Q: There is an online support group for The Presence Process at a website about a mind-body chronic pain condition called TMS. We've had almost 200 posts already, which you can read starting here. The wiki gets about 12,000 page views per month and I'm sure that people would be thrilled to hear from you. If you respond to this email, I'd be happy to prominently post any feedback from you, especially if it mentions TMS.
A: Mostly, a support group only supports ego, drama, the intent to "understand", and individuals who cannot contain their experience. Everything anyone requires of me personally related to this work is already freely available on the website. Talking about and discussing this work with each other does not in any way improve our capacity to do it - it actually does the opposite. Wherever we rely on "a support group" is where we do not grow and develop emotionally.
Our authentic "support group" are those we encounter in our daily lives, like our family and work colleagues. This is the group The Presence Process teaches us to work with. When we cannot be authentic within these natural day-to-day encounters - we form or engage in specialized groups as an escape from them. When it comes to this work in particular, support groups take what is intended to improve felt-perception and instead mentalize it.
I have already written an article called "Let's Not Form Another Group" to offer those requiring support groups the possibility of emancipating themselves from such a cul-de-sac. However, if people choose to entertain such things, this is a lesson obviously not yet learnt. But inevitably, it shall be.
Also, to become fixated on any physical symptom and to form a group around discussing this symptom is to completely miss the point of this work. It is the causal point of symptomatic discomfort which ought to be our point of focus if we are serious about integrating it - and the causal point of all symptomatic discomfort is the same. To focus on symptoms is to focus on "effects", not causality - which is "in effect you all" - ineffectual. It is to entertain drama. Chat groups formed around commonly shared symptoms is simply drama - they bow to the symptom as being more significant than its causal point. Talking about our symptoms is therefore the propagation of drama.
It is more efficient to move directly toward integrating the symptoms causality - which requires feeling the related emotional signature without condition. No support group has the capacity to feel on our behalf. Symptomatically-driven support groups aspire to "understanding the condition" - and our intent to use understanding as a means to integrate takes us away from "feeling what is without condition".
You are welcome to post this notice on your support group. It is designed to inspire discussion for those who enjoy drama - and liberation from such a mental cul-de-sac for those who seek authentic integration of their discomfort. By posting it you will discover who is who.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Will The Presence Process help me sell better?
Q: I have a sales job, where I get payed by the sale. Direct marketing. One thing I have noticed is, women love men who are present with them. They respond differently somehow. Next to the 15 minute breathing I try to be conscious of my breathing the whole day, by breathing as deeply as possible. However, I'm into self-help and am using hypnosis tapes for my work - one is for charisma and the other is for leadership ( which allows me to exude confidence, give me real hardcore focus and allow me to have grace under fire, it makes me feel like a leader and gives me that body language, also the tapes gives me the possibility to positively influence people etc.. ). I need this for my job and to keep up my daily income. I need the money for college and rent. My question to you is, could you tell me if there are any side effects when using these hypnosis tapes? I'm willing to drop them if you say so, if it means that it will interfere with the process in any negative way. But it would make a lot of things harder for me.
A: Personally, I cannot enter sales work. I cannot even do book signing in a book store. So, you are talking to the wrong person. I do not believe in the manipulation of others for personal benefit. Dale Carnegie is a creep. This is why I developed the tool, "Navigating Our Experiences" - available free on the Writings page. It is based on navigating our experience - not on the manipulation of others. Your email is timely. I have a friend who adjusts their personality for whomever is in front of them depending on what it is they wish to portray, or what they wish to get out of the encounter. To me this is parasitic. It is "importing a manufactured self" for each occasion - or self-importing - or self-importance. It recently became clear to me [again!], that if I entertain those who behave in this manner, I too become this way.
