Читать книгу Image Carriers - Genel Anthony - Страница 3

It was an unusually warm day for autumn in this magical city, which seemed to come alive with excitement as its rainbow people went about their business. Even the massive grey monolith, standing proudly, keeping watch over this vibrant land, yawned tiredly as clouds slowly nestled around its well-known flat top. Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, stood high and firm and gave the impression that it was somehow alive, protecting its inhabitants with its sheer dominance and ever-changing moods.

High above the ocean, along the snaky road hugging this world-famous mountain, two young and very attractive women laughed loudly while singing out of tune to old songs blaring from their hired car’s radio. They had especially chosen the little red car with a sunroof, as they thought it reflected their youthful personalities. The dawn had taken them to secret lookouts along the mountain and ocean routes, and they had happily taken photos of everything that harboured natural beauty. They were now on their way back to their beachfront hotel in Camps Bay.

As they drove along the sometimes zigzag road, they could see the sheer cliff face cut out of the grey mountain, climbing upwards into the clouds. On their left was a sheer drop to the angry Atlantic Ocean below. Along the seaside of the road, along the gravel’s edge, clumps of grass and sad-looking wild flowers hung on desperately, as the turbulent currents from below tried to uproot them.

The attractive blonde at the wheel was in her twenties; twenty-eight to be precise. She uttered with an accent that was not local, giving the feeling that she was a tourist. She was currently visiting a family friend in a little known town about a two hour drive by car from Cape Town. Her new best friend, sitting in the passenger seat, was a local stunning, skinny African young adult female who had recently turned twenty-two. She lived with her family, who ran a rundown shop in the town her friend was visiting. They had quickly become best friends, as the obscure little place didn’t have many inhabitants, and they found they had a great deal in common.

They had planned their exciting trip nearly a month earlier, booking a wonderful hotel in the bay area of Cape Town. They wanted to go out and dance and have fun, and they did. They also hired a car to visit all the coastal beaches and gardens and mountain retreats and took hundreds of photos for their memories. Feeling overwhelmed with all the excitement and unimaginable scenery, the driver suddenly shouted out, “I want to remember this for the rest of my life!”

Her friend joined in, “Me too!” and they both laughed out loud.

The road was quiet, with not much traffic, so the driver only half-focused on her driving. She just had to ensure that she stayed within the lanes; otherwise they could easily topple over the cliff into the wild ocean below. As they sang together to another well-known song, the car suddenly jerked forward, throwing the unsuspecting passenger out of her seatbelt, against the front dashboard, knocking her face with a jaw breaking blow. The driver screamed out, trying to control the car, as it picked up speed on its descent down the mountain. The young African woman was trying to stop the blood gushing from her nose and mouth while she hung on, shouting in agony for the driver to stop the car!

Trying instinctively to keep the car from racing over the cliff, the driver quickly realised that the brakes were not working; she tried turning the wheel towards the mountain, so the car wouldn’t drop into the sea below, which caused the little red vehicle to quickly spin around. There was a loud, sudden bang as a tyre or something exploded, instantly removing all control from the driver. She could only watch in horror as the car sped towards the mountainside, smashing into the hard grey cliff, with a dreadful sound, causing the car to spin violently around before toppling over and landing on its roof, upside down, coming to a halt in the middle of the road.

Both women were bleeding and injured, and the driver moaned in pain, looking over to her mangled friend who had come clean out of her seat belt and was resting on the ceiling near the sunroof. Through the sunroof, she could see broken glass shattered on the road; her unmoving friend looked seriously injured or already dead. From the nook of her eye and through an open section of the broken door window, she could pick up a large dark coloured vehicle briefly stopping as it came round the bend. After a few seconds, or maybe longer, as the injured driver was dropping in and out of consciousness, she suddenly heard what sounded like scraping noises. She then realised that the automobile was moving along the road and making a high-pitched grating and ghastly sound.

As the driver hung awkwardly in her seatbelt, upside down, she watched the road slide by through the open and damaged sunroof. She knew the car was sliding towards the sea. It would just be a matter of moments before they went over the cliff…

In the southern hemisphere, on the other side of the globe, on a big island with golden sands, surfing beaches and hopping marsupials, lived Adam Green, who was in his early forties, in Sydney, Australia. He is a business coach and counsellor with a successful private practice, working with the corporate sector and also seeing private clients for general mental health concerns. Adam is single and enjoyed it; he shared his house with a youth who had become his unofficially adopted son. They lived together on the lower north shore of Sydney, about a fifteen-minute drive from his office in the city.

