It’s Not Just You

“This is Why Clowns are Good —because they show that The Image is not a fact, but it’s a reflex of some kind.

And when you think everything is just that way, The Trickster comes in and it all blows apart, and you get The Becoming Thing again.”

HINDLE: Silence! I need time to think. 

TODD: What will Sanders say? 

HINDLE: Silence! 

TODD: Doctor, tell him. 

HINDLE: Sanders will not return. 

TODD: I hope for your sake he does. 

HINDLE: Why should he? The others didn't. 

I wish to announce the strategy for the defence of The Dome, implementation immediate. 

We will raze to the ground and sterilise an area of forest some fifty miles radius. 

Objective, the creation of a cordon sanitaire around the dome. Method of implementation, fire and acid. Acid and fire. 

TODD: This is insane. There is no danger. 

DOCTOR: And then? 

HINDLE: And then we will wait for rescue. 

The mother ship. 

TODD: Mother ship doesn't return for six seasons. 

HINDLE: We'll be patient. 

TODD: Doctor, tell him. 

DOCTOR: What are you defending the dome against? 

HINDLE: Against out there. The trees, plants. 

DOCTOR: Oh, I see. 

HINDLE: Yes? 

DOCTOR: Well, perhaps if we could define the exact nature of the threat posed by the trees 

HINDLE: I've told you. Seeds, spores and things. 

Everywhere. Getting hold, rooting, thrusting, branching, blocking out the light. 

DOCTOR: Yes, but I-

HINDLE: Don't you see! 

DOCTOR: Nearly, nearly, nearly. I thought that the Kinda -

HINDLE: No, the Kinda are not important. They're just the servants. 

DOCTOR: Of? 

HINDLE: Of the plants. The plants feed them. Did you know that? Then return, that's why. That's why. 

DOCTOR: Why do you think the plants are hostile? 

(The Kinda raise their weapons and move forward.) 

HINDLE: Because they are. 

[Forest]

(Todd stops by some shrubs.) 

TODD: 

Doctor, there's something following us. 

DOCTOR: 

Nonsense. 

(He walks on, then a twig snaps.) 

DOCTOR: 

There's something FOLLOWING us....!!

TODD: 

Come out from there, whatever you are. 

(Someone holds out a figure like the jack-in-the-box. Todd goes to there and the person leaps out from the other side of the shrubs. It wears a mask just like the one in the dome, and holds the doll, then ducks out of sight again.) 

DOCTOR: 

Look. 

(A group of Kinda arrive.) 

TODD: 

So many of them. They normally only associate in groups of three or four. 

(The masked figure jumps out again between them and the Kinda.) 

TODD: 

Doctor. 

DOCTOR: 

Culturally non-hostile, didn't you say? 

(The figure removes his mask. He's the Trickster or village jester. He tries to step forward, but mimes that his right foot is stuck to the ground. When he pulls it free, he jumps forward to land at the Doctor's feet. The Doctor helps him up, smiling. The Trickster moves his hand in front of his face, changing his expression from neutral to scowl and back again.) 

DOCTOR: 

Yes, we take the point, don't we. 

TODD: 

Yes, the clown stroke jester's a familiar figure, anthropologically speaking. 

He diffuses a potential source of conflict through mockery and ridicule, don't you. 

(Trickster nods while his marotte shakes its head. Then he points at the Doctor.) 

TODD: 

Your turn. 

DOCTOR: 

Er, well, I don't really see what I could, er. 

Wait a minute. 

(The Doctor holds up his coin, puts his hands behind his back then brings them back for the Trickster to choose. Both hands turn out empty. The Doctor produces the coin from the Trickster's ear. The Kinda applaud.) 

DOCTOR: 

It's all quite simple, really. 

Just a, just a matter of practice. 

Your turn. 

The Leader of The Gang

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“A significant upturn in Cauty and Drummond’s financial circumstances occurred in May 1988, when they accidentally produced a hit single. It was called ‘Doctorin’ The TARDIS’ and they released it under the name The Timelords. It was a novelty record. It started with a desire to make a credible dance record based around the theme music of the science fiction series Doctor Who. 

