Hey Koseyea
here's some basic description and whatnot, some but not all of which may be familiar to you from the Blog. I'm about to post something there that will e
lucidate upon the subject some more.
Gnosis Through Crisis Identity Deconstruction and Pattern Recognition in the End Times.The oldest question known to Man is: “Who am I?”
The answer is somewhat complicated, which is why the question still persists.
Personal identity is a construct. It is made up of interlocking “patterns” or “imprints,” created by repeat emotional/psychological trauma throughout our lives. The deepest traumas tend to occur in the first 14 years of our lives, but particularly in the first 7. This is when our basic patterns—our personal identity—is created.
These patterns interlock and form “grids.” Ostensibly, these grids act as shields. They are like emotional armor to protect us—our wounds—from “life”—which is to say, further trauma, further wounding. Problem is, this armor makes it impossible for us to reach these wounds. Deep beneath our armor, they fester and bleed through lack of tending. And that’s not all. At the same time, our emotional armor—since it “protects” us from interacting at more intimate levels—severely impairs our psychological growth. Like the bound feet of Oriental women or infant children forced to live inside glass jars to create circus attractions, any growth is redirected down these patterns, into deeper and deeper distortion and crippling. Not only are our wounds chronic, they are gangrenous.
However, since the original armor-patterns were designed—unconsciously but instinctively—to cover these early wounds, they can reveal to us (if studied with a dispassionate eye) the nature and “location” (in time) of our wounding. Instead of “following the money,” we need to follow the pattern to find out what’s behind the corrupt system of “personal identity.” Revelation of wounding leads to crisis; crisis provides the opportunity to tend and dress the wounds, with an awareness lacking at the time of the wounding, and so allow them to heal into scars.
John De Ruiter counsels that we cannot transform our patterns. They were created this way for a reason. But we can allow them to transform us, by being in them without resisting them, by being “tenderly OK with them.”
SWEDA offers an in-depth but delicate investigation into the life, both inner and outer, of individuals in crisis, so as to find the source of the distress. SWEDA staff employs many traditional tools of divination, Tarot, astrology, etc, as well as in-depth, one-on-one Q & A sessions. The existential detective work is directed towards “mapping the patterns”—ascertaining the key elements of trauma and discovering the archetypal narrative playing out in the life of the individual. Once this mythic blueprint is revealed, the identity-armor can be gradually dismantled, the trauma healed, and the individual’s narrative transformed—from that of victim to player.
SWEDA offers the tools to a deeper understanding of our unhappiness, frustration, and discomfort (physical or otherwise) inside our own skins. It provides gentle, playful, ruthless instruction in applying these tools towards an end of self-transformation through identity-deconstruction:
Gnosis through crisis.SWEDA is not a licensed psychological practice or any other kind of “therapy.” It is a form of interactive creativity, or improvisation, geared towards self-knowledge. SWEDA does not wish to instigate crisis; but it will attempt to direct attention to areas of unprocessed grief, rage, or despair, bringing suppressed psychic matter to the surface, and potentially “bringing the situation to a head.” By methods of contained crisis management, the individual is encouraged to use the energy of crisis as an opportunity for making bold new leaps of understanding, perception, and trust.
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First thing is for any interested parties to answer a basic questionaire, which we are currently updating and which will be ready in a day or so. This can be PM-ed on request.
After this form has been completed and approved, SWEDA subjects (best word I can think of; client sounds too officious, and "victim" might give the wrong idea?
) will be invited to do some preliminary work of preparation and data-gathering over a 30-day period, before the myth-finding begin.
From day one, SWEDA encourages the subject to live
an examined life. Of course, their life will be examined not only by subject him or herself, but eventually by the rest of their SWEDA group also. But the following may help you to get into the habit ~ the mood ~ of self-examination. None of these tasks are mandatory (at this stage), but they are all strongly encouraged.
1) Record dreams as regularly as possible, without attempting to interpret them.
2) Keep an ordinary journal, not of personal commentary or thoughts so much as specific events, encounters, or inner processes that are particularly impactful or significant.
3) Recapitulation: Make a list of the primary people in your life from birth to present. Use this then as a "matrix" around which to begin a partial recapitulation of key (formative/traumatic/life-changing) events in your life.
4) Create a simple chronology of your life from birth to present, with biographical detail but a minimum of commentary. Include key events and people.
5) Make a list of the people whom you interact with
in the present, noting the amount of time spent on average with these people (as compared to time spent alone).
6) Make a list of your daily routine, including also those activities that are less frequent but that still form part of your "life itinerary." (Basically a list of all the things you
do.)
The key thing to remember is that, though this data will eventually be used to uncover your personal patterns and trace the archetypal narrative, any temptation to interpret this data should be resisted. Try to consider your own feelings, opinions, preferences, and suchlike as irrelevant, at this time. View all of this data and experience as if pertaining to someone else, someone about whom you have no particular feelings.
This rule does not necessarily apply to the last of the tasks:
7) Make audio recordings about whatever you feel like.
This process of data-gathering could be kept up for 30 days. Tasks 1-3 would be for yourself, and need not be shared with SWEDA (tho they could be). Tasks 4-6 would be shared with your SWEDA group. Task 7 (audio files) would also be for sharing.
Volunteers might consider themselves ~ potentially at least ~ as also being trained for future work on the SWEDA team. This way, all SWEDA "analysts" will have been through the Crisis/Gnosis process themselves, while all "analysands" will be effectively in training as myth-finders for future work, should they desire it and prove suitable, at SWEDARGO.
SWEDA doesn't encourage dwelling on the self ~ something we are all unable to cease doing already ~ but rather
examining one's self ~ through one's actions, reactions, habits, routines, moods, etc. Turning oneself into a case study is very different from turning everything around us into the means to feed our own sense of worth (which is what self-importance is really about). Looking at oneself dispassionately ~ yet also compassionately, having empathy for oneself ~ is in fact the inverse of egotism. Egomania depends on never looking at oneself at all, with any honesty, but rather identifying fully with one's thoughts and feelings and using them to define one's experience. Erasing personal history requires a thorough examination of it: one can't throw away what one hasn't fully recognized and "owned" first.
As for the question of helping others rather than oneself, this is a whole other area that I suppose could be discussed, but not here. Anyone who comes to SWEDA should already have grasped the truism that one can only ever be of service to others by working through one's own patterns first ~ and this may well take a lifetime.
DISCLAIMER:
The Stormy Weather Existential Detection Agency forum and analysis are offered for entertainment purposes only. Any analysis, opinions and/or advice offered by any of the participants are not to be understood as a substitute for the accurate and appropriate medical or psychological assessment, diagnosis or treatment prescribed in a one-on-one relationship with a physician or mental health professional. SWEDA does not dispense medical or psychological treatment or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional or medical problems as an alternative to the advice of a physician or mental health professional. If you have, or feel you have, a mental, emotional or physical illness, or if your situation or the situation of someone you know who is or may be attending could be serious or life-threatening, you should contact a physician or mental health provider immediately.
The Stormy Weather Existential Detection Agency strongly recommends that participants avoid making any major life-changing decisions while they are undergoing our analysis.
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