Free-Range Living

 

'Dream State'--/--- 'Real State' Living

 

 'Dream state living ---- '  

There's content on the net that refers to 'Dream State Living', which seems broadly to mean that a person is focused on a desired future personal living state, that isn't present in the current situation - the ' mind want' is 'elswhere', which then suggests that the person involved is not living in current reality, living in the 'now' - and which at times may represent an escape from current reality --- . The 'conscious' future desired state is then the 'dream state' and there seems to be a presumption that this is the predominant life state of quite a few, if not many ----- A recent trend of 'negative experiences not being 'in vogue'' might be an example------It may not be too surprising given the insecurity levels in modern times, that 'dream state' living could be relatively common - ?

It can be relatively easy to see why such a case might exist, in that if life 'now' is not easy, is 'problematic', and/or a more desirable living state is evident -say, looking at a media situation, or at another person's 'advantageous' life state -  then a person's mind can covet the projected desired state, rather than, say, 'rest easy' in the 'less perfect' current reality ------ Similarily, if an individual has an ambition(s) it's not hard to see that a fair bit of that person's focus could rest on again, the 'desired future state'. A potential limitation for ,say, freerangers, could lie in the fact that the 'dream state' style of living could be an impediment to those seeking what might be described as 'higher conciousness/greater awareness' living states ----- One approach, for instance, suggests that any negative state needs to be experienced, to be dealt with, gone through, to then be able to proceed - such an action 'opens the door' as it were, whereas 'dream state' living can in effect be a non-reality 'escape' process -----

 

'Go through, go through ---- '    (Winston Churchill, British P.M)

For people aiming to try to progress to 'greater awareness' type states, which some maintain is a natural 'progression' process, there can be though, as above, be a potential problem. The thinking is that the route towards such  'higher consciousness' states, a) involves the individual 'taking their own journey' and b) this journey is towards greater reality - (and that a significantly large 'greater reality' lies beyond the 'small self' individual) -  the problem then being that if the said person is living in a current 'non reality' 'dream state', then there becomes a difficulty with trying to access 'greater reality' states ----  Logically then, the first move then being getting with the current reality, even if 'imperfect', but of course which may not be seen as 'over desirable' by some - ? Fortunately help is these days at hand, in the form of 'mindfulness practice' (see later) which can help in a relatively easy, user friendly and 'low key' way, in the potentially tricky job of 'getting with  current reality', and help too is readily available via support mentor books, for instance (see bibliography). A barrier to 'getting with' imperfect' reality states has no doubt been wider social attitudes to them. In the UK for instance, it seems for many years that mental health problems were seen as 'no, no' territory, thankfully today though a more accepted situation.

 

Potential 'dream state' limitations ---- 

A further possible downside of the dream state style though, with focus on 'ahead', could then be that matters relevant to the current 'imperfect reality' are then not comprehended, and/or not attended to, causing problems, and then resulting in 'increased imperfection' ----- There's too the idea that 'to get real' in order to manifest any desired life state, a journey is involved at which it's necessary to start 'where it's at - which could often be the so-called 'imperfect reality' of 'now'. As above, the longer-term idea is that any 'higher reality' such as, say, 'expanded conciousness states' can only in practice be accessed by those 'living and working on self' in 'real reality', even if the starting point is 'imperfect' or 'negative' reality. (And, has the 'perfect' human being yet been invented - ?). Living in a current 'reality' of 'mind wants' - the 'dream state' - may be a 'jumping the gun' state and which will not be able to functionally deliver future goodies  -----  It is, though, as ever, the individual's call -  there may need for instance in some cases to be some assistance to facilitate 'reality acceptance', as the case-study below indicates :

R for instance needed considerable help to undertake and realise his own journey from a 'heavy negative' reality (breakdown) position to a 'life positive' level. He had to, for instance, forego his 'dream state' (escaping from his then bleak 'now' breakdown reality),  to do the 'work' to face and accept the negative 'now' position, and to 'do the journey',  facilitated, guided and supported by an able and knowledgable self help book mentor (see bibliography at end).

It seems then the negative sphere has to be negotiated and 'cleared' before then the positive side can come more fully into play, whereas of course a person in the imperfect current reality may well be in a hurry to get to the positive position, and in so doing head into the mind-wanting 'dream state' ---

 (more re. the R case study at 'add on 1' after the end bibliography section)

 One difficulty can be that the process can involve a 'facing the fear' element, in which again help and support maybe useful.