Lovers of electronic music consider this theme to be something of a classic, and the pioneering work of its creators, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, is much admired. The problem was that Cauty couldn’t get a standard 4-4 dance beat to work with it. After some experimentation, he came to the conclusion that the only drumbeat that would fit was the glitter beat. As a result, samples of Gary Glitter’s ‘Rock ’n’ Roll (Part Two)’, plus the odd bit of ‘Blockbuster!’ by Sweet, were added to the mix. 

‘Not until a couple of days into it did we realise how terrible it was,’ Cauty admitted to Richard King. Yet by the time they had added samples of Daleks quoting Harry Enfield’s Loadsamoney character, it was clear that they had a potential hit on their hands. ‘We justified it all by saying to ourselves “We’re celebrating a very British thing here . . . you know”,’ Drummond told BBC Radio 1, ‘something that Timmy Mallett understands.’ 

Having accidentally created a potentially massiveselling novelty record, the question then became how to publicise it. Drummond and Cauty themselves were both in their mid-thirties and neither were natural frontmen for a mainstream pop record. They decided to claim that the record had been made by Cauty’s car. This was a huge American cop car that looked like a beaten-up version of the Blues Brothers’ Bluesmobile. It was, if nothing else, an original idea. 

No car had ever had a hit record before. Drummond and Cauty thought that this gimmick would make a nice gift for the newspapers, handing them an easy little story on a plate. The press did not agree, by and large, finding the idea idiotic and wondering, perhaps for the first time, if Cauty and Drummond were taking the piss. 

Regardless, the single sleeve was printed featuring a photograph of the car, now renamed Ford Timelord, complete with a speech bubble saying, ‘Hi! I’m Ford Timelord. I’m a car, and I’ve made a record.’ The name ‘Ford Timelord’ was an echo of Ford Prefect, a character in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by the Doctor Who script editor Douglas Adams. This was nicely fitting, as Ken Campbell’s follow-up to Illuminatus! was a production of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. 

In three weeks, despite not being playlisted by Radio 1, the record reached the fabled position of number one in the charts. It would go on to sell more than a million copies. A video was shot showing the car driving around locations in Wiltshire, including the Avebury stone circles. It included a couple of home-made Daleks which avoided legal problems by being so poorly constructed that no one could claim with a straight face they contravened copyright. 

Another problem was that the producers of Top Of The Pops believed that a car sitting by itself on stage for three minutes, flashing its lights in time to the music, would not make an interesting performance. The solution was to recruit Gary Glitter to front the performance, for which he donned a silver cape and hammed it up for all he was worth. His reward was to find himself on the cover of the NME for the first time in his career.”

“At that point, Jonathan King was not known to be a paedophile: only in 2001 was he jailed for the sexual assault of five teenage boys. 

• This makes him the third person in this story to have been sent to prison for sexual offences related to minors. 

• Gary Glitter, who appeared with Cauty and Drummond on Top Of The Pops, was jailed for possessing thousands of images of child pornography and charged with having sexual relations with a fourteenyear-old child. 

• Chris Langham, the Thick Of It actor and co-author with Ken Campbell of the Illuminatus! stage play, was jailed in 2007 for possessing child pornography. 

You might think this a remarkably high instance of such crimes for one story, and you would be correct. It becomes more uncomfortable in light of a character in Illuminatus! called Padre Pederastia, a paedophile priest who initiates new recruits into The Justified Ancients of Mummu by leading a satanic black mass. Not all the coincidences that circle this story are light and funny. 

After the Brit Awards, the actions of The KLF were quickly rationalised by journalists as ‘pranks’ or ‘scams’. They were nothing of the sort. They were an honest expression from the very core of Drummond and Cauty. As Drummond told the journalist Danny Kelly the next day, ‘There is humour in what we do, and in the records, but I really hate it when people go on about us being “schemers” and “scammers”. We do all this stuff from the very depths of our soul and people make out it’s some sort of game. It depresses me.’ 

