALS 

WITH INDIVIDUALS FROM THOSE GROUPS. 

Rita Starr 

\St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Keeping Momentum Against Flabby Counseling 

The teachers' and leaders' workshop Harvey led In New Hampshire knocked my socks 

off. The half hour or so I was counseled in two demonstrations and support group leader 

time showed me how powerful I'm going to be in the world and precisely what's stopping 

me from acting on my power now. I finally caught a glimpse of myself, not as someone I can 

live with provided everyone around me thinks I'm terrific, but as someone I would simply 

love to be. 

I've become terribly impatient with the flabby counseling I've been giving and receiving 

up until now, and I'm charging ahead to change that. (The last person I had a session with 

told me he'd never been counseled so brilliantly in his entire RC experience, so I think I'm on 

the right track.) 

Also, my mind is full of ideas for how to proceed In environmental and peace work. I'm 

asking myself questions that never occurred to me before, such as "Why is the planet in as 

good shape as it is now? What forces have been at work preventing nuclear annihilation, 

complete devastation of our wilderness and natural resources, and how can these forces 

be brought into play more fully?" I'm accustomed to thinking in desperate terms about the 

planet (I think the situation is desperate, but thinking In a panic doesn't help.) and I can see 

that my new sense that I'm in charge of the world's well-being has given me some slack. I'm 

no longer willing to Join in the mass suicide, offering impassioned protests along the way. I 

simply want to get hold of the Information that will produce a solution. 

- My great fear is that I'll lose my momentum l o s e the vivid memory of standing there 

believing in myself completely. I keep thinking, "How can I take this on without being in 

contact with so much support?" But that will only be an obstacle if I give up on myself. I've 

begun to train a new Co-Counselor, someone who already counsels pretty fiercely, and I 

have a hope that he won't abandon me to mediocrity. 

The workshop demonstrated more wisdom, generosity, and love than I've ever seen. 

Elizabeth Stevens 

Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, USA 

I T IS SO SIMPLE 

I'm having a ball in London. I have figured some 

things out about growing up and depending on 

myself as a woman fully and about relationships. I 

love life! The other morning I got up really easily, 

but then thought there must be something to 

bother me about getting up without very much 

sleep. There was nothing. I realized that there just 

is not room for those feelings in my life anymore. 

They Just don't make sense. They are a waste of 

my time. 

I've got the attention-away-from-distress commitment 

down to a short form. I Just think to myself 

(delighting in the fact that I have complete 

freedom of choice), that I have two options. I 

could either pay attention to past distress or I 

could not. It would be more fun not to, so I won't. 

The key I found_ is Just being delighted and 

stressing that It is so simple. It's easy. We have 

65 

Just grown out of the habit of doing it, so we have 

to do a little figuring out to do it, but that's all. It's 

most easy! I'm crying as I tell you. 

Two weeks ago I was in Keir Simmons' kitchen 

with Gill Turner. I looked at her and the tears started 

to flow. I Just thought, "This is the way the 

world is. I love her. We both have some very 

valuable information." Isn't that exciting? 

I'm doing a total of three young people's workshops 

while I'm here. I decided not to teach an RC 

class, but I have taught RC to six people (three of 

whom I'm bringing to the December workshop). 

Working in Parliament is giving a good picture of 

how ineffective governmental systems are, but 

the parties do try hard to work with what they 

have. 

Jenny Sazama 

London, England


When the question of choice regarding 

a restimulation came up in 

RC, I again misconstrued this approach 

in judgmental fashion, fitting 

it into my "either-or" view of myself 

Appreciating and Using Restimulations 

Dear Harvey, 

It has been a long time since I 

received your letter o f July 2Ist. 

Aside from leading a full life so that 

time to write is not always available, I 

feel that I needed t o give some 

thought to your letter before answering 

it. 

From the start, some five years 

ago, RC seemed to be for me the first 

human growth "movement" that I 

could readily adhere to: having been 

perceived by others as an "idealist," I 

felt that I had finally found a group of 

people who did not judge my "rosy" 

outlook on life as unrealistic. In RC I 

felt. safe to be who I perceived myself 

to be. 

As the years went by, I began to 

realise that my "optimism" was in fact 

an attitude that I had adopted, a pattern 

o f behaviour installed when I 

was very young, in order to struggle 

against t h e sarcastic, downwardtrend 

dramatisations of my parents. I 

was modelling an upward-trend attitude 

towards the world, with a lot of 

rigid, intellectual justifications, in - 

cluding sentences like "where there is 

a will, there is a way." 

This attitude certainly helped me • 

push through some of the difficult 

events in my life, but it also contributed 

to push down many of my feelings 

of sadness, anger, despair, and 

pain. Since these feelings were still 

there, o f course, they leaked out 

through dramatisations that were 

often aggressive and violent against 

myself. (I was thirteen years old when 

I first attempted suicide.) 

I was not conscious that the way I 

perceived myself was in fact something 

that could be changed, for better 

or for worse. 

and the world; it was "bad," "downward-trend," 

not ; 

, ed. When I was restimulated, I would 

npretend e t o it hadn't happened, or call it 

"unimportant" and leave it at that. I 

bwas e not conscious that in fact this at- 

rtitude e swas t ia subtle m form of dramatisa- 

ution, l ain tother - words yet another replay 

of rigidly holding onto the positive, 

upward-trend image I had of 

myself, no matter what. 

I feel now that I have deeply 

changed and am changing this image 

I have of myself. In doing so, I have 

had some thoughts that were and are 

pertinent to my changing: 

• • —"Being in the present" (for me, 

and for the moment) does not neces-, 

sarily mean being unrestimulated. It 

means having enough balance of attention 

to see that I am restimulated 

and being able to verbalize the restimulation 

to myself and, if possible, 

to another Co-Counselor. This nonjudgmental 

observation and naming 

of what is happening in me right now 

is sometimes sufficient for me to discover 

the "trigger" (the event, the 

word, etc.) of my restimulation, I can 

sometimes change my point of view 

at this time, because I can see the differences 

between the present trigger 

and the past hurt; there is already a 

difference in time, but there are usually 

many others ("This is my friend 

talking, not my mother," for example). 

I can list those differences for 

myself in order to help me reevaluate, 

and change my viewpoint. More 

often, I need a Co-Counseling • session 

to find the past trigger, and to 

relive the sensations and feelings that 

I had denied. My counselor reminds 

me of the safety of the present and 

allows me to acknowledge and discharge 

my sadness or my anger. 

—I now see my restimulations as 

opportunities to identify, discharge, 

and re-evaluate yet another distress 

from my past. 

