Tag Archives: relational beings

Reflection- LUCY!

08 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by in Articles, Reflection

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The movie, LUCY, is a masterpiece; it portrays human as the powerful species.  LUCY is an embodiment of a modernism; a dream/ idea about an intelligent victorious man conquering others, time and space. It is about what Nietzsche said ‘God is Dead’. LUCY is about knowledge as a source of power and control.

The age of modernism is over and LUCY gets to its 100% presence and disappears. The age of modernism gets to its full potential and eventually destroys itself; it leaves us its achievements and disappears. The time for a rigid, logical/ rational insensible thinking is coming to an end.

LUCY is about the rise and fall of logical/ rational/ intellectual mind that controls others, information, time and space. It is true that human without brain are not human but the exhaustion of human intelligence and exaggerated use of power and control will have led us to destruction of human species, environment and morality.

In the movie, the main two engines/ motives for human species to survive are: a) immortality b) reproduction. In the history of mankind, human have swung between these two. In modern era, the force to increase immortality was intensified/heightened and consequently, the reproduction rate became decreased.  We are at the end of this era.

We are going to swing back and forth to find equilibrium.  This will not be achieved when power and control run the mind of human beings. Equilibrium is achieved when power and knowledge are shared and interpreted relationally.

Yes, LUCY is a great example of what Michelle Foucault predicted. Yes, we have become LUCY. Yes, it is in all of us who were born into the rigid, logical, and rational world of modernism; it is in all of us who perpetuated modern thinking and implemented it in others’ lives and ours. Yes, LUCY is everywhere; LUCY is in all of us!

When I was leaving the theater, there were a young couple sat in their chairs looking puzzled. They said that they didn’t understand LUCY and they weren’t sure what LUCY was all about. Now, reflecting back on the young couple’s words, I have more appreciation for them.

It seems our new generations ask questions and scrutinize the presence of power and control in human interactions. The answer is new generations that question the achievements of technology, that look with suspicious upon greed, knowledge, and power. Their questions will bring the lost equilibrium back to life.

Yes, equilibrium will make us human, again, connected and engaged with each other relationally and ethically.  Equilibrium will allow all paradoxical pieces of understanding to co-exist; it will put an end to use of personal/social/technical/intellectual power over/against each other. Equilibrium will connect us not rationally but relationally.

Yes, the new era has begun!

Happy Possibilities,

 

Tahereh Barati

 

Someone said Evil Eye! What is it?

08 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Articles, Reflection

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I had a lovely talk with a friend who was very excited about her recent achievements. As she was sharing her success stories, she mentioned her worries for the presence of ‘evil eye’ in relationships.  She said sometimes people are not happy about one’s achievement; their unhappy feelings cause one not to be able to continue what she plans to achieve in life. She called that as ‘evil eye’ – negativity that prevents people from getting what they try hard for…

The word ‘evil eye’ got my attention; I began to think more about its origin and how it became part of human relationship, what it means, and if it really exist.

The more i thought of it, the more it became a fascinating subject, and the more questions pop up in my mind. For instance,  Is it from our negative thought about others? Or is it something that exchanged between people? …

I see ‘evil eye’ as a ‘negative energy’ that forms in relationship.  This energy  is co-constructed as we speak and share ideas and stories. I believe everything has an impact… Sharing success stories impact people; some may like, some may dislike, some may become more curious and some may become indifferent to what we share with them. …

Since everything has an impact, we affect one another in every relational transactions. We are influenced by energy exchanged between us; we mutually influence one another by our words, positions, and postures that we take in relation to what is being exchanged.

We (you and I) are part of this exchange; the way we share, the way we tell our stories, the way we position ourselves to one another, the way we non-verbally express ourselves contribute to responses that we give to one another.

To reduce ‘the impact of ‘evil eye’ – what i call ‘relational negative energy’- on our relationship, it is important to become more aware of how we share and what words/ posture we take when expressing our success stories.  When we look closely into our contribution to the reproduction of ‘negative energy’, we become more mindful of our way of telling and re-telling and consequently its impact on others. This might be a way to immune our relationship from this negative energy.

Happy Possibilities,

Tahereh Barati, M.A, RMFT