1

Psychophonetics

Acollectionofarticles

2009

This is a collection of journal articles, conference papers and magazine articles of which
the original publications are not currently available or are no longer available

Edited by Robin Steele PhD


PSYCHOPHONETICS ASSOCIATION (IAPP)
1

Australian Branch
www.psychophonetics.com.au/pages/Articles.html

Contact
Australian branch: robin@lifeways.net.au


2009
Previous editions 1999, 1998, 1996, 1995

1
IAPP: International Association of Psychophonetics Practitioners
2

Contents


Page


Journal Articles
3
1
Philophonetics - Love of Sounds: New faculties of self-knowing and healing.
4
2 Soul work bridging across thresholds 7
3 Healing the spiritual scars of abortion 12


Conference Papers
14
4 Empowerment, maintenance and care for the carer 15
5 Awakening to the inner resounding of human experience 24
6 The inherent connection between emotion and motion 33
7 Philophonetica: Love of sounds 42


Magazine Articles

51
8 My J ourney to my true vocation: The creation of Philophonetics-Counselling. 52
9 The inner art- The creation of human destiny 54
10 Re-creating heart-safety 62
11 Compassion - A path of self-healing 65
12 New jars for new wine. 68
13 Philophonetics and universal sound 76
14 The self as an evolutionary process 82
15 Humanising the workplace with the 4-fold bottom-line 85

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JOURNAL ARTICLES


4
Philophonetics-Love of sounds
New faculties of self-knowledge and healing

Tagar, Y. (1995). Philophonetics-Love of Sounds: New faculties of self-knowing and healing. Australian
Naturopathic Practitioners and Chiropractors Association Journal, Vol. 2 (3), pp22- 23.

Can a way be found for the creation of a unique path of personal development for each
individual? I always believed it must be possible for everyone to create his/her own
unique and personal style of expression, growth and healing. But for many years I had
been struggling for it with no ready-made ways of doing it for myself, or of helping
others to do it. I had to work hard at it. At one point I called this striving:" Cherishing the
un-born way of being born." Something was however born since, and this article is an
attempt to describe it. When a newborn baby is about to get choked as the flow of oxygen
does not reach it through the irreversibly cut-off navel cord - it screams, and thereby
discovers to its astonishment that it has got a voice, lungs, ability to breath, a new way of
coping, following no previous experience. It had to become blue before the new way of
breathing could be found. What is the equivalent pattern on the personal-developmental
level? The validity of given models for running our lives is falling increasingly apart. As
the tradition of the past fails to guide the present challenges - new resources are obviously
needed for the guidance from the inside.

The reliance on experts for guidance is obviously failing us all around. As we become
increasingly aware of the uniqueness of individuals in the East and West, North and
South, it is less and less possible to be guided by experts from the outside. We have more
medical experts than ever before, and at the same time many more incurable diseases;
more kinds of spiritual aspirations than ready-made religious and spiritual doctrines to
name them with, and many more types of human psychological complexions than
psychological theories to explain them. We have become too unique for generalisations,
and the vacuum of knowledge around us cannot be filled from the outside any more. Can
it be filled from the inside?

For that to happen - new faculties of Self-knowledge must be available for us. They
cannot be made of new theories, however great, nor new religion, expertise or sets of
answers and techniques, in any field of action. They must be made of our embryonic
ability to know for ourselves. What we urgently need are new ways of Knowing.
5

The situation we are in as humanity at this point in time, between being guided from
outside and being guided from inside, was beautifully portrayed in a verse by Rudolf
Steiner, one of the fore-runners in this century to create methodologies for the
development of Self-Knowledge:

The Stars once spoke to the Human.
It is world destiny that they are silent now.
To be aware of the silence can become pain
For the Earthly Human.

But in the deepening silence
There grows and ripens
What the human speaks to the Stars.
To be aware of the speaking
Can become strength
For the Spirit-Human.

To find one's own "Speech to the Stars" one must come to know oneself ever afresh.
One way of delivering new faculties of self knowledge is called Philophonetics -sounds
for inner landscapes. It is a method of human unfolding for Personal-Development,
Counselling, Expression, and Artistic development. Based on indications for research
given by Steiner, Philophonetics is a process of self-discovery based on the direct and
powerful experience of the sounds of Human Speech, consonants and vowels.

Its effect on the whole organism is profound, enabling inner contents to be "visible" and
accessible for study, release, transformation, enhancement or dissolution, according to the
specific need. Philophonetics does it by giving each inner experience its own unique
expression, free of the limitations of intellectual/verbal language, discovered from the
inside - out; it gives inner experiences a direct expression by activating the strong
intelligence of Sensation, Visualisation, Feeling, Emotions, Memories and Sounds, all
expressed directly through bodily gestures and movements, of which everyone is capable
naturally. The direct use of the sounds invokes deeply seated intelligence, previously
unconscious. It is a direct, organic link to the Body-Psyche connection. Through
Philophonetics the human experience, can express itself in its own terms. Its focus on the
dimension of human experience gives it a broad range of applications from the medical
through the psychological to the spiritual dimension of human life.

Had our bodies been dead machines and our minds been biological computers as so many
of us were brain-washed to believe, Philophonetics would not be a possibility. But
6
between our physical body and our mind there apparently lay other layers, "bodies" of a
subtler nature. Through its direct connection to these subtle bodies - Philophonetics can
directly address our experiences.

What are these "Subtle-Bodies"? The first one is our equivalent of the Plant Kingdom. In
Indian tradition it is called Prana, in the Dao it is called Chi, Sheldrake called it
Morphogenetic Fields, Mindell and other post J ungians call it The Dreambody, and
Rudolf Steiner call it The Ether or The Life body. It lives not in space but in time, not in
quantities but in qualities, not in atoms but in processes, rhythms and formative forces. It
is the invisible reality that creates the visible one and it is, to most people, unconscious.
The second "Subtle-Body" which lies between body and soul is the dimension of
sensation, through which both inner and outer processes become dimly conscious to us. It
is where deep memories, deep seated emotions, desires, instincts, and sensuous awareness
live. This is The Animal Kingdom inside us. It is not fully awake, nor fully asleep. It is
rather in a constant dream in us. Rudolf Steiner called it The Astral Body, the Starry
world inside.

These two layers are active all the time, absorbing the deeper effects of our experiences,
holding its deep memories long after our intellectual mind has forgotten them, and this is
the deep seat of our long term patterns of responses and action. They are the "Raw-
Material" for personal transformation.

Philophonetics can reach and address these layers directly because its major group of
tools, the Sounds are made of the same "material" as the these layers: these bodies live in
a whole spectrum of invisible yet powerful vibrations. The sounds are vibrations,
extremely similar to the vibrations of our subtle bodies, where most of our experience is
being stored. In fact, when all the sounds of human speech resound around a living
human body, every aspect of one's inner experience, from every phase and level of one's
life echoes and vibrates with them, like the strings of a piano echo with the sound of
guitar strings nearby. Our subtle bodies, Etheric and Astral, are like the resonance
chamber of the sounds. For the one who can hear - the human content hums and sings all
the time; for the one who can see - the human life forces are in constant flow of shapes
and rhythm. The sounds can simulate it all, directly, precisely, and with full
consciousness. The sounds are the hidden language of our inner life.

7
As Philophonetics evolved and grew and was applied to more and more people of all
types and backgrounds, we realised that Everyone can See these vibrations, that everyone
can hear them inwardly, given a chance, a trust, an encouragement. With Philophonetics
we had to realise that indeed there are new faculties of perception very near to the surface
of everyone's consciousness, waiting to be stimulated and to become conscious. And we
know now for certain that: Everyone can come to know every aspect of oneself, to know it
directly, first hand, with no experts involved. Furthermore we discovered that as the
inner picture unfolded in this way - we can enter into the inner patterns and change them
from inside, taking our power back from whatever took it from us and forced us to a
corner in the course of our lives. We realised that, at least potentially: Everyone is as
strong as the blows one received.

Further on we found out that every inner need from every level can be responded to with
a sound or a sound combination, sometimes giving us experiences which we never had in
life, or never had enough of , yet always needed, such as safety, warmth, love, intimacy,
comfort, light, soothing, energy, and much more. The sounds can bring up the desired
experience from inside, from beyond the limits of memory, and make it really ours. We
had to realise that: Everyone is potentially as rich as every quality one really needs.

These are the main potentials Philophonetics is capable of manifesting when applied by
trained practitioners. Clients and students can become proficient in the applications of its
main attributes upon themselves. In order to apply it professionally to others - one has to
go through its professional training. It is training in the development of perception, in
acquiring tools for self-transformation, in artistic expression and in counselling skills. It
is a skill of addressing human experiences in their own unique terms. Philophonetics is
one practical example of the assertion that human beings these days can become the
experts of their own self-management, that new faculties of self-knowledge are truly with
us, and that new methodologies for the manifestation of these potentials are of great
relevance today.

May it be of encouragement for those who strive in a similar direction



8

Soul work bridging across thresholds
Living Anthroposophy as a potential bridge between cultures in modern Africa
Tagar, Y. (2004). Soul work bridging across thresholds: Living Anthroposophy as a potential bridge
between
cultures in modern Africa. Anthroposophy in Action: Journal of the Anthroposophical Movement in South
Africa. Cape Town.

A very special opportunity for spiritual/cultural renewal presents itself in Africa today. A
special meeting starts to take shape here between those of us who are starting to
remember the broader spiritual reality surrounding us and those in this country who
have never forgotten it. Living Anthroposophy can become a bridge across
spiritual/cultural divides here in ways unimaginable elsewhere. The profound
Anthroposophical understanding of the respective gifts of different cultures towards the
whole progress of the evolution of consciousness is an extremely helpful framework for
the intense weaving of the myriad of streams and cultures here. Psychosophy
2
offers an
understanding of the life of the human soul as another potential contribution to the
meetings across thresholds that are happening here. A grounded spiritual-scientific
understanding of human reality is in short supply and in a rapidly growing high demand.

But the deeper dimensions of the human soul are not available to external sense-based
observation and intellectual reflection, nor to any abstract theoretical interpretive frame
of reference of any kind, try as we may. The human soul can only be comprehended from
the stand point of a spiritual self awareness. As we grow to respect ourselves as conscious
spiritual beings our own soul life and progressively that of others becomes an apparent
reality for us. As the soul phenomena speaks to us pre-conceived ideas, ideologies,
speculation and belief systems give way to the communication with the actual human
soul in front of us. This is where soul work begins. Expressive non-verbal as well as
verbal modes of communication must combine if the effort is to be consequential.
Training towards professional soul work must systematically address the conscious
development of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition as the higher tools for the art of
deep empathy.


2
Psychosophy: Rudolf Steiners foundation for a spiritual science based psychology and psychotherapy,
from 1910. See: Steiner, R. (1999) A Psychology of Body, Soul & Spirit. Reprint. NY: Anthroposophic
Press

9
The soul life that becomes a reality reveals that the human soul never lives in isolation,
neither can it die with the death of the body. Our inner being never dies, and our
connection to each other never dies either. The complete gamut of the human community
is much broader than the portion of it that meets the physical eye. Through our work as
practitioners of Psychophonetics
3
in South Africa we are progressively being made aware
of the constant presence in the psyche of our clients who have passed over the threshold.
For the native Africans this comes as no surprise, other than the fact that European
educated people are open so speak about it. This is one of the most important potential
meeting points between Anthroposophic-based soul work and the people of Africa.
Again and again in our clinical and training sessions we find the beneficial presence of
fathers, mothers, grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters and other people of special
importance for our clients who passed away, sometimes many year ago, appearing as
powerful supporters, protectors, nurturers and encouragers from within the soul of the
person we work with, if we but listen and respect their experience. Guardian Angels,
Archangels, beings named Love, God, Cosmic Heart, The Mother, The Father by our
clients and other beneficial spiritual beings appear frequently in these sessions as well,
mostly by people who had no previous exposure to or belief in the existence of such
entities before. We welcome them, accepting fully the meaning these experiences have
for our clients, regarding their soul reality as reality. Reconciliation meetings between
souls who lost each other across the abyss of death take place on a regular basis, rituals of
forgiveness between people who harmed each other across the threshold, of relief of
anxiety, of allowance of love to flow, of healing across the threshold - become more and
more common in our practice. This is a rich meeting ground between the Anthroposophic
teaching on the relationship between the living and the dead and traditional healing
practices of this land. We do not come from any tradition but from listening to the
genuine voice of the soul of the person we strive to meet. But surprisingly to some we
find ourselves in this work standing very close to our traditional healer colleagues here.

Never would any of it be imposed by the practitioners, suggested or assumed. Never
would any other presence be allowed to take charge of the situation, of the responsibility
and of the guidance other than the autonomous I of the client, which is the only point of
entry, communication and decision. But when soul reality is being respected - it reveals

3
Psychophonetics: a modality of transformational life coaching, counselling, psychotherapy, consultancy
and training based on Rudolf Steiners Psychosophy. It combines sensing, movement, visualization and
sounds with conversational counselling procedure.
10
its broader nature. Let me share with you some pictures, moments, reflections and
experiences from recent time, expressing this newly emerging bridge in practice.

Botsabelo - Here at Botsabelo, a place of shelter in the heart of the Magalisberg
mountain range north of J ohannesburg, in front of the burning fire, at the heart of the
Medicine Wheel created by a Hopi Indian for the local villagers, surrounded by the
beautiful hills of this Cradle of Humankind, amongst hundreds of children, teenagers and
adults from the healing communities of Botsabelo Village and the Agape clinic of the
Mamelody township, teachers and students from the University of South Africa, Rao
University and Persephone College, Richard, a Sangoma elder from the Transkai blessed
our good work for the healing of our communities in the name of the ancestors of this
land. He told us that all human sicknesses come from the soul, and that all good people
who respect the spirit of the land, the people, the traditions and the ancestors can do the
work of healing. This was the conclusion of a day of festivities, theatre performances,
concerts, rituals and joyful meeting of these communities, brought together through our
work in South Africa, on the 1
st
August 2004.

This was the culmination of two years of Psychophonetics work of Persephone College
teachers and students at Botsabelo, developed alongside the J ohannesburg campus of our
professional course of Psychophonetics. This work is a continuous human meeting
crossing many thresholds, uniting people across different races, nationalities, languages,
cultures, countries and psychological schools of thoughts in creative soul work, based on
a respectful observation of the phenomena of human experience in the context of human
community.
A week earlier I stood at the grave of yet another AIDS victim at the Botsabelo graveyard
further east of the Medicine Wheel, farewelling a young woman of this community, as
the singing, coming out of the depth of the souls of hundreds of people surrounded by
these ancient hills engulfing us as if coming from the hills themselves, the red rocks, the
burnt grass. At the invitation of the bishop of the nearby town, with no previous notice, I
found myself speaking at the grave to her, the soul of the woman, as if she was still
amongst us. I spoke to her crossing the threshold on behalf of all of us, connecting us yet
again with the world of spirit from which we all come, in which we are always placed,
embedded as we are in the forgetfulness of matter. I promised her that we will not forget
her membership in our community and that on her behalf we will care well for her
children left with us. I knew as I was speaking that coming out of my Anthroposophic
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background, thus appreciating the actual present reality of the departing soul - I was
representing a very controversial possibility, potentially threatening and welcoming in
equal measures to many, and yet a potential meeting ground between the opposing
approaches to the connection between the living and the dead in this continent: that of
most of the established churches here and that of the traditional ancestral reverence of the
indigenous people of this land. I realised again than that living Anthroposophy is a
potential modern bridge between the contradicting currents of our time, especially here in
Africa.

I first woke up powerfully to these confronting world views a few weeks back, at the 4
th

international conference of the African Chapter of the World Council of Psychotherapy
(WCP-AC) at the University of the North in Polokwanw, Limpopo Province, attended by
psychotherapists from across Africa. In the middle of the workshop that was offered by a
team, with professor Stan Lifshitz of the University of South Africa, Dr Corinne
Oosthuisen of Rau University and myself, about creating healing rituals, the controversy
manifested through the inability of some professionals to join the work of traditional
healers here, whenever rituals were touched on in more than clinical intellectual forms.
Amongst those who could participate in this ritual creating workshop a spirit of
complete openness prevailed, marked by mutual respect and support for bringing the
spiritual dimension of our lives into our professional therapeutic and academic lives.
Traditional healers, and other spiritually based therapists like myself, formed a moment
of high ritual between us, honouring each others spiritual striving which assumed a
particularly powerful significance here at the school of psychology at this university, at
the heart of this conference. At least for that moment we became a close,
spiritual/professional community. At the core of the controversy, as well as at the heart of
the community there stood formidable the threat and the promise of working
consciously with the spirits of the ancestors. This was for me a turning point in the
relationship between my personal sphere of applied Anthroposophic work and the
spiritual/cultural developments of our time, an indication of things to come.

The struggle to bridge the divide between the spiritual and the mainstream approaches to
mental health dominated the third day of the conference when in one paper presentation
after another the tendency to hide traditional healing and ancestral rituals was exposed
and openly critiqued by a brave group of pioneering researchers from across South
Africa. The tension in the rooms was palpable. At the core of the encounter between the
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differing cultures present, simmering underneath the official proceedings was the
question of the connection to the ancestors: can the inclusion of the presence of the spirits
of those who passed away within the healing procedure be tolerated and openly
acknowledged within the professional and academic fraternity of mental health in this
country?
This question has enormous ramifications to the future cohesion of the emerging new
society in South Africa and in Africa at large. Many people are not aware of it yet, but
they will be soon. The signs are everywhere for all to see. I realised there and then that as
an exponent of an Anthroposophic-based modality of mental healing I stand right in the
middle of this spiritual/cultural struggle with an offer of a potentially significant
contribution, both theoretical and practical, that could make a very positive difference to
this emerging discourse here.

I saw again how Anthroposophy, when thought through and practically applied to soul
work, could serve as a bridge. I was honoured to be received on the basis of
Psychophonetics itself into professional membership of the WCP-AC by its founder and
president, Professor Sylvester Madu, the head of Psychology at the University of the
North, at whose invitation I was presenting this work at that conference. Ever since we
met at Rhodes University three years ago, Professor Madu had always encouraged the
presentation of Psychophonetics as one of the potential bridges between European based
approaches to the human soul and Africa. He wrote to me last year the following
paragraph:
This method (Psychophonetics) is not culture-bound. My impression is that
it has the potential of making a significant contribution in the treatment of
abused and traumatized persons not only in South Africa, but also in the
whole of Africa. As the President of the World Council for Psychotherapy
African Chapter and a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychology,
University of the North, I would support Psychophonetics Counselling and
services in any way possible within my capacity.

Combined with his publication of a paper on Psychophonetics in this country
4
, his
support has made an important contribution to the arrival of this work in this country. At
the closing ceremony of the WCP-AC, Professor Madu called on all of us to be
courageous in creating, researching, formulating and articulating new approaches to
psychotherapy that are unique to the spirit of Africa. I knew then with a mix of
excitement and trepidation that I was standing at an important threshold in the cultural/

4
Tagar, Y. (2003) Psychophonetics in South Africa. In S. Madu (ed), Contributions to psychotherapy in
Africa. Plokwane (Pietersburg): UNIN Press
13
spiritual development of this century, representing a humble beginning of embryonic
Psychosophy to the soul struggles of our time, a cultivation of the life of the soul on the
basis of a true knowledge of the spirit in Rudolf Steiners words.

Back at Botsabelo, following the funeral that morning we all went back down to the
village, to do the traditional healing consecration of our new Psychophonetics clinic
there, named Pilo Anthle, meaning Good Heart in Zuana, the language of the local
people. The same Sangoma performed a full regalia purification ceremony for our new
clinic. He addressed and cleared all the previous presences of this place, welcomed the
caring love our group members manifested towards the children of this land, thanked us
for our dedication for healing his people, called for the blessings of his ancestors and the
ancestors of the people of this community, and placed their protection around our sacred
healing place. I joined him in the blessing by connecting the spirituality at the foundation
of our work to the spirituality of the people of this land by speaking the Lords Prayer in
Hebrew, my mother tongue and the language of the country of my origin, and the anthem
of Persephone College, the prayer for the manifestation of human meeting that is based
on the Lords Prayer. Then he blessed my talking stick, a Shaka Zulu sculpted weapon
carved in Malawy, given to me by a Pede woman on behalf of the Zuana people of
Botsabelo, and he blessed the Persephone talking stick, the one carved in the upper
Savana for the lounge of Persephone College in Africa two years ago - Spiritual bridges.

Then we commenced our healing work of the residents of this village in this clinic, the
transformation of scars, pains, invasions, abuses, addictions and debilitations originating
in the past biographies of our people into strength, courage, compassion and creativity for
the future. The third year students of our first intake in Africa are fast becoming
independent in their healing work at the student practice at Pilo Anthle at Botsabelo, a
wonderful preparation for their future professional healing work with Psychophonetics in
this country.
I hope this sharing can be an encouragement for creative, original, free thinking strivers
in all walks of life who are inspired by Anthroposophy to take up the unique
opportunities presented by this threshold time in our history for the crossing of the
thresholds in front of us, both inward and outward, for the conscious humanising of our
society.

14
Healing the spiritual scars of abortion
Tagar, Y. (2004). Healing the spiritual scars of abortion. Anthroposophy in Action: Journal of the
Anthroposophical Movement in South Africa. (Sept) Cape Town.

I do not need to take a stand regarding the raging debate about the morality of abortion,
in order to share with my clients and students of counselling my awareness of the
possible long term effect of abortion. It is simply my experience coming out of 14 years
of clinical experience in counselling and psychotherapy work in Australia, New Zealand
and South Africa. I firmly support womens right to determine the course of this most
intimate event that takes place in their body, soul and spirit. But I believe that they also
have the right to be informed about the soul, mental and spiritual dimensions of their
decision, for they will have to live with those regardless of any moral/ political belief
they hold at the time of that decision. I speak as the counsellor of many women who
chose or were forced by circumstances to have an abortion at some point in their lives,
who came to me years later asking for help in their attempt to recover from the deep and
un-for-seen consequences of this event.

I also believe that women have the right to know that even years later the scars of
abortion left in them can be healed. Not all women undergoing abortion would develop
such a scar, and no prejudice is intended in these statements. But for those who may be in
need of encouragement to trust their own intuition as well as those who need a support
for their hope of recovery, I wish in this short column to share what I know about that
scar, its consequences, and what it takes to heal it in my experience.

There is a stream of love so strong it seems at times as if all others are but its derivatives:
mothers love. Human beings do not create it, they are created by it. It shapes life into
matter and it shapes the human out of the potential human. It used to be called The
Demeter Stream of Love in ancient Greece. It is at the same time a life force, a soul
force and a spiritual reality. On the physical level it creates the milk in the breasts of all
females, not only in the human race. But in the human being the creation of milk in
preparation for the arriving child takes place on the level of the individual soul, reshaping
much that is already there in place in terms of heart forces, awareness, the depth of
emotion, hope and deep soul connection to be the matrix for the incarnating soul.

15
Whatever are the reasons and the causes for the decision to terminate pregnancy the
stream of love will be violently interrupted. This is the equivalent of suddenly blocking a
gushing river in its downward course, only it takes place within the human constitution.
In Psychophonetics we came to call this phenomena A spiritual mastitis for in a way
similar to the inflammation of in the womans breast caused by the blocking of the
unused but fast produced milk the stream of mothers love flowing powerfully through
the body, soul and spirit of the womans being in pregnancy is likely to be dammed up,
blocked, inflamed and scared in the long term.

That could result in blockages between the womans awareness and the depth of her own
emotions, a certain numbness of the woman forces, blockages in intimacy, relationship
and sexual life, unresolved with buried guilt, depression and a block to the spiritual
dimension of human development. It might result, worst than all, in a debilitating scar in
the internal stream of love. None of the above is inevitable, and none will take place in all
cases. But for no one could the termination of this process be but a physical operation,
whether they know it at the time or not.

This column is too short to describe in detail our process of the healing of the scars of
past abortion. I here wish but to say that what it takes to heal the scar is a process of
reconciliation between the woman and the Mother Stream of Love that was blocked. It
is possible to enter the direct experience of it all and to complete this process; it is
possible to restore peace and health to the relationship between a womans awareness and
her power of love, even if many years after the event.

But the minimum that must be stated is that in most cases it entails reconciliation between
the woman and the soul of the child that was thus rejected. In my experience the childs
soul is always available for such reconciliation. This entails the conscious crossing of the
threshold between the living and the not living, the same threshold that was
unconsciously crossed when the soul chose the woman to be mothered by, and at least to
start with, the womans being, consciously or not, chose to receive it.

When the meeting takes place, across an abyss of guilt, shame, fear and trepidation love
can flow again, life can flow again, and sanity is being re-anchored. This is all I am able
to share with you on this topic of soul-work this time. It can be a starting point for future
sharing for us all.
16



CONFERENCE PAPERS



17
Empowerment, maintenance and care for the
carer

Tagar, Y. (1995). Empowerment, maintenance and care for the carer. Paper presented at the Pathways to
Healing: Enhancing Life through Complementary Therapies Royal College of Nursing Australia
Conference, Canberra.


I believe all complementary therapists are bridge builders, recreating the connections
between various levels, systems and dimensions of the human internal and external
system. Those parts of the human being were in reality never separated. They were
always interconnected within one all-embracing complex unity, but they were
conceptually divided for a few centuries by a medical science which had narrowed its
terms of reference to the mechanistic, materialistic, atomistic and analytical dimensions
of our existence and of our faculties of knowing.

We probably had to go through this phase, to come to the far limit of the mechanistic
approach to knowledge and to suffer a fair bit of its consequences - with more, no doubt,
to come - in order to realise that life is more than the sum up of particles; that health is
more than the irradiation of illness; that sanity is more than the absence of madness, and
that well-being is more than the overcoming of pathology. Above all we, as a therapeutic
community, are steadily, willingly or not, moving towards an acknowledgment that
beyond the various parts of the human being there is a greater whole, and within it there
is a living heart, not just a pump, but an indivisible, mostly invisible centre of life-forces,
soul forces and spirit. We are steadily moving to realise as a community that the best care
for the parts is found in the context of the whole; that the health of Life as well as of
Sanity are at the same time both the results and the causes of complex interrelationships
between many factors: our relationship with the physical world, with the organic living
world, with our emotional, personal and spiritual realities which manifest through
qualities such as a sense of meaning, direction, belonging, love, warmth, self-worth,
creativity, connection to nature and positive and meaningful relationships with other
human beings.

In order to manifest these growing attitudes into the sphere of being practical in the
workings of health-care, bridges must be built between the various dimensions of human
existence, between our bodily, emotional, mental and spiritual dynamics. The awareness
18
and the care for the whole person depended on the creation of these communication
bridges.
I am a practitioner who thinks, lives and works on the borderline between body and mind,
whose field of perception is focused on what could be described as the field of human
experience. I believe that experience-awareness is the main field of future growth and
development for health-care. If clients are to be placed in the centre of the healing
process, empowered, in charge, in control of their lives regardless of professional training
and language which set professionals apart from them - then it is only the centrality of
human experience in the healing process that can achieve it.


MIND
BODY
EXPERIENCE
sensation
emotion
Feeling
imagination
memories
sense of self
reactions
inner-

If experience is to play a part in the
therapeutic interaction - then it must have a
basic language for its expression and
communication. This language, as I will
elaborate later, can only be made of non-
verbal modes of communication.
Between the experts of the body and the
experts of the mind, there is a space for the
expertise of the clients: the clients can
become experts in the field of their own
experience.

An example of a modality of healing which is based on non-verbal communication is:
Philophonetics-Counselling. The philosophy and the model of the human being on which
this work is based is one which incorporates the dimensions of human existence which
live between body and mind. I am referring here to the Anthroposophical approach to
medicine, on which my work is based, the foundation for which was laid by the Austrian
philosopher, scientist and educator, Dr. Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). His model can truly
bridge the divide between the eastern and the western approach to healing, being one of
the most comprehensive models ever to be put into practice in the health field in this
century.