65 

—The more I re-evaluate my past, 

the more I can be in the present without 

restimulations. This allows me 

more flexibility and subtleties in thy 

behavior, which is • less governed by 

rigid attitudes, and stems more from 

real knowledge of myself. With myself 

being an ever changing image, 

the world around me becomes ever 

changing also. 

My modeling of "no limits" is tied 

to my perception of this ever changing 

image: i t changes and keeps 

Changing in what appears to me a 

limitless process, making the words 

"no limits" a personal reality. I realize 

that the image I have of myself, my 

identity, is dependent on my memory 

of past events in my life, on what I 

have chosen to remember of them. 

The more I re-evaluate my past, the 

more I change my memory (my point 

of view), th e more m y identity 

changes. This I see as a limitless process, 

since m y present inevitably 

becomes my past. 

Of course, there is the hope that it 

is possible to arrive at a state of being 

where the present would be a succession 

of new events with an almost instant 

adaptation of a fluid self-image 

leading to ever new behavior in harmony 

with the events—again, a limitless 

process. 

In reading your letter, I see that 

you write about some of your "difficulties," 

and that you state: "I certainly 

would not deny their being there 

and would be angry as hell at anyone 

else who tried to tell me I didn't have 

them." Well, you see, in my case, I 

Was the person denying my difficulties, 

and I sure was angry at myself, 

too! 

The most important step for me to 

understand fully RC theory and incorporate 

it was to let go of any judgment 

upon myself and to let myself be who 

I perceived myself to be in a particular 

time and place. My restimulations

and patterns are an indication that I 

am not yet ready to let go of certain 

distresses: they arc for the moment 

part of my self-image, my identity. 

They are not yet re-evaluated and 

therefore still feel necessary to my 

survival, to my identity, as they surely 

were when first installed. 

I believe that you and I are saying 

the same thing. But I find that the 

more I can specify what I am saying, 

A Needed Tool For Kibbutz Living 

I want to tell you about the place where here I live, a 

kibbutz In Israel. The kibbutz Is a beautiful place. The 

houses are all similar and around them there are gardens, 

trees, and grass. There is quiet and you can hear 

the birds and the wind and the silence. Sometimes you 

can hear a tractor or a car, but not too often. You take 

two steps and you are outside in nature's lap. The people 

who live in the kibbutz live together, equally and 

cooperatively. We eat our meals together in a big, nice 

dining room. We raise our children in children's houses, 

where they sleep, eat, shower, study, and play. We do 

our laundry together in a collective laundry. The sources 

of making a living are collective. The members work and 

the income goes to the whole community. Income is 

used according to democratic decisions made by all the 

members. Members are chosen to deal with and take responsibility 

for every aspect of our communal life. 

Looks wonderful, doesn't it? 

It looks like a gOod example of a different way of life 

from the capitalistic world which is based on exploitation. 

It looks like a society which recognizes the values 

of each human being. It looks like a just society that can 

give much to the world. 

The truth is not exactly like that. There is much social 

pres'sure, people are enclosed in their little worlds. it's 

hard to find real friendships. There are many negative 

feelings regarding money and property. Who gets what? 

Who deserves what? Why? There's a feeling of deprivation. 

Very often the members in charge hurt the members 

who come to ask for something. Criticism is all 

around. 

, 

The society Is not sensitive to the individual needs. 

Whoever shouts louder gets more. There Is a lot of loneliness. 

People want to change. People see that something is 

wrong, and try to find Out what should be changed. 

I think that using RC can make marvelous changes in 

the kibbutz. I who am in the whirlpool and usually suffer 

from confusion want to do something. I want to create a 

theory about kibbutz living with a clear direction. 

.Rachel Ro4a 

Kibbutz Gazit, Israel 

to myself and to others, the more I 

can define what I mean by "limitless." 

For example, the more I truly communicate 

when I tell myself, or someone 

else "Where there is a will, there 

is a way," I cannot relate that statement 

to me, to you or to anyone, it 

remains general, unspecified. 

When you write rue such a beautiful 

and personal letter, about. what 

you mean by "no limits," I feel that 

67 

you have reached out and touched 

me, communicated something about 

yourself to me. And in your modeling 

of daring to be "limitless" in your 

opening of yourself to me, I find the 

courage in me to open myself up to 

you, as I have just done. 

Jessica Colman 

Belpech, France 

USING THE NEW COMMITMENTS 

The new commitments are great. Th e statement 

against pretense in leadership is amazing in its applicability 

to almost everyone. Our support group at the teachers' 

and leaders' workshop had four people using that statement 

and the distress that discharged was entirely different 

for each of us. 

I have done well at keeping my promise that I will 

never again invalidate myself. I have had a few uncertain 

spots, but have quickly caught myself and straightened it 

out. I t seems to simplify life. A l l sorts o f internal 

arguments and efforts to defend myself against patterned 

invalidating ideas simply don't have to go on, because I 

won't countenance the idea in the first place. 

The commitment to see to it that everything I have contact 

with works well and that I won't limit or pull back on 

my contacts is staying with me and making lots of things 

go better. I think that for most of my life I lived that way 

to a large extent and that only in the last two or three 

years have I succumbed to a sense of' fear of getting too 

tired and of resentment "I've done enough...." 

It is such a relief to get on with setting things right. It 

affects everything from housework to relationships. It just 

makes life easier and makes me feel wonderful and in 

charge. 

Anne Mackie 

Durham, North Carolina, USA


Something is Changing 

About two years ago, at an evening gather-in in Connecticut, 

you were speaking about counseling outside distress. 

I asked you about it, and during the ensuing demonstration 

you gave me a direction, "I'm doing it right." I 

had very little free attention around that direction, and little 

discharge followed; I was able to enable myself to discharge 

by looking at some friendly Co-Counselors, but 

the direction didn't mean much to me. 

Since I trust your leadership and thinking, I took the 

direction into sessions, with a ll kinds o f interesting 

results. First, I counseled on how let down I felt that you 

didn't give me a better direction; then I tried the direction, 

and nothing happened. I kept this up until it began 

to work and all kinds of grief and anger came up as I used 

the direction. Then, I took the direction outside of sessions. 

I would tell myself that I am doing it right; doing 

my dissertation work and teaching, being in relationships, 

sticking up for myself under all conditions. 

Slowly, I began to crack through some of the deep 

alienation and insecurity I have felt about everything I 

do. I didn't even know how deep this was but I have persisted 

with this one direction. Now I am enjoying my relationships 

and my work more than ever. I feel real. 

