I need to say a few more words in response to the comments on my last post. I love you guys. You engage with and support me and each other, and that’s the important thing. This is a cozy little community traveling a very exciting road. I agree that people who need to be here will find their way, maybe through a nudge from Erik, which is often the case. 

Again, I thought it was shameful for me to chastise those who haven’t shared. These beliefs are highly personal and private, something I forgot because I’ve publicized mine so much. My intent wasn’t to hurt, really. I guess I just panicked. Also, I’ve been a little stressed over some medical issues. Of course that’s an explanation, not an excuse. Again, know that I love each and every one of you.

Enough of that shit, as Erik would say. (Okay, I’d say it, too. Who am I kidding.) Here’s an apropos post. We’ve covered forgiveness some, but this will add more understanding.

Me: What’s the importance of forgiveness, and how do we forgive?

Erik: Oh my god, Mom. Seriously. What is this, therapy day?

Me: Yes. Why, do you need some?

Erik: Nope.

Jamie chuckles.

Jamie: It was funny the way he said “nope.”

Erik: What is forgiveness? Forgiveness—

Jamie (to Erik): Okay. That was loud.

Erik (loudly): Forgiveness, first of all, is not forgetting. I’m not talking about you knowing how to forget shit. I’m just talking about you being emotionally calm with whatever it is. It’s saying, “I recognize it. I’m not holding onto you or tying strings to your ass because of what you did to me. I’m cutting you free, and it’s neutral ground from here on. It doesn’t trigger me. I don’t know what it does to you. That’s your own responsibility, but, for me, I’ve now been able to let it go. It does not trigger me emotionally anymore.” This does not mean that you absolutely never remember it again. That’s called amnesia.

Jamie and I laugh.

Jamie: He just got really close behind the camera and goes, “That’s called amnesia, people.”

Erik: How do you do it? I don’t know, Mom. People learn things differently all the time. This is the hard shit, trying to give directions. We can’t give directions to the masses. You have to give directions one-on-one.

Me: So, it’s different for each individual.

Erik: Yes. I will let people know that forgiveness is an emotional thing. It’s not a logical thing. Like you mentioned before, we are emotional people.

(Long pause)

Jamie (to Erik, shaking her head): I’m not going to do that. (To me) He’s doing some funny accent.

(Pause)

Jamie (to Erik): Get it together.

Erik: So, in forgiving—

(Long pause)

Jamie (to Erik): I don’t—what are you talking about. Are you switching gears?

(Very long pause)

Jamie (to Erik): I—Erik you’re going to have to start over. That didn’t make sense.

(Pause)

Jamie (to Erik): No.

Erik: For the person who’d really having a hard time forgiving, like they’ve gotten the therapy, what you need to learn is that you don’t need to have the other party present in front of you to forgive. Forgiveness is kind of a one-person job. It’s not a two-person job. You are totally in control of your own reactions, your own actions, your own triggers—everything. So, when you find that person who’s in therapy for five, ten, fifteen years and they’re saying, “Yeah, I tried to forgive my parents. They’ve been dead for 20 years, and I want to make a resolution with them.” They’re misunderstanding the concept of forgiveness.

(Long pause as Jamie listens)

Jamie (to Erik): Go back to it for a second, Erik.

Erik: They’re misunderstanding the concept of forgiveness. They don’t even need to be in spirit for you to make this resolution. We’re talking about forgiveness, not problem solving. You don’t have to hear to words, “I am sorry” for you to feel contentment in your forgiveness. There are energetic techniques that can help you with your forgiveness.

Jamie: And this is what he jumped to a minute ago where I was just kind of, I didn’t know where he was coming from. I asked him to back up, cuz he was showing me healing techniques, that kind of hands on, manipulative energy techniques where someone is coming in, okay, where you have a healer or a therapist who’s coming into your energetic field, to your energetic body and is helping you cut these energetic ties, connections, threads that you have with whomever and whatever the circumstances that need to be forgiven, and it’s energetically cutting them. This is helping you separate or peel, kind of like when you peel the skin off of an orange is what he’s showing me, so that you can get to the center of it and know that you, yourself, can create the forgiveness.

