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OH DEAR On a happy day when he walked so great wa
s his joy that thrills from his feet pulsed through the ground rippled up trees entered the bodies of birds and sparkled out in rhapsodies of song. So they locked him up and gave him medication - Half a Hug (1998) P: “I learned with Gestalt therapy that the three things you can burn energy with which are futile are explaining, complaining and blaming. I don’t do any of the three. The best moment for me was Gestalt which came at the end of six psychiatric hospital lockdowns was when I realised this is cyclical, there is no end to this unless I do something. So I said, ‘I know what I’m going to do, I’m going to sign myself out’ and I tried and the doctors said if you do this Mr Ingoldsby, the skies will open and swallow you, the ground will open and bury you and then Doctor O’Neill said, ‘I think you are right.’ I will sign you out if you go the corridor to the door marked Mike Jenkins, the Gestalt therapist. If he takes you you are out of here. And for the next two years I went twice a week and it was the scariest, roughest, toughest, truth telling moment of my life, there was nobody in there with any shit in them because we all wanted to get rid of it. From then on, I knew how to be healthy, balanced and when the darkness tried to get me, I was able get the darkness. Up to the present time Gestalt has kept me where I am, more than anything else it is about how when you are in the immediacy of this split second right now, you’re grand.” T: “Which is very zen like.” P: “Yes, and the other thing is coming to your senses. If you tune into your left elbow, you can feel it, that message is always available, all non-stop messages. I would still be self-mutilating and all that crazy but for the fact that I had the gift of this therapy helping me. It was such a gift.” “I learned with Gestalt therapy that the three things you can burn energy with which are futile are explaining, complaining and blaming.” T: “This is interesting because you said you didn’t do any drugs because acid… P: “Did you do it?” T: “I did.” P: “Did ya?” T: “Because with acid you are suddenly exposed to all the stimuli at once, all this stuff is coming at you, the way you filter it out.” P: “Wow, and what did you do?” T: “You let it wash over you man.” P: “Did you jump out a window?” T: “No, I let it all come at me.” P: “Did ya?” T: “I was lucky because some people never come back.” P: “And like how often did you do it?” T: “Once.” P: “Did you?” T: “Once was enough.” P: “And where did you get it?” T: “At a festival or something like that many years ago.” P: “And how do you take it?” 21