- Shalom & Welcome! -
1. KEEPING A PERSONAL JOURNAL
One of the ways in which any Self-Development Groups I facilitate nowadays differ from both typical group-dynamic sessions and from most Encounter Groups I have known, is that all participants are encouraged to keep a Personal Journal. The same is true, of course, of most forms of Psychosynthesis Groups, where the idea seems to owe at least as much to Irma Progoff as it does to Roberto Assagioli himself. I recommend distributing your various Journal entries as appropriately as possible into ten distinct sections:
2. YOUR FIRST GROUP MEETING
When the group is gathered together in silence, the leader speaks:
“To introduce yourself, please close your eyes, and allow yourself to be…” [Several minutes may now elapse.]
“Be aware of your various changing sensations and feelings; open yourself to them, and acknowledge them as yours. Tune in to your inner space…
Permit your thoughts, questions, fears, plans and expectations to flow freely in your mind; give them all permission to come and go. Be detached from them all equally; dwell on none…
Notice how you feel emotionally. Be aware of your mood and feeling-tone. In the silence of your heart, let your feelings intensify, and grow…
You are now here in silence. Be aware of the various other ways in which you could be here; explore in your inner space the many other possibilities open to you elsewhere, at other times, in other moods. Let the realization increase within you of the expanding horizons disclosed to you by your power of choice…
In your own centre choose as freely and completely as you can to be fully present in this place, at this time, here and now, with these others, and for this present purpose…
In your own time, open your eyes and be here now…
Let each of us, one by one, in whichever order feels right to us, introduce ourselves in this group, saying who we are, why we are here, how we feel, and what are our expectations…”
Between one meeting and the next members are invited to choose to write down in their Personal Journal their impressions and experiences in the meeting, together with anything else they wish to add. They are also invited to bring such writings to subsequent meetings of the group.
Then, after an interval of minutes, or days…
3. THE MYSTERY OF EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE
The leader speaks:
“The purpose of this course is to live more fully, and to explore the world of our own everyday experience.
The objective is to explore our various possibilities in inner space.
We use exercises as an experiential basis for this exploration.
The course will also make use of some specially selected words and ideas, to provide tentative guide-lines, as we proceed in our explorations. You will, so to speak, be given a rough outline-map of the main features of the territory you are exploring.
Always remember that this map is not the country; it has no importance by itself. It is possible to study maps without actually exploring, and it is possible to explore without maps.
We are here to explore, and, as you explore, you may find you don't need a map, or that a map doesn't help you, or you may decide that the map provided is misleading and badly drawn.
Let your own reality be your guide.
Never forget that everything I am saying may prove to be, as far as you are concerned, false, silly, and misleading. I am a guide, but first and foremost I am myself an explorer, a seeker after further understanding and wisdom and knowledge, a being becoming who I am by joining with you in our growing process.
At every moment of this course, I am inviting you to choose to be here and now, to explore your experience as it happens. Choice is crucial.
Motivation, whether it be conscious or not, is always a key-factor in growth.
At this stage in your exploration, it may be helpful to notice that psychological energy itself is never bad, because in itself this energy is neither good nor bad but neutral. It is true that psychological energy can be put to a bad use, but our purpose at this stage is not to pronounce any hasty or rash judgment of praise or condemnation on our own ways of using our energies, but to grow to see how precisely we do use them. Understanding is more important than judgment. The aim is to find our own centre.”
During the remaining time, members may choose to share within the group what they have written in their Personal Journals.
Then, after an interval of minutes, or days…
4. WANTS AND NEEDS AND YOU
“Please close your eyes, and allow yourself to be…
Focus your awareness on everything you understand by the expression: ‘I want’…
Now open your eyes, and take some time to write down as complete a list as possible of short statements beginning with the words ‘I want.’ So far as you can, do not censor this list. Write spontaneously and in random order, expressing all your wants as they spring to consciousness. Take whatever time you need…
Bring your list to a close, if necessary by using summaries and rapid jottings to note down what you can write out more fully later…
Please close your eyes once more, and let go your hold on the experience just past. Centre yourself again in your own inner space…
Now focus your awareness on all that you understand by the expression: ‘I need’…
Open you eyes, and compile a spontaneous, complete, random list of uncensored short statements beginning with the words ‘I need’…
Bring your list to a close, making any jottings you find useful…
Close your eyes again, let go your hold on the experience just past, and tune in to your own present centre…
Ask yourself this question: ‘Who am I?’…
In your own time open your eyes, and write down your answer, beginning with the words ‘I am’…
When you are ready, again close your eyes, and ask yourself: ‘Who am I?’ Choose to give a different answer…
In your own time open your eyes, and write down this answer…
Once again close your eyes and ask: ‘Who am I?’ Find another answer…
Now write down your third statement beginning: ‘I am’…
Divide into groups of four…
Select three of your own main and different wants, and take it in turns to use your three companions to dramatize a dialogue between you and these three wants… Listen to the different wants expressing themselves to you simultaneously, and get the feeling of them… [To heighten the realism and effect, this exercise may be done with five wants in groups of six.]
Return into your own space, close your eyes, make yourself comfortable. Call to mind your three, four or five answers to the question: ‘Who am I?’…
With regard to each of these, after ranking them in order of growing significance, ask yourself: ‘What does it do for me?’ ‘How does it limit me?’ ‘What would my life be like without it?’ ‘Am I willing to let go of it?’…
Try not to censor your answers. The aim is not judgment but understanding…”
After an interval of minutes, or days:
5. AN OUTLINE MAP OF INNER SPACE
The leader shows the group this map of inner space, taken from Roberto Assagioli's Psychosynthesis (New York: Hobbs, Dorman & Co. 1965), and explains it:
“The Lower Unconscious contains the elementary psychological activities which direct the life of the body; the intelligent coordination of bodily functions; the fundamental drives and primitive urges; many complexes charged with intense emotion; dreams and imaginations of an inferior kind; lower uncontrolled parapsychological processes; various pathological manifestations such as phobias, obsessions, compulsive urges and paranoid delusions.
The Middle Unconscious is formed of psychological elements similar to those of our waking consciousness and easily accessible to it; here are assimilated our various experiences, our ordinary mental and imaginative activities are elaborated and developed in a sort of psychological gestation before their birth into the light of consciousness.
The Higher Unconscious or Superconscious is the source of our higher intuitions and inspirations - artistic, philosophical or scientific, ethical ‘imperatives’ and urges to humanitarian and heroic action, higher feelings such as altruistic love; genius, contemplation, illumination, ecstasy. In this realm are latent the higher psychic functions and spiritual energies.
The Field of Consciousness is that part of our personality of which we are directly aware: the incessant flow of sensations, images, thoughts, feelings, desires, and impulses which we can observe, analyse, and judge.
The Conscious Self or ‘I’ is quite different from, and not to be confused with the conscious personality just described; the ‘I’ is the point of pure self-awareness.
The Higher Self is a true permanent centre existing beyond our above the conscious self; it is unaffected by the flow of the mind-stream or by bodily conditions - the personal conscious self seems to be merely the reflection of this Higher Self, its ‘projection’ within the field of the personality.
The Collective Unconscious is an ongoing process of psychic and psychoid osmosis linking together all human beings and, indeed, all that has life.
Such is the mapping of our inner space that Roberto Assagioli has recommended for our consideration. The map is not the reality. We are here to explore our reality, not merely to discuss maps. If the map doesn't help you, throw it away.”
After an interval of minutes, or days:
6. PSYCHIC EVOLUTION
“In the mystery of everyday experience our growing process discloses itself as one of psychic evolution. What at a lower level appears as just one more random aggregate of electrons and neutrons can be seen from a higher viewpoint as an integrated atom. What at a lower level appears as just one more random aggregate of atoms can be seen from a higher viewpoint as an integrated molecule. What at a lower level appears as just one more random aggregate of molecules can be seen from a higher viewpoint as an integrated living cell. What at a lower level appears as just one more random aggregate of living cells can be seen from a higher viewpoint as an integrally functioning organ. What at a lower level appears as just an arbitrary assembly of independently functioning organs can be seen from a higher viewpoint as an integrated living body expressing in one ongoing process a single dynamic intention to live and to live more fully.
