Experience Is, For Me, The

The Way Of Being With Another Person Which Is Termed Empathic...means Temporarily Living In Their Life, Moving Abut In It Delicately Without Making Judgment... To Be With Another In This Way Means That For The Time Being You Lay Aside The Views And Values You Hold For Yourself In Order To Enter The Other's World Without Prejudice...a Complex, Demanding, Strong Yet Subtle And Gentle Way Of Being.

So, As You Can Readily See From What I Have Said Thus Far, A Creative, Active, Sensitive, Accurate, Empathic, Nonjudgmental Listening Is For Me Terribly Important In A Relationship. It Is Important For Me To Provide It; It Has Been Extremely Important, Especially At Certain Times In My Life, To Receive It. I Feel That I Have Grown Within Myself When I Have Provided It; I Am Very Sure That I Have Grown And Been Released And Enhanced When I Have Received This Kind Of Listening.

In My Early Professional Years I Was Asking The Question: How Can I Treat, Or Cure, Or Change This Person? Now I Would Phrase The Question In This Way: How Can I Provide A Relationship Which This Person May Use For His Own Personal Growth?

I Prize The Privilege Of Being Alone.

To Perceive The Internal Frame Of Reference Of Another With Accuracy And With The Emotional Components And Meanings Which Pertain Thereto As If One Were The Person, But Without Ever Losing The "as If" Condition. Thus, It Means To Sense The Hurt Or The Pleasure Of Another As He Senses It And To Perceive The Causes Thereof As He Perceives Them, But Without Ever Losing The Recognition That It Is As If I Were Hurt Or Pleased And So Forth.