The Eruption of Mount Focusing

Video: Ann Weiser Cornell on Eugene Gendlin

It was eight o’clock in the morning when Michael Welten found a seat in the hotel restaurant of the Europa Haus in Vienna, namely at the table of Ruth, an American-Israeli woman from Jerusalem. She was sitting and eating alone; her table companion had already left for the morning Attunement and Announcements group. She said she was almost finished, so as not to disappoint him by suggesting she would be leaving shortly. He should look for another table, she insisted.
But Michael, who had spoken with her at length the day before about the situation in Jerusalem and the obvious oppression of liberal Jews by the orthodox majority of traditionalists and warmongers, very much wanted to hear more from her. And indeed, before long she began to talk about the events of the previous evening of the Focusing Conference:
After the evening event, the “Ceremony of Humanity,” there had been a volcanic eruption of emotion. Three young women had stood up and called into the hall: “We want to be heard! We want to be seen! We want to feel our feelings and give them expression!” Apparently, this was so stirring and so disruptive to the planned continuation of the event that a Palestinian woman also jumped up and spoke out about the inhuman conditions in the Gaza Strip and the inaction of the world community in the face of the barbaric bombardments and starvation imposed by the Israeli army.
In response, an Israeli woman sprang to her feet and in turn accused the Palestinians, so that it came to a heated confrontation among shouting women. More women stood up as well, until the situation had almost taken on the character of a tumult.
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