Calmable

Such a great nonsensical flap has been made over the circumstances attending a poetry reading I gave at Portland State University on May 27, 1967, that I would like to add a few clear words and perhaps calm those curious who are calmable.

A parent can say, “I am here. . . . You are going to be all right. . . . You’ll be all better soon. . . . Your body is healing the hurt right now. . . . It’s getting better and better.” Children are very susceptible to suggestion after the shock of an accident, and they are calmable. Not only can children’s moods respond to positive suggestion, their bodies can actually respond at a physiological level.

The yogis saw the regression that takes place in this phase as a necessary one in the service of the chitta, not the restless, dark and demonic chitta, but the calmable, effulgent and benign one containing altruistic drive representations through which the Upanishadic injunction of atmanam viddhi—‘Know the I’—can be fulfilled. The presence of a guru to guide and monitor this process is essential.

By the time that I was able to talk to Dan in Beverly Hills, I had decided that we would just have to ignore Carpenter and all her collapsible ladies, for we didn’t need her approval. Disney could build his own White House. When I told Dan about the way she had panicked, he said we would simply go to Washington and calm her down. “She doesn’t sound calmable,” I told him. “Dan, the woman sees English as a foreign language.”

Things calm down over toast. Most things are calmable with toast, I think, especially with the right marmalade.