That morning, the alarm clock rang as it did every morning at 6.30 am. It had been another cold night, and the morning was even colder, or at least Adam thought so. He gingerly climbed out of bed, his lean body limp, as if drained of vitality, as he made his way to the bathroom. His thinning, short dark brown hair was another sign that his youth was behind him. He still had the chiselled features that made him striking too many women. He was tall and had to bend over to catch himself in the small wall mirror to examine his greying side burns, wondering if he should just pull them out or dye them to match the rest of his hair.

He headed into the kitchen to have a quick snack before leaving for work. The familiar smell of burning toast engulfed his senses as he walked down the hall; his youthful friend was up and had the radio blaring in the kitchen, burning his toast as usual. They grunted morning greetings to each other. They did not speak much in the early mornings. Adam poured his tea and gave the youth a disapproving look, as he did nearly every morning. Adam felt that the young man did not dress appropriately and disliked the idea of having his hair sticking out everywhere, looking untidy and wild. Though Adam disapproved, he long ago gave up nagging him to get a haircut.

Adam left the house and drove to work, as he did every morning. It was a cold autumn day and the harbour city was well into its routine. Traffic jams were everywhere, and the radio announcer on his car radio warned drivers about gridlock, car accidents, Lorries stuck under bridges and so on: just another day in Sydney.

Adam’s office was in the city centre, and he was really happy with his long-term and dedicated receptionist, Carol. She organised his clients and ensured that things worked smoothly in the agency. Adam had been practising as a business and mental health consultant for many years, and his practice had grown over time. He had a good reputation and many people came to him for guidance, support and to use his special room that had become famous among his clients and associates. It is said that tired and stressed individuals entered the De-Stress Room and upon their exit looked like new people; refreshed, stress-free and happy. New clients often commented about the room and secretly wondered how they could acquire access. Many privileged individuals booked the room regularly and thought that it worked wonders for their stress levels, and some actually claimed it made them appear younger!

Carol loved her job and was fondly protective of Adam. She considers him a very good friend. She was also in her forties, late forties, about seven years his senior. She took her role seriously and acted as if she owned the practice. Nothing or no one would get past her unless she said so. Carol had become even more devoted to her job after she experienced some problems in her personal life with her now ex-husband many years earlier. Adam was very supportive and gave her as much time off work as she needed back then. He sympathised with her plight, as she and her young daughter had to find emergency accommodation after her marriage took a turn for the worse. Since then, she always said she would never forget what Adam did for her and her daughter and the unconditional support he gave to them during that time.

On this day, one of Adam’s regulars was coming in to visit him. She was no longer his client as such, as he used to work with her in a clinical setting a few years earlier when she was having challenges managing her chronic anxiety and fears. She was initially referred to Adam by her psychiatrist, after spending a short stay in hospital. She told Adam that she wanted to hide from the “big bad world” for a while. Her psychiatrist thought she needed more counselling and support rather than medication management.

Adam worked with Evelyn on and off for about two years before they decided that she no longer required ongoing counselling support. Evelyn kept in contact with Adam as she liked and trusted him. She considered him a friend of sorts and told him this on many occasions. This was a rarity for her as she found it very difficult to trust or care for anyone. Adam also decided to allow her to visit on occasions because he and Carol had also grown to like Evelyn and she appeared lonely and lost.

Evelyn was not a typical-looking middle-aged woman. She had no friends because of her sometimes peculiar behaviour, which at times made people feel uncomfortable. She had brown hair that always hung untidily just above her shoulders. She had long strands of grey hair in the mix, and she did not bother much about those. She also had a strange personality, talking in an abrupt manner at times, causing people to think that she was rude and arrogant, while others thought she lacked social skills. Adam realised that these were all part of Evelyn’s idiosyncrasies. She didn’t appear to have any family and never talked about her personal situation. She harboured many secrets and would not share them with anyone.

Evelyn would always change the subject if anyone asked about her personal life or would act dumb and focus on something else, leaving the speaker mystified. Adam was aware of these traits and knew they were a coping mechanism for her. He often wondered what happened in her past to make her this way. Furthermore, people would often look at Evelyn and think that there was something amiss; a screw loose or something wrong with her. However, Evelyn didn’t mind what people thought, and she stuck to her eccentric ways and lived in secret somewhere, although Carol had recently discovered that she lived somewhere on the northern beaches of Sydney, popping up from time to time and then going missing for months on end.