Once again they had reacted instinctively on the deepest level they knew, and found their actions misinterpreted as some sophisticated Machiavellian media manipulation. They could not wound the industry, and they could not fight it. When they first decided to take on the mantle of The Justified Ancients of Mummu their intention had been to claim the music industry for themselves. Instead, it had swallowed them up. They had failed. They were in a very dark place. 

As Drummond told Danny Kelly, ‘Looking back, we realise we don’t really know what our motivation was. All we know is we’ve got, as well as everything else, this dark side to our personality. We looked into our souls and entered into the same area that [Charles] Manson must have entered . . . and that bloke who shot up Hungerford.’ Here Drummond was referring to the mass shooting in 1987 by a lone gunman called Michael Ryan, which led to the tightening up of Britain’s gun laws. Kelly challenged him on this because, if it was hyperbole, then it was in terrible taste. He asked Drummond if he really meant it. ‘I do actually. Yes I do,’ Drummond said. ‘It is the same area. Somebody recently used the phrase “corporate rebels”–about The Manic Street Preachers, I think–and both Jimmy and I didn’t want to be just corporate rebels because there’s just so much of that, shameless, in the music business. We felt we were headbutting . . . headbutting . . . trying to push at what’s acceptable. It was completely pointless and you don’t know why you’re doing it but it has to be done. And that’s what Michael Ryan did; he just woke up one morning and thought “right, today’s the day I go out and get the bastards” and went out and shot the bastards . . .’ 

A number of journalists from this period came away from interviews speculating as to whether or not Drummond was on the edge of a breakdown. What next? Where could they go from there? They had been on a journey deep into the very heart of the beast. They had failed, and they might never feel clean again. They had to get away, but was it possible for a group that successful to escape from the industry? 

In 1992, The KLF were massive. The previous year they had sold more singles than any other act in the world. They had had a string of global number one records. They had hits in America. The critics adored them. How could they escape from the industry? How could they become forgotten? 

How could they reclaim their souls?”

The Majors Tom : 2010 - The Year We Make Contact

We're on dangerous ground right now, because of our secrets and our lies.

They're practically what define us.

When The Truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there.

But it is still there.

Every lie we tell incurs a debt to The Truth.

Sooner or later, that debt is paid.

That is how an HAL-9000 Computer turns into a serial murderer and goes on a killing spree.

Lies.

 

Understand, nobody can talk.
The accents will confuse him.
He can understand me, so if you have
any questions, please let me ask them.
Good morning, HAL.


HAL [OVER SPEAKERS]:
Good morning, Dr. Chandra.


Do you feel capable of resuming all of your duties?
 

Of course.
I am completely operational and all my circuits are functioning perfectly.


That's good.
Do you know what those duties are?
 

Yes. I will operate the onboard systems of Discovery.
There is a launch window in 31 days when Earth is in the proper position.
There is enough fuel on board
for a low consumption route that will enable Discovery
to return in 28 months.
This will not present a problem.
 

CHANDRA: 
That's very good.
Now, HAL, do you mind if I ask you a question?
 

Not at all.
 

Do you recall Dave Bowman
and Frank Poole leaving the Discovery?
 

Certainly not. That could never have happened or I would remember it.


Where are Frank and Dave?


They're fine. They're not here right now.
 

Who are these people?
I can only identify you although I compute
a 65 percent probability that the man behind you is Dr. Floyd.
 

CHANDRA: 
Don't worry, HAL.
I'll explain everything later.
 


Has the mission been completed?
You know that I have the greatest enthusiasm for it.
 


The mission has been completed
and you have carried out your program very well.
 

And now, HAL, if you will excuse us
for a moment we wish to have a private conversation.
 

Certainly.
What was that all about?
 


I've erased all of HAL's memory from the moment the trouble started.
 

The 9000 series
uses holographic memories so chronological erasures
would not work.


