Same or Different?

The World According to MacKenzie

(A first hand account of the experience of the Self Actualization seminar.
Written by participant Samina Kahn of Cambridge, England.)

Imagine a world in which you can choose exactly who want to be, a powerful determined business head, a glitzy performer, a creative genius or a fluffy air head. Well according to Dr. Mick MacKenzie we are already in that world - it's just that most of us don't know it. The majority of us believe that our character is defined, that in the womb and as we grow we are imprinted with who we are. How often have you heard people say things like "I'm not the sort of person who could... sail around the world, talk in front of hundreds, make a million pounds etc. etc?" Well the world according to MacKenzie sees that viewpoint as completely untrue, it is simply that most of us have been raised to believe it.

Mick MacKenzie runs classes in self-actualisation, a concept according to Abraham Maslow, a psychologist who devoted his life to studying this phenomena, of the highest functioning of a human being. Self-actualized people are people living to their highest potential, you might say they are people living out their dharma or souls purpose. And yet the way that Mick facilitates this process is unconventional to say the least. Classes are small, a maximum of twelve people will spend an intensive weekend with him, often lying on the floor, sometimes sleeping. The format of the class is an interview process with each participant being questioned by MacKenzie and with the other participants giving feedback to what they see happening in the interviewee and also within the room and themselves.

For this is where the MacKenzie world diverges significantly with the traditional world view, whilst it may be common parlance to say "so and so drains my energy" Mackenzie takes this one stage further, he believes that the person at the front of the room impacts the whole dynamics of the room from the size of the room, (at times the room looks larger, smaller, lighter, darker) to the feelings of the fellow participants; they may experience a headache where there was none previously, they may feel energized or fall asleep and this is all ascribed to the impact of the person being interviewed. For MacKenzie sees an energetic weave that takes place between all human beings, how often have you noticed that some people in your life are easy to be around, when you are around them you feel happier with the opposite being true as well, spending just a few minutes with someone else is enough to make you want to throw yourself off the nearest bridge. This is because we all energetically influence and effect each other. And MacKenzie with his laser eye and radar antennae encourages the rest of the participants to vocalise just what it is that they are feeling. It is like a suppressed language that has been underground for hundreds of years is brought out to use, you can feel the excitement as participants discover its feel in their mouths again. Participants talk of the ageing of the interviewee and with MacKenzie's probing, "How much older?" they exclaim, "Twenty years"; they speak of the pain in their left shoulder, with other participants exclaiming that they too have a pain there, they remark upon the anxiety they can feel in the room.

In MacKenzie's world view we are not distinct separate beings but beings who are constantly impacted by each other, by our parents and by the society we grew up in. Our job is to try to distinguish "Who are we in the midst of all of this?" The way that MacKenzie facilitates this, is by asking one very simple question over and over again. "What do you want?" As the individual answers this, the other participants feedback what it is that they see - do they see real curiosity, real energy in the person or do they see listlessness, a formulaic answer? And it is through this feedback process and through the skill of MacKenzie in directing questions and encouraging the group with their feedback that the interviewee gets a feeling for what is really true for them. "Are you the same or different?" Is another question that is a constant refrain of the weekend. Do the participants feel lighter, more energised or heavier and more listless? Asking this question brings each person right into present time awareness - in fact the question is designed to inject some natural curiosity, and curiosity is a huge part of what Mick is interested in.

Mackenzie, along with the other participants, acts as an enormous mirror in which individuals are able to experience exactly what it is that they do, and just as the experience of hearing your voice on a tape or seeing yourself on camera gives you an opportunity to hear and see yourself as others do, this experience with Mackenzie gives each person an opportunity to feel what it is like to be around them and to show them that the way they operate may well not be the most effective for them.

MacKenzie believes that the emotional world of anger, resentment, apathy etc is something that we are taught, taught by our parents, by our culture and by society and that these represent a clouding over or shrouding of our essence which is to be happy, excited, creative, living in possibility and the world of potential. He has charts that map out this emotional world and the world of our true essence. Through the weekend and the interview process we can experience the validity of this belief; we witness individuals moving through their emotional realm becoming noticeably older, heavier in front of our eyes and with the aid of MacKenzie's piercing questions "Whose eyes are you seeing out of?" "My Mother's", form connections, notice what is going on and then the miracle occurs: a shift in the individual, we see them becoming lighter and younger with clearer skin and brighter eyes. "Noticing fixes more than fixing" is a MacKenzie creed. Why dig down into the rubbish of our emotional state when just noticing where we are is enough to change that state?

This physical change is not one that is only an aspect of the weekend itself, for each participant has a photo taken of them both prior to taking the course and a couple of days after finishing the course. The changes are remarkable. MacKenzie warns against looking for better or worse changes, but simply for differences and yet it is true that the majority of people photographed after having completed the weekend look noticeably younger, with clearer skin, brighter eyes, simply more beautiful. MacKenzie ascribes this to the fact that they have become more in touch with their true essence, their natural vibrational frequency and have shed some of the emotional programming of their parents and culture. The analogy of adopting a new operating system is one that appeals to him, "Coming on a weekend with me is a chance to clean up your hard drive, update your programmes and decide if you still want the programmes you have inside or you want to replace them with a whole new set"

A weekend with MacKenzie is not all a bed of roses. Becoming aware of your own emotional character is not a comfortable experience, especially as is the case with most of us, that we have become used to the stench of our own particular brand of "discomfort". MacKenzie is not one to turn to for sympathy, he will rather laugh at you and show you the ridiculousness of your living your life out of a place of anger and pity. And laughter is a huge feature of the weekend, MacKenzie appears to have an encyclopaedic memory when it comes to jokes and most of them seem designed to provoke one sacred cow or other. There is no such thing as "political correctness" within MacKenzie's world, rather he delights in being deliberately provocative and watching to see if he manages to touch one participants nerve or other.

Coming away from a weekend with Mick MacKenzie the world is never quite the same again. It is the difference between seeing the world in black and white and in colour, it is like he has given you a pair of extra sensory glasses that give you a new dimension on the world, on yourself and all the people around. And each time you step back into the old emotional world you become aware of it and are more able to step out back into the world of curiosity, fun and playfulness.

Am I the same or different? Very, very different!