Facing

Early on in our deliberations on the swirl we wondered about how to deal with the experience. Often, it seemed, without realising it we treated the swirl in a spatial way. So, we talked about going into it and then wondered how to get out of it. I think that at that time, about nine years ago, we were reading about and thinking about Buddhism. So it was not surprising that what we often came up with was something like, face the swirl. That's what someone has to do, face the enemy, face the fear.
Easy to say, but does it make much sense in terms of the swirl experience?

The short answer is no. One of the key characteristics of this experience is its disabling, psychic disabling quality. It's not so much that it takes one by surprise, but that within its grasp there is no apparent foothold for a counter move. That's to say part of its power is the sense that its propaganda is true. So in the midst of an experience of worthlessness and shame and fear it is difficult to know quite what is meant by the command to 'face it'. For in a way that is precisely what is going on, and the negative voice has the power. It is, so to speak, hegemonic. In which case facing it might seem impossible, as the power of what is to be faced is so great, or too great. Or worse, that facing it is to be open to defeat, and at the same time, to be shamed. And that is because everything that goes on in this space is infused with shame.
I wonder if the command to 'face it' is part of a trend that deprecates the victim. In the swirl the individual is a victim.