It is always nice working with Bryan or Calli with a client of theirs with whom they have done a few sessions, but where there might be some lingering and unresolved issues. This is how our system usually worked during the Residency phase, the term itself being a malapropism, as when you are in this phase, you have spent your seven years of intense residential study and are now on your own but for three years will be seeing clients along with one of your Teachers. It is where the learning all comes together for you.
I would present what had been done previously, on my own, and ask Johannes, Ludmilla, or Paalo, whoever had come over to work with me, to review the notes that I had, then directly Work with the client. I would just watch and learn, and I would ask questions from time to time. Often one of them would ask me to Work on one system, joint, or organ, while he or she Worked on another. Then afterward, my Teacher would review what we had done with me. This was also the time when a client would give me feedback on what he or she had experienced, which I then passed back to the Teacher.
It was here that I first encountered one aspect of Clown World, Entertainment Culture. This is the term for our inversion of values in the West more broadly, but to a larger degree in the U.S., where an experience, a person, a book, tape or video, is judged not by its usefulness to our life purpose or enhancement of our knowledge or capabilities but only by whether or not we were entertained by the experience.
I’ve heard echoes of it culturally. As a young parent, my ex wife was gravely concerned that I work hard to “keep __ entertained.” The son or daughter in your care, heaven forbid! just might have a moment of not being engrossed in external stimuli, or being “bored,” this being the greatest ill that can befall that child, at which point the child will act disruptive or fuss and Mom will insist on another entertainment’s being brought to bear.
I had to contrast this to how I grew up, where I or we, myself and either brother, played quietly, with no one’s taking responsibility for entertaining us. We had to use the toys, learning tools, craft projects, etc. to our own ends and become involved in the activity without the adult’s having to put on the MC’s suit or the clown suit to try to “entertain” us. We see it in mate selection. “Matt is boring. He’s a really nice guy and he’s thoughtful, but he’s not that much fun.” Or, conversely, “Jason has kind of a drinking problem and likes to pop pills, but he’s so Funny! It’s such a blast being around him!” Hmm, I wonder which genetic choice will yield a stable, productive family where children are nurtured…
To get back to how this relates to healing, on one of their rotations through the States, one of my Teachers helped me with a 28 year old engineer. He was obese, had psoriasis, had been trying to overcome a smoking addiction, and lived on anti-depressants in virtual isolation, not even having much of a relationship with either of his roommates. I had Worked with him on some of the mystical “woo woo” issues that were involved. His Luonto showed me his being largely ignored as the youngest child in a large family and the only way he got favorable attention was doing well in school, this resulting in his having few friends, no sports, clubs, or social gatherings, but always making the honor roll.
I found past lives he’d lived as a scholar, inventor, or scientist. I explored with him and asked the gifts of Grace from one of the Gods to resolve the basic lack of nurture in early life and he felt the resolution. When Ludmilla worked with me on “Don,” she focused on his diet, lack of exercise, failure to find nurturing relationships with other adults, unhealthy habits, his obsession with porn, which I had already begun working with him on removing. Her session was a mixture of counseling and very good advice.
Afterward, when I asked Don how he liked my Teacher’s approach and what she covered, he said, “I thought you said she was a real shaman. She didn’t go into a trance or beat a drum or summon her Russian spirits or anything. I was disappointed.” I asked him if he wanted to use us as catalysts to overcome and resolve issues in his life or if he was here for some sort of magic show. He said he’d read (he was an avid reader) books by Carlos Castaneda and he was expecting some sort of ritual performance. He was also disappointed that she was an older White lady who didn’t have much of an accent and spoke perfect English, not some small brown lady from a tropical area wearing unfamiliar clothing. So, he wanted an exotic person to put on a performance, maybe burn some incense, shake some feathers over him while muttering something he didn’t understand- he said as much.
I reminded Don that Ludmilla had frequently gone into other realms and used her very well developed intuition to even know what to ask him and to tackle issues that he had ignored, e.g., “Why do you get up about an hour after you go to sleep and go eat a piece of cake in the fridge or a candy bar from the cabinet.” I reminded him that he not only agreed that he did this and it might be contributing to his weight problem but that he had not mentioned this to me in prior sessions, nor spoken to her of it.
I told him that my Teachers were all master healers, and that in our Way, we did not need to do a lot of ceremony or ritual in order to go into other worlds or See into a person’s experiences or even details of prior incarnations. We did not have to consume entheogens in order to do such things- it was a natural part of the Work and emerged, without the tietaja’s appearing outwardly to be doing anything differently, in the normal course of conversing with the client, which is why he had not even noticed the fact that she described a behavior and even spoke of how Don had trouble getting back to sleep and felt guilty about sleeping with a sugary coating on his teeth! I explained that we See such things like watching an inner film clip, just to help us help the client, and we do not need to employ theatrical devices in order to do this.
This resolved it for Don. I challenged him to look for more in what he valued than whether or not it was entertaining. Most of the texts which I had to read that helped me to understand what’s “under the hood” of our body-minds were not entertaining! They prepared me for my vocation and felt reassuring and relevant; they resonated but did not entertain.
During our session, Ludmilla had insisted that Don take notes. He did, and over the coming months, he turned all these life issues around and slimmed down from 242 to 193 with clear skin and a lot more energy.
This being said, I worked with one of my journeymen this past week with a client whose remarks afterward were an echo of the prior disconnect with Don. I Saw on overall pattern and outlined for her what the underlying cause is. Otherwise, we’re just chasing symptoms and putting bandaids over those issues without changing the cause(s). Worse, one manifestation of this underlying problem, largely dietary, had resulted in a cancer and an operation. I concentrated on where I thought my hour with his client would do the most good- finding the underlying cause that manifested as multiple symptoms and having a practical lifestyle and diet discussion on how changes will avoid the recurrence of these serious health issues.
Afterward, “Julie” expressed her disappointment. She thought I was going to put myself or her into an altered state and do something mystical, you know, something exotic and entertaining, to magically resolve her issues without her having to change anything or do anything differently. This kind of endemic narcissism is hard to avoid- it is a base element in American culture. I just want to keep living as I have been, eating, sleeping, working as I have been, not controlling nor learning to Watch my emotions, but being led by them as if they represented primordial truth, but YOU will come along and “fix” ME while I do nothing but pay for a session.
My journeyman I am certain gave a very patient and sympathetic explanation, but let Julie know that this is not how the process works. We are but catalysts. The clients must do the work on their parts, in partnership with us, to resolve their issues and to feel and live better. We’ll do our part. Sometimes it will of necessity delve into the mystical, but that is dictated by the data of the case, by the challenges presented, which are often NOT metaphysical in nature. We’ll help you through either type of challenge, physical, emotional, spiritual, but please don’t expect us to put on a show and entertain you along the way- my magician’s suit is at the dry cleaners….