h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Barton, myself and Moonglum have been talking about coming to Chicago for Psychocandy and Krispys wedding. We have never talked you and I and I wondered whether we should, so we don't get any awkward silences when we come over.

However, this comment of yours really puts me off, its a trigger of mine, my mum said she knew me better than I knew myself, as I thought at the time so why don't you stop what dads doing to me then?

Anyway this was the comment...
'You see, I’m very able. I can simply talk to you and by watching you react know more about you than you might wish to tell. If I gain your confidence and respect and you share details with me, I can take you so close to where you hurt that you can begin to gain control over the pain you’ve been hiding from. I am so empathetic that I can practically read your mind. I can even do this long distance, given a chance to pick up on the nature of your choices and fear of making them.'

So whilst I felt we should talk, your comment makes we never to want to talk to you. I want friends in my life, not analysts!

Any thoughts?

Hi Kaz,

Check with PC regarding Barton's comment. You will see it is very accurate. Accurate, but scary. Barton's training was in theatre and I think this is what has enabled him to 'read' people so well.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that he is 'trying' to anaylze you. He isn't.

Barton does not 'go' where he is not wanted.

Key sentence in your quote "If I gain your confidence and respect and you share details with me"

It is up to you what you choose to share.

I'm sure he'll be on later today or tomorrow for his own input. But I din't want to leave you hanging here. And I certainly don't want you to feel uncomfortable.

We are offering 'free camp out space' to all out of town wedding visitors...one bed, one sleeper sofa, four air mattress. First come, first served. Otherwise, it's floorspace! Bring your own !

I know PC offered her place, but I think she and Krispy might just want some privacy.

Thanks for that Richenda! I have spoken to everyone in the survivors group except really for Barton, and I knew it couldn't go on like that what with your relationship to him!

We plan on staying in a hotel in Chicago, as we would combine the wedding with a holiday so that we could see the sites! Chicago seems to have quite a few!

How are you today?

Hi Kaz,

I'm tired today and I HURT. Barton was in a lot of pain and decided not to work the faire yesterday so I played hooky too and went to see the Tall Sailing Ships. They were wonderful. I couldn't get over how small the Nina actually was.

As to hotels in Chicago...they are VERY expensive. I probably can come up with some discount coupons, but please reconsider about staying with us. You are welcomed to stay as long as you want (we do have two dogs who will love you to death). We are only about an hour out of the city and have the Metra which takes you to downtown (parking in the city is a b*tch and expensive..yesterday cost $18 and it was a bargin weekend rate).

Kaz,

I judge people just like everyone else does. I meet them I decide whether I like them, whether I'm willing to trust them, whether they are my enemies, or my friends. Sometimes, they turn out to be lovers, in the most non-sexual fashion possible.

I honestly do not consciously analyze anyone until I am asked to. My understanding all remains on a non-verbal, non-logical, intuitive level. And that is fine.

I'm a survivor and, of course, I use all my skills to survive, but I don't use them to snoop or to control.

I have no mandate as an analyst. Yes, I have a fair amount of psych traing but not nearly enough to make me a therapist.

What I can do, if I am asked, is to try to draw some connections that were perhaps not obvious to you, but which might be helpful.

I, also, have this incredible need to understand as much as possible about a situation from as many viewpoints as possible. It's a question of motivation.

My technique is very theatrical, I feed in everything I know about the 'character' I am considering till I feel that I have enough to animate that 'person'. Then I ask questions and get answers. When I'm acting, I have to stop there although there is always input from the director and actors around me. When I'm working with real people, I can go back to them with those answers, to confirm or deny my model and thus to perfect it. It's never a complete model, so I am used to making guesses and extrapolations to see if they fit in with everything else.

I do not and cannot read your mind. I might stumble on secrets that you have kept hidden but I won't tell them and you were telling me about them.

Some people say they see auoras, but my understanding has nothing to do with sight and I will often defocus my eyes when I am using that ability. I am not sending out spy rays and I am not the evil mastermind puppet of the evil mushrooms that are working to take over the world.

Of course, when you meet me, you will have to make up your own mind, as will Moonglum. I assure you though, that I will not attempt to force my attentions on either of you. If you are more comfortable avoiding me, you can simply say so, and I will help you to make it happen.

I like to be liked. I don't expect that that will always happen.

The quote you found, was me explaining or trying to explain why I say some of the things I do. Unfortunately, it can also be read as a pompous 'superman' declaring his superiority.

Normally, I try to follow such explainations with statements about my inferiority and my need to scrabble to survive. But, people seem to stop reading before that point, apparently thinking that nothing else this person says can be taken to have any basis in reality.

If challenged, I can generally satisfy the challenger. But, those watching will have nothing other than apparent stage mind reading or perhaps even the effects of a collaborator. It doesn't help that I have studied stage magic in my usual lazy fashion, just as I have studied nuclear physics, arcane secrets, psychology, sociology, aesthetics, and, to a far greater extent, theatre.

(I invite those who think that the study of the craft of theatre has no bearing, to visit any stage house and arrange a tour with the stage manager. Ask him about the various, guilds, crafts, and unions which have grown up around the things neecessary in the real world, some of which began as innovations for the theatre.)

I don't expect you to believe me, I am flattered that you have taken what I said that much to heart.

I am not an analyst. I am a friend. I am someone who cares and someone will try to help if help is asked for.

That is all I am, Of course, I can also be a bull-headed, demanding debater or a teacher of my brand of philosophy but that isn't what the survivors group is about. All I will ever try to do there is to add some clarification and to share my own reactions.

Time and place for everything?

Well, yeah!

Barton