There are three types of people responsible for propagating ongoing suffering in this world: Priests, politicians, and profiteers. What they all have in common is they manufacture appearances deliberately to manipulate others. They are all the same type of person simply wearing different faces. I am disgusted with myself whenever I behave in this way. This manufacture of personality deliberately to acquire from others is called "iniquity". My work has nothing to do with furthering ones skills at manipulating others. Using this work to impress women and to get people to buy what they may not require has a price tag - eventually we have to pay the piper. The universe is crushingly merciless with those who practice iniquity - as we are finding out right now, economically and otherwise.
When I toured and taught this work I did not even allow my books to be sold in the same room where I spoke. I did not speak to people so they would buy my book. This kind of behavior disgusts me - and I am disgusted with myself whenever I entertain it within myself. We have to be who we are when we are talking to our mother, our lover, the person at the gas station, and the stranger on the street. If we change our face because a face changes in front of us - we are inauthentic, have no integrity, and the closeness we assume we feel with anyone is bullshit.
So, I am not going to tell you what to do. This is what you have a heart for. It appears you have very strong beliefs about what you think you have to do to be supported by the universe. I suggest you read "Navigating Our Experiences" and contemplate the difference between "navigating our own experience" and "behaving in a way as to manipulate another's". The difference between the two is so vast that "a manipulator" and "a navigator" appear as different species. Manipulators inevitably enter self-destruction, whereas navigators evolve. Both take many with them - so we have to take care whom we entertain. We have to choose which group we occupy - not through our words - but through what is in our heart. Then, we live with the consequences. To be sure - we live with the consequences.
A: Personally, I cannot enter sales work. I cannot even do book signing in a book store. So, you are talking to the wrong person. I do not believe in the manipulation of others for personal benefit. Dale Carnegie is a creep. This is why I developed the tool, "Navigating Our Experiences" - available free on the Writings page. It is based on navigating our experience - not on the manipulation of others. Your email is timely. I have a friend who adjusts their personality for whomever is in front of them depending on what it is they wish to portray, or what they wish to get out of the encounter. To me this is parasitic. It is "importing a manufactured self" for each occasion - or self-importing - or self-importance. It recently became clear to me [again!], that if I entertain those who behave in this manner, I too become this way.
There are three types of people responsible for propagating ongoing suffering in this world: Priests, politicians, and profiteers. What they all have in common is they manufacture appearances deliberately to manipulate others. They are all the same type of person simply wearing different faces. I am disgusted with myself whenever I behave in this way. This manufacture of personality deliberately to acquire from others is called "iniquity". My work has nothing to do with furthering ones skills at manipulating others. Using this work to impress women and to get people to buy what they may not require has a price tag - eventually we have to pay the piper. The universe is crushingly merciless with those who practice iniquity - as we are finding out right now, economically and otherwise.
When I toured and taught this work I did not even allow my books to be sold in the same room where I spoke. I did not speak to people so they would buy my book. This kind of behavior disgusts me - and I am disgusted with myself whenever I entertain it within myself. We have to be who we are when we are talking to our mother, our lover, the person at the gas station, and the stranger on the street. If we change our face because a face changes in front of us - we are inauthentic, have no integrity, and the closeness we assume we feel with anyone is bullshit.
So, I am not going to tell you what to do. This is what you have a heart for. It appears you have very strong beliefs about what you think you have to do to be supported by the universe. I suggest you read "Navigating Our Experiences" and contemplate the difference between "navigating our own experience" and "behaving in a way as to manipulate another's". The difference between the two is so vast that "a manipulator" and "a navigator" appear as different species. Manipulators inevitably enter self-destruction, whereas navigators evolve. Both take many with them - so we have to take care whom we entertain. We have to choose which group we occupy - not through our words - but through what is in our heart. Then, we live with the consequences. To be sure - we live with the consequences.
Will The Presence Process help me to find peace?
Q: I am wondering is The Presence Process will help me find peace. It feels like the world is becoming more and more chaotic. I feel hopeless. How are we ever going to live in peace? Is this book going to help me?