Seen from a higher viewpoint, electrons and neutrons are for atoms, atoms for molecules, molecules for cells, cells for organs, organs for bodies; bodies, groups and societies are for psychic evolution…”
After a short interval, the leader continues:
“Please close your eyes now, find a comfortable position, and tune in to your inner space…
Give a name to your feeling, as you start out from here now…
Let go that feeling, and become, in fantasy, a tiny electron taking part with myriads of other electrons in the electronic dance of the ether…
Imagine yourself as an atom in collision with other atoms to every side of you…
Now become a molecule clearing your way through a space full of other molecules…
Now you are a living cell, moving, expanding, contracting, feeding…
Imagine yourself functioning as some specific organ in a living being, and tune in to that experience…
Becoming a living body, and find out once more what that feels like…
Imagine you are yourself a group of different human beings living together…
Become, in fantasy, the whole of Western culture and civilization - in its origins, day-to-day history, struggles, upheavals, and reversals…
Expand your awareness still more to become all life on this planet from the beginning until now…
In addition to this, also become planet Earth herself, and all her sister- and brother-planets in our solar system…
Become our galaxy…
Realize you are the universe…
In your own time, choose to be again one individual human being here and now, open your eyes, and write down your experience. Also write down the name of the feeling with which you started. How do you feel now?…”
After an interval of minutes, or days:
8. SUB-PERSONALITIES
“The whole manifests in and through the parts. Human individuals are, so to speak, atoms integrated into a larger whole in process of development. This is the mystery of the one and the many.
Here is another map of the levels in our human nature:
Just as various molecules can be constituted out of similar atoms, so the ‘I’ or personality can integrate all these psychic atoms in a variety of ways to constitute a variety of sub-personalities, functioning in differing patterns of experience.
A young man, for instance, may in different moods seek to live cheaply (like his mother), teach clearly (like his favourite tutor), be himself (like his pal at work), have fun (like his girl-friend), and be good (to please his parents).
An unmarried mother as responsible breadwinner may be full of positive feelings towards life, high-minded, motivated to achieve, becoming. At other times, she may be a laggard, sad, depressed, drifting from one futile pastime to another. She can also experience moods of cynical and angry rebellion, losing herself in sex and sensuality. Besides this, her early upbringing in middle-class morality may cause her occasionally to experience guilt, a strong fear of rejection, altruistic feelings, and religious yearnings.
A parish-priest in his pulpit may be a story-teller concerned with transpersonal Truth. He may celebrate High Mass as a mediæval Catholic in love with transpersonal Beauty. Hearing confessions, he may aspire to be some sort of Western Guru, encouraging transpersonal Goodness. On Mondays, playing golf with his curate, he may pose as a reluctant playboy with a hunger for transpersonal Trust. Away on holiday, he is the primitive funman, with a genius for transpersonal Creativity. All things to all persons, and a man for all seasons!
Sub-personalities are activated in function of the environment. I am not any particular rôle I play. The aspects of my psyche are many, and can be compared to atoms, molecules, and cells. My sub-personalities are the functionally different organs that make up my psychic body. That body is my ‘I’ or personality. By medi(t)ation I contact the transpersonal Self…”
After a short interval, the leader continues:
“Place yourself in a comfortable position, close your eyes, and imagine yourself in a meadow…
Imagine you see a cottage or some kind of house in the meadow. It has several rooms, you know, but you do not yet go inside to look at them…
When you enter, you find a number of different individuals inside. They are your sub-personalities. You meet them as you go round the house…
You are now once more outside the house in the meadow. Very soon your sub-personalities will be coming out to join you for a discussion. When they do so, there will be an extra one among them, one you have not so far met…
Here they are now. You converse with them for some time…
You are all still in the meadow, and encircled now by a white circle drawn on the grass. The whole of this circle is lit up and irradiated by a cone of white light coming down from very high up in the sky. Way up above is a wise person present within the beam of light. S/he speaks to you…
When you are ready, come back here, open your eyes, draw a segmented circle, and in each segment write the name and characteristics of one of your sub-personalities…
Share your experiences in groups of four…”
Some time later, the leader concludes:
“An observer sub-personality can block the working of a real dialogue between two other sub-personalities - represented, for instance, by two cards chosen from a Tarot pack, such as the Waites-Rider deck, which is admirable for this purpose. The ideal is to identify the wants of each sub-personality (e.g., the card you like most, and the one you most dislike), uncover the needs behind those wants, and find alternative ways to satisfy these needs.
In other words, seek to uncover the qualities of the essential Self expressed by each sub-personality.
Medi(t)ation helps concentration: the centred Self is not restricted by, nor attached to, any present sub-personality, but spontaneously, and by free-flowing intuition, transforms self-expression, whenever this is appropriate…”
After some time, the leader may continue:
“Shakespeare saw life as theatre. The world is the stage on which we use our bodies to act out the drama of our inner feelings and desires. Humans act in accordance with their mental images of the facts, not in accordance with any independent facts-in-themselves. Some mental images, including the self-image, can be very hard to change, and the archetypes don't seem to vary much from individual to individual.
Consider, for instance, Richard Gardner's set of twelve archetypical sub-personalities:
Just as a TV-set can reproduce programmes being broadcast on several different channels, most individuals can express themselves socially on more than one of the twelve personality-channels above mentioned.
The meaning and benefit of this will be lost, unless we realize that consciousness is external, and that we open or close ourselves to its various channels - by study to airy ones, by day-dreaming to watery ones, by skill and action to fiery ones, by practicality to earthy ones. Thus:
If Fire gains the upper hand, the person tends to suppress her or his feelings, sneer at the feelings of others, dismiss imagination. In the end s/he becomes incapable of loving anyone or anything, feeling will always be ‘silly’ to her or him. However, if you manage to unlock her or his feelings, a terrible mess will confront you, and s/he will be terrified. Men, unfortunately, have been trained to suppress their feminine elements, and vice versa.
If Earth gains the upper hand, aspiration, ambition, novelty and desire for change will be lacking. The person will go on in the same old way, seeing no way out of her or his mould. Enlightening these sorts of people is no mean task, though their feelings tend to be in a better state than the example above.
If Air gains the upper hand, it tends to give vast quantities of ineffectual, even though accurate knowledge. Someone who knows everything, but cannot do anything. Air is a great dryer up of Water (feelings), and exhauster of Fire (action). However marvellously intellectual these people may be, they must do something, if their humanity is to be preserved. Their dried up faces become apparent over the years, with all ability to feel, to do, departed. They should think less, and act more.
If Water gains the upper hand, we have spinelessness, preciousness, drifting, dreaming, ineffectiveness, vagueness, seeing the world as we subjectively feel, rather than as it is. Such people need to be taught decisive action as the way out of their morass. Shock is often necessary to bring any element which has been neglected into play…”
After some time, the leader may continue:
“At present, in the West, the conscious mind is often masculine, dynamic Fire ruled by the Sun, while the subconscious mind is feminine dynamic Water ruled by the Moon.
Conscious doing is promoted by initiation, effort, discipline, enterprise, exhibitionism, the courage to let go, initiative, establishing facts, honesty, skill, thinking, action, decision, detachment, honour, and all that is gained by the exercise of the will.
Subconscious experience requires preparation, relaxation, abandon, acceptance, display, the courage to hold on, selection, imagining, romancing, impressionability, dreaming, medi(t)ation, wondering, dancing, entertainment, and all that is perceived by feeling.
Even when further adjustment is possible, this needs time, and some people prefer to adjust reality to their favourite picture of it, rather than vice versa.
The schizophrenic may, indeed, claim that her or his image is what reality already necessarily agrees with - the rest of us just happen to have got it wrong!
The main archetypes in the modern collective Western myth seem to be:
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Meaninglessness |
Skin = skin. |
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Sex |
Pairing = mating. |
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Power |
Muscle = muscle. |
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No dependency |
Just a job shortage! |
These archetypes largely explain why people tend to act and feel the way they so often do.
The following terms illuminate various facets of the meaning of “archetype”: analogue, class-establishing copied model, criterial standard, dominant or successful model, exemplar model, effective psychic image (not necessarily corresponding to external reality), figure in a story, first instance of an independently established class, form, fully typical or standard instance, idea, ikon, interpretative scheme, motif, myth, neter, norm, parable, paradigm, pattern, pioneer, primordial concept, prototype,salient instance, symbol, symbolic representation, ultimate standard…
Human beings are generally not looking for actual security, but simply seeking the feeling of security, i.e., freedom from anxiety, release from unwanted tension, in other words, peace. Considered as a dynamically structured actual process, peace is varied and healthily organic development…”
9. SHORT NOTES TO READ BETWEEN MEETINGS
Most human urges can be expressed either outwardly or inwardly, i.e., reflexively (thus, some choose suicide rather than murder).
Expressions of urges are sometimes more, sometimes less vigorous (aggressive).
The basic urge or urges are love-and-hate: libido/mortido.
Some psychologists associate love with the sex glands and aggression with the adrenal glands, but this equation is problematic. What is certain is that each human being experiences a dynamic tension of conflicts in balance.