According to Steiner the physical dimension of the human being consists only of about a
quarter of the reality we face and experience. It is that part of our experience which
correlates to the mineral kingdom of nature. Over and above it lives that which
constitutes the essence of the, living, organic kingdom of nature, the field of formative
19
forces, processes, vibrations and dynamics which he called the Etheric Body, or the Life
Body. In the East it is called the Chi, the Prana, and in the west some call it the
Morphogenetic Field of Forces. Over and above these two there lives the essence of that
which is characteristic of the animal kingdom, constituting the dimension of inner
experience of pleasure, pain,
desire, instinct and sentient awareness. He called it the Astral or the Sentient Body. And
over, above and through all of these three dimensions there exists what could be truly
called uniquely human consciousness, the I Am, the Self, the thinking, feeling and
willing self-aware human consciousness.

These four levels, as well as all the interactions which take place between them comprise
the whole constitution of the human being. None of them can be fully understood without
its relationship to the others. It is a whole, intricately interconnected system.

All that is known as Anthroposophic Medicine, as well as what is known as the Steiner
School System of Education is based on this model. I suggest that it is probably one of
the most comprehensive frames of mind within which the age-old dichotomy of body-
mind connection, of the psychosomatic enigma, can be reconciled within a greater whole.
In the traditional modalities of health-care, the two major types of intervention are either
body-based, consisting of substances and treatments which are administered through the
physical body, or mind-based, consisting of reflection, conversation and words. Either
there is an object-relationship to the human being, or reflection on its conditions. A third
way lies in between these two: Subject to Subject interaction, experience to experience,
Physical Body
Life Body
Sentient Body
I Am
Psyche / Soul

}
The dimension of Experience on
which I am focusing, comprising
that which is between the fully
conscious mind and the completely
unconscious body. Lies between
these layers. It consists of:
Experience: inner and outer
Sensing, Movements, Gesture,
Visualisations, Sounds and
Vibrations.
In these modes of existence and of
awareness this dimension can be
grasped and be worked with.
20
human to human. The major modes of interaction in this third way must be based on
awareness of direct experience, on direct expression of that experience, and on active
participation. This is where what could be termed "Participatory Therapy" starts. They
would have to include the expression of the interplay of forces in the "Subtle-Bodies" of
our system, Life-Body and Sentient-Body activities.

I suggest that whenever this third way is missing in health-care interactions, we are
operating on, at best, half of the resources potentially available in such interactions, and
very often not on the most relevant part of these resources: 1) A whole range of self-care
resources within the client is not accessed, mobilised and put to self-sufficient use; 2) A
whole range of resources within the therapist is not being validated, trained,
acknowledged, encouraged and applied; 3) Some of the most potentially effective
dynamics afforded between client and therapists of every kind are not manifested.

I suggest further that in the absence of the awareness to the inner dimension of the
personal experience, the absence of a language with which to communicate it, skills to
take care of it and training to develop these skills, the under-utilised dimension of
experience within the therapist becomes an extra burden. "Whatever we do not own
within ourselves - controls us" said Roberto Assagioly, the founder of Psychosynthesis,
and "What is making us tired is not what we do, but what we do not do" according to one
of the Archbishops of Canterbury. The dimension of inner experience which resounds
with every perception and encounter that we go through in the course of the day - either
becomes a resource of intuitions, perceptions, sensitivity, energy and self-possession, or,
when not acknowledged, owned and integrated, it becomes over-loaded, burdened and
stressed with unconscious inner and outer dynamics which like an involuntary sponge it
has absorbed into itself without an outlet. All these unconscious contents absorbed into
the dimension of experience stay put within the life-system, blocking its circulation,
adding to the phenomena of burn-out, exhaustion and illness.

I am pointing to the necessity to become aware of the non-verbal dimension of our
experience, for which, for most of us, there is no expression. If any of the above contents
of experience are to become conscious, expressed and released - a range of Non-Verbal
Communication Skills must be acquired for the purpose, to match the nature of these
contents. Non-verbal modes of intra as well as inter communication and knowing include:
bodily sensations of bodily as well as of emotional dynamics, externalising subtle inner
21
movement and postures to make them conscious, visualisations of inner states of being,
and the externalising of inner vibrations into perceptible sounds.

Let us admit it, most of our inner experiences are not directly verbal. Our inner life does
not speak English. Pleasure and pain, tension and being relaxed, fear and hope, anger and
hurt, pride and humiliation - none of them speak English. Verbal communication, both
with oneself and with others, is, at best, a second-hand translation of direct experience,
varying in accuracy, transparency and clarity. As a result, in a highly intellectualised,
verbalised, conceptualised, computerised western culture, most of our important
experiences are being communicated even to ourselves by means of translation into a
second-hand medium: words. They remain largely not communicated at all, mute and cut
off from our awareness. What we need in order to become aware of our inner experience
is definitely not more information about it, but if anything, the opposite: we need EX-
FORMATION, a term I take the liberty of coining here, or in plain English, we need
skills of expression.

I wish to point to the need to explore, express, create space and tools for the non-verbal
dimension of communication as the missing link between modalities, between one and
one's own inner life & resources, potentially between East and West, and certainly
between patient and practitioner. I suggest that three goals could be achieved by
establishing an expressive mode of communication within the health-care system,
especially with hands-on professions such as nursing:

1. Empowerment for the client - accessing, acknowledging, validating and making use of
inner resources within the receiver of health care, creating the possibility of Participatory
Therapy. With non-verbal tools of intra-communication the clients primary connection to
his/her own inner condition could be tapped, by-passing the hindrances of the lack of
professional training and jargon, helping in the whole process of healing from diagnosis,
through treatment into assessment, incorporating the client much more fully as a member
of the therapeutic team.

The client, after all, is in direct connection with a great deal of the condition in treatment.
Whatever the client can say about the condition will be second hand information. If a
mode of non-verbal communication can be accepted, taught and encouraged, enormous
amount of extremely relevant information could be gained without the use of mechanical
22
intervention, including information which by its very nature is beyond the reach of
mechanical intervention all together. The subtle interconnections between the emotional,
mental and physical conditions of every client, connections which are very real for any
unbiased observer - could be made directly conscious and verified by clients, if only tools
for the direct expression of inner realities were granted to them, and their expression
respected.

2. Empowerment of the carer - accessing, acknowledging, validating and making use of
the inner resources of carers. The whole wealth of intuitive, sensitive, empathic and
instinctive dimensions of awareness which evolve in practitioners through sheer work and
life experience could be more thoroughly tapped and made use of, if the non-verbal
dimension of communication could access it. Very often important decisions regarding
diagnosis, treatment, assessment and referral - could be made with much more relevance
to the client, if intuitive, instinctive, spontaneous perceptions of health practitioners could
be validated. We know much more than we trust ourselves to know. But when
experiential, "Right-Brain" oriented knowledge is not equipped with tools for its
articulation and validation, this knowledge stays mute, giving way to so called
substantiated modes of scientific knowledge which are equipped with their professional
languages.

At the bedside, rich and many-faceted non-verbal communication is going on all the time,
as every nurse would know. A great deal of this valid information is being lost to the
healing-caring process because of the lack of ways to encourage it, objectify it, put it to
conscious and practical use, to follow it up. The establishment and the legitimising of
non-verbal modes of communication could empower carers to make a deeper use of their
inner resources, ingenuity and creative thinking.

3. Maintenance & care for the carer - supporting the life system of carers, preventing
inner neglect, exhaustion, depletion & burn-outs by training carers in the acquisition of
simple, self-sufficient tools for noticing, acknowledging and caring for inner signals for
inner conditions, by releasing tensions in a safe way, by acknowledging inner needs and
discovering inner resources from addressing them.

The interaction between client and hands-on therapist and carer is loaded with
unconscious contents and effects: projections of all sorts, unconscious manipulations,
23
little power games, a whole range of dependencies, a loading of disowned contents, hurts
and memories, habitual reactions to authorities both negative and overly positive, and the
sheer effect of suffering, anxieties, grief, needs and expectations. All these contents are
bound to confront the carer, most of them unconsciously. If the carer is not equipped with
some basic tools for noticing, accessing, releasing, healing and caring for the carers own
inner contents of similar "frequencies" - his/her chances of neutralising the potentially
debilitating effect of the projections and the effects of the clients contents before they are
landing on one's inner system are very slim. The carer is more than likely to get loaded
with a whole range of un-processed heaviness of all sorts in the course of the day, with no
direct knowledge of it, let alone tools for releasing and clearing one's system from these
effects.

When taking a shower after an exhausting day or night shift - the internal system remains
contaminated by these "invasive" effects which one has collected during the shift on the
ward or in the clinic. That load does not go away by itself. It accumulates, condenses, and
costs energy, positivity, joy of life. It is a very debilitating process. Many attempt to cope
with this process by blocking the inner dimension of the experience, by cutting off from
it, ignoring and avoiding. That costs a lot: it may not only block from the mental and
practical capacity a very vital portion, the blocked inner content with all its reactive effect
works its way down to the vital forces, the immune system and eventually the physical
body itself. It adds to the mountain of contributions to the phenomena of stress.


{
{
communication
verbal
non-verbal
communication
Therapist Client


The only way to overcome the accumulation of absorbed unconscious, non-verbal
contents and pressures - is to encounter it in its own language, the non-verbal
communication. If one learns to listen to the quiet voices of the body, to the subtle
sensations which testify to inner processes, if one learns to express it in gesture and in
24
movement, to create an inner picture of this dynamic which enable perspective over it,
and to articulate the particular nature of every particular effect, three capacities will be
made possible:

1. Regular maintenance of one's inner, mental, emotional, energetic and physical
well-being, maintaining one's centre, self-possession, being in charge of one's
energy field, taking care of inner needs, clearing the ground from a whole system
of co-dependency hooks into which clients' unconscious contents can be hooked.
2. Regularly, in the beginning, middle and end of a working day or night, to clear
one's system from contaminations, projections, pressures, unwelcome contents
others put on us or our own reactions created within us.
3. Guarding oneself from outer Energy Invasions by consciously building flexible
invisible boundaries with which to be in charge of the extent and duration of
openness and vulnerability to others, clients, colleagues, family and friends.

These three capacities put together constitute what could be termed "Care for the Carer".
The development and the mastery of a range of non-verbal modes of communication,
mainly with oneself is, in my view, a prime condition for the ability of self-care of carers.
In order to demonstrate the potential of a non-verbal communication I will put forward
the modality called Philophonetics-Counselling, my profession, through which I continue
to research and develop an approach to the possibility of Participatory Therapy.

Philophonetics - in the broad sense of the term, means: Conscious Relationship with the
resounding of one's Experience. The Phonemes or Phonetics, the universal group of
consonants and vowels, act in this method as representations of aspects of human
experience embodied in the deep layers of the subtle human body. The fostering,
cultivation, refinement and skilfulness of that relationship is the prime goal of
Philophonetics. Its therapeutic and developmental application is called Philophonetics-
Counselling, while the artistic and performance application is called Philophonetics-
Performing

The working basis of Philophonetics-Counselling, as well as that of Anthroposophy in
general, is that human beings are fundamentally equipped for the journey of their lives.
To prepare to be a helper in human development and care, in the modern sense of these
terms, has to cultivate this attitude within, as an attitude of trust in the inner resources of
25
people. The task of this work is to encourage people to discover within themselves that
equipment, the resources of guidance, inspiration, imagination, energy, safety, identity,
healing forces, creativity, intimacy and Love. In order to become an "Encourager" for
such a process, the Practitioner has to find these resources within oneself first.
The historical origin of Philophonetics - is in the Performing Arts, mainly in Drama,
where the exploration of Rudolf Steiner's approach to the development of actors led to the
discovery of powerful performing and therapeutic principles arising from tracing the
organic connections between experience, movement and sounds. Having made a
breakthrough in its performing arts application (an on-going development) it was
consequently combined with the principles of Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology
and Counselling - into the therapeutic modality of Philophonetics-Counselling.

This modality is being practiced now in clinics in Australia since the late 1980's, and
taught at The Persephone College of Philophonetics in Melbourne and Adelaide since
1991. In combination with the medical work of holistically oriented medical doctors and
complementary medicine practitioners, it is being successfully applied in the treatment of
a whole range of issues on the Physical, Energetic, Emotional and Mental levels: from
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Repetitive Strain Injury - to Depression Grief and Panic
Attacks, from Migraine and Pain Control - to Anxiety, Obsessive Reactions and Fear of
Public Speaking, from various Addictions, Dependencies and Immune-Deficiencies
complaints - to the need to contact one's Inner Life, sense of Identity, Direction and Self-
Confidence.

The Role of the Therapist
The role of the therapist in this modality could be defined as an encourager in the clients
process of exploration, transformation and integration: becoming a coach in the study of
the literacy of experience, pointing to inroads into the reality to be observed. The
therapist does not push, does not make decisions, does not interpret the shared inner
content according to ready-made conceptual structures, and does not attempt to observe
the client's inner reality before the client does. We train ourselves in the art of Midwifery
of self-knowledge, rather than as authorities about it. The best description for the role of
the therapist / coach in the Philophonetics-Counselling process is: Encourager of Inner
Strength.

The Major Philophonetics-Counselling Modes of Knowing
26
As can be seen in the above diagram, the dimensions we call Subtle-Bodies include what
Steiner defines as the Astral or Sentient dynamics of the human being, and the Etheric or
Life dynamics. These two dynamics overlap each other, operate simultaneously and with
interdependency. While the Astral-Body acts through Impulses in Dream consciousness,
the Etheric-Body incorporates these impulses into its Pulsating dynamics of formative
forces in Sleep consciousness. Both dynamics of Impulses and of Pulses live in
Resonances, which could be precisely matched, simulated, tapped and accessed to
consciousness through the resonances of the Sounds of human speech, consonants and
vowels. This essential similarity between the resonance of the subtle bodies of the human
being and the resonance of the sounds of human speech - is the fundamental element of
Philophonetics-Counselling and of Philophonetics in general. The rhythmic, vibrational
dynamics of the human subtle bodies constantly create confluencing patterns, pictures,
tunes, sensations and inner sounds, all of them, to start with, below the threshold of
consciousness. Consciousness, however, can expand to include them, when equipped
with the modes of expression with which these dynamics live and communicate, the
"Indigenous Languages" of experience. There are basically four of them, which can start
us off on the road of becoming Experience-Literate. They are: Sensing, Moving,
Visualising and Sounding. These are the major tools for non-verbal communication,
comprising Philophonetics - conscious relationship to experience.

These languages can be re-learned by everyone, and the learning will be immeasurably
easier and more natural than the learning of any foreign language, because these
languages are not foreign. They are the natural, organic languages of our very human
nature, the true "Mother-Tongue" we always had but mostly, as adults, have forgotten.

Sensing: The human ability of becoming aware of any phenomena is based on the
activity of the senses. Taken together, over and above the division into the separate
senses, the capacity to sense all together is designated in this framework as Sense-Ability.
Through the various senses experience comes into being; through the senses it is being
inscribed, ingrained into the resonance fabric of the subtle bodies; through the Sense-
Ability every aspect of the ingrained experience can be traced, accessed, and brought
once again to consciousness.

Gesturing / Movement: The human body is regarded in Philophonetics as an instrument
of Meaning, enabling an Inner being to live in an Outer world. We claim that the human
27
body can serve as a precise map for the human psyche, through which every aspect of
one's inner life could be traced and observed in full consciousness. In Philophonetics,
both in its performance and for its therapeutic applications, the body and its expressive
ability is regarded as a screen onto which the psychic dynamic can be projected, and from
which it could be read. The body acts in four major capacities in relation to human
experience: 1. An Absorber of Experience; 2. A Carrier of Experience; 3. A Reflector of
Experience; 4. An Expresser of Experience. The Gesture / Movements language of
experience relates to the 4th capacity: the body as an expresser of experience. We know
that every human experience can be directly expressed in a gesture by every basically
functioning person, and be universally understood.

Visualising: An inherent ability lives within people to create accurate pictures of inner
situations with which they can explore, grasp, and comprehend their inner reality. In
Philophonetics this ability is made conscious, being refined and encouraged as a major
mean of communication with oneself and with a counsellor. This is not guided imagery,
but authentic, spontaneous, organic activity of visualising in one's imaginative capacity a
created representation of inner experience. In Philophonetics we step open-eyed into the
life of pictorial experience and incorporate the reality they reflect into our consciousness.

Sounding: The sounds of human speech, consonants and vowels, when spoken on their
own or perceived on their own, become patterns of vibrations resounding within the
subtle bodies. Every sound, once allowed to resound within one's sense-ability, will
create an echo within a particular range of human experience. Experiences, which lives in
patterns of resonance, can be precisely matched with the resonance patterns of the sounds
of speech. The sounds can resound in the depths of inner experiences from all levels and
periods of one's life, bringing it back to life. In Philophonetics that correlation between
the sounds of human speech and inner embodied experiences becomes the major tool for
the exploration, confrontation, transformation, representation and healing of inner
patterns. This is where its name originates: Philophonetics - Love of Sounds. We know
that every human experience, once expressed in a gesture, can find its precise counterpart
in a particular combination of sounds of speech - sensed, spoken, or visualised.

These, alongside conversational-counselling, are the main modes of knowing and of
healing used in Philophonetics-Counselling. Traces of every experience, from every layer
of consciousness, from every period of one's life can be accessed through a combined use
28
of these tools, when there is a clear will to do so. Once accessed and made conscious
these traces, echoes, patterns of inner experiences can be explored, released, enhanced,
transformed, recycled, made use of, as the need might be. With the use of these tools of
non-verbal intra-communication one can explore the non-verbal dynamics which take
place within the organism, heal traces of un-digested experience from the past, clear
unwanted deposits of experience from the passing day, recreate a flexible boundary
around one's space for a more effective protection, access one's deeper, higher resources
of intelligence, strength and creativity.

The more intense, demanding and complicated the pressures of today's working
environments are, the more effective the tools need to be with which to monitor, access
and protect our inner system. The range of non-verbal modes of awareness and of
expression outlined above, exemplified by Philophonetics-Counselling, can become a
significant contribution for the Empowerment, Maintenance and Care for the Carer in the
present and in the future.

Conclusion
The demand to develop health-care modalities and methods in the direction of the further
empowerment of clients to take charge of their own lives is steadily growing. Ethics,
languages and attitudes are changing accordingly, but actual practical applications of
these attitudes need to catch up with these demands. The failure to do so inevitably
results in being less and less relevant to the changing needs of clients. In order to engage
clients in a more participatory approach to their own healing - a non-verbal dimension of
communication must be established as a new norm in the health-care professions. A
broader range of human capabilities seems to be called upon to take part in the
therapeutic interaction, human capacities of heart, intuition, imagination and creativity.
At the same time a new level of self-awareness and self-care must be established within a
carer's range of professional tools if phenomena such as stress, burn-out and fatigue are
not to increase among professionals.

For these developments to take place among professionals in the field - training and
education regarding the non-verbal dimension of operation and communication must be
encouraged as a part of the preparation for any health-care profession in the future. The
modality called Philophonetics-Counselling, incorporating the use of Sensing,
Movement, Visualisations and Sounds, as well as Counselling, provides a practical
29
example of the possible incorporation of non-verbal modes of communication with
oneself and with others - into a systematic process of therapy and education towards self-
care, for carers, as well as for everyone else.












30
Awakening to the inner resounding
of human experience

Tagar, Y. (1994). Awakening to the inner resounding of human experience. Paper presented at the
Australian Consciousness and Action Transpersonal Studies National Conference, Perth, Western
Australia.

Introduction: Human Experience as Inner Resonance
Human experience resounds. It does not reside amongst the deposits and processes of
the physical body neither does it live in the mind as such, other than as a reflection. The
dimension of experience is a kingdom of its own, made not of chemicals nor of cognition,
but of inner music, silent inner resounding. Human experience resounds within the
resonance chamber of the human organism, and Philophonetics is the art of playing the
musical instrument of the human organism. Like in the process of coming to master any
other musical instrument, one has to come to know the features of it and the sound it is
capable of. One has to be aware of the possibility of music well played as an ideal, one
has to be able to read the notes, one needs a teacher to start with, one has to love to play
the music, and one has to practice.

But unlike any other musical instrument, on the human instrument - music is being
played on it prior to any conscious efforts to do so. It might not be the music one has
consciously chosen, it might not be the music one likes to play or to hear. But it is being
played on it anyway, with life itself as the musician, stroking one's strings from inside
and from outside, with a great constant resonance of experience following. In the
Philophonetics way of awakening to the inner resounding of human experience - one has
to start by joining the music as it is already played by life itself, and through awakening
to this reality in detail - gradually to become the play master, the one who can
consciously choose the way one's own music is being played.

Like an echo of the symphonies of the creative worlds, both those which are manifested
to the senses and those which are hidden from them - human experience ebbs and flows,
swirls and pulsates within its own echo chambers. There also, live the echoes of the
human's own creative world: the echoes of one's own thoughts and feeling, imagination,
responses and deeds. Events of inner life alongside events of outer life take place and
pass away with the ongoing flow of time. But their echoes remain, continuing to resound:
31
below time, above time, not in time at all. Within the inner echo chamber of the subtle
bodies of human beings, bodies which are made entirely of resonances, the echoes of
experience never cease to resound.

From there - experience constantly rises forth into the mind, triggered from above or from
below, coincidently or intentionally, for good or bad, for sickness or for health, as the
case might be. Human experience is not lost, but becomes concealed in patterns of
resounding within the echo chamber of the subtle body of the human being, which is not
in time.

In these patterns of resounding, live all the aspects of experience one has ever had. From
there they govern the basic patterns of one's character, ability, relationship to people and
to the world, one's life. And yet, like hidden puppeteers behind the veil, these movers,
shakers and shapers of one's behaviour - reveal themselves not directly, in the form of
their original life inside oneself, but rather indirectly, through the pattern of behaviours,
responses and perceptions one displays in the forefront of one's life, on the stage of
ordinary life, being the governed puppet.

Neither will there be peace, harmony and unity of purpose between the various
puppeteers in the operation gallery, hidden from one's conscious observation. Different
and very often contradictory patterns, arising from conflicting aspects of one's deposited
inner experiences - run conflicting shows. Therefore we can be so different at different
moments, with different people, involuntarily different, with little conscious choice in, or
control over the matter. These inner "Hidden Puppeteers" control the show from behind,
from below, from above the field of our observation, using the same body, the same
name, the same passport.

Therefore it can be so confusing to be a human being, to be "the many within the one",
until a time comes when the core of one's being, even the conscious "I", prevails by
entering, confronting, comprehending and waking within the various parts, the various
inner patterns of experience-resonance, owning them, embracing them, and integrating
them into a greater whole; until such time as when the "I" becomes one's own puppeteer,
one's master and director, the one who knows the real cause and motivation for one's own
action, and makes a choice about it, "the one within the many", the one who is free.

32
In order to become the master of one's inner life one must learn to speak the language of
one's inner experience. We will describe in detail later on what these languages might
consist of, but they are definitely not, to start with, made of concepts and words.
Experience lives in typical patterns of resonance, expressing itself within the organism
through their echoes. These patterns of resonance and their echoes can be observed,
studied and put to use. They become language for human experience, which is a sub-title
for Philophonetics.

The Meaning, Philosophy and Origins of Philophonetics-Counselling
Philophonetics, in the broad sense of the term, means: "Conscious Relationship with the
resounding of one's Experience". The Phonemes or Phonetics, as the universal group of
consonants and vowels, act in this method as representations of aspects of human
experience, embodied in the deep layers of the subtle human body. Fostering, cultivating,
refining and being skilful in this relationship, is a prime goal of Philophonetics. Its
therapeutic and developmental application is called Philophonetics-Counselling, while
the artistic and performance application is called Philophonetics-Performing

Its scientific, methodological and philosophical basis is Anthroposophy, founded by
Rudolf Steiner during the first quarter of this century. He defined Anthroposophy as
"Awareness of one's humanity" and as "A path of Knowing, leading the Spiritual in the
human being to the Spiritual in the world". The practical applications of this holistic and
Transpersonal approach to the human being range from the Steiner School system of
Child-Centred Education to the Bio-Dynamic holistic form of agriculture, gardening and
soil care; from the Anthroposophic Medicine, well established in clinics, hospitals and
universities throughout Europe, America and Australia - to its humanistic and spiritual
approach to Social-Development, Special-Education, Architecture, Visual-Arts and a
whole range of Artistic Therapies. Its application to Psychology and to Psychotherapy,
called Psychosophy, although founded in theory in the early part of this century, is
developing its practical applications mainly in recent years. Of these, Philophonetics-
Counselling is one.

The working basis of Philophonetics-Counselling, as well as that of Anthroposophy in
general, is that human beings are fundamentally equipped for the journey of their lives.
To be a helper in human development and care, in the modern sense of these terms, we
have to cultivate that attitude within ourselves, as an attitude of trust in the inner
33
resources of people, starting from within. The task of this work is to encourage people to
discover within themselves that equipment, the resources of: guidance, inspiration,
imagination, energy, safety, identity, healing forces, creativity, intimacy, Love. In order
to become an "Encourager" for such a process, the Practitioner has to find these resources
within oneself first.

The historical origin of Philophonetics is in the Performing Arts, mainly in Drama,
where the exploration of Rudolf Steiner's approach to the development of actors had led
to the discovery of powerful performing and therapeutic principles arising from tracing
the organic connections between experience, movement and sounds. Having made a
breakthrough in its performing arts application (an on-going development) it was
consequently combined with the principles of Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology
and Counselling - into the therapeutic modality of Philophonetics-Counselling.

This modality is being practiced now in clinics in Australia since the late 80's, and
taught at The Persephone College of Philophonetics in Melbourne and Adelaide since
1991.
In combination with the medical work of holistically oriented medical doctors and
complementary medicine practitioners, it is being successfully applied in the treatment of
a whole range of issues on the Physical, Energetic, Emotional and Mental levels: from
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Repetitive Strain Injury - to Depression Grief and Panic
Attacks, from Migraine and Pain Control - to Anxiety, Obsessive Reactions and Fear of
Public Speaking, from various Addictions, Dependencies and Immune-Deficiencies
complaints - to the need to contact one's Inner Life, sense of Identity, Direction and Self-
Confidence. Both in its therapeutic / developmental application and in its artistic-
performing application - Philophonetics is, at the same time, a conscious,
phenomenologically-scientific, creatively artistic, and spiritually inspired path of human
development.

The Role of the Therapist
The role of the therapist in this modality could be defined as an encourager in the clients
process of exploration, transformation and integration: becoming a coach in the study of
the "literacy" of experience, pointing to inroads into the reality to be observed. The
therapist does not push, does not make decisions, does not interpret the shared inner
content according to ready-made conceptual structures, and does not attempt to observe
34
the client's inner reality before the client does. We train ourselves in the art of
"Midwifery" of self-knowledge, rather than as authorities about it. The best description
for the role of the therapist / coach in the Philophonetics-Counselling process is:
"Encourager of Inner Strength".

The Major Tools / Languages of Philophonetics-Counselling

The major tools of Philophonetics can be described as the "Indigenous Languages" of
human experience. They are the group of the major types of dynamics which constantly
take place in the Subtle-Bodies of the human being. In order to save long-worded
explanation on the definition and the nature of the subtle bodies in the light of
anthroposophy, I will put them in the context of the basic Anthroposophical
/Psychosophical overview of the human being:

THE 4-FOLD MODEL OF PHENOMENAL REALITY IN LIGHT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY

Level of
Existence
State of
Consciousness
Main
Feature
Main Functions Element Kingdoms:

Min
eral
Pla
nt
An
im
al
Hu
ma
n

I AM
(Consciousne
ss)
Waking Self-
Awareness
Thinking
Speaking
Imagining
Recalling
Fire

S
u
b
t
l
e
-
ASTRAL
(Sentient)
Dreaming Inner
Experience
Sensing
Desiring
instincts
Voicing
Moving
Air

35
B
o
d
i
e
s
ETHERIC
(Life, Vital)
Sleeping Life-
Organic
processes
Breathing
Growing
Nurturing
Reproducing
Maintaining
Water


PHYSICAL
(mineral)
Death Un-Organic
Processes
Bio-chemical,
Chemical
Electro-
Magnetic
Nuclear
Earth


As can be seen in the above diagram, the dimensions we call Subtle-Bodies include what
Steiner defines as the Astral or Sentient dynamics of the human being, and the Etheric or
Life dynamics. These two dynamics overlap each other, operate simultaneously and with
interdependency. While the Astral-Body acts from outside time into time through
Impulses in Dream consciousness, the Etheric-Body incorporates these impulses into its
Pulsating dynamics of formative forces, working from outside space into space, in Sleep
consciousness. Both dynamics of Impulses and of Pulses live in Resonances, which could
be precisely matched, simulated, tapped and accessed to consciousness through the
resonances of the Sounds of human speech, consonants and vowels. This essential
similarity between the resonance of the subtle bodies of the human being and the
resonance of the sounds of human speech - is the fundamental element of Philophonetics-
Counselling and of Philophonetics in general.