Erik: Forgiveness will come with the understanding that it’s done only for yourself and by yourself. You can have assistance with it through therapy to help you mentally understand that you have control of forgiving, and you can have assistance where it’s done energetically. They can help you remove these energetic patterns that you carry with you that trigger you to believe that you don’t have the power to forgive. These can be trimmed up and cut away. It sets your emotional body free to where it can create the forgiveness.

Jamie: That came with a lot of visuals, so I don’t know—Elisa, when you were listening, did that make sense?

Me: Well, I wasn’t listening. No, I’m kidding. I’m kidding.

Jamie laughs.

Me: No, it did. So, we’re talking about energy healers like Reiki healers and…

Erik: Yeah.

Me: EFT, emotional freedom techniques, the tapping?

Erik: Yeah.

Me: Okay. Well, why are some people triggered so that they have to forgive and others are not? Let’s say somebody punched you in the face in middle school and embarrassed you in front of all peers. Some people would be so upset and would have this need to forgive [in order to heal] while others would just walk away and say, “I don’t know. Whatever.” Why are some people triggered into the need to forgive?

Erik: It’s just the way you’ve been taught as a child or the way you came in, the contracts that you “signed.” That’s the uniqueness of being human. That’s what sets us apart from each other because we’re all designed so differently. You know, you meet some leaders like Gandhi. Man, he can just take a beating but absolutely love you unconditionally for it. This is what he learned. This is what he was attracted to. This is what he went for. And there are some people that, as soon as you graze their skin, are ready to swing around and punch you squarely and won’t forgive.

Me: Yep.

Erik: You know, if we say we want to be somewhere, like if you want to be like Gandhi, that’s great, but us, sitting here asking the questions and teaching people how to be that way? That’s not fair, man. That’s placing judgment and saying that this way is better than the other behavior, and if you’re the other way, this ain’t good, and you need to change who you are to be this way. We’re not here to place judgment on people.

(Long pause)

Jamie: He’s quiet.

Me: People really have trouble with that—wrapping their heads around the fact that there’s no right, and there’s no wrong. There’s no negative, and there’s no positive.

Erik: Yeah.

Me: I think that’s one of the most difficult things for us humans to do, and that takes letting go. Letting go is probably the most difficult thing for most people.

Erik: Yeah. We take such solace in knowing that something bad has happened—

(Loud squealing sound)

Me: Uh oh. Is there interference. I don’t hear you now because of the squealing? Erik, are you interfering? Now it’s okay.

Jamie: Which is weird because the chimes just started going off.

Me: Erik!

Jamie: Can you hear me now?

Me: Yeah. Was that Erik?

Jamie: He was standing pretty close to the computer, so I asked him to back up.

Erik: If something bad happens, people like to hold on to the solace of knowing something good, in their minds, will follow, like there’ll be a punishment for that person. Still, that’s judgment. We really need to take the role of teaching rather than placing good or bad labels on shit.

Me: Teaching ourselves?

Erik: Teaching ourselves and others.

(Pause)

Jamie: I asked him, ‘What are we teaching?’

(Pause)

Jamie (laughing): He asked me if I’ve been sleeping during this whole conversation! I told him, ‘Yeah.’

Erik: We want to teach people how to follow their intuitive guide—the heart. We’re not going to teach them to be good people or bad people. We want them to be emotionally honest, and, through that, they’ll find their own set of morals, their own integrity. We’re all going to be different. We don’t all want to be the fucking same. How freaking horrible would that be?

(Pause)

Jamie (to Erik, laughing): I don’t know if a clone acts like that! Whatever. (To me) He’s kind of acting like a robot. (In a monotone voice) “I am one of ten million. We are the same.” He’s being silly.

I giggle.

Erik: We don’t want to be like that, so we need to love people for their differences. This is what it makes it so fun to be here.

Me: Let people be who they are. That’s a really important lesson, too.

Erik: We cannot forget how much fun this fucking shit is! It’s so awesome to be [there].

At times, I get to differ.

(Pause)

Jamie: He’s blowing kisses to you.

Me: Perfect, because that’s an awesome place to end off.