Individuals also tend to resist attributing to any other persons any real good not present to a higher degree in themselves, and the urge to act in this way runs through the whole of history.
The human's problem is to find the path of least resistance for release from her or his tension in a dynamic and complex situation.
The primitive energies of love and hate have somehow to be coupled with the conscious requirements of the developing Ego, and then the whole has to be balanced against the pressures of the reality principle. Primitive energies not yet integrated into the Ego are sometimes called the Id. Libido or love-energy can be released “normally,” however that term be defined, and its definition “justified.”
The aim in releasing this energy may also be displaced (e.g., in platonic friendship the aim is intellectual and aesthetic delight, instead of shared sexual pleasure as such), or the object of love may be less usual (e.g., certain sorts of lesbian and homosexual attachment, though other sorts are possibly better understood as isotopes of normal behaviour), or, finally, both the aim and the object of love may be transformed (which is sometimes, not always helpfully, called sublimation), as in the love of music, of philosophy, etc. Obviously, the same considerations also apply to mortido/hate.
Certain thinkers have argued that love either of G-d or of any invisible values is not a sublimation, but a primary spiritual experience, claiming that earthly love is derivative from this, simply its projection into time and space. Whatever the truth of this, release from tension can be achieved both actively (by loving), and passively (by being loved).
The phenomenon known as ambivalence is a common one.
All human beings are basically creative. Intentionality and values are basic determinants of human action. It is, therefore, appropriate to centre attention on the experiencing person, and to focus on experience as the primary phenomenon in studying women and men. Both theoretical explanations and overt behaviour remain, in other words, secondary to experience itself, and to its meaning to the person.
The distinctively human qualities of choice, creativity, valuation, and self-realization are all too often frustrated by thinking about human beings in mechanistic and reductionist terms. The true centre can only be the person as s/he discovers her or his own being, and relates both to other persons and to social groups.
At the next meeting of the group:
“What you think - you look: Think of yourself as successful, and you'll look poised and confident. Others will then automatically have confidence in you, and in what you stand for.
What you think - you do: Think of yourself as successful, and you'll automatically begin to make the right moves to bring you that success.
What you think - you are: Think of yourself as a success, and that's what you'll be. A success. Living in harmony with Nature…”
After an interval of minutes, or days:
10. JOURNEYING INWARDS
“Symbols express what thought cannot think, but can only be divined or felt. Symbols are dynamic, specific, condensed, polyvalent, serialized, periodic.
Close your eyes, and visualize some symbol to represent your body…
Open your eyes, and make a note of your experience…
Close your eyes, let go your hold of your last experience, and now visualize some symbol to represent your feelings…
Open your eyes, and make a note of your experience…
Close your eyes, let go your hold of your last experience, and now visualize some symbol to represent your mind…
Open your eyes, and make a note of your experience…
Close your eyes, and visualize some symbol to represent the integration of your body, your mind and your feelings…
Open your eyes, and make a note of your experience…
Close your eyes, and imagine you are in a meadow at the foot of a mountain. Together with the separate images of your feelings, your mind and your body, imagine yourself climbing up this mountain, and meeting in due course a wise person on the summit. Proceed in your own way, and allow yourself the time you need…
Open your eyes, and make a note of your experience…
Share your experience in groups of four…”
After a short interval, the leader continues:
“I am not my body; I have a body, but I am not my body.
I am not my emotions; I have emotions, but I am not my emotions.
I am not my desires; I have desires, but I am not my desires.
I am not my intellect; I have an intellect, but it is not myself - like my eye, I see not with it, but through it.
What am I, then? What remains after discarding my sensations, emotions, desires and thoughts?
I am a centre of awareness and will, and capable of controlling, using, and directing all my psychological processes, and my physical body.
Please form pairs, and take it in turns to hold a mirror in front of your partner. Looking into the mirror, tell your partner first just what your physical appearance is, without interpreting or evaluating it, then tell your partner your displayed emotions, then your expressed thoughts, then, finally, the general impression your appearance conveys…”
After an interval of minutes, or days:
11. INTERNAL HARMONY
“Make yourself comfortable, close your eyes, and tune in to your thoughts, as they come and go…
Now multiply 12 by 18…
Multiply 12 by 18 again, and this time notice by what process your mind performs that operation…
Consider what makes a cartwheel round…
Think about the concept of Growth…
Follow through in your mind's eye some effort of investigation…
Form an image of your mind…
Form an image of your body…
Develop an imaginary dialogue to bring together and integrate in their images your body and your mind…
What are you thinking now?…
What is your body saying now?…
What are you feeling now?…
What do you choose to be?…
Be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible, develop and, if necessary, change…
Body, feelings, mind, will - the differentiation of these in consciousness and the rational self-affirmation of the knower as a knower are a gradual process.”*
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* Note: The bodily identified are rather few and far between. It is necessary to deal with any related mental or emotional problems, and with any hidden rejection of the body, to compensate for the widespread lack of proper bodily education, to help them to tune in to sensations, colours, shapes and sounds in any tense part of their body. All this effort needs to be related to the self and the Self.
The emotionally identified need to deal with childhood experiences that occasioned negative feelings towards the mind, to appreciate that only the mind can identify the nature of feelings and enable one to choose how to express them, to separate the mind from its associated sub-personalities, to learn how to dis-identify, to acquire positive emotional experiences in using the mind - excluding all use of the verb “to be” facilitates dis-identification.
The mentally identified need to acknowledge that it is good to feel and to develop feelings, to explore the repressed feelings that block growth generally, to contact those unconscious feelings that may prove to be controlling ones personality from behind a façade of rationalization.
After an interval of minutes, or days:
12. CREATIVE CHANGE
“Make yourself comfortable. Close your eyes. Imagine yourself in a time-machine…
Move back slowly in time through the hour that has just gone by… through the past day… week… month… five years… through your whole adult experience… adolescence… childhood… back through your pre-uterine experience…
With your eyes still closed, return to your present age, and then discuss your experience with the wise old person you find waiting to meet you…
Return now to your pre-uterine experience, and then travel very slowly forwards in your time-machine, until you arrive in the present. At each stage of your journey, check whether the qualities you exhibited in the preceding period were carried forward into the later one, and whether or not you were willing to close one chapter, and to begin a new one in a really fresh way. Finally, discuss this experience with the wise old person…”
After a short interval, the leader continues:
“Please close your eyes, be aware, choose to be here…
What is change?…
Open your eyes, and note your answer to this question…
Close your eyes. Let go your hold on the previous experience. Ask yourself: Where do I come from?
Open your eyes, and note your answer to the last question…
Close your eyes. Let go your hold on the previous experience. Ask yourself: Where do I really want to go?…
Open your eyes, and note your answer to the last question…
Close your eyes. Let go your hold on the previous experience. Ask yourself: What do I need to develop to get me where I want to go?…
Open your eyes, and note your answer to the last question… If possible, also draw or paint your answers to the above questions…
Share your answers in groups of four…”
After an interval of minutes, or days:
13. IN TIME OF CRISIS
“The existential crisis of personal meaning and identity leads to loss of self. Help can be found in the oceanic superconscious of the transpersonal void. This allows a descent of the Self on the self in one of several channels or forms:
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Transcendence
Peak-and-Plateau Experience
Duality Crisis
Meaning & Value
Actualization
Achievement
Existential Crisis
Pragmatism
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There are six common ways to contact ones centre effectively:
Make yourself comfortable, close your eyes, tune in to your own process. Now call to mind three instances of a creative break-through, insight, or ‘aha!’ experience…
Imagine you climb a mountain and speak to a sage, who then tells you the answer to one very important question…
Be aware of her/ his/ its appearance and possible identity…
Make a note of your experiences…”
After an interval of minutes, or days:
“In small groups, I suggest some of you feel, think, act, and talk, as if you want to get a new job. Some of you may prefer to feel, think, act, and talk, as if you are prospective employers, career-advisers, head-hunters. Share some time together working, in whatever way you feel is appropriate, with the following material which I, as a consultant, offer you for your own use today and also next time:
(1.) Make up your mind it is up to you what you make of your own future. No one else can do it for you.
(2.) Find out how you tick, how much you know, what you can do, how you get on with others. (Tests can help.)
(3.) Make a list of all the jobs there are you might be able to do.
(4.) Choose two or three jobs you like and may manage to get, if you play your cards properly.
(5.) Plan out just how you are going to sell yourself and make sure that job comes your way.
(6.) Learn how to make it easy for other people to know about you and about your feelings, your attitudes, ideas and skills.