Last summer, I heard about a conference being held in 

Jerusalem in my field, organizational development. I 

made up my mind that I wanted to attend. There have 

been many barriers in the way, but I wanted to go. I have 

persisted with absolute determination in overcoming 

every barrier in my way. I got some help with setbacks 

because I have been counseling steadily on an early 

childhood abuse incident. I also began to counsel on taking 

leadership as a Jew. 

Four days ago, I received word that my paper was accepted 

at this conference, and I am leaving for Israel in 

three days. I will be talking about conflict resolution and 

problem solving. I experienced considerable distress and 

agitation as it became clear that I was going to have the 

opportunity to do something I really wanted. In an amazing 

twenty-minute counseling session with Amy Goldfarb, 

I came up with "I am doing it right," with tones of 

release, grief, rage, then power, amazement, and triumph. 

I am doing it right. I am living my life, my whole life, 

right and well. I am going after what I want, because 

what I want is good and sane and healthy and healing for 

myself and others, because I am good and sane and 

healthy. I am deeply loving and lovable, and this shows in 

what I want, and how I go about getting it. So, this 

means, of course, that I am never going to settle for less 

than absolutely everything. 

I thought I would send you a passage from my journal 

from my thirty-fourth birthday which was close to Rosh 

HaShanah. I don't remember writing it, but it is a 

testimony to some of the possibilities of healing. 

68 

'So, something is changing. Pm releasing a lot of resentment and 

beneath that, or beyond that, is joy and appreciation. 

Today is a day of acknowledging change. I am so glad to be 

alive. I am so ready to live; I am ready with . 

alet pin pthe r enew c iyear. a t iMay o n the shofar sound in my heart; may I con- 

a 

tinue 

n 

to awaken; 

d j o 

may 

y 

I grow in 

t 

love and 

o 

awareness all the days of 

my life. 

Each fruit ripens in its own lime. Each apple bears the seeds of 

its own perfection and that of a whole new tree. Each time we open 

our souls to loving, we are embracing the universe, and the energy is 

deep, and our souls are eternal, 

1 am filled with respect for human courage and human intelligence, 

for I know both, jot I have seen both, and I see both in 

almost everyone I meet. 

And then, ultimately, the essence is joy. This to be, and this to 

share. Finally, I must say that lam in love with life. Jam simply 

in love. There is no other way to describe ray extraordinary experience, 

or the pease which has been granted to me, or the light which 

illuminates my life." , 

; I thought I would let you know. 

Marilyn Paul 

New Haven, Connecticut, USA 

"A Total Departure" 

Our AC workshop at Delhi in the last month, led 

by Pam Roby, was a grand success. I was personally 

very interested to participate in a workshop 

led by a faculty leader. 

This workshop gave me enough courage and insights 

to give a seminar to our Institute faculty on 

Re-evaluation Counselling, as an explanation of 

and a solution t o irrational human behaviour. 

Among other things, my contention that AC 

theory is a total departure from the existing 

wisdom in behavioural sciences was highly disputed, 

as I expected. However, the seminar evoked 

great Interest among some members and I am 

hopeful of forming a small RC Community here. 

The Indian institute of Management, Ahmedabad, 

is organizing an International Conference on 

Organizational and Behavioural Perspectives for 

Social Development. I am intending to contribute 

a paper on RC as a tool for Social Development. 

P. Amsa 

Pune, India

READING THE LITERATURE ALOUD 

I spoke at a District Meeting of the National 

Association of Social Workers (NA SW). I presented 

RC. theory, theory about Internalized sexism 

and demonstrated a women's leadership support 

group with four members from the audience. They 

liked it very much. At least two people there 

responded with deep appreciation and are people 

I will continue to stay up with. Eight people expressed 

an Interest in being in a support group 

and one of the two "deep appreciators" volunteered 

to lead it. She had a few sessions with Nannette 

Mengel eighteen months ago, so she has a 

bit of Information about AC, I will stay in touch by 

phone; NASW has agreed to fund $200 worth of 

phone calls for me as chair of the Women's Issues 

Committee! 

I have had some nice successes in my life in the 

past few 'weeks and 'months and there is also 

some wonderful movement going upward in South 

Africa right now. 

•,, Let me start with the RC Community, We held a 

Wonderful evening workshop on working around 

living every moment well in South Africa. This was 

prompted by the fact that D h a s to go and see 

the commanding officer of his regiment next Monday, 

night. The evening was wonderfully light. I 

gave excellent theory on living every moment well 

and taking stock of what we have going•for us as 

individuals living In South Africa. I stressed the 

freedoms which we have in being able to keep at 

tention off the distress and thereby act so powerfully. 

I gave D — two slices of time, the first one asking 

him to fantasise about what he would do with 

his South Africa and then later simply giving him 

time using the word "Power!" and letting him 

shake and laugh and Shake. B t o o k time In the 

class so we could help her move through some of 

the sticky places which she has been coming up 

against and E h a d a turn because she is leaving 

Cape Town in January to move to Umtata, which 

is the capital of Transkei. Here we dome, RC in the 

Transkei.... J d a m e back to a class. (She has 

had a little time off classes.) And a new man, B 

was Introduced. I have been teaching him one-toone 

for a little while and felt that he was ready. 

Our Community is really Woking much healthier, 

with more men around, and soon we Will run an 

evening working around meniwoMeni; relationships 

and at last be able to have a Men's caucus 

in Cape Town. • 

The Human Side of South Africa 

69 

I have found AC literature is so good. People 

have so many blocks about reading, it /s often 

useful to read things to them. One advantage of 

this practice, whichl began in an AC class, is. that 

my reading aloud has Improved a great deal, but 

also people actually get an idea of how good the 

literature is and some get interested in reading for 

themselves. 

The sky has been unbelievably blue here the 

last several days, All the leaves are down, levealing 

the , beauty of the-shapes of trees, these 

wonderfully intricate patterns of lace against the 

sky. , 

- , ANNE MACKIE 

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA, USA 

From December 13 to 22 in Cape Town, concerned 

people are organising an arts festival 

which will be taking place on the campus of the 

Drama School of Uot, as well as in Athonei which 

Is inhabited by people of colour, and in Lange, 

which is inhabited by black people. About 300 of 

us are getting together 

, make t o some , inroads into working towards a people's 

culture. 

h a v e 

, 

, 

s There o has m been e a delightful way in which we 

have f all u become n much closer to one another. This 

Is particularly true between people who have previously 

a been n squabbling d and not working together 

because ofrinternalised oppression making their 

differences seem Insurmountable. There is a daylong 

fair, a multignedia happening, with a fashion 

show to emphasise Issues around clothing workers, 

as opposed to the usual emphasis on design 

and consumerism. Many of us are printing T-shirts 

with slogans and I think: it will have the same 

sense of fun as though the circus were coming to 

town. 