A: One of our greatest misconceptions is the notion that if we seek peace, we have to “make it”. This assumes peace does not exist unless manufactured. This misunderstand arises from being mentally and physically transfixed. It stems from the belief we are to rearrange the physical and mental aspect of our experience to moderate its quality. We only have to observe how we behave when we claim we seek peace to realize our approach is a misconception. We even say, “Let’s make peace”. Because of our misconception about what peace is, when intending the experience of peace, we predictably take one of two approaches: Attempting to rearrange our circumstances physically, or mentally. Observing our world and community leaders demonstrates these two ineffectual [in effect you all] approaches.
Our leaders demand that, for there to be peace, people must be moved, removed, borders re-drawn, and population behaviors controlled. This is born out of a belief that peace is established through rearranging physical circumstance. This approach never accomplishes peace – and any apparent appearance of peace gained from rearranging physical circumstance is always short-lived because it is born of control and sedation. Peace may be expressed physically - however, its existence is not determined by physical circumstance.
Our leaders also insist on approaches such as “peace talks” – in which governments and peace organizations present treatise – make compromises with each other – and declare after long discussion and debate that peace is accomplished. This approach mistakenly believes peace is something mental. This approach has never also accomplished the realization of authentic peace – and any apparent appearance of peace gained from mental discussion and debate – from agreement between opposing parties - is always short-lived, because it is also born of control and sedation. Just as peace is not a physical circumstance, it is also not a mental agreement.
Peace is a vibration recognized through felt-perception. We don’t “do peace” or “think peace” – we feel peace. Peace is – it does not require manufacture. Peace is everywhere, whether we are aware of it or not. The entire planet is blanketed in peace. It is easy to experientially realize this: We may enter any war-torn environment – any experience of conflict - remove all human beings – and what becomes immediately self-evident is the resonance of peace. Peace is in the midst of all chaos and conflict. Nothing we do or think ads or takes away from this actuality.
In each moment of our individual experience we are immersed in the vibrational resonance called peace. However, due to our imprinted charged emotions and their emanations of fear, anger, and grief – and the mental stories told by these emotional states – and the physical activities born of believing these stories – we remain unaware of the peace already given to us all.
We are therefore not required to “make peace”, but to realize it – to real eyes it – to perceive it with the eyes of the heart. By sedating and controlling our current states of imprinted felt-discomfort, we simultaneously shut down the perceptual mechanism required to realize peace – our feeling capacity. We are all personally responsible for whether we experience peace or not. No other can feel on our behalf, and therefore no other has the capacity to grant us the experience we call peace. Peace is available to us right now through a choice to feel peaceful.
When we are unable to feel peaceful it because our experience of peace is obscured by our emotional, mental, and physical reactions to our discomfort. The road into realizing peace is therefore the intent to integrate imprinted emotional charge. We are all personally in charge of our capacity for peacefulness. Once we authentically feel the vibrational resonance called peace – this resonance automatically radiates into our mentality and physicality. Peace therefore begins with us, individually. Realizing peace individually is a prerequisite to realizing it collectively. Hence the saying, “Peace be with you”. In this light, The Presence Process and its intent to assist us in integrating our imprinted emotional charges is a tool for realizing peace. But, it begins with us. Peace has nothing to do with the other.
A: One of our greatest misconceptions is the notion that if we seek peace, we have to “make it”. This assumes peace does not exist unless manufactured. This misunderstand arises from being mentally and physically transfixed. It stems from the belief we are to rearrange the physical and mental aspect of our experience to moderate its quality. We only have to observe how we behave when we claim we seek peace to realize our approach is a misconception. We even say, “Let’s make peace”. Because of our misconception about what peace is, when intending the experience of peace, we predictably take one of two approaches: Attempting to rearrange our circumstances physically, or mentally. Observing our world and community leaders demonstrates these two ineffectual [in effect you all] approaches.