(7.) Make contact with lots of persons, firms and agencies that may be able to help.
(8.) Present yourself and your case in the best way you can to suit the situation.
(9.) Make it your business to look at all the angles. Be sure of yourself and of what you have to offer, and discuss the terms and conditions of each job you consider in a suitable way.
(10.) Make your choice out of the offers that come your way after weighing up the pros and cons.
(11.) Decide which job to go for right away, and which jobs to aim at later.
(12.) Enjoy doing a job you like and one that is taking you where you know you want to go.
Job Specifications made available to inquirers by prospective employers frequently give rise to misplaced expectations, and many positions are actually assigned to applicants, precisely because the employer's very first impression of them as persons is that they offer something so special that it cannot be expressed in the formal language of any Job Specification in a clearly definable way, even though all of us, in our innermost being, have a clear sense of what this elusive quality is.
Godfrey Howard's illustrations (in Getting Through, Newton Abbot: David & Charles 1980) deserve careful attention:
Part of the process of the induction or initiation of the unemployed and of the still as yet inappropriately employed into the Community of Enterprise necessarily involves, therefore, a very subtle process of information, the most important portions of which are not verbalised directly, together with a suitable refinement of the client's self-image, and of her or his employment expectations.
No amount of control and supervision of a formal or linear sort will be of any practical value, unless those serving clients in need of help are able to enter together with them into a shared world of mutual trust and respect. This, of course, presupposes empathy, sympathy, and a least a minimum of shared commitment. Otherwise, subsequent realistic appraisal is quite impossible.
This is because appraisal, which is, ideally, almost a continuous, and not merely some sort of token, spasmodic process, consists in reviewing both parties' previous expectations of themselves and of each other, as perceived by both of them, though primarily in the light of the client's rather than the consultant's actual achieved performance to date, viewed and, much more important, sensed and felt within the living, nested context of the world of work within the fuller life of, at least, the total human community - this being the source of many expectations, and of the criterion for the validity of most of them… the purpose of life!
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These words provide a focus for many of our tangles.
I suggest an interval of minutes, or days, before each group sets to work again, using this additional material:
For this you need:
After an interval of minutes, or days:
14. WILL
“Relax. Close your eyes. Tune in to your own sound within you…
How can I keep my self-expression in alignment with the Inner Self?…
Imagine a blackboard. Draw a circle on it. Keep your attention on that circle to the exclusion of all else…
Can you differentiate Will from the process of willing?…
There is a sort of effortless concentration that is stronger than minding.
Now make a list of as many ‘should's’ as possible…
From a clear space, choose from among all these things you should do: (a) those which you decide not to do just now, (b) those which you can do, and (c) those which you can't do…
Experience deliberation…
Experience choice sustained…
Experience continuous choosing…
Recall one clear instance of will…
There may be said to be six stages of will:
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If you adopt a specific procedure, or make use of a particular institution (in either or both senses of that word) to move towards the realization of a personal or social objective, you should, ideally, know precisely why you so do.
Be yourself.
Understand.
Feel.
Express yourself in and through your body in your world.
Your world is not, as such, the world.
After an interval of minutes, or days:
15. MEDI(T)ATION
“What is medi(t)ation?… Firstly, concentration on one or three distinct points at once, as pure sensory awareness, listening to the ever present sound of a bell, tuning in to love, feeling the being of another person, retaining a mantra ever in mind.
Second, reflective medi(t)ation, including reading and writing.
Third, receptive medi(t)ation - holding the basket with the fruits of ones reflections aloft, to receive energy from above. This is the point where resistance may emerge.
Finally, contemplation, whether acquired or infused: ‘My beloved is the mountains, the solitary wooded valleys, strange islands, silent music…’
Reflect, for instance, on the English word: Write, Wright, Rite, Right, Writhe… and on the ensuing meanings of: Write On, Right On, Rite On, Be a Writer, Be a Righter, Be a Wrighter, Be a Riter, Write ‘On’ (viz., a book with that title), Rite ‘On’ (perhaps a higher-frequency mantra for use instead of ‘Om’ in the Western hemisphere?), Write yourself, Wright yourself, Right yourself, Rite yourself, always writhing - stop writing/ wrighting/ righting/ riting! - ‘I am the Queen (or Lord) of the Dance!’
After an interval of minutes, or days:
16. GUIDANCE FOR LEADERS
To test how flexible you are:
Just look at the drawing of the cube on this page. Direct your attention towards the dot. Is it on the near or on the far side of the cube? If you see it at the back, try to imagine it at the front, and vice versa.
By imagining the dot to be at the front, and then at the back, you can mentally shift the cube.
Now look at the picture on the same page. Do you see the nose of an old hag, or the chin of a beautiful young lady? The left eye of a hag, or the left ear of a young lady?… W. H. Hill's drawing simultaneously displays a young lady and an older woman, with the former's ear, cheek and necklace as the latter's eye, nose and mouth. While the old lady is shown in profile and close-up, one observes the young woman's bust from somewhere behind at a three-quarters angle.
Guided imagery is useful, but not always necessary. It is bad for those with too much imagery already, for those over keen on sym- bolism, and for those who lack the will to face their already conscious conflicts.
Guided imagery does not alter ones state of consciousness, but is good to expand awareness. It is an instrument with which symbolically to resolve some conflict one is ready to face in reality - this symbolic resolution must afterwards be concretized and grounded.
The client-guide relationship is the main focus, when individual work begins, but should gradually become background. The focus is always on the client as chooser, rather than on her or his presenting condition. One may work either on her or his blocks as such, or on the qualities concealed behind the resistance they express.
The client's problems always need to be seen against the larger Gestalt of her or his life as a whole, possibly via astrology, the Tarot cards, the quest for the Graal, or the mysteries of the Christian liturgy. Her or his motivation must always be respected. Having considered both this willing intention of her or his expressed personality, and also the purpose of her or his higher Self, devise your plan.
A highly resistant client may be invited to take the guide's chair, shepherded gently one step at a time, or asked to imagine s/he has already achieved what s/he wanted, and invited to describe what s/he now feels.
How much should a guide tell her or his client?… What s/he says is never just words; it is the intentional cause of effects within the client. Find an ally within the client. Treat the sessions as mountain-climbing. Use the client's models and mythology, rather than your own, though you will, of course, also respect your own personal needs.
The movement is from becoming to being and the void.
In working with groups, always make it clear that you are also available for individual work, if required. In group-work, focus on the will. Each member needs to have a real experience of choice. Group cohesion is not the goal. It is not always good to follow the flow of group energy.
Bodily awareness can be developed in groups by such exercises as:
Other suitable exercises are:
In other words, there is no need to transform every transpersonal group into a massage session or into an encounter group.
You have your own choice to make.
Are our alternative mythologies almost cosmic sub-personalities?”
After an interval of minutes, or days:
“Personal creativity is more easily actualized within a society that includes nine factors:
Of creative persons it may also be said that:
Because most of us feel that our own creativity is still to some degree blocked, it might also be useful to devote a number of individual or group sessions to identifying such blocks, possibly making use of the following:
Please score:
Before looking at the final check-list provided, add up separately your individual scores for each of the 14 sections.
SECTION ONE
When I am told a task is too difficult, I give up.
I am quick to seek help when things start going wrong.
I avoid matching myself against stronger opponents.
If I am not good at something, I prefer to leave it to others.
I do not waste time trying to learn things for which I have no special talent.
I set moderate, attainable goals for myself.
I avoid situations where I shall be compared to others.
When I make a mistake, I hope nobody finds out about it.
I hate being observed when trying out something new or different.
I don't consider myself much of a gambler.
I can't imagine myself as a hero.
I hate taking tests.
I don't see there is much to be learnt from my failures.
It takes me a long time to feel good about myself again after I have failed at something.
I believe that old dogs cannot learn new tricks.
SECTION TWO
In describing an incident, I would never twist the facts to make an interesting story.
It spoils the game for me, if the other participants start monkeying around.
Class-rooms are not the place for jokes and wisecracks.
I feel guilty if I waste several hours just fooling around.
It's a waste of time wondering what would happen, if things were different from what they are.
I hate parlour games.
I don't enjoy completely unplanned holidays.
Going to a fair with some children has no appeal for me.
I believe that marriage is a serious business.
I would feel dreadful arriving at a party in ordinary clothes, if everyone else was in formal dress.
I don't feel comfortable when my friends play practical jokes on me.
In groups of people, I prefer to put forward my views only when I know I am factually correct.
I would be too embarrassed to order a sandwich for breakfast in a posh restaurant, even if I knew that was what I really wanted.
I find difficulty in letting my hair down and acting silly.
