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Welcome Introduction

Hello...fellow journeyors. If you are reading this you either know me somewhat and/or someone has shared this link for your curiosity to see what kind of teaching (and therapia [1]) I am bringing to the world. The notion of "trifecta" means three points, vectors, angles or perspectives, which when they converge and unite a great force occurs (trinity becomes unity)--in the case of my life, now at age 72, it turns out the trifecta is all about truth that I know is true via (personall and collective) empirical evidence of practicing this truth which is undeniable and sacred.

What I will share in this resource page about my leadership and teaching is the three practices (and some theory): (1) LIBERATION PEER COUNSELING, (2) SPONTANEOUS CREATION-MAKING, (3) FEARLESSNESS(izing) KNOWLEDGE. These may interest you in whole or in part; there is no one and only proper formula to working with them to improve your life and the world. I can only testify, and a lot of other people who have worked with me also have shown these to be powerful "soft technologies" of healing and liberation--although, I never see this kind of work as an end, rather a process always evolving, with great surprises and unknowns. Yes, Mystery still remains alive and well in this liberation work. You are welcome to keep practicing the traditions (e.g., religion) or other means as you already do--the trifecta is a complementary process not a replacement for anything you find is already positively helpful to your life. 

I list them in this order because that is how they emerged, as 'fear' vaccines, in my own awakening and path of fearlessness [2]. To be clear at the start, the trifecta is not personal development psychology alone--it is a deep truth trifecta that changes and transforms one's life purpose, if the conditions are right and the disciplined learner-practitioner works with them for some length of time. Working these in support ally groups is most effective. The trifecta, is more about psyche, soul and culture, nature, politics, history, evolution, worldviews, spirituality--all in a holistic-integral interrelationship. I started the peer counseling study in 1983 to learn how humans are hurt and how they heal; the spontaneous creation-making in 1988 in groups but my art practice (CVArt RMF.DOC) worked with art-therapeutic modes since the late 1970s; and since 1989 I developed the systematic study of fear and fearlessness knowledge.   

R. Michael Fisher (1952-) [3], Ph.D. in Education Curriculum & Philosophy, MA in Adult Education, Grad. Dipl. Counseling-Rehabilitation 

For my full background of experience and education, CV (resume) cvRMF2024.doc.  

A few Endorsements over the years: 

“A developmental fearologist...only one out there...if we had a thousand of you out there, maybe we might get somewhere.”  -Layman Pascal, Integral Stage Podcast, Sept. 10, 2024

“I love what you are doing. Your work is so special Michael.”  -Dr. Don (Four Arrows) Jacobs, Prof. Leadership, Fielding Graduate University, San Francisco, CA

"I'm a big fan of your work, which, as you know, I find very important in this "fearful" world." -Dr. Clifford Mayes, Prof. Educational Psychology (Jungian therapist),

Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah

 “Michael Fisher is an expert on fear, one of the world’s few ‘fearologists.’” -Rex Wyler, Eco-activist, Reporter (co-founder of Green Peace) Shared Vision, June, 2004

A Liberational Life

To grow one's spirit, a life-long adventure, turns out to be more complex than I first thought [4]. Recently, I have located my vocation as a spiritual educator.

I embrace the secular and spiritual paths of development, each serve their purpose. I have no attachment to any religious tradition but I identify as a spiritual person which arose naturally with my long love of Nature, and later I cut my teeth on the Human Potential Movement. I BEGAN officially a liberational life, leadership, and teaching because of a powerful mystical experience that transformed my soul, identity and life-purpose in late 1989. From this co-loving visionary awakening of being, things began to manifest rapidly into a spiritual-philosophical mission to bring healing and education through what I called In Search of Fearlessness Project. For more info. on that radical mission-project in adult education click here. The Project was named that way because part of my vision was to counter as an activist-educator the vast harm and toxicity, insanity, suffering and unsustainability that the 'Fear' Project has brought to this planet for millennia. 

