“Doubting everything and believing everything are two equally convenient solutions, both of which stimulate thought.”
An amazing experience
I was getting a little impatient. For one thing, I’m used to giving courses, not taking them, so it was kind of strange to be sitting in the audience, rather than standing in front of a podium.
Much worse was the fact that the course instructor turned out to have very bad teaching skills, and a less-than-firm grasp of his subject matter.
Finding yourself thousands of miles from home, forced to listen to a rank amateur for hours on end, can become unbearable.
“Now if you please, divide yourselves up into groups of two, one instructor and one pupil per group. Pupils please stretch out on your back and concentrate on alpha...” By ‘alpha’ he meant a special kind of relaxation technique he’d taught us earlier.
“Each instructor will choose a subject at random from the pile of files on the table over in the corner. Pupils will then attempt to form a mental image of the subject and diagnose his or her health problem.
Instructors should take notes and encourage their pupils, without providing any information, of course.”
Diagnosing the health problem of a person you’ve never met seemed like a ludicrous idea to me. On the other hand, although highly skeptical, I was thrilled to actually be doing something at last. I turned to Sylvie, an acquaintance of mine, who also happened to be taking the course.
“Want to be my partner?” I said. “Sure. Who goes first?”
“I think your highly developed sense of feminine intuition makes you a natural candidate for the pupil role. What do you think?” “Okay,” she said. “You go and pick out a file.”
People were busy pairing off, making space for themselves in the large, luxurious conference room of the hotel we were staying at, a Hilton.
I was the first to pick up a case file, a single typewritten sheet with the name, age and address of a person neither of us knew, and a description of the health problem we were supposed to diagnose.
Sylvie stretched out on the thick carpet.
“Now breathe deeply and relax,” I said. She closed her eyes and slowed down her respiration. “Get in touch with your alpha energy. Tell me when you’re ready.”
She was so still she already seemed far away. “Ready... “ she said.
“I’m going to count to three. On the count of three, you are going to form a mental picture of Mr. Mario Mantella, 55 years old, from Naples, Italy. You will perform a careful and complete examination, and tell me what you find.”
I waited, curious to hear what she’d say, convinced she’d be making it all up. Suddenly her breathing speeded up and her eyeballs started fluttering beneath closed lids.
“No... no...” she gasped, shivering and breathing even faster. It was when her body began writhing in pain that I started to panic.
