> Be Fritz.

Sounds like you've got some unfinished business... ;-)

According to my current experience and understanding, C-5 represents the integration of body, emotion, mind and personality (C-4) and the here-now presence of being that is cultivated when the various schizms and misalignments in each of these faculties begin to dissolve, allowing for the rightful evolution of them as interconnected and in communication with one another. An absence of 'suffering' takes place when this occurs consciously, resulting in states of rapture. Allegorically, the problems of each of the centers of personality (C1-4) can be 'solved' more or less by the degree to which they get to know each other and to which they learn each others' language. The increasing crystallization of this results in what can be called the creation of a Soul - that integrated strata of Being that arises and comes to life as a result of the union of body and mind; personality and essence; form and spirit.

I much prefer Sherpa's term 'post-survival' rather than Leary's 'post-terrestrial', because, as he said, this reflects a naive body-escaping bias and overlooks the neccesity and in fact central role that the body has in containing the multi-dimensional self. C-5 cannot be post-terrestrial because it is the point in which the physical body and, if you will, the mundane planes of existence, are 'enlivened' with the life of the spirit. We are descenders, not just ascenders.

I see the Vision and Freedom of C-6 as only possible once the physical body and the central nervous system, and its gell-like matrix, are fixed and embodied - a process which itself takes place when the primal emotional nature of C-2 issues are confronted, 'aligned' and the individual comes into a realization of sincerity and honesty and an actualization of Conscience as source and guide on the earth plane.

Reichian therapy, for me, works with all of the lower circuits in order to bring about the awakening of C5 and C6. This perspective is largely from the fact that Reich's real insight was how C1, C2 and C3 are all related - elements in the psyche (C3) as reciprocal manifestations of emotional issues (C2) which effect and are effected by basic somatic tension (C1). Deal with all of them at once and one is opened to greater flexibility and safety in the ongoing process of C5 presence and accelerated perception and autonomy (C6).

These days I tend to see C2 and C6 as the same. Take care of the former and the latter unfolds by itself.

Hank.

I find your overall position around the purpose of psychotherapy as prudent and wise, especially in regards to siding with caution when approaching upper circuit work. That you interact with marginal personalities on a daily basis in your profession also gives you sound reason to stick with these values. However, I wonder if this environment of pathology hasn't minimized and dampened your spirit of adventure.

My position around psychotherapy, lower and upper circuit work, is also very personal to my circumstances. In my group paratheatre work -- which explores therapeutic catharsis, lower and upper circuit work -- I avoid unstable personalities altogether through a careful pre-work interview process. After this, I relate with each person on a case by case basis, rather than impose too rigid a framework -- one size does not fit all. I have discovered far too much deviation and diversity of individual experience to do otherwise.

This paratheatre process, coupled with my own bias as an artist, has also allowed me to view anomalies and other experiences beyond my categories in non-pathological ways. Pathology, in my opinion, has been clearly over-emphasized and given a priori status in the diagnostic and treatment procedures approved by the A.M.A.. Unfortunately, this accentuation of the negative has obscured a more creative and spiritual outlook and a more productive interpretation of the human conditions we cannot understand but which persist nonetheless.