I recently came across this, which seems a propos of this discussion (and
the work in general):
"When we have passed a certain age, the soul of the child we were and the
souls of the dead from whom we have sprung come to lavish on us their riches
and their spells."
-Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time)
Ed Levy
Hortonville, NY
_____
From: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Alison Rose Levy
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 8:22 AM
To: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ConstellationTalk] Intention
Dear Hunter:helpful
Thank you for returning to my question and to Chris, and Max for your
responses as well.
Bracketing one's awareness, as you suggest Hunter, sounds like a very
approach to acknowledge what we bring in while allowing that to recedefrom
front and center in the awareness. Also your comments on forgetting,sometimes
meditation, really spoke to me and there is something I'd like to share.
I've long noticed that as the workshop day nears its end, that I am
tired with my mind a near blank. As people share their issue, it sort ofsentence.
washes in and from that emerges one single thing, an impression, a
There is often a sense of "we don't need a whole constellation here," andI
tend to do simpler more direct things with the client, often suggestingthat
they or the reps say statements that come up on the moment and don't soundcontemplation
like anything I've heard before. Or I'll offer a guided imagery
with whatever shows up in the moment. I'll often feel that I am near tobeing
asleep while standing on my feet and doing a constellation. At first, thiswas
a little scary because I identified this as almost like a "senior moment,"or
worse. But I've seen over time, that amazing stuff happens then and someago, a
workshop regulars try to work at the end because of this. Two workshops
bee appeared in the room (in fact bees have shown up at a few workshopsnow)
and became part of the constellation. I've always wondered whether or notI'm
losing it- and whether losing it is a good thing.releases
Overall, I have a very focused sort of mind, so perhaps my focus in the
earlier part of the workshop day has worked the mind muscle until it
and just opens. I also saw a piece/study somewhere that "senior moments"are
artifacts not of senility but of a "broad attention span' that does not<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/health/research/20brai.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq
filter. The article here discusses that:
http://www.nytimes.
ing+brain&st=nyt&oref=slogin
Many thanks and I will watch the Jill Taylor piece.
Alison
com/index.php/talks/view/id/229
I want to pick up your question, because I think it is central to all
forms of psychotherapy AND spiritual work.
Obviously what you (and your scientist friends) are thinking about
must be true. It seems unavoidable to me NOT to bring our past into
our work _ it may take the form of our language, our cultural values,
our personal history, our training. I can't imagine a life that could
occur outside of such "correlations/experiences". On the other hand,
cross-cultural psychotherapeutic work and spiritual work has made
clear that there are disadvantages of imposing one set of values and
assumptions on another person.
So, the situation as I see it is, we can't do without that happening,
but we want to avoid it happening any more than is necessary.
My own personal answer has been to do ongoing, deep personal work to
help identify my own biases, prejudices, fears, limitations and
resources to the best of my ability. In this way, I have a better
chance of recognizing when "my stuff" is getting in the way. I know
from conversations with you and Dan that you also support this
approach. It's not a cure all for sure, but it sure does make things
easier. The other major thing that has helped me personally is to
listen to clients when things have gone wrong. Obviously when
something goes "wrong" clients often are attacking, blaming, avoiding
personal responsibility, but often there is also wisdom in what they
say, and hearing it with an open heart can be an important part of our
training.
The third thing is the phenomenological technique of "bracketing" that
I talked about before. Long before I got into Gestalt and Humanistic
Psychology and phenomenology, I remember reading that Jung once said
(in his autobiography, if I remember correctly) that he had analyzed
over 80,000 dreams, but that he tried to forget everything he knew
when approaching a new dream. That stuck in my mind, because I
couldn't imagine how he could forget what he knew. I'm getting old
now, and so it's a lot easier to understand forgetting :-). Anyway,
that was my introduction to bracketing, and I've been practicing ever
since.
I don't think it is an absolute thing. Obviously, we remember at some
level, but we turn the brain functions over to some other part. Right
brain perhaps. Btw, did you see the talk by Jill Bolt Taylor on
TED.com? Speakers on TED.com get 18 minutes to give the speech of
their lives. It is a great resource. Here is the link:
http://www.ted. ;<http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/229>
.<mailto:hbeaumont%40t-online.de>
Anyway, that's all for now, but I did want to pick up your great
question.