Our leaders demand that, for there to be peace, people must be moved, removed, borders re-drawn, and population behaviors controlled. This is born out of a belief that peace is established through rearranging physical circumstance. This approach never accomplishes peace – and any apparent appearance of peace gained from rearranging physical circumstance is always short-lived because it is born of control and sedation. Peace may be expressed physically - however, its existence is not determined by physical circumstance.
Our leaders also insist on approaches such as “peace talks” – in which governments and peace organizations present treatise – make compromises with each other – and declare after long discussion and debate that peace is accomplished. This approach mistakenly believes peace is something mental. This approach has never also accomplished the realization of authentic peace – and any apparent appearance of peace gained from mental discussion and debate – from agreement between opposing parties - is always short-lived, because it is also born of control and sedation. Just as peace is not a physical circumstance, it is also not a mental agreement.
Peace is a vibration recognized through felt-perception. We don’t “do peace” or “think peace” – we feel peace. Peace is – it does not require manufacture. Peace is everywhere, whether we are aware of it or not. The entire planet is blanketed in peace. It is easy to experientially realize this: We may enter any war-torn environment – any experience of conflict - remove all human beings – and what becomes immediately self-evident is the resonance of peace. Peace is in the midst of all chaos and conflict. Nothing we do or think ads or takes away from this actuality.
In each moment of our individual experience we are immersed in the vibrational resonance called peace. However, due to our imprinted charged emotions and their emanations of fear, anger, and grief – and the mental stories told by these emotional states – and the physical activities born of believing these stories – we remain unaware of the peace already given to us all.
We are therefore not required to “make peace”, but to realize it – to real eyes it – to perceive it with the eyes of the heart. By sedating and controlling our current states of imprinted felt-discomfort, we simultaneously shut down the perceptual mechanism required to realize peace – our feeling capacity. We are all personally responsible for whether we experience peace or not. No other can feel on our behalf, and therefore no other has the capacity to grant us the experience we call peace. Peace is available to us right now through a choice to feel peaceful.
When we are unable to feel peaceful it because our experience of peace is obscured by our emotional, mental, and physical reactions to our discomfort. The road into realizing peace is therefore the intent to integrate imprinted emotional charge. We are all personally in charge of our capacity for peacefulness. Once we authentically feel the vibrational resonance called peace – this resonance automatically radiates into our mentality and physicality. Peace therefore begins with us, individually. Realizing peace individually is a prerequisite to realizing it collectively. Hence the saying, “Peace be with you”. In this light, The Presence Process and its intent to assist us in integrating our imprinted emotional charges is a tool for realizing peace. But, it begins with us. Peace has nothing to do with the other.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Can I use the breathing audio while I breathe?
Q: I have a question, I'm about to enter Session One tomorrow. But I'm not sure whether I should be repeating the Present Activating statements while breathing? I read in the book that we should do it when we are not engaged in mental activity? I'm always thinking? Does that mean I should do it only during the connected breathing sessions?Also can I play the http://www.thepresenceportal.com/how_we_breathe.htm mp3 while doing the breathing sessions so I can use that as a pattern of breathing while doing it? Something like a guidance?
A: I am currently in the midst of rewriting The Presence Process, not that there is anything wrong with the current edition - however I am ready to put out a more efficient prototype.
One of the changes is I no longer call them Presence Activation Statements - now they are referred to as Conscious Responses. Another change is that there is a Conscious Response used all the way through the procedure only for the breathing sessions - if we wish to do mental repetition while breathing. It is: "I AM HERE NOW". I suggest you use this during your breathing practice.
As per your question, you may be thinking all the time, which is a complete waste of time as all thinking is a dysfunction of the mental body - but this does not mean you are required to be mentally active all the time. If someone is having a conversation with me - I am mentally active. If I am doing numerical calculations - I am mentally active. If I am giving a presentation - I am mentally active. Using a Conscious Response during moments like this is not recommended. It's called , "trying too hard".
However, most of our time is spent meandering in meaningless thought. During these moments it is useful to repeat whatever Conscious Response we have been given for that week.
