TRUST

Part Two of Four:

The game itself began by having each person at the table take two-minutes to tell the rest of the team “What I feel like saying is...” While each person spoke, the other members of your team were to listen and simply say 'thank you' when the two-minutes were up. There could be no comments or feedback. When it was my turn, all I could come up with was the truth in the moment - “What I feel like saying is that I am very uncomfortable sitting at a table in the middle of the room and that for some strange reason my palms are sweating uncontrollably and that they’d never done that before. And that is what I feel like saying.” Hardly two-minute’s worth, but I took the opportunity to be honest in my nervousness. After everyone on the team had spoken we took our first break which gave us a chance to pee, have a smoke, get a piece of fruit, to simply get out of the room for a minute or ten. Once everyone was relaxed, we regrouped on the stairs in the lobby in a team huddle, even though it was close to eight o’clock, and we essentially hadn’t even started yet. No one else on the team seemed to have any thoughts on the way we were going to go about this, so I took the opportunity to explain my theory, or should I say, my experience.

“The “essence” of the word is really the “energy” of the word. Energy. Like when you walk into a room and get a gut feeling. Like when you meet someone for the first time and you get a good vibe or bad vibe from them. That “vibe” is energy. Something inside. You can’t really explain it, but you know it’s there.” I went on to tell them how, “While I was away at school in LA, my girlfriend at the time, Chris, was living in New Jersey. We kept a long-distance relationship by writing to each other often, visiting on breaks between trimesters or on a long weekend, but mostly by telephone. There were times when I would sit quietly, simply missing her. Compelled, I’d break away from my school work and pick up the phone to hear her voice. On a rare, but frequent enough occasion, when I picked the phone up, she was already on the line. I never dialed her number and neither of our phones rang. On her end, she had merely dialed my number, but never received a ringtone. It wasn’t anything we did or didn't do. It was what we thought.” Everyone on the team seemed to have had some similar experience of “energy” that was quickly blown off as just a crazy coincidence. Before heading back into the ballroom to join the others, I reiterated, "Have you ever told someone or even thought to yourself that “it’s the thought that counts”? Well, it is, and I think that’s what this game is all about.” My suggestion was that we would take all the blocks off the table except for one single, little, blue, square block that we would place in the center of the table. The word we would demonstrate would be TRUST. Seeing as how it was the “blue” word, it was the logical choice, and if nothing else, maybe on some other subliminal level it would trigger something to the Receivers. The agreement was that we would all join hands and close our eyes while concentrating on nothing but the word TRUST and or its symbol. You could open your eyes whenever it felt right, and to take as little or as much time as you wanted, but when the last person opened their eyes, that’s when the demonstration would be over.

Inspired and quite chill, we quietly returned to our empty table in the ballroom where the other teams were busy playing, arguing, and laughing with each other and their blocks. Looking around, we knew our team had something the other teams did not. Trust. We called the Receivers over to our table and told them our demonstration was about to begin. The scene surely resembled, and in many ways was, a séance taking place around a simple children’s block. However, this was by no means any form of child's play. As it turned out, I was the last one to open my eyes, and knew when to do so because I could literally feel the energy running in one hand and out the other. When that energy flow stopped, I could tell that the circle had been broken, so I opened my eyes. Collectively, we told the Receivers that our demonstration was complete, and we sat there in complete silence. The Receiver placed an index card on our table and very quietly asked us what word we demonstrated. "TRUST," we replied. He turned the index card over to reveal the word - TRUST. “We received your communication. Thank you,” was all he said before slipping away. Holy shit! Being extra careful not to break any rules, we all got really excited, jumped up from our chairs, and started hugging one another. This was totally amazing! It really worked! I’ll admit I felt an extra bit of gratification, but this was a real team accomplishment - one we could not have done without total trust - in each other.                                            

Telepathic messages are received on emotional or spiritual levels. On energy waves. Had we communicated the essence of our word by using telepathy? It’s not as though our little blue block was a crystal ball and we were all secretly gypsies or Catskill magicians. Actually we were a psychologist, a nurse, a student, a social worker for the prison system, and an artist, but most of all we were once strangers to each other who now had complete trust in each other. This was no coincidence, and it was no longer just a game. We were the first team to have a communication received, on our first demonstration, of our first word. Not too shabby for a team made up of people no one else wanted on their team, and now all of the other teams watched in amazement as the quiet ones made all the noise. It really was truly a spirit lifting experience, in every sense, but the game was far from over. In fact, it had only just begun.

Stay Tuned! The Blocks Game Continues Next Week.