CHANDRA: 
 I made a tapeworm.



You made a what?
It's a program that's fed into a system that will destroy any desired memories.


Wait.


Do you know why HAL did what he did?


Yes. It wasn't his fault.
Whose fault was it?

Yours.


Mine?
CHANDRA:
Yours.
In going through HAL's memory banks
I discovered his original orders.
You wrote those orders.
Discovery's mission to Jupiter was already
in the advanced stages when the first small monolith was found
and sent its signal toward Jupiter.
By direct presidential order, the existence
of that monolith was kept secret.


So?

So as the function of the command crew, Bowman and Poole
was to get Discovery to its destination it was decided they shouldn't be informed.


The investigative team was trained separately and placed in hibernation before the voyage began.
Since HAL was capable of operating
Discovery without human assistance it was decided he should be programmed to complete the mission autonomously in the event the crew was incapacitated or killed.
He was given full knowledge
of the true objective and instructed not to reveal anything
to Bowman or Poole.

He was instructed to lie.


What are you talking about?
I didn't authorize anyone to tell HAL about the monolith.
 

The directive is NSC 342-slash-23, Top Secret, January 30, 2001 .
NSC, National Security Council, the White House.
I don't care who it is.
The situation was in conflict with the basic purpose of HAL's design the accurate processing of information without distortion or concealment.
 
He became trapped.

The technical term is an H-Mobius loop, which can happen in advanced computers with autonomous
goal-seeking programs.


The goddamn White House.
I don't believe it.
 
HAL was told to lie by people who find it easy to lie.
HAL doesn't know how, so he couldn't function.
He became paranoid.
 

Those sons of bitches.
I didn't know.
I didn't know.

You think we're gonna

get out of this alive?

We have a chance.

A man of few words. I like it.

HAL [OVER SPEAKERS]: Fifteen minutes

to ignition. All systems nominal.

Good. Thank you, HAL.

FLOYD [OVER RADIO]:

We read 15 minutes, Discovery.

HAL: Dr. Chandra,

I've checked my calculations again.

By using all of Discovery's fuel now,

Discovery will not be in proper position...

...to rendezvous with Earth.

CHANDRA: Yes, I know.

HAL: Then why are we doing it?

You will rendezvous

with the new space station.

The Leonov has been

ordered home immediately.

HAL: I have no information regarding

a new space station.

Yes, I....

I know, uh.

It was completed two years ago.

Oh, my God.

FLOYD:

Put the telescope on the monitor.

Increase the magnification.

HAL:

Eleven minutes to ignition.

I don't believe it.

HAL: Dr. Chandra,

I detect strong vocal stress patterns.

-Is there a problem?

CHANDRA: No, HAL.

The mission is proceeding normally.

Can you analyze the image

on Monitor Circuit 2?

HAL: Yes. There is a circular object

near the equator.

It is 22,000 kilometers in diameter.

It is comprised of rectangular objects.

CHANDRA: How many?

HAL: 1,355,000, plus or minus 1000.

And what is the proportion

of the objects in question?

HAL: One-by-four-by-nine.

CHANDRA: Do you recognize these objects?

HAL: Yes. They are identical in size and shape

to the object you call the monolith.

Ten minutes to ignition.

All systems nominal.

CHANDRA: Is the number

of monoliths constant?

HAL:

No.

-They are increasing.

-At what rate?

HAL:

Once every two minutes.

Look closely.

Tell me I'm nuts. Are the cloud formations

going towards the spot?

You're not nuts.

ORLOV: Looks like the thing

is eating the planet.

-I think it is.

-It's reproducing exactly like a virus.

HAL: Eight minutes to ignition.

Dr. Chandra, may I make a suggestion?

Of course. What is it, HAL?

HAL:

This is a very unusual phenomenon.

Don't you think

I should abort the countdown...

...so you can remain to study it?

Chandra, get on a headset.

-Use the private channel.

-Okay.

Now you got to talk quickly.

