When the Most Awake Among Us Fall Asleep: Marc Gafni, His Supporters and Wetiko
[www.awakeninthedream.com]
Some interesting speculations on how charismatic yet abusive persons
create and intensify an entire social context of denial.
A few quotations from this lengthy and article - deserves close and attentive reading.
Corboy note: Perhaps one feature of this process of "keeping parts of a whole system separate and dissociated" is that abusive incidents are each seen in isolation, then minimized. Each incident seen, then minimized, is put in isolation.
This is like entering the number 1 into a calculator, doing so many times, doing so for years -- yet never pressing the sum button.
All you see in this disconnected, dissociated "itemizing" awareness is the number 1, over and over again. Sort of like an eternal present.
Until you press that sum button, you cannot see that all those multiple number ones add up to a big, nasty NUMBER.
Better yet, imagine seeing just one letter or blank space at a time and writing it down, one letter and blank space at a time, yet never sitting back and reading what all those letters and blank spaces spell out.
Anyone who does will be considered mad or bad by those who remain in itemizing awareness. )
[www.awakeninthedream.com]
Some interesting speculations on how charismatic yet abusive persons
create and intensify an entire social context of denial.
A few quotations from this lengthy and article - deserves close and attentive reading.
Quote
Wetiko is a deceiving spirit; those who are unconsciously taken over by it—as Gafni certainly appears to be—can manifest as seeming masters of deception. To quote Gafni’s third ex-wife, “He was so efficient and convincing a liar that I view all of his supporters…as victims of his pathology.” According to numerous reports of his victims, Gafni would swear them to secrecy—thereby keeping the whole community in the dark about what was actually happening. This compartmentalization is an externalized reflection of the inner state of fragmentation of the psyche when abuse is involved. In a case where the micro reflects the macro, keeping parts of a whole system separate and dis-associated from each other is how the centralization of power and control gets institutionalized in the body politic of our world.
Corboy note: Perhaps one feature of this process of "keeping parts of a whole system separate and dissociated" is that abusive incidents are each seen in isolation, then minimized. Each incident seen, then minimized, is put in isolation.
This is like entering the number 1 into a calculator, doing so many times, doing so for years -- yet never pressing the sum button.
All you see in this disconnected, dissociated "itemizing" awareness is the number 1, over and over again. Sort of like an eternal present.
Until you press that sum button, you cannot see that all those multiple number ones add up to a big, nasty NUMBER.
Better yet, imagine seeing just one letter or blank space at a time and writing it down, one letter and blank space at a time, yet never sitting back and reading what all those letters and blank spaces spell out.
Anyone who does will be considered mad or bad by those who remain in itemizing awareness. )
Quote
A key way of illumining and getting a handle on the abuse, as if stalking a wild animal, is to follow its footprints as it covertly operates through the unconscious psyche – be it of an individual, a group or within our own minds. When the unconscious becomes visible, if followed with awareness, it reveals itself to be a doorway, potentially leading us back to ourselves.
We can follow the unconscious manifestations of the abuse by noticing the various red flags that signify that we are encountering the energy of wetiko. For instance, many of Gafni’s students, friends and colleagues, responding to the multiple accusations of abuse, have written positively glowing statements in support of him. They talk about how loving, warm, generous, well-intentioned, brilliant and filled with integrity he is. And yet—raising a glaring red flag—none of the people writing these supportive statements are seriously investigating or hearing what the accusers are saying. If Gafni’s supporters listened to and actually responded to the accusations, it would add a level of credibility to their defenses of Gafni that is heretofore lacking. Instead, they are simply making blanket statements about how wonderful Gafni is, all the while subtly (or not so subtly) inferring that the accusers are making “false claims” against Gafni. It is not simply that Gafni’s supporters are not hearing the accusers’ voices (a passive act), but on the contrary, they are actively putting down, invalidating and in some cases actually attacking the very voices to which they are not listening.
The indisputable fact is that the people who are writing these wonderful endorsements of Gafni have no idea what actually happened – they weren’t there during the experiences and never spoke with those directly involved. Yet, they are writing “as if” they not only have an authority to comment on the accusers’ claims, but represent themselves as if they have more authority than those who had the actual experiences with Gafni. This bears repeating: Gafni’s supporters—who are in no position to know what happened—are telling people who are in a position to know what happened, what happened! This is a red flag signifying the unconscious, announcing to all who have eyes to see that the darkness of the unconscious is playing itself out so as to—potentially—come to light.
Wetiko works through the projective tendencies of the mind such that we become entranced—bewitched—by our own projections. When Gafni’s supporters refer to the false accusations made by his accusers—as if it is an irrefutable, objective fact that these claims could not possibly be true—his supporters are actually doing the very thing that they are accusing Gafni’s accusers of doing! By accusing Gafni’s victims of making false accusations, his supporters are themselves making false accusations, for his supporters are in no position whatsoever to know the truth of what they are talking about.
Some of Gafni’s supporters have even suggested that the reason accusers are attacking Gafni is because shadow forces in their psyches have been triggered by and are reacting against “the forces of light and love” that Gafni is bringing into the world! Prominent meditation teacher and long-time supporter Sally Kempton has accused Gafni’s critics of projecting their shadow onto Gafni, which is exactly what his supporters are doing via their accusations. This shadow projection suggests once again that the unconscious is playing itself out in the most maddening of ways.