I dislike Monty Python's Flying Circus and trivial programmes of that sort.
SECTION THREE
I don't see any point in discussing work problems with members of my family.
I dislike asking people the way, when I can't seem to find my destination.
I seldom think of my boss as a source of help.
Libraries are not places I frequent very often.
It is a sign of weakness to discuss personal problems with people who are not involved.
If something doesn't work, I am slow to find other things to try.
There are very few people who can really help me.
Most people seem to overrate my abilities.
I am annoyed if the right tools are not available for doing a job.
I am fairly slow to respond to emergencies.
I am surprised when someone turns to me for help.
I don't see much purpose in bringing a group of people together to solve a problem.
I consider myself a highly self-sufficient person.
Without help from experts, it is very difficult to get some things done.
I have not developed many new skills in the past few years.
SECTION FOUR
I can't understand why so many people are confused about things.
Once I make a decision, I stick to it.
My beliefs about life and religion are quite clear.
I know what characteristics make the best leaders.
I have an excellent memory and seldom forget things.
I consider myself a good judge of other people.
Others do not consider me to be a very flexible person.
I know my limitations.
If people took my advice more often, they would do better.
It's hard for me to change my approach to problem-solving.
I usually know whether or not I'm going to like something, without actually experiencing it.
Most parents know better than their children what is best for them.
The most important principles of science have already been discovered.
I feel I know most of the basic truths about life.
There is always a right and a wrong way of doing things.
SECTION FIVE
It's better to take a decision, even if it proves wrong, than to keep worrying about what to do.
When somebody tells me a problem cannot be solved, I tend to take their word.
Some things are just not worth fighting for. I am an impatient person.
It's foolish to just keep trying things, when nothing seems to work.
I can't understand why anyone should stay in a difficult and frustrating job.
When there is a personality clash between two people, it is best for them to part.
I want what I want when I want it.
If I don't find the first chapter of a book interesting, I usually stop reading it at that point.
I prefer projects to which I can quickly see a solution.
I dislike getting into the many details needed to put my creative ideas into practice.
I don't like arguing with prejudiced people.
Once I have solved the most difficult aspects of a problem, I lose interest in pursuing it further.
I no longer try to learn new skills that require a lot of study or practice.
The experience of overcoming an obstacle is insignificant compared with the end result itself.
SECTION SIX
I don't think it's right to start talking about a new national anthem to replace G-d Save the Queen.
I often reminisce about the Good Old Days, back where I was born.
No matter where in the world I am, I prefer bacon and eggs for breakfast.
Most art and music of today is just a passing fancy.
I have my pet chair, and I don't like to sit anywhere else.
Why should anyone want to have steak-and-kidney pie for Christmas dinner?
If it was good enough for my parents, it's good enough for me.
There has been no real genius born during the last 50 years.
I think it is essential to have 3 regular meals a day.
If a custom persists, the reason for its existence must be sound.
Things are changing too fast for my liking.
These modern clothes make people look silly.
All literature should follow the customary rules of grammar and punctuation.
I don't like to be one of the first people to try something new.
The best values are the traditional values.
SECTION SEVEN
Day-dreaming is a waste of time.
An ounce of fact is worth a pound of imagination.
I prefer biography to science-fiction.
I seldom dream at night.
I cannot imagine what it's like to be of another sex, colour, culture, etc.
I have never acted in a play, nor wanted to.
When my mind wanders, I know it is time to stop thinking about a problem.
‘Let's pretend’ games are childish, and not for adults.
I never could understand why Alice in Wonderland appeals to people.
I avoid all fancy-dress parties.
Trying to understand ones dreams is a useless occupation.
There's no point in developing utopian solutions to real problems.
A vivid imagination is O.K. for writers; but the rest of us should stick to reality.
It is bad to tell fairy-tales to children.
I find it difficult to conjure up pictures in my mind.
SECTION EIGHT
I do not like trying new types of food.
The idea of living to the year 2,050 does not appeal to me.
Continued under-water exploration is likely to upset our ecological balance.
I would never allow anyone to hypnotize me.
What you don't know can't hurt you - ignorance is bliss.
I couldn't bear to drive in a strange city without a map.
When I contemplate change, it is always the most negative aspects I am most conscious of.
I tend to stick to the brands I know when buying things.
I hate surprise parties and mystery tours.
The idea of taking holidays in strange, exotic places does not appeal to me.
The idea of the supernatural is absurd.
Space exploration opens up dangerous possibilities for our lives.
I would not like to spend a year in a foreign country.
I always investigate first before trying something new.
The increased use of computers makes me feel uncomfortable.
SECTION NINE
A good manager works best, when his responsibilities and limits are clearly defined.
I dislike meetings which do not have clearly stated objectives and an agenda.
Poetry pleases me only when it rhymes.
I won't read or watch serial stories, unless I am sure of seeing the final instalment.
I dislike Indian, Oriental and other unmelodious music.
It annoys me to see cupboard doors left open.
I get annoyed when people have trouble locating something in the files.
I like to have my possessions arranged in an orderly, systematic way.
There's no excuse for looking sloppy.
It is important for me to be on time.
I enjoy budgetting, forecastig and planning.
I dislike confused situations.
It is important to stick to the established rules, when playing a game.
I would enjoy abstract art better, if I knew what the artist was trying to convey.
I like my jig-saws to have pictures, and not just a mixture of colours and shapes.
SECTION TEN
I would produce more, if my environment allowed me more flexibility.
It is quite useless protesting to your M.P. concerning matters you feel strongly about.
Most parties are rather dull.
Discontent is a sign of maladjustment.
If people sitting in front of me at the cinema talk too much, or get in my way, I change my seat.
You can't fight the establishment.
Most changes take a very long time to accomplish, so it's hardly worth trying.
It's not fair for one individual to seek to have his way at the expense of others.
I have never thought of asking for anything in a restaurant that is not on the menu.
In my organization it is useless to try and get things away from the established way of doing things.
I would hate to be seen as pushy.
If you don't like the policies of your organization, the best thing to do is to leave it.
I try very hard to avoid disagreeing with people.
The ordinary woman or man can do practically nothing to influence the world today.
I don't like to call attention to myself.
SECTION ELEVEN
When I feel blocked on an important problem, I redouble my efforts to solve it.
I am known as a worrying type. I prefer swimming to just floating.
I never rely on intuition, or play hunches, or make a decision.
I don't respect people who are soft.
I am not a particularly spontaneous person.
In the final analysis, it is the boss who makes the important decisions, and who must do so.
If someone comes to me for help, I am annoyed if they pay no attention to what I advise.
I cannot understand the attraction that Zen and other Eastern philosophies have for some people.
It would never occur to me to take an important decision by flipping a coin.
I would never allow myself to be carried along by my emotional response to a situation.
If I want something done right, I usually do it myself.
It is vital to be detached, rational and objective, when making decisions.
I have difficulty in sleeping at nights, when there is an important meeting the next day.
Walking away from a problem never solves anything.
SECTION TWELVE
Maturity means learning to control ones emotions.
I know many people who express their feelings too openly.
I try to avoid good-bye scenes.
Women and men are very different in their emotional make-up.
When I become angry, I try to suppress it.
A group meeting is no place for a show of emotion.
Too much praise can spoil people.
I can't remember the last time I cried.
I seldom, if ever, feel anxious.
When I feel emotion, it is very difficult for me to show it.
It often surprises me how deeply some people feel about things.
I can't imagine myself giving a yell of joy.
I have excellent control over my feelings.
There are few things important enough to make me very depressed or highly enthusiastic.
I don't like being with emotional people.
SECTION THIRTEEN
Women should be women, and men should be men.
It's easy to tell fact from fiction.
You can't have too much of a good thing.
I know I would never tell a lie.
You either like people or dislike them - there's no half-measure.
Obstacles to achievement decrease the enjoyment of success.
It's not right for a woman to earn more than her husband.
A real man is tough-minded and aggressive.
I scoff when anybody says: ‘Think of it as an opportunity, not as a problem.’
Where are good people and there are bad people, and you must be one or the other.
Nothing worthwhile can be accomplished, unless a person has strong values, and sticks to them.
We are all either leaders or followers.
Nothing valuable can come from an unpleasant experience.
There is very little that children can teach adults.
I can't see anything good coming out of the hippie movement.
SECTION FOURTEEN
I have no strong colour preferences.
Most pop music sounds the same to me.
I see my office as a place of work, not as a place to be enjoyed and lived in.
I have learned to tune out traffic noise.
Most flowers smell the same to me.
I'm the kind of person who seldom touches other people.