The Trifecta of Truth is not fully covered here on this webpage, and I will focus mostly on LIBERATION PEER COUNSELING (LPC). IF you want more info. in depth on my Fearlessness(izing) Knowledge stream (and philosophy of fearism) search this Fearlessness Movement ning and click here for an interview on my views about fear(ism) OR see my Youtube Channel (190 teaching videos) OR search my name on Google Scholar for many free publications in peer-reviewed journals, books and other published sources. I have published a lot of work under a joint Canadian publishing house In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute (1991-) (with Barbara Bickel). For more in depth information on Spontaneous Creation-Making (and art-care theory and practice) see the co-authored book by Bickel & Fisher (2023) and/or go to our Studio M* website. So, now let me turn to the feature subject of this website resource page: 

Liberation Peer Counseling (LPC) 

I am returning to teach LPC as a fundamental 8 wk course (theory and practice) in late 2024 and into 2025 [5] to see how much interest there is online, and potential local groups in my area who can meet face-to-face. Contact me if you are curious and want to know more or want to sign-up on waiting list: r.michaelfisher52 [at] gmail.com [I live in Nanaimo, BC, Canada, with my life-partner Barbara Bickel who has also been studying LPC with me for 34 yrs] 

I have taught LPC  [6] (my version of Re-evaluation Counseling or RC for short) since the 1980s, so it is very natural for me and I still practice it with a co-counselor once a week for a 1 hr exchange--it is my most reliable 'medicine' of staying in recovery above the troubled waters of my distress and 'fear' patterns (i.e., oppression of all kinds) that assault us everyday in many forms. For a recent demo example of a technique called "Think and Listen" peer counseling I did with my co-counselor click here. I gave an LPC talk on a technique of "Counseling Outside of Distress" click here and I created a few years ago the LET program (Life Enhancement Training video) on similar principles as LPC. 

The quickest summary information about LPC can be found in the following brief documents (produced in 2014; somewhat dated but still the same basic info. is really useful): 

The LPC Intro LPC brochure 2014.pdf (2014)

TheLPC History.pdf

LPC: LPC HURTING.pdf (defined) 

LPC: LPC HEALING c.pdf (defined/methods) 

LPC:LPC Theory.pdf

LPC:LPC Philos.pdf

LPC: LPC Politics.pdf

LPC: LPC Practice Cautions.pdf

LPC:LPC Wide worldpptx.pdf

9 Natural Healers of LPC 

End Notes

1. I am a "cultural therapist" and have done all kinds of therapeutic work since the 1980s, both recovering and healing from my own life, and offering therapeutic services to others--but ultimately, my work is a cultural therapia (similar to Erich Fromm) and a kosmotherapia (similar to Ken Wilber). Yet, I have my own spins as to what emancipation and liberation mean and the requirement to do our healing work in such processes--towards true Love and Freedom and Justice. 

2. This ethical-spiritual path can come with many other names like "liberation" or "enlightenment" (or "endarkenments") depending, but the important thing to note here is that I have otherwise been both rational and transrational in my fantasizing or imagining of possibilities. The Fearlessness Project (Paradigm) is based on the fascinating hypothesis: That humans do not have to be saddled or satisfied with a fear-based civilization; they can live and design a fearlessness civilization. See my initiative to re-vision the very nature of Psychology as we know it, via "Fearlessness Psychology 2019.pdf" and "Metapsychology." 

3. My name is The Fox (shortened: call me Fox), as of Oct. 25/24. 

4. The simplicity and complexity of life and evolution (development as "radical wholeness") is a wonderful spiral web as I see it. The path of fearlessness is not straight forward. I think "Growing Up" is one of at least four other types of work that are important practices--using critical Integral Theory--the other four defined by the developmental philosopher Ken Wilber are: "Waking Up," "Opening Up," "Showing Up," and "Cleaning Up"--the last one is also called Shadow work which is my forte'. 

5.Note: this is a radical departure from other peer-counseling models I have seen; we also charge a very affordable fee, with subsidies, so that it is not an elite practice for people with lots of expendable income. Fundamentals course (8 wks) may cost from 40-250 Can. $ sliding scale, depending on costs of teaching it etc. Fee mainly pays the instructor. Once you finish the fundamentals class, or even an Introductory talk or short workshop on LPC, you are able to work with others who have also done so and there is no fee exchanged for peer sessions. You build a support network of co-counselors for yourself--literally at your finger tips.    