This Sunday we are holding a peace picnic at 

the home of Archbishop Tutu; he has been wonderful 

In turning his grounds over to the people, 

and especially young people who have no homes. 

This weekend we are playing games with 500 or so 

young people from the black areas. 

S — 

Cape Town, South Africa


Greetings from the African continent. I have 

been here for two months now and am making a 

life-long dream come true: I am living with a Kenyan 

family in a poor, rural area in the western part 

of Kenya, and I am teaching chemistry, physics, 

biology, and math at a Harambee ("let's all pull 

together"— comrnunity-organized) secondary 

school. The school started less than one year ago 

and has only Form One students (eighth grade) 

and one classroom, but will expand to Forms One 

and Two at the start of the new year in January. 

Teaching is quite challenging because the students 

have "learned" to fear these subjects, and 

together we are striving to overcome a large 

sense of failure. The primary school system is one 

which "teaches" by memorization, and disciplines 

with a cane. Consequently, by the time the students 

are in secondary school they have been 

almost completely conditioned not to think (at 

least not in the classroom). Education is growing 

to be recognized as important in this part of 

Kenya, but many of my students come from families 

with no education in their background, and little 

understanding of why they should spend hardearned 

money on a child's school fees. The students 

are forced into a constant battle to remind 

themselves that going to school really is important. 

I have taught before in the United States, but I 

have never done anything quite this challenging 

before. I am learning from the students at least as 

LIVING THE THEORY 

Last week something really neat happened to me on the way to school. I was stopped in my car at 

an Intersection in the right-hand lane and intending to go straight through the intersection when the 

light turned. A woman in the left-hand lane (which was expressly for left turns) pulled out in front of 

me and I hit her car. We drove into a nearby parking lot and got out of our cars. She was very upset 

and screaming at me. I listened to her and when she slowed down, I told her I was sorry to have hit 

her car and it must be upsetting to her. She started crying and I put an arm around her. She cried really 

hard about how scared she was about getting killed on the highway. (Her brother had died in a 

motorcycle accident.) 

After about ten minutes she said she was okay and felt better. I asked her if she would listen to me 

for a few minutes. I cried about how scared I was and then laughed hard. I thanked her for her attention 

and we decided the damage was minimal to our cars so we wouldn't need to trade insurance information. 

Then we went on our ways. I felt better than I would have if the accident had not happened. 

I think part of the reason I was able to jump out and turn It into a Session, was that it was 'obvious 

she had made the wrong move. If I'd felt like I had to figure out why I wasn't "wrong," I might 

have acted defensive. 

Heidi King 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 

Trying to Make a Difference in Kenya 

much as I am teaching them. I am continually reevaluating 

m y methods, and trying new approaches 

to make the material both interesting 

and fun, as well as informative. The students are 

not used to studying outside of class, and thinking 

of ways to encourage•this is a continual process. 

The work can b e extremely frustrating 

sometimes. I find that at the end of each week I 

am less patient and positive than at the beginning 

of the weell. This is an ideal situation for me to 

counsel through for help. 

I have mentioned a little RC theory to another 

USer who came over when I did and is teaching at 

a neighboring school; and she has expressed an 

interest. Last week we split an hour, and the sessions 

were terrific. I think that she and I will continue 

counseling together, which will be helpful 

as it is easy for me to feel isolated and dejected 

here. Despite all of these "hardships," I am keeping 

a positive attitude, and am enjoying myself 

very much. I just wrote to Merry Cross, I'm hoping 

we may be able to get together sometime for 

some counseling or she may be able to tell me 

about some other people in Kenya who are interested 

in counseling. 

Eric Ridgway 

Kakamega, Kenya, East Africa 

70

Gaynelle and Nevada Revive 

I wanted to write and let you know some news 

from Nevada. When I got your letter about Dale 

Evarts being the new Regional Reference Person 

for Arizona and Nevada, I knew it was time for me 

to make my re-entry into Co-Counseling. My sense 

about your letter was that it was a brilliant idea 

and that whomever Dale was he must be someone 

with a lot of energy and time and resource to put 

into Nevada. 

• A f t e r meeting him when he came here to lead a 

Workshop, I knew it was true. So thank you for 

sending him to us. 

The workshop was wonderful — held on Nevada 

'Day weekend! I taught the entire workshop the 

Nevada State song. Lots of cobwebs were cleared 

away for me and I know the Community in Carson 

City is "off the ground." 

I am, and have been, doing some brilliant leadership 

during the past two years for Nevada 

School Counselors' Association. I have been president 

and now past president and I acted on making 

a new organization that will have continuous 

leadership. It has been fun and exciting to see myself 

be a leader of a state-wide group. We Just had 

the state convention In Reno last weekend and 

lots of people told me that they knew I was thinking 

and acting very well 

I am assisting Dick Thornley right now In teaching 

a Co-Counseling class in Carson City. I am 

planning to begin a women's support group and 

will soon be teaching my own class. Dick and I are 

working hard on leadership competition stuff and 

are committed that nothing is going to stand In 

our way. 

The shift has happened for me in Nevada, I am 

now thinking about and concentrating on Carson 

City, and that is what should happen. Reno Is fine 

and they are going ahead also. So get ready for 

Nevada to become a wonderful AC Community. 

I have never written before. This is fun. Thanks 

for all of the thinking and leadership throughout 

the world. 

Gaynelle Fry 

Carson City, Nevada, USA 

71 

A WORKING ALLY 

Rosemary and I and our husbands have just returned 

from three weeks in central Australia. I 

asked Claire Bruhns to meet us in Alice Springs or 

even Yuendumu or thereabouts, but I didn't hear 

from her so of course we missed her, which was 

disappointing. We met some wonderful Aboriginal 

people, including the chairman of the Federanon 

of Land Councils, and spent some time at 

Amata, an Aboriginal settlement in the Pitjantjat 

jara Homelands (returned to them by the South 

Australian government some years ago). They 

have plenty of problems, but are to all intents and 

purposes self-governing (with government grants). 

They hire and fire the white fellows who work for 

them, and issue permits to visitors. 

Lis Williams 

inverloch, Victoria, Australia 

DI D I FAIL BABYHOOD? 

In my last session, I reall2ed I have thought! 

failed babyhood. That belief has held me back my 

whole life. As yet, I haven't totally processed this 

thought, but I had great initial relief getting that 

thought out of my brain. 

