Every single human being, when the entire situation is taken into account, has always, at every moment of the past, done the very best that he or she could do, and therefore deserves neither blame nor reproach from anyone, including self.
This, in particular, is true of you.
– Harvey Jackins
If you’re unfamiliar with RC, I’ll tell you a few things about it.
Harvey Jackins discovered the basics of what later was called Reevaluation Counseling (RC) (but don’t believe just everything you read about him or RC). He guarded and guided the further exploration of human recovery from distress until his untimely death in 1999. Since then, RC has been continuing. However, I much miss his inventiveness.
Every half year or so Harvey came up with some new ideas. Him not being around has made RC kind of stale to me. No more! Here I will blog new ideas. I will also write how we could shape up where we seem to have lost our track a bit. I’m no Harvey but fortunately or unfortunately, I seem to be the best person available for this. (Help!)
I hope this will inspire and revitalize co-counselors’ counseling and lives and further help speed up and spread RC’s priceless discoveries and messages.
If you don’t want to react publicly, you may write to: notmyname2000000@gmail.com
What is Reevaluation Counseling?
This is my unauthorized overview of RC. Go to the official RC website for authorized versions. Here is a New Website specifically for People New to RC. There you may find the basics, among them a Glossary of RC jargon terms. And a link to all basic counseling literature.
Some of the RC texts may say what you always believed – even if you never told anyone or never heard so from anyone. Others may be complete eye-openers. And some may be hard to digest – and for that we do sessions – and the site helps you how to start them.
Basic RC Literature is just for the taking. It does not obligate. So is doing sessions. You help each other free of charge. RC Classes do cost money because teaching them is work and we believe in paying workers. If you don’t have that kind of money, solutions may be found – ask. Reading and going to class may enhance your sessions. And so may taking responsibility as a member of the RC Communities.
All RC texts come from our attempts to heal our distresses and help others to do the same, to help create a world where people don’t hurt each other but rather help each other heal and from thinking about what seems to work and what didn’t. So these are the results of experiment and work, not of academic theorizing and philosophizing.
How Does Recovery Work?
RC is a story of discovery, not invention. It is no different from the discovery that the earth is round or gravity. RC’s discoveries are ongoing. Like any science based on findings, RC may conflict with pre-existing ideas, beliefs and faiths. The RC findings give ideas and understandings which may lead to its own convictions, attitudes in life and lifestyle decisions.
By accident, Harvey discovered that humans have a capacity to heal emotional hurts in natural ways that are still not understood at all.
Our brains are capable of re-evaluating any sensory input, feeling and thought that happened during a hurtful experience. This happens best after spontaneous crying, trembling, cold perspiration, warm perspiration, blushing, non-repetitive talking or laughing. (And after yawning, physical healing seems to speed up to what we see in babies.) Harvey called these outer signs “discharge” but the essence of the process lies in the “re-evaluation” that automatically follows discharge.
This healing speeds up the more and the more intensely we discharge. (No more need to stop the baby’s crying or to panic when it’s very loud.) Also sleep gives some healing. When the brain doesn’t function naturally because it is drugged, re-evaluation does not happen. Drunk tears do not relieve.
Friendly attention to our story can help us discharge more. When many people give us friendly attention at the same time, we may be able to discharge even deeper.
What Happens When Recovery is Interrupted?
Interrupting the discharge leads to a piling up of all the sensory input, feeling and thought during a hurtful experience. Discharge and re-evaluation can still happen later. Meanwhile, the piled-up sensory input, feeling and thought from during the distress are stored in a way that they can’t be used in a flexible way.
Often without being aware of it, we send out hints that we need help to discharge undischarged hurt. (Harvey called this a Pattern.) But every time we are stopped discharging (because the other has a story too), we develop more of a habit interrupting our discharge ourselves. Therefore, it works better to take turns discharging than interrupting each other constantly.
When a lot of the same kinds of hurts pile up, we may start believing universally what we felt and thought under distress (this Harvey called a Chronic Pattern) and see that as part of who we are and what life is about. But when we start discharging those hurts, they discharge away in the same way as our feelings and thoughts from events that did not repeat so often. It just takes more time and persistence to clean it all up. And outside help may come in handy to remind us what is us an d what is the Chronic Pattern.
Most Patterns people in oppressive societies carry are the result of oppressions, which each are a one-way systematic mistreatment of a part of the population. While we are oppressed as young people (misinformed, made powerless, stopped for discharging), we get trained how to function as grownups in oppressed ways (as a woman, a poor person) and also in oppressive ways (as a man, a privileged person) because we are also stuck with images of the grownups oppressing us.
The basis of these internalized oppressions and oppressive behaviors and feelings and thoughts disappear with systematic discharge. We need to do this work to build a humane society for the benefit of all without transitioning into yet another sort of society that again exploits people.
