What You Resist Persists | Conscious Shifts in Focus Can Diffuse Social Confrontations

Back in my activism days with TZM it seemed kind of cosmic that the "Occupy Movement" established itself around the world - the timing was just too good. Naturally my friends and I saw a great opportunity in this, not only to meet other people who were taking a critical stance against the system but also to spread awareness about the solutions TZM was proposing that weren't getting any attention in the mainstream.

When we read that a small group of people aimed to build an Occupy camp in my hometown - right in front of the banks in the heart of the city on a small garden patch - we got heavily involved right from the get-go.

While I learned many lessons about people and ideologies in that time, one special situation stood out more than any other. You gotta know - it was the time when I had already been on my first psychedelic journey and had discovered aspects of myself and life on Earth I would have never imagined to be real or even possible - much of it having to do with the effects of concentrated focus and the power of attention and intention.

Life threw a situation my way that seemed to be somewhat of an experimental test for what I had just learnt months ago on my first psychedelic playground of the Ozora festival, and in hindsight it seems I passed with flying colors.

What you resist persists.

The camp

We had established loose shifts so that someone would always be watching over who comes into the camp and what goes on - after all, we were camping right in the heart of the city, at the base of a somewhat famous street in my hometown which was the party zone where everyone went - lots of clubs and bars up the street that were buzzing with people on the weekends. And naturally, lots of different people came walking down that steep road when their party night ended, wanting to go catch a bus at the bus stop right in front of the camp.

So the weekends were especially exciting - many people on the way to their club and bar visits came into the camp to ask why we were camping, what our problem was and just to talk with us about politics, society and all sorts of topics not largely discussed in mainstream society.

In a way, we were an attractive and interesting beacon of inspiration for many - university students, parents, businessmen who seemed surprisingly interested to learn about our take on society. Random homeless people with lots of negative life experiences came to talk with us, just as much as police officers - showing a certain degree of understanding for what we were trying to do.

In short: If you went shopping, partying or visiting someone in the town, you would eventually come by our camp and be drawn by the tents, banners and signs we had made to let people know about the problems we saw with the system to invite them in for further discussion.

One night a few weeks into my participation in the Occupy camp I was sitting around the fire barrel at night with a few of the other people I had met there, watching over the camp and the supplies, talking about camp politics and the agenda for the week (guest speakers, shift management and so forth).

Night time was always the best as the camp was quiet and deep discussions were possible now that some of the more ideological people weren't there that had some problems with me and my friends being there - they distrusted the zeitgeist movement and some even suggested we were there to infiltrate the camp as some type of agents, a piece of information which they got from their only and beloved mainstream newspaper that had written a few hit pieces on TZM without any actual arguments, warning people of our 'dangerous ideas'.

But for now everything was good, it was a quiet night - except for the usual bustle of the clubs and bars half a kilometer up the steep road and the people passing by the camp on their way to and from the 'party center'.

And then the vibe changed completely.

A situation of fear and projection-management

We heard noise and commotion from the street side of the camp, got up to check it out and found two guys randomly tearing down our banners, grunting inaudible words with somewhat of an attitude. We got closer. They seemed drunk as hell, which often happened on the weekends, but none of the party people had ever tried to actually tear down parts of the camp or destroy the signs and banners we had put up.

They seemed hard to gauge, but I quickly felt this might not be a huge issue, we would just have to talk to them, maybe they didn't understand what we were doing here.

But as I walked towards them a few of the other camp people had already 'yelled' for the others, sleeping in their tents. Naturally, a fear situation developed as confused and sleepy camp occupiers came out of their tents, still not quite awake but laced with fear - the people who had yelled for "help" sure didn't help the situation calm down. I could feel the tension rising as more people gathered to "defend the camp" - which seemed to preclude any hope for negotiation.

So here I found myself standing near the two "invaders" and quickly a row of camp people formed opposite of them - anger in their faces and a rash reaction as they saw some banners had been torn down by the two guys.

The shouting started. Accusations, even threats. Some of the camp people tried to calm the situation down but some others were actually amping it up without quite getting what they were doing. And the two guys looked at each other and were getting ready for a fight with half the camp.

It was so plainly visible how the fear reaction catapulted a negotiable situation into the direction of an outright fist fight - nobody knew whether these two had any weapons on them either. Nobody knew anything.

Fortunately, some of the empathic girls of our camp were also present, and managed to whistle the aggressive people from the camp back - having to promise that they would call them if things got out of hand, and that anyone who felt confrontational should go take a walk, for now. Thankfully the guys from the camp did, as I stayed with the girls and a few others to further calm the situation and to begin an empathic conversation with the two guys who had still not walked off. But at least they had calmed down as the overemotional counter-reaction had seized.