The rhythmic, vibrational dynamics of the human subtle bodies is the resonance Chamber
mentioned before, in which all human experience is being "stored", the bedrock of
memory, conscious and unconscious. Experience lives there in specific patterns of
resonance, vibrating in various layers of these subtle bodies, with various levels of
accessibility to waking consciousness. These inner patterns of resounding, as said in the
introduction to this paper, do express themselves within the organism constantly, just
below the surface of ordinary consciousness. Prior to becoming a conscious content of
the psyche and before they translate indirectly into deeds and words - these inner contents
can be grasped through these organic expressions within. There they constantly create
confluencing patterns in conjunction with other patterns, creating pictures, tunes,
sensations and inner sounds in their unique modes of expression. These modes of
36
expression can be acquired by everyone these days, with a conscious effort and attention,
by learning the "Indigenous Languages" of experience. There are basically four of them,
although there are more. But four will do to start us off on the road of becoming
"Experience-Literate". They are: Sensing, Moving, Visualising and Sounding.

These "languages" can be re-learned by everyone, and the learning will be immeasurably
easier and more natural then the learning of any foreign language, because these
languages are not foreign. They are the natural, organic languages of our very human
nature, the true "Mother-Tongue" we always had, but mostly, as adults, have forgotten.
Like all true learning, Philophonetics is a way of being consciously reminded of these
natural languages of us, which our inner realm of experience constantly uses. They are
Philophonetics modes of knowing.

The Major Philophonetics-Counselling Modes of Knowing

Sensing - The human ability of becoming aware of any phenomena is based on the
activity of the senses. Taken together, over and above the division into the separate
senses, the capacity to sense all together is designated in this framework as Sense-Ability.
Through the various senses experience comes into being; through the senses it is being
inscribed, ingrained into the resonance fabric of the subtle bodies; through the Sense-
Ability every aspect of the ingrained experience can be traced, accessed, and brought
once again to consciousness.

The impulses of the sentient / Astral activity work in two directions: towards the Life-
Body, in which it creates Pulses or echoes of its impressions on the one hand; into the
consciousness, where its impressions are becoming Mental-Pictures, on the other hand.

As the major components of human Sense-Ability, Psychosophy counts not five but
twelve distinguishable senses. Some of them are directed to outer perceptions, some to
inner perceptions, and some to the perception of Meaning as such, beyond the division of
inner & outer. The senses in that count are not necessarily identified with specific organs
like the ear for listening or the eyes for sight, but are rather related to a general
functioning of the body which overrides organ division, like the sense of touch. They are:

37
Sensing-Out
Sight
Hearing
Smell
Taste
Touch
Warmth
Sensing-In
Sense of Life (Well-Being)
Sense of Balance
Sense of Movement
Sensing Meaning (In & Out)
Sense of Intonation
(Sound, Word, Speech)
Sense of Concept
(Grasping the meaning of others' expressed
words)
Sense of Ego
(the presence of another human being)

Human Sense-Ability is capable of receiving and of retaining impressions both from the
outer and from the inner worlds. Every human experience leaves a trace of impressions
on the texture of our Sense-Ability. That trace can be re-discovered and be called to
consciousness at will with the Philophonetics-Counselling processes.

Gesturing / Movement - The human body is regarded in Philophonetics as an instrument
of Meaning, enabling an inner being to live in an Outer world. We claim that the human
body can serve as a precise map for the human psyche, through which every aspect of
one's inner life can be traced and observed in full consciousness. In Philophonetics, both
in its performance and its therapeutic applications, the body and its expressive ability is
regarded as a screen onto which the psychic dynamic can be projected, and from which it
could be read.

The body acts in four major capacities in relation to human experience: 1. an Absorber of
Experience; 2. a Carrier of Experience; 3. a Reflector of Experience; 4. an Expresser
of Experience. The Gesture / Movements language of experience relates to the 4th
capacity: the body as an expresser of experience. We know that every human experience
can be directly expressed in a gesture by every basically functioning person, and be
universally understood.

Visualising - An inherent ability lives within people to create accurate pictures of inner
situations with which they can explore, grasp, and comprehend their inner reality. In
Philophonetics this ability is made conscious, being refined and encouraged as a major
means of communication with oneself and with a counsellor. This is not guided imagery,
but authentic, spontaneous, organic activity of visualising in one's imaginative capacity a
created representation of inner experience. It is a fact that one of the ways in which the
resounding of experience expresses itself within the organism is in inner pictures,
38
inwardly perceptible, mostly unconsciously. In the life of the dreams they come into
light, when the main blazing light of waking consciousness is obliterated, like the stars
light at night. In Philophonetics we step open-eyed into this dreaming life of pictorialised
experience, and incorporate the reality they reflect into our consciousness.

Once created, this visualisation can be treated like any other perceived reality: it can be
remembered, reflected upon, connected with other perceptions, and conceptualised. These
visualisations can then be projected and externalised verbally, pictorially, through
movement and gesture, and so on. For the client/student/actor this capacity is a source of
information about the inner content explored. The activities of Sensing and of Gesturing
enhance that ability remarkably. We know that every human experience can become an
inner picture observable with perspective to its creator.

Sounding - The sounds of human speech, consonants and vowels, when spoken on their
own or perceived on their own, become patterns of vibrations which can resound within
the subtle bodies. Every sound, once allowed to resound within one's sense-ability, will
create an echo within a particular range of human experience. Experiences, which lives in
patterns of resonance, can be precisely matched with the resonance patterns of the sounds
of speech. The sounds can resound in the depths of inner experiences from all levels and
periods of one's life, bringing them back to life. In Philophonetics that correlation
between the sounds of human speech and inner embodied experiences becomes the major
tool for the exploration, confrontation, transformation, representation and healing of inner
patterns. This is where the name originated: Philophonetics - Love of Sounds. We know
that every human experience, once expressed in a gesture, can find its precise counterpart
in a particular combination of sounds of speech - sensed, spoken, or visualised.
These, alongside conversational-counselling, are the main modes of knowing and of
healing used by Philophonetics-Counselling.

The Philophonetics-Counselling Process
The Philophonetics process of awakening to the inner resonance of experience and of
effecting desired changes in it goes through 4 phases, interchangeable in their position in
the sequence: Orientation, Empowerment, Resourcefulness and Speaking.

1. Orientation. The first step in this developmental / therapeutic process is to come to
know the details of the situation as it is clearly, intimately and objectively. The main task
39
of this phase is exploration, observation and understanding of the inner situation. The one
to explore, to observe and to understand is the client, who is empowered in this process to
become the source of knowledge, the authority, the expert and the decision maker
regarding his/her own experience.

This attitude follows naturally from the philosophical basis outlined before, which
suggests that the basic equipment for one's life lies within that self-knowledge, inner
guidance, inspiration, love and courage, that it all lies as potential beneath the layers of
denial, ignorance and fear. Therefore the task of a helper is mainly to discover the inner
resources, not to add to them. The fulfilment of that task starts from the encouragement to
know one's situation as it is.

We do this by utilising the above described languages: we read the inner book. Following
a thorough process of conversational-exploration, usually culminating in the
crystallisation of a "Wish" or an intention articulated by the client - a moment
exemplifying the pattern in question will be brought to memory. The memory is being
"invited" back to the bodily sensation, the same sensation which was present at the
original moment on which one chose to focus. The focus brings to sentient activation the
resonance-pattern attached to that memory, a pattern which is always there. Sensing has
been activated.

Once re-sensed in the body - an organic, spontaneous movement can be encouraged to
follow, allowing the resonance pattern in focus to flow into bodily gesture, movement
and posture. One "sculpts" with one's body the pattern of the original pattern. The
language we call Gesture has been activated. Having Gestured the original experience -
one can retreat from the scene, shake the gesture off, and observe the empty space left
behind. A picture always emerges in one's visual memory, as if an imprint was left
behind in space, created by the gesture. One can observe that pattern with ease, as an
objective observer. We call this activity "Beholding". The language of Visualisation has
been activated.

Once observed - the inner pattern in question, exemplified in the chosen moment to be re-
lived, can be explored from any point of view, aspect and angle. One can enter in
visualisation, sensation and gesture every aspect of the inner pattern, bringing up other,
often forgotten moments and aspects of moments from any phase of one's biography. All
40
the relevant experiences, resounding within the pattern in focus - will become available
for exploration. The Orientation grows as the exploration deepens, through the
Perspective created in this process.

2. Empowerment. If the initial request or "wish" (which started off the phase of Action-
Exploration in this process) had the nature of Empowerment - then the next phase in the
process will be Encounter, Confrontation, Overcoming and/or Transformation of the
blocks and the hindrances one comes across in the Exploration / Orientation phase.

If the request, for instance, was to overcome the paralysing fear of public speaking, and
during the Action-Exploration phase one discovers that in occasions of speaking in front
of people a black cloud is descending upon one's chest, preventing it from being able to
breath - then that black cloud has to be confronted, dissolved, digested or "re-cycled".

In order to do so one has to take back one's own power from the black cloud, whatever
that picture came to represent in one's psyche. One way to do it is to "Become" the black
cloud, to act like it, to experience its effect coming not, as usual, towards one's chest, but
from one's chest through the hands gesture, and to own its power, which is a part of
oneself anyway. Drama comes into being, conducted from inside the client rather than
from outside. Then and only then we employ the Sounds, finding the sound or the sound
combination which matches like a glove to a hand the particular characteristics of that
black cloud dynamic.

Once found - that sound becomes a major tool to process the block of fear of public
speaking with that person. The situation can then be reversed, with the client confronting
the black cloud coming towards oneself from outside, represented by the therapist who is
using the sound which the client has discovered, authorised and practiced. The client then
is given an opportunity to confront the original resonance pattern which has become that
block, coming usually from early disapproval, judgement, criticism and a sense of failure
and rejection which has become ingrained in the soft substance of the child's subtle
bodies. With the insight, strength and perspective of an adult, free of the paralysing fear
which has previously neutralised one's natural resistance - one can then find the strength
with which to re-establish one's assertion, expression, defiance and anger, if necessary.
One can find the counter-gesture, even if it has been suppressed for many years, and the
sound which can enhance it. And then one can breathe afresh, and speaking in front of
41
people will not have the same effect again. One has gone through the Philophonetics
Empowerment process. On that basis we can say that everyone is potentially as strong as
every blow one has ever received.

3. Resourcefulness. According to Steiner and confirmed repeatedly in our experience -
the human Life Body is virtually made of the resonance dynamics of the sounds of human
speech, which is the origin of the term "Mother-Tongue". One of the practical
applications of this premise in the Philophonetics-Counselling process is the possibility of
introducing to the client access to inner resources which, for whatever historical and
developmental reason, were previously not accessible. If one can actively and acutely
desire a quality one is in need of, like warmth, safety, acknowledgment, touch, clarity,
inner strength, freedom, courage, and so on - the experience of desiring that particular
quality will resound in the potential resource of the same within oneself, with no
exception. That echo can be brought to a direct sense-ability, to gesture, movement,
visualisation and sound. By the time the missing quality has been sensed, imagined,
visualised and a sound was found to match it precisely - one has found the tip of the
iceberg of the potential of that quality within one's inner experience. On that basis we
claim that everyone is potentially as rich as every quality one truly needs.

4. Speaking. The aim of all Philophonetics-Counselling work is to come to one's own
genuine, authentic Speaking. The term Speaking is lifted in this usage from its
conventional narrow meaning to represent one of the most dignified, free, creative acts
human beings are capable of: the act of true speaking out of one's inner being, giving
birth to oneself in the process. True speaking comes from one's core of being, following
nothing, influenced by nothing outside of oneself; speaking which is not reactive, nor
avoiding nor compensating or coming to please. True speaking is the breathing of one's
soul, a step in fulfilling what one has come down to Earth to fulfil.

As Philophonetics-Counselling Practitioners we do not attempt to give the client his/her
speaking. True speaking cannot be given or instructed from the outside. All we attempt to
do is to encourage the client to clear the way for the client's true speaking from whatever
might have stopped its flow during one's life or lives. We develop with the client skills
and faculties with which to "midwife" one's own next step of becoming, without pre-
empting what that next step might be. When the time comes - the therapist stands aside,
quietly witnessing the sacred moment of a true expression, whichever form that
42
expression might take. That expression is the Speaking of the "I Am" of the client. In its
light - all the foregoing has been "...voices calling in the wilderness, making the ways
straight for the Lord." Only the Lord now comes from within. It is the "I Am".

Conclusion
I hope I have established in this paper a case for viewing human experience as inner
resonance for Philophonetics-Counselling as a method capable of awakening people to
that connection, and for the profound healing, developmental and transformational
potential of such awakening. If that case was established strongly enough for motivating
the reader to find more about that connection in direct experience for oneself - it has
fulfilled its purpose. There is a limit for the ability to communicate in words the reality of
a non-verbal method of communication and healing. It has to be experienced to be
known. For those of us who have experienced it and who put it to practical use - it is a
powerful, beneficial reality. I hope it will become such reality for those who might be
seeking it.

Bibliography
1. The Essential Steiner: Basic writing of Rudolf Steiner, R. A. McDermont (ed) . Harper,
San Francisco.
2. The Case for Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner. Rudolf Steiner Press, London 1970.
3. Words of Power: Sacred Sounds of East & West, Brian & Esther Crowley. Llewellyn
Publications, Minnesota, 1992. Universal Sound Chapter 21.
4. Theory of Knowledge Based on Goethe's World Conception, Rudolf Steiner,
Anthroposophic Press, 1968.
5. Truth & Knowledge, Rudolf Steiner, Steinerbooks, New York, 1981.
6. The Philosophy of Freedom, Rudolf Steiner, Rudolf Steiner's Press, London.
7. The Threefold Human Organism, Eugine Kolisko. Kolisko Archive, Bournemouth, 1979.
8. Man as a Being of Sense and Perception, Rudolf Steiner. Rudolf Steiner Press, London.
9. Goethean Science, Rudolf Steiner. Mercury Press, Spring Valley, N.Y, 1988.
10. New Vistas in Psychology: An Anthroposophical Contribution, Stewart Easton. Rudolf
Steiner Press, 1985.
11. Fundamentals of Therapy, Rudolf Steiner & Ita Wegman. Rudolf Steiner Press, London.
12. The Anthroposophical Medicine, Housemann / Wolff,.Anthroposophic Press, New York,
1987, Vols. 1, 2, 3.
13. A Road to Self Knowledge, Rudolf Steiner. Rudolf Steiner Press 1975.
14. Soulways: The Developing Soul-Life Phases, Thresholds and Biography, Rudolf
Treichler. Hawthorn Press, 1989.
15. Phases, Crisis and Development in the Individual, Bernard Lievegoed. Rudolf Steiner
Press, London, 1979.



43
The inherent connection
between emotion and motion
Self-orientation and healing through movement and sound


Tagar, Y. (1993). The inherent connection between emotion and motion: Self-orientation and healing
through movement and sound. Paper presented at the 'International Association for Physical Education in
Higher Education' (AIESEP) Conference, Ballarat University.



Within the broadening re-definition of physical education as a field of inquiry covering
all aspects of human movement, an overlap is being created between the physical
performance, the personal development, social education, health promotion/disease
prevention and the expressive dimensions of human movement. The predominance of
values to do with physical fitness and competition-oriented champion sports in this field
seem accordingly to give way to the equivalent importance of values such as cooperation,
communication, self-esteem, fairness, integrity, public health promotion, self-care,
artistry and aesthetics.

Within this on-going evolution and re-definition of human movement - a space seems to
be created for the inclusion of modalities of human development which use movement as
a major tool for mental, psychological and emotional development, therapy and healing.
Those modalities are not at present included in the narrow definition of Sport-
Psychology, but rather under the umbrella of Expression/Artistic Therapies such as
Dance Therapy, Drama Therapy, Voice Movement Therapy and Philophonetics-
Counselling, all of which have undergone dynamic development during the past few
decades in the USA, Europe and Australia. It might be the time to suggest the inclusion
of these approaches to human movement within the context of what used to be the field
of physical education, and to draw the attention of professionals in this field to the
tremendous potential contribution of these approaches to the advancement of the above
mentioned values.

At the basis of all the above modalities is the acknowledgment that makes the title of this
article: The inherent connection between emotion and motion, psyche and movement.
This article attempts to introduce a conceptual framework and a practical application of
that connection, based on a decade of research, experimentation and application of a
44
method of body-based therapy and counselling called Philophonetics-Counselling, as an
example of a movement based expression therapy.

The term Philophonetics means conscious relationship to the sounds of human speech,
the phonemes, consonants and vowels, which act in this method as representations of
aspects of human experience, embodied in the deep layers of the body. The origin of this
modality is in the Performing Arts, mainly in Drama, where the exploration of Steiner's
approach to the development of actors and dancers had led to the discovery of powerful
performing and therapeutic principles arising from tracing the organic connections
between the sensory, the kinaesthetic, the visual and the audible dimensions of
perception, experience and expression. Having made a breakthrough in its performing
arts application (an ongoing development) it was consequently combined with the
principles of Humanistic Psychology and Counselling - into the therapeutic modality of
Philophonetics-Counselling. It is being practiced in clinics in Australia since the late
1980's, and taught at The Persephone College in Melbourne and Adelaide since 1991.

In combination with medical work it is being successfully applied in the treatment of a
whole range of issues on the physical, energetic, emotional and mental levels: from
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Repetitive Strain Injury to Depression, Grief and Panic
Attacks; from Migraine and Pain Control to Anxiety, Obsessive Reactions and Fear of
Public Speaking; from various Addictions, Dependencies and Immune-Deficiencies
complaints to the need to contact one's Inner Life, sense of Identity, Direction and Self-
Confidence. The major tools of Philophonetics-Counselling, on top of Humanistic-
Psychology oriented counselling procedures and the general Anthroposophical approach
to human development are: Sensing, Movement / Gesture, authentic Visualisation and
Sounds.

At the basis of this modality lies its unique approach to the human body as a mediator
between the inner and the outer dimensions of human experience. Attitudes to the human
body are inseparable from attitudes and philosophies applied to the human being as a
whole. The Anthropologist Desmond Morris defined the human being as The Naked Ape.
In contrast, the Anthroposophic psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Weise defined it as The Dressed
Angel. Bio-Mechanics, Genetic Engineering and classic Behaviourism would probably
define the human being as a Biological Machine or Behavioural Mechanism respectively.
Somewhere in between these polarities which hold between them the old historical
45
argument between the scientific/ technological/ Darwinian and the religious/ spiritual
perspectives on the human being, lies what Steiner described as Anthroposophy: The
human being from the human being point of view. His outlook (which could be described
as phenomenological) places the human experience, rather than theories about it, as the
starting point for well founded knowledge, and the process of conception or reflection on
that experience - as its completion. In all the processes of acquiring, retaining, accessing,
reflecting and expressing that experience - the human body plays a pivotal role. The
human body in his outlook is not a mere mineral entity, but a formative, enlivened and
ensouled being.

Based on Steiner's approach to the human being, a working definition of the human body
has evolved within the research and the application of Philophonetics (both in its
performing and in its therapeutic dimensions) which could serve as a basis for the
understanding of movement, within the context of psychosomatic development and
health: The human body is a living instrument for personal experience and meaning,
enabling an inner being (the psyche) to exist in outer space (the rest of the world).
Personal meaning results from the reflection of one's mind on one's experience. Our
working definition for experience in this context is: Awareness of impressions, both from
inside and from outside of the organism.

During a decade of research and application of this form of body-based counselling, four
major capacities of the body act in relation to human experience as:
1. an Absorber of Experience
2. a Carrier of Experience;
3. a Reflector of Experience;
4. an Expresser of Experience
5. a Transformer of Experience (added later)

Prior to the description of these bodily capacities, the inherent connection between
Experience and Body (which underlies the inherent connection between emotion and
motion) must be portrayed. If emotion was only a mental dynamic and if motion was only
a physical/mineral dynamic - then there would be no inherent connection between the
two, nor would we claim it.

46
But the inherent connection between human experience, (at least on its emotional level)
and movement - is obvious to all, from the earliest stages of human life onwards. With
various levels of skill everyone can detect the emotional states people are in through the
way they stand, walk and talk, from the changing shapes of their faces; the movement of
their hands, heads and torso; the intonation of their voices and the look in their eyes. We
take it normally for granted, and the more we come to know people, the more we can read
their inner states through their bodily expressions, conscious or not. The connection
between experience and body, emotion and motion - is an everyday, conventional and
universal fact.

That means that emotion on the one hand and the outer bodily forms which constitute
gesture and movement on the other hand - both share a dimension of formative dynamics
which is at the same time more subtle than the physical body and coarser than the psyche
as such. We have to develop and to hold a picture in our mind of a dimension of
formative forces in which psyche and body overlap and interplay, from inside-out, from
outside-in - if the connection between emotion and motion is to be truly comprehended.

The Anthroposophic outlook on the human being, on which Philophonetics-Counselling
is based, broadens the notion of Body to include three distinct dimensions of overlapping
dynamics: the physical dynamics, the life dynamics, and the sentient dynamics. These
three types of dynamics could be attributed to the existence of three overlapping bodies,
which together comprise what we normally call the Human Body:

The Physical-Body: Being for so long the dominant focus of attention and research in
the medical, psychological and educational sciences, the physical body as such is in no
need of elaboration here. It is sufficient to say in this context that from the
Anthroposophic viewpoint it is conceived as a combination of materials and processes
which enables human experience and meaning to exist in space and time. These materials
and processes do not, by themselves, reveal the nature of the formative forces which
combine these materials in such manner (The genetic encoding is not an alternative
explanation to these formative dynamics, but a complementary one. The genetic encoding
itself was originally formed in the body of the ancestor through the activity of the above
Formative Forces, and in the body of the offspring - the same forces interplay with the
genetic encoding in the formation and the re-formation of his/her physical body). All that
47
the observation of the physical body can reveal is an entity made of natural materials and
forces, which happen to be combined into a human organisation.

The Life-Body: In the Anthroposophic outlook of the human being, the organising
dynamics, the formative forces themselves, which shape the Physical-body into its human
form, are regarded by themselves as an entity as real as the physical-body itself is, an
entity composed of formative forces, life processes, rhythmical and vibratory dynamics (I
will come to this point later), which mould out of natural substances and processes the
external organisation of the physical-body as such. Steiner called that entity the Life-
Body. Rupert Sheldrake called it the morphogenetic field of activity, the Ancient Indians
called it prana, and the Dao (on which Acupuncture is based) calls it chi or ki. They all
point to the same reality: the layer of the organism which corresponds in nature to the
plant kingdom. It lives not in space but in time: an energy field of constant vibratory
formation.

The Sentient-Body: The same outlook observes in addition to the Life-Body dynamics, a
pervading dynamic of another order: the one which carries the sentient, instinctive,
nervous, and psycho-somatic activities. It corresponds in nature to the animal kingdom.
This is where what may be called Experience starts to operate. Its impulses work in two
directions: towards the Life-Body, in which it creates pulses or echoes of its impressions
and into the consciousness, where its impressions are becoming mental-pictures.

The Sentient-Body is, in Steiner's view, the domain of the senses, of which he counts not
five but twelve. Some of them are directed to outer perceptions, some to inner
perceptions, and some to the perception of meaning, beyond the division of inner and
outer. These senses are not necessarily identified with specific organs like the ear for
listening or the eyes for sight, but are rather related to a general functioning of the body
which override organ division, like the sense of touch. They are:

48
Sensing-Out
Sight
Hearing
Smell
Taste
Touch
Warmth
Sensing-In
Sense of Life (wellbeing)
Sense of Balance
Sense of Movement
Sensing Meaning (In & Out)
Sense of Intonation
(sound, word, speech)
Sense of Concept
(Grasping meaning of others' expressed words)
Sense of Ego
(presence of another human being)

Impressions take place in us (both from inside and from outside of the organism)
because the Sentient-Body with its 12 senses acts like the root-system for the psyche,
absorbing impressions into itself as the roots of a tree absorb nutrients from the soil.
Every single impression creates a pulse, a wave-like effect in the receptive, supple
vibratory substance of the Life-Body. As the impression passes away, the ripple or
vibratory pattern continues to echo in the Life-Body and it will remain there, in that
subtle layer of the body. In a condensation process these vibratory patterns become
permanent features of the living body, which appear through the on-going formation of
the physical body transitionally - through expressive gestures and movements, or
permanently - through the development and the deterioration of the physical body (as in
growing up and aging, muscular development and muscular atrophy, facial features of joy
and suffering, etc.).

Expressions take place in us because the Sentient-Body works also in the opposite
direction: contents experienced in the psyche vibrate through the Sentient-Body from
inside-out - into the Life-Body, in the substance of which they create vibratory patterns of
resonance which can be immediately translated into bodily patterns, gestures and
motions.

The organic overlap of these two Subtle-Bodies of ours is the connection between the
inner and the outer aspects of human life. Between these two Subtle-Bodies (as they are
sometimes called in the literature of psychosomatic therapies), the Life-Body and the
Sentient-Body, lies the formative dynamics which enables the absorbing, carrying,
reflecting and expressing activities of the human body. Therefore, from now on in this
article, the term body will stand for all three: Physical, Life and Sentient Bodies. The
term Subtle-Bodies will stand in this article for the Life and the Sentient Bodies. The
reality of these dynamics is made directly observable to every individual through the
processes of Philophonetics described later on in this article.
49

The emotional dimension of experience takes place in the overlap between the sentient
and the conscious/mental dynamics. It makes the conscious end of the psycho-somatic
connection, while the condensation of experiences into the bodily processes in the
manner described above - makes the unconscious end of that connection. The systematic
increase of the conscious spectrum of the psycho-somatic connection is the major task of
Philophonetics-Counselling.

Having placed this broad morphological picture in front of us, the four experience-
functions of the Body can be observed closely:

1. The Body as an absorber of Experience - While the environment acts upon the
physical and the Life-Body directly from outside, the inner dynamics of the
psyche impress themselves on these bodies from the inside. Both types of
Impressions echo within the Body as experience, conscious, unconscious, and the
whole range in between. Absorbed into the on-going dynamics of the Subtle-
Bodies, these Impressions exist there as patterns of resounding, not unlike the
resounding of sounds within the echo chamber of a piano. Those patterns continue
to resound in that chamber ever since the first impressions, for the body has
absorbed them. Regardless of the nervous system instrumentality, regardless of
the mineral dynamics and the mental ones - these impressions are being
constantly absorbed, for good and bad, into the receptive vibratory layers of our
subtle bodies, and there they are to be found ever since.

2. The Body as a carrier of Experience - Some of the effects of that absorption of
Experience will be felt and made conscious on impact. Most of them will go on
resounding in the unconscious layers of the living body for the rest of one's life.
Countless number of these vibratory patterns are weaving in the depth of the
body, for good and bad. They do not go away. The taste and the comfort of our
mother's milk resound there alongside with the pain of growing teeth and the
trauma of birth itself; so do all the following experiences we acquire in later years.
The younger we are at the time of absorption - the deeper into the body the impact
will go and will set in. The good experiences go on nurturing us, while the painful
ones go on doing some measure of damage, until, in one way or another they
surface, are faced and released.
50

From their dynamic but hidden abode in the deep layers of the bodily life those
patterns of resounding will surface into full awareness and will sink again under
that surface - according to the associative dynamics of the psyche. They do not get
lost, they just get forgotten. The pictorial and the emotional freshness with which
clients in their 60's and 70's draw out of their bodies vivid memories from the first
three years of their lives, following gentle movements, when the need arises to do
so - is a testimony to this amazing capacity of the body as a carrier of experience.
Experiences are made equally available for conscious exploration in this way
from every period of one' life. We came very early on in our research to the
conclusion that: Every human experience, from every layer and period, can be
brought to full sentient awareness through attention, sensation and movement.
We can bring experiences up because they are always there, carried by the living
body.