These discoveries have led to systematic work in regular co-counseling sessions, RC classes, workshops and an RC community, to free each other from past hurts, internalized oppression and Patterns that support ongoing Oppressions. The basis of RC is to rid mankind of its Patterns, starting with ourselves and then teaching others.
The Purpose of This Blog
These blog posts are meant to supplement RC, not to replace it. It should be only an icing on the cake. Make sure you eat enough cake or you’ll end up nauseous from the frosting.
Almost two decades after his death, Harvey Jackins’ work lives on but renewal of his legacy is slow. Every half year, Harvey would come with something new. I miss that.
There is a place for humbleness, not for anyone to pretend to be as advanced in RC as Harvey was. But on the other hand, July 12th, 2018, he’s been dead for 19 years and it’s high time that some of his students start catching up with where he was when he left.
I want to use this blog to convey some new RC thoughts and restore some old practices that seem to have gotten lost a bit. This blog’s content is anonymous and unauthorized by the RC leadership. I want to stimulate our thinking, whether you are a new RCer or an old-timer.
If this is your first encounter with RC, go to the official website: www.rc.org/. You will learn a lot. Consider taking a Fundamentals Class.
Harvey
It’s hard to describe Harvey – or anyone who passed away – to someone who never met him. The essence of someone is so beyond words, so much greater than finite sentences can catch. So, read what I write but try to imagine him not confined to descriptions and global judgments.
I got to know Harvey as someone who was trying to be the best human who ever lived and at the same time, he wouldn’t claim that he actually succeeded. In any case, he still was human as anyone else. An example.
I remember something from my first workshop with him. He tried to counsel someone in front of the morning class and it went nowhere. At the end of the class, when he was rushing out, I tried to console him with “Harvey, you showed so well that also when you can’t think, RC doesn’t work.” He replied grumbly “Meanwhile, it still didn’t work.”
This client, who was new to RC, would be spending the next 24 hours explaining in tears to everyone who wanted to hear (and everyone who didn’t want to hear) how this whole RC business was a fraud and a scandal. The next morning class, Harvey sweetly invited her to give him another chance. She would not fall for this but the whole workshop that had listened to her faithfully for a whole day encouraged her and cheered her on to go for it anyway. With disbelieve in her eyes, she went up and we all saw a beautiful demonstration of what RC can be, counselor and client working together getting the discharge out. Harvey clearly had done his homework. For me, that typifies him. He was superior but not beyond being human.
I went with Harvey from one big workshop to the next and noticed that he put on a different facial expression. He provided what was needed in a certain community or for a certain group.
Harvey was a hard worker who lived modestly, a proud son of the Working Class. He was proud but in no way arrogant. And he was not looking for adoration. (Not that he didn’t appreciate a good validation. I remember this woman telling him at a workshop’s closing circle “Harvey, you’re both the most macho and the most effeminate man I’ve ever met” – clearly, he liked it.) So many movements for social or therapeutic improvement are densely populated by the Middle Class; the same was true in most of RC but he always kept in mind that our goal must be to teach this to everyone – and that includes all of the Working Class, the only Class with a future – and not just to the slightly-privileged.
I once heard an Owning Class RCer explain that Harvey was not the best counselor for him because he didn’t have enough patience, for him to feel safe. He was the best counselor by far but not for absolutely everyone.
Different from gurus and charismatic thinkers, Harvey didn’t want his students to follow him. He encouraged us to follow our own thinking. “Think for yourself. Think for yourself. Think for yourself. This may sound as if I want you to think for yourself but I think that you know what I mean.” He must have figured out that the problem was not that people didn’t accept what he said but rather that they did not do their own thinking. The only thing counselors needed to agree on was the famous One Point Program of RC, that we would try to uncover our hidden intelligences and help others to do the same.
(Some RCers sometimes forget this and demand adherence to what they believe to be RC. However, rightly so, someone cannot start teaching RC when s/he still smokes, or doesn’t understand that we need to work towards getting rid of all Oppressions.)
(RC may have had a built-in problem in the One Point Program. Its basic agreement doesn’t include spreading these insights and this know-how around the globe, so many RCers seem to feel free to use this “method” just to have better lives (and make money). Selfishness is a tenacious pattern in many. Harvey was generous. He may have missed how much others are not. This way, every day, the wealth of RC discoveries is stolen from everyone outside of RC. In a later post, I will get back to this.)
More than a philosopher or armchair scholar, Harvey was a scientist not unlike Einstein. He built his theories to explain what he found, rather than constructing lofty hypotheses that may sound beautiful but could be disconnected from reality and practicality. For him, every session was a lab test to see what would work and what doesn’t.
