'What I Would Tell You' by Martin T

Interesting about the Shaman stuff. Reminds me of the Robert Bly phenomenon, the shaman and the smokehouse steambath, etc etc. I've always thought that such things were probably effective for very blatant issues, like phobias, but would be less effective for more subtle problems. Never tried t myself, so I don't know. I often wonder if everyone in the UK was subjected to bullying? Except of course the for the bullies themselves, though knowing the bully mentality, they would probably try to claim victim status as well. I think that writing itself is an attempt to resolve old issues. Not every piece, of course, but in general. Some authors, like Burroughs, were writing quite deliberately for that purpose.

Ah ha Justyn, Robert Bly. A great writer and a therapist beyond his time. The techniques do work for phobias and more subtle issues as well. Just that with the more subtle issues you have to dig a little deeper and a quick 10-minute cure isn't possible. You can be looking at several sessions. But by "several" I don't mean two years worth of therapy. You'll know as well as I do that many Americans appear to be proud of their therapy. "Sorry, I can't make Friday, I'm off to see my therapist." "Well, my therapist told me this." Meanwhile, the therapist himself is lining his own pockets from these repeat customers. Even the most complex issues can be worked through fairly quickly if you can establish the safety and you're not afraid to go inside and confront them. In many cases writing is an attempt to resolve old issues. Much of my own writing simply serves the purpose of laying my ghosts to rest. Actually writing can be great therapy. If you're pissed off at someone, write them a letter, say everything you want to say, and then bin it. You'll find you'll have cleared issues, giving you the space to either build on that relationship or perhaps clear more issues.

Blimey What have I started. ralph

you started ralph ? didn't I start all this ?

Would agree with this - a very strong poem, although I think I would act otherwise. If I had the chance, there are things I would tell my younger self. Definitely have taken up tae kwon do a year earlier and kicked the living hell out of the lardy nutcase that hassled me on and off for a year over some imagined slight. Definitely don't lend your first girlfriend the thousand pounds you got in tax rebate when you were only earning four grand a year. Snap up the one you're with now a bit bloody quicker. What the hell were you thinking of Andrew ? Do you not know a good thing when it moves into your path? But then again, who knows how making these changes would affect what I am now? I really would forego the character building experience that was being scared to set foot out of my house because of a maladjusted loser though.

This is a great, great piece that touches me somewhere deep inside. I’m glad Ralph’s brought this to our attention because it revives a thread from about two months ago that I desperately wanted to participate in. (My ongoing grievance with ABCtales [are you listening John Handelaar?] is that once a thread has run its course there’s no way to revive it. You may well want to join in the conversation, but if the thread’s not in the top 20 nobody’s going to read your comments anyway. It would be a simple matter to arrange the discussions so that once someone added a comment that thread jumps to the top of the list). Anyway, having got that out of my system, back to Martin’s soul-searching poem. The Native American Shamans believe that if something bad has ever happened to you, then you leave a part of your soul behind at that event. They have a technique called “Soul Retrieval” in which you go back and reclaim those lost parts of your soul. Now I’m not a Shaman, although I do understand the technique. Actually, a good friend of mine, Rain Graywolf, once told me to “never trust anyone who tells you he’s a Shaman,” although I suspect that Rain may well be one himself. However, I can assure you that I’m not. But I do hold a Practitioner’s certificate in the Art of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), and we used to practice a technique which we Change Personal History. I also hold a stack of qualifications in Hypnotherapy, so can assure you these techniques work. The idea being that once something has happened to you, you’re no longer responding to that event, but to your memory of the event ….. which can be changed. And if you don’t believe that, then maybe that’s a belief you may want to change. At a conscious level, you’re still aware that the event happened, but at a deep subliminal level, where all your buttons are pushed, it’s been sorted. We used to clear phobias in the same way. Take the person back to when they first experienced their fear of whatever, which may well be a childhood incident, and have them talk to their inner child, explaining that, “I know it’s tough for you right now. But I’m from your future and I can tell you that you do get through this. In fact, you have a great life in front of you. Tough it out now, because you’re going to be alright.” I look back occasionally at times when I’ve experienced adversity in life, and I’m grateful for each and every one of them because they toughened me up. But when I look back, all I see is a lost kid. I love my inner child, my inner teenager, my inner dickhead. I better finish up here before I bore everyone too much. I’d just like to say that Martin is scraping very close to the truth with this piece, and I loved it. Five star!

cheers lads....wow karl....what can i say....but wow...