I don't know why people make so much fuss about heat, cold and ventilation.
As far as good goes, I stick basically to one or two favourite dishes.
I'm not at all ticklish.
I can't imagine feeling good, when dirty and sweaty.
I'm not generally aware of my bodily sensations.
I hardly know one tree from another.
All beer (all wine) tastes much the same to me.
My physical surroundings hardly affect me.
Some people can always tell by sound, when things are going wrong with their car, but I can't.
Now write down your score for each section:
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Then, underneath, re-list the section-numbers, 1 to 14, in the order that starts out from the number of the section in which your scored most, and works down gradually to the number of the section in which you scored least:
Make in your Personal Journal, if you wish, a note of today's date, and your feelings after completing the test.
Then, only after that, read on:
17. YOUR OWN PERSONAL, PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL QUESTIONNAIRE:
This is only one of several self-help aids included within this family of websites. Also available: Set of 22 vital questions. Suggestions for keeping a Personal Journal. Twelve-steps to planned Career Change. Identifying and overcoming blocks to Creativity.
Answers may, if you wish, be posted to -
marked for the attention of His Benevolence The Extra-Reverend The Preliminary LibrArian I+N The Neith Network, Doctor Colin James Hamer ( Shivananda ).
NAME IN FULL -
HOME eMAIL ADDRESS &/OR FAX &/OR TELEPHONE NUMBER -
eMAIL ADDRESS &/OR FAX &/OR TELEPHONE NUMBER AT WORK -
PRESENT ADDRESS IN FULL -
DATE AND, IF POSSIBLE, PLACE & TIME OF BIRTH -
NAME AT BIRTH, IF DIFFERENT FROM THAT GIVEN ABOVE -
(1) Which women and men, living or dead, do you most appreciate and admire? Why?
(2) Which are your favourite books, and which have you found most helpful? In what ways?
(3) Which films have you liked most? Why?
(4) Which are your preferred radio and television programmes? Why?
(5) What do you find most congenial to you about any computers you use? Why?
(6) Which poems and songs are now your favourites? Why?
(7) Do you prefer paintings or statues? Which of these do you most admire? Why?
(8) Name your favourite plays. What do you like about them?
(9) Which games and sports, if any, do you enjoy playing? Do you also enjoy, or prefer being a spectator? If so, in which ways?
(10) What is your attitude towards time? Is is too long or too short? Explain.
(11) How easily do you allow other persons to enter, to rearrange or even to control your space? Explain your answer.
(12) What is your attitude towards money? wealth? poverty?
(13) Is morality important to you? In what ways?
(14) Are you an individualist, or do you feel family, society, country and a united world are important values? Explain your answer.
(15) What does friendship mean to you?
(16) What is your attitude towards love? What do you mean by it? What do you think of the opposite sex? your own sex? marriage? children?
(17) What causes you most pain and suffering? Was your childhood happy or sad? What troubles you most now?
(18) What brings you most joy and happiness? How do you feel about being always happy? Do you believe such a state is possible for you? If so, how might it be achieved?
(19) What significance, value and purpose does life have for you?
(20) Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Explain.
(21) What is your attitude towards religion? Explain.
(22) What caused you to occupy your time at present with the particular work, study or other pursuits that you are currently engaged in? Is this significant?
(23) Do you prefer city life? the country? the seaside? In what ways?
(24) In your inner life, which aspects are most important - thinking? imagination? feeling? prayer? meditation? dreams? special vibrations?
(25) How did your time at school influence your present life?
(26) What is your attitude towards the present world economic, political and social situation?
(27) How do you rate yourself for: General conduct? Spitefulness? Personal appearance and hygeine? Changeability of mood? Sense of discipline? Temper? Sense of humour? Being moved to tears? Personality? Stability? Application to work? Troublesome behaviour? Alertness? Defiance? Concentration? Destructiveness? Perseverance? Cooperation? Energy? Anxiety to please? Quality of social relationships? Attention seeking? Number and variety of friends? Deceitfulness? Bullying? Lying? Submissiveness? Hobbies and pastimes? Domineering others? Sports and games? Aggression? Love life? Timidity? Originality and creativity? Nervousness? Anxiety? Day-dreaming? Excitability? Impulsiveness? Boasting? Leadership? Self-reliance? Dependence on others? Selfishness? Attraction towards persons of various ages?
(28) How, in particular, do you rate your non-verbal and conversational social skills? Is your speech too loud, too soft, audible, clear? Is your tone of voice dull, monotonous, pleasantly varied? Is your facial expression lively and versatile? Do you make the right amount of eye-contact with others? Is your posture rigid, slouched, comfortable, relaxed? Do you show interest in other people enough? too much? Do you talk interestingly about yourself? Too much? Too little? Do you ask questions to open up the conversation more? Do you pick up on and reflect others' ideas, or ignore them? When others ask questions - do you say 'yes' or 'no'? or do you ignore them altogether? or do you elaborate on them?
(29) PRESENT COMPLAINT?
(30) Previous occasions of the same complaint?
(31) Previous illnesses of any sort?
(32) Your family history -
Mother? Alive or dead? If dead, when and how? How did you get on with her? (How do you?) Did she have special favourites? Have you always told her everything? If not, how reserved were you? (Are you?) Could you criticise her openly? Did she (does she) have moods? Or always cheerful? House-proud? Or rather messy? Affectionate? Smothering? Unfeeling? Self-centred? What did mother want you to be, or do? How much freedom had you as a child to play out and entertain? Was she on good terms with the neighbours? Did you ever feel ashamed of anything she was, or did? With what emotions do you think of your mother now? What was her attitude to your school-work, games, friends, etc?
Father? Personality? How did he earn his living? What was his attitude to work? To recreation? Did he take an interest in you? In other children? Were you punished at home? If so, how? Did your parents love each other? Did they love you?
Brothers and sisters? Names and ages? Present marital status? Occupations? General and mental health or illness of each? Your relationships with them?
Other important personal influences? Grandparents? Aunts and uncles? Teachers and clergy? Others?
(33) Previous personal history -
Early days? Influences on mother during pregnancy? Mother's labour before your birth? Traumas? Breast-feeding? A happy baby? Or always screaming? Sleeping difficulties or illnesses? What did mother do, if you cried? Comments about sitting, walking, teething, feeding yourself, bowel and bladder training? Were you an early or a late developer?
Childhood disturbances? Night terrors? Sleep-walking? Temper tantrums? Bed-wetting? Thumb-sucking? Nail-biting? Breath-holding? Food fads? Abnormal bowel habits? Stammering? Tics and mannerisms? Phobias or irrational fears?
General health during childhood? Any severe infections, illnesses, fits, allergies - such as dermatitis, hay-fever or asthma? Any recurrent illnesses or operations? Any periods in hospital and away from mother? Effects of this?
School? Regular attendance? Off sick? Truancy? Any special happiness and success? Any particular frustrations and failures? Relationships? Occupations? Progress?
Work? How and when did you choose your first job? What did you feel about starting work? What is your attitude towards authority, equals, those under you? How do you react to criticism? Have you a career structure? Do you enjoy your work? Any crises?
Puberty and adolescence? Feelings about the changes in your body? Masturbation anxieties? Relationships with others of your own age? Had you somebody to turn to?
Sexual and marital history?
Children?
Habits and routines?
(34) NAME, ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER OF YOUR PRESENT DOCTOR?
(35) Biorhythmic status on 7th February 2000:
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(36) Status of Principal Chakras, if known, on two separate occasions (please also specify time, place, circumstances):
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(37) Additional Observations?
(38) Personal Signature:
(39) Date of completion of this Questionnaire?
(40) Recent photograph(s) if available -
Doctor John Lilly, one of the world's foremost authorities on dolphins and a pioneering researcher into altered states of consciousness, was also a gifted inventor, and one of his best known inventions, originally developed in 1954, when he was working for the United States National Institute of Mental Health, is the Epsom-Salts Floatation-Isolation-Relaxation-Samadhi Tank, familiarly known as the Lilly Pond, and sometimes also referred to as a Tranquillity Spa. In the late 1970's I became the second owner of the first such Tank in Europe, a cardboard and plastic device which Amethyst International had imported from North America via Heathrow Airport some months previously.
At about the same time a British inventor developed a smaller but in some ways better model, more easily adapted for use in a typical British environment, and in due course I also acquired one of these, the first in the U.K. to be fitted with underwater loud-speakers. Prior to 1981 five or six similarly made British Tanks had been exported to Continental Europe, where they were in use in one or more New Age Centres. I enjoyed the use of this second Tank of mine for several years - only disposing of it, in fact, after my relocation from London to Exeter in June 1987. When I last saw it, it was in the course of being installed in a new Health Centre somewhere along the Old Kent Road.