Hunter
On 31.05.2008, at 14:02, Alison Rose Levy wrote:
remember
Dear Hunter and All:
Thank you so much~ this is tremendously helpful.
I once heard Stephan Hausner say (and I hope that I understood/
correctly) that he sometimes has an inner picture/hypothesis aboutwhat may be
going on, but at each step, he takes a step back from that to seeif the
evolving constellation verifies it or not~ and I,ve taken thatapproach as a
model in practice. In doing so, I,ve observed that sometimes itdoes evolve
along the lines of the unspoken hypothesis and sometimes itevolves in a
completely different way.studying the
My question is this: since I am working with scientists who are
phenomenon of intention, I,ve also wondered if even the unspokenhypothesis or
picture that I have could function to influence the way theconstellation
unfolds? In effect, serving as an intention. As a facilitator, Icarry an
inner archive of past correlations/experiences and no matter howmuch I strive
to be open to the new, that is present. How to hold and work withthat?
different
Alison
Dear Barbara,
That's an interesting question. As you know, there are many
views about what representatives' reactions in a constellationover
actually mean and how to utilize them.
I support a very phenomenological position. Phenomenologically, when
representatives turn around it the only thing I can know for sure is
that the representatives turn around. Any additional meaning it may
carry must emerge from the constellation itself.
According to this position, any other meaning it may have should not
be imposed on it from our previous experiences in other
constellations. Obviously there are patterns that repeat over and
again, and our previous experiences in other constellations are apart
of what we get paid for to facilitate, but I feel strongly that weinterpretations
need to remain methodologically "clean" and treat all
as hypotheses. The only source of knowledge about the meaning of asee
movement comes for the constellation itself.
If you watch the tapes from Hellinger's early USA trips, you will
the same representatives appearing in different cities. You willwith
notice that some representatives react to any systemic turbulence
a favored reaction. Some fall down, some start to sway or shake,some
get weak. Once we noticed this repetitive pattern in representativethe
reactions, we became very cautions about interpretations.
There is a concept from phenomenology that Erv Polster, a well known
Gestalt therapist, picked up called "bracketing". That means that
facilitator suspends any interpretation as much as he or she can.open
So, this is most likely more than you wanted to know, but your
question gave me an opportunity to raise this issue in the forum. I
saw that you have already received some suggestions about how to
interpret it, but my recommendation nevertheless is not to interpret
at all (ultimately not possible, I know, so let's say as little as
possible). That is, I recommend not trying to know, but to remain
and curious about the possible meanings. Premature knowing closesdown
curiosity and diminishes the openness of the knowing field.but I
This by the way, is a place where Bert has been inconsistent in his
teaching. At some times he has eloquently defended the
phenomenological position, and then at other times, he has abandoned
it all together. I don't think it is necessary to be consistent,
have seen that many students have been confused and haven't noticedposition
this inconsistency in his work.
Just to be clear, I realize that many very skillful facilitators see
this point differently than I do, so I am not saying that the
I am defending is the RIGHT one, but I have found it to be a hugesafest in
support in helping me to protect myself and my clients from the
grandiosity that haunts the constellation work field. I feel
a certain kind of unknowing.is
Thanks for the question. I hope that it opens a fruitful discussion.
Hunter
On 30.05.2008, ad 22:41, Barbara Eggenberger wrote:
I have a question about what it means in a constellation when
someone is
slowly turning around and around as if looking in all directions?
Someone
once said that it is an indication of a perpetrator and if that
person isso, can
someone explain it to me? For instance, does it mean that
anrepresenting a perpetrator or is looking for one? Also, what is
casesappropriate response? I have had this show up in three separate
recently and though I was able to reach resolution, I find myself
feeling
uneasy that I might be missing something important.
Logo
www.barbaraeggenberger.com
916.484.5016 503.727.2595
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Hunter Beaumont
hbeaumont@t- <mailto:hbeaumont%40t-online.de> online.de
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Hunter Beaumont
hbeaumont@t- <mailto:hbeaumont%40t-online.de> online.de
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