L a 

t eit 

occurred to me today that a useful applica- 

r 

tion o f AC information is as follows: In areas 

where one's theory is very clear about the nature 

of — humanness (almost all areas), the preferred 

order of business is to decide, act, then cilscharge 

if necessary. In the areas where the nature of 

humanness Is still unclear to one, the preferred 

order of business when possible while still functioning 

in society Is discharge, decide, act, discharge, 

act, discharge, and so on until we clear up 

our thinking. 

Koco KILEY 

INCLINE VILLAGE, NEVADA, USA 

I Could Stand To Be Happy 

Here's a phrase that popped up in a session 

recently which seems to be one of those gets-discharge-from-everyone 

directions: "I could stand to 

be happy." 

Also I've been thinking of patterns as similar to 

scar tissue—there for a protective reason but not 

the final stage of healing. l e t you extend the 

metaphor. 

SALLY CAMPBELL 

NEW YORE, NEW YORK, USA


Sweeney Swings Along 

fled a workshop on Allies for Young People and 

Reclaiming Power, fifty-three people attended, 

and there was a high level of enthusiasm about it. 

I think, to spite Irish internalized oppression, Irish 

people like being led by Irish people. I radiated enthusiasm 

and love. I got a sense of people being 

hopeful after the workshop; I think they know that 

they have In me a strong, brave, and proud Irish 

leader who will never give up. I also have done a 

workshop in Belfast on using RC in our lives, that 

was excellent. Most of the eighteen people there 

were new to counselling and I think that AC will 

take off in Belfast after It. This weekend I led a 

workshop in Waterford on early sexual memories. 

I did well and I really started to get a sense of my 

own power. 

I organised a Young People's Workshop led by 

gill Turner which was excellent. I knew she would 

do a great Job. She also did an open evening for 

Allies for Young People. She is a treat whom I find 

to be one of the most exciting people in RC. We 

also got a chance to be together and did some 

solid work on getting close. I am so glad that she 

is in this world. 

Life with me is good. I am growing from 

strength to strength. I hit bad patches at times but 

I still seem to function well over them. My fear is 

still a major set back, but I am winning the battle 

there too. 

I have, designed a course for teachers called 

"Support Group Networking and Leadership Training" 

and I am teaching It in South Dublin's teacher 

centre. It's going well and all Involved are pleased 

with it. So many things In my life are now possible, 

that one of the difficulties Is choosing what I 

want to do. My RC classes are a joy; I look forward 

to each one. I found RC easy to teach and sharing 

the information and counselling with people excites 

me. 

CASTLE PEAK 

Body in soft grass 

Eyes on the sky 

Ears to nature's chorus 

Nose with the earth 

Skin caressed by life 

Whole seff immersed 

The mind drinks a living picture 

In the scrapbook of time 

You and nature intertwined 

One forever— mystic, sublime. 

— Koco KILEY 

Willie Sweeney 

Stillorgan, Ireland 

72 

PRESENTING KEY IDEAS 

Things have been moving along quickly for me. 

It's exciting, but I'm also carrying a much fuller 

workload these days. I will need to rest over 

winter break and get some perspective on the 

many, many things I am doing. 

I've been pushed upward to a now Chancellor's 

committee for affirmative action. I hope it will 

have more power to do things. At present the situation 

is a bit ridiculous t h e administration creates 

committees but not with too much power. 

Nevertheless I've been able to network with all of 

the members and let them get to know each 

other— the staff, students, and faculty affirmative 

action committees, and the Vice Chancellors and 

Chancellors. These things take time and I'm trying 

to be crafty and not use too much of my time but 

present key ideas to keep things moving. 

My Asian educators group will be talking to Bill 

Honig, State Superintendent of Schools, on Monday, 

so I think we will also push for more Asian 

teachers in the schools. • 

My university Pan Asian Staff Association just 

brought in Stan Sue, a professor who knows a lot 

about Asian American Psychology, He was very 

helpful and the membership has grown to a hundred 

in just six months; pretty good. That's about 

one out of every four Asians who are staff people 

on campus. 

I'm pursuing my math research with passion, 

although no new results have come up lately. I'm 

working with a visitor from New Mexico. I'm giving 

a big colloquium next Thursday and will be considered 

for promotion this year. I surprised myself 

discovering I'd submitted eleven papers and a 

book over the last three years. 

Tommy Woon sent me an interesting article 

about Asian American faculty. Apparently 96% of 

them are foreign-born and a huge percent were 

educated In Asia before getting their Ph.D.s in the 

U.S. This indicates it's not all that easy for 

American-born Asians In academia. 

Jim Lin 

La Jolla, California, USA 

.44$

New Liberation Reference Person 

For Therapists 

I am a psychologist working at Stanford University 

and in private practice and I am the new International 

Liberation Reference Person for psychiatrists, psychologists, 

and therapists. I would like to encourage 

you to write to me. I want to know who you are so that 

we can begin to build a strong network of therapists 

who are in RC and be of support to one another. I am 

also interested in hearing about successes that you 

have had integrating RC into your work, your 

thoughts about the "mental health' system, and your 

response to the policy statement in Recovery and Reemergence 

No. 3. I look forward to being in contact with 

you and working together. 

Jane Bunker 

996 !lima Way 

Palo Alto, California 94306, USA 

Tel. (415) 494-9232 

Dear Editor, 

Let's have some jokes in PRESENT TIME. Here 

are a few I thought up: 

Counselor: Do you have an apology pattern? 

Client: I'm sorry, I don't. • 

Community Member: What's the best contradiction 

to my terrible anxiety pattern? 

Area Reference Person: Don't worry about it. 

This year has probably been the best of my life. I had a 

month's holiday in Southeast Asia which was fabulous. I 

resubmiited my Ph.D. after an abortive attempt a couple 

of years ago and was successful. I've got my first ever full- 

. time job, and quite well paid too, after many years of being 

out of work if not in full-time education. The best part 

of the year has been the decision, which I have made with 

a very long-standing friend, to get married next year. I 

think my thinking is at the best level it's ever been. I'm 

trying writing and am helping a radical science journal -writing 

and publishing and trying to move them along in 

the direction of better policy. 

My thinking about the context of my life as a workingclass 

man has led me to appreciate you deeply and what 

you've done in your life in a way I haven't before now. I 

have loved and been moved by your accounts of your own 

time in the depression of the 1930s. From reading The 

Rest of Our Lives I have enjoyed and warmed to how 

you have revealed yourself in these pages. I think I now 

have a clearer imspression of some (though not all) of what 

you have achieved, and that this has sometimes not been 

easy. 

[love thinking, the sheer joy of playing with ideas and 

discovering things about the universe, apd it's apparent to 

me that you do, too. 