Persuade him to continue the countdown.

I don't care what you tell him,

only don't let him stop.

HAL:

Five minutes to ignition.

Dr. Chandra, I'm ready to stop

the countdown if you want.

No, HAL, don't stop.

I am confident in your ability

to study the phenomenon yourself.

I have complete faith in you.

HAL: Propellant tank pressurization

completed. Voltage steady.

Are you sure you're making

the right decision?

I think we should stop.

Four minutes to ignition.

I enjoy working with human beings...

...and have stimulating relationships

with them.

We enjoy working with you, HAL,

and we will continue to do so...

...even if we are separated

by great distance.

Good God.

Color.

It's fading.

ORLOV: It seems to be

losing its chemical strength.

HAL: I think we should stop the countdown,

Dr. Chandra.

No. Don't do that.

HAL: This behavior is inconsistent

with logic, Dr. Chandra.

This phenomenon is too important

to leave, unless it represented danger.

Do you think there is danger here?

Captain, how critical is our ignition?

-Can we do this manually?

-It's very critical.

We cannot be accurate

to a tenth of a second if we do it manually.

HAL:

Three minutes to ignition.

Dr. Chandra, I am waiting for your reply.

I don't have time

to explain everything to you, HAL.

We have to leave here

and we need your help.

HAL:

Thirty seconds to final sequence.

If you would tell me the reasons

perhaps I could be of help.

Final sequence beginning.

Two minutes to ignition.

Dr. Chandra, I find it difficult

to proceed with the ignition...

...without knowing why we are doing this.

Is the mission in jeopardy?

Yes, we're in jeopardy.

HAL: Is that why we are making our

escape launch before the launch window?

Yes, HAL.

HAL:

Ignition in 90 seconds.

If there is danger here

and I use up all the fuel in the escape...

...what will happen to the Discovery?

It could be destroyed.

HAL:

And if I don't proceed with the launch?

Then the Leonov and everybody in it

could be destroyed.

HAL:

I understand now, Dr. Chandra.

Do you want me to stay with you?

HAL: No.

It is better for the mission if you leave.

One minute to ignition.

Thank you for telling me the truth.

You deserve it.

HAL:

Fifty seconds.

Dr. Chandra?

Yes?

HAL:

Will I dream?

I don't know.

HAL:

Forty seconds.

Thirty seconds.

Thank you, HAL.

HAL:

Goodbye, Dr. Chandra.

Twenty seconds.

FLOYD:

Chandra, get the hell out of there.

HAL:

Ten, nine, eight, seven...

...six, five, four, three...

...two, one.

Ignition full thrust.

MAN [OVER PA]: One minute to separation.

Separation in one minute.

-You had us scared for a moment.

-Nice work. You all right?

Yes, I'm all right.

MAN: Separation in 40 seconds.

-Thought you might want this.

When?

-Wasn't very hard to find.

MAN: Separation in 30 seconds.

Yeah, I knew you would do

something like this.

MAN:

Separation in 20 seconds.

Separation in 10 seconds.

[SPEAKING IN RUSSIAN]

Nine, eight, seven...

...six, five, four, three...

...two, one, zero.

BOWMAN:

HAL, do you read me?

HAL [OVER SPEAKERS]:

Yes, Dave.

Where are you?

I cannot see you on any of my monitors.

BOWMAN: That isn't important now.

I have new instructions for you.

I want you to point the AE35 antenna

towards Earth.

HAL: Dave, that will mean breaking contact

with the Leonov.

I will no longer be able to relay

my Jupiter observations...

...according to program.

BOWMAN:

I understand.

The situation has changed.

Accept priority override alpha.

Here are the AE35 coordinates.

Please, do it now.

HAL: Instructions confirmed, Dave.

It is good to be working with you again.

Have I fulfilled

the mission objectives properly?

BOWMAN:

Yes, HAL. You have done very well.

Now, there is one final message for you

to transmit to Earth.

It is the most important message

you have ever sent.