Adam was aware that some of his peers probably thought he was just as strange as Evelyn, especially after publishing his article on the NO people. A well-known journalist interviewed Adam one day many years ago about coining the term “NO people.” Since then, he and Carol and many of his clients and associates affectionately used the term, but many others found the term politically incorrect, so they decided to only use the acronym among themselves.

The term “NO people” describes people who contribute little or nothing to society or their families, or even themselves, as “NO” is an acronym for None-operating. These people seem to be empty on the inside; they often describe feeling stale and purposeless. They report that they feel as if they are not part of life; not operating normally anymore and seemingly going around in circles and achieving nothing. Many of them say that they feel lacking in energy, as if they are not living their lives properly and missing out on opportunities. Some report that they cannot distinguish between the petty and the important any longer; in other words, they go about their everyday business focusing on insignificant things while ignoring the more important stuff. They also feel guilty about things that are not in their control, or for no apparent reason. Some in the profession has reported that it may be part of an anxiety or other mental disorder. Either way, Adam found that many of his clients related to this term very quickly and were very keen to free themselves from this none-operating existence.

Since this article was published, Adam’s reputation went up among some of his peers and clients and down among minority groups who thought that he was labelling people. Either way, Adam was content with this term as it helped motivate his clients enormously and many still thank Adam for what he taught them. This approach worked so well, many of Adam’s colleagues have adopted this therapy.

Most people are aware that the majority of mental disorders come in many forms, moreover, people presenting with varied symptoms; although individuals may have the same disorder, say anxiety, treatment may vary depending on their situation and personality type. Coining the term, NO people, gave many a quick understanding and insight into their situation, giving them the power to take some control and responsibility for making changes in their lives. These people also knew that this was the first step in many steps towards the path of inner contentment.

Adam created an effective strategy to challenge the NO people’s situation and to get them operating as they should. First, they need to learn how to take responsibility and become a creator rather than a victim. Then the work really begins. Therapy will not work if you are the victim or a passive passenger just going along for the ride. You need to be the creator and the driver of where you want to go or what you want to achieve. And once word got out about this new approach, the NO people scrambled to Adam’s office to learn ways to free themselves from the dreaded curse of being a None Operating person, and in turn, towards managing the deeper issues of their disorders and malfunctioning. Sadly, many of these clients were misinformed in the past, been told they could achieve anything no matter how unrealistic; also encouraging young minds into areas that are not a good fit for them, while failing to address the real and deeper issues of the individual. Subsequently, this left the poor misguided person feeling even more helpless, confused and embarking on a crooked journey of no growth or resolution of their issues. Hence, no progress and more despair. Many happy and successful clients of Adam often put their hands on their hearts and proclaimed to the world that they were once NO people, but not anymore. They have broken the loop of deception, removed themselves from the confining swamp and returned to their road of freedom, where their real destiny can be found. Adam has encouraged these muddled individuals to free themselves from someone else’s reality.

Carol often got hot under the collar when she read or heard people criticizing Adam about his article on NO people. Most of the information was not factual, and many of their unsubstantiated comments were fabricated and sensationalised, painting Adam as an evil person. Carol often wondered how they got away with printing and reporting untruths about people.

Adam wasn’t disturbed about all of the above, as he ran one of Sydney’s most popular and successful counselling businesses. His unique and upfront style was a hit with many people, including well-known types and some of Australia’s wealthiest individuals. He had no worries about his business ever going under, although one journalist in particular seemed to want this. Carol also believed that some of these media people were envious of his success and enlightened approach. They didn’t like what he had to say, as it went against their own agendas and ideologies.

Over the last few years, Adam began taking an interest in psychic phenomena, extrasensory perception and the like, as some of his clients reported information that defied normal explanation. These reports occurred too often for him to ignore any longer. He had always had an interest in that part of life and instinctively knew that there was more to existence than just the physical world and what could be seen. Furthermore, Adam had his own set of mystical experiences over the years; experiences that he ignored or filed away in his too-hard-to-solve psychological basket. But three accounts of his past continued to haunt him, and he had no explanation of why he had those paranormal experiences.

