We Are Not Teaching Something “Brand-New”
I think the principal reason for the success of our teachers has been that we are not teaching the students something “brand-new” [completely new].
We are communicating to them, we are reassuring them, that the attitudes that they themselves have always really held, and that they have persisted with in some hidden way underneath all the invalidation and counter-conditioning, are really true.
We are saying to people that the ideas that they’ve always treasured deep within themselves (that human beings are good, are smart, mean well to each other, and should be able to solve their difficulties and get along with each other) are sound.
We are affirming their hidden faith that there are understandable reasons why they haven’t been able to do as well as they wanted to do up ’til the present. We are saying that there’s a practical solution to removing these reasons and allowing them to regain their human abilities.
We’re saying, in effect, to each person that the deeply held concept of themselves as good, intelligent, desiring and able to relate to others is the actual case.
We are saying what they have always felt, that discharge is natural and good and should be encouraged instead of suppressed.
Reprinted from page 4 of A New Kind of Communicator
(Present Time 206, January 2022)