3. The Body as a Reflector of Experience - The patterns of resounding within the
Subtle-Bodies into which experiences impressed themselves are accessible to the
emotional and to the mental dynamics of the psyche with various degrees of
difficulty or ease. These depend on the depth to which they have sunk and on the
blocks and defences which, for various reasons were put on top of them.
Sometimes these contents are being pulled upwards towards consciousness either
by a conscious search or by an accidental association; sometime they are being
pushed into consciousness by inner volcanic dynamics of the body itself. Those
patterns of experience are always there. The nervous network reflects them and
wires them into consciousness. But in our work with people who had lost their
memory by accident or by disease, in which cases the nervous "wiring" failed to
connect the two - we could re-wire the patterns of experience again to
consciousness through the bodily memory: through the body's ability to reflect its
patterns of experience in picture forms, sensory forms, movement forms or sound
forms.

The body becomes a precise map for the landscape of one's experience. That map
can, with the help of a skilful practitioner, be read and made conscious when
necessary. Particular experiences tend to gravitate towards particular parts of the
Sentient-Body. They are then felt in the corresponding parts of the physical body,
51
although there is no physical cause for this. Our language betrays these
connections through idioms such as: heartache, heartburn, heartbreak, gutful,
gutless, headache (when there is no physical one), breathtaking, backbone, cold-
shoulder, getting cold feet, butterflies in the stomach, weak at the knees and so on.
These expressions portray the above connections clearly, and can be directly
observed by everyone. What we found through Philophonetics research is that at
each point in time the present awareness of these connections can be treated as
tips of the icebergs for a broader, deeper reality, hidden in the depth of the body.
When we know where and how to look into its depth, the body will reflect back to
our consciousness the required content.

4. The Body as an Expresser of Experience - It is a fact of far reaching
significance that the same body which absorbs, carries and reflects impressions
and experiences into its deeper layers - is, at the same time, the very instrument
that is perfectly equipped for the direct expression of these contents in movement
and gesture. All that is required for this bodily function is the initial sensing of
any aspect of these patterns, and the allowance of the natural and spontaneous
corresponding gestures or movements to express these sensations directly.

This is where the main faculty of the body in regards to experience comes into
operation. With our experience during the past 8 years with many hundreds of
people in three continents - we can claim with certainty that every basically
functioning human being can express in a gesture or a movement every aspect of
one's experience, and be universally understood, with very little training to do so.
It is an inherent capacity of every human being. The body is designed for such a
communication, first with oneself, and immediately after - with others. An
enormous resource for self-awareness, education, communication and healing lies
potential for all in this connection between experience and movement.

The Therapeutic effect of Expression - The expression of experience through
movement and gesture is not only communicative, it is also highly therapeutic. In 1991
we did a sample research on the effect of bodily expression of pain in gesture. One group
of people expressed their pain in words, the other with gesture. The level of pain before
and after the expression was measured with a self-rating scale from 1-10. Statistically,
52
nearly three times more (2.8) people reported a positive shift in the pain after expressing
it in gesture, than those who only spoke about the pain in words.

This effect of the bodily communication of pain on the pain itself can be understood once
we can distinguish between the physical cause of pain and its pattern of vibration in the
subtle-bodies. The pattern of vibration is not rigidly fixed to one body part, and can easily
resound in all the others. That enables, for instance, an experience of pain in the head to
be expressed through the hands; contraction in the solar plexus - through a gesture of the
whole body; back pain - through hands and shoulders. These activities of magnifying the
experience of pain in one part through the movement of the whole body leads, in fact, to
the reduction and to the dilution of the experience of pain in that particular part, as if the
whole body shares the burden of that suffering part.

The therapeutic effect of bodily expression applies equally to emotional pain and anguish
experienced through the body. With Philophonetics-Counselling exercises we project
emotional experiences into the corresponding sensation of the body, and then express
them through gesture and movement. We then treat them in the same way as the
physically originated experiences. Within the subtle bodies both types of experience take
similar shapes as patterns of resonance. The process of expressing experiences through
movement is equally therapeutic for physical, energetic, emotional and mental
complaints. The issues so far treated with this method are listed further on is this article.


The Educational /Therapeutic process - For the systematic taking hold of the psycho-
somatic connection in this method there is a need, to start with, for a coach and a teacher
to assist in the process and to broaden one's vocabulary of non-verbal communication
with oneself. Guided by directions and choices made freely by the client, the sessions
have the nature of team-work, based on full participation of the client. The intention is
not only to leave them with improved conditions, but also with a range of skills with
which to maintain and to further develop these conditions self-sufficiently.

We encourage people to re-learn the indigenous Languages of their experience, with
which they can converse with their own inner life, bringing it to the light of
consciousness. As a result they can increase the range of their options regarding
53
unconscious patterns of behaviour and response which do not serve them well. It is a way
of becoming experience-literate for any future correspondence with one's experience.

Summary of the four modes of communication with experience:
Sensing - Human sense-ability absorbs, retains and accesses impressions both
from outside and from inside the organism.

Moving & Gesturing - Expression of experience through bodily gestures,
postures and movement.

Visualising - The formation of inner mental pictures representing experiences
Every human experience can be transformed into pictorial representations, which
can be recalled to mind at will, explored, projected, and transformed. These
pictures could be at any time projected into drawing, painting, sculpting,
movement and dance.

Sounding - This 4th language makes the core element for Philophonetics and
gives it its name. It is the inner connection between the resonant patterns of
experience in the subtle bodies and the resonance-patterns of the sounds of human
speech, consonants and vowels, the phonemes. We said already that the subtle
bodies live in vibratory dynamics. The patterns of experience are imprinted into
them in that form. They resound in the body like sounds do in the echo chamber
of a piano. The sounds of speech are vibrational patterns. They have typical forms
of vibration in the air as they are spoken. They echo within the patterns of one's
experience, simulating them with amazing precision. The sounds spoken from the
outside resound within the organism much in the same way that a guitar string
plucked in front of a piano resounds within the piano with the exact corresponding
string (and with its harmonic ones above and below). Early on in the research
process we came to the conclusion that every human experience, once sensed in
the body and gestured through it - can be matched and simulated with a sound or
sound combination. The 4th indigenous-language is therefore the language of
sounds, the one we normally leave behind in the Babbling phase of our
development. In this way Philophonetics-Counselling reconnects people to the
essence of their mother-tongue.

54
Applications
At present Philophonetics methodology is being applied mainly for therapy, counselling
and personal development. Its application to the performing arts and to the training of
musicians is in the initial phase of application. In counselling and therapy, the record has
been that it has being positively effective in the following areas:


55
Physical/Energetic
~Overcoming exhaustion, depletion & fatigue
including ME; RSI.
~Recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,
~Pain control, management & release Rheumatic,
period pain, head-aches & pressures, migraine,
internal, back,
RSI and psychosomatic pains, strains and blocks.
~Bodily Stress-Management
~Body awareness & Expression through the body

Emotional & Personal
~Overcoming Dependencies & addictions to: food,
smoking, soft & hard drugs, anti-depressants,
attention & approval, excess sexuality, violence,
money, security.
~Overcoming Reactive & Obsessive Patterns-
defensiveness, trepidation, aggression, jealousy,
guilt, shame, nervousness, subjugation,
compulsiveness, manipulation.
~Overcoming fear - Fear of: authorities, Public
Speaking, confrontation, Pain, Death; fear of
expressing one's needs, intimacy, truth, anger,
power, beauty.
~Overcoming Anxiety - Panic Attacks,
Agoraphobia, loss of orientation, tension within
intimacy;
~Emotional Stress Management & release
~Recovery from Depression & Grief
~Recovery from Sexual abuse & other forms of
abuse: Physical, Emotional, disapproval, past &
present.
~Recovering from sexual dysfunction.
~Dissolving inner Blocks: Emotional, Sensuous,
Body Image, Self-Image, Spontaneity, Creativity.
~Self-Parenting Skills: connection &
communication with the Child within,
healing, caring and integrating it.

Mental and Spiritual
~Overcoming obsessive thoughts.
~Recovering Lost Memory.
~Decision Making: tapping deeper & higher
dimensions of one's intelligence for reaching
the necessary perspective.
~Accessing inner resources: perspective on
oneself, Safety, inner warmth, Inner
Autonomy, Strength, assertiveness, Clarity,
Trust, Self-Confidence, Inner Peace;
~Contacting to & accessing the Inner Life
establishing a lasting connection with the
Woman Within, the Man Within, the Inner
Light, the Core of the "I Am", Sense of Self,
Sense of Direction & Purpose.
~Vocation, Life Transitions, Inner
development
- Re-discovering the inner guidance, knowing
& certainty for the next step.

Relationships
~Understanding & Transforming inner
patterns of interaction & Reaction
~Re-discovering the potential of the meeting.
~Recovery from destructive co-dependency.
~Understanding & addressing each other's
sexuality.
~Learning to Listen to each other.


56
This list includes only issues with which we have had a substantial clinical experience. It
is constantly expanding to include other areas. It seems as though the limits of this
modality coincide with the limits of human experience. Currently in research through
practical applications in Melbourne and Adelaide are the following issues: cancer-
counselling; skin-rashes; hay fever; varicose vein pain; teeth-grinding; destructive
behaviour of children.


Conclusion
The above is the basic theoretical and practical substantiation to the claim which makes
the title of this article: That an inherent connection exists between the dynamics of
emotion and motion. If every Experience lives in a resonance-like pattern within the
subtle layers of the human Body, patterns which can be traced and made conscious
through one's emotional life - then it can be understood how the forms of these
experiences once made conscious again, can be translated directly to bodily patterns and
movements. Consciously or not, the connection exists, and could at any time be tapped
and put to use.

For every emotion - is a motion in reserve; every motion - an externalised emotion. The
English language whispers that connection in its typically subtle way. Philophonetics-
Counselling and Philophonetics-Performing demonstrate that claim in an ongoing
phenomenological research and there are practical applications in therapy, counselling
and the performing arts.






57

Philophonetica: Love of sounds
Discovering the connection between the sounds of language
and the human soul

Tagar, Y. (1986). Philophonetica: Love of Sounds. Discovering the connection between the sounds of
language and the human soul - An Anthroposophical method of preparation for the arts of Drama,
Psychosophy and Adult Education. Paper presented at the biennial conference of the Anthroposophical
Society in Australia, Warrah Village, Sydney, Australia.

This was the first circulation of written material using the term Philophonetics (Philophonetica as
it was called at the time) for the first public workshop of this modality at the Biennial Conference
of the Anthroposophical Society in Australia in Warrah Village, Sydney.

An Anthroposophic method of preparation for Drama, Psychosophy & Adult
Education

Introduction to Philophonetica

And it is demanded of us that we understand the Micrologos in the
Microcosmos, so that man may gain understanding for that from which his
own being proceeds, for the Macrocosmos through the Macrologos. (Rudolf
Steiner, The Ephesian Mysteries of Artemis, 2
nd
December, 1923)

So here we have a definite suggestion for training. The student has but to
practice himself in sensitivity for all the several sounds- there are no more
than thirty -two or thirty-three altogether- and the corresponding feelings
will come, if he will only make up his mind to become conscious of them.
(Rudolf Steiner, Speech and Drama Course, 10
th
September, 1924)


Philophonetica means love of sounds, or in other words, a soul relationship to the sounds
of language, consonants and vowels. It is a path of discovering the inherent and
fundamental connection between the Human Soul and the sounds of language, as the
ground-work for a new approach to Drama, to Psychology, and to Adult Self-Education.
Working with the sounds in this way leads one to a self-knowledge of the soul; to
knowledge of the Human Soul revealed through the activity of the sounds; to knowledge
of the Soul of the sounds revealed through the activity of the Human Soul.
58

A fundamental underlying connection exists between the sounds of language and the
forces at work within the Human Soul. Those underlying connections were well known
in ancient times, when the spiritual and artistic origin of language was still instinctively
felt by people and consciously cultivated in the great mystery centres, such as Delphi,
Eleusis, Ephesos, and Olympia in Ancient Helas (Greece). There in those powerful
sources of Human culture, cosmic and human secrets were revealed to the seers through
the power of the word. These connections were gradually forgotten by Humanity through
its process of descent into a more and more materialistic and intellectual perception of
reality. The result of this process is reflected in the way Human beings relate to their
language.

In our century many new scientific and artistic streams are attempting to broaden mans
conception of reality beyond the mere materialistic and intellectual understanding of it.
No wonder then that in their attempt to do so these new streams take a deep interest in re-
awakening to the soul and spiritual profundity of language.

Such is the case with the scientific and artistic stream: Anthroposophy (The Wisdom Of
Man), founded by Dr. Rudolf Steiner (1861- 1925) in the beginning of the century. In
this stream of a broadened conception of the natural and human sciences gave rise to a
new approach to agriculture and medicine, as well as to an impulse of renewal to the
plastic, musical and language arts. The meeting between the artistic and the scientific
work in this stream gave rise to one of the most creative alternative approaches to
education in this century, called the Waldorf, or the Steiner Schools. This stream also
gave rise to a new art of Creative Speech, as well as a new art of movement (capable of
making both speech and music visible) called Eurythmy. Through these new arts a
beginning was made for such a re-awakening to the essence of language, as was
described before. But before this reawakening to the essence of language could bear fruit
also in fields like Drama and Psychology, which are directly concerned with the Human
soul, a particular development needed to take place in the understanding of the
relationship between the sounds of language and that soul. That development, however,
can only take place through a direct and a conscious experience of the souls response to
the effect of sounds.

59
Indications for a development in this direction were given by Rudolf Steiner both in the
context of an alternative approach to Psychology, called Psychosophy which he proposed
in 1910, and in the context of an alternative approach to Drama, which he proposed in
1924. The meeting between these two has, in my view, the potential of giving rise to a
new skill of Adult Education, based on the self knowledge of the student.

Starting from these insights Philophonetica is the practice of the discovering and the
cultivation of the above soul connection to the sounds of language actively, consciously
and directly. The awakening to these connections may result in a growing awareness to
the following:

The nature of the sounds and the forces at work in them.
The various soul forces and contents discovered and named through working with
the sounds.
The fertile relationship between the objective and the subjective poles of our
perception, as they meet in language.
The universal nature of all languages, as it reveals itself when language is being
experienced as a direct expression of the soul life.

Through Philophonetica the above awareness becomes personal language whose only
source is a firsthand experience and discovery. Processes are being suggested in this
work, which were found to be fruitful, but the results and contents of which are left to be
completely self discovered. The role of the guide in this method is therefore not that of
an instructor but rather that of a facilitator for the emergence of self-knowledge. Through
the exercises of Philophonetica, carefully constructed and experimented with, a conscious
activation of different soul forces is taking place, in relation to the phenomenon of the
sounds. Particular soul forces are becoming conscious through activities such as:

sensing the sound
recalling the sensation
allowing the sensation to resound in ones feeling
becoming the activity of the sound in space
speaking the sound
preparing for the speaking

60
Each of the experiences arrived at through the above activities and through others is
being in its turn transformed and expressed through a bodily gesture, and thus enlarge the
vocabulary of a new sort of body-language. Considering the fact that in each of these
activities the whole range of consonants and vowels can be experienced- the whole range
of the soul experiences can become correctly and specifically named by the sounds of
language. The sounds of language thus become a language for life of the soul. The
enlivening and healing effect the sounds have in this way upon the soul may be described
as a soul-message.

This way of working with the sounds may result, to start with, in the creation of new
skills in three fields: Drama, Psychology and Adult Education. Within the contribution
Philophonetica can make to each of these fields- the artistic, therapeutic, and educational
aspects are of equal importance. The following is a short description of the particular
implication Philophonetica may have when applied in each of the above fields.

1) Philophonetica: in the service of Drama

Such things were well known to the men of earlier times , just as they knew
too that the art of music takes us back to the Gods of the past, the plastic and
pictorial arts lead us on to the Gods of the future, while the art of drama,
standing between the two, conjures up Spirits of the time which we live.
(Rudolf Steiner, Speech and Drama, 21
st
September, 1924)

But now, as evolution proceeded further, the perception began to dawn upon
man that when the Human Being presents his own innermost soul, then too
he is presenting something Divine; if he can present on the stage the Divine
that is in the external world, he can also present the Divine that is in himself.
And so, from being a manifestation of the Gods, Dramatic Art became a
manifestation of the inner being of man; it presented of the stage the
HUMAN SOUL. And this inevitably led to the need to bring innermost
Human Experience into the forming of the speech, to bring this same
intimate Human Experience into the gesturing also that was done on the
stage. (Rudolf Steiner, Speech and Drama, Lecture 10, 14
th
September 1924)

What can be imagined as a direction for the renewal of Drama today? In order to relate
to such a question, a purpose for Dramatic activity had to be conceived. After all, what
do we need Drama for? Is it a form of entertainment, on a deeper or a shallower level,
something to pay for and to be paid for? Is it a form of a naturalistic expression of
Human beings, expression as release and as awakening? Is it a form of criticism and of
protest against the ills of society? Is it a form of educating the public in one desired
direction or another?
61

All these concepts concerning the purpose of Drama are simultaneously at work in the
field now and in the past. I do not wish to argue with any of them. I wish to point very
briefly to a particular line of thought about Drama which existed before and alongside the
others, since Drama is a part of Human culture. I start where Drama starts, in the Mystery
centre of Eleusis, west of Athens, where for a thousand years of the emergence and the
decline of the ancient Greek civilization, the purpose of Drama was well defined. It
formed the core element of the Eleusinian process of initiation. That core element was
made of a performance of a tragedy. The first tragedy in the history of the Occident,
called by later generations the Mystery Drama of Eleusis. I say by later generations
because as long as the mystery centre of Eleusis was still functioning, its secret content
concealed from public knowledge by a vow of the initiate and the penalty for the
breaking this was officially and practically, death.

It was not until the time of Aeschyllos and after the Persian wars that Drama became a
form of art for the public. From the depth of the underground catacombs in which the
process of Eleusinian initiation took place was Aeschyllos called, before completing the
process and before taking the vow of secrecy, to be a soldier in the Persian wars which
broke at that time. He never returned to complete his process of initiation, but he had
beheld the moment when Persephone from the abyss uttered the cry of anguish which
resounded in the heights of Olympus and brought forth the youngest Dionysis called
Lachos, to write with her, and restore her to light. This traumatic picture, which haunted
Aeschyllos throughout the rest of his life, became the sign under which his Dramatic
work and the Dramatic art of the Occident in general was born. Aeschyllos was made the
first play-write, tragic actor, director, designer and producer of Drama, of the West. He
was also the architect of the first theatre to be built for Drama, the theatre of Bacchus, in
the downs of the Acropolis.

Aeschyllos did not leave us with any theory of Drama; only with seven plays, out of the
seventy he wrote and performed in his theatre. He was the doer of theatre, its founder
and father. The purpose and meaning of Drama as a form of art was defined by Aristotle
more than one hundred years after the death of Aeschyllos, when the civilisation of
Ancient Greece was already in decline. According to his well-known definition of the art
of tragedy in his book Poetica, its purpose is the purification of the soul forces of the
62
spectator through the way in which they are being activated in the process of the
performance. That desired end of the Dramatic process he called: Catharsis.

Aristotles definition of the art of tragedy thus marked the end of an era in which, chiefly
through the work of Aeschyllos and Sophocles, sacred processes of initiation had been
transformed into a form of art for the public. These sacred processes of initiation have
disappeared together with the mystery centres of old, which housed them. Their
transformation into Drama as a form of art remained.

It may be helpful in this context to mention that Sophocles, too, was an initiate of Eleusis,
and so was Plato, the teacher of Aristotle. From these facts alone, it seems to be self-
evident that Drama, both as an Esoteric process and as a public form of art, is originally
and fundamentally identified with soul processes, whose purpose was the soul health and
the spiritual development of the individual.

More than two thousand years later, a further step in this line of thought seems to have
been taken by another philosopher and scientist, Rudolf Steiner. Towards the end of his
life he formed a vision of a renewal of Drama which would reconnect the present stage of
this art with the inspiration of its origin, in a new form suitable for the present stage of
Human consciousness and one which will be able to serve Humanitys future
development.

The purpose of such a renewed Drama, according to Rudolf Steiner, is to be a fore-runner
in the creation of a new level of Human consciousness. The new faculties of body, soul
and spirit through this renewed Drama will render the Human Being a more mature
inhabitant of earth and the universe, and his ability to experience and recognise the world
of phenomena will grow from being one of an external relationship to it, into being one of
an internal relationship with it. In this huge task of creating the next step of Human
development, Drama will have a major role, alongside many other streams of artistic,
scientific and spiritual development. These new Human faculties, in their emergence will
give rise to a new cultural era. Such respect for Dramatic Art and faith in its potential
importance for Human culture, is expressed in the vision of this man.

Towards such a lofty ideal of Drama, only very humble first steps, at best, can be hoped
for today. But even for such first steps, the clarity and the direction of that vision are as
63
essential as the star is for one who navigates at night time, in the wilderness. Rudolf
Steiner did not leave this vision only as a shining ideal, above the heads of his listeners.
He also gave a comprehensive method for its fulfilment.

The last course of lectures he gave in his life, was the course in Speech & Drama in
September 1924 in which he conveyed the basic structure of the method which, when
understood, may lead artists to take the first steps towards the fulfilment of that renewal
of Drama. It is a comprehensive approach to Dramatic Art, covering all the aspects of
that art and all the skills associated with it, which he intended to become a practical
technique of training and production.

But in the middle of that course of lectures, he openly acknowledged that, conditions
being as they were, it would only be in the distant future that students of Dramatic Art
would be able to be trained in the method he proposed. Whether or not we are already on
the threshold of that future time, is an open question, to be practically answered through
the work of those who shoulder responsibility in such an attempt. The attempt to realise
the first steps of the above mentioned techniques is what I mean by the term the
Anthroposophical approach to drama.

The insight that gave rise to the development of Philophonetica was given by Rudolf
Steiner - mainly in the above-mentioned course of Speech & Drama, though its
background lies in many other expressions of the Anthroposophical image of man.
Among the multitude of new techniques suggested for all the aspects of Dramatic work
given in that course, he gave the seeds for a new method of developing Dramatic
Gesturing, building a character, directing, set designing, costume designing, lighting and
cultivation of the feeling experience of the sounds of language. He gave these seeds as
nuts, but he did not crack them for us. He gave them as ideas - not yet as a technique.

The development of Philophonetica is a result of my ongoing attempt to make this
handful of promising seeds into an applicable technique, into a method in which people
can be trained. After five years of living with these insights and researching them, my
understanding of the basic structure of this new Dramatic method became clear enough
for a practical experimentation with it. After one more year of such experimentation
some essential techniques are ready now to be offered as the beginning of a training
course in this direction.
64

Philophonetica forms only one essential component of that method. Its share in the
above-mentioned Dramatic method can in this context only be described very shortly. It
exists on three consecutive levels. Two of these are levels of training of the actor (and in
some variation also of the training of the other stage related professions). The third level
is the process of producing a play.

On the first level - of the training of the actor, supported by the practice of Greek
Gymnastics as its bodily basis, Philophonetica provides the source of the substance and
of the formative activity which are to become the skill of Dramatic gesturing, (In the case
of the other professions of the stage it will provide the source for the preliminaries for
their crafts). Through the exercises of Philophonetica each sound creates in the soul a
whole range of subtle impressions, echoes and responses which are being transformed
directly into bodily gestures.

In this process the sounds become a precise, and at the same time a personal language for
the elements of the soul life. Some twelve different ways have been developed for the
experience of each sound. Each of these ways activated a particular element of the soul
life in a way suitable to it, in relation to a particular sound. Considering the number of
consonants and vowels that can be experienced in these ways, the whole range of the soul
life, conscious and unconscious, can be contacted, experienced, named and expressed. In
acquiring the conscious access to these soul elements and the flexibility of expressing
them through bodily gestures - the preliminaries of the skill of acting are being laid, with
an inherent connection to the element of speech from the very beginning.

At the same time, this familiarity with the soul - sound element can be expressed through
other mediums too, preparing each stage worker to his task: Through colour and forms to
the set designer and painter; through colour and fabric to the costume designer; through
colour in light to the lighting designer through Dramatic timing to the lighting operator;
through music to the composer; through movement to the choreographer; through the
formation of soul contents in time and space to the director.

On the second level- the soul and sound substance is taken a step further into the
formation of gestures as the expression of basic Dramatic situations. A particular way of
making use of chosen Dramatic texts forms an important element of this process. The
65
previously acquired experience of the single sounds in relation to the soul forces is being
used here in combination with bodily and mental activities, in entering a particular
Dramatic situation. This process can result in the building up of an inner experience of
such a situation which, whenever called to mind, can readily flow into a bodily gesture or
into an intonation of speech. These basic modes of gesturing become a basic equipment
for the actor and as in the previous stage can be transformed by the other stage
professionals into their mediums.

On the third level- Philophonetica becomes the language, in common with the whole
company for the process of producing a play. The soul and sound vocabulary which has
been developed individually by the participants can come now to its fruition as a tool for
the understanding, naming and cultivating the dramatic text, for all its stages, through all
its aspects. The sounds become a new language for the identification of the characters,
with its implications on character building and on costume; of the basic moods of a scene,
with its implication of stage design and lighting; of the moods of particular moments in
scenes and therefore changes to lights; of the psychological process of the whole play,
with its implications on rhythm and the use of space.

All these implications can grow organically out of the development of the feelings for
sounds, namely Philophonetica, when taken seriously. For the reality of the Word, when
rightly understood, is the growing point of each of the Arts and Drama is the space where
all the arts combine in a joint act of creation. It is therefore only natural that the basic
elements of the Word, namely the single sounds, can become a fruitful common language
for all the arts in the Dramatic work.

I must reiterate that the process of production itself according to the Anthroposophical
approach to Drama, of which Philophonetica is but one element, is not described here.
That process is based on the understanding of the organic connections between the soul,
the speech, and the gesture elements, and on a rhythmical activation of these subtle
connections in the Dramatic process. In this context I have only made the attempt to
show those aspects of the Dramatic Process to which Philophonetica is essential.

2) Philophonetica: in the service of Psychosophy

66
My dear friends, you have identified yourselves with a movement in which
your store of knowledge can increase if you think of your present knowledge
as a karmic fact. In that way, you will have arrived at a cross-roads, a
vantage point from which vigorous co-operation in this work is clearly
discernible as a task enabling you, now, or in a future incarnation to serve
humanity. Do not think of that as an abstract ideal, but keep constantly
returning to it in a practical way. This work must be made to bear fruit.
(Rudolf Steiner, Psychosophy, November 1
st
-4
th
, 1910)

Psychosophy was intended by its founder - Rudolf Steiner as the study of the human soul
in its position between body and spirit. This threefold image of man is a fundamental
element of Anthroposophy, the philosophy, science and path of spiritual development, of
which Psychosophy is one aspect. Starting from this conception of the soul, Psychosophy
strives to make conscious the experiences the soul undergoes in relation to: the physical
world (appearing through the senses); the spiritual world (appearing through the core of
ones being); the soul world (experienced through the souls own inner life). Becoming
conscious of the inter relationship between these three levels of soul experience, one can
experience how each illuminates and gives reality and meaning to the other.

Now a method of psychological and therapeutic research and work which starts from
seeing the soul in its position between body and spirit must reflect that position in each of
its steps, to be true to itself. Practically speaking, a method that is to answer to such a
demand had to be able to address the soul substance and activity in that whole range of its
manifestation. If such an understanding of the human soul is to become a practical
method of research and work, then methods have to be found which are able to address
this range of the soul life, directly and in the souls own language. I believe that there are
many methods to do this. I propose here a method of psychological research and work
based on the sounds of language. In this method of sounds serve as an object of
perception, as a tool for the discernment of soul forces and contents, as the bearer of
meaning and as a means for the souls direct expression. For such is the phenomenon of
the sounds of language that they can address directly each of these soul faculties in the
souls own terms. This method is termed Philophonetica.

What becomes evident through working with Philophonetica is that working with the
sounds one is actually working directly with soul forces and contents. The naming of
these forces through the sound becomes deeper and more and more precise. This naming
and the bringing into consciousness of the soul life through the sounds is but the
beginning of Philophonetica work in its psychological application. Having made the
67
connection between the soul life and the sounds the second stage may be called a soul
massage. The sounds reveal, at this stage, an ever surprising healing capacity, which
is due to their simultaneous existence within the depths of the often very painful soul
experiences, and in the heights of their free formative activity which is approaching the
soul life from the light. Any vowel or consonant can become an experience on all these
levels, a sort of ladder of J acob, on a smaller or larger scale. And when, through
combinations of sound experiences, emotional configurations of the soul can be made
conscious and worked with, a therapeutic way of working with ones biography and
present disposition can be found.