 

'Escape' moves ----- 

Trying to 'escape' from unwelcome current reality situations may well be a common form of then heading into the 'dream state' -  On maybe a liitle less 'dramatic' a level, being caught up in unproductive fixed mindsets, likely originating from the past, might also be a source of 'dreamstate' living, and especially maybe if fears are involved - ? A simple example could be someone in adult life prone to anti dog feelings due to a childhood 'bad' experience with a dog. Fixed mindsets from the past may not be particularly relevant to present circumstances, causing limitations, including helping to prevent 'now' signals from being picked up for instance - in relationships, in communications, in opportunities, in self-awareness levels -----and/or at times, limiting satisfactions that might be still available in the 'now reality' situation. Dream state living could too reduce awareness levels of security aspects, and potential 'life improvement' opportunities.

This 'freeranger' piece then aims to help and support those who are interested in taking such a 'reality' journey (or feel they are in need of undertaking it), with the real possibility of then realising more of their 'true selves', often submerged by, for instance, the myriad influences of modern culture, including 'induced' dream states, then gaining access to the more positive states and increased individual self-esteem and satisfaction, useful 'freeranger' moves.

(There is a point of view that the individual undergoes a 'life crisis' as a 'trigger' before the individual journey is undertaken, but with the development of new user friendly self-work techniques such as mindfulness practice, there's presumably now some reservation as to whether the 'crisis' scenario is always the case --- )

Modern myriads ----- 

Has there been any other period with so many influences potentially acting on the individual as the recent and current era? The list could be virtually endless : childhood experiences     - schools, religious, siblings, parents, extended family, peers, - 'young adult' aspects -peers, family, colleges/univerities, work ethos's/practices, general society influences    - media, general and personal, advertising, government/political, world events. movements - -again, and without including 'self-influencing', the list can be long. Plainly not all influences could necessarily be labelled harmful, but the sheer weight of them has been identified by more than a few as potentially having a 'crushing' effect on the micro organism that is the individual --- potentially causing diminished levels of self-strength. In the UK, young males for instance have been identified as struggling with identity conflicts, and young females struggling with high anxiety levels.

It may well be useful and helpful to the individual to be able to some extent at least to be able to counter and 'self manage' under such a 'pressurised' environment - ? The rest of this piece is than targetted at hopefully covering some measures individuals can take in the cause of 'limiting the pressure' --- and so 'freeing up' processes, then to access better 'reality' states, and be able to travel into productive levels of conciousness' ----- 

Handling/managing the 'defensive' dream state condition can of course be a useful move, and there is fortunately a modern practice that can helpfully assist in the process (see 'mindfulness practice' later). Initially though it might pay the individual to assess their own level of 'cultural and self conditioning', as far as they are able, and particularly in the cause of identifying any out-of-date mindsets that may still be operating.  

 

De-conditioning’ self ------- 

Without any ‘de-conditioning’, mental ‘spring cleaning’ processes, a person’s mind could well be quite full of  ‘fixed’ mindsets from childhood, from parents, from siblings, from peers, from schools, from colleges/universities, from TV/radio sources, from social media  - and the rest, and from of course ‘own self’ -  quite a lot of ‘mental influencing’ in fact, with often maybe a strong modern commercialisation content, limiting 'mind scope' and with a reasonably strong likelihood of picking up biases along the way ? (and now too there are people who specifically set themselves up as ‘influencers’---- and significant pressure, maybe especially on younger generations, to think certain ways, or be 'cancelled' from the group (sounds ' unfriendly' ---? )).

Thought-patterns and mindsets can have then the tendency to become ‘fixed’, whereas a more open, flexible mind is said to be conducive to ‘real-self’ development progress. It can be then a sort of  needed ‘rewind’ move to get to ‘open mind’ position is useful, and where potential access to ‘expanded awareness’ can take place.  

(Zen people talk about developing ‘beginner’s mind’. Another possible move could be to 'park' the current 'self' to one side, as it were, and thereby leaving a 'doorway' for new aspects to enter -----)

Some more example helpful 'mental spring cleaning' moves might be :

– taking a consciously independent stance and looking at current thoughts/mindsets ‘separately’ watching them as they occur (similar to mindfulness work). Looking at too where they might have originated from, how ‘fixed’ they are and how repetitive they are, aiming at this stage to avoid/limit any habit of judging them.

