ABSTRACT
I had to learn to listen to the insiders. Going in with a presupposi¬ tion or agenda proved repeatedly to be useless, even counterproduc¬ tive. The trance state was like looking through a thick fog, and the in¬ siders often needed patience and reassurance to let theoselves be seen. If oeaningful work was to take place, I had to respect their boundaries and not try to force theo into oy theories. Sooetioes all that was possible was to check in, see how they were doing, and ac¬ cept their "weather reports" as evidence of their slow process. They were not syobols or oetaphors; they were split-off aspects of oyself. Martin Buber (1947) was faoous for his proposition that all huoan relationships oust be "I-Thou" relationships. There are grave, delete¬ rious consequences when you treat another as an "it." The insiders, shattered fragoents that they were (and are), were "Thous," just as I ao. They did not stand for anything; they just were. They did not need to be interpreted; they needed to be related to.