Thank you for how your ideas and action, through the 

spread of RC, have enriched my life. 

Ron Roberts 


HARVEY: THERE ARE THREE THINGS A PATTERN CAN DO: IT 

CAN 'PERSIST, IT CAN CONFUSE, AND IT CAN MAKE US FORGET. 

LETTER TO HARVEY: WHAT ARE THE THREE "ABILITIES" OF 

, A PATTERN? I REMEMBER THAT IT CAN PERSIST AND CON- 

FUSE, BUT I FORGOT THE LAST ONE. 

73 

MY ENRICHED LIFE 

I want to get rid of my urgency pattern, RIGHT 

NO WI!! 

Arrogance pattern? No, not me. Pm too re-emerged for that. 

$ 

Dale Brown 

Washington, DC, USA

FROM THE MAIL— 

FAR NORTH ROWERHOUSE P u t t i n g Policy to Work 

I like the commitment to end pretense. It addresses 

the part of me that feels like a caddis fly 

larvae. (Do you know the caddis fly larvae? it ce. 

ments a bunch of twigs and sand grains to its soft 

body for camouflage.) I sometimes cover my feelings 

of (and actual) inadequacy with pebbles and 

sticks of genuine accomplishments and times of 

well-being. 

I was chosen as the Alaskan Human Rights Activist 

for 1986 by my childhood home district's 

Democratic party, as a result of my U.S..Nicara. 

guan peace work. Receiving that award cut 

through a lot of isolation and feelings of not mat. 

tering. It was neat. My dad didn't go to the award 

banquet, though. He forgot about It, though he's 

really proud. Ouch. 

I was hired to write two hundred pages of sci• 

ence text, an unsolicited job offer from a company 

for whom I've written before. 

I'm teaching my second RC class and loving it. 

Four of the nine people in the class are men. One 

of the men told me last night that the classic the 

highlight of his week. 

It was a roaring success. I'm sure that the pro. 

gram will continue next summer. Furthermore, the 

Cook Inlet Tribal Council, an umbrella organize. 

tion for Athabaskan Indians who live in southcen. 

tral Alaska, just asked us to be part of their planning 

process as they think about programs for 

their youth in summer 1987. Bridges have 'been 

formed. Now people are beginning to walk back 

and forth across them. It feels good. 

Jan Pohl 

Anchorage, Alaska, USA 

GREAT AND USEFUL 

THE NEW COMMITMENT AGAINST HUMANS HARMING 

OTHER HUMANS IS GREAT-POWERFUL AND USEFUL, 

Sara Kirschenbaum 

Columbus, Ohio, USA 

74 

I've already used much that went on at the Jewish Liberation 

Conference. I work at a Jewish agency, helping people to 

get work. Most of my Co-workers are Jewish,. the majority of 

the rest are blaek. I've especially had fun sharing with everyone 

how safe the world is forJews and then giving people attention 

as they tell me all the reasons this is not true, I 

just smile and then, when they finish, confidently share examples 

of this reality from things that were shared at the conference 

or from my own Iffe. It's fun. 

An opportunity to take a next step appeared to me the very 

day after the conference. I also am aJewish educator. For the 

• past two years I have been teaching five classes at the high 

school Sunday school of a large and prominent, conservative 

temple in the heart ofJewish Brooklyn. Last year I taught a 

great counseling class which I called "Wishes and Wonders." 

I had wanted to also teach adults. ( I used to run a feminist 

school in Philadelphia.) Well, the new opportunity I was 

given is to teach a class on Jewish living to adults. That 

basically means that I can do whatever I like and I'm really 

looking forward to it. 

In Co-Counseling I have led a women's support group for 

the past year. It's a wonderfully safe and sharing group. This 

week I focused on leadership, sharing from the Women 

A year ago, when I thought about building my pamphlet from the Netherlands conference. I also shared what 

community of 100,000, I said that I'd like to build it you had said about leading rationally in counseling being the 

around my combined love of young people, teach- real contradiction to "overbusyness" patterns, and not just using, 

RC, and a (somewhat romanticized and genet ing RC. as a place to !fag apart." 

. allied, I now realize) traditional Native worldview. 

Well, this past summer I helped put together two 

YEHUDIT MOCH 

weeks . of summer camp for Alaskan Native and 

BROOKLYN, 'NEW Ycqtfc, USA 

non-Native youth (half and half). We planned it 

well: pursued and received a'65,000 grant for 

scholarships, set up a Native advisory board, THE TREASURE OF LITERATURE 

hired six Native resource people, spent a lot of 

time planning the curriculum, and had lots of the With pleasure and joy I received the books that 

equivalent of sessions on our fears and dreams. Rational island Publishers sent us together with 

the periodicals. I also received the Rough Notes 

and the Guidelines and Quotes. It is indeed of 

great help for every member of our group. We will 

make use of it as much as possible and make 

these treasures reach to others. Yesterday I tray. 

eled to Madura! and I made it a point to meet with 

Subbaraman and had a good time sharing about 

the spread of RC in our country. 

The workshop at Delhi conducted by Pam Roby 

was a very successful one. I personally enjoyed It 

and had a special experience out of it. Every mo. 

ment of the workshop was memorable. I think all 

who attended grew from It. Our group of twenty. 

eight persons is slowly getting involved and be• 

coming more and mord interested in RC. 

Father Cletus 

Seranmadevi, India

T EACHING , LEADING ,, AND CO MMU N I T Y- BU I L D I N G 

A First "People of Turkey" Workshop 

I would like to report on the weekend workshop lied for People of Turkey and their Allies. (I use 

"people of Turkey" instead of "Turkish people" because In Turkey there are many different races, not 

only Tu rks.)_ 

When I decided to hold this workshop, my aims were: to get together to have a good time, to get 

closer to each other, and to get support for myself to reach out to other people of Turkey. We were 

nine adults and three young people (as young people in Turkey are hardly ever separated from the 

adults). We held the workshop in our house which is full of Turkish atmosphere (carpets, pictures, 

music, food). We had Greeks from Cyprus, N f r o m Athens, Turks, and British people who are 

related to people of Turkey. J —, who Is my regular counsellor, came as a support for me and helped 

to run the workshop. She was also a wonderful ally to Y — who was eleven months old. 