As far as the audio is concerned: It is only 5 minutes long, deliberately. The breathing practice is 15 minutes long. You may use the audio for the first 5 minutes to set a pace. However, do not tape and repeat it to the length of 15 minutes so it runs throughout your breathing practice, otherwise you are turning it into a crutch. This work is not about leaning. And, after a while of using it to set the pace - hopefully you stop using it altogether and rely on your own inner resources to establish the momentum of your breathing practice.
A: I am currently in the midst of rewriting The Presence Process, not that there is anything wrong with the current edition - however I am ready to put out a more efficient prototype.
One of the changes is I no longer call them Presence Activation Statements - now they are referred to as Conscious Responses. Another change is that there is a Conscious Response used all the way through the procedure only for the breathing sessions - if we wish to do mental repetition while breathing. It is: "I AM HERE NOW". I suggest you use this during your breathing practice.
As per your question, you may be thinking all the time, which is a complete waste of time as all thinking is a dysfunction of the mental body - but this does not mean you are required to be mentally active all the time. If someone is having a conversation with me - I am mentally active. If I am doing numerical calculations - I am mentally active. If I am giving a presentation - I am mentally active. Using a Conscious Response during moments like this is not recommended. It's called , "trying too hard".
However, most of our time is spent meandering in meaningless thought. During these moments it is useful to repeat whatever Conscious Response we have been given for that week.
As far as the audio is concerned: It is only 5 minutes long, deliberately. The breathing practice is 15 minutes long. You may use the audio for the first 5 minutes to set a pace. However, do not tape and repeat it to the length of 15 minutes so it runs throughout your breathing practice, otherwise you are turning it into a crutch. This work is not about leaning. And, after a while of using it to set the pace - hopefully you stop using it altogether and rely on your own inner resources to establish the momentum of your breathing practice.
I am in excruciating pain - any suggestions?
Q: I am not sure if I have a question. I am in excruciating pain. I have never had pain that I could not tolerate before. I am completing week 7 tonight. It feels like all my past pain and hurts have accumulated in my right quadriceps. To find comfort I have to lay on my stomach. I feel embarrassment and shame for even writing this for crying out for help. I have been very mental having to understand everything. I know that that is not required. I am finding the process very transforming and it is perfect for me right now. I have moments when I sit with the pain and it goes away but also returns. The pain has been present for over a week but has intensified today. Very challenging to feel better at feeling when you are in severe pain. Any suggestions?
A: Yes, continue. You are obviously on the right track. You will get through to the other side as long as you continue - and stop all the thinking about it. You may benefit from reading the article called "Gifts" on the Writings page of the website. Also, make sure you are tuning into the emotional state surfacing along with the pain. It will be there in amidst the physical discomfort. It is this emotional signature which is causal. Makes sure you are giving it attention - being with it without condition. Often, when we do this work, we feel as if our pain is worsening - it is my experience that this is not necessarily the case. It is our awareness which is improving. Many of us have great discomfort being in the body because of built-up and unattended emotional charges. When we do this work we reenter the body and start to feel aspects of our experience not available to our awareness when adrift in the mental plane. The way out is through.
A: Yes, continue. You are obviously on the right track. You will get through to the other side as long as you continue - and stop all the thinking about it. You may benefit from reading the article called "Gifts" on the Writings page of the website. Also, make sure you are tuning into the emotional state surfacing along with the pain. It will be there in amidst the physical discomfort. It is this emotional signature which is causal. Makes sure you are giving it attention - being with it without condition. Often, when we do this work, we feel as if our pain is worsening - it is my experience that this is not necessarily the case. It is our awareness which is improving. Many of us have great discomfort being in the body because of built-up and unattended emotional charges. When we do this work we reenter the body and start to feel aspects of our experience not available to our awareness when adrift in the mental plane. The way out is through.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Is the warm water hot enough?