One of Adam’s first freaky experiences, if you like, was with a young female friend named Drizzy, many years ago.

When Adam was around ten or eleven years old, he befriended a strange-looking girl he had not seen before. The girl told him that she was ten years old and lived in the adjoining area. They became friends and often played together in the local park and surrounding forest. Adam’s parents lived in a rural area, and their house was at the end of a road near a large wooded forest.

Adam’s other friends didn’t care much for the girl and couldn’t understand why Adam was showing interest in her. Her name was Drizzy, which was a strange name. She was a girl, and if that wasn’t bad enough, she was also foreign to the neighbourhood, strange-looking, with pale skin, jet- black hair that hung a long way down her back, and earrings in both ears. Back in the late 1960s, people were very suspicious of strangers with exotic names, especially if they had bizarre customs, and for a child to be wearing earrings were simply not on.

Adam didn’t know what all the fuss was about and found Drizzy very interesting. She was like a tomboy in many ways. She could climb trees, run just as fast as he could and was ready to fight anyone that crossed her.

He eventually found that he was meeting her in secret in the forest, in a tree house that he and his friends had built the previous year. They would also walk further into the woods and sit by the river and talk for ages about things that Adam couldn’t recall years later. All he knew was that he found her exciting to be around at that time.

While they were in the overgrown woodland near the river one day, Drizzy picked a wild white calla lily, as they grew prolifically in the area around the riverbank. She showed it to Adam and wanted him to take an interest in the flower. Adam was not interested in wild flowers because he had grown up around them, but he humoured her and pretended to be interested. Upon closer investigation, as Drizzy drew the flower nearer to him and encouraged him to look at the protruding yellow spadix inside the flower, to his amazement he saw little speckles encircling the yellow spadix. As he focused nearer, he noticed hundreds of little specks spinning around the yellow inner stem like little insects flying around. But they were not tiny insects. They seemed artificial or something else–something he had never seen before!

After a short while, Adam stepped back, as he didn’t like the feeling he was getting deep down in his stomach and thought this was too weird. He felt the sudden urge to leave the riverbank and head home immediately. Drizzy also sensed his discomfort and asked if he was okay, but as Adam peered up at her, he noticed little colourful dots or specks flickering around her head and upper body. He then focused his gaze around the immediate area, looking at the long wild grass moving quietly in the summer breeze and noticed a purplish, bluish haze around each blade of grass, giving out a dull glow of light. The trees all around them seemed to be swaying slowly, appearing alive with reddish to pinkish light surrounding their upper trunks and foliage. Even the slow-running muddy river seemed to sparkle with various rainbow-coloured shimmering light. He rubbed his eyes wildly and thought that he was going blind or something was in his eye. This action did nothing as he continued to see little halos of iridescent light around Drizzy’s head and the surrounding area.

It seemed to Adam that time was standing still, and he began to panic and started to rub his eyes more furiously. Drizzy asked what was wrong, as she had noticed no changes in the immediate environment. Adam noticed that she spoke in slow motion, moving her mouth very slowly. He shouted that something was wrong. Drizzy was now standing, as if in a trance, not moving, just staring at him in a catatonic way, as if she was switched off–frozen! As his panic peaked, he quickly decided to leave the area and run home, deserting his new friend, as she stood motionless, staring ahead in a transfixed pose, surrounded by tall pine trees and thick bush.

As Adam ran through the forest, sticking to the well-worn pathway they often used, he noticed that his vision was returning to normal. By the time he reached the end of the wooded area and stepped onto the road that led to his house, he felt okay. When he got home, he felt better and went to rest on his bed. He wondered if he should tell his parents, but after a brief rest, he decided to try and forget about the whole experience.

Drizzy was a strange girl, and she was of a different religion and culture than the majority in the area. All of Adam’s friends were of the same cultural and religious background, and phobias were rife in those days. The common outlook was the “us versus them” mentality. Minority groups stayed in their own areas and associated with their own kind and vice versa for Adam and his friends. Adam remembered little games they played about being caught by the Russians. They did not want to be caught by the Russians. They were the enemy. He also remembered being petrified by Asian people, as these people were supposed to be dangerous. Muslims were also considered very strange, and their parents didn’t want them to play with Muslim children. That’s how it was back then, hence why Adam’s friends weren’t too happy about Drizzy playing with them in their area. But she would make the trip nonetheless, as she was also cheeky and determined.