Doctors Peter Bärsch and Evkatrhrin Schmidt had also enjoyed the use of it while I was living at A Place of Peace, 46a Bellefields Road, Stockwell, and commented very favourably on it while visiting me briefly immediately after their exploratory visit to the North Polar regions, where they had, indeed, enjoyed real isolation, surviving only on polar-bear meat and cranberries. After their return to Zürich and subsequent translocation to the outskirts of Berne, a very much larger open-air tank able to accommodate twenty floaters or more at the same time, and similarly filled with a high-density solution of Epsom-salts, was set up in the city-centre for a few days for the free use of any citizens who cared to try it, and I was also privileged to view this for myself while staying for a few days in Münchenbuchsee, which is less than 6 miles away. Leslie Kenton was another visitor to my Stockwell Tank, and her related article (Harpers & Queen, October 1982) speaks for itself:
“A sudden panic seized me as I entered the sarcophagus-like dark box where I was to spend the next hour and a half in isolation - floating on a salty sea. Claustrophobia? Fear of the unknown? I wasn't sure. I was here to investigate the experience of sensory isolation in a floatation tank - an experience much acclaimed by artists, athletes, doctors and psychologists - and I wasn't about to quit. Hoping that my fear was like a nagging child, something that would go away if I didn't pay much attention to it, I swallowed hard, stretched myself out in the strange watery solution beneath me, closed my eyes and waited. No sound penetrated my black world. Soon (time, alas, is impossible to measure in an isolation tank) the darkness around me became a screen on which vivid images from my mind and momentary flashing lights from my consciousness were projected. Then silence and blackness reigned once more and I slipped in to such a deep state of blissful relaxation that I caught myself smiling secretly.
My ‘helper’, who remained outside the tank, a PhD who had himself been using it for several years, had arranged after an hour on my own that he would play some music through the speakers with which the tank was equipped. It began - lovely Egyptian melodies, then charming sounds of dolphins playing in the sea. But instead of welcoming the friendly sounds I found myself annoyed at the intrusion on my silence. This black world, which at first had seemed so threatening to me, had already wooed and won me. When finally he opened the door and told me I had been in an hour and a half, I found it difficult to believe.
I got out, showered, and emerged from the experience feeling as though I had spent a long weekend in the country - relaxed but alert and clear-headed. It is a feeling that remained with me for a week afterwards. So that's sensory isolation - an experience I would willingly repeat.
First developed for experimental purposes in the Fifties, the isolation tank was an invention of Dr John Lilly, the American neurophysiologist who is well known for his in-depth studies of dolphins. It was around the time that the Russians and the Chinese claimed that sensory deprivation could be useful in brainwashing. Lilly wanted to disprove the theory of the prominent Belgian neurologist Frédéric Bremer, and of Dr Horace Magoun in the United States, who both claimed that the brain was active only because it was stimulated by things from the outside environment. Lilly believed differently - that a human mind deprived of sensory input (sight, sound, touch) would not become unconscious. Neither would it, as they said, necessarily enter an anxiety state. At the National Institute for Mental Health in Maryland, where Lilly was doing research, he took a tank which would cut out light and sound, filled it with water at body temperature and made a complicated breathing mask for its occupant who was then lowered into the contraption. Here he floated upright for hours on end, while a complex filtering system cleared the water of wastes and another pump fed his mask with unending air for breathing. It was a complicated experiment. But its results were fascinating.
Lilly and his colleagues studied the physiological and psychological effects of a state in which all contact with the outside world is broken and a person floats in a kind of suspended isolation and found that when the brain is deprived of sensory input from outside, instead of entering an anxiety state or simply shutting down as many experts claimed, it becomes very active indeed. For, although after several hours it is no longer possible for the subject to carry on organised directed thinking for any sustained period, as one does in the waking state, the mind seems to switch in to other, far more imaginative and possibly more creative, modes of functioning. It appears to turn inwards and then to project its own content and processes into visual shapes and forms - a kind of waking dream. It is also often able to see problems more clearly than in the waking state and even to find solutions to them or to transcend them; that is, to discover that what one considered a problem is not a problem at all. Some of their experiments even lead to dream-like states, trance-like states and mystical states.
Lilly's own experiences in the tank were particularly interesting. In fact many of them were the kind of things conventional psychiatry at the time would have labelled psychotic. Yet, far from being overwhelmed by such psychic material while he was in the tank, and far from being in a psychologically disorientated or mentally-ill state when he came out, he emerged from the experiences with increasing mental clarity. In the tank itself he remained centred and consciously aware of what was happening all the while. Outside, afterwards, he set to recording, in lucid detail, what had happened - in scientific journals, papers, and books such as The Centre of the Cyclone (Paladin 1977). In this he writes:
Other experiments in sensory isolation (a term Lilly and others who have worked with tanks prefer to ‘sensory deprivation’, since they claim there is nothing deprived about the isolation state), such as those carried out by Dr Donald Hebb's Department of Psychology at McGill University in Canada, turned up similar, if not quite such exciting, results. As a result, many professionals working in the fields of depth and growth psychology and in medicine became interested and offered themselves as guinea-pigs, so that by now we have literally hundreds of reports of tank experiences carefully catalogued. Lilly's own work was interrupted for a few years by his move to the Virgin Islands to study dolphins. When he resumed it, he even for a time explored the effects of psychedelic drugs within the tank environment. He also discovered that the tank could be made more simply and cheaply without all the fancy breathing equipment if the body was floated horizontally in heavily salted water which would keep it afloat and the face above the water-line so one could breathe easily. When air and water temperature were kept at the same level - equal to body temperature - occupants soon lost awareness of the water-line and merged into their black environment, experiencing a state of deep relaxation.
Tanks which are now in use and commercially available are all roughly based on Lilly's improved horizontal model. They are currently being used by athletes, who claim it improves their game, in conjunction with visualisation techniques; by teachers to facilitate rapid learning of languages; by busy executives who claim greater energy and management of stress from the experience; by artists and writers who find they stimulate imaginative processes; and even by doctors to wean patients off drugs and to combat chronic pain.
Tank devotees claim they would never want to be without one for long. Sceptics who have never tried the tank experience insist there is no rationale to the claims that simply floating in a silent dark box can have such beneficial effects. In fact, although there is some interesting research into the psychophysical effects of floatation, nobody yet knows exactly why tank trips achieve so much. One thing that is known is that when you remove as many sources of stimulation as possible the brain is able to do two things - turn its attention inwards towards repair and rebalancing of the body's systems and also free itself from the need to process information - so the mind is set free and imagination can run wild. Most scientists investigating the floatation phenomenon agree that at least some of the tank's benefits stem from the kind of deep relaxation it induces and the way in which this relaxation is a direct antidote to stress.
When the body is under stress due to overwork, illness, mental or physical fatigue, or worry, the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system comes strongly into play: breathing increases, so does heartbeat. There is blood flow away from internal organs to the muscles and limbs carrying sugar and oxygen to fuel the body for physical action. The mind becomes hyper-alert, ready to move. This ‘stress-state’ can be highly creative, bringing one a sense of excitement and challenge. And, provided one is able to use up the newly produced energy, to dissipate the stress-associated chemicals one's body has produced, when gradually one's body returns to normal and one ‘comes down’, so the other branch of the autonomic nervous system takes over - the parasympathetic. Then one relaxes deeply, which strengthens the immune system and redirects blood flow back from the periphery of the body to the internal organs, thus restoring homeostasis to the system. The trouble is that many people find, because of the continual nature of modern stresses, and the fact that they rarely have a physical means of working off stress hormones, they get ‘stuck’ in the highly aroused state and can't come down. Not only can this be hard on the body and lead to muddled thinking and tension, it may also result in either minor or major illness. (Some scientists estimate that as much as 85 per cent of both kinds of illness are directly stress-related).
In recent years much research has been done into what tools a person can use to train himself to move at will between the aroused and the relaxed state so he can experience the benefits of both. Studies have shown for instance that regular aerobic exercise, meditation and deep relaxation techniques such as autogenic training work well. So does the regular use of a floatation tank. But the difference between the state it induces and that of the other techniques for relaxation appear to be twofold. First: floatation in an isolation tank requires no previous training or particular fitness on the part of the participant. Second: it can rapidly bring even a novice to a deep state of repose - so deep in fact that two hours in a tank can, for some people, be the equivalent of a night's sleep.