His top discoveries and findings (not: inventions) are:
- The Person (is good and) is not the Pattern (which will disappear with discharge);
- How humans naturally clean up emotional pain and how to speed this up;
- Funny chronic behavior and feelings (“personalities”) can dissolve in the same way;
- Ridged personalities and attitudes can disappear;
- Feelings are not a dependable guide to action;
- Frozen Needs can only be satisfied through discharge;
- All Oppressions are rooted in pain that’s not yet cleaned up (that gives hope);
- The Upward Trend;
- The Benign Reality;
- There are no Shoulds in the Universe;
- The only problem of tired leadership is not enough new leadership;
- Punishment, reproach, labeling and psychiatric and recreational drugs don’t help but rather hinder.
Quotes by Harvey in Present Time are still the quarterly’s highlights. His clarity shines forth still today. It’s kind of sad that he still stands out but in any case, it’s good not to lose track of the rich legacy he left us.
He was guarding and guiding the RC Communities with his whole heart. This was understandable – they were his baby. But the basis of his care was for every individual. He considered RCers entitled to what they needed. He did not herd us like identical sheep. Everyone was seen for the individual they were and no rare struggle, oppression or past hurt was “minor.” He was everyone’s ally – but therefore sometimes didn’t see that some people were out to get or fool him. Though he was not naive at all, he operated as someone who cares, not as a detective.
So, not everything was perfect under Harvey. A couple of times, he was cheated or attacked by leaders working under him. He was sometimes slow in finding out and sometimes slow at throwing the book at them. This International Leader who traveled the Communities (on his behalf) secretly having sex with “attractive” local leaders everywhere, was, when finally found out, quietly and swiftly dismissed. But other leaders who were building their own communities feeding off of RC were expelled much too slowly.
And I’ve seen some International RC Leaders have their arrogance, egocentricity, pretense and outright dishonesty Patterns (they know how to play-act being vulnerable) go unchallenged for decades now. (There are always enough shy people around to promote into leadership. They grow from taking supported leadership; the arrogant and dishonest don’t. The latter do enjoy the power they wield, money they make and esteem and attention they get. It’s a problem for RCers who are oppressed by pretense and for those who are naive.) If Harvey would return now, he would surely fire them.
I’ve seen Harvey send pillars of the Community to exit to first sort out their own lives. He did not use people. Their leadership had to be good for them too.
And he was a good boss – he supported his workers. When leaders got stuck, he would use a workshop’s additional attention to try to get them back to discharging. If nothing worked, he would not give up easily. Ninety minutes was not too much.
(He first-hand knew how hard it could be to find free attention, with most people projecting their issues on him and “knowing” that he needed to work on exactly there where they were stuck (what a coincidence!). If we would have been as good as counselors then as we are (hopefully) now, he might still have been here.)
Harvey was an excellent listener but also found a place to put out his newest ideas that he tried to teach and demonstrate all the time. He knew that most counselors had a difficult time reading, so he presented the basics and his novelties at classes during workshops.
Every half year or so, he’d come with a new technique or insight. Over time, some of them flopped and some of them stayed. “I have the special privilege that my mistakes are enshrined in RC Literature,” I’ve heard him say, half in jest.
(We’ve missed now say 19 times two is 38 attempts at innovations. Long-time RCers should try to continue his work, show that RC is alive and not stale. In this blog, I’ll suggest a couple of possible candidates for ideas to follow up on. Let’s this year speed up refreshing RC in honor of the upcoming 20th anniversary of Harvey’s death, July 12th, 2019.)
Harvey was not scared to try something new. He tried to challenge Jews, women and homosexuals to accept and honor allies. When exploring new territory with an oppressed group, he would stop and ask all workshop participants what they thought we should do next. A good leader does not think for the group. He stopped all attacks on leaders as they’re wholly unhelpful. He did replace leaders when it wasn’t working.
Another special thing about him was that he had memorized hundreds of poems and songs (lullabies) to recite and sing to his clients while they were resting or discharging in his arms. Sometimes, he changed the concluding words because they were patterned (“Don’t you cry no more”), dryly adding after his editing: “To Hell with rhyme!” He was well-read on a broad array of topics and was proud of his personal library. He was an excellent editor, putting succinctly into words what someone wanted to express – it pays to pay attention.
He was surprised to find that in his letters to leaders, we liked hearing how he was doing. He had assumed, apparently, that talking about his personal life would be illegitimate irresponsible clienting. After that, he would always include something about how his garden and health were going.
He tried to take his doctor’s advice and take breaks. At a workshop, I saw him painting the landscape. And eat only one meal a day to lose weight. But he was also a character. With disbelief, he looked at vegetarianism and wanted no workshop where he could not get his juicy steak.
Last but not least, Harvey challenged us to look at physical death as conquerable, not inevitable – without pretending that we had won that battle already. As he asked in his shortest poem ever, his Anti Requiem: Why die? He would have been so pleased with present medical progress and no doubt encourage us again to not forget taking that challenge in our sessions, now physical immortality seems to get more plausible.
Harvey lives on in our minds and work. Let’s not stop talking to him and keep asking his opinion about our ongoing contributions. He’s still the best parent most of us who knew him had.
Harvey, happy anniversary!
Dear Harvey 