We told the two that we were actually camping for them, for us, for all people living in a system that extorts and robs, that manufacture bombs for profit and that participates in wars against its own people's will. The system that keeps jacking up everybody's rent for no good reason, the system that imprisons people for smoking a plant. Among other aspects, we gave a spot-on summary of our reasoning for camping there and drawing attention to the issues that affect us all - whether we are aware of it or not.

And guess what? After ten minutes the two guys nodded and even agreed that "someone would have to fight against that, I guess". The situation had not been diffused entirely, but at least they saw that we weren't just camping there for fun or to annoy anyone with our banners.

The situation had calmed down greatly and most of the remaining few camp people still present went back to bed, asking the night shift to "yell if there were any more problems". I told them to go and that it was fine.

A friend of mine said she would make some tea and went to the kitchen, and I felt it would be beneficial to invite the two guys into the camp to explain further and to make them feel that we really weren't enemies. They looked at each other in surprise at my offer and agreed.

We sat down at a bench by the lakeside and talked for another half hour or so. They agreed that they wished government wouldn't go spend money to invade other countries that had done nothing to us and to instead actually help the native population HERE, on which I agreed. They were actually surprised how much we had in common, though I felt it was still possible that the situation might turn bad again - they were really drunk and sometimes it's tough to calibrate what people will do when you don't know them and a lot of alcohol is involved. And emotions.

The ultimate diffusion through conscious shifting of focus

Being drunk - as I had experienced from within and without - also has its advantages, especially if you are not the drunk one. For one you don't notice much, your brain is slow and cumbersome in noticing small details. Your sensitivity to people and yourself is lacking as well.

I saw that we might have a new problem now. They were beginning to trust me yes, but now they were getting a little too comfortable here on the bench in the camp - still not really on our 'side' but relapsing back into dim crticism of our camp and the 'futility of what we tried to do with protesting, you idiots'.

I felt a deadlock coming on, and if one of the aggressive camp people were to wake up and see them both sitting here in this manner, the confrontation might start all over again.

So I tried an experiment I had learnt on the dancefloors in the summer previously - it was a sudden bolt of intuition more than an actual plan. I would consciously stop feeding their presence with my energy, and I sat patient waiting for a 'worldly reason' to initiate the shift of focus.

And it came minutes after.

One of the guys from the nightshift was in the kitchen, poked his head out and asked if anybody knew where the frying pan was. I instantly turned back to him, yelled something like "yeah dude, she washed it, wait I'll bring it to you". I turned to the two guys still sitting next to me: "I gotta go help the kitchen out, community thing you know?". And I was off to the kitchen, giving the other two that were awake an update on the situation. And then it hit me - it must have taken like 5 minutes or so and you know what?

The two "troublemakers" sitting out there eventually got up and lurched off. I had noticed that they were tired and it was a cold night as well, so after I had left they really didn't know what they were doing there anymore and seemed to have completely forgotten about their original intention of tearing the camp down in a drunken rage. Because our conversation hadn't been about that, about blame, or fear or aggression - but about commonalities and approaching a mutual understanding that seemed self-evident and mutual.

I realized that the main reason that kept them around to begin with was that all of us, from the moment the two arrived, were constantly feeding their presence - with negativity, with confrontation, even with insults. With reactions. So naturally a hurt ego and attacked pride will want to set an example and defend itself - especially when drunk. But when I took my presence and focus off of them for a completely neutral reason, the situation diffused itself.

Seeing them just walking off as if nothing had happened was somewhat of an epiphany for me. If I had to put it bluntly: They began to realize that they were the idiots sitting around in the cold for no good reason when they were actually on their way home before it all started. But we had kept them engaged and enticed to stay through the aggressive counter reaction - it's like we had chained them to our camp by wanting to achieve the exact opposite, instead of letting the emotions dissipate as any impulse will when it isn't kept alive constantly.

"How did you manage that? Thought they were gonna hang around all night long and terrorize the camp, what did you tell them?", the girl asked. "I mainly listened...I told them why we were here. And then I put my focus on finding the pan when it was needed, and stopped feeding them with my presence."

I realized later that the solution did not lie in trying to remedy the situation actively, but instead to turn my focus towards something else, leaving them only with the impression of a decent dude that meant no harm, with a mission for his group which had more value than further negotiating an artificial truce on a Friday night with drunken strangers in the cold.

Can't blame anybody for shifting his focus if it is done naturally. The art was that no offense was handed out and thus: none was taken.

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