The African Pre-Pre-World Conference
Stimulating, enlightening, illuminative, and informative are some words that describe the African Pre-Pre-World Conference 2021. I had been gradually healing from distresses from the damage done to me, and I must say that my first Pre-Pre-World Conference took it to another level. It was simply awesome!
I am so glad that someone talked to me about RC a few years ago—and that I was wise enough to listen and agree to be part of this Community.
As a young lady born and bred in Africa, isolation and domination are touchy subjects for me. Experience has taught me they are something that “the white community” specializes in.
I was surprised and impressed by Tim Jackins’s presentation. He said that even though RC has been around for seventy years, we are still learning more and more about the discharge process.
He said that we were born into families that didn’t know about the need to discharge. Our caretakers had been hurt, been oppressed, and hadn’t gotten the attention they needed. In turn, they related to others in the same way they had been related to while growing up.
Tim talked about how every child is born expecting to find fully human minds. However, because as adults we have gone through decades of hurts, that is not what our children see in us. This was an eye-opener for me. At one point I had to turn off my video and discharge. What he said is right. I don’t respond to my children in the way they expect me to. I need to discharge about this. I have tried to use the instinctive healing process to recover from thirty years of accumulated hurts, but I still have much to do.
As a child I kept trying to find someone to connect with, and from the beginning there was no one. I felt isolated as well as dominated, both at home and in the workplace, until RC taught me that everybody cares for me deeply and everyone is interested in helping others.
Tim said that each of us gives up and “accepts” feeling isolated when it becomes too much to keep trying to connect with someone. It was also interesting to hear that he had found an exception to this: He had led a workshop attended by fourteen pairs of twins and had noticed something unique about them. It had seemed that they could count on [rely on] each other. And why not? They’d had nine months to be with each other in the womb.
Several times I have had to “shut the door,” as I couldn’t bear to try again and again to connect to someone. After trying once or twice, I’ve felt defeated and given up and gone off by myself, which has made me feel isolated.
I lost my mom whilst I was four months pregnant. People around me felt that I should feel fine because I had a husband and relatives with me. I felt so alone. They didn’t know that all I needed was to discharge.
Throughout Tim’s presentation, I felt emotional and discharged a lot. It was like he was putting words to the feelings I’ve been having all these years, bringing them alive, and helping me understand what they have been about. I realized that the people I have expected to be there for me have not been there because, like me, they have not had the chance to discharge. That made me feel a bit calm. They have not healed, and so they have unknowingly hurt me. Tim also made me understand that healing is possible.
My first breakout session was with people who didn’t speak English. Regardless of the language barrier, we had a beautiful time together and I felt connected to them afterward.
My support group was amazing. Everyone discharged freely. Sharing my experience with the group was liberating. I mentioned how scared and lonely I’ve felt. And I said that at times all I’ve needed in order to go on was just a hug. I was glad when they gave me virtual hugs.
My highlight was when Tim asked us to look at the “room” filled with more than eighty people and know that they were there for each of us. It brought tears to my eyes—tears of joy.
My second highlight was that the conference was translated into many different African languages. It was exciting for me, and I hope next time we will be given the chance to translate into some Ghanaian languages.
As an RCer and the leader of the young adults of RC Accra/Ghana, I am glad to have had this vantage point outside the distortions caused by the oppressive society. I am now seeing a new world in which I get to be me, devoid of the confusion, lies, and distress around me. I was able to achieve this through constant discharge throughout the conference. I feel a new zest and energy within me.
Thank you—to all the leaders of the conference.
Accra, Ghana
Reprinted from the e-mail discussion list for RC Community members
(Present Time 204, July 2021)