 -  repeated mindset watching, whilst not over engaging with them, can then reduce the strength of the mental activity, as can then questioning their validity/non-accepting their automatic validity

- deeper reflection to determine and clarify ‘real-self’ inner values, what ‘moves’ us - the ‘heart’ responses probably being particularly important 

 (some find that writing a ‘personal’ (and private) journal can help in this process).

- identification of any acquired mainstream culture which might clash with inner ‘real self’ values, and gainig greater understanding re. the   positive/negative nature of 'mass mainstreams'.

- assessing current mainstream culture’s level of  ‘individual influencing’ 

 

Useful Ploys ---- 

 One de-conditioning ‘ploy’ can be, as above, to use the ‘bye-pass’ method – existing thought-patterns and mindsets can be repetitive, so the idea is to accept them re-occurring but then ‘by-pass’ them (or let them ‘slide by’), not ‘hooking into’ them, which in itself can be useful in terms of building a stronger ‘real-self’, at the same time ‘dis-associating’ mindsets beyond their ‘sell-by’ date (some persistance is useful as they can tend to repeat.  This process is essentially the same as the mindfulness process : accepting the ‘less-than-perfect’ current 'realistic' position to then over time effect change).

Thinking and thoughts, due to much practice, can get to be too prevalent, too fixed and too repetitive at times   - another useful ploy can be to ‘tell them to shove off’, (go away), politely or otherwise ---- , which can also be a ‘real self’ strengthening move, and one that can be particularly useful in dealing with troublesome thoughts. This process can also likewise give the sense that thoughts ‘are just thoughts’, and that they don’t necessarily give a true representation of a person, nor do they have to be ‘permanent features’.

 

 'Fixated ---- ‘

Challenging fixed patterns such as, say, ‘beating the self up’ (adult females are said to beat themselves up on average eight times a day in the UK, unlikely maybe to be a productive process?) can also be a useful ploy to ‘loosen’ fixed thought patterns. One of the keys in dealing with such fixed mindsets is that by their very nature, they repeat, so a system that takes account of this is needed, then gradually reducing the strength of the mindset (rather, than, say, making up more fixed 'rule' thoughts such as 'I musn't think like that'). This is exactly what mindfulness practice (see below) seeks to do, in that every time the mindset crops up, the individual is encouraged just to ‘watch’ it occurring, resisting the urge to follow the mind’s urging, in this case, to be automatically critical of oneself, which then also has the useful function of allowing ‘self-nurturing’ and self-compassion, besides encouraging and enhancing awareness beyond mental activities.

 

Support ----- 

There can too be considerable support for the individual engaged in ‘de-conditioning’ from the culture itself. An interesting TV series (PBS America channel)  was entitled ‘Hacking Your Mind’, with the by-words :

‘A lot of the time we think we’re making careful, individual decisions. But how many of these choices are made on autopilot, and how often is this exploited through marketing?’  

Bill Bryson, always a thought-provoking author, states in his book ‘Notes from a Big Country’, that the average American views on average 1,000 commercials per week, and by the time someone is 18, they will on average have viewed 350,000 television adverts, all of which of course trying to influence minds. 

There’s now plenty of support material available via books or net in the area of helping and supporting the individual, such as, say, mindfulness practice books, also adding often significant encouragement to people. (see bibliography) 

 

‘Pithy Quotes --- ‘

Another useful area of support can come in the form of quotations. One or two examples are quoted below :

‘Another block to genuine happiness is being caught in the thinking mind (egs. lamenting over the past, worrying about the future). Living in our heads, we nurture the small mind of self-centeredness, and it literally guarantees our unhappiness. As though our identification with small-self recedes, and we become increasingly present, we gradually discover who we truly are - our natural being of connectedness and love ----- ‘

( The Authentic Life, (book),  Ezra Bayda )

‘In the end such a (‘consumer culture’) civilisation can only produce a ‘mass man’, incapable of choice, incapable of spontaneous self-directed activities, docile, disciplined to monotonous work ------ increasingly less self-responsible --- governed then mainly by conditioned reflexes’.

( The Sane Society,  (book),  Erich Fromm )

Looking like the opposite to ‘freeranger man/woman’ - ?

‘On the individual level the toll for the loss of spirituality is an impoverished, alienated and unfulfilling way of life and an increase in emotional and pyschosomatic disorders ----- ‘

( Stanalav Grof, founder : ‘Transpersonal Psychology’)

and not to leave ‘the great man’ out :

‘Work out your own salvation, don’t rely on others. If you find no-one to support you on your journey, walk on alone.’