3) Philophonetica: in the service of Adult Education

Thus we see that a conflict exists between the arising of freedom of thought
and the kind of authority that works over from the past into the present. And
there is a desire not to see clearly the intensity of this faith in authority, to
have illusions about it. For in our time, faith in authority has grown
tremendously and under its influence men have become helpless in forming
judgements. In the fourth post - Atlantean period man was given a healthy
understanding as a natural gift; now he must achieve it by his own
development. In this he is held back by faith in authority. We become
entirely tied up through our faith in authority. (Rudolf Steiner, How can the
soul needs of the time be met, 10
th
October 1916)

What is adult education, as a profession, or even as an issue? It seems to be, in most
cases, an invisible one. Education, as an issue and profession, as a well recognised and
formed one, in connection with children and adolescents. But when it comes to adults -
the subject matter or skill, the content of the educational process takes most of the
attention. The educational process as such, in the case of adults, tends to escape the
attention. As a result it is hardly a recognised skill or profession, from that point of view.
Now, no-one with full consciousness would assume that the same methods and processes,
suitable for children, or those suitable for adolescents -with all the differences of opinion
concerning them- are suitable for adults as well, and that they should therefore be copied,
in Adult Education. However, because of the lack of consciousness mentioned above,
that is exactly what seems to be taking place in so many institutes of Adult Education.
What is then the purpose of Adult Education as a process?

I suggest that the real issue of Adult Education is how to create the conditions for a
process in which an individual can develop his inherent interest in the world and himself,
in freedom. From this point of view, three issues spring first to my mind as key issues for
68
the forming of Adult Education as a future skill: The question of authority in the
educational process; the question of the relationship between the student and the
knowledge he seeks; the question of how to enable Self-Knowledge to develop alongside
and through the particular training in question.

The first two questions are relevant for child education as well, only the answers should
be different. For the starting point, I think that the right source of the authority for the
student lies in himself, a point which even the common law realises. Following from
that, the ideal relationship between student and the knowledge or skill he wishes to
acquire, is one which arises from his own interest. The third question is unique to Adult
Education, and an Adult Education process that cannot address it, is one that is asleep to
its own uniqueness. Every branch of knowledge, art and skill, in its attempt to renew its
ability to be relevant to the soul-needs of the time, through an Adult Education process
will have to find its own answers to these questions.

I will try now to give a brief outline of the way in which Philophonetica may contribute
to this challenge. The brevity in which I will describe it here may make a demand upon
ones imagination. Its ability to contribute to this challenge lies in the nature of the two
components of the Philophonetica work, and of the process through which they meet each
other. One component is the sounds of language. Their very nature is to coexist in both
the objective and subjective realms of human life. For through them works the genius of
language itself, speaking to the individual from within, pointing to a new source of
authority - an authority which does not appear through a leader any more, but one which
appears through the space between people.

The other component of the Philophonetica work is the soul-experience in response to the
sounds: feelings, imagination and impulses of will become new sources of the knowledge
of the sounds of language. The awakening to these activities of the soul, enkindled by the
activities of the sounds of language may contribute to the creation of that space between
people. It is the process of the meeting or conversation between these two components,
forming the actual Philophonetica work, which can allow self-knowledge to grow
alongside the acquisition of a skill.

That process consists of a sequence of workshops, each of which activates a particular
soul force in relation to the sounds; starting from the sense impressions of the sounds,
69
through the resounding of that impression in ones feeling-life; the act of becoming the
activity of the sound in space; the inner preparation for such a becoming; then, the
speaking of a sound, and the various preparations on the way to speaking it - these are but
a few examples of the ways in which the two above components meet each other through
the Philophonetica work. Each of the experiences is taken by the participants into its
expression, in gesture, and thus becomes conscious to the doer as well as to the beholder.

Since each of these activities is the expression of a particular soul force, a whole range of
soul forces can thus become conscious and named. A new vocabulary for the soul-life
can thus grow from ones own experience. That vocabulary can become a link between
the un-named reality of the soul on the one hand, and a theoretical description of that
reality, taught from esoteric and scientific sources, on the other hand. The Apollonian
and Dionisian streams of knowledge of the world and of oneself can thus have fruitful
meeting in this way of working with language.

Besides its result in the growth of consciousness this way of working with the sounds
also results in a healing effect coming from the direct activation of the sense of speech,
(which is connected to the fluid system in the body) by the beneficial forces of the
sounds.

With all that, Philophonetica is but one of many ways in which a modern art of adult
education can evolve. It seems to point, though, to a particular direction of working with
the challenge of that field. Because of the universal nature of its two elements, namely
language and the human soul, it can become, in my view, a beneficial component in
training Adult Educators in general. It seems to have the capacity to enkindle, and give
strength to a sensitivity through which the essence of another being can be perceived.
With that, I wish to conclude this short description of the implication Philophonetica can
have in the field of Adult Education.



70

MAGAZINE ARTICLES
& OTHERS


71

My journey to my true vocation
The creation of Philophonetics-Counselling

Tagar, Y. (1996). My journey to my true vocation: The creation of Philophonetics-counselling. Melbourne,
Australia: Diversity, Natural and Complementary Health Magazine. Issue No. 8, J uly.


This article is about my personal journey towards the creation and development of the
modality of healing, personal development, performing arts and expression therapy called
Philophonetics-Counselling which I have founded. I wish to tell this story for two
reasons:

1. because the method which it has been my task to create is in effect a practical
encouragement for people to take charge of their inner and outer lives, to take a step
into coming-into being of their destiny, and in recreating individually the dignity,
freedom, strength, love and wisdom inherent in every human soul. I believe in it and
wish to make it known and available.
2. The second reason is that the story of its creation, even though only a small portion of
it could be told here, could be encouraging for creative people who believe in their
potential gift and who carry it in stages when it is not fully formed and articulated- to
trust in the fruit to come.

It has taken a lot of trust to carry this impulse into fruition. It starts with the trust which
my parents had in my potential, the openness they gave me to unfold my imagination,
adventurous spirit and expression, leaving me free as well as supported. It continued by
my trust in the uniqueness of every human soul, myself included, to find an unique
expression for an unique experience. For me it began through poetry.

Poetry became for me the most demanding, intoxicating, adventurous process of coming
to terms with my inner experience, of articulating, understanding, transforming and
digesting experiences. Because expression became a powerful way of unfolding my
potential and of healing my wounds, I grew to trust it in everyone, to stand by it, to
encourage it, to midwife it, even through hard labour.
72
I always knew in my heart that truth is at the same time personal and universal, and that
the two are inwardly connected. Coming across the teaching of Rudolf Steiner in my
early youth gave me a philosophical, ethical and practical substantiation to that knowing.
He became my friend and my major teacher in this path, and he still is, although I never
felt myself bound to the tradition established by others who have taken up the ideas put
forward by Steiner. His trust in the originality and the fundamental goodness of the
human soul has encouraged and supported mine.

I always felt the inner working of the human soul to be the wellspring of creativity,
wisdom and guidance, and every honest and human attempt to understand it has attracted
me to it. The oriental wisdom with its inner quiet; the most demanding ideals born of the
Christ impulse, the work of the great artists and poets of all times were of great
inspiration for me. When I came across thinkers & practitioners such as Maslow, Rogers,
Perls, Assagioly & Wilber, the founders and masters of Humanistic & Transpersonal
psychology of the second half of this century- I discovered my comrades in the adventure
of matching the wonders of the human soul with understanding.

Later on I was to discover that prior to all of them, a foundation was laid by Rudolf
Steiner with a modern psychology which embraces the human spirit as well as the body
in his Psychosophy, which has become the foundation of Philophonetics-Counselling. I
would not have come to appreciate its immense potential for modern humanity if not for
the study and training in Humanistic psychology.

My own personal suffering and the way I dealt with it, in particular grief and loss,
became my major schooling in understanding the dynamics of the human soul between
body and spirit. I was put to the test, severely and early, and my crucial choice to take my
suffering as an exercise in being human became my major training to becoming a
counsellor later on.

The discovery of the potential of the performing arts in my late 20s gave my striving to
create a modern path of articulating and transforming the human experience a channel of
exploration. In drama I found a way of bringing together all that I was looking for as a
path of development. The dramatic approach to the human story was the closest to the
essence of all human stories. I devoted the next decade of my life to exploring drama as a
path of transformation.
73

On that basis, the applications of dramatic tools to the healing of human experience
became possible. At a crucial point in time, I had to own my knowing, alone and standing
on my own ground, to authorise myself to claim that I have found a form of coming into
being, of exploration, expression and healing which is worth placing infront of humanity
as one option among others.

I gave it the name: Philophonetics-Love of Sounds which are at the foundation of all
human experience. I made a commitment to serve it, develop it and to complete its birth.
This was and still is the expression of my trust in the promise of human potential, starting
from my own and reaching to the community. It has been and still is a labour of love.















74
The inner art: The creation of human destiny
An interview with Yehuda Tagar by Nigel Hoffman
Hoffman, N. (1997). The inner art: The creation of human destiny. An interview with Yehuda Tagar. South
Australia: Transforming Art Magazine.


Transforming Art: What Im interested in is the relationship of pure art to your
therapeutic work using sound and gesture, within a conception of a total work of art.
To begin with, could you talk about how your current work involved out of your first
experiences with drama?

Yehuda Tagar: I see human art, pure art, as a laboratory for the creation of human
destiny. It is practicing, on a small scale, what in time will become our full
responsibility, which is to take conscious charge of the Creation that is left in our hands.
Everyone can be an artist - at least to the extent of shaping ones destiny. We call
something a work of art when the human being involved can mark the beginning and the
end, the parameters - the frame, so to speak. When I first met drama as a possibility for
me, when I realised its power - for my own transformation and for what it can do for an
audience - this was a turning point in my life. Suddenly it hit me that I can take a piece of
life and determine the beginning, the middle and the end, and all in between ; that I can
practice the human story which I am normally only a part of, in such a way that the story
I create is a part of me. That means moving from seeing myself as just a part of the world
around me - and very often feeling lost in it - to taking artificial responsibility for a piece
of the human story and saying Im in charge of that one - of going right into the heart of
it.

I think many creations in our life have the same characteristics - of creating realities from
inside out - but we dont fully take responsibility for it. We tend to stumble into the
results of what weve created unconsciously. So, I think its primarily a question of
consciousness rather than a difference of what we actually do. In pure art were
practising a form of conscious creation and for that reason pure art is the forerunner of a
broader human art. Eventually, I think, the difference will resolve; consciousness will
expand and responsibility for what we do will expand - although the change is very, very
slow.

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If I think of myself as an evolving human being, Id like, before my time to go comes, to
look at a piece of my life and call it a work of art, from morning to night. Ive come to a
point where I can call my workshops and lectures - which involve intense human
interactions, people coming to know each other, discovering things, all sorts of forms -
works of art. This is now my poetry. I am, so to speak, a midwife of human
development. There was a time when I wouldnt have called a workshop a work of art,
and Im sure many people dont call workshops works of art. I can say it now because
this is where I practice my artistry, where I take responsibility for the space and time. I
know one person who could truly say that the way he runs his electrical parts factory in
Melbourne is reaching the level of a work of art.

TA: Obviously the idea of responsibility is vital to your conception of this broader work
of art.

YT: Responsibility is a key word for me - to take responsibility for my creation. I dont
think ever in human history there was ever so much talk about taking responsibility for
ones actions. At the same time, never before have we been so conscious about how
irresponsible we are for our actions. But then, we were never left alone to decide the
actions in the first place. So there is further criticism of ourselves, further awareness, but
there is also more responsibility.

TA: Still, does this not perhaps stretch the idea of the work of art too far? One of the
current criticisms of the broad use of the word art is that it dilutes the meaning of the
word down so far that it no longer has any strength. Art has traditionally meant
something very specific - the creation of significant forms out of nothing, the bringing
into being or revelation of something new which has intense significance for people.

YT: Im being very specific here; I dont think we ever create out of nothing - we create
out of ourselves. Thinking about it in religious terms, in terms of the structure of the
mass: I come to the altar of artistic creation and I offer what I bring with me. I have to
offer something, some raw material for this transubstantiation. Then I have to do
something with it, to work it, to become the priest of it. I have to be mindful of the
material, because it could be bread and wine, animals to sacrifice, fruit from the garden -
or it could be anything else, a painting, or my own destiny - but its not nothing. My
work has to have a very clear technique which is applicable to the materials I am using on
76
one hand, and the purposes on the other. All this is guided by what I imagine that could
be done and by the question: why am I doing it? This is what I call the moral
imagination, the morality of the intention.

Then something happens which I believe involves more than myself. If I work the
materials well on the altar (and it doesnt matter if its the preparation for a workshop or a
poem or a relationship between two people), when the transubstantiation takes place, then
the materials I have with me in my hands become something else. At this point other
impressions can come and use my materials as their vehicle - there is an embodiment of
spirit in my materials. The bread becomes the body of Christ, the wine becomes the
blood of Christ. Im using Christianity as a metaphor here, but its the same with the
artistic process. The materials become transparent to something else. Then what
happens is like an echo in the heights of what was wrought in the depths. The word
becomes the flesh, if you wish - and that is a revelation. The work is becoming
something beyond the personal and it will then have value for all time, for all humanity,
even if it is a temporal art like performance, which doesnt stay. Its like a service for the
evolution of humanity. There are many points in my workshop and teaching work when I
can touch this transparency. You know that all thats been brought together has been
uplifted to another level, and we become all accessible to something else that is dawning
on us, so to speak.

I compare it to the transition from coal to diamond. Theres nothing chemically different
between coal and diamond, its exactly the same formula. What is the difference
artistically is that light can be revealed through the diamond and it cannot be revealed
through the coal. If there would be an artist transforming coal into diamonds, with all the
skill in the world, it could not be said that that artist has created the light. The light is
still a revelation. The shape of the diamond could be the work of artist; the artist needs
special tools and techniques to be able to forge it in that way. But eventually when light
shines through it and thats the revelation - but conditions have to be created for it.

TA: Many artists talk about this sense of being like an agent for a something greater than
themselves, dont they? Goethe, for example, spoke of the daemonic spirit or
geniusas this higher creative being which takes over in the artistic process.

77
YT: Yes, this is how one can explain the incredible, solemn, single mindedness and
aloneness of an artist, because they are not alone. The deaf Beethoven, at the end of his
life, composed the Four Quartets which nobody could appreciate - he is not alone. And
the lonely Michaelangelo who doesnt even bother to come down from the scaffold to
exchange anything with human beings - he is not alone. And Mozart dying with the last
notes of the Requiem - he is not alone. They are not alone because they have become
accepted into a broader brotherhood - sisterhood - of higher beings. But they do bring
something to the altar to be transubstantiated. One is honoured or knighted into a higher
order; one becomes a partner in a broader world of creation. It doesnt matter if the work
is published, it doesnt matter if the work is appreciated. Of course that is important on
one level - we want it to be appreciated by people. But something is achieved even
regardless of human appreciation if it is done with the love of the deed itself. I think
thats the essence of artistic creation. Do it, and the reason is in the doing. That, maybe,
is the difference between art and craft.

TA: I would like you to clarify something; when you speak of the broader work of art as
the creating of human destiny you mean, I gather, working with the contents of the
human consciousness. How do you actually work with such materials, the contents of the
psyche, which are so impalpable, so ungraspable?

YT: The substance of the human psyche is what Shakespeare was referring to when he
wrote in The Tempest, such stuff as dreams are made of and our whole life is rounded
with a sleep. Some might say that this is very beautiful poetry, which it is; I would say
that it is beautiful and true - we are such stuff as dreams are made of. The psyche is
made of a fine substance, which is pure vibration. In the physical world we mould the
material which is external to us, but in the psyche it is not like that. In the case of the
psyche it is the same substance which is creating as is being created. I draw the pictures
on the canvas of my own being and I am the one who is the result of my activity all the
time. It is me who is the drawer and me who is the drawn, and it also me who is the
substance used for that. I am the painter, the colour and the canvas when it regards the
human psyche. Rudolf Steiner called it soul, in German Seele, which is a little bit
broader than what we mean by psyche. Its a bit more connected to the body on the one
hand the spirit on the other.

78
If the work of creation is the actual human development itself - which for me it is - then
the substance of that work is purely the human soul. I work with a lot of artists who want
to come to a better understanding of themselves who wish to transform blocks within
themselves on the way to specific works of art. On one level there is the working with
ones own destiny, with ones development in its own right. At another level the work
within oneself may be manifested or projected into another human being who is doing the
same, which is a work of art of another magnitude involving human relationships. In all
these cases we have to come to what I call the literacy of human experience. Much as
we are at total loss in the world of literature without having the alphabet, or in fixing a car
or using a computer without the proper tools and terms, so one is at a loss regarding the
unconscious psyche which is controlling oneself unless one is psyche-literate or
experience literate. Its a peculiar thing that our bodies, which are designed for our life
on earth, are very similar to what they were ten thousand years ago. However our psyche
is incredibly different. Were still physically designed to look forward and to be
conscious of what is in front of us, and there was a time when the design was perfectly
suited to the purpose. If I am to confront anything, to face anything and to take charge of
it, I have to have it in front of me, dont I? Whereas most of whats going on is behind
me and I cannot confront anything which isnt in front of me. Well, I claim that most of
the dynamics which really influence my life, my strengths, my weaknesses, my desires,
my hopes, my aspirations, my fears, my joys - all of this - is not exactly in front of me.
Neither does it speak English, nor hope, frustration, nor desire. I dont think love speaks
English. When we try do it in English, or whatever we do as regards this content, it
amounts to a second-hand translation. In forming poetry, people strive to make the
language more than second-hand translation, but any prose, spoken or written, is second-
hand - not the real thing.

My research has been devoted to the phenomenology of the human psyche and my years
of observation led me eventually to classifying eight aspects of experience which can
become a language for experience and can communicate to my consciousness without
compromising itself. What led me to this was experimenting with sound that I carried out
in my sound laboratory. I conducted my sound laboratory, in the first place, in order to
crack what Steiner meant by his indication - the sounds of human speech can become
the new tools for the new drama - because he didnt really say how to do it. He also said
that the conditions were not right for it, that it was for future generations - that was in
1924. Basically he said: play with the sounds of human speech, muck about with them,
79
try them, taste them and imagine them, until it becomes instinctive in you to find the
forces working behind them. He said that the sounds of human speech are echoes of the
fundamental elements of the life-body, that the life body or etheric body is made of the
sounds.

TA: Could you explain what you mean by life-body

YT: The life-body is not visible to the physical eye, it is not visible to any of the twelve
senses, but it is visible to the thirteenth sense, the sense of imagination, a sense that can
involve in everyone. My research shows that it becomes pretty normal for people to do
this. Through our budding imaginative capacity we are all able to sense the inner
dynamics of the life-body; its just that we dont respect it enough. Now this life-body is
not just a vegetable, although it does correspond to the vegetation around us. It is the seat
of the human experience. All our memory is just stored in the life-body. If you look at
the life-body in itself you can see that it is the plant kingdom within us. It is answerable
to the seven life processes- it grows, breathes, warms, nurtures, secretes and eliminates
substances, maintaining and reproducing itself. It is doing all that the plant kingdom is
doing - so it is the plant inside us, but it is a human plant and on the whole it is in a state
of sleep. This is the sleep kingdom, if you wish. Steiner predicted that towards the end
of the twentieth century it would start to wake it up more and more, and become more
and more conscious - but also more and more vulnerable.

Steiner described the life-body as the body of formative forces in human beings and other
living beings. As such it is an echo of the planetary system through which the whole
universe resounds, like sounds do in the echo chamber of a piano - the vowels are
emanations of planets, and the consonants are emanations of constellations - the universal
creative Word. So, through the sounds we can start to conceive of the human being as a
being of resonance. When we develop a sense for it we can see pictures of the life-body
which otherwise are invisible to the physical senses - but we can only see them because
they are there to be seen. The most intimate connection to a being is seeing its inside
rather than its outside, right? But an even further intimacy with a being is to hear its
voice. This is in the physical world; but like colours we dont see physically, there are
sounds we dont hear physically - they resound inwardly - and this resonance we can
discover, can access, by the sounds of human speech.

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TA: When you speak about the sounds of human speech I gather you are not referring to
any particular language that you mean the sounds which make up all human languages.
But are these sounds units of meaning in themselves, or do they only acquire meaning
when they form words and sentences which are different in the individual languages?

YT: At the heart of this new understanding of the life-body as a body of universal
resonance is a new understanding of the universal character of the single sounds of
language. This is the Mother-Tongue, the language we normally leave behind in the
babbling phase of our development but which we can re-awaken. Take for instance, the
word tree, in English. We normally take it for granted that it designates those tall,
branchy things standing around, as though it were just a common agreement to designate
them in this way. But truly, it is more than just a common agreement. A very particular
experience, a picture, lives in the form of this word. The form is not arbitrarily made up;
it arises naturally from a particular way of observing that which we call in English, a
tree. The word can be explored, just like a work of art can - and a lot will be found
through such an exploration. It may reveal, for instance, the way in which that
phenomenon is looked at in the English language which is very different to the way in
which the German language looks at the same object. The German experience of that
phenomenon needs another form for its expression: it uses the form Baum.

But another level of exploration yet waits behind the study of the single sounds of that
work, and their particular significance. The sound T is an expression of a range of very
specific experiences. One has to experiment with the sound T in order to become
conscious of it. One has to sense it, to feel it, to act it, to play with it, and then the sound
T will be able to reveal its various characteristics. It will appear to be pointy, tight,
penetrating, tough, strong, ticklish. It will make sense then why a word like tree starts
with T, while a word like post, ends with it. The first starts from its strong grip in the
ground and ends in its freer movement in the air above, expressed by the R of tree; the
second comes into the ground from above, gets stuck in the ground, where it stays at rest.
Likewise, in Hebrew, to take a language whose source is very far from English, the word
for cutting a tree is Karat- the tree whirls in the air before it falls to the ground where it
stays at rest. On the other hand, the word for blowing a trumpet is Hebrew, Truah - the
air is accumulated, static, in the lungs before it burst into the mouthpiece of the trumpet
where, in its channelled release, it creates a sound. The reasons for the choice and the
positioning of T in these words are the same in both languages. They will be found, in
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relation to T, in any other language as well. For the differences between words chosen
to name the same phenomena in different languages there are characteristic cultural
reasons. But beyond these cultural differences, there lies the universal human experience
of the single sounds and the choice of a particular sound for the expression of a particular
experience is of a universal nature. It takes more than this short explanation to
substantiate this statement scientifically, but everyone can experiment with it, for
themselves. Single sounds are being experienced in a similar way by different cultures
not because of an international agreement about it, but because these sounds by their very
nature, beyond all our differences, is a universal-human one. Our basic human shape is
universal in its nature, beyond racial colours and beyond our personal physiognomies.

TA: So how does this understanding of human speech become the basis for your
therapeutic art?

YT: If I speak the sounds of human speech one by one to people, it resounds within very
profound elements, inside the life-body, and it brings up a whole range of memories and
experiences which are seated there in the life-body. This for me is a phenomenological
reality, its not anything I merely believe. About ten years ago I took as a hypothesis, a
guideline for a laboratory; now I know that every sound of human speech resounds within
a whole range of human experiences, and with Philophonetics, which is what I have
called the work based on the sounds - meaning, basically, love of sounds, relationship
of sound, relationship to sound - we can wake up to the whole gamut of our experience.
Initially I was aiming to discover new tools for acting, but then I realised it was much
deeper than that, that is was a powerful tool of healing. Its like waking up to the
workshop of nature, an ongoing workshop which is happening in our life-body. The life-
bodys between the physical body - with all the influence that it absorbs from the physical
world - and the soul, the body of emotions, the dynamics of which imprint themselves on
the life-body all the time. So its like the ham in the sandwich.

There are so many experts these days, people telling you what is happening inside of you.
They are talking about the new information revolution; but when I hear the word
information I nearly fall asleep - I am tired of information. For me, the new step is not
information, it is more exformation - out-formation. The formative activities within us
are witness to all that is worth knowing, and if we want to know it, it is found by
expressing it. The universe is inside, everyone is a replica of it, in everyones soul and
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body is somewhere a replica of the whole, and with a devoted observation of every part
the whole will manifest.

Now, the sounds of human speech give us such tools - for the echoing or expressing the
contents of the psyche, and then also for the intervention the changing of the activities
inside us. By using sound we are moving from the manifestation of realities to the
creation of reality. We can now, using Philophonetics, trace every human expression, of
every human experience, into the depths of it, the origin of it - with a sound. We can
express just about every aspect of experience with a sound.

TA: Could you describe more fully the tools for this work, the techniques?

YT: We need tools- any serious creator in any field needs tools. If we dont have tools,
we fail at the level of intention. We cannot conceive of higher purposes without tools.
When it comes to the actual technique, the manifestation or embodiment- then we need
tools. We need Vulcan if you wish- the god who was the craftsman. I was saying that the
language, the literacy of experience, is what can make us practical artists in the field of
the psyche- either for self- development or for other works of art. Using the right tools it
is possible to bring contents of the psyche from behind consciousness into the front of
consciousness, and the way to do this is not through reflection, because the mind, which
is the reflective centre, can only reflect what is in front of it. Through the four tools, the
four languages of creation, the four languages of experience, with what I am calling
Philophonetics. I can get in touch or help a client or student or an actor- to get in touch
with every content that to start with is behind consciousness.

When we take into account the subtle bodies of the human being, when we recognise that
theres more behind the mind physical body than meets the eye, then we arrive at the
following- that every activity, every inner experience which I have gone through, leaves a
trace, a ripple in the water of my being. This can be sensed- I can use my sensibility to
get in touch with these echoes in my body. This is the first tool- I can sense in the body
what is happening in the soul. Once I sense it I can move into the first mode of expression
and I can gesture with my hands and the rest of my body, forms which express directly
this inner sensation and makes them much more conscious, infront of me. Having done
that, pictures emerge- my visual ability is released by gesturing and I can think in pictures
without them being there physically. We can test our experiences by entering those
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pictures and we can get a whole range of visibility for what otherwise is invisible. This
capturing of the dynamics of the subtler bodies through inner vision- what Steiner called
imagination- is the third tool. The fourth tool is the sound; the sounds spoken from the
outside resound or echo within the patterns of ones experience, stimulating them with
amazing precision.

I speak about the imagination as something which is very different from fantasy.
Imagination and fantasy are really opposites, although in the English Thesaurus they are
listed as synonyms. The imagination should be given the credit of being a tool of
inspiration. Fantasy is about shifting the mind from what is to what isnt. Im sitting in a
particular place with a particular person and I fantasise about being in another place with
a particular person. It is taking me away from something which is real to something
which isnt real. I claim that imagination should be used as the opposite of that; namely,
penetrating, with the power of thought, the power of imagination, into the reality in front
of me, so I can see much more of its reality than that prevailing to the eyes. Working
with the sounds can wake up this power of imagination and now we can work with it in a
way which people couldnt in the past, in order to throw completely new light on the
body and on the psyche. I dont know of any other tool that can do it do directly, so self-
evidently, so penetratingly, as the sounds of human speech - that is the common
denominator of a new science on the one hand and a new art on the other.

TA: You mentioned before that Steiner had stated when he presented his indicators for a
new drama in 1924, that conditions were not right for it, that it will be future generations.
Do you think that conditions are now right for it?

YT: I think the conditions are very right. Steiner said in his final lectures on drama that
drama, in the past when it was really alive, was always at the cutting edge of human
consciousness. He said that when we restore the spiritual dimension to drama through the
art of speech and movement, and through the awareness of our own soul-life, it will again
become the cutting edge of consciousness. Thats what attracted me to this; that an artist
can play at the cutting edge of human consciousness. He says in the same context that
the musical gods echo the gods of the past, and that the plastic gods echo the gods of the
future, but the dramatic arts invoke the gods of the present - drama is about now. In that
context, he gave a new technique for exploring ones own soul and body, to become an
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actor. Of course, you cannot do this without going through your whole psyche; Steiner
gave the tools for a psychosophy and these are the sounds of human speech.

