Dear colleagues:
I write From mexico.
As you Know in Mexico, Bert Hellinguer and his wife dis a workshop when
Hellinger not only say the same layers than in anorher countries
related to ISCA. but also insulted to Raquel schlosser, The persons
that in Mexico has done the major efforts in order to develop
the Constelations.
I think that is evident tha tBert Hellinger, who is one of the most
importants psycologist in the world, there is lost the floor and
he tought of himself as a guru. But. this is his responsability. I
tink the responsability of the people who recipes his lessons is mantein
the spirit of observation, respecto and inclussion who he
has at the outset of his carrer . But, the Hellingers
shold take the responsability by their actions, because in mexico they
did not only rituals that remembered nazism, but actions of
racism and they broke the laws against the discrimination in the country .
I send you a letter of a colleague aout her impresions in the workshop.
when Sophie invited us to do a like nazism sign.
SYMBOL OF A DOUBLE MESSAGE
Carmen Nozal
During the workshop given by Bert and Sophie Hellinger, in February 2008, on
the CUDEC premises, something happened that profoundly affected me. In In one
of the constellations, Sophie asked the audience to smile and raise their right
hands with the fingers pointing forward, to help one of the representatives,
who was particularly agitated. The six hundred people gathered in the
auditorium did so to the sounds of a military march, which I could not place.
Ever since I was a child, I have tended to watch before
taking part, so, even at the ripe old age of 43, I remained seated. I am
Spanish, although I have been living in Mexico for the past 20 years and my
family, like many others in Spain, was marked by the Civil War. When I saw how
everyone got up and raised their hands, while Bert Hellinger asked the crowd to
shout “Yes, yes, yes," with him, I went into a state of shock: I felt
overawed, intimidated, trapped. I inevitably associated that raising of the
hand with the Fascist salute, which, in the case of Spain, was made to Franco
and his sympathizers while at the same time, people shouted, “Long Live Spain!”
I, who never raised my hand and once had to run away from Blas Piñar, the
leader of the far-right Spanish party "Fuerza Nueva," when I shouted, “Put your
hand up yourself,” suddenly found myself in Mexico, a country with a different
history and culture,
transported back to that era. In the auditorium, I couldn’t shout what I
wanted to: “No, no, no! Don’t do it!” I wanted to warn all those around
me of the dreadful consequences to which that symbol was linked. Yes. I wanted
to protect them. But I felt suffocated and trapped. I suddenly had the feeling
of being under a spider’s web that had been surreptitiously cast by an
illusionist. I felt as though I had been taken to a part of me I had not chosen
to go to, one that was full of fear and closely linked to a specific, physical
outdoor place, full of Nazis and Fascists.
I couldn’t smile either. I can send love and peace to
someone with my heart. And I can pray from my heart and I had the best possible
feelings towards the representative who had been affected. Standing or
sitting does not alter the strength of my feelings. And they are not weakened
whether I smile or stop smiling. To my mind, the language of the heart is quite
different. And it does not require gesticulation because it does not have a
face. I do not need to raise my hand to send someone love and peace. In my case
at least, I either feel love and peace in my heart or I don’t. In this case, I
felt something in my heart and fortunately was able to get up and leave the
auditorium. Once outside, while I drank a glass of water, I listened to the
music of "La bamba," the piece with which the constellation I mentioned ended.
What is all this? A dream? A nightmare? A circus? A joke?
Madness? I asked myself. I had gladly paid to enroll in an
intensive workshop, but would I have paid to see how the crowd stood up, raised
its hand and listened to a military march? If someone had told me that was
going to happen, I would not have enrolled. I would gladly have paid not to see
something like that.
Even though ten days have gone by since then, I still have
not managed to assimilate it. I have no intention of criticizing the work of
Bert and Sophie Hellinger: on the contrary, I am immensely grateful for their
teaching. My life and that of my family have benefited enormously through
Raquel Schlosser, with whom I studied a diploma course on Trans-generational
Systemic Therapy of Family Constellations based on Bert Hellinger’s vision of
Family Constellations. She has been the fountain from which I have drunk some
of the immense spring represented by Hellinger.
And yet, I do not understand: if there are various neutral
symbols, why choose the raised right hand with the palm facing downwards and
the fingers facing forward, which is inevitably linked to the Fascist salute
and is therefore a loaded symbol?
I know that for many Latin American persons this is
unimportant, since it has no associations for them. But it does for Europeans.
It does in Spain and it does in Germany. There is no doubt about that. Bert is
German and his wife is Austrian. Both of them are aware that this implies a
double message. I assume that both Bert and Sophie have the best intentions at
heart. Which is why I don’t understand and I would like to know what the
advantage of this gesture is. They work at deep levels, we know that. So what
you experience also touches the spectator's soul and spirit. But who wants that
sort of impact? I certainly don’t.
I agree that many limits should be crossed and I agree with
creating an open space to cross limits but do those that break limits and
create an emotionally open space have the right to "imprison" the spectator?
And what do they assume responsibility for? I also wonder how the spectator
protects himself from an unforeseen situation, when the event takes place with
a double message.
In response to this event, I try to make it up to myself: I
visualize the auditorium leaving peacefully in silence, as a sign of protest.
Then I visualize the representatives leaving the scene. And finally I imagine
the client saying: “I can’t take this." That way I feel satisfied and
hopeful and think that there is still a lot left to do, learn, experience, look
for and above all, find. In this obviously imaginary way I feel a certain
amount of pleasure that offsets the bad aftertaste I still get when I remember
what happened.
Even if a similar event had happened and the symbol of the
communist salute had been used and they had played "The Internationale," I
would have reacted in the same way. I would not have raised my fist or got up
and I would also have left.
Raquel Schlosser was in the auditorium and like her, there
may have been other persons of Jewish origin. What sort of things does
witnessing any event like this stir up? Where does it lead a person who
witnesses this type of energy, with no forewarning, from the point of view of
his or her own particular family history? What is the point of the double
message? Why raise your hand? What is the point of saying, “Yes, yes,
yes?” Where does it take you? Don't they remember? Why provoke this situation
rather than another? Doesn’t subtlety have other equally powerful, neutral
systems without that historical baggage? What message are we being given?
What’s the message we’re getting? And above all, don’t Bert and Sophie
care about what they are eliciting? These are some of the questions I am asking
because I don’t understand. But even though I don’t understand, I know I don’t
agree with what I experienced. Perhaps
that’s only a single word comes to me: Oppression.
I am not writing this for political reasons or because I
have a special affinity for Jewish people-in fact, I practice Sufism-: I do so
because I need to express something, get it out of my system, see it and then
look at it again. I have done it today, at last and by doing so, I
discover that something has begun to take shape. I do so with respect and
reverence towards myself and others, to give testimony which, regardless of
whether it is important, is mine, and on being shared, can be enriched by other
people's point of view: those who look and listen in a different way from me.
I Think this would be an element in this discission, but the most
important is that we should be kind not to bring to the field of the
constellations the fight between victims and perpetrators.
Victor velasco
____________________________________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Deportes Beta
¡No te pierdas lo último sobre el torneo clausura 2008! Entérate aquí
http://deportes.yahoo.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]