Get Some Production Therapy

In his junior year, he was sitting in the cafeteria one day when three smiling Japanese girls started flirting with him. They asked if they could sit at my table, engaged me in conversation, and invited me to come over to their house to meet some friends from all over the world. The evening was innocuous enough; Steven thanked them and headed outside. They followed and asked if he'd return the next day. He politely declined. I remember they came all the way out to the car, it was snowing, a bunch of people, not even wearing shoes. With them and Jeff, the Yankees sure had the makings of a good team. Derek hoped he would be on the Yankees too, and not just because it was the name of his favorite team. All the Jeters stood up and started applauding the minute Sharlee came onstage. At the end of her solo, Derek shouted, Go, Sharlee! But her eyes sparkled as she said it. When the recital was over, Sharlee came out the stage door, where the families were waiting to greet the performers. She saw Derek, ran to him, and leapt into his arms. He spun her around and said, Bravo, Sis! How was I? Was I the best one? The tree is just in your mind. You might then wonder: Well, I can walk to the tree and touch it, and that touching will occur over there and not here. When you do this, your hand touches the bark of the tree.

You feel a tingling sensation that you label hand touching bark. But if you close your eyes and lose all association with the concepts of hand and bark, what do you feel? Imagine you were a newborn infant who didn't know what any objects were. How would the infant describe the sensation of what you call hand touching bark? The answer is: All that you experience is a tingly sensation. As you close your eyes and imagine this, where does that tingly sensation occur? The sensation occurs right in your field of consciousness. They surrounded my car and more or less said they wouldn't let me leave unless I promised to come back. I remember thinking, These are crazy people, but I've always been a very principled person and I felt guilty. Steven went back, then agreed to attend a weekend getaway. A van drove them forty-five minutes outside of the city. When they passed through the gates, his hosts announced they were having a joint workshop with the Unification Church. I went, `Whoa! I'm Jewish. Nobody said anything about a church. Do you have something against Christians? They also said the van wasn't going back until the next morning. You were fantastic! Derek said. She was, wasn't she?

Jeter, giving Sharlee a kiss on the head that knocked her tiara loose. She squirmed out of Derek's arms, bent down and grabbed it, and stuck it back on her head. You were awesome! Jeter, clapping her hands. Yay, Sharlee! Derek, said Sharlee, putting her little hand in his as they walked to the car, do you think I can be a ballerina someday? Of course you can, Sharlee! The sensation of touching the tree is nothing more than a modulation of your consciousness. The tree--as you see and feel it--is nothing but consciousness. The tree exists in your mind. You might then wonder again: What if I hear one of the tree's branches break--the sound occurs at the tree, which is over there. Run the same exercise as above. Where does your experience of hearing the branch break occur? Does it occur at the site of the tree? Close your eyes and imagine it; You will find that just like the seeing of the tree and the feeling of the tree, your hearing of the branch break occurs in your field of consciousness. The sound is a modulation of your consciousness. That night they sang songs, ate, socialized. It reminded me of summer camp, Steven said. The two-day workshop became three, then seven;

Steven missed classes, he quit his part-time job, he turned on his family. And I came to believe we were at a pivotal time in history. I had the question answered in my mind of who's the messiah on Earth. Who was going to save the planet, end all wars and starvation, create a world where everyone would live together in harmony like the Garden of Eden. That someone was the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Steven had become a Moonie. And not just any Moonie. Derek thought back to what his parents had told him the night before. You can do anything you dream of, if you're willing to work hard enough for it. Sharlee repeated, scrunching up her face. That doesn't sound like much fun. It can be, Derek assured her. Hey, don't you have fun when you're dancing? And it's the same with me and baseball. I don't mind working hard at that. But you work hard in school, too, she pointed out. Don't you mind that? It is nothing but consciousness. The tree--as you see and feel and hear it--is nothing but consciousness. The tree only exists in your mind.

There is no tree independent and outside of your mind. And since the tree exists in your mind as a modulation of your consciousness, it really is just a modulation of you. You aren't separate from the tree, even though you've been conditioned to interpret your perceptions that way. Similarly, consider thoughts and emotions. Where do they occur? Close your eyes, and watch your thoughts and emotions flow. You will find that they, too, occur in your field of consciousness. Steven rose to become a right-hand man to Reverend Moon. He cut his hair, donned a suit, gave over his bank account, and was told to pick a country he would rule when Moon controlled the world. He achieved this status because he proved to be exceptional at recruiting members, at persuading them that Satan had taken over their families, at helping them believe he knew their one true purpose. He also slept only three to four hours a night, gave up masturbation and sex, and went on regular hunger strikes. I drove myself to the brink, he said. Then, at 5:30 a. He had not slept for two days. And I drove into the back of a tractor trailer at eighty miles an hour, he said. The van was crushed, and I was pinned. The door had to be sawn off. Yeah, sometimes, he said, thinking back to the contract he'd just signed. But I've still got to do it if I want to succeed. Then he gave her a look.