After the incident down by the river, Adam didn’t see Drizzy for about a month before she turned up again. This was quite usual, as she would make a nuisance of herself nearly every school afternoon and weekends, and then she would just vanish for weeks on end. But the same thing happened with his other friends. Depending on what was going on, they would play every afternoon, and then sometimes Adam would not see them as they would be out with their families, attending church, or in trouble, so they were grounded and so on. This went for Adam as well.

When Drizzy finally made an appearance after the terrifying experience with that lily flower, she asked what had happened and why he ran off so quickly. Adam didn’t really want to revisit that day again. For one, it scared him and also, he didn’t want Drizzy, a girl, to know that he was on the verge of crying. But she persisted. He finally told her briefly what he had experienced that day. Her recollection was that Adam just shouted something and then took off, racing down the path, back home. She had no memory of her being frozen or ‘switched off.’ Drizzy looked at him with disbelief, as Adam continued with what happened to him that day. She then became very excited. She told him a very interesting story that Adam would always remember. She told him that her aunt often talked about special people who are able to see the truth in everything. That they can see the light around all living things and can slide along the ribbon of time, popping in and out at will and seeing between places and those things undetected by the normal human eye. She eagerly told Adam that he may be like the people her aunt often talked about. She wanted him to meet her aunty, but Adam refused.

Adam later recalled Drizzy coming into his life around the ages of 10 or 11, and that they hung around for about twelve months or thereabouts before she vanished altogether. Her family must have moved because Adam never saw her again.

Adam always puts that experience down as some form of allergic reaction to the flower or something in that area, hence hallucinating that afternoon, even though he had played in that vicinity for most of his early life without any problems. He also did not believe for a moment what Drizzy told him about people who could see things in the other world. Unfortunately for Adam, and to this very day, he continues to avoid the white lily flower and refuse to have them anywhere near him.

Adam’s other mysterious experience involved a time when he was older.

Adam was in his early twenties–twenty two to be exact– when he had another strange experience. He was socialising with his best friends in a large rented house he leased with flatmates. His two flatmates were away so he invited his best friends over to watch movies and have a small party. After much drinking and laughing and playing loud music, the party ended and his friends went home. Adam, alone in the house, locked up and went to fall onto his bed as he was very tipsy, to say the least, but happy and content with the success of the evening. He hoped his friends would talk about the success of his party and perhaps invite him to their next party. As he lay there in bed, feeling contented, he slowly began falling asleep. Just before nodding off completely, something made him open his eyes slightly, as if automatically checking on something in the semi-dark room.

The moon was bright that night, and his room was not completely dark. He could make out shadowy areas around his room. To his great shock, he saw a misty, egg-shaped figure in his room. It stood around four to five feet in height and floated near the doorway and seemed to change shape, forming into something else altogether. It had no physical features that one could identify or any clear shape, but was rather a misty shape trying to materialise or disappear, sort of halfway between the physical and the invisible. This made Adam open his eyes wider, as his initial thought was that someone had broken into the house and had now come into his bedroom. Yet at the same time, horror ran through his mind as he realised that he was staring at something that was not human or even possible!

As he watched this terrifying scene–probably lasting no more than a few seconds–he felt his heart racing and wondered what to do next. Had this thing seen him? He continued to lie there, holding himself very still, with his mouth slightly open, as his heart pumped loudly, and before he could do anything, he noticed that this strange misty figure started to move quickly towards him. Adam screamed out, as if freeing his body from a trance, and he grabbed the little lamp on his bedside table for protection, simultaneously turning it on and holding it in front of him, expecting someone to crash down on him at any moment. But there was no one there. The thing was gone. Terrorised and in shock and trying to compose himself, he impatiently searched the room, but found no one around. That thing or whatever it was had gone. Adam remembered his heart racing so heavily he thought he was about to have a heart attack. That experience scared him immensely, as he believed it was something real and not a figment of his intoxicated imagination.

Many years later, Adam (now in his early thirties) had another strange happening. It was a weeknight in mid- January in Sydney. He went to bed as usual. He read his book and then must have put the book down for a moment, as the next thing he realised was that he was hovering above his bed looking down at someone lying in his bed. He wondered who this person was.

