2005-09-18-Emotional Effects of Disaster
SE Idaho #116
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Emotional Effects of Disaster
o 1.2 Group: SE Idaho TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Aaron, Daniel, Klarixiska
o 2.2 TR: Bob S., Nancy, Pamella
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
o 3.3 Dialogue
o 3.4 Closing
Topic: Emotional Effects of Disaster
Group: SE Idaho TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Aaron, Daniel, Klarixiska
TR: Bob S., Nancy, Pamella
Session
Opening
AARON: I am Aaron; I will lead you in preparation. Put your thoughts aside. Put your fears aside. Allow your hearts and beings to open to the love that flows forth, never ending, from the First Source and Center. Become a part of that love. Let the light penetrate your cellular structure. Allow it access to the recesses of your mind. Let yourselves be known without guilt, without shame. Take those aspects of your being that disappoint you, that you feel uncomfortable with, and give them to the Light of Love that you may, with loving compassion, understand these aspects and release them. You will find that love flows more freely when you no longer believe you must protect knowledge of yourself. Be at peace. Now may I lead you in prayer?
Oh Holy Parent, Father, Mother, Spirit, Guide, we praise You for Your awesome plan, your stupendous wisdom. It leads ascending Sons and Daughters from the most lowly state to the most exalted. Help us to experience this evening’s curriculum as a toe-up in the reach for You. So be it.
DANIEL: (Bob S.): Greetings my friends, I am Daniel, your teacher, guide, colleague and most ardent admirer, for you are all Agondonters, and we who are not envy you… slightly.
Lesson
DANIEL: My task this evening is to welcome all of you and set the mood for the lesson which I will not be giving. But I ask you to all continue the assignment which I gave you last week. And if you failed to begin last week, tomorrow begins another week. And I encourage you all to begin that assignment. My friends, you are a most delightful group to work with. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy my time with you as a group and individually when I visit each of you regularly. I regret not all of you are yet completely aware of my presence when I am with you, but you will have to take my word for it. It is part of my routine, which I deem most important. Now with those words of welcome and introduction and an assignment, I now step aside to allow another to provide tonight’s lesson.
AARON: (Nancy): Greetings friends, I am Aaron, and I will continue with this TR. While PamElla is somewhat familiar with my connection, it is not as easy for her to follow my communication stimulus. And, so, please bear with us. Tonight we wish to continue with the theme begun last week and punctuated by your repeated assignment. However, tonight we will approach the subject from another perspective. And I will ask your participation in producing the final product. You have had much discussion of the current circumstances of hurricane Katrina, and at the time of the tsunami, you discussed it as well. Your discussions have been somewhat broad and political, a sharing of information, a sharing of speculation, a sharing of the ways in which the circumstances have stimulated your thinking.
Tonight I wish to delve a bit more personally. Each of you has experienced a myriad of emotions. Certain external events hit closer to home, geographically and therefore emotionally, than do others. You are continuously beset by negative information from around the globe of terrible deeds and horrible atrocities being perpetrated on peoples who live far from you. And the natural human mechanism is to separate yourselves emotionally from such information; this is needed and a natural survival mechanism. However the goal is to be aware, to send love, to recognize your human connection while remaining emotionally whole, connected to Father. And yet, when! events hit closer to home, to people who share a common language, a common government, a common history, people whom you may know, then does this natural coping mechanism fail, revealing the sense of fear and insignificance that causes individuals to protect themselves through [emotional] separation.
Tonight I ask you to look inward, to assess your reactions, whatever they may be or have been to the Katrina hurricane. What is it that you most fear? What are your greatest hopes? We are seeking to draw this out, to assist you in self cleansing, that you may better understand yourself, not only in relationship to Katrina, but even to your role as apostle. I will release Pam Ella at some point for a turn. But I ask her to remain in receptivity [for now]. And I invite response unless there are questions and clarification of the requested exercise is required.
Dialogue
Virginia: Aaron, are we supposed to state our greatest fear and our greatest hope at this time? Is that what you have asked us to do?
AARON: Those were general enticers. My desire is that you share your emotional reality if you have been shaken in some way by this event. If you have not been shaken, then share the source of your strength and your calming and spiritual perspective. Does this help?