We shared 'our lives, some of which said so much about the history of people of Turkey, Greece, 

and Cyprus. We had three support groups in three languages (Greek, Turkish, English). At topic 

group times we stayed together to share information about people of Turkey, their culture, history 

and politics, and about people of Cyprus and the present situation there. Each one of us ended up 

with a commitment to achieve a united, independent Cyprus. It was useful and moving to hear N — 

talk about the Greeks of Istanbul. We all discharged when M t a lk e d about the hurts she suffered 

from being separated from her Turkish friends in Cyprus. So the workshop was not just to discharge 

but also to exchange information. , 

Here is some of the feedback I have received since the workshop:: 

"As Turkish people we do not need to shout to others so that they hear and see us. Instead we 

need to recognize ourselves that we are worth nothing less than everything. We deserve full love and 

respect...." N A t h e n s 

How about that as a commitment for people of Turkey?.. • 

- - 

"The only hope I see is meeting between Greek and Turkish Cypriots on a cultural level. There is a 

Turkish Cypriot poet, I. Aziz, who speaks about this relationship. Greek Cypriot film makers are addressing 

this Issue in a positive manner._ We have to work soon and very much on internalized 

racism and change the educational system." Y — , 

, 

"It was inspiring for me to meet powerful and beautiful Greek Cypriot women, who, like my husband, 

C y p a r uTurkish s Cypriot, are committed to an independentoinified Cyprus." L—, London 

For me the workshop was an empowering experience. With help from N —'s powerful and loving 

persistence, I am now committed to regain my Turkish (after twenty years of speaking English). 

Since then, I finished writing an article about a great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet and translated my 

sister's poems from prison. My two young ones were very proud of being with people connected to 

Turkey and being in touch with their heritage. (We adopted them from Turkey.) 

• 

I think I achieved most of my aims from this workshop: I even learned from the non-existence of 

support from my AC Community. I saw clearly how their Internalized oppression colludes with mine 

which keeps the patterns unchallenged. So more challenges are on my way. 

I have a strong message to all RC Communities: 

If you have anybody In your Community coming from a different culture than your own, please, 

please, try to find out about their culture by holding a learning session with them. You cannot 

possibly be a good counsellor for them if you do not know or if you are not willing to learn about their 

culture. Please also learn at least one word to greet them in their own language. It is not so difficult, 

but you will be amazed what feelings come out for both of you. 

Salme GOksu Timms 

Cambridge, England 

75

TEACHING. LEADING. AND COMMUNITY-BUILDING 

Maoris Leading All 

We just had the Maori AC hui (workshop) which 

was a world first. The weekend was a wonderful 

success, bringing seven of us much closer and 

making us feel safer within RC. Bill Solomon 

came down from Auckland and it was a delight to 

see how he is moving in his life. Also my sister 

came up from Christchurch. 

I led naturally and in a relaxed way—mainly 

from a sleeping bag on a mattress— I recommend 

itl We looked at the effects of racism and then 

moved on to do some very clear thinking about 

Maori RC— what form it will take. I'm still trying to 

put into words what we shared. it was a moving 

experience to be together. We all valued each 

other enormously, sharing and caring for each 

other in all ways. In fact, It felt like we acted towards 

each other as if we were totally re-emerged 

human beings! Such power. 

We looked at a draft proposal for a Maori commitment 

which I will include with further thoughts 

on the weekend. 

Liz Mann was a wonderful ally—bringing her 

special humour and thinking to the group. 

I'll write again when I've talked with the others 

who will be at the leaders' workshop in November. 

Of the seven at the Maori workshop, I think possibly 

four of us will be going to Westport for the 

leaders' workshop, which I am leading. 

Later— 

Last weekend saw the New Zealand RC leaders' 

workshop held in Westport (the west coast of the 

South island), and led by me. 

It was a huge challenge for me as a Maori 

leading the workshop. I've never been so terrified, 

but with excellent ally support from Liz Mann and 

Diane Shannon I led well. When I felt confused, I 

discharged heavily and continued on. 

One thing I especially liked was leading Maori 

style—counselling, some of my best, way into the 

night. (in Maori tradition the middle of the night is 

the best learning time.) 

also made i t possible f o r u s t o sleep 

together—mattresses and sleeping bags on the 

floor—with a choice for those who wanted to 

sleep separately. 

76 

New Zealanders 

This common sleeping arrangement outs 

through isolation patterns, isolation from having 

separate sleeping rooms as children and adults. I 

had a lot of positive feedback for this. 

One of my best counselling demonstrations 

was counselling a man brilliantly for two hours. 

The other man at the workshop said it was an excellent 

contradiction for him, seeing a woman persist 

for that long. I learned from the two men present 

about counselling men and look forward to 

moving closer to and encouraging more men to 

take their place in AC here. 

encouraged the other leaders to lead when we 

had a group of new people from Westport join us 

for three hours. We held an introduction to RC for 

these people and they had the excellent opportunity 

of being led by fifteen leaders—an intensive 

introduction to RC. This happened through 

demonstrations, theory presentation, and threeway 

sessions (one new person and two leaders). 

feel that a distinctly New Zealand flavour is 

starting to show in AC here and I welcome that. 

Since the weekend, Diane Cameron and I have 

been asked to lead a weekend workshop for about 

ten to fifteen Maori women. These women, ranging 

in age from seventeen to thirty-five, are all 

strong, smart Maori women, who are taking leadership 

in reclaiming pride and power of being 

Maori in various areas of their lives. 

• I think it is a real breakthrough in reaching 

these women and was made possible by the contact 

both Diane and I have made with them. 

Things move fast here, I assure you! 

I personally would like to make contact with 

other indigenous Polynesians and people of the 

Pacific and with North American Indian people in 

RC. I read with much interest of April Sasaki's 

teaching* in Micronesia. 

After a time o f thinking clearly about the 

leaders' workshop I hope to come up with some 

thought on where we need to work to move RC in 

New Zealand even further ahead. 

JULIE LAMBIE 

URENUI, NEW ZEALAND/AOTEAROA

LONG-RANGE GOALS FOR BOMBAY 

The seeds of our Bombay group were sown on the 

first three days of August 1985, when G.B. Krishnamurty 

from Northridge, California, USA conducted a fundamentals 

workshop, which twelve people attended. We 

learnt about Co-Counseling under the able and loving 

guidance of Krishna, in a cooperative and zestful atmosphere. 

At the end of the workshop, we agreed to 

meet regularly on Fridays, at a convenient venue, to 

continue updating our knowledge and perfecting our 

Co-Counseling skills. • 

Today, over a year later, we have a regular RC group 

in Bombay; six beautiful persons with increased commitment 

and brilliant ideas. We are in touch with the 

Community. We do not hesitate to ask for support in the 

form of literature, workshops, and ideas from other 

RCers, both in India and outside. Our participation in 

the New Delhi workshop, a couple of months back, was 

welcomed. Enhancement of our theoretical knowledge 

of AC, coupled with constant efforts made to improve 

our counseling skills, has made us better counselors 

and clients. 

