San Francisco International Airport, California, USA
June 13, 2016
"If you're going to put me on a pedestal,
climb
up here with me."
...
This essay,
Mind
Control,
is the thirtieth in the complete group of
Experiences Of A Friend
(click
here
for the open group
Experiences Of A Friend II):
Many of those who've had the good fortune of
workingclosely
with you (ie many of those who've had the good fortune of
being around you
while
you work,
a total which reaches into the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
thousands ... and more) say they're struck by how
quiet
your
mind
is. I find that
interesting.
No one can
see
or hear another's
mind,
yes? Ergo how do they know? They don't. But its
play
can be deduced. So when they tell me how
quiet
your
mind
is, I know they
got
that on a subliminal level ie they grokked it from you (as
Robert Heinlein may have said). What's even more noteworthy is others
have noticed what they call the
mind-quieting
effect of
being around you.
They say
being around you
results in
the quieting
of their ownminds.
When they experience this
quieting
of their own
mindsaround you,
they
wonder
whether you did it to them ie they
wonder
whether you have the special
power
to control other people's
minds.
Personally
I prefer to stay away from such conjecture ie I prefer to avoid the
debate on whether or not anyone has special
powers.
Here's
why:
if anyone has special
powers,
then we all have those special
powers.
And if we all have special
powers,
then they're not "special", yes? Singling out one person because he or
she has so‑called special
powers,
is counter-productive inasmuch as it distracts from discovering we all
have the same
powers
- if not manifest, then certainly like a possibility.
It's in this
context
that everyone will have their own
answer
to their unanswered
question
of you: "Did you
quieten
my
mind?".
But
listen:
there's no responsibility in that
question.
That's why I prefer suggesting pointedly what most likely
happens
is this: you overwhelmingly and
clearlydemonstrate
it's possible to be
quiet
... with respect to ... your own
mind
(watch:
those eight italicized
words
are very, very carefully and
deliberately
chosen). When people
get
that, there's a kind of an "A-Ha!"moment
resulting in
the quieting
of their own
minds.
The only point
worth
scrutinizing is: who did that to them? Who
quieted
their
minds?
Did you do it to them? Or did they, taking a cue from your
demonstration,
do it to themselves?Clearly
there's
power
and responsibility and replicability in the latter. There's none in the
former.
We've obsessed over
mind
control from
time
immemorial. From almost the
time
we started thinking, we've tried to control our
minds.
Howfutile!
Ain't that just like
a dog trying not to be a
dog?
We've obsessed with finding
ways
to control our
minds.
We've developed
disciplines
and
techniques
which seek to control our
minds.
We consume
alcohol.
We smoke. We undergo therapy, we read books, we attend lectures and
classes, all with
mind
control (in one form or another) as the goal. It's a
time
consuming endeavor - not to mention
cash
consuming. Yet you, without doing anything in particular, without
suggesting anyone engage in this
discipline
or in that
discipline
or practice a
technique
to control their
mind,
not only have a
way
of being so
quiet
with respect to your own
mind
which is so imminently grokkable that others can be
quiet
with respect to their own
minds
too, but you also never mentionmind
control as an access to or as a prerequisite for
transformation.
Really.