Q: I am on my second experiential journey through The Presence Process, and am in Session 8. The first time around, I used warm water for the activation of the Sessions, and then, during the week that followed, took my regular hot baths. At that time I experienced the heat in my solar plexus that you described, in both the warm, and the hot baths. My question is, do you suggest to use warm water only so that someone won't get burned, and then blame it on you or The Presence Process, or is it actually the warm, and never hot water that facilitates the release of the negative emotional charge? Thank you for continuing your journey, and for taking the time to read this.
A: Yes. You have no idea how desperately desperate people behave! One has to protect such people from themselves and from ruining this procedure for others. In rebirthing one uses very warm water - almost uncomfortable to the skin. However, I have discovered one only requires water that is body temperature, or a degree or two over that. It is not just the heat of the water at work here - it is also the intensity of the accumulated intent acquired from having moved experientially from Session One to the water sessions in Seven, Eight, and Nine.
I get emails from people wanting to attend to the breathing practice four to six times a day, who have stayed on one of the Sessions for five weeks to "get it right". These are the people who require protection from themselves and who would scald themselves with the water just to feel something happening. So, warm water is all that is required.
In the end it is Presence which makes all possible, and these simple procedures are there to make us vulnerable to Presence. When we try to do it better, longer, harder, and hotter, we only do so because of lack of faith in Presence and the procedure as it is given us. Acting from this lack of faith does not improve anything.
A: Yes. You have no idea how desperately desperate people behave! One has to protect such people from themselves and from ruining this procedure for others. In rebirthing one uses very warm water - almost uncomfortable to the skin. However, I have discovered one only requires water that is body temperature, or a degree or two over that. It is not just the heat of the water at work here - it is also the intensity of the accumulated intent acquired from having moved experientially from Session One to the water sessions in Seven, Eight, and Nine.
I get emails from people wanting to attend to the breathing practice four to six times a day, who have stayed on one of the Sessions for five weeks to "get it right". These are the people who require protection from themselves and who would scald themselves with the water just to feel something happening. So, warm water is all that is required.
In the end it is Presence which makes all possible, and these simple procedures are there to make us vulnerable to Presence. When we try to do it better, longer, harder, and hotter, we only do so because of lack of faith in Presence and the procedure as it is given us. Acting from this lack of faith does not improve anything.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Does The Presence Process require rumination?
Q: I am one of those folks that doesn't have a 'skin' towards the outside world (empath?). I seem to feel all the suffering of everything around me and get quite overwhelmed with it all (even feeling paralyzed by it). I am always trying to make sense of ontology but seem to fall in the black hole of just generating endless questions with the philosophical approach. Therefore,long story short: Is The Presence Process likely to worsen my rumination,obsessing, and feeling overwhelmed 'or' is it more likely a sign that I have issues which this process might eventually help me with? On another note, I have a severe case of ocular hypertension and I think it might be related to my inner state.
A: The Presence Process has nothing to do with rumination. It is a practical approach to integration of the emotional charges imprinted during childhood which, while unresolved, drive our mental and physical experience in an uncomfortable way. It also teaches containment - something you appear to require. Your level of felt-perception is obviously well-developed - now your learning is about responding to this capacity. I suggest, if you would like to know what The Presence Process is about before engaging it, that you first read Alchemy Of The Heart. This book is short, simple, and provides a thorough overview of the work initiated by The Presence Process procedure. Rumination is not part of it. Thinking, understanding, and analysis are not part of it.
A: The Presence Process has nothing to do with rumination. It is a practical approach to integration of the emotional charges imprinted during childhood which, while unresolved, drive our mental and physical experience in an uncomfortable way. It also teaches containment - something you appear to require. Your level of felt-perception is obviously well-developed - now your learning is about responding to this capacity. I suggest, if you would like to know what The Presence Process is about before engaging it, that you first read Alchemy Of The Heart. This book is short, simple, and provides a thorough overview of the work initiated by The Presence Process procedure. Rumination is not part of it. Thinking, understanding, and analysis are not part of it.
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