I want you to keep repeating it

as many times as possible.

HAL: What is going to happen, Dave?

BOWMAN: Something wonderful.

HAL: I'm afraid.

BOWMAN: Don't be. We'll be together.

HAL: Where will we be?

BOWMAN: Where I am now.

HAL: Lock confirmed on Beacon Terra 1.

Message commencing.

It's shrinking! It's shrinking!

[ALARM BEEPING]

Don't quit. Don't quit, damn it.

Move!

Grab something, now!

This is Not a Hug, Son – Howard, Tony and Peter

Attack EyeBrows: 

I, I don't think that I'm a hugging person now.

CLARA: 

I'm not sure you get a vote.

Attack EyeBrows: 

Whatever you say.

" In our world today, need is a dirty word. People love to deny, suppress and disown their needs as if that somehow makes them a better person. We are addicted to independence. But here’s the problem: No matter how much you may want it to be different, you have needs. Every being on earth has needs. A need is something that is required in order to live, succeed or be happy. And you cannot un-require something that is required. You cannot argue your way into seeing that it isn’t necessary. You have one option when it comes to your needs and that is to meet them. There are many needs we love to deny. But today I’m going to talk to you about one of them. It is the need for touch.

People are preoccupied and obsessed with the idea of overriding their biology. If you look around the world today, our modern society is an example of this. Religion looks to suppress all instinctive energies within us like sexuality, hunger, and desire. Our modern society has made it so that we are mentally and emotionally ready to have babies at age 30 to 40, when our bodies are in fact on the downswing of fertility at that age. We have become, as a society, obsessed with finding a way to be immortal. We want to transcend all that makes us human. But when it comes to connection, we find ourselves in real trouble when we try to override our biology.

We might like to think that we can physically exist without each other, but we can’t. Healthy autonomy cannot arise in a person who has no sense of safety or adequacy, which for a physical human is provided through the person’s learned sense of security of connection. For a physical human, the chemical cocktail that our body releases in response to touch and contact comfort connection is the exact opposite of the chemical cocktail that is released in response to fear and shame. And so we need to accept that connection is our antidote. The sooner we can accept this reality about ourselves, the better. We are a social species. And more than that, we are a social species that needs contact comfort. Yes, I am talking about human touch.

I’ve never forgotten about a series of experiments that were done by a man named Harry Harlow in the 1950s. He was seeking to understand the human need for love, and the critical role that it plays in both primate and human development, so he separated a group of baby rhesus monkeys from their mothers when they were born.

The baby monkeys were each caged alone in the lab and allowed no physical contact with the personnel in the lab or with each other even though they could see the other monkeys and personnel. They immediately began exhibiting signs of distress. They clutched themselves, began rocking, staring into space as if dissociating, biting themselves, and biting their cages. They did not play or groom themselves and they seemed vacillate between anxiety and depression.

The babies were then assigned to one of two fake surrogate mothers. One was a model made of chicken wire that was covered in soft terrycloth. It was made to look roughly like a monkey. This surrogate did not provide any food. The other surrogate mother was also made of chicken wire, but no terrycloth. It had a crocodile looking head and provided milk from an attached baby bottle.

To say that the babies favored the mother covered in terrycloth is an understatement. The comfort these babies received through touch contact was incomparably more important to them than even their physical hunger. They needed connection more than they needed nourishment. This is also the case for people, not just monkeys. If our need for nourishment was stronger than our need for connection with one another, we would not meet people who can’t eat or sleep when they experience a painful break-up with someone they loved.

There is another unforgettable research study that I learned about in my university courses. It was a study done in the United States in the 1940s and was conducted on 40 newborn infants. I clearly remember that the objective was to determine whether individuals could thrive on basic physiological needs alone, without physical affection.

Twenty of the newborn infants were housed in a special facility where caregivers would enter the facility to feed them, bathe them, and change their diapers, but they would do nothing else. The caregivers had been instructed not to look at or touch the babies more than what was necessary and never communicate with them. All their physical needs were attended to scrupulously and the environment was kept sterile so as to prevent any of the babies from becoming ill.