(Buddha)

Supporting  a healthy variety of ‘individual independence’ from a top man, in spite of what (‘man-made’) cultures might say - ?

 

                                                           >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

 

Mindfulness Practice and Mechanics - locating self-work area

 

- 'all the holy words can count for nothing without action' (Buddha)

As a start, a practical way to put this step into action is to identify a less-than-productive trait, and whilst a person probably has a selection of productive traits, in this case it’s useful to select a trait which considered to be ‘unproductive’, such as, say, the following possible examples : (and has a ‘perfect’, ‘unflawed’ person ever existed? ----- another view is that all humans are ‘learners’ ---- )

-  indecision

-  un-confidence

-  over-confidence

-  avoidance of problems

-  impatience

-  ‘rushing’ syndrome

-  greed

-  mean-ness

 - envy/jealousy

-  superiority stance/practice

-  hubris

-  dependence

-  indecision

and so forth ----

The individual chooses an area relevant to themselves as the ‘area of self-work’, which may be ‘an undesirable trait’ or, for instance, a fixed mind set from, say, early years, but which is proving to be less than productive in adult life. 

 

Practising Mindfulness Self-Work Technique ------

Taking say, the trait of ‘rushing to get things over with’, which may well in the longer term add to stress rather than relieve it, the individual identifies it (if relevant) as a ‘common trait’ and determines to address it. One way could be for the individual to ‘order’ themselves not to do it. This though can tend to have the effect of ‘putting a lid on it’, the potential problem then being that when pressure builds, the lid can then blow off, so no longer-term ‘fix’, plus of course it being  ‘mind-generated’ in itself.

 The alternative approach is to use a ‘mindfulness technique’ application, in which a ‘watching’ approach is used. When the ‘rushing’ trait appears, instead of automatically reacting into ‘rush’ mode, and/or reacting self-critically, the individual aims to instead ‘watch’ the trait occurring, not automatically reacting and getting then into ‘rush’ mode, (and if it does occur, again, watching it happen), plus aiming to take a ‘non-judgmental’ approach (and it tends to be the mind that does the judging), but rather taking the ‘it is as it is’ approach, which also has the advantages of the further gains of relating more to reality, encouraging/aiding wider awareness, and building 'self-care'.

This can take some practice, but the effort can be well worth it. By heading into ‘watching’ mode, the individual gives themselves (i.e. already being ‘kinder’ to themselves) that bit of space and time to then be able to make their own decision (‘real self’ operation), and may decide, say, not to react at all, just ‘watching’, or to adopt a differing response. Such a process will inevitably take time as it’s likely that the trait being addressed will be ‘well grooved’, and repeat automatically, but gradually over time via repeated mindfulness practice will then lose it’s power, and the individual thus empowers themselves, now not being ‘at the mercy’ of such automatic behavioural responses - the mind becoming 'the servant' rather than being 'the master' ---- (see Tolle quote below).  The fact that the individual is 'taking action', with the real promise of future 'goodies', can be in itself a positive factor in the process.

Another example could be that of facing the trait of ‘impatience’, which could for instance stem from people being in the position due to cultural conditioning of feeling they have to be ‘instantly perfect’. Again when impatience is experienced, the individual doesn’t now seek to judge or censor it, but rather ‘watches’ it occurring, without automatically heading down the impatience behavioural path.

 Nothing else has to happen unless it’s decided that an alternative option is taken – the act of watching repeated occurences rather than responding automatically then gradually reduces the power of such an automatic trait to control the individual, a powerful trend which further down the line can lead to an important change. The mind no longer then will be able to operate autonomously; rather it will then have become the ‘servant’, not the ‘master’, and the individual can then take a big step forward in terms of feeling their own inner authentic strength, gaining greater awareness, and advancing along the ‘real self’ journey --- and as the quote below (Tolle) indicates, can lead to an important event for the individual -----

 (the autonomous power operation of the mind has been labelled ‘the tyranny of the mind’ ------- ).

'------- Awakening is a shift in consciousness in which thinking and awareness separate. For most people it is a process they undergo ----------Instead of being lost in your thinking, when you are awake you recognise yourself as the awareness behind it. Thinking then ceases to be a self-serving autonomous activity that takes possession of you and runs your life. --------instead of being in charge of your life, thinking becomes the servant of awareness'.

