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18

Charisma

A quality which inspires great enthusiasm and devotion Needs to be disciplined when dealing with emotions.

BETTY SHINE

CHARISMATIC PEOPLE can enhance or destroy our lives. I have seen the effects of the latter at first hand. If parents are not careful and their child becomes aware of his or her own charisma at an early age, they will forgive their offspring everything and a control freak will come to the fore. However, I have also met people who, unaware of their charisma, fill others with such warmth that life seems infinitely more bearable in their presence.

When faced with a charismatic personality, study them and listen. Then you should have no problem deciding which of the two categories they fall into.

Visualisation: Taking a stroll one evening, you notice a stream of people entering a lecture hall. Intrigued, you join them. Having been informed of the subject matter of the lecture, you decide to stay, and you are immediately entranced by the charismatic nature of the speaker. Within minutes you feel the atmosphere in the room changing until it is charged with emotion bordering on hysteria. You are being told to believe, at all costs. Looking around, you see the faces of the audience contorted with fervour. You decide it is time to leave. A member of the audience follows you outside and asks you why you are leaving so early. ‘I am leaving,’ you tell him, ‘because I like to choose the paths I tread, and I did not find peace in this place.’

While walking home you remember a teacher at school, who not only had masses of charisma but who regularly, and with humour, put himself down. And you realise that it had been an act so that his pupils would not think he was God and take everything he said as gospel. He captured their interest with his charismatic personality, made them listen, and then, when he thought they had understood, he made them laugh. He wanted them to enjoy his lectures but keep their own thoughts intact.

Affirmation: When I meet a person with charisma I will be cautious.