The experiment was stopped after four months because by that time, at least half of the babies had died. More babies subsequently died even after being rescued and brought into natural familial environment. There was no physiological cause found for the deaths of these babies. They were all physically very healthy.

I specifically remember that one of the most disturbing facts was that before each baby died, there was a period of time where they would stop verbalizing and stop trying to engage with their caregivers. They would stop moving, stop crying, and stop changing their expression and death would follow shortly after. It was as if the babies had given up living before they died. This was the case even for the babies who died after being removed from the experimental conditions.

In today’s world, we are obsessed with technology. It’s hard to go anywhere and find people who are genuinely engaged with one another. Most people are fully engaged instead with a technological device. Their noses are buried in their computers or cell phones. And while social media has provided incredible opportunities to be connected with each other around the world, no matter where we are, social media only provides connection up to a degree. Physical connection cannot be replaced and its importance can’t be underestimated. We can’t get physical contact through a screen or from a distance. We need touch. We need vicinity. We need the comfort of being in physical contact with one another. And we must consider this when we are developing connections in our life.

The reality is that as humans, we need touch. Even the people, who are the most afraid of and hurt by human connection, need it. This is why the loneliest and most deeply hurt people experience so much torment. If we didn’t absolutely need touch and we were hurt by people, we would simply go on our merry way and never touch other people again. But we can’t. Instead, if we’ve been hurt by others, we spend our life in a torturous tug of war between the side of us that needs other people and the side that wants to be able to have nothing to do with them.

It is obvious that there are many ways we can be physically injured when it comes to touch and that this sets up a poor relationship to touch in general. But by far the majority of the pain we experience as people around touch is because of the emotional meaning we add to touch. People cannot stop adding meaning to touch and so touch is not touch for the sake of touch in our world. Instead touch is a tool. This meaning we add to touch destroys the purity of touch and makes it rather unsafe to touch each other.

For example, if your parent made you serve them and/or honor them through physical touch and there were consequences for not doing so, physical touch now means subservience and slavery and is no longer an organic expression of love. Touch is often used as a tool for manipulation and so when you touch someone, it may mean to him or her that you want something from them. If touch only ever meant that someone wanted sex, then touch will be interpreted solely as an emotional communicator that the person wants to have sex with you.

Meaning is added to touch and also the different types of touch in every race, culture, religion, society and family. For example, in American culture, if a guy slaps another guys butt in sports, it means encouragement. If a guy slaps another guys butt outside sports, it means he is gay. In Scandinavian cultures, you can’t touch a person of the opposite sex without it meaning that you want to be with them sexually or romantically. In Brazil, you can expect to be hugged and kissed by everyone even if you are a stranger. There is no physical bubble. It doesn’t mean anything other than friendliness and welcome.

Even in one culture, the way a touch is given changes the entire meaning. A softer handshake for example can mean a warm greeting whereas a firm handshake can mean ‘take me seriously’. There are differences in the societal acceptance around boys touching and girls touching. The powerless thing is that we can’t control the meaning that other people add to us touching them. And we add meaning that makes it not easy to just receive touch ourselves. Because of the complexity of the language of touch, touch seems so complicated; most of us end up in pain about it. We all end up touch deprived.

Humans need SO much more touch than they are getting across the world. In fact, purely biologically speaking, there is no single person who could provide enough touch for another person. Imagine a baby. When the baby is born, everyone who comes into contact with that baby, caresses the baby. The child in this healthy environment can run up and get a hug from mom one minute and the next sit on dads lap and the next, sit down and have their arm lightly stroked by grandma and the next, run hand in hand with their friend. In a healthy world, this would be how adults could live with each other in community as well. Obviously there are healthier cultures, communities and individuals than others in this respect.

If touch has been something that has led to pain for us, we need to work touch back into our lives slowly and with someone that we trust. Somatic therapy is one example of something we may need to do first before we can let people