As he became aware of what was going on, he suddenly realised that he was looking at himself. In disbelief, he unexpectedly felt himself racing upwards at an amazing speed. It was suddenly dark. The stars were out and, in fact, they were everywhere in the vast distance. Everything was quiet. Eerily silent. No noise. He was floating upwards at a very fast speed, but felt no turbulence or vertigo. As he looked down, he could see only blackness and some stars in the distance, but strangely and surprisingly, he felt no fear. It felt peaceful and yet familiar. There was no sound to be heard anywhere until he began hearing faint voices talking and laughing, as if having fun, in the distance. The voices were coming from above. He turned himself around so he could face upwards to see if he could see something. As he moved higher, he heard the talking getting louder.

As he moved aloft, he saw coming into view a rather strange-looking platform suspended in mid-air. As he neared the base of the platform, he slowed down. He could see the bottom of this large platform and knew instinctively that people were on top of the platform having a party or a get-together of some sort. The mood sounded festive and happy. As he was about to float up and see who these people were and what sort of gathering they were having, he heard a clear and familiar older female voice call out to him.

“Adam! What are you doing!? Go back!? Go back now!?”

The voice was so definite, so precise. It stopped Adam in his tracks. Without hesitation or doubt, he obeyed the voice and started to go back downwards. He remembered a downward sensation moving faster and faster, as the platform disappeared from his view. The next thing he knew, he woke up. His light was still on. His book was lying on the side of his bed. Adam immediately looked up to the ceiling as if expecting to see someone looking down at him, but no one was there. He knew the voice very well. It was the voice of a woman who he loved very much and who often looked after him when he was a small child. His loving grandmother had been dead for a very long time.

Above are just three accounts Adam had experienced in his life, and many other individuals have experienced similar phenomena. What do these experiences mean? Is this actual proof that there is an afterlife and an unseen world, and that sometimes, given the right conditions or circumstances, living people are allowed entry? Occasionally it seems that this unknown world reveals itself to us, even for just a fleeting moment. Why? Or is this all part of a sophisticated human brain and its variety of complex functions that can sometimes play amazing tricks, with brain chemicals firing here and there, putting on an amazing biological light show–all for the beholder?

Meanwhile, Adam’s clients continued talking to him about their personal and paranormal experiences, hence his thinking that he must have something tattooed on his forehead about his interest in this area. Some say it is synchronicity or intuition when things move in mysterious ways in order for the person to achieve their goals or destiny. Either way, Adam’s clients continued sharing their strange stories with him. He also couldn’t help thinking that there was much more to all of this than meets the eye. Even a handful of his successful CEOs and other business managers, leaders in their fields, confessed to him in their private sessions that they rely on their intuitive abilities in order to be successful in business. They described using their premonitions and gut feelings, along with their everyday skills, to make decisions and win over projects and people; that they kept this information from others. They also reported that they regularly used psychics and other paranormal methods to make decisions and run their businesses. So dipping into the mystical world from time to time is more common than many may think.

Getting back to Adams unique methods when dealing with some of his clients, some people sat on the fence with his approach while others again thought it maybe the future. Adam’s approach was to work with the whole client, incorporating the bio-psycho-social-spiritual and with a quantum understanding, when working with those needing healing.

Adam was not popular amongst some of his peers when he suggested that modern society seemed to be moving away from this holistic and mystical approach, as current medical and health professionals appear to specialise in one specific area at a given time, hence ignoring the other aspects of a person. For example, if you treat one area, you will not get complete success unless all the other connected areas are also treated. So what is the point of referring someone to a specialist to work on one particular condition, for example, insomnia, and then sending them on to another specialist to tend to another area, for instance, someone to prescribe medication for the insomnia and so on? This may be defeating the purpose? What one specialist will treat, may have little impact on the other areas that are linked, for example, interpersonal relationships, stress management, and so on. What about financial stress? It is the whole person that needs attention and all these areas should be taken into account. By the time the poor individual has seen all the specialists they were referred to, they may either be worse off, experience little or no improvement or, in a worst-case scenario, drop down dead altogether.

Many of Adam’s clients present with both psychosomatic and physical symptoms, which is common in Adam’s practice as many of his clients are in stressful jobs and experience bouts of intense anger, frustration, anxiety and distress. These clients respond well to the evidence-based therapies and to Adam’s overall approach to their individual situations. A quick stopover in the De-Stress room also helps calm their nerves and control any angry impulses. Carol would often see clients rush in looking stressed with hair on end and leave calm with hair in place. The proof was there. Adam’s holistic approach was working well, and many continue to speak highly of their experiences when visiting his professional rooms.

