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MARTIN WEAVER.
Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapy
Development Log.
2001
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October 9th 2001
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This last week end was the second PCS Conference. I helped organise
the first one last year. I wrote about that
here. I realise that what I didn't write about last was the
initial presentation by Ian McDermott. He talked about community and developing
a new structure. These were ideas that underpinned the reason for the PCS's
existence and pointed out some goals for the future.
I mention here
partly because I really should have written up his talk in more detail. If I
had I could have made a much more useful comparison with the opening talk given
in this year's conference.
When I received the programme for the
conference my heart sank a little. Pride of place on the cover was a colourised
print of a part of the Mandelbrot Set. I think that this becoming one of the most
abused discoveries of recent years - along with the words "community" and
"holographic". However, back to the conference - the keynote speaker was Dr.
Serna Roney-Dougal and her talk was called Walking between Worlds - Links
between Shamanism, Dreams, Psychic Awareness and Psychotic Breakdown. This
really should have been a workshop rather than a keynote speaker for an
organisation that is working to create a professional identity for
itself.
The talk itself as about the use of the
ayahausca
drugs used by various south American tribesmen as a means of achieving a dream
state. I really feel that there should be a challenge to those people who say
that there is ancient wisdom here that is better than our own culture. All I
know is that if I break my leg or if I had my appendicitis with these tribes I
would be dead. This romanticism of poverty and narrow thinking needs to be
challenged. Interestingly she demands respect for the shamans but then
proceeded to belittle the very specialism that taught her and has been able to
discover the structure of the drug and how, and perhaps why, it works.
I
saw a Channel 4 documentary about one man's search for these dreams and altered
states and it seemed to involve a lot of vomiting - the drug is a poison in the
body - and nude battering with nettles. The purpose of which was not very well
described - except on the road to some destination of discovery or other. Maybe
because it was so personal that the presenter himself wasn't entirely sure what
he was after.
The aspect of her talk that I did
agree with was her call for a new concept of mental health. In our culture
today there is so much fear and negativity towards the issue that people hide
their health and/or are too scared to seek help at the best time. She talked
about Robert Bentall's work and his idea that mental illness is a symptom of
our ill culture and that we should take it both seriously and engage with the
issues. She also talked about the "wage economy" as a bad thing and seemed to
want to create a romantic view of village culture with shamans and old wise
knowledge. I don't think any such place ever existed or could exist.
The
talk was interesting in a few places but I kept wondering if it was the right
talk for us, for PCS. In the end I do not think that it was. I didn't learn
anything new about the organisation - and as our Chair said she would not say
anything so that Dr. Serna Roney-Dougal could have all the time there was no
space here to build a community within PCS.
Given the lower turnout than
last year I wonder if the subject matter was responsible. Indeed later in the
day I spoke to two people who said they attended out of loyalty rather than any
desire to attend the workshops. I would have to add that on the basis of the
opening talk I was not hopeful and it wouldn't have drawn me on its own.
However, I am pleased to say that the workshops I attended were excellent.
The first workshop I attended was given called: "What do you do when
techniques don't work?" and it was given by Michael Mallows, Penny Tompkins and
James Lawley............
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