6. Barbara Bickel and I decided to develop our own version of Re-evaluation Counseling (RC), based on Harvey Jackins et al. (now 80 years of history around the world of RC practitioners and leaders/teachers experiences)--we included some of John Heron's ideas (Co-Counseling International) and our own unique ideas into the practice. I have taken two RC Fundamentals courses from certified RC teachers (1983, 2022). Thus, my teaching of LPC is inspired by RC and what I have gleaned as its best knowledge and practices and added my own approaches over the decades. When I teach I represent no co-counseling organizations nor do I promote such organizations. You can find these organizations on the Internet if you wish. Also, thanks to my intrepid co-counselor Linda Roan for inspiring me to teach LPC again.      

The following is a very brief version of a peer-to-peer counseling method that two or more people can utilize, without any necessity of either parties being "trained counselors."

I am offering below the simple explanation and process of how humans are hurt (focusing on emotional hurts) and how they heal. Everyone deserves attention when they are experiencing pain of some kind. That is a way to prevent unnecessary suffering. We are a social species that requires attention from a caring other during our distress. With confident support, all of us will destress, and more or less heal and recover our becautiful inner nature/self.

This short step-by-step process has an underpinning detailed theory which you can access in another blog I've written (see LPC) and an intro video I've made for how to 'balance' the peer counseling session so it is focused on the 'good' and the 'hurting' and not only focused on the hurting. There are many ways to destress from daily life, and how to heal and recovery our zestful and flexible inner nature/self.

Have you ever wondered why there is so much fear in people, perhaps in yourself, and in society overall? Fear that is toxic and damaging to our well-being and functioning as a society is due to excess hurting and over-reliance on "coping" as if this coping is better (more efficient) than healing. I am interested in us all moving from a fearful existence and life-styles of coping to to a fearlessness way of being that is truly liberating for all. I teach this peer-to-peer method (LPC) because we've grown to be way too afraid of the healing process itself. We've been taught to rely on professionals for healing (e.g., therapies). Sure professionals may be needed in some cases, but our first line of defense to prevent excess distress is to do our own work on hurts and help them heal, the sooner the better.

MAKING A HEALING CHOICE (At no cost)...

Most of us never learned in a coping culture how to heal our emotional wounds. Most of us are operating on attention deficit because we never received adequate quality of attention when we were emotionally distressed in our lives. "Hurting" is defined by this shortage of attention when we needed it. This shortage is more profoundly damaging to our well-being than the original injury we experienced as painful or traumatic. ATTENTION is key to everything good!

We never learned about hurting much...and therefore, we never likely learned that we have at least 10 natural healers:

1. laughing   2. crying   3. talking spontaneously  4. shaking and trembling  5. yawning and stretching  6. righteous indignation (anger)   7. spontaneous creatiion-making  8. sweating   9. dreaming/trance   10. deep breathing

In a coping culture we have learned for the most part to negatively judge all of the above natural healers. This is the first step we have to reverse. These are all positive functions and are "natural" to us but our culture tends to tell us otherwise. Being patient in accepting these natural healers again, in yourself and in others... is the first step to recovering who we really are deep inside--and, is the way to leading a more joyful existence.

"Healing" in this peer-to-peer counseling involves getting "attention" on what is bothering us but not getting advice! What this model is about is freeing oneself using the natural healers (one or more at any point in a "session") and letting them bring us back into a more balanced self-regulation where we will be able to then think better to solve our own problems. The peer helping us is there to listen deeply without judgement and trust and encourage the natural healers as first priority. "Let people heal" and be confident in them that they can do so, including yourself.

When you and/or someone you care about are hurting, and you see their distress is getting the better of them, or of you. You can potentially partner up and offer each other positive attention (sometimes called "unconditional attention"). In this peer-to-peer way of supporting each other, you both need to take responsibility to follow a few guidelines for a "session" (i.e., of destressing, healing, and recovery).

GETTING A "SESSION" (Beginning to build a healing relationship, and a healing culture)...

