New application of ESR

Communicating one's experience is one way of offering to help the future. One's experience is raw data, and usually one attempts to modify the data so as to fit all people in all circumstances. However, in this instance, I am going to attempt to communicate my experience, knowing that even looking at the same event, people of different viewpoints will see not quite the same event. That is the way it is. And so, here it goes:

The ESR, Emotional Stress Response, or Positive Points, depending on the book one learns it from, is a basic technique for healing emotions, enabling getting on with life. For me, an INFP psychetype, emotional feeling is how I most directly process. So the ESR process may be more effective for me than the reader. Or maybe not. Anyway, the basic ESR technique is to place fingertips on the forehead, just below the slight ridges in the forehead above the eyes, lift forehead skin with fingertips gently there, while thinking through some stressful event, until it feels at ease. Variations in books show another person holding the Positive Points on the forehead; also suggest crossing hands when holding one's own Positive Points on the forehead.

And so, this evening, as I began the long journey back to my apartment, from where I had spent the day at the Natural History Museum doing minor research assistance in marine biology, walking down the almost dark long sidewalk toward the bus stop, it occured to me that I could do the ESR technique here without much risk of ridicule at the strange posture. So I put my hands up on my forehead, crossing my forearms first, and placed my fingertips just below the ridges on my forehead above eyes, peering in the spaces between so as to see the sidewalk as I walked. And I quickly remembered the many times in the past I have been to that museum. How fast life passed before my thoughts! The times I brought a girlfriend here, the times alone, the times with family and wife before that. The curious oddity that no loving happened after each visit. Continuing on down the sidewalk, holding the Positive Points with crossed arms, in less than a minute, the feelings and thoughts had settled to balance. I let my hands drop, noticing which arm had crossed over which.

The technique of clasping one's hands, and then noticing which thumb is on top, as a way to find which brain hemisphere is dominant at the moment, came to mind. So since there was still a long rather dark sidewalk ahead of me yet to walk, I experimented by deliberately crossing my forearms opposite to the way they had been crossed before, and placed my figertips on my Positive Points, expecting to be back on the neutral balance emotional point as a moment before, most likely. However, to my surprise and interest, suddenly there was a new set of rememberances of past events near there, very different feelings about them. I continued to walk, peering through fingers at the sidewalk, yet also focusing on my emotional feelings and associated thoughts. No longer peaceful balance there, it was intense silent dismay. More steps along the sidewalk, cars passing by, headlights briefly lighting the path ahead. What was the dismay? The Positive Points continued to process feelings as I walked along the sidewalk. Remembering events at this place, my favorite place in Los Angeles; yet the lonely times, the times I came here begging humanity to provide me with a loving woman to no avail, the dismay at all going sour, on and on, year after year. Part of my consciousness continued to guide my walk, and beninigly watched over the feelings processing ongoing. I arrived at the street intersection, had to put my hands down, needed to be conventional, on through the end of the bus ride some 2 hours later, along sidewalk near my apartment. There in semidarkness I finally was able to continue the ESR walk process with reverse-crossed arms, and previously unseen powerful feelings processing resumed, A minute or two, and immense amounts of feelings had flowed to a balance point. It seemed a useful healing technique, so I resolved to place it here in my blog, in case some others might find it and be able to use to help others.

The walking seemed to be an important part of the process, along with the reversely-crossed arms while holding my ESR (Positive) Points. Maybe the walking was more important to me than other people, I don't know. I have always needed to "pace" when puzzling over something. Anyway, some powerful feelings healing happened to me while doing this process. Maybe it will help others, too.

nourished rumors

Why is it that a few juicy false dirty rumors well planted and cultivated, can blind people to a thousand quietly important truths?

Whatever the quirk in the human psyche that makes it work, it is a well used clever assault technique by bullys of all sizes, from the street thug who sprinkles evocative half-truth evidence into the neighborhood, and sets up his unsuspecting victim to take the fall; to the faceless billionaire corporation that answers to no one for its actions except to the bottom line profit, doing the same kind of assault to grab some kind of power such as a technological innovative concept.

Whether it is to brew up a storm that manifests as terrible physical injury to the victim, or to utilize the strong arm of the judiciary system that cares only for appearances of things, the wider the rumor mill spreads the false words, the more power it gets; and finding the sprinkled-around confirming half-truth evidences, eventually people consider it reality, and act decisively upon it. (A Hollywood producer must be a mastermind of the control of appearances; could it be a match made in heaven ... or someplace very much lower than that?)

Then the question becomes: why does the bully do it, whether faceless or not?

It is a quirk in only a relatively few human psyches, fortunately for humanity.

It does stir up drama, to placate the fears of boredom.