My interpretation is that there are two conditions in order it follow this path of inner
revelation as the starting point of outer revelation - one is to have respect for oneself, and
people were just not prepared to trust themselves then. He was saying this even before
Hitler, Mussolini, Mao-se Tung and McCarthy, let alone all the gurus of spiritual
movements. He said the time of following a leader is over. And what did they do? They
turned Steiner into a leader - so not much happened, you see. If this were to continue we
would never discover new sources of inspiration, new revelations from the inside. With
the technology of sound, you have an experience and you find a sensing and a gesturing
of this which can be verified phenomenologically by yourself or another. Unless we
develop respect for subjective experiences, as having objectivity of their own, unless we
develop the life of the imagination as the starting point for exploring objective realities,
we will not be able to start this artistic work. The basic mode of teaching has been to
imitate a teacher, but that goes opposite to Steiners lectures on speech and drama where
he says that you have to find it for yourself. The student or actor has to be left entirely
free. We shall not communicate these instructions in any dogmatic way; they are not rules
but rather suggestions. The individual needs their freedom, everything an actor has to do
must be done instinctively.

Thats the first condition. The second condition is a bit more subtle and has to do with the
fact that people were literally dense in their physical bodies. There has now been a
loosening up of the subtle bodies and the result is that we become much more exposed to
influences from outside, from our own psyche and at the same time there are
opportunities for perception on another level. This loosening up of the life-body means
that we become less compact, resulting in a new sort of disease every week. We become
much more vulnerable and exposed to the chaos of our own psyche, but there are also
new opportunities and people can visualise pictures of inner realities in a way that
couldnt be done before. I work with people who are able to see the sounds, just like
seeing the grass is green and the sky is blue- they are seeing invisible sounds. This ability
to see inner realities is new for people in general and it will transform medicine and art
completely. We are much more capable of waking up, now, to the dynamic of formative
forces which can only be perceived by the imagination. This is the second condition. The
reason why it couldnt be operating in the 1920s was because the imagination didnt
85
have a foundation and people had to work very hard to get what every child and adult can
easily see now.




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Re-creating heart safety


The spiritual-scientific background of the healing process of
restoring heart wellbeing, with Philophonetics-Counselling

Tagar, Y. (1998). Re-creating heart safety. Perth, Western Australia: Nova Magazine.


Safety comes from within. The most vulnerable part of us is at the same time the source
of safety: The Heart. The heart is an organ which operates on all the levels of human
existence: it is a physical organ; a Life organ; a centre of the Feeling and of the
Emotional life; an organ of perception for the heart-dynamics around us, and a major
threshold as well as a bridge to our true spiritual being. When the heart is not safe and
protected - nothing in us can be really safe and protected. To be safe the heart needs to be
protected and maintained with a healthy sheath of Life (etheric) Forces. The basic
conditions needed for that healthy sheath are: being saturated with warm moisture (water)
on the physical level; vital positive energy and nurturing on the Life-etheric level;
warmth, acceptance, intimacy, belonging, sympathy and a space to expand and to flow on
the Soul (astral) level, and love, light, truth, beauty, goodness and a sense of meaning on
the Spiritual level. When any of these elements is missing, fractured, depleted or drained
- the heart as a whole is not safe. When the heart is not safe - it cannot function in a
healthy way as a centre of regulation, rhythm, feeling and sanity.

The dysfunctionality of an unsafe heart will manifest sooner or later through a
characteristic dysfunction of the human being on each of the above mentioned levels: the
immune system on the Physical level; the strength and the harmonious flow of energy on
the Life (ether) level; the centredness and the ability to digest experiences on the
Psychic/Soul (astral) levels; the sanity, clarity and the sense of direction on the Spiritual
level, the level of the I Am itself - all these will suffer in one way or another, and will
become, in time, depleted.

The un-sheathed heart can be resembled to an exposed foetus who, prematurely, is no
longer sheathed by the water of the amniotic fluid sack (in Hebrew Shapeer, which also a
word for wellness). A heart safe within its etheric sheath can be resembled to a foetus
within the protecting water. Like the foetus, the heart is a being in the making, whose
evolution is still in its early phases, with a whole future pending on its well being. When
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the Feeling Heart is exposed through an emotional injury such as inconsolable grief, hurt,
loss, insult, cruelty, abuse, coldness and the absence of love from an etherically close
person the etheric heart-sheath becomes eroded and fractured. The heart then is not safe
and because of its central position in the whole being - nothing else is safe either.

In order to survive, we develop a range of defence mechanisms, most of them
implemented in early childhood. These include inner disengagement, numbness,
aggression, passive aggression, brick-walling, compensations-cravings-addictions of all
kinds, intellectualization of feelings, excarnation (mental departure from the body), to
name some of the major ones. These defence mechanisms with which we compensate for
the lack of the natural heart-safety can in turn contribute to the hardening of the etheric
sheath of the heart. They enable the survival of the essential being for the present
moment, but prevent its long-term healing. They can cast a long shadow of
developmental disability, isolation and waste of life potential for the duration of ones
life, unless, with conscious inner work, they are being disarmed.
In the process of healing from injuries such as mentioned above, the defence mechanisms
will have to be penetrated with consciousness and to be dissolved with care and with the
warmth of compassion. In the process, the original hurt and pain that warranted the
defences, as well as the layers of fear covering it will have to be confronted, re-
experienced, and released. The I will have to enter the hidden, frightened corners of
defensive isolation, to turn on the light, to turn on the love. Fear of emotional pain,
stemming from the given, reflexive survival instinct, will always automatically attempt to
prevent this conscious encounter with ourselves, with whatever excuses, however logical,
spiritual, Anthroposophic, practical rationalizations, but excuses nevertheless. For
encounter with our inner being is often painful, and our instinctive reaction in the face of
pain is a fear reaction. But in truth, pain cannot kill our inner being, and pain is not the
enemy. Fear of pain can kill us; fear of pain is the enemy, and pain-killers on all levels
are its tools in the soul-killing work.

The reluctance, born out of fear, to experience our emotional pain is the single greatest
hindrance in the healing process of the heart and of all that depends on it - the wholeness
of our humanness. That reluctance always has biographical causes, originated in times of
great insecurity and helplessness, normally of a child in the care of an adult. What was
once an outside influence is now an inner layer of one's being, because one's 'inner flesh'
has grown over it, internalizing it, incorporating it into one's being as an organic part of
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the system and its operation. Years later the adult consciousness forms as the upper layer
of one's awareness, while the inner-child's dynamics, un-cared for yet, live in the inner
places, being triggered periodically into the surface. The inner-child does not trust adults
because adults were not trust worthy before. It does not trust oneself as an adult either.
The injury is still defended automatically in the old way, which is the child's way, and the
conscious adult has no access to it, not even on behalf of the intention of healing. One has
to gain one's own inner-child's trust in order to overcome that internal defence, to match
in strength of self-care the strength of the old threats that were crippling in the past. Only
then can real care be taken, only then can heart-safety be restored.

None of these embedded experiences is to start with verbal, reflective and intellectually
observable. They live in deep layers of the being and their mode of being, operation and
cognition is largely non verbal: unnoticed bodily sensations, subtle movements which
could be only articulated in actual movement and gesture, half-conscious mental pictures
which could be grasped through active visualization, and unheard sounds, the voices of
the inside, which the single sounds of human speech and singing can express much better
than words. The artistic, formative, expressive, non-verbal dimensions of knowing and of
communicating, the 'Indigenous Language of Experience' are needed for access to the
heart and for the healing of the heart to take place. There are many names for these
languages. We call it 'Philophonetics - Love of Sound', intimacy with one's own
resonance of inner experience, articulation of the otherwise inarticulate, awareness of
one's internal humanity.

A lot of fear is likely to be confronted on the way to heart-healing, a lot of old hurt, scars
and anger, of acute need for protection and defence. While there could be substantial
reasons to defend and to protect oneself, even to fight back and claim one's rights when
such a response is called for and chosen from the centre of one's being - none of these are
the task of the heart.

The heart is not a defence organ, the heart is the organ in need of defence. Other
aspects of one's being must conduct the role of defence. The heart must be relieved of
these duties, to be free to do what a heart does best: feeling, loving, knowing, balancing,
harmonizing, humanizing, understanding from within, communication with the higher
dimension of one's being, of others and of the situation at hand. Allowing the heart to be
a heart in that sense is the purpose of all the Heart-Safety sequences of Philophonetics-
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Counselling. At their heart is the striving for regaining the trust of one's inner being in
one's mature ability to listen, to hear, to accept, to care for and to heal the inner heart
injury, however far in the past and deep within the being its origin may be.

A deed of restoration of Heart-Safety is regarded by Philophonetics-Counselling
Practitioners as an act of healing with consequences not only for the well-being of the
individual concerned, but also for the community as a whole, for the Earth and for the
universe. Whenever one heart is being healed - Nature herself breathes a sigh of relief
which some can actually hear, the breathing of the surrounding atmosphere is restored to
harmony and light enters into shadowed places. Redemption then takes place, for in the
end - all hearts are linked to the uniting, Universal-Human Heart, who is the source of all
true healing, one and the same for humanity as well as for the Earth.






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Compassion: A path of self healing

Tagar, Y. (1995). Compassion: A path of self healing. Adelaide, South Australia: Golden Age Magazine,
J uly/August, pp25-28.


Compassion, com-passion, passion with, suffering with, feeling for, caring for, flowing
with sympathy towards, experiencing within one's own passionate forces - the being of
another, reaching out to be within the other's inner position. Compassion, the most human
of human qualities, is keeping our flame alive.

Thought of mostly in relation to another human being, or animal, or the forest, did it ever
occur to you that compassion could be also experienced towards a part of one's own
being? I do not speak of self love, self adoration or self seeking. I am speaking about such
a revelation which had an enormous effect on my development as a counsellor- the
healing power of the energy of compassion, when directed towards an element of oneself
which is in need, a part of oneself which is in trouble, which is wounded, isolated,
starved, frozen or frightened. A revelation of a very simple fact is that there is only one
heart with which to feel compassion to others, and with which to feel compassion towards
oneself. The ability to activate compassion with all its healing power is the same ability,
whether the focus is another human being, an animal, a forest, or oneself. It sounds
simple, and eventually it is. It is as simple as the warmth of a golden autumn sun
radiating through dispersing clouds. But it is not simple to disperse those clouds. It takes
a lot of trust in the power of this sun, perseverance and the skill of encouragement. In
short, it takes compassion to enkindle the same. It works like a chain reaction.

A woman is suffering from breast cancer, with fear, grief, anger and the desperate attempt
to remain centred and positive. Positivity is good for you, they say, you cannot afford not
to be positive, they say, it is your fault if you are not positive, they say. Positivity at all
cost, teeth-gritting positivity, even to the extent of avoiding that which is not positive at
all, but all too real simmering inside, underneath the veneer of positivity. Fear was
shrouding the place of the deepest need, and avoidance was covering the fear.

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How could all these layers be permeated with heart-warmth, so that the place of need will
be reached, addressed, cared for? Put your hands on the part of your body which is in
need of help, I suggested. She hesitatingly rests her hands on her suffering breast. Touch
it, feel it, what does it need?

There is a long silence with closed eyes, and then tears well up, first slowly, then
gradually gushing forth as though not to miss the window of opportunity to be released,
acknowledged, to breathe the fresh air. There is sorrow, deep sadness, acute loneliness,
being forsaken, being abandoned, being lost in a dark corner of her life. She shows warm,
soft, very real tears by passing the facade of imposed positivity, to tell the real story
behind the veil of coping, the story of the fear of death. Her suffering, petrified,
vulnerable, innocent, defenceless breast has become the perfect representative of that part
of herself which could not cope, which was left behind, unsupported, lonely among
people and things, an ancient child.

As the tears came out, the breathing came in with a breathing deeper than she had for
months, maybe years, right down to the lower belly and the groins, the health-bearing
blessed life renewing breath. And the warmth expanded from within, from previously un-
accessible regions of the disconnected self within the body, healing, clearing, soothing
heart warmth, such as every healer dreams of stimulating within the one in need of
healing. She became her own healer at that point.

And then she danced. Encouraged to express her inner warmth in movement, her hands
leading, then her shoulders, chest, then standing up and moving - her whole body
moving, engulfed with the warmth she has accessed within herself, completely self
sufficiently. She danced the dance of life, the dance of sorrow overcome, of fear of death
surmounted, of consolation, love and womanhood. No music was needed, but the
imagined fresh wind was blowing all around her, the waterfall washed her limbs, and the
sun was radiating from her face.

Her heart was opened with an act of self-compassion, following the deed of courage with
which she faced the most dangerous of places: her suffering cancerous breast. Her heart
which is the inner sun was opened up to feel, to care, to suffer with her suffering self -
com-passion, suffering with, passionately. We did not assume that we have reached a
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cure for the cancer as such, but we both knew that we have reached a sustainable dynamic
of healing and of inner warmth, through an act of self compassion.

Sometimes we have to go through yet another phase on the way to self-compassion. We
have to own and then to shed away the opposite, the hatred for the suffering self. It has to
be included in order for it to be let go. Only then can one move to the third position, the
position of clarity of heart, from which the heart can open towards a part of oneself which
is in need, to feel care, warmth, compassion towards it, to take care of it. In
Philophonetics-Counselling we call the journey between these three positions The
Compassion Triangle. It became for us a major training in self-care and self-healing.

A young man enters the position of his pained, crushed heart. Something in his body and
in his life is eating him up, scorching him and rendering his whole being dysfunctional.
He becomes the heart, contorted, defenceless and frozen. This is the First position-the
position of the one in need.

He gets out of this position, shakes it all off, breathes, turns around and looks at the after
image of himself in that contorted position. His mind is filled with that image and what it
means to him.

I asked him to express what he really feels towards that part of himself. Not surprisingly
to me an enormous rage welled up within him, raging anger with fuming spite, hostility
and aggression towards that part of himself which for such a long time had caused him so
much suffering, limitation, low self esteem, lost opportunities. I encouraged him to
express it all towards the cushion which now represented his heart-contorted position. He
vented towards it his hatred, his loathing and despise. The word "pathetic" was repeated
many times. Worse words were hurled at it. A whole load of self anger was released and
emptied. He was empty and tired at this point, and strangely relieved. This is theSecond
position-the position of reaction to the one in need.

I asked him to shake it all off, to take a deep breath and to move to a third position. We
have created a triangle. From the third position I asked him to look back at the position of
the angry reaction he has just been in. He saw the full extent of his self negativity towards
himself. He could see how he had become his own worst enemy, embodying every
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possible negative response towards himself he has ever absorbed from other people. He
saw the very self-cruelty of that position. He shuddered.

Then I asked him to turn his gaze toward the First position, the position of the contorted,
helpless crushed heart. He saw his own vulnerability now with new eyes, free from anger.
Warmth welled up in him, his heart opened up. The love that always was in him and
available for others, was now available for the wounded part of himself. I asked him
gently to say what did he think his heart really needed when in such suffering- "Care,
protection, warmth, love, soothing, holding" were his answers. I asked him whether he
was in a position to give any of those qualities to himself and he replied, yes he could.
We had reached theThird Position- Compassion.













Then I invited him to act on these caring feelings which welled up within him. He went to
the position of that cushion, took it in his hands, and spent a long moment with it in his
arms. He reached a great intimacy with himself.

Later on we will need to discover the nature of that which wounded him so, that which is
still crushing him, to understand it, to fend it off, neutralise its impact on him; to finds
ways of protecting himself from those inner and outer influences; to change his life
accordingly. We will be taking all these necessary steps later, when the time is ripe for it.
For now what we have done is enough. His heart is safe in a way it was not before, safe
in his own hands, safe from the onslaught of his own bitterness and anger, benefiting
from his own warmth, healing power, love and compassion. He has reached heart safety,

First position: the needy self







Second position: the reactive & Third position: the compassionate self
judgemental self towards the needy self
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which is a pre-condition of any further healing work with Philophonetics-Counselling.
On that basis we can build.

This is the journey of the Compassion Triangle. This is how an amazing discovery can
take place within oneself: That a human being has only got one heart, not two or three for
different usages; that to open my heart to others and to close it to myself is damaging to
the heart and to my whole being, just as damaging as hardening my heart towards others
while caring for myself; that compassion is the heart's very true nature, and that the
healing power of compassion is as applicable to a part of my inner life which is in need of
it, as it is to any other human being, bird or flower.

Compassion, passion with, suffering with, feeling with and embracing every aspect with
heart consciousness, is important so that I can see clearly what is truly needed. Intimacy
is being in the inside of things, knowing them from their own point of view. The future of
humanity is intimacy, or else death. Compassion is leading the way to that future. We can
practice it on ourselves.


New jars for new wine
The arising of new human faculties of perception in the light of
Anthroposophy, Psychosophy and Philophonetics

Tagar, Y. (1992). New jars for old wine: The arising of new human faculties of perception in the light of
Anthroposophy, Psychosophy and Philophonetics. Melbourne: Victorian Anthroposophical Society
Newsletter.

If your self-image of being an insignificant particle in a heap of coincidences, drifting
aimlessly between one Big Bang and another has stopped satisfying your search for
meaning; if the white fella' Darwinian Dreamtime of the blind and coincidental
evolutionary plot towards the survival of the fittest has ceased to excite your intellect and
your imagination; if the ready-made meaning of religious belief systems from
Monotheism to Thatcherism has recently felt a bit dusty to your spiritual sense of taste,
and finally if the Existential-Positivist-Deconstructive denial of all meaning has started to
feel like a combination of your own self-denial and a cheap cheat, then how about, for a
95
change, taking a respite from all of these speculative torments. Imagine for a moment the
possibility of a theory that proposes human evolution as an ongoing and profoundly
meaningful adventure, aiming at the expansion of freedom and consciousness.

The chief exponent of this evolutionary theory is the Austrian scientist, philosopher and
educator Dr Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). This theory is a central feature in Steiners
approach to human development, called Anthroposophy (meaning literally, the wisdom
inherent within the human being). We have not, according to Steiner, ascended from the
apes as the Darwinian evolutionary theory would have us believe. On the contrary - the
apes have descended from us, from the human original form, as we went on evolving on
our pre-destined path of human evolution
5
. Quite apart from any theoretical, theological
and cosmological debate, the significance of the approach in this article is its ability to
facilitate a fruitful question. Suppose for a moment that we are on such an ongoing
journey for the expansion of human consciousness and always have been. What is the
unique element of our consciousness under development right now, at the end of this
unpredictable century?

This question is of vital importance. If we as a species are undergoing a continuous
unfolding of consciousness, then our psyche is not a result of our environment, as the
naturalists would have it, but rather our environment is a reflection of our ever changing
psyche. If this be true, then the awakening to the next phase of our unfolding psyche
could become a powerful insight into the next phase of human culture and civilization
altogether. The emerging non-precise science of futurism could then evolve through the
insight into and the acknowledgement of the significance of the evolution of human
consciousness. In Rudolf Steiner's Histosophy which is at the background of this essay,
the shift from symptom to reality in understanding human history always hinged on this
element, of the evolution of human consciousness, as it has manifested through the
unique life of individuals.

Is there therefore, a discernible process of development taking place inside of us right
now, like the formation of a seed for a future culture? This article will attempt to answer
the above question in the affirmative by pointing to the emergence of new faculties of
perception, as demonstrated through the application of the method of personal and artistic
development called Philophonetics. This method has evolved during the last decade out

5
Details: "Man & the Evolution of the World" in Occult Science-an outline, Rudolf Steiner Press, Lond.
96
of research into two of the least known aspects of Rudolf Steiner's work: his approach to
Psychology which he called Psychosophy (1910)
6
and his contribution towards the
renewal of the Dramatic Art (1924)
7
. In accord with the dramatic nature of the issue in
question, let us focus on Steiner's approach to drama as the case study for this article. One
of the last contributions towards the renewal of human culture which Rudolf Steiner gave
in his extremely fruitful life was his course of "Speech and Drama" in September 1924.
Drama made big news in those days. Stanislawsky was at the peak of his Naturalistic
theatre revolution, German Expressionism was in full swing as its antithesis, and both
rebelled against what was still the mainstream of melodrama on the European stages.
Productions of Ibsen, Strindberg and Chechov were still considered adventures, and
Sarah Bernhardt and Leonora Duse could successfully compete with any politician for the
front pages of the press.

Into this dynamic cauldron Steiner wished to contribute another dimension. By the end
of 1924 he had been following the evolution of European theatre for a few decades,
contributing to it as a theatre critic, and in closed circles as a playwright, director and
producer. He observed how the Spirit of our Time (Zeitgeist was still a real term in those
days) revealed itself in the unfolding of deeper and deeper layers of human consciousness
through the rapid evolution of the theatre of his time: from the dead-end of the routine-
artificial melodrama of the 19th century, to the break-through of Naturalism, which in
turn became a dead end of a new sort, and on to the wild and sometimes chaotic struggle
of Expressionism between the two world wars. And he hoped for a new phase of this
evolution, for a new spiritual openness to be born out of that struggle. And yet it was only
towards the very end of his public life that he eventually made an attempt to establish a
new methodology for the art of acting and directing which approaches that ideal. Why
had he left it to the last moment?

Three years earlier, in a conversation with actors in 1921 he gave a hint. In reply to a
question about the possible connection between drama and Spiritual science, he stated
that drama, once inspired by Spiritual Science, will in time become a fore-runner, a
cutting edge in the development of the next step of human consciousness. That time had
apparently not yet come in 1924, when, reluctantly, he made his only systematic attempt

6
See lectures: The wisdom of Man", Berlin 1910 and "Psychoanalysis in the light of Anthroposophy"
Basel , 1917, both by Rudolf Steiner Press, London.
7
See lectures in: "Speech and Drama" Dornach September 1924, Rudolf Steiner Press, London.
97
in that direction. In lecture 8 of that course, prior to establishing the new approach to
acting as such, he stated that conditions are not yet ripe for the training for acting which
he had in mind. He went on giving whatever he could in this direction, a handful of
unusual indications for future research, knowing they would not be taken up in the
foreseeable future. Sadly, he was right.

What were these conditions which, at the beginning of this century were not yet ripe?
When I picked up this amazing manual for research and experimentation in England in
1982, it was a great enigma to me. It took me 5 years of research to start to understand it,
and here are my conclusions.

Two major conditions vital for the establishment of modern methodologies for human
development and that could serve in the emergence of the new phase of consciousness are
very ripe now
8
. One has to do with a fundamental attitude to individuality, adult
education, training and personal development; while the other one has to do with an
organic faculty of perception which was simply not there before.

The First Condition unique to the end of the 20's century
Many times during the above mentioned course of lectures on Speech and Drama Steiner
states and repeats: "The would-be actor has to be left absolutely free...we shall not
communicate these (the details of the training) in a dogmatic way as if they were rules,
but rather as suggestions"..."The actor is left free...he/she needs his
freedom"..."Everything the actor has to do must be done instinctively...much can become
instinctive for him". He was at great pains to address a potential for self development of
adults which requires for its unfolding a free exploration, creativity, artistic freedom and
trust in people's individuality which he hoped was in its infancy, as if that freedom was in
real danger of being trampled on even by his sympathetic and devout listeners.

It surely was in such a danger, as the following few decades demonstrated. Even during
the short time of his remaining life he soon had to realise that for most people freedom
and spiritual self-respect was but an embryo at that stage. His listeners could not
understand. Most of them were born in the hierarchy-ridden end of the 19th and early
20th centuries. Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao and McCarthy were still on their way to

8
For the reasons Steiner had shared in his above mentioned conversation with actors 1921 - drama was the
field in which that limit was reached at that time. For us today it could be used as one example
demonstrating a general human phenomenon.
98
dominate the history of this century, as well as a whole plethora of charismatic leaders in
the arts, sciences, economy and the spiritual movements of our times. People still
believed in external leaders, not in the inner leader, and they were only going to learn that
this time is over by first paying the price. He spoke to a generation which was not yet
born.

For Drama (and the same goes for any field of human culture) to fulfil its potential as a
path of personal, artistic and spiritual development - a change had to take place in a
direction for which there were no traditions. It requires a direct and insightful
relationship to the subjective depths of the human soul as to the raw material for
objective knowledge and guidance; it requires the practical application of the concept that
the echo of the Macrocosmic universe is inside us, reflected in its Microcosmic human
offspring.

That evolutionary change requires as a precondition the understanding that self-
knowledge is the beginning of all knowledge; that if we want to know the world - we
have to look into ourselves, as much as if we want to know ourselves - we have to look
into the world. It would require respecting our inner world as being real, much as we
respect our outer world to be real. According to Steiner no other approach would work.
In his lectures on "The True Nature of the Second Coming" (Stuttgart 1910) where he
predicts new faculties of perception unfolding from inside in this century, Steiner says:
"Whereas the World-Ego streamed into Moses from outside, is revealed from the
outside, in second millennium A.D. the same form of mighty revelations from within the
human being." No period in human evolution could be thus characterised as much as the
end of the 20th century. Six years later, Steiner sounded the following warning about this
century:

Thus we see that a conflict exists between the arising of freedom of thought
and the kind of authority which works over from the past into the present.
And there is a desire not to see clearly the intensity of this faith in authority,
to have illusions about it. For in our time faith in authority has grown
tremendously, and under its influence human beings have become helpless
in forming judgements. In the Greek-Roman period humanity was given a
healthy understanding as a natural gift; now it must achieve it by its own
development. In this it is held back by faith in authority. We have become
entirely tied up through our faith in authority
9
.

9
Dr. Rudolf Steiner. A lecture in Zurich in October 1916, titled "How can the psychological distress of our
time be overcome" in Spiritual Research: Methods & Results. Steiner books, New York, 1981.(p. 75).
99
What does it mean practically? I will give a major example, on which I will broadly
elaborate later. Steiner's main suggestion for the development of the dramatic gestures is
that the student should experiment with the single sounds of language and allow a
Feeling-response to emerge: sensations, feelings, reactions, imaginations will arise
naturally in response to the stimulus of the sounds, so he predicted. These responses,
when expressed through gesture and movement, will gain in time an objective quality
which will become a conscious expressive body language for the stage.

It is obvious that if the feeling response coming from inside is to be the starting point for
that artistic development - the training cannot be based on imitations and formations
coming from outside. Yet the traditions of teaching based on the authority of the teacher
prevailed so much at the beginning of this century that Steiner had to say in 1924:

Once again we can do no more at the moment than put forward a kind of
ideal for such a schooling, in so far as mime, gesture and so on are
concerned; for, conditions being as they are today, it can be only in the
rather distant future that students of Dramatic Art will be able to receive a
training that approaches it.
10


The Second Condition unique to the end of the 20's century
That leads us to the second condition which was not yet ripe some six decades ago. Its
nature is more subtle, and requires a deeper observation than the first. This is where
esoteric consideration needs to be incorporated into the cultural, scientific and historical
aspects.

A fundamental change seems to have gradually taken place in human faculties of
perception during the last few decades, although most of us are not yet conscious of it. It
is our ability to visualise concretely with an "inner-eye," realities which remain invisible
to our outer senses. I am not referring to clairvoyant faculties which, in the traditional
sense, are the results of years of intentional meditative development. I am referring here
to what nowadays amounts to a ordinary human faculty, within the reach of every
basically functioning human being around the globe. What was in the beginning of the
century within the reach of a specially developed few - is now in the possession of all of
us, although most of us are unaware of it.

10
Rudolf Steiner "Speech and Drama" lecture 8.
100

Open any alternative or even just open minded self-improvement section of magazines
and books of the last decade, and you will find under a variety of names numerous
methods for self development, healing and therapy based on visualisations: creative
visualisation, guided imagery, imagery based relaxation techniques, pictorial positive
affirmation, meditation, and many more. They capitalise on the emerging new faculties
of Imagination, with which more and more people are able to visualise (rather than to
fantasise) inner realities which are otherwise invisible to the outer eye. Even the main
stream Cognitive Behaviourism, the prevailing conservative school of thought in most of
the Psychology departments in western universities in the past few decades, has adopted
in recent years a whole range of techniques which are based on visualisation.

