CASE OF WORK-BASED FEAR AFTER A ROBBERY

Pamela had been a victim in an armed robbery at a hotel where she works as a receptionist. A man came in, pointed a gun at her and demanded money and she gave him $3,000. After a long holiday, following the robbery, she felt fine, but then another attempted robbery was made against one of the other girls at work, although it was not successful.. Security doors had been put in after Pamela was robbed.

Her symptoms are that she feels scared and nervous at work, particularly at night, but is not scared at home at all. She feels that she is in control of her security at home, but not so much at work.

The first robbery followed a long period of stress when Pamela was arguing with her superiors for an increase in salary, and there was some stress in her personal life as well.

She says she tends to think of the worst, that her eyes after a few hours at work becomes strained from trying to focus on her peripheral vision to see if anything suspicious is happening. She feels apprehensive if people call at night. However, being a hotel, this is inevitable. Yet she feels she is in the right job.

I said to her that it looks like it is time for her to learn control of her mind, that her mind at present is in control of her. I told her the story of the queen and the giant. It goes like this: Once there was a great queen who did so much good for her subjects that the gods were pleased. The gods sent down a messenger to reward her for her good work. The messenger asked her what she would like. The queen replied that she would like a magical servant who could do anything she asked him to do. The messenger flicked his fingers and there appeared this giant. The messenger said "He can do anything. And a hundred times faster than anyone else. But I must warn you that, unless he has got something to do, he will try and harm you". The queen said that she would have plenty for him to do. She then got the giant to build hospitals, roads, plant orchards for fruit and nuts, gardens and so on. The giant did all these in very quick time and soon she noticed that he was beginning to follow her around, looking benevolent. She remembered the words of the messenger and then decided what to do. She asked the giant to build a big wall, two kilometres long, one kilometre wide and a half a kilometre high. He built this in no time at all; then she said to him to take it down again. When he'd taken it down she asked him to build it again, and keep doing that until she told him to stop. So visitors to the country would see this giant all day and all night building this wall and taking it down, and so on, until there was some other work to be done.

I said to Pamela that the giant represented the mind, and that the building and taking down of the wall represented the breath. That s, if the mind is not occupied it can turn on us and cause us trouble. We can keep it occupied by having it focused on the breath. That is, you say to yourself, as you breathe in, "Within me is peace." Then say, as you breathe out, "I let go all fears", or some other words which feel right. She was very keen on this idea, and so we practiced it for a while with good results.

I also gave her the analogy of the boat and the ocean, that life is like crossing an ocean. We can do this either by swimming in the water and being at the mercy of the waves of events and emotions which come our way, threatening to drown us; or we can build a boat and sit in it. Focusing on the breath and saying special words is a way of building a boat and sitting in the boat. That is, at work, or anywhere else, when she is not focusing on something, she can just focus on the breath and say her special words.

She was still seeking for further understanding of how to deal with the intrusiveness of the fearful thoughts. I said that perhaps she needs to have a philosophy which can deal with the robbery and the possibility of future ones. I explained to her the principle of 'karma', which she was already familiar with and keen to hear more about. I said that if she had robbed somebody in a past life then she would have to be robbed in this life.. The robbery was simply repaying of a debt. That is, committing a misdemeanour in a past life is like borrowing money from the bank, and this money has to be repaid. One only has to repay what has been borrowed. That is, if she has only committed one robbery of that severity, or lacked compassion when it happened to somebody else, or something like that, then only one robbery will happen to her. However if she has committed many more robberies, it could be that she will have to be robbed many times in order to pay off the debt. This explanation gave her great relief, as it took away the uncertainty of it to some degree. I went on to say that the divine forces of good prevent any accidents happening; all that happens is predetermined, the paying of debts, perfectly arranged so we can learn the perfect lesson to turn us towards our inner harmony and strength. The timing of this particular event was such that it would give her the opportunity to develop control of her mind through simple meditation, and it would reawaken her interest in the principles of cause and effect. She took the Simple Meditation tape with her, feeling very satisfied.

As an example of the good effect arising out of having an understanding of the karmic principle (repaying debts), I told her the story of my youngest daughter Melanie. When Mel was about 16 years old, she became increasingly concerned about the possibility of nuclear war - this was during the time of the great arms build-up by President Reagan and then by Bush. I talked to Mel about the principle of karma and how she can only die if that is her destiny as predetermined by past events in her life. I also reaffirmed that the divine will does not allow accidents to happen. Soon after this conversation Melanie had a dream in which thousands of nuclear warheads were fired off from Russia towards America and Australia. Everybody was panicking, running around the city (in the dream), except Melanie. She was telling people that it will be all right. As the nuclear warheads approached Sydney and started falling they turned into potatoes which then landed on the ground, and she woke up feeling very happy and reassured about her safety. Pamela was very pleased with the story and it added significantly to her release of tension concerning the possibility of future robberies and harm

The session lasted less than an hour and it was quite sufficient. I do not feel that she will need to see me again, and she should be over her problem quite soon.

I asked her to contact me if she needed any further assistance. Since, I have not heard from her in over ten years now, I assume that all is well.