A "session" here is defined as a conscious choice for you and another to willinging do "peer counseling" which involves taking say 15 min.'s each to get positive attention from another person for the purpose of destressing, healing and recovering your inherent nature as a curious, loving, playful, and zestful intelligent and empowered person. Excess stresses and hurts if not manage well become barriers to your functioning inherent nature and well-being--and, thus distress will inhibit you being able to treat others and yourself well. We all have stress and hurts in life and typically in a coping culture we do not deal with this stress and hurting very well. We often suppress it. In peer-to-peer counseling you will reverse that habit of suppressing and "forgetting" pattern and move towards healing and recovery. 

A "session" in this model of peer-to-peer counseling is a unique opportunity to care about another person without getting "attached" and "submerged" in all their distress feelings and thoughts. You take turns. Use a timer (start with 15 min. each). You (as counselor) don't interrupt the person sharing when it is their turn to get attention. You will get your turn right after them. Timing the session, with equal turns, really helps to prevent over-dependency on another person for emotional care. Too much giving care to another creates a path to eventual "burnout" for the caregiver.

DESTRESSING

This is the most basic means of releasing emotional and physical tension that builds up as inner and outer conflict, with feelings of hurt, anger, sadness, grief, depression etc. Humans are designed by nature to have good stress to function well and creatively in the world--it is part of all problem-solving and growth itself. However, if you have stressors over and over that become accumulating that can lead to chronic distress and post-traumatic effects, where you are not recovering back to a healthy stress level so you can function well. 

The most simple "session" then for destressing is merely to take time in a session to process tensions, using any or all of the natural healers. What you are aiming for is to be more flexible in your body and thinking after the session---if not, take another session or book another session soon. Sometimes it will take several sessions to find a more peaceful and joyful 'norm' for yourself. There is no magical pill here that will make everything better all of a sudden. It takes discipline and practice to get well.

HEALING

This is more complex than merely destressing. It requires in a session that you as the client getting attention to put yourself in-charge and ask for exactly what you want (though, note: asking for advice from your counselor is not advised). You are to honestly face into and "feel" and use the natural healers to express and destress and keep going into what it is you feel hurt by--even if you have to guess what it is. You can 'bitch and complain' get angry and yet always notice that your aim is to recover your beautiful, natural nature/self. Healing requires the discharge of emotional and conflictual energy (i.e.., destressing) but also to then find clarity and rational thoughts that make sense for you in what is happening to you.

Healing involves dealing with the current hurts distressing you as well as looking at connections of how what you are feeling now may be related (in a post-traumatic way) to past unhealed painful memories and events that you experienced--or you even watched because other people were getting hurt. Healing fully is complex and requires this reconnecting of present with past--and, then rationally and intelligently planning out how you want to see your future and make your future the best it can be because you deserve it. Note, even thinking "good thoughts" about yourself at times will bring up pain, fear, shame, guilt and distress in general. You and your peer-counselor can work through this by you getting unconditional attention on it--and, at some point the counselor may offer non-judgmental observations from your session to bring more clarity to you (again, observations without advice-giving).

RECOVERY (Patience)

This is the short-term and long-term process of you taking charge to become the person you really want to be without all the negative thoughts and painful memories and habits that are so critical of yourself. The main thing in recovery is to journal on your healing and destressing sessions. To journal and keep notes on what you are doing well today, and when something doesn't go to well, ask yourself questions about how you could have maybe handled things differently with a better outcome. You have to be patient with yourself and say, "I'm still in recovery" and so are the people in a "session" that I may be assisting. We all have been brought up in a coping culture not a healing culture and so we have to recover a lot of our natural healing capacities and thinking rational capacities.

I always believe when you are in recovery it is best to not try to "change the world" or "change another person"--but focus on changing yourself for the better... and, that's a good place to bring more joy and intelligence to society--it will rub off.

Cautionary

When you first try this getting unconditional attention from a peer (who is informed in this model and guidelines)--there is the problem of finding it all very uncomfortable, and even the timing of the session--it seems to formal and not natural. This is a common complaint. My experience shows, the guidelines are very important to maintain vigilantly to make peer-to-peer counseling work best. Most of us have learned not to receive good quality attention--so, it will feel perhaps a little weird at first.