Scientists have measured the depth of relaxation by recording brain-wave patterns. When researchers at the University of Colorado in the United States examined the effect of floatation on brainwaves they discovered that certain patterns - particularly a predominance of theta waves - was a common experience among floaters. Theta waves are associated with very deep states of relaxation and the repose that comes with certain profound meditative techniques - but only after they have been practised for a long time. They also found that the immediate positive effects of floatation ‘washed away’ three weeks later so that in order to maintain them one would have to periodically repeat the float experience. They ended their report by suggesting that further research be done in order to establish whether longer and more frequent exposure to the experience of floatation might not produce even stronger positive effects on mind and body.
Experienced floaters who use isolation tanks regularly, for whatever purpose they choose, claim, almost without exception, that it does... For instance, British advocate, philosopher Colin Hamer, believes that the tank experience can be almost what you want to make it - from a simple way to unwind to a ‘think tank’ for problem-solving, from a way of penetrating areas of consciousness not normally available to one and enhancing imaginative faculties to a simple and quick relief from muscle tension.
This was one of the attractions to sports clubs and professional teams who have purchased one or more of the tanks for use with their players. In the United States teams such as the Philadelphia Eagles and the Philadelphia Phillies have experimented with floatation, as a means of general relaxation, for the release of muscle tension and as a way of ‘programming’ players through visualisation techniques. Pioneered by the Russians a few years ago, visualisation techniques for improving athletic performance have proved highly successful for athletes using them. In effect the athlete allows himself, when in a state of self-hypnosis or deep relaxation, to visualise himself playing a better game, hitting the ball further, running faster or whatever he is trying to do better. He just lets images play through his mind as a child does when day-dreaming. Such a practice has been shown to have a positive effect on performance on the playing-field. Using this kind of visualisation in the tank environment appears to reinforce its benefits. This is probably because the kind of relaxation the tank induces is very deep and therefore the mind is very receptive to whatever suggestions are given to it. One American team, the Dallas Cowboys, have carried this practice even further. They have provided their tanks with audio and video recordings of, say, a player playing at his best, or the coach's voice, to reinforce positive play. In Britain Luton Town and Tottenham Hotspur football clubs operate their own floats although they have not begun to use video material. Larry Holmes is reputed to have watched Muhammad Ali on video, while floating in a tank, for ten to twelve weeks before the big fight which he won. The imaginatively stimulating characteristics of floatation appeals particularly to writers and artists, some of whom claim their best ideas come from tank trips. Michael Crichton the writer/ director, who was responsible for The Andromeda Strain and Coma, has used a tank regularly while writing his latest scripts, while a number of celebrities from Kris Kristofferson to ‘est’ guru Werner Erhard are tank users.
Another interesting use to which tanks are now being put is the rapid learning of languages. Using pre-recorded tapes and floatation tanks, the Universities of Denver and Boston and Texas A & M College are carrying out programmes for ‘superlearning’, following the techniques of Bulgarian Gregori Lozanov, where words are ‘fed in’ to a person in a deeply relaxed state, in carefully controlled pulses, and the ‘by rote’ kind of learning is facilitated. But perhaps the most encouraging of the medical uses of tanks lies in the area of pain control. Some American physicians are finding that the kind of deep relaxation which floatation induces can be of great benefit to patients in chronic pain - from headaches to lower back pain and even pain of unknown origin. This, they believe, probably results from the way in which profound relaxation tends to stimulate the body to produce endorphins - natural opiates which act on the brain to reduce sensitivity to pain and to bring a feeling of well-being to the person. They are finding floatation useful as a means of weaning chronic pain sufferers off long-term pain-killers and tranquillisers. They claim that the benefits of floatation carry over week to week, provided they are reinforced by periodic tank trips, and restore patients to a state of calm in which all sensations of discomfort are either eliminated or greatly reduced.
But what about the tanks themselves? Are they not simple enough that one could make one's own in the back bedroom? The idea of a floatation tank is very simple indeed - a box about 8ft by 4ft 4ins in which about ten inches of salty water allows you to float buoyantly in the dark silence. The reality of a working tank is quite a bit more complex. The water has to be carefully regulated to stay about 93.5°F. Tanks are fitted with separate regulators for water and air to ensure that both are kept within a few tenths of a degree of this figure, which is the normal exterior temperature of the body. If it were to fall below this one could suffer hypothermia; and if it were to rise much above the body could go into coma, so regulation is therefore essential. The floatation medium itself in most tanks consists of ordinary water to which a couple of hundredweight sacks of Epsom salts have been added.* Such high-density liquid (53 per cent Epsom salts by weight) works strongly against the force of gravity so that even the leanest body will float high in the water. The water is then filtered through diatomaceous earth to remove any skin, hair or debris which is left in the tank, and needs to be changed completely every few months depending on how much use the tank gets.
Many tanks are equipped with stereo speakers for playing music or audio information into the floater. There are also very specific rules about tank usage, such as a shower and hair wash and the use of the lavatory beforehand, plugging the ears with wax or paper to keep out excess water while floating, removing jewellery (which the salts can dissolve) and of course a shower afterwards to remove any salts from the skin and hair. The Epsom salts themselves are softening to skin but can make the eyes smart so another rule is not to rub your face or eyes while you are in the tank. But a floatation tank, like a sauna or whirlpool bath is a big piece of equipment. Ideally it needs its own room complete with shower - not something everybody can find a place for no matter how enthusiastic they are about floatation. The tanks themselves come in various sizes and shapes and cost between £1,000 and £3,000 depending on the model and extras. Here in Britain the tank phenomenon is just beginning. It will be some time before one can go to any large city and find tank facilities for rent on an hourly basis as you can in the USA. But I suspect it will come. There are enough international travellers who find tank floatation an excellent antidote to jet lag, athletes keen to investigate what floatation can do for their game and executives battling with stress who will discover what the tank might offer them. That is not to mention a burgeoning group of people fascinated by potentials of the human mind and keen to investigate any technique which might help explore them. Tanks are likely to be with us for quite a while.”
Meanwhile, a Macclesfield-based business man had installed locally a slightly differently designed tank imported from U.S.A. and had also supplied a tank to Luton Town Football Club, while, in Shepherd's Bush Willow Anson had, with a little help from me, created his own prototype pyramid-shaped tank for the use of a community in Hammersmith.
For the record, my first tank, an American import, required 6-7 hundredweight of Epsom-salts, but my second, that which was British-made, no more than about 4 hundredweight. In his article, “The Floating Phenomenon” in Creative Mind Magazine (1986), which includes a photograph of my second tank, Alister Hunter states that Sarah Bradpiece's somewhat larger although also British-made tank in Battersea used 800 lbs of Epsom-salts, and Willow Anson's pyramid-shaped tank (which was subsequently moved to Berlin) will have required even more.
At least two different Exeter-based entrepreneurs have already tried to make a business of installing one on private premises for the use of paying visitors, and I believe another one, at least, is still up and running somewhere in Totnes but, so far, very few Exonians appear to float in them more than very occasionally. That was also my own experience in London (cfr. also: Michael Hutchison, The Book of Floating, New York: Wm Morrow & Co. 1984; Megabrain, New York: Ballantine 1987).
The information given on this Form is strictly confidential.
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In signing this Form I state the the information given above is true, and I witness that I am not suffering from any serious health complaint or contagious disease, and I hereby declare that neither I nor any other person on my behalf will make any claim against Doctor Colin James Hamer, or his servants or agents, or hold him responsible for any accident, equipment failure or illness that may arise from my using The Epsom-Salts Floatation-Isolation-Relaxation-Samadhi Tank, shower and toilet facilities, or other equipment associated with the afore-mentioned Tank or its use, providing Doctor Colin James Hamer shall not have been proved to have been negligent.
I also hereby agree not ot tamper with nor adjust the electrical equipment belonging to the Tank, and to pay the fee agreed for Floatation Time, Attendance, and Personal Service. In the event of my using the Tank on other occasions, I hereby undertake to notify Doctor Colin James Hamer of any material change in circumstances relating to my physical or mental health, or to the ingestion by me of any of the above mentioned drugs.
Dated:
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______________________
* Editor's Note: The above form of words is that I used when allowing guests the use of my Stockwell facility, naturally after first discussing it quite specifically with a solicitor whose judgment I valued highly at that time.
Legal niceties aside, in my experience, the main benefit of being in the Tank is that it gives you a relaxed, quiet, undisturbed space in which to chew over a problem, meditate, fantasize in our own private world, become aware of your feelings and needs, explore your bodily sensations, and help yourself grow as a person. It is an opportunity to preserve and enhance the quality of life on Earth in the New Millennium.
- Shalom & Welcome! - 
© The Neith Network Library 2003
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Updated 16:16 21/12/2003.