(TR’s note: I don’t believe the above paragraph communicates fully what Aaron was after. I was struggling to get the thought. I think the paragraph should have included something about emotional separation. It could have read as follows: “Those were general enticers. My desire is that you share your emotional reality. Have you been shaken in some way by this event? If you have not been shaken, then please share the source of your strength. Have you have emotionally separated yourself, or does your strength come from a calming spiritual perspective? Does this help?”)
Virginia: Well, it does clarify. I think it makes it more difficult. Thank you. I think I will use those two words, Aaron, fear and hope. Perhaps the big fear that I have is that this too shall pass and go away. And we will not really face the issues that our culture has as far as the poor and the rich and those of us in the middle-class. What is our responsibility? Because, I do not want it to go away without real solutions. So maybe my hope there is that indeed our culture will become a caring and just society.
AARON: Yes, my dear, thank you. That is the goal. And I can assure you [that] one day Urantia will have a caring and just society.
Virginia: It seems very far away Aaron.
AARON: Each effort you make, each petition that you put forth brings Urantia closer. And this event provides the opportunity to ask what type of a society would respond differently? How can this nation, as well as others, reorder its priorities? And what is the responsibility of each citizen? While the ultimate society you desire may be centuries away, do not despair that change is not occurring, nor that good will not come of this event. For this event has brought awareness of critical issues to the front, once again. And your citizenry has the opportunity to re-choose. Thank you for your comments a! nd thoughts, my dear.
Virginia: Thank you.
Kenneth: Greetings Aaron,
AARON: : Greetings Kenneth.
Kenneth: I see we are back in the format of questions and answers again, thank you.
AARON: : My pleasure as always. This is my thing.
Kenneth: Yes, we are well aware. Well, fear, something we have worked on for quite a few years now. My fear is that we would have an event here. I fear that I would not be prepared, mentally, emotionally or spiritually to handle my fears. My reading of lessons, conversations, knowing that this earth is going through changes, Mother Earth is cleansing herself, so to speak, is going to happen. That abates some of my fear. The good part about this is that it is in the Father’s hands. There will be change come about.
I have disgust for the system, the governmental system that has failed the people. Hopefully this will change. This will bring together society as a whole, much as it did for the Tsunami, much as it did on 9/11. The outpouring of support and love by the citizens here has been overwhelming. I ask myself the questions from the lessons: “What can I do? What can my government do? We know what the government has done. They are regrouping slowly. But what can I do? My first thought is prayer.&! nbsp; To send my love to those in need, to those that desire and have the capability to understand the love of the Father, that they may find it in their hearts to find peace. I don’t know if that answers your question or not Aaron.
AARON: : My son, you know it does.
Kenneth: The TR is smiling. You’re smiling, so it got someplace.
AARON: : Thank you for both your honest expression of your fear and for your thoughtful sharing of the avenue that is always open to all of you and most needed in times of extreme events, prayer, the sending of love, the uniting with the minds of those affected. And, so, this prayer is in fact needed on a daily basis around the world, for many of your brothers and sisters face abominable situations daily. As you pray, allow yourself to be a conduit of overflowing joyous love. Thank you.
Kenneth: Thank you Aaron.
AARON: : I will release PamElla at this time.
Nancy: I think how this is impacted me is similar to Ken in that it makes me very aware that my life could change over night. And I’ve never had more to lose. And I’ve never held so tightly to things the way they are. In my old life, for example, when I heard of the Teaching Mission, I lived a pretty transient life style. I loved my little house on Bonneville, but I would have happily gone anywhere to do anything to serve in the Mission. And the idea of disasters presented more of a challenge to test myself to be of loving service, whatever.
And when I became a parent, my very being-ness changed. I became this very fearful person that never existed prior to that. (Group comments about flying all over the country.) And now I like my life. I like my house. I like its location. I’m feeling very materialistic—more materialistic than I have ever felt in my life. Not just material things but the whole package—the whole package from the material perspective being family, daughter, husband, house, and job. I like it all. And I don’t want any of it to change. I don’! t want any of it threatened in any way. And the thing I know is that things change. But it is concerning to me, because I know things are going to change.
I suppose my dad’s death is kind of another part of that knowledge that things change. And to me things like death and natural disasters all have that same… I guess the stuff we were talking about maybe a year ago of not having control of the ways in which life changes. And then I don’t feel nearly… I don’t feel at all emotionally prepared. I don’t feel at all spiritually prepared. I feel like I have regressed about twenty years in the last two—which really takes me back.