What is the cause and the basis for this development, or what does it signify? As early as
1908 Steiner predicted that as this century unfolds, people's Etheric or Life Bodies
11
will
become looser in their connection to the physical bodies, enabling the emergence of new
faculties of perception:

Whereas in the course of past ages and up to our own time the united
structure of our etheric and phsical bodies has always grown firmer, more
closely united inwardly, man is approaching a period in the future when the
etheric body gradually loosens itself again and becomes independent. The
way back is taken. There are people today who have a much looser etheric
body than others.
12


Now, some 60 years on, this process is happening in front of our eyes. In 10 years of
experimentation and practice of the form of Theatre, Counselling and Expression-
Therapy based on Steiner's dramatic course, namely Philophonetics-Arts and
Philophonetics-Counselling, in three continents with many hundreds of people from
dozens of countries and races - I found no exception to this rule: every human being is
capable of visualising inwardly, in a clear shapes and colours, every inner experience that
had ever happened to him/her. Shared experiences in groups are being visualised by the
individual members in pictures of which the common properties overrides the marginal

11
The etheric of Life Body is a term Steiner coined for the designation of that dimension of the human body
which exists not in space and in minerals but in time, rhythms, processes and formative dynamics. It is the
level of reality which distinguishes living organisms from dead objects, in common to the plant, animal and
the human kingdoms. The growing awareness of this dimension is one of the key elements of the present
phase of the evolution of human consciousness according to Steiner.
12
Steiner, "The Influence of Spiritual Beings upon Man", lecture 10, Berlin 1908, Rudolf Steiner Press,
Lond.

101
differences. That was apparently not possible two generations ago. Steiner saw it
coming, and gave in advance the seeds for a path of artistic, personal and spiritual
development based on this development and on the emerging new faculties of perception
which can grow on this basis. For instance, at the time of these lectures there was
apparently the need to demonstrate the shapes the sounds impressed by their energy on
their immediate environment when spoken aloud, because people could not perceive
them otherwise. So Steiner had to draw on the board what he perceived to be the outlines
of the inner impressions the sounds made on his sensibility, claiming it had an objective
value. His listeners could not verify this for themselves at that point.

Starting in the mid 80's, I have not met a person who cannot, within a few minutes of
experimenting with the sounds, find for oneself the very shapes which in 1924 had to be
drawn by the clairvoyant teacher on the board! A new faculty is within us now, and
methods of teaching which exclude it from their methodology are making themselves
irrelevant for the future.

Coming back to the first missing condition, (relating to the student / client as a source of
knowledge and self-guidance), it becomes clear why it took all these years for that
attitude to start to change: as people learn to trust their own perceptions, as they grow to
become aware of the potential for objective knowledge which lie hidden in their very
subjective experience - they become free from dependency on outer authority. They can
then lead themselves, explore and develop out of their own inner resources, artistically,
personally and spiritually.

All that does not mean there is no need for teachers, only the nature of their role must go
through a transformation: from being givers and instructors of knowledge and of skills -
they become midwives of new faculties of perception, with which the students then guide
themselves in their own way. The human spirit itself does not need to be instructed. It
carries its guidance within itself. What it does need is an encouraging educational
processes by which its content can be revealed and made conscious; it needs, above all, to
be listened to and to be allowed expression on its way.

And it seems as if never before has there been so much inner content in people, which
demands such a listening, a content which inevitably follow the emergence of the new
102
faculties of perception. For these faculties are by now well and truly within us, and at
this point I would like to testify their existence from my own personal observation.

I have observed perceptive faculties evolving in my life time, both in myself and in
others. I saw them growing. Moreover, I found that most people are able to perceive
much more than they are able to admit to themselves as reality! And gradually it became
my private passion, as well as my profession: to show people the unsuspected objective
reality within their subjective perceptions, first in themselves, and then in others.

I found that every human being of goodwill I worked with were, after a short warming up
and relaxing, was able to create clear and concrete inner pictures of inner experiences,
covering the whole range of human experience, to express these pictures through gesture,
movement, words and sounds, and to be universally understood! I found that people
these days can inwardly see the otherwise invisible patterns governing, controlling and
influencing their inner life, and by seeing them - to set themselves free of the compulsion
of these patterns.

This had a great appeal to me. For if we can see ourselves - we can be free. If we can
observe ourselves with inner perspective - we can also observe what is blocking us from
seeing others. For the blocks are inside before they are outside, and so are the demons
and the angels. It takes one to see one, and I knew that seeing ourselves - we cannot be
controlled. Know the truth and the truth shall make you free became a concrete
psychological methodology.

And so I became a drama therapist, transforming Steiner's methodology for the
development of acting skills for the theatre - into a methodology of self-awareness, self
management and transformation. Dram for personal use, as a cutting edge for the
evolution of budding new faculties of inner perception became for me a reality. And
since it was my experimentation with the psychosomatic effects of the sounds of human
speech which made the breakthrough for my personal and professional development, I
called this method: Philophonetics-Love of Sounds.

Philophonetics was born out of the confluence of three major strivings in my life: a) the
striving to find a concrete way of transforming myself; b) the striving to shift the focus of
the study of the human being from the theoretical teachings of lectures and books into a
103
direct observation of the inner dynamics of one's own being; c) the striving to bring into
practical research the seeds of Steiner's approach to drama and to make available its
enormous educational and artistic potential. The research which leads to the formation of
Philophonetics took me through four countries, a whole decade, seven tertiary Education
centres, hundreds of experimental workshops and three major year-long sound-movement
laboratories with research colleagues. We always started from what we knew, felt,
sensed, visualised. It has been and still is a purely phenomenological research. The
hypothesis from 1924 was put to the test. Here is a summary of our main findings.

In the sound-movement laboratories we discovered a universal foundation for the human
experience of the sounds of speech, the phonemes. We found that the sounds can become
very specific Sensations, distinct perceptions of the Sense of Sound (which Steiner
pointed to in Psychosophy), as distinct as the taste of lemon is for the sense of taste and
fire for the sense of warmth. Direct and unmistakable sensation was the solid starting
point of every experiment. Soon after that we discovered other aspects of that sensitivity:
typical Feelings have arisen in us in response to the sound-sensing and typical Reactions
followed. Then we found ourselves Beholding similar pictures and patterns of movement
in our activated visualisation in response to the sensing of the sounds. Typical shapes
and movements impressed by each sound on our inner retina appeared repeatedly,
common to all the participants, such as more than six decades ago Steiner had to draw on
the board for his audience in 1924. We could see them for ourselves, and I never met
anyone who could see them since. Then, in Speaking the sounds for ourselves, we
discovered what a typical gesture and experience every sound is drawing for us, to what
aspect of ourselves each intonation of each sound is giving an expression. And lastly we
discovered the layers of inner dynamics leading to act of speech: the Urging, the Emoting
and the Intending which lead to every human utterance. The Sound-Language started to
cover the whole gamut of our psyche, giving every nuance of it a direct, precise,
conscious expression.

These eight underlined aspects of sound experiences became the main elements of
Philophonetics. They became a fundamental scale on which every Inner-Melody could
be played. When spoken in the Effective style K might hit you like a wedge or an axe in
the Sensing phase; it might call for an instinctive retreat and defence in the Reactive
phase; it might create a surprising Feeling of awakening as an after echo; when you
Speak it you might find yourself controlling your surroundings like a King, but when you
104
block the speaking at its urging phase you might find yourself stucK in an unbearable
rage. These are five out of forty eight basic experiences associated with K alone.

We work with some basic 35 sounds (the Hebrew and the German ones included), each
of which can be spoken in distinct six different intonations, each of which could be
experienced differently through the above eight aspects of the sound-perception. It
makes for some 1680 basic individual sound experiences, consciously arrived at, and
repeatable at a choice. The commonality of the experiences between individuals, once it
will be recorded properly, could become the basis for a new science of Psychophonetics,
for which Philophonetics could serve as a fore-runner. When considering the endless
possible combinations of these sound experiences, one starts to realise just how potent
Steiner's approach to linguistics is: it could become a breakthrough in understanding the
universality of all human languages.
13


Each one of the above sound experiences, when expressed in a bodily gesture becomes a
particular character, reflecting and shaping a particular aspect of one's psyche. Between
them they can portray every aspect of human experience, make it conscious, make it
accessible for cultivation and refinement, enhancing, dissolving, recycling and
transforming, as the case might be. Every level, phase and dimension of human
experience can be addressed by the sound-experiences, a phenomenon which, in the
beginning of all languages, gave rise to human words, according to Rudolf Steiner.

For the time being it works under the name of Philophonetics as a very effective tool for
personal development, Psychosophical transformation, counselling, artistic therapy and
training for acting and for stage directing. In human development it makes some
fundamental claims which it is able to fulfil systematically. To summarise the foregoing,
they could be described as follows:

a) We can know- through the following activities, every aspect of ourselves in direct
observation: We can sense, gesture, visualise and find the corresponding sound - for
every aspect t of our experience which touches our consciousness.


13
For more details see the chapter called "Univeral Sound" in the "Words of Power" by Brian and Esther
Crowley, Llewellyn Publications, Minesota- first international publication about Philophonetics.
105
b) Everyone is as strong as the blows one received- meaning that with this method the
strength of what we suffered or are suffering from can become our strength, the inner
blocks can be recycled into building-blocks. We can do this by learning to play the part
of the force or influence which hurt or damaged us, finding its Sound-Essence and turn it
into our own use.

c) Everyone is as rich as the qualities one misses- meaning that inside the experience of
want, of lack, of deprivation and of yearning for any human quality - there lies the
potential source for the abundance of the same. Through Philophonetics that source can
be discovered, accessed and tapped.

A survey of my private practice of the past six years shows that the main issues treated
effectively so far with Philophonetics includes: recovering from scars from early abuse,
parental disapproval, coldness and deprivation; overcoming cravings (food, sweets,
smoking, soft drugs, attention, sex, money, security) by connecting to the deeper needs
behind them; recovery from post-natal fear, anxiety, trepidation; transforming guilt and
blame; overcoming exhaustion, and improving immune deficiency condition such as
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and M.E; releasing internalised aggression; overcoming outer
authority; asserting one's will and autonomy; overcoming and transforming physical,
emotional and intellectual blocks; changing body-image; overcoming shyness,
nervousness, fear of public speaking; tapping inner resources for warmth, spontaneity,
sensitivity, sensuousness and love, both for men and for women; re-orientating oneself
through inner and outer confusion; establishing processes for decision making and choice
of direction; overcoming attachment, jealousy, dependency, aggression and other
destructive patterns in relationships; establishing a lasting connection to the child within,
in whatever inner layer of ourselves we left him/her, learning to listen to its needs and to
consciously parent and care for it/them; discovering and re-connecting the woman within,
the un-damaged man within; dissolving emotionally based bodily tensions and pains;
developing strategies for handling pain-period pain, headache, migraine, RSI; physical
injuries; unlocking un-tapped potentials and creativity; restoring lost memory;
consolidating the sense of self, its inner guidance and certainty.

These are the areas covered so far by this Anthroposophical research. From 1991 I started
to be referred to by medical doctors who perceived the potential of Philophonetics for
addressing the psychosomatic dimension of what ailed their patients. This practice and
106
the range of physical complaints which are being addressed by the method is constantly
growing. It is however, only one example of the new jars for new wine, out of the many
which are on their way and of the many that are already with us. May it be of
encouragement for more of them to come.
107

Philophonetics and universal sound
On the universal foundation of all human languages

Tagar, Y. (1986). Philophonetics and universal sound: On the universal foundation of all human
languages.

The universal foundation of all human languages and the way in which the method called
Philophonetics can contribute towards the experience of it. My intention in this article is
to show how in different languages elements can be found which emphasise the
differences between them, alongside elements which emphasise that which could bridge
these differences. I will further attempt to show how, from the background called
Philophonetics, a workshop can be formed in which the skill of bridging the basic human
experience which lies behind any given two languages can be developed.

So much of what appears to separate nations, cultures and ethnic groups from each other
and emphasises their differences, seems to have its roots in and expresses itself through
the differences between their languages. Differences of tradition, mentality, world view
and attitudes, express themselves well through the differences between the structures of
various languages, their grammar, accent, choice of point of view on an object, choices of
sound, rhythms, intonations, accentuation, of different vowels and consonants, the
relationship to time and space, the possessive case, logic, pictures, emotions and so on. In
the expression of human experiences occurring so differently in different languages,
unbridgeable walls seem to have been erected between the different branches of the
Family of Man. Even when one learns another nations language, this does not guarantee
that one penetrates that barrier, though this can definitely make the first step. In many
cases enemies do have knowledge of the other sides language, knowledge which does
not lead to further understanding at all. In order to turn the learning of a language as a
finished product of a long cultural development into an understanding of that culture from
the inside, something else has to be added, either living with the people of that culture for
a long time or connecting to the process which led to the forming of their language.

What does it mean, connecting to that process? To answer this question we shall have to
first concentrate on those elements which lie in the foundation of all languages. All the
108
babies around the whole globe, in all the different races and cultures, all babble in the
same way. It is as though, on the way to learning the speaking of their specific language,
they naturally have to go through the stage of what may be called universal language. It is
a universal language, for babbling consists of that which is universal for all languages,
namely, consonants and vowels. We are normally aware of these only in their capacity to
form words, in endless possibilities. For babies however, these curious groups of single
sounds seem to hold a value of their own. They taste them, experiment with them and
express much of their inner experiences through the sounds themselves. To the renewal
of this intimate relationship with the single sounds of language do the various exercises
of Philophonetics attempt to bring us once again, only now in a way suitable for adults.
We shall come back to this later on.

So in the babbling of babies we are, in a way, back in what was left of that primal
language which, according to the Bible, prevailed amongst human beings before the
destruction of the Tower of Babylon. (The word babbling seems to be the transformation
into a verb of the ancient Hebrew biblical Babel, which later became Babylon, where
according to tradition, the Tower of Babylon was built. The word Babel is a derivative
from the Hebrew word Ballal, which means to mix, confuse, confound).

An old wisdom, contained within this myth, attributes the origin of the various human
languages to one primordial universal language which once existed. If it be true that the
growing embryo, baby and child repeats in his/her development all of the previous stages
mankind has gone through in its evolution, then babbling maybe understood as a
retracing of a previous stage of human language. Only later in their development do
babies relate names to objects, in their particular mother tongue. The same object would
have another name in another language. The time of Babylon is here reiterated, re-
experienced, in the life of each individual. In Babylon, according to the myth, with the
strength of unity their common language gave them, the members of the then united
family of man resolved to build a tower high enough to reach the heavens. God, in his/her
attempt to prevent that untimely ascent of unripe humanity to the heights, made their task
impossible by weakening their unity. The one common language was divided into the
many tongues of the various folks and they were scattered around the earth, now unable
to understand each others speech.

109
The baby who begins to name things in his/her specific mother tongue becomes part of
that divided civilisation. He/she thus unconsciously descends into the particular point of
view on reality that this particular language gives him/her. In future, in order to
understand his/her fellow human beings, who were born at the same time, across the
cultural borders, a very conscious effort will have to be made to ascend again to a
common ground, from which the other point of view can be understood. Only at a later
stage of the childs development do single words start to be combined, that separate
names of things are put into sentences and later the child learns to express his/her
particular relationship to these things.

Grammatical structures, instinctively and through imitation, become parts of his/her
budding mental process and so moves from naming into speaking. Gradually his/her
own individual language is developed. The consciousness of the single sounds has
disappeared into consciousness of the single words, then the consciousness of the wonder
of the single words gradually disappears in the forming of the personal expression, in
sentences. The consciousness of the personal experience continues to grow. The universal
language, shared by all babies which gave rise to the particular mother tongue,
completely disappears.

So we can follow the human being as he/she journeys in their development in language
from the universal sphere, through that of their native culture, into the sphere of their own
individual expression. The further development of the personal expression in language
leads not only to a loss of a universal understanding between cultures, but also to a partial
loss of communication between individuals of the same culture. That phenomenon
became painfully conscious in the West towards the middle of this century, where it was
termed alienation.

Comparing the poetry of ancient cultures with the poetry of the twentieth century can
sharply illustrate this evolution. In reading for instance, the Illiad of Homer, pictures
come flowing into ones imagination, nearly ready-made. There is no need to understand
Homers situation personally in order to understand his poetry, for he does not speak
about himself at all. According to his own invocation in the opening words of the Illiad, it
is the Muse, a heavenly being, who speaks through him when he is inspired, the common
heritage of the story of his ancestors.

110
In comparison, there is nothing ready-made in T.S. Eliots poetic work The Waste-
land. The Muse speaks not through him, but he himself, T.S. Eliot the man, speaks. No
universal pictures will be revealed to the reader, unless through his/her individual effort
he/she enters and understands T.S. Eliots individual, one-time experience. Then
however, having entered into the poets individual experience, the world may reveal itself
to the reader in an unique way. So, we gained individual language at the expense of the
universal and even the social ability to communicate.

Is there a way to reverse that process? Im afraid not, for that process is right, inevitable
and full of meaning. Human evolution goes forward and the fruits of one epoch turn in
time into the seeds of another. The development of individual language is an enormous
achievement of humanity. There is no need to reverse it in order to regain mutual, social
and universal understanding, but to take a step further. I suggest that one aspect of this
next step consists of the conscious penetration into the way in which our inner content
finds its expression, in words. From this, a new understanding of ones own language
may arise. This can further lead to a next step that can then be achieved, through
awakening to the way in which particular combinations of sounds enable words to be
bearers of meaning for a particular experience; a new understanding of the universal
character of the single sounds of language. In this new understanding the lost universal
language, last experienced through babbling, may echo.

Take for instance the word tree. In English, we normally take it for granted that it
designates those tall, branchy things standing around, as though it were just a common
agreement to designate them in this way. But truly, it is more than just a common
agreement. A very particular experience and picture lives in the form of this word. The
form is not arbitrarily made up. It arises naturally from a particular way of observing that
which we call in English, a tree. The word can be explored, just like as a work of art. A
lot will be found through such an exploration. It may reveal for instance, the way in
which that phenomenon is looked at in the English language which is very different to the
way in which the German language looks at the same object. The German experience of
that phenomenon needs another form for its expression: it uses the form Baum for it.

Yet another level of exploration waits behind the study of the single sounds of that word
and their particular significance. The sound T is an expression of a range of very
specific experiences. One has to experiment with the sound T in the ways
111
Philophonetics provides in order to become conscious of it: one has to sense it, feel it, act
it and play with it. The sound T will then be able to reveal its various characteristics. It
will appear to be pointy, tight, penetrating, tough, strong, ticklish. It will make sense then
why a word like tree starts with T, while a word like post ends with it. The first starts
from its strong grip in the ground and ends in its free movement in the air above,
expressed by the R of tree; the second comes into the ground from above, gets stuck in
the ground, where it stays at rest. Likewise, in Hebrew, to take a language whose source
is very far from English, the word for cutting a tree is Karat- the tree whirls in the air
before it falls to the ground, where it stays at rest. On the other hand, the word for
blowing a trumpet in Hebrew Truah- the air is accumulated, static, in the lungs before it
bursts into the mouthpiece of the trumpet where, in its channelled release, it creates a
sound. The reasons for the choice and positioning of T in these words are the same in
both languages. They will be found, in relation to T in any other languages as well.
There are characteristic cultural reasons for the differences between words chosen to
name the same phenomena in different languages. Beyond these cultural differences,
there lies the universal human experience of the single sounds and the choice of a
particular sound for the expression of a particular experience, is universal in its nature. It
would take more than this essay to substantiate this statement scientifically but everyone
can play and experiment with the sounds. Single sounds are being experienced in a
similar way by different cultures not because of an international agreement about it, but
because these sounds, by their very nature, embody and express personal experiences of
each individual. They are woven into our very nature, as these sounds and our nature,
beyond all our differences, is an universal human one, just as our basic human shape is
also universal in its nature, beyond our racial colours and beyond our personal
physiognomies.

So, in short, what am trying to illustrate by the foregoing is the following: what we
express through a particular combination of words, in a sentence, is an individual
experience; what is expressed through the choice of a word in naming a particular
phenomena in a certain language expresses the experience which that language (and the
culture behind it) has of that particular phenomenon; what is expressed through the
connection between particular consonants and vowels and basic human experiences- is
the universal- human nature, common to all human beings just as is the physical shape.

112
Therefore, a natural process of journeying from the universal language through a
particular cultural language to an individual one, can at least in theory, be accomplished
by a conscious process of growing through the individual language. This can be achieved
through a deeper understanding of ones own cultures language, into an understanding of
the universal foundation of all languages, namely the experience behind the single
sounds- the consonants and vowels. Let us put it in a diagram.



(1) (5)
universal language re-awakening to universal
BABBLING language through the
single sounds.


(2) (4)
a particular cultures re-awakening to the form
language- NAMING of words- the wisdom of
ones own particular
language.



(3)
Individual language
SPEAKING


Natural development Conscious development

Here we have an outline of a process leading to the re- awakening to that which is
common to all languages, peoples and individuals, starting from that which is unique and
different in them. If such a process could be taken up practically and seriously, a new
dimension of communication- through differences- between groups and individuals could
open up, supported by the means of the potent elements of language, the honest efforts of
those who struggle to forge human communication, as a way of overcoming conflicts.

113
I suggest that out of that method of expressing language here called Philophonetics, a
special variety of workshops can be developed with the aim of making the above theory
applicable, for practical experience.

Philophonetics is a method of working with the elements of language, primarily
consonants and vowels, which attempts to re- awaken and develop the personal
sensitivity to the sounds. Through this method the inner experience of the single sounds
reveals their profound significance for the soul- life, which is usually left unconscious.
The experience of the sounds, once discovered, can then grow into an insight into the way
in which words are formed. Words which were previously used unconsciously start to
reveal an inherent richness of meaning and artistry underlying any human language. This
method came into being out of my research into and experiments with, Rudolf Steiners
indications for a new approach to Speech development and Drama, which he gave in
September, 1924.

Let us now imagine a form for such a workshop, designed with the intention of increasing
the understanding between different groups, through a deeper experience of their
languages. Suppose we have in one group, Aboriginal people and people of
English/Asiatic origin- in Australia; Zulu and English/Africaans speaking people in South
Africa; Hebrew and Arabic speaking people in Israel; Turkish and Slavic speaking people
in Bulgaria; or on the global scene, Russians and Americans in any opportunity of
meeting. They share the land but not an understanding of the way the other experiences it.
They wish to understand each other better. Of course, the wish must be there. It cannot be
forced. The wish and the faith have to become practical experiences of understanding in
order to become a reality of meeting.

Whatever the two languages involved, two words, one from each, can be chosen,
designating the same natural or human phenomena. Then all the sounds contained in
these two words can be experimented with as single sounds, in the ways that
Philophonetics provides. The experiences of the single sounds will be simply human,
personal and universal at the same time: Sensing the sounds, listening to their echo in
your body and in your soul; expressing your experience in gesture and movement; trying
to behave as the sound does in space; trying to enact the process of producing it. You
speak and listen to it and so on. All the while, you share your experiences with your
114
friends, who do the same process. A common experience of sound, in an experiential,
rather than intellectual atmosphere, prevails in the space between you.

Then, from the abundance of these experiences, you start together to re- create the
combination of these sounds into the two different words, of the two languages, from
which you started. But now you dont simply understand these combinations of sounds to
point to the same phenomena intellectually as a dictionary shows. Now, having
experienced the depth of personal- and at the same time, universal- meaning of each
sound, the word will reveal a surprising richness through its very structure: not only what
it means will be shown, but also how it means it, what is the point of view on that
phenomenon taken by each language and why. By coming to the different words again
from the now established background of the shared experiences of their single sounds, the
differences between the two words are profoundly understood, from the inside. Then it
may dawn on you that the two words are not substitutes of each other, in the designation
of the same object, but rather two different aspects of the same, shedding their light on
each other and enriching the experience of that object.

From this experience, it may dawn on the participants, natives of different cultures, that
the same maybe the case with the rest of the differences between their cultures. What was
perceived to be a conflict of differences may be seen in this light as a mutual enrichment,
which any profound diversity may become once understood. I have tried to describe, in
this form, the potential which Philophonetics, as a way of working with the sounds of
language, has for the deepening of understanding between different cultures.

Philophonetics has its origin in a world view in which the right direction of development
for human civilisation is that of a growing universal understanding and shared
responsibility between nations and cultures, cultivated through the free striving of
individuals. May this work do good service for that development and may it reach to
those who are able to make good use of it.





115
The Self as an evolutionary process

Tagar, Y. (1991). The Self as an evolutionary process. An essay. In Psychophonetics: A collection of
articles (2009). Australian branch: Psychophonetics Association (IAPP) (pp 82-84)


Right in the midst of everyone's vocabulary there is an unique word, in every human
language, distinguished from all the others by the fact that no two people can use it
referring to the same thing: the word "I am". Rudolf Steiner in his book "Theosophy",
when outlining the basis for Anthroposophic psychology, (*the first post Freudian
Transpersonal Psychology work to be published in this century, 1904) shows that all
other words point to elements of reality which appear to us either from outside as objects,
or from the inside as subjects. Using these words we name those elements for ourselves
or for others, meaning the same thing by the same word. With "I Am" one can only name
oneself, singly. For I am is not a name of a thing, objective or subjective. I Am is the
name of the namer of the one that is pointing to reality, the witness, the being beyond
any of its contents. When I first became aware of that kernel of my being, not as a
reflection of myself coming from the reality which I perceived, but as the source of my
very awareness, sometime around the age of twenty, I wrote: I am a point of light
travelling in the darkness, and my traces are named after me.

That I Am is the kernel of individual identity, under any other name. It cannot really
have another name, for it is a permanent dynamic. Through the scale of human
development, such as I will survey in this article, in the light of the thinkers included
here, going through an archetypal pattern of an ascending sequence, it is that reality of the
I Am which is the unifying element. It unites with ever changing garments of
identifications in different periods of its life on earth, shedding them away in order to
wear others, and goes on, a kernel of identity: I Am. In this article I will use the self
as that which the I Am is identified with at any given time.

Frances Vaughan (1986) in her book The Inward Arc, based her work largely on the
writing of Ken Wilber, outlining the stages of the evolving human identity starting from
infancy, when the identity is based on the immediate outer world. The self at that stage is
identified with the body and its needs. What one does is what one is, and philosophically
that is the prevalent image of the human being in Behaviorism, although as technique it is
applicable to all ages. Later on one develops emotional needs as well, with which one is
116
completely identified. According to Psychoanalysis that fundamental identity is the
driving force for the rest of human life, with the emotional self as the foundation of the
psychological dynamic.

From the verbal age onward, alongside the development of language and intellect one
calls oneself I Am and becomes an ego. The ego is no longer one with the body. Their
separation is inevitable, but health depends upon their integration on another level. (This
developmental principle of identification, differentiation and integration is, according to
Vaughan, natural to all the stages of selfhood.) The I Am becomes an ego-self, or/and
mental self. According to Freud the healthy ego-self is the goal. According to
Humanistic, Existential and Transpersonal Psychologies it is but an intermediate stage in
healthy human development. Ken Wilber, in his book No Boundary, says that ego is
what we think we are, not what we are. The ego is a concept of the self, not its essence.

That is the first parting of the ways between traditional psychology and also Behaviorism
on the one hand, and the formerly mentioned three with the regard to the self as a reality.
The ego-self alone is no self, but the sum-up of one's conscious content on the one hand,
and the facade one shows the world on the other. This is the Psychoanalytical ego. It is
real, but the I Am inside it constantly suspects that it is not. It naturally wants to know
who it "really" is.
The only way to do it is to confront the ego-self, to go beyond fear, loneliness and
emptiness into a more inward, genuine, autonomous identity of the self. On this all the
Humanists, Existentialists and Transpersonal Psychologists will agree, although they
might have different ways of doing it. J ung does it by confronting one's shadow; Gestalt
by acting out and owning the reaction in one's periphery; Roger's in Person-Centred
Therapy by expanding the sphere of one's awareness of oneself; Psychosynthesis by
integrating one's sub-personalities. One confronts the ego-self, dis-identifies from it,
differentiate its elements, by viewing them from another viewpoint, for a later integration.
That other point of view becomes a new centre of identification for the I am: the
Existential-self.

At the age of 14-17 years I was an existentialist. The I Am was no longer satisfied with
its identification with the social persona, nor with any attachment to a ready-made belief
system. I did all I could to get rid of the persistent social awareness which I regarded as a
tyrant, to distinguish myself, to be me, to be true to myself; to dive beneath and to fly
117
above the conventional self: ~into the sensuality, the spirituality, the isolation, the
rebellion. I knew I was somewhere there, but I could not find it. What I found is an
isolated, melancholic, hedonistic, pessimistic self which did not grant me peace, but was
infinitely better than what I was before-at least it was my story.