Individually; rewards from AC have taken the form of 

better interaction in our personal relationships at home 

and at our work-places. Curiosity is also being generated 

to learn about RC among our friends and colleagues. 

(They are beginning to see the difference!) I have also 

begun one-to-one counseling with three of my colleagues 

at my place of work. One of them is responding excellently. 

Our short-term targets include increased participation 

from all our members, including the dormant ones. 

Regular workshops are planned to be organised, thereby 

using available resources from all over India to the 

maximum, and creating additional resources. We would 

like to have one more regular group (at a different venue 

on a different day, with new members)— say, Western 

Bombay (the present one being in Central Bombay) — to 

accelerate our all-round progress. Pooling of financial 

resources for RC activities is another aspect to be 

worked on. 

Our long-range plans include integration o f the 

various RC groups functioning in the country into one 

Community which will be in close touch with all the 

groups in the country and with Seattle. Another target is 

to place RC in India under Organized Areas, thereby 

having the advantage of Area Reference Persons centrally 

located for coordinating AC activities in India. We 

would also like to have increasing contact with resource 

persons outside India. 

Our longest-range target is to have one member here, 

working full-time for RC, in the capacity c.pf Regional Reference 

Person in India. 

Ramakrishna lyer 

Bombay, India 

77 

Second Workshop for Kenya 

The result of the RC workshop which Barbara 

Love led In Kenya was very good. As the impacts 

of the workshop are being seen, the participants 

of the workshop have been coming back to me 

and wanting us to have another workshop so that 

their friends too can have a similar experience. 

have over eight letters, from different parts of the 

country. Two are from people who never attended 

the workshop but were told about It by those who 

attended. 

I am therefore planning a workshop in January 

1987, to try to meet this demand. 

do not think it will be possible to organize it at 

a residential place as we had thought of earlier. 

This Is because many of those people who are requesting 

a workshop are in a similar social economic 

level with those who participated in the 

previous one. However, I feel very encouraged to 

go ahead and,plan for one because they are already 

pressuring me to set up a date. 

WANJIKII KIRONYO 

NAIROBI, KENYA 

Visible and Powerful 

:Things are bubbling in San Diego. We have several new 

classes starting and two continuing. One person is teaching 

thirty high school students and forty parents. Our newsletter 

is a masterpiece. I'm making a point of doing introductory 

mini-workshops wherever I can. .1 just took on the job of 

Chair of Adult Education of the huge Unitarian Church I attend. 

Our Community is growing. 

Personally, lffe continues to be rich. Fin regularly returning 

to the decision to pay no attention to past distress— felling 

it with massive condescension to "sit and rot "Pm holding the 

direction to do 'what is right at all times 

. ming e Vupstream e n iagainst t everyone I ' m around me and tinder heavy 

s 

attack. 

w 

Lots 

i 

of 

m 

terror 

- 

is rolling off as I look to moving out into 

more visible and powerful positions in this community. 

I am excited about where this may lead. CAROL ANGELL 

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, USA 

,7 

; 

• 

• 

vs.v. AqA, 

sZi•-•'• 

410° 

)1' . 

1- 

• • 

• • 

4 

.

TEACHING. LEADING, AND COMMUNI TY-BUI LDI NG 

® Doctors and Medical Students in Sweden 

Ever since the workshop in The Netherlands January 1984, have I been thinking of the possibility to 

have a workshop for medical students and doctors in Sweden. 

We have at least ten doctors and medical students Co-Counseling in Sweden now and five of us met 

this last weekend at my place. We decided to ask you if you are willing to lead an international workshop 

for doctors and medical students in Sweden in the fall of 1987 or winter/spring of 1988. If it is not possible 

for you, please suggest the name of someone who might be willing and interested. 

Here is a short briefing on where we stand just now: 

Five of us attended Charlie Kreiner's open workshop this summer in Gothenburg, Sweden. There we 

decided to set up a support group during the workshop, and we met twice a day for very short meetings. 

We gave each other support for being doctors and we used questions like: What is good about being a 

doctor, what is difficult being a doctor, what support do I need? It resulted in a decision for as many as 

possible of us to meet again in the fall. 

I managed to find out that at least ten doctors and medical students were Co-Counseling in Sweden 

right now. One doctor at Charlie's workshop was from Poland. I made a'list with names and addresses for 

these ten peOple and wrote a short invitation for all to come to Stockholm for a weekend in October. So 

now we have just had that meeting and Gunnar Brodd who is a medical student in Uppsala has helped me 

to arrange the practical things. We accomplished very much: lots of discharge, many brilliant ideas, a 

decision to meet again in February or April 1987. We had theory on physical hurts, taking leadership, the 

importance for doctors to stay aware of the benign reality. We discussed different ways to reach out to 

other doctors and medical students outside RC and we wrote a short notice to eventually be published in 

the Swedish medical journal. The notice contains the information that we exist and we invite people to 

join in support groups. Today I typed the notice and also wrote a letter to the others in the RC doctors' 

support group asking how they would like to have the notice done and if they are willing to put their name 

under it with their telephone numbers. I know this is scary, but at least I might get them to discharge on it 

and some perhaps will go along with me and do it. 

I also wrote down all the questions and statements that we used and were planning on using for sessions 

so that we all have them on paper. I feel very proud and brave having done all this. It took four male doctors 

to give me enough safety to discharge on being important as a doctor and to dare to follow my wish to 

write to you. 

I also want to tell you that I have started to take leadership by assisting on theory classes before playdays 

that Anna Wernhof is having four times this fall. We have had one so far and the second is this coming 

weekend. 

Last Wednesday I gave a lecture on how you can cure yourself by using your feelings in a natural way. 

There were about 150 people and they were all interested and no one questioned what I said, to my surprise. 

The new thing for me this time was that I used RC theory all the way through. Now I realise that of 

course there is nothing to question because all I said was so clear and said in a way that they all recognized 

themselves. 

In the first week in November there is an exhibition on holistic health in Lysekil in southern Sweden 

and I have been invited to come there and speak. I plan to talk on the subject: childlike joy in living is 

possible for adults and it is the best protection against psychosomatic diseases. 

My daughter is now seven years old and we have such a good time together. She started school this fall 

and I still walk with her to the morning class. She challenges me more than anyone else and does it very 

lovingly. Most of the time together we enjoy discharging profoundly by changing roles. 

ANITA EJILLIP 

HANDEN, SWEDEN 

78

66 - Re-evaluation Counseling

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