Editors’ Notes
Editors’ Notes
The Gift of Choice
by Tracy Marshall
Tired of the ritual obligation of Christmas gifts, and particularly those gifts that are no more than a compulsory routine exchange, I decided not to participate this year. This decision met with some obstruction initially, but I was determined to accept my choice and to have my preference accepted by those on my gift list from previous years.
The next morning I went to town with a spring in my step. Amongst the harried Christmas shoppers I felt an ease, and an unaccustomed lightness inside —for the first time in years I enjoyed the Christmas decorations, because I wasn’t feeling forced to participate in the frantic purchasing of objects. I even saw a Christmas tree decorated entirely in the particular shade of blue that is Elias’ signature colour. There was a single gift under the tree wrapped in that blue, as if to say ‘I aknowledge you giving yourself the gift of choice’.
As I walked through the tunnel leading into Gibraltar I passed a busker playing wonderful music on a flute. I didn’t have any change and walked past, thinking that I would give him a coin or two on the way back, but then I worried that he may not be there, so I went back and gave him a note —perhaps to clarify to myself that it wasn’t the act of giving that I objected to, but the assumption and obligation of ritual gift exchanging.
Leaving Gibraltar, the original busker had gone from the tunnel but another one was there, playing magical music on a guitar. I stopped to give him some coins, and to look at the DVD’s he had on a cloth on the floor. He said ‘They are free, please take one. They contain the message that peace is inside you.”
It was like a light going on —literally, the light at the end of the tunnel! The whole idea of gift giving transformed itself into the magic of giving, once the obligations were shed, opening the floodgates to the joy of spontaneous gifts and random kindness.
The free gift DVD has a link to the website http://www.lapazesposible.tv/ and it says:
“Inside you exists a feeling more incredible than you can imagine. All that you look for, all that you’ve spent a lifetime looking for, is always inside you.”
What a gift!
Confusion Technique
by Eric P. Lemoine
This December 5th would have been the 107th birthday of Milton H. Erickson.
Probably many readers of Wisp have heard of Erickson, who was an influential figure in the modern developments of hypnotherapy.
When I tried to explain to a friend the significance of “wounded healer” (see p.6-7), I was reminded of his life experience which is to me the perfect example of what the term encompasses. Erickson developed many of his techniques of therapeutic hypnosis after bouts against polio in his youth that left him paralyzed; and after he recovered he continuously used them to efficiently curb the chronic pains he suffered from.
December is indeed a perfect time to heal our wounds, share with others about the experiences of the year, and prepare ourselves for the one to come.
I like to think of Wisp as a gift of sharing not unlike one of Erickson’s famous techniques. To easily achieve trance states, especially in the case of defensive even hostile patients, he noticed that confusion was very efficient. Why is that so? Simply because —even if most people do not realize it— the “subconscious” mind is a fantastic problem solver, and usually when we are confronted with a puzzle too difficult to grasp for the conscious mind, we leave it for the subconscious to resolve in an altered state of consciousness, like daydreaming, dreaming, or trance.
Sudden inspirations or epiphanies, channeling even, all come from that part of our consciousness that can be used with great efficiency to assist us in our daily problems.
Wisp is not your usual comfortable linear magazine; it may disrupt your automatic patterns and rub you into confusion and altered states. Just welcome the confusion, for it is a hint that some problems are on their way to being solved, and that you are reaching an expanded you.
Never L’8 For The Tooth Fairy
by Jean-Baptiste Duret
What an amusing coincidence that the last release of Wisp of the year 2008 is the 8th issue, and if you follow it through you’ll also realize that the first issue of year 2009 will be the 9th.
Since we’ve been working on this project with my friends, it was like everything was coming into place the same way, we didn’t necessarily plan it but it was appearing when needed or as a surprise. I’m not saying there wasn’t a lot of work involved, because there was in many ways, but when things seemed to be stalling, the motivation fading out or that there seemed to be insurmontable obstacles like the so many different revisions made for the printed versions of Wisp and the never ending mail exchange with the printing company… well, soon enough (or not), all that would appear to be purposeful; we would receive a new article perfect for the waiting issue, we would see different events unfold together as if to enhance each other…
Most of the time, we are acting without all the information and what would appear to be delay is only the invisible magical steps of things coming into place.
This experience also helped me realize that when you want to do something, you don’t need to use the official way to do it. You don’t even need to make if fit the standards. Our societies and the Internet offer many ways of “do-it-yourself” mechanisms and tools and if you use your impulses or your desires and put at least the slightest effort in what you want to do, you can achieve great things like this wonderful e-zine.
I don’t fear to say that I feel a great appreciation looking at all that has been done on the outside and on the inside to make it real on the internet first, and later make a printed version available so you can have the feeling of it with your hands. I feel a strong and deep appreciation of everybody’s participation and connections because they made it what it is.
This past year was special to me. There were some big changes at the beginning of the year in my job and in my personal life. I had also many projects but didn’t know how to manifest them. With the pooling of energy generated by the Wisp adventure, I could feel into the process and as I was participating in doing what I wanted to do in the moment, I realized I could do that for my other projects too; I didn’t need to force myself to do those things that I didn’t like because it would fit in the bigger picture and it would be done in some other way than what I first thought of. These last few weeks I’ve been struggling with what is necessary and what is not, with what you need to do and what you need not, but I was wearing blinders because I was trying to reduce it to the minimum necessary, considering that otherwise it (energy, time, money) would be lost or wasted… There is always extra energy, and it is not bound by space or time. Nature is abundance but we don’t want to see it that way because we are used to think in economical ways and sparing and stocks.
This last month of 2008 feels like a time of evaluation of what has been done. It seems to be the perfect time to acknowledge and release old patterns and realize that new ones have grown underneath. We’ve used our baby teeth and now that they’ve fulfilled their nature they’re falling; they’re to be replaced by new stronger teeth, perfectly fitting what is to come.