According to Vaughan (1986) & Wilber (1981) it cannot be found in a group, but alone.
It is post-conventional, genuine, isolated sad self. It is identified with its inner content
which is admittedly transitory, and therefore its inevitable destiny is death. It is true to
itself, but hopeless. It is the philosopher of meaninglessness. If it cannot go back, it must
go forward, but where?

According to Wilber (1981), having gone through the death of the existential self, one
then starts to be organised by another formative element which was previously
unavailable to oneself: the Self. The Self is the inevitable next step from the isolated
existential self which has to be transcended if the self is to go on growing and unfolding.
If the self is to survive without its identification with its isolated content, the self needs to
identify with the reality of being a context, formed by a higher principle. That higher
principle is the Self. It was always there, clouded, unknown, beyond reach, believed or
disbelieved. Now it is to be directly known, or one is to be inwardly dying.

How this is step going to be made must, I am convinced, be a no-recipe personal formula.
Vaughan (1986) speaks about becoming aware of inter-relationships to one's
environment, of consciousness becoming aware of itself beyond its content, of moments
of intuitive consciousness leading the way. Wilber speaks about going through suffering
into its meaning as the breakthrough; while J ung (1968) speaks about integrating the
conscious and the unconscious selves as the synthesis paving the way to the organising
influence of the Self. I think they might all work, but at the end of the day is a personal
crossing of a personal threshold, such that no one has made before, for which, at the
crucial moment, there are no models.

I remember the first moment at the age of 18 when the direct sense of my own Higher
Self dawned on me. I remember the place, the time of day, the thought process. I
realised all of a sudden (following no doubt months of inner struggle), that I can only be
truly and constantly my own self by establishing my direct personal inner connection to
that which is the source of me, beyond, above and inside me. It was as if my own being,
118
completely new and yet intimately familiar, has descended upon my head. It came with
peace and with certainty which does not depend on any assurance. I never lost it since.

I never lost it since, but at times, as life got tough, it became clouded or I became cut off
from it, from me. I died many times since, but my inner being, inwardly connected to the
being of the rest of the universe rescued me from complete identification with the me
that was dying. It came back when I really called for it. I came, the real me. In one of
these last moment rescues, when I had to make the choice between facing my suffering or
running away from it, a choice which saved my inner life, I wrote: "And to live, facing
the anguish of my dying, rather than to die running away from it". I chose to face it, and
therefore created the necessary conditions for a re-connecting to my higher Self.

I therefore agree with Ken Wilber (1981) who writes that: "Suffering is the first grace"
and that "the best way to live suffering correctly is to live beyond it...to go beyond it in
freedom". I also agree with him that the Self is a sheer opening to what there is, to
inevitable universal reality. I agree from my own experience, with Frances Vaughan and
also with Roberto Assagioli (Psychosynthesis), that identification with the Self means
identification with the highest universal quality of unity, love, acceptance and wisdom. I
fully endorse Peter O'Connor's (1988) quotation of TS Eliot from The Four Quartets, in
describing J ung's attitude to the Self as: "and the end of all our exploring / Will be to
arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time". J ung (1966) described it
as the Self is the context, the foundation and the goal of our evolution, the centre of the
psyche and its circumference, both an individual and a universal identity.

But I also know that we fall from grace even after we find it, that it can be lost and found
and lost and found again. And I know that there is one thread which is going right
through the falling and the ascending, and through all the previous and the following
stages of my being, and of everybody else, as absolutely inevitable everyday experience
of the mysterious I Am which will not alter in heaven, earth and hell: I am a point of
light travelling in the darkness, and my traces are named after me. But she always goes
beyond them.


References (in order of mention)

119
Steiner, Rudolf (1988) Theosophy. Anthroposophic Press, New York
Vaughan, Frances (1986) The Inward Arc: Healing and wholeness in psychotherapy and
spirituality. Shambala, Boston
Wilber, Ken (1981) No Boundary: Eastern and Western approaches to personal growth.
Shambala, Boulder, Colorado
J ung, Carl (1968) Psychology and alchemy: Collected Works. Prinston University Press
Assagioli, Roberto (1976) Psychosynthesis: A Collection of Basic Writings. Penguin Books
Eliot, T.S (1980) Four Quartets, 'Little Gidding', from Collected Poems 1909-1962. Faber &
Faber, London
O'Connor, Peter (1988). Understanding Jung-understanding yourself. Methuan Australia,
Richmond, Vic.
J ung, Carl (1966) Two Essays on Analytical Psychology: Collected Works. Prinston University
Press

120
Humanising the workplace with the 4-fold bottom-line
A picture of sustainable and accountable economic development, based on Rudolf
Steiners 3-fold social order and the seven conditions for sustainable human development

Tagar, Y. (2003). Humanising the workplace with the 4-fold bottom-line. In Psychophonetics: A
collection of articles (2009). Australian branch: Psychophonetics Association (IAPP)

Introduction
In this foundation paper I wish to place in front of you the possibility of establishing a 4-
fold approach to the evaluation of the viability, sustainability and accountability of all
economic and organisational activities, placing them in the context of their actual
contribution to human evolution of consciousness and culture as a whole. I wish to place
it in historic as well as in contemporary context and in relation to Rudolf Steiners social
theory, and to substantiate its potential practicability on the basis of the organisational
developmental work grounded in the 7 Conditions for sustainable spiritual development.

Economy was supposed to be the sphere of brotherhood/sisterhood. Of the three great
ideals of the French Revolution which still form the pillars of the rhetoric, if not the
actuality of the so-called Free World, Liberte, Equalite, Fraterinte, the third sphere is
the most abused, distorted, and stood on its head. Free Market came to symbolise the
very opposite of the term freedom, as fewer and fewer Royal plutocratic families
control greater and greater shares of Earth and human resources for their own narrow
interests; as the gap between rich and poor nations, communities and individuals, based
on such Free Market economy has never been greater; as the shackles of generations of
war and exploitation manipulated by the same ever more global economy prevents
generation after generation of children to be brought up in the same deprivation of
education, health, nutrition and vocational opportunities that sealed the fate of their
parents; as the Earth dwindling resources, humanitys capital, is being mismanaged by an
overwhelming majority of governments who have sold the trust of their people to the
corporations that control their decision making. There is no doubt in my mind that future
generations will view this so-called Free Market Economy and its Labour Market
inevitable component with the same collective shame is we now view the time honoured
traditions of the slave trade, the women trade, fascism and apartheid.

In this paper I wish to lay a conceptual framework, based on Rudolf Steiners
Anthroposophy, for what could be a human modern social order, in light of which to
121
analyse and evaluate present chronic distortions of our present social order. I will observe
recent trends of new, balancing emerging social awareness as expressions of the spirit of
our time and what I believe are the major preparations for that emergence. The argument
will lead to a proposed new approach to the evaluation of the viability, cost and benefit of
all economic activities which I term: The 4-Fold Bottom Line, and to the 7 Conditions
of Spiritual Development based on Rudolf Steiner teaching as a fundamental group of
standards of sustainable human activities, which could form the foundation for making
the 4-Fold Bottom Line a practicable reality for organisations, work places, business and
communities.

Rudolf Steiners vision of the 3-fold social order of humanized society
Each of the above three spheres of human civilization was always bound to become one
sided without the mutual balancing effect of the two others. Only standing together, with
mutual independence from each other, can these three pillars support the house of a
community that is to be a home for balanced human development. Having lived through
the horrors of, in his view, the preventable First World War, and having the insight to
predict that greater horrors are in store in near future if current trends are not reviewed,
the Austrian philosopher and founder of the Anthroposophical Movement, Dr Rudolf
Steiner (1861-1925) created his vision of what he called The Three-Fold Social Order.
He offered it as an alternative option to European policy makers at the end of the 1
st
Wold
War, as they were disastrously shaping the face of the New Europe of that time, based
on another American based New World Order, the Wilsonian vision that created the
conditions for the Second World War. Rudolf Steiner proposed a new social contract that
will based the new social order on the following three pillars:

1. Cultural sphere: Concerns cultural, spiritual, scientific, artistic, educational,
judicial and health - This is the sphere of Freedom, where the leading principals
are freedom of thought, expression and creativity, merit, competence, expertise
and the freeing of able people to serve the community according to their gifts,
talents, knowledge and professional training.

2. Social/political sphere: Concerns of human, civil and community rights, the
safeguarding of equality, fairness and equal opportunities - This is the sphere
of equality of all people, where the leading principals are equal political
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representation, freedom of organization, participatory democracy and the law as a
social contract of those who are subjects to it.

3. Economic sphere: Concerns material, the production, distribution and
purchase of goods and services (other than those of the above two spheres) -
This is the sphere of Brotherhood/sisterhood, where the exchange of mutual gifts
and needs creates the fabric of human economy through the distribution of labour
and the system that makes these exchanges sustainable. The leading principal here
is to be contracts, initiative, innovation, creativity and competence.

The last of the three was indeed intended to become the true Free Economy. But in the
absence of any recognition of the first sphere of the future social organism, the cultural,
spiritual sphere the free economy became a caricature of freedom. Indeed it became a
monster cannibalising its own very foundation. For human economy was never supposed
to be a purpose of its own. The exchange of needs and provision, like the fundamental
functions of the human physical organism, cannot provide a purpose out of itself. Indeed,
the very notion of purpose altogether is a spiritual one. As the bodily functions are
designed to serve the development of the living, conscious, free human soul in
relationship to other people in a community, so is the economic sphere of activity
fundamentally designed to serve the needs of the living, growing soul of the community,
its culture and its awareness.

The new dictatorship of the economic sphere: From two-fold to one-fold distortion
The greatest tragedy of the western style post-war social order, dominated as it has been
by the unfettered materialism of the American based multinational corporations, is the
absence of recognition for the Cultural Sphere, the sphere of human freedom, as equal in
important to the two other spheres: the economic and the political. In the absence of the
secure space for the Cultural Sphere of human society all human concerns continuously
swing between the one sided domination of the political or the economic spheres of
activity, what became known as the Right versus Left leaning regimes, small-government
versus big-government regimes, etc. The bulk of post war superpowers history of the 20s
Century was dominated by these swings, like a house standing on two, rather than three
pillars.

123
At the close of the 20
th
Century and pronouncedly at the dawn of the 21
st
Century the
situation is progressively becoming worst: the economic sphere which for a century was
sharing power with the political one, is taking over completely. No longer swinging
between political and business concerns, the political system itself everywhere is
progressively rightful context of t coming under the domination of the economical,
financial sphere of interest, concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. We are becoming
progressively a dictatorship of the dominating economic consortiums of this world, with a
shrinking space left for any other consideration.

A major example of this distortion is the domination of the mass media by the powers
who dominate the economic/financial resources of humanity. Here is an institution which
by its very nature should belong to the cultural, intellectual, free sphere of activity,
scrutinising and providing a mirror to all other sectors of society dominated by one
sphere of human activity, at the expense of all others. No wonder that the combination of
the domination of the media by the economic sphere renders the power of an
independent, equality based political/representative sphere into its opposite. As could be
observed with helpless disbelief by millions of free thinking people the world over during
the period leading to the War on Iraq, the majority of governments found themselves
exposed in what some have known for a while: the governments of the leading
democracies of the world do not represent the interests of their electing public; they
represent the interests of the economic powers who dictate their agenda, using the
rhetoric of democratic representation to cover the nakedness of their privatisation to the
American based multinational corporations.

The environmental and civil society movements - new social awareness of the 21
st

century
There is a wave of awareness regarding this distortion, al be it in its infancy. Unfettered
materialism has blinded peoples free thinking with its greed-based temptation of ever-
growing riches and comfort for far too long. Gradually people are waking from the dream
of that false promise to realise that most of us have been ripped off by forces who claim
more and more power from communities everywhere, with less and less social
accountability for the use of that power. As nine million people world-wide expressed
their objection to the lies dominating the rhetoric which justified this new colonial was
against Iraq, the undercurrent of unease about the domination of the narrow based interest
of the distorted economic sphere started to resume a face and a beginning of a language.
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The long road for balancing the huge social distortion had began. It still lacks a coherent
language, philosophy, ideology, articulation and an effective distribution of a growing
body of opinion and thoughts. It still hardly knows itself, but it is emerging.

Two major developments in social awareness heralded the emerging of the awareness
towards balancing the distorted economic dominated social order. The first one came
through the environmental movement which came to prominence in the 80s of the 20
th

Century, through the growing power of the Green movement, first in central Europe and
later world-wide. This is a concern that cannot be possibly be well served by narrow
economic or political interests by themselves. Here is thinking typical of the balancing
act of the future 3-fold social order. It significant to notice that only when it started to
influence the political system itself through the balance of power impact of a few well
organised green parties in some democracies the political elite had to realise that the old
left-right humdrum is not fulfilling peoples political aspirations anymore. Here was a
higher awareness of a common social responsibility finding its voice, challenging
business as usual. A huge balancing act started to take place on this front.

A second wave of awareness came to a head in the World Economic Forum in Seattle
Washington State in 1999, when people from around the world, voicing their alarmed
concerns for environmental, human rights and social justice issues trampled over by the
elite-global-economic interest of the few caused the gathering of the captains of that
type of economy to stop their proceedings for a moment. The notion of a global social
power which is not narrow politically based or narrow economically based came into
being: the new Civil Society Movement. The real new world order is finding its voice,
and gradually its language.

The hidden role of the spiritual sphere in current social developments
It could be observed, in light of the notion of the above outlined 3-fold social order, that
the Environmental movement is focused primarily on the sustainable usage of the Earth
resources, namely the broad common interest of the true Economic Sphere, threatened by
the imbalanced domination of narrow economy of the elite, while the second wave of
new social awareness, the new Civil Society, is focusing primarily on the threatened
interest of the true Social, or Rights Sphere, threatened by the same one sided force. The
question could be asked: where is the new expression of the repressed Cultural/Spiritual
Sphere in modern time?
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The simple answer is that the expression of the most repressed sphere of human activity,
the one rendered most disempowered during the 20
th
Century, has not yet found its true
voice, language and movement. But a deeper observation can reveal its working behind
the public scene. In both cases of the above mentioned expressions of the new gathering
forces, the new social movement came into being out of the free thinking of individuals
who managed to overcome the dominant Opinion-Shaping of the modern mess media,
dominated systematically by the multinational corporation who lead the above distortion.
Free thinking of individuals, critically reviewing the dominant paradigm of their time,
making use of the freedom they still have, managed to galvanise global support for a new
approach to sustainable human development, free of the domination of the narrow
economic interest of the powers of our time and of the mess media that they own and
control.

Early preparations for the current emergent of new social consciousness
J ust in passing, two earlier social movements which in my view, have prepared the
ground for both the environmental and the civil society movements could be
acknowledged here, without any attempt to do them justice. The first one is the women
liberation movement of the 20
th
Century, gathering momentum in various forms right
throughout that century with huge public achievements. This movement in its maturity
brought to the forefront more than equality between men and women, but in its deep form
a feminine, caring, nurturing approach to the study of societies, human services,
evolution, arts and culture in general. I see the environmental movement as directly
related to this more feminine approach to social thinking.
The second, less public undercurrent movement of renewing society during the last
century is the personal development movement, arising out of existentialism, making its
mark through the emergent Third Force in modern psychology, humanistic and later
Transpersonal psychology, emerging through the personal growth and the personal
development movement worldwide, expressing itself through a huge expansion of non-
denominational spirituality, both East and Western in origin. It expressed itself through a
new sector of adult education, especially from the 70s, whose focus was not professional
or vocational in purpose, but personal development as such, manifesting human potential.
It expressed itself through a new appreciation of the spiritual treasures of the oppressed
indigenous people everywhere whose values and contribution have been trashed and put
down for most of the 19
th
and 20
th
Centuries. It expressed itself through the growing
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claim that science itself can be broader than the limited, reductionist, mechanical
approach to the understanding of nature. It expressed itself through the revival of lost
traditions of natural health care, natural whole food, of education that is freer of the
traditional western values based ethno-centric domination, freedom of religion and of
spiritual expression. All these are symptoms of the same hidden, relatively repressed
sphere of human activity: the free cultural/spiritual sphere, still in its infancy, is operating
under the powerful domination of the two other spheres: the political sphere, primarily in
the East, and the economic sphere, primarily in the West.

The triple bottom line
One of the most evolved expressions of the balancing new awareness of the social order
is the growing notion of the 3-Fold Bottom Line. Very simplistically put, it is the
assertion that the evaluation of the viability of economic projects and activities on the
basis of the financial bottom line only is a distortion of the reality and of the true value
and viability of these projects and activities. This approach claims that the validity of all
economic activities must take into account in the Broad Balance Sheet the
environmental and the social costs and benefit, for a true picture of the values of these
activities. It claims that all economic activities have a lasting effect on the long-term
Capital Investment of natural and human resources, The success of any project must be
measured in light of the overall profit and cost it had created to the natural and the social
environment in which it has taken place, not just in light of its impact on the financial
investment that directly enabled it, measured by a financial balance sheet of profit and
loss. Hence, the notion of having a Triple-Bottom Line, as opposed to a Single or
financial bottom line. According to this approach every human activity must be expected
to be accountable to the parameters of success and failure based on these three bottom
lines of evaluation, the financial, the environmental and the social.

This conceptual development, progressively taking roots in the political thinking of
scholars and policy makers in evolving societies, is by itself a sign of our time, a fruit of
the free thinking of those who have established within themselves a freedom from the
domination of both the political and the economical spheres. This is a fruit of the
Spiritual Sphere of activity as such. But because of the chronic neglect of the Cultural/
Spiritual Sphere of human activities and the total lack of recognition for it in 20
th
Century
thinking it could only influence events from behind the scene, indirectly, with no real
power in the round tables of the day. Strategic planners, policy makers and social
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academics, researchers and advisorsall passed it by and ignored the interests of spiritual
cultural/sphere in their deliberations, as they were shaping our social homes. It was never
properly represented. It remained a private affair in the life of individuals. The cultural
spiritual dimension of human affairs was allowed to become a social formative force in
wester democracies during the 20
th
Century.

The weakness of the spiritual sphere resulted in its inability to become a formative force
in the shaping of the modern working place. The most tragic outcome of this neglect is
that the modern workplace does not see it as its task to be a major opportunity for the
personal/ spiritual development of individuals. Our modern economy totally excludes
both in theory and in practice, the spiritual economy of the individual human being as an
evolving being. As a result people are forced to evolve mostly in spite, rather than
because of the range, the type quality of the economic and vocational activities available
to them in what passes for modern economies. The neglect of the Spiritual Sphere in the
social structure inevitably leads to the neglect of the spiritual sphere in the life of
individuals.

Spiritual/ cultural development of individuals should have been the main game of modern
civilization, not something taking place in the left-over time and energy when all
serious activities have made their claim on human time, energy and attention.
It is at this point that I wish to put forward the notion of the 4-Fold Bottom line, which,
in my view, complement and complete the framework for the new evaluation of all
economic activities in the economy of brotherhood/ sisterhood, in light of the 3-Fold
Social Order, based on Rudolf Steiner vision of the future, humanized society of our time.

The four bottom lines of economic activity
The fundamental idea of the 4-Fold Bottom line is the following: In light of
Anthroposophy, the human being, from a certain point of view, comprises 4 dimensions
of being, levels of existence, component of an integral system: The Physical Body, The
Life-Body, The Soul-Body, and the I. All aspects of human function are based on one
combination or other of these 4 principal human sheaths. More details on this outlook are
to be found aplenty in all Anthroposophical literature.

Based on these 4 levels of existence, every human activity is originated from and is
impact on all these 4 levels of a persons life and also of the life of the community
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collectively. These 4 dimensions of existence are therefore to be seen both as the resource
for all human activities, including the economical, and the levels effected by these
activity, beneficially or otherwise. The sustainability of each activity or project therefore
must be evaluated in light of their effect on all four.

Definitions:
1. The 1
st
bottom line: Physical level impact on financial resources: return on
investment, profit or loss)

2. The 2
nd
bottom line: Environmental/ Life Forces level impact on the environment:
level of renewable resources used in the process, pollution/contamination of natural
resources, waste management etc.

3. The 3
rd
bottom line: social level impact on the social capital of the community in
which the activity is taking place, level of contribution to local social and economic
services, proportion of profit re-invested in the community, value added to local
properties and quality of life.

4. The 4
th
bottom line: spiritual/personal developmental level impact on the
personal and spiritual development of the individuals involved.

Only when on all four scores an economic project or activity is successful, profitable and
sustainable should this activity or project be regarded as viable.

The 4
th
Bottom line - Millions of men and women give the bulk of their energy,
creativity, precious allotted time on Earth, intelligence, attention, thoughts, will and
hopefully a fair amount of emotionality to their work. For some this is business,
investment, economy, production, an abstract GDP. But for most working people this is
their life. If the main game of it all was the physical existence, than the financial
remuneration for their labour would be the only concern in monitoring the value of
human work. This is the single bottom line approach. But if the main game in human life
is unfolding human potential, personal, human, moral, social, cultural and spiritual
development than work, which takes the bulk of time and energy of working people,
must be also one of the main opportunities for them to pursue the main endeavours of
their human development.
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The 4
th
bottom line in monitoring the value of any economic activity is: to what extent
does the activity in question provide for the workers who carry it the opportunity for
unfolding their human potential in terms of personal growth, on-going learning path,
spiritual and social development. It is a call for accountability of workplaces to their
obligation to honour their responsibility in claiming the bulk of people life forces, time,
intelligence, spirituality and energy by giving them in return an opportunity to grow as
human being while they carry the objectives of the operation they serve.

In many workplaces professional and progressively personal development requirements
are expected of workers in order to serve the interest of the workplace. This is to say:
workers are expected to change in order that the organisation can grow and prosper. The
4
th
Bottom Line approach is the reverse of this expectation: it expects workplaces to
change in order that the people working in them can grow and prosper as people. To do
so may cost the workplaces something. But then, to pay workers salary also costs the
workplaces something, and so would the care for the environmental and the social
obligations of responsible workplaces. To do things well costs, but it also pay. It makes
the whole activity sustainable, ethical, accountable, and profitable in the highest sense of
the term.

Increasing number of organisations and corporations take pride in claiming that they
behave responsibly (on a voluntarily basis only at this point) in terms of their
environmental and social responsibility. A lot of it is PR rhetoric, but some of it is real.
Legislation, in most cases following public perception trends rather than leading it,
gradually establish social consensus about these responsibilities, often only in order to be
regressed by the next election through a different set of politicians. But when the standard
of the 4-Fold Bottom Line will be adopted by an organisation, this organisation will be
able to take pride in making the following claim: through working for us you will be
given a high quality opportunity to grow as a human being, and a social being, as a
spiritual being, not only in as much as these serve the purposes of our organisation, for
in as much as these serve the highest purpose of unfolding your human potential for its
own sake. Such is our obligation to our workers. This is to be the head-hunting language
of the future.

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Monitoring the 4
th
bottom line the seven conditions for sustainable personal and
spiritual development

For all the above to become a practicable approach to evaluating workplace structures,
procedures and practices some solid parameters for the evaluation the 4
th
Bottom Line
of an economic or human service activities are required, just as they are required in
regards to the environmental and the social bottom lines.

It is at this point that I wish to introduce the 7 Conditions for Spiritual Development,
articulated by Rudolf Steiner in his foundation book Knowledge of Higher Worlds, a
manual for sustainable unfolding of human potential. Steiner presented these conditions
as a modern day articulation of principles for leadership training or initiation in the
ancient mystery centres of both East and West. The commitment to the 7 conditions for
the aspirant of spiritual development is proposed by Steiner as the conscious shift from
conventional life into life as a path of spiritual development.

I have worked with these seven conditions for over 30 years, primarily for my own
development. In time this work gave rise to the creation of Psychophonetics, a method of
awakening to the reality of human experience, of transforming and healing it, and of
manifesting the deeper human resources for creation. The training in the seven conditions
forms the bulk of the first year of the Advanced Diploma of Psychophonetics course at
Persephone College. They form the threshold to the trainee practitioner of this modality
between personal development and healing as such and the vocational path of the
counsellor.

In recent years I have been adopting them into a broad framework for organisational
consultation. I propose the seven conditions for spiritual development as the parameters
for the evaluation of the 4
th
bottom line of economic and organisational activities, as
being very practical.

In conclusion, I believe that the above standards of sustainable organisational
development provide a solid and a methodical form of evaluation of the 4
th
Bottom Line
of monitoring the broad profitability, sustainability and accountability of progressive
organisations and workplaces, choosing to adopt the 4-fold bottom line approach. They
who will adopt the above conditions as an organisational-human contract for the conduct
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of their operation - will be well ahead in the process of re-humanising the modern
workplace for the future of humanity. In them human beings will be assured of acting as
free carriers of human development as a whole, rather than as cogs in a machine. I have
no doubt that such workplaces will benefit from this upgrade in the long term on all 4
levels of the bottom line.

A short description of the seven conditions applied to organisational development
Principle From which causes to Leading to
1 Well Being
Taking
Responsibility
for individual,
group &
organization
well being
Mutual
wounding &
Mistrust
Exhaustion; Bitterness;
low energy; mistrust;
defensiveness; body
unable to hold spirit;
low presence of
peoples being; sick
leave.
Safety contract.
A contact of mutual
responsibility for
workers emotional
and interpersonal
safety, respect and
dignity.
Feeling safer in work
environment;
Having ones energies
and deep resources
available for ones
creative work
2 Empathy
Seeing the
other from
inside
Rigidity/
dogma
regarding
ones myopic
point of view;

Defensiveness & war;
Lack of collegial
support & cooperation;
poor communication &
team work; low
ownership &
commitment to
workplace
Commitment to
seeing the
individuality of the
other from the
others point of
view
People feeling seen,
understood;
communication level,
conflict resolution and
team work improvement;
growing sense of
community, belonging
and commitment.
3 Regarding
ones thoughts
and feelings as
realities.
Realising the
reality of ones
inner world
Reactions
aggression/
rescue/ guilt/
judgement/
gossip/
manipulation/
anger/
revenge/
denigration
Losing sight of the
virtue & the potential
of people; creating
negativity; shutting off
from Spiritual
Skylight, disconnect
from higher being of
oneself, each other, of
meeting & the
organisation
Acquiring the skills
for owning and
overcoming
reactions; Return
from Reaction to I-
hood of oneself, on
the way to the I-
hood of the other.
Higher skills of resolving
conflicts, of being
present, of truly meeting
each other, of trust, and
of releasing trapped
creative energies to
productive applications.
4 Distinguishing
between ones
own truth and
the truth of
others,
respecting
both.
Pushing &
being pushed
Clouding of the true
Being of each other/
Loss of identity,
personal power and
initiative. Loss of
group identity;
Disintegration of the
Establish standard
& practice of
restoration of
personal boundaries
-Self identity &
guidance; clear
contracts re rights
Awareness of others
independent identity/
awareness of group and
workplace identity &
uniqueness. Growth of
self and mutual respect.
Being present leads to
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Recreating
Boundaries
Meeting-Organism & obligations, job
descriptions & clear
mutual contracts.
growth of Initiatives and
creativity.

5 Connecting
resolutions to
actions.
Freedom to
will
Avoidance of
challenges,
avoidance of
dealing with
controversies
openly.
Missed opportunity for
preventative action and
practicable planning.
Crisis management,
culture of blaming &
interpersonal pollution.
Commitment to
face emerging
issues & Face them
in time; clear
procedures for
avoiding avoidance.
Freeing trapped
developmental potential
of individuals & groups;
completing old business,
letting go & moving on.
Renewal & confidence of
learning from experience.
6 Gratitude
Appreciation of
the hidden
presence of
higher wisdom
in people &
situations
Taking each
other for
granted, power
games,
exploitation,
trading &
Politics
Negativity, Distortion
of the true value of
each other & the
meeting; cynicism and
dampening of
enthusiasm. People
feeling exploited.
Seeing & being
visible to each
other; making use
of peoples
respecting gifts &
contribution.

Maximising expressions
of groups true potential;
decisions made out of the
highest point of view
available, all included;
nurturing leading to
abundance; growing of
social organism.
7 Consistency
All the above 6
conditions
Chaos of
inconsistency
Destruction of trust
and hope in the future
Reliable process,
procedure and
contract
Restoration of trust &
hope; reliability &
character of organisation