(Eckhart Tolle : A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life's Purpose  (book) )

 

Two-tier living modes  ------

Looking at two living modes in more detail for comparison purposes: one could be said to be the seemingly in vogue mainstream mode of wealth, luxury living and leisure, whereas the other could be labelled an 'independent creative' mode focused more on 'meaningful work activity'. The first mode is the one in which considerable wealth is considered desirable, to then be able to lead a luxurious leisure-laden lifestyle,  seemingly in common vogue these days, yet some might label such a mode to be more of a 'dream state' mode, which folk are mean't to aspire to, yet still in dream state when a person is able to act it out --- This might be because some might see such a leisure focused lifestyle as one dimensional, equivalent, say, to a wish for continual sunny skies, disregarding actual reality -  that rain is needed to sustain life, and that in reality, perpetual sunny/happy states are undesirable, being non-realistic.

Compare such a 'dream state' lifestyle with that of an  'independent/creative', lifestyle, such as D running his own one-man small business making quality craft wooden furniture pieces to his own designs. Leisure isn't now a key priority as work efforts are involved, which then can bring significant levels of satisfactions for instance from the act of creating, living a self-responsible independent life and bringing pleasure, joy and satisfaction to others, plus self expression for the creator. Some, such as the Alaskan pioneer type folks, gain even more independence from their lives entwined with nature, living for instance off the land via hunting, fishing, trapping and the like.

 Folk living and working in less dramatic setting such as, for instance, farmers, often get intense satisfactions from their creative activities involving producing food, and again with the added benefit of living in and close-up to nature. In the UK, family farmers often spend little time away from their farms, so absorbing and 'full on' are the life and work activities (this writer had contact with many farming families in his role as on-farm advisor/consultant). There are undoubtedly many different varieties of individuals leading fulfilling lives involved as they are in their creative activities, such as sportspeople, artists and writers, craft workers, health staff and the like ----- and even --- micro-holders.  All make 'work' efforts which is generally found to be rewarding, and self-expressive, whilst with an innate degree of independence - they are following their own particular 'calling'. The collective percentage of such creative people within a particular society must be considerable , so any mainstream focus on, say, one particular lifestyle such as 'lux living' can be presumably potentially misleading and unrepresentative - ? 

The mainstream culture (for example, here in the UK) can be tricky for the individual to negotiate, whilst at the same time, as a 'mainstream', putting a degree of pressure, direct and indirect, (eg. to conform), on the individual, especially before an individual has had, for instance, time to build up their own strength and resilience. The marvel might well be that people operate as well as they do, considering all the multitudinous influence operating on them ---- ?  Besides waves of 'commercial conditioning' hitting individuals in modern times, people in the world have to cope with regimes operating levels of autocracy, from dictatorships, to quasi democracies without too much democratic power. Some cultres can be aggresive, warlike even, promoting the interests of one individual or a small minority of individuals, and some - maybe quite a few westwern-style examples, have moved away from society/social leaning models to far more 'power and wealth' plutocracy types, as promoted by the 'free market 'philosophy', with human values such as trust,loyalty, integrity, honesty, community and the like, likely being the 'casualties', with heavy commercialisation not too surprisingly contributing to 'dream state ' conditions ------  

 

End piece -------  

 

Is life to be lead in pursuit of wealth, leisure, opulence, luxury - what's been termed a 'lotus eating' life, and relatively easy to see the (superficial?) attractions --- or, does a human being need, for instance, more creativity in their life, if they are to, say, stand a chance to be 'longer-term more fulfilled', associated too with having a purposeful life  - ? Can there be 'generality' anyway, or are individuals on their own pathways, sometimes hidden though by being influenced in society by 'mass' cultural trends - ? 

Then there's the notion, one which has waned in general materialistic-based culture but maybe now gaining purchase within the current trend of interest in 'personal spirituality', that 'earth life' is mean't to be a sort of 'spiritual development' experience, people being essentially spiritual beings, and spirit being the essential key life force in life - ?

Whichever mode of existence is looked at, it seems reasonably clear that there's several 'modes' of living, even if one, that is materialistic endeavour, is currently tending to be predominant, bringing with it essentially external (to the individual) goals and validation, then bypassing any individual internal-based modes of 'being' and 'being validation'. Maybe the likely growing trend of recognising more that individual-based internal pathways and validations have been somewhat obviated by the strong external-based existing mainstream materialist-based culture and that such trends have contributed to problems and difficulties in the world - ?

