Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Truth and Lies
So what is the difference? When is a lie not a lie? Is it when the liar really, really believes the lie? In that case is it still a lie? Take a look at the photo, there’s a wonderful story of truth and lies associated with it that I’ll get around to in a minute. (Thanks to Horst for this picture).
I went to Egypt with no preconceptions about what I would find there, especially with regard to the Egyptian people. What happened was that I was really shocked by the lying and trickery. I guess I was a real innocent abroad for at least half of the trip, until I slowly began to get the idea.
Sue The Liar
I am quite possibly the world’s worst liar – to the endless entertainment of my family. The problem I have is that what I am thinking is usually written very clearly on my face. This can be a real problem in social situations especially as Roger, my partner, is an actor. We occasionally go to see productions in London featuring one of our friends. What do you say in the bar afterwards if it was a terrible show? Even worse, what do you say if your friend gave a terrible performance? Tricky when you’re someone who can’t lie.
Because I am pathologically honest I tend to assume that anyone I come into contact with is telling me the truth. Until I find out that they are not. This made me an easy target initially when I arrived in Egypt. Fortunately I caught on eventually and being in a group helped as I was able to learn from the experiences of others. I would have been stripped of all my cash after a couple of days if I’d been alone I’m sure of it.
Integrity
Apart from losing cash there was something worse I could have lost – my integrity. Before I left for Egypt I drew an angel card to give me a focus for the trip. The card was “Integrity”. As often happens with these cards, I was not really sure what this meant for me at the time when I picked it out of the box. It was later that its significance dawned on me.
There seems to be a particular type of lying and trickery that happens, well to the tourists at least, that involves a sort of distortion and even wilful blindness of the truth. For example our tour guide led me on a real old merry dance, so much so that I am still not sure of the boundary between what was true and what not so. It is and was very confusing. Much of the confusion arises from the fact that he genuinely seemed to believe what he was saying. Integrity came to my rescue. I firmly stepped forward into that camp as I saw how far out of it he was.
It made me think a lot about the nature of truth and lies, especially the lies we tell to ourselves. If we believe these lies firmly enough then those around us will often believe them too. But to lie is to lose your integrity whether you are lying to yourself or to the supermarket that has undercharged you. Each time we do something, however small, that causes us to lose integrity we block the flow of light. Where light is blocked there is darkness. My work and my perceptions are largely kinaesthetic so it was extremely revealing to me when I gave some healing to our tour guide. Here I was able to pick up what was truly going on and it was quite shocking. There was a darkness in this man’s heart chakra and the blockage causing this was not moving. Here was the truth at last.
The Donkey’s Tale
On a lighter note here is a great story that illustrates this extraordinary jumble of truth and lies that I found in Egypt. See the picture at the start of the blog?
After we had had the amazing experience in the Great Pyramid (see earlier blog-stuff) we were taken to a viewing point where it is possible to see all 3 pyramids together. Of course this spot is a magnet for traders and camel drivers. There are stalls selling knick-knacks and guys trying to entice you onto their camels for short trips across the dunes. Also there are many tourists crowding forward to take photographs of the view of the pyramids. It is certainly a great view but I was having a problem with the numbers of people. So I moved down the side of the sand dune a little. There was a dip at the bottom before the next sand dune rose up. In the dip there was the donkey in the picture, standing all alone. Idalize went to investigate, followed by Horst with his camera. In a flash the guy in the picture appeared from nowhere and plonked Idalize on the donkey’s back.
“Come, come, take picture. No money. No money.” Horst approached with his camera. “Come, no money.” The guy kept insisting. He tried to draw me over too but I turned away. I was fascinated by the unfolding drama though, there had to be a trick here. But what was it?
“Take photo. No money.” Now the guy was persuading Horst to give him the camera and he was taking a shot of Horst standing with Idalize and the donkey. At the end of this performance (which went on for some time) Horst felt he ought to give the guy something as a show of gratitude. So he offered him two Egyptian pounds.
“No, no.” Said the guy. “Is 20 pounds.” Horst was taken aback.
“But you said ‘No money’”. Without a flicker the guy replied:
“Is not for me. Is for donkey.”