The secret De-Stress room in Adam’s office that so many were talking about was no longer secret. It was also known as the DS room for short. Adam couldn’t understand why so many people were making a fuss over the room, a quiet place where one could unwind and catch their breath. The room had become so popular over the years that many ex- clients continued to come back to use the room. It also became so popular that bookings were made months in advance, and local journalists wanted to write articles and take photos to include in their colourful magazines.

Carol often used the room after hours when she needed a psychological boost. Carol could be considered to be a happy person, and she claimed that the room had a positive impact on her mind and body. She puts it down to the spiritual side of things–as if light and colour were having a direct impact on her soul in a positive and edifying way. She couldn’t really explain what she meant by this to Adam, but Adam knew what she was trying to say. Either way, it worked for her.

The room consisted of a large reclining chair, positioned in the middle of the room, facing a large flat television screen hanging from the wall. There were speakers hidden out of sight, filling the room with inspirational music if this was what the client selected. If the client wanted to view the tranquil scenery of nature and beautiful landscapes, then they could choose to listen to the sounds of the natural world as well.

During the experience, the lights are dimmed, and distinct coloured lights are controlled to set the atmosphere in the room. The colours vary from icy blue to soft pink and pure greens to the warm golden colours–and all the colours in the rainbow, shining, as if they had some form of intelligence, communicating to a deeper part of one’s being. The colours can be easily managed by a control panel near the wall by the door and from another room near where Carol sits in reception. Clients often asked Carol to set a program for them. Many of these creative line-ups had been put together by Adam and others in the industry to bring about a relaxing and memorable experience for the client.

A typical experience involves a client entering a temperature-controlled room that is also soundproof. The first thing they will notice is the relaxing décor and nothing more. The room is quite sparse, with few distractions and no clutter. There are no windows in the room; only the television screen, mounted high on the wall, facing the recliner chair. Some clients do not bother with the television, only wanting coloured light and inspirational music piped down to them, while others want to lose themselves in natural scenery, high in the alpine mountains, listening intently to majestic waterfalls, exotic birdlife and whale songs to soothe their minds.

Affirmations and more practical repetitive programmes are also available where recorded voices instruct clients how to be assertive and less passive; how to give up addictions and remain in control; along with the more common methods of managing stress levels and anxiety.

Recently, Adam incorporated a new programme into the special room: images of how neurons wire and fire in the brain; how this neural electrical network lights up and send messages faster than the speed of light. It is a ground breaking video of a microscopic journey through the neural network and brain cells, and is actually a sight to behold. The viewer is transported into a minuscule world which reveals billions of tiny neurons doing their thing, lighting up here and there and communicating in swift succession, ensuring the brain is working as it should. It also encourages the viewer to make the necessary adjustments on the inside, to bring about changes on the outside.

Clients have reported that the new addition brings about a hypnotic effect that seem to play at the heart of their higher self, their unseen self, that innocent and true self of who they really are. The intoxicating feelings of deep pleasure are all about, as they report feeling bliss and joy as never before, briefly wondering what is happening to them. A kaleidoscope of colours and mixed visual stimuli permeates the room, as clients lay there taking in the majestic light show. Many report entering a deeper state of being, perhaps the alpha or theta brainwave states, where they find tranquillity and peace they have never known or experienced before.

Others again want a milder experience and choose a natural sound of harps playing in the distance with the colour purple sparkling about the room. Streams of golden light also make an appearance, subtlety, as they all come together, mesmerising the client. Some astonished individuals have reported that they saw the truth in everything, as if the veil of illusion was momentarily lifted.

Carol also had a television monitor built into her desk so she could observe the clients in the room from two cameras mounted out of the way in the room. Sometimes clients get so carried away, they break down with emotion and need rescuing. Other times, clients don’t want to leave the room and Carol would then need to go and collect them.

It wasn’t long before Adam realised that he was on a winning formula with his D-Stress room and his holistic approach. After many months of deliberating with his colleagues in his profession, and due to his high success rate, many of them wanted to know what methods or tools he was using, as they couldn’t ignore his success any longer. Many wanted a DS room themselves. Many wanted to know his secret of success. When Adam finally told a handful of his trusted colleagues, they fell over backwards in disbelief!