Last week I had the honour of co-leading an exceptional group of individuals through an intense residential training in Primal Integration. From California to Scotland, Key West to Canada, they floated like seeds in the wind, carrying what they had gathered back to their communities. The task they have chosen - to assist others in the natural yet powerful primal process - is a momentous one. It requires a revolutionary dedication to one's own personal healing and a radical attitude of dedication to the healing of others.

This marks an inevitable movement from protected isolation toward connected community, something strangely lacking in much of the first generation of primal people. Although the IPA (International Primal Association) was founded in 1973, it has always struggled to maintain its population base.

Why is this? Regardless of the reactionary press coverage, literally thousands of people have had positive experiences with primal therapy. Where are they all? Why are they not creating communities? My view is that once we enter the primal process, the neurotic drive decreases. We struggle less and enjoy life more. We can't be bothered with empire building on any scale, and we retreat into the garden of our own lives.

This return to individual health, however, does not automatically deliver us to the essential, supportive ground of that life - the human community tribe. Instead, most of us spend bittersweet days alone in a society that either ignores or persecutes feeling expression.

Once I awoke to feeling, I also awoke to the fact that I was still surrounded by the same oppressive society that injured my mother - and me. It became apparent that healing myself was only the first step.

Returning to wholeness requires two essential stages - the inward journey and the outward journey. After inner healing, individuals turn outward and reach for the hands of others. This outward wave heals the community and the planet.

The participants of last week's training are doing exactly that. I want to thank them, and I want to invite you to join us. Send this "thought" to your friends. Take the time to contact other primal people you know. Start a peer primal group for processing or sharing. Start a primal email group. Join the Primal Support Group on Yahoo.

I especially urge you to join the IPA. We are there to help you with all of the above, and we are the only active primal community that is dedicated to supporting the entire healing journey, inward and outward.

Here's to us.

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