And so, anyway, I think hurricane Katrina really bothered me, first, by the bigness of it, and, second, by the lack of response. I mean, I couldn’t understand why water and supplies and insulin and food weren’t being dropped at the Superdome, or what ever it was called, within twelve hours. And that also has me perhaps feeling extremely exposed and vulnerable, because what if something does hit here, then what? Who’s going to respond?
I was able to distance from, for some reason, 9/11 more than from hurricane Katrina. And I don’t know why exactly. Maybe because it was a big city and occurred to big buildings, and I try and stay out of them. I don’t know [why], I don’t know [how], but I managed to not let that one touch me. The tsunami scared me, because I’ve had a dream…I’ve shared this dream before. The dream wasn’t a bit scary. In my dream I was standing with a child or two children, and I was standing, and I was watching this enormous wall of water build, and I knew that it was over.
But in my dream I felt calm; I felt peaceful; I wasn’t frightened, and I just dove into the wave. That reaction is not anywhere near my current emotional response. Now when I hear of walls of water, I get frightened that the dream was a premonition… I’m superstitious and… that dream and my spiritual reaction was all pre-Abby too. So anyway that’s my… I’m feeling extremely vulnerable and clutchy right now. If anyone wants to take a run at TRing right now that would be fine by me.
AARON: (Nancy) This is Aaron, I will continue. My friend, thank you for your heartfelt sharing of your reality. The Father understands your reaction and has compassion and love for you. You are held in no lower regard for your reaction of fear than when the possibility of earth changes brought forth from you the sense of adventure and an opportunity to serve. We are here to be of assistance to you, and we are best able to assist when you can be honest with yourself as you have been. Talk with us, with the Father daily. Share your concerns, share your fears, cry, and allow yourself to be nurtured and fed. And through this process you will become stronger and find your center once again. Again, I thank you for your expression. Who else has a response?
Pam S.: Aaron, I have a response. My fear was very, very basic; it was of the water. It was feeling helpless, of being out of control. I identified with being trapped in the attic of a house where the water is coming up and I can’t get out or of being swept along in the current, you know, hitting something hard and being swept under. You listen to the stories of people, and it is just the basic fear, survival. And it bothered me more than not having medicine or not having water or food. Because there is, just no… you’re out of control. And I think that is a bigger issue with me on many things, being out of ! control.
AARON: Thank you, my dear. Yes, indeed do such situations stimulate the instinctual survival fear, the helplessness of the human animal against the forces of nature. This is indeed a part of the fear that is being felt by many across this nation and is why it is so important that it be voiced. While you can know that your eternal soul is safe, the animal response for life is strong. This too could be shared on a daily basis [with the Father and others] until the strength of the reaction is mitigated. I wish to make the comment to you all now that often it is those things that are anticipated [rather than experienced] that are most frightening. When you are actually in the moment, you find spiritual strength, clarity, and, of course, adrenaline can clear the brain. And so, it is those things that you anticipate that can cause almost more discomfort than the actual experience.
Thank you, Pam, my friend for sharing this basic vulnerability.
Pam S.: Thank you.
AARON: : Bob, Carol, Martie do any of you have further to add this evening. My friends, I thank you for a stimulating discussion. I look forward to further opportunities to discourse with you. I thank PamElla for her services as TR. And I now turn the meeting back to Daniel.
Closing
DANIEL: (Bob S) Thank you Aaron for that most informative and helpful lesson. I sense that it is time to close our meeting unless someone interrupts me. And hearing none, I suggest we close in our usual way. Will you stand and join hands. Klarixiska wishes to provide our closing prayer.
Virginia: Father who created all, loves all, we thank You. Help us to recognize You and all others on this planet. Help us to know how to be ready to serve. Help us to spend that time with You that we know will make us strong. Help us to give the kind of material support that You would want us to do. Help the seen and the unseen to be ready to let others know “not by mouth but by our actions of love and service.”
KLARIXSKA: This is Klarixiska: Father, as each one goes their way, may Your spirit be able to be made aware in the minds of each one. May these mortals reach out, to not just those that are far away, but to one another in openness, in love and support, in the opportunity to help each grow as we walk toward You, climb toward You. Amen