After the end of a "session" (say 15 min.) make sure you as client being listened to are coming "up and out" of the distress patterning and negative emotions and thoughts that may have come up in your session. Bring yourself to look around the room, and see the "benign" and "good" things in life right now in the moment--even though all is not perfect by any means. This is important also for the counselor to make sure the client is "up and out" and has some free and flexible attention for well-being and functioning in the world. Although, it is legitimate that a client also may want to rest after a session, have a nap, etc. It is important to give yourself some "space" from the day-to-day grind of responsibilities... because you want to let the healing effects of a session percolate and integrate a bit too. Again, you can always "book" another session with your peer-counselor and that helps for you to know that there is still good attention there for you.

Ultimately, all of the above guidelines and information are quite incomplete... so, seek further reading and study on this peer-to-peer method when you can make time for it.

If you wish to email me with questions on this material and method: r.michaelfisher52 [at] gmail.com

I recently sent this letter out to my connections in Calgary, AB, Canada, but then also felt it was relevant to you all on the FM ning, as you come to learn more about me and my teaching. 

As part of my "landing" (still in transition in returning to Canada, Calgary, after 20 years away)... there's some good clarity arriving of late as to my teaching priorities that I offer (listed below). I wish to share this clarity with you, as not meant necessarily to be anything more than that, because I appreciate your friendship and witnessing me on this journey as a "teacher" in progress always becoming--and if you feel called to assist my teaching work (especially in Calgary and W. Canada, for a start) that's great. Let's talk further. Best, -M. 

The 'Fear' Vaccines as I have called them going way back to the early 1990s (In Search of Fearlessness Project or ISOF), are intended, just as they say, to counter the oppressive effects of 'fear' (and fear). I have written a good deal about these notions, including the distinction of "fear" and 'fear' (as a culturally modified fear patterning). I won't repeat that here and you may want to check out my other writings.

The 'Fear' Vaccines (which is really a process of "soft technologies") are intended to be practiced and studied. With time, patience and experience, they will counter-act to free you (and organizations) from any fear-based domination. They are essential "tools" in that sense to working one's way out of the 'Fear' Matrix (or 'Fear' Project, or fearism-t). These include 6 in their original configuration that evolved in ISOF (Calgary): (1) quality information on fear and fearlessness, (2) Liberation Peer Counseling, (3) Spontaneous Creation-making, (4) Community-building, (5) Sacred Warriorship, (6) Vision Quest.

The 7th vaccine has just been discovered in its latest form in the last 20 years or so by Dr. Don Trent Jacobs (also known as Four Arrows). I am currently writing a book on his life and work, but most importantly I have followed his work as a researcher and educator because of his discovery of a great model for working with decolonizing the mind, or de-hypnotizing ourselves from the dominant (and largely pathological) Western worldview. His model is defined in a mnemonic form: CAT-FAWN. There is a fascinating story behind the years of discovering this model, with roots of its "teaching" coming from ancient ancestors in remote Mexico and the shamans of the Raramuri there, as well as from the non-human spirit teachers-- and to be clear, it has not yet been put to full use (not even by Four Arrows), and I am just in the early stages of understanding it. I will write more on CAT-FAWN but not in detail here as I merely wanted to officially recognize it in my mind as the 7th 'Fear' Vaccine.

CAT-FAWN = Concentration Activated Transformation (CAT) and FEAR, AUTHORITY, WORDS, NATURE (FAWN). The basic principle behind this CAT-FAWN connection, as Four Arrows calls it, is that in any concentration state (subtle and light, or dramatic and heavy) we are in "trance" and in that state the human (and many animals) are highly susceptible to learning, for good or not so good. The point is to recognize with great critical awareness when one is going into a trance-state (i.e., CAT), it may be as simple as when you are watching TV too long, or driving a car, or working on an art piece or listening to music or when you have been injured and are fearful and/or terrorized... etc. By recognizing and predicting the high learning potential in this trance (CAT) state, you will be able to ensure you are not going to let Fear, Authorities, Words, or Nature be used against you and your current state, but be helpful as guides to move you along (in my words) the path of fearlessness of development.

More on all this as time goes... just also want to let you know that Barbara Bickel (my partner) has initiated with me to co-author a book on the 'Fear' Vaccines and all our years experience with them, and ensure they are documented for history. You can bet a final chapter will be on the latest addition of the 7th to the traditional 6 that we have the most experience with in the ISOF Community especially. Stay tuned...