One of those mornings, got the exercise in, then had to have breakfast and then check emails.
One of those days rather than writing I think I would’ve preferred being a backup singer and dancer for Tina Turner.
whine, whine, whine….
4:30pm - Muse did not appear. Going to James River Writer’s meeting to gain empathy and inspiration.
….second time and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.”
Viktor Frankl, death camp survivor of both Auschwitz and Dachau, created a school of psychiatry called logotherapy based on these words.
Existentially drawn, Frankl found meaning, love, hope for mankind and the raw material for his incredible and mystical bestseller, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” while bearing witness to this century’s worst example of “man’s inhumanity to man.” In his search for meaning, amidst bestial conditions and sadism, he concluded that our life contains an inevitable triad, namely, pain, suffering and death. The only escape route - used by Frankl and fellow survivors - was to transcend this material world and discover the inner world. Here the choice is made whether to be a victim or a survivor. The point of the psychotherapist’s work and its’ structure with patients after liberation, was to guide them to choose, as the post title articulates, “to act as though you are living a second time and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.”
In later posts I will share bits and pieces of Frankl’s work that I have found to be reflected in my work as a hypnotherapist facilitating client regressions, whether current life or past. One of my most favorite quotations that I’ve used ad nauseum with friends and three sons is also used by Frankl when he discusses the benefits that suffering and death may offer. It’s Friedrich Neitzsche’s, “whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.
“You can take that one to the bank. (Well at least you could before last week).
The stripping away of everything a person considers their “I” or ego, which is what happened in the Holocaust, led Frankl to surmise the whole point of living which was “only love is true, only love is eternal.”
I think the point non-debatable and hopefully future readers of Beyond Time will draw that very same conclusion.
Beyond Time had its genesis about 17 years ago when a friend insisted I seek out a painting done by Goya of a sitter by the name of Senora Sabesa Garcia. I finally met her at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC where she has been in The Spanish collection since 1937. Just as she intrigued him, the young {16-17} woman did me. With her quiet inscrutableness she reminded me of a younger Mona Lisa and I felt underneath lay a lengthy ledger of experiences and stories waiting to be told.
On the day I began writing Beyond Time in earnest, I was having lunch with a friend in a downtown deli in Richmond, Virginia where I had eaten many times. As my eyes looked for a waiter, who should I see but Sabesa staring down from the wall, seemingly amused, either at my chutzpah to take on a novel after only written previously for newspaper, magazines and as a public relations writer or the fact, I had never finished a previous novel, nor pursued marketing a movie script that had won an award. Perhaps in writing this blog which I’m not really comfortable doing, I am counting on public humiliation to force the finish and marketing of the book. Why such a drastic act is necessary perhaps calls for a regression to cause in a state of hypnosis which the reader will also partake in through Winnie the main character in the book, who suffers from amnesia, and remembers nothing except past lifetimes.
While Sabesa Garcia was the impetus for Beyond Time, I hasten to add that the book is not about her, but about all of us as unique and fascinating human beings.This is one person’s stab at the incredible circumstances at play creating our singularity.
It is in playing with possibilities of how different each of us has the potential to be with just the slightest alteration: genetics, experiences, environmental factors, synchronicities, a drop of blood, a few less brain cells, different birth parents, status, etc. Factoring in the possibility that we have lived multiple lifetimes, in the end it’s possible to construe ourselves as Everyman and Everywoman.
Carl Jung’s idea that every personality is essentially multiple and that ..multiple personality is human, nature can help us not only understand but accept our many facets, our many sides, the many faces we portray to the world. It is even more important - critical, to even forgive the less pleasant of those selves called by Jung - our shadow.
We spend much effort and energy….wasteful as it is…denying that darker part of us. As one writer once remarked about this possibility of multiple lifetimes, “it took the Grand Canyon eight million years to become the glory it is today. Why would we conclude it takes us only 70-80 years?
Beyond Time invites that exploration and to ask that question.
I’m embarassed to share how long I’ve grappled with editing an important chapter section of Beyond Time which centers around one of the past life regressions of the main character named Winnie, who in developing amnesia at 9/11, later becomes Francisca. Writing eight pages on one regression threatens to create ennui when there are many others covered. To keep the reader’s interest the past lives can’t all be written as a straight regression, something occurring in the past. Some have to be presented as if they are happening at that moment or as dreams or nightmares which happens when Winnie has a past life persona named Dorothea who takes us to a scene set in Harlem in 1928.
Editing and whittling down those eight pages of this one crucial regression, I noticed a problem: I was sucking the life juice out of what was a major, powerful historical event - making it sound like just a walk in the park. Hardly. While it occurred several thousand years ago, its’ impact still is being felt by 34% of the world’s population.
While a past life regression is fascinating to observe, writing about it as it exactly happens can be like taking a double dose of Ambien. There are too many “uhs”, long silences, tears and halting descriptions of what’s happening in the client’s mind. My major challenge in this book is making it a good read while at the same evoking questions as to whether it’s possible to live many lifetimes. Another challenge is the main character who has amnesia. Her only memories is of other lifetimes in which she alternately is many different people: different sexes, races, religions and different cultures. That’s the fantastical part and to some people might be a turn-off. I hope not. Regression can be an eye-opening experience that most find rewarding because it’s one of the few times in our busy world that one gets in touch with our “other mind.” When I write of Winnie, the main character in regression, I am striving to enliven the regressions enough to keep the reader interested yet not sacrifice the integrity of such experiences and the influence it has had on many peoples’ lives.