I have a gift that I discovered in my twenties. I could read art and know how the people who made it felt when they made their art. This gift has developed a great deal since I started working with people to lessen their suffering, using art-making in the process. Today much more information comes to me through people’s art. And more still comes through my own art-work, done in people’s presence, or when I am aware of them.
I used to be a graphic designer and an illustrator. I wrote for children and a little bit for adults. I came to NYC in 1985, 40 years old, married with three children and started a new career as an illustrator only. A few years later I became involved with Chan Meditation Center and studied meditation and Buddhist knowledge with the late Master Sheng-yen from Taiwan. For twelve years I was in a process of deepening my meditation. I had many more experiences and insights and my life changed. After having illustrated more than 40 children’s books and writing two of them, I left this career too and went to NYU to study art therapy.
ByGiora Carmi
Here is one of the most amazing things that happened to me in this life. I was driving my two cats in my ex-wife’s little Honda. I had to take them out of the apartment as the apartment was “bombed” against roaches. I could not prevent this and I actually wanted it to happen. I…
ByGiora Carmi
. Today is an important day for me, friends. I have decided to change the direction of this blog. Promising to cure myself right here in front of your eyes is too stressful and it is not a good life to live with this stress. Instead I am going to work my way to…
ByGiora Carmi
I learned healing-from-afar in a course that was given by an organization called Consciousness Research. The organization was created by Laurence LeShan, as part of his research into the possibility of non-local communication and influence. The experiment succeeded and the organization stayed intact, and continued teaching how to heal from afar, for many years. After…
ByGiora Carmi
I was a Chinese monk. Many years ago, before this lifetime, I was a Chinese Buddhist monk. I saw myself in deep meditation as one. In the vision, I was doing walking meditation, which is a way to learn to be deeply aware even when we are in action. By the way: according to Anat Baniel…
ByGiora Carmi
And still I did not tell you what I saw in that third drawing. So here it is. Obviously there is a screen like thing that stands between the viewer, and what is happening in a deeper level of the picture. This is easy to see. The ease of seeing is a natural product of…
ByGiora Carmi
I owe you going back to this drawing. It was made as a third interpretation of what was in that empty space, where the blue lines did not enter. Remember, I was not satisfied with the first drawing, but I went into it with words anyway. I felt a bit better when I did the…
ByGiora Carmi
So it is time to talk about theory. It will help, I hope. I realize that some people who look at my articles don’t know what I am talking about. It has not been researched. They have never read about this approach in articles in professional journals. There are no numbers here and no statistics….
ByGiora Carmi
It is always so in growth. You make a step. You feel the freshness of who you are, then the fear comes and grabs you again. It reminds me of the dance of the principal. I went to a parent’s meeting in the school of one of my children. We sat at tables that…
ByGiora Carmi
I don’t think I have to elaborate on the meanings in the poem in the last posting. It is clear enough. The most important things are the feelings that came through this work and I can list them here: Loss of control Asking for help Self-pity and self-criticism Fear Shame A wise thing to do…
ByGiora Carmi
Something strikes me now. In the blue drawing of a man being defined by what he is not, the lines in blue around the body feel like that fear, described in the previous posting. You see? The drawing knew it before me. Here is the drawing I at last made, late at night, of what…
ByGiora Carmi
So I had the gift from Shirley, as mentioned in my previous post. The universe even did more. You should all know this. Once you put your mind into doing something, the universe comes to help in unexpected ways. I had a conversation with the mother of a teenager who wanted to do therapy. The…
ByGiora Carmi
Here is an intervention from outside. I spoke with my friend Shirley. We have been talking every morning for a few years now, to help each other evolve. Only lately we have reduced our conversations to four times a week. This morning, as I described to her what I felt she instructed me to go…