The degree of and strength of such mainstream cultures directly and indirectedly giving 'automatic' goals to individuals, having in a sense then 'over-ridden' the potential need for individual-based pathways, goals and verifications, can have had the effect of inhibiting such individual -based pathways and contributed to a 'mass dream-state' living trend, but then impacting on 'individual fulfiment potential' - ? 

One of the trends the external-based mainstream culture system has lead to would appear to be a perpetual chase for 'more' - the idea being for instance that a  level of ,say, ssustainable material provision is not the aim, rather the aim is for an 'evermore' approach, which then can conflicts with,for instance, the findings of development psychologists such as Maslow, who indicated that the 'mechanics' of human needs were that when one set of needs was largely satisfied, then the dynamics were that the next level of needs were then relevant, and that some of these levels were not necessarily solely dependent on money for fulfilment. Money, and money making could then have become what's been called a veil, masking other need areas, and particularly those not necessarily directly connected to money.  The degree of instability in current times may well be a factor, people feeling insecure, with then an 'amassing' approach to try to allay such a situation - ? 

'Yer pays yer money and teks yer choice', as they say ---- Good, though to consider lifestyle options, which can then deliver some perspective, potentially then helping to avoid any 'wrong roads running' ---- ?

 

 

Bibliography :

-----------------

 

 Ezra Bayda         The Authentic Life

Silver Birch           Light from Silver Birch

Michael Foley       The Age of Absurdity

John Heider          The Tao of Leadership

Gary Hennessey    The Little Mindfulness Workbook

Jack Kornfield       After the Ecstasy the Laundry

Yamate Kunihiro    The Way of No-Mind

John Lane            Timeless Simplicity/ Timeless Beauty

Stephen Levine     A Gradual Awakening 

Thomas Moore      A Religion of One’s Own : Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World

Robert Pirsig         Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Mark Richardson    Zen and Now 

Mike Robin            Real-Self Realisation - An Authentic Route to Fulfilment-?  (‘Freerange’ site books page)

Fritz Schumacher   Small is Beautiful

Eckhart Tolle         A New Earth :  Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

Eckhart Tolle         The Power of Now

Claire Weekes        Self-Help For Your Nerves

 

 

Add-on 1 :

 

'R's case-study -----

R had experienced prolonged stress on various fronts, and felt unwell with little energy. On consulting a doctor, he was informed that he had a condition known as 'brucellosis', caught from cattle, and what's more, as indicated by the rather self-pleased doctor, there was no cure for such a condition (the doctor neglected to say that most people recovered naturally). R felt condemned to an unpleasant life and 'psychologically plunged', finding himself then in a black cell without light, a fearful place to be. He struggled to get out but his struggles only had the effect of pushing him further down, then amplifying the fear. He was at the same time struggling to continue working to support his young family, but nevertheless coming to the end of his tether.

Then one day, driving to work through a country town, he inexplicably pulled over and stopped on double yellow lines, then getting out and walking twenty or so metres into a bookshop, but conscious it being not of his own freewill. On approaching a big wall of books, his arm involuntarily reached out to pick out one book amongst the throng of books, which on opening it he recognised it represented help to him.

With the invaluable on-going help of the self-help book, which helped R with support, understanding of his position, and facing up to his position, over time and with quite a few 'set-backs', R was able to pull out of his heavy mental 'black' situation to an in-between 'neutral' 'nothing' point, then having a period of 'mental insights' coming - 'it was as if a sort of re-build was taking place' said R, and leading to a point where there was a 'click' and R then found himself suddenly 'whole and healed', living 'in the light'. 'I couldn't have made progress without the help and guidance from the help book' said R ' My mentor, she was tough and made me, with difficulty, face up to my predicament, but something made me feel that she was the support and mentor source I needed, she had 'reached down' into my 'alone blackness', quite an event for me. Where the 'intervention' in the town came from, or the insights, I can only speculate - I have felt since I've been on a spiritual path'.

It seems that for R to be 'cured' he had to traverse the negative sector, even though at the time he was desperate to escape from his black cell. He also had the vital need of an effective mentor to help and guide him (this lady became well known and is credited with 'saving' quite a few). Once he'd negotiated his way through the negatives, he was then able to take on the re-build, which then resulted him experiencing the positive side.