What is it about people and lifestyles? Why is it that anything different is wrong? Aren’t we all different? Why should we all be the same?
I had a student in my class yesterday that was ‘different’. She follows an alternate lifestyle. Does it harm people? No.
At the beginning of each Reiki 1 class, I go around the room and have each student introduce themselves and tell a little bit about who they are. One of my students told us that she was a vampire. Now, first off, it was daylight. Secondly, I know one of the other students was wearing a crucifix. And thirdly, this student was wearing jewelry that was silver. Ok, so she is not a creature of the night bitten by another creature ages ago and looking to drink everyone’s blood.
Now, I don’t know a lot about this lifestyle. I do remember there being a reality series on the SciFi channel some years ago where the residents of the castle (contestants) had to experience each of the four lifestyles represented by the four people judging them. The contestants would go through challenges to be able to score points and stay. Each week, one was asked to leave the castle (the equivalent of getting booted of the island).
Of these four people (if I remember correctly) one was a Goth, one was a nudist, and one was a vampire. And while this vampire had the contestants do some strange things including drinking blood (it was not known to be human), he for the most part was harmless.
My student follows this same lifestyle. She does not harm people. She is not an energy vampire who is looking to suck energy from everyone around (I’ve seen enough of those). She is a healer. In her description, she talked about the healing work she does, and a lot of it was true empathy where she would pull the problem inside of her, make it her own, and then get rid of it. (More on this another day.)
But she has great energies. Now, I know her talking about herself made some of the other students uncomfortable, but her energies did not.
My helper, BJ, made the comment that it was going to be a long day, and this student’s response was “we’ll see.” When I heard about this, I asked and was very surprised at the answer. Apparently, she has tried to take Reiki before, THREE TIMES. In each case, after she told about who she is, she was asked to leave, THREE TIMES. I was shocked. Here was this person with good energies, and a talented healer, and she was asked to leave for wanting to learn more energy healing. Wow. Needless to say, I did not ask her to leave.
There are tons of alternate lifestyles. Some are not too strange, and some are really bizarre. There are people that like Goth and they dress up in black and use black nail polish. There are people that are into whips and chains and bondage and like to have control taken from them while others like to be in control. Then there are groups like the Star Trek fans, or Trekkies. Years ago, I used to go to Star Trek conventions and would consider myself a Trekkie. Now, I’m just a Science Fiction fan.
So what makes one different from the other? None of these people hurt other people, at least not without mutual consent. In each case, there is a psychological need that is being fulfilled whether it is to dress up like Captain Kirk or to be tied up and flogged. And in each case, this is done between consenting adults. No one is going out and kidnapping people to beat them up and drink their blood. Yes, there are some whackos (and yes, that’s a technical term) that do this, but it is not because they belong to a lifestyle. It is because they are whcakos.
And another thing I have found is that many of the people that choose some type of alternative lifestyle do it for a reason, and they do it after careful consideration. For the most part, they seem to have a little above average intelligence (yes, even the Trekkies).
These lifestyle people have their terms for ‘normal’ people too. In some circle normal people are referred to as vanilla, being all the same, not having any flavor. The science fiction people refer to normals as mundanes as they don’t have the imagination to think outside the box (or in this case the starship). There is a saying that reality is for people that can’t handle science fiction.
But the point is that these are just people with a different point of view. Why are we afraid of those that life differently, or have a different religion (non-Christian)? Why can’t we just accept people for people? When we don’t, we miss out on a lot of good energy.