Voice Dialog
by Richard King, Winter '97
As I sit down to facilitate a Voice Dialog session I feel excitement, fear and the
ever-present lack of center. I can kid myself I'm centered in aware ego, it's even
felt like it a few times, but just underneath, no, over the top, is the critic. The
critic, ever helpful in his analysis of the situation, is quite brilliant, he doesn't miss
much at all. I like him, but his cohort the judge is the pain in the ass. All
this chat used to bother me, especially when I saw it clearly the first few times in voice
dialog sessions. Now I've learned a degree of compassion, and for that I'll be
grateful for the rest of my life.Voice dialog
has allowed me to move consciously into energies that have lived, unlived, in me for
decades. Unlived, unvoiced, unconscious. The late-breaking news, for me at 55, that
voices act whether I'm conscious of them or not, has been a great incentive to look
inside, to do voice dialog sessions, to look into the shadow.
Discovering my voices has given me greater choice in my life,
and I use it. I pick out of the chatter one or two voices to help me reach my
purpose in a meeting. More life-giving, I can shift my energy out of ghastly bonding
patterns, and I can shift into places of intimacy and pleasure. The ability that
comes with voice dialog training to shift between energies, to choose voices and to
negotiate with voices, continues to be one of the better gifts of life.
The other joy of voice dialog is moving into energies I've
never felt before. Suppressed parts of me, perfectly competent parts of me. Some
archetypal energies, way beyond anything I can handle for long periods, but they certainly
are thrilling.
This has so far been about the joys of voice dialog.
Well, there's a down side. It's been foundation-shattering (it felt that way, and
probably will again) to face what's been happening in my life. That's what the compassion
is for.
There's much more to say. About the unique history of
each voice, the life-purpose of a voice, the limited understanding that a voice has, the
terror that a voice has of letting go its control, the tenaciousness of a voice in its
concern for your welfare, the expansion of energy that goes with revealing some
voices..... Voice dialog is about releasing treasures.
I want to describe what it can be like to be with someone
when they find another of their many selves. There's recognition at the deepest level,
awareness of being connected with another member of this experience that is human life.
Even if their voice is not one I know, even if it feels alien to me, it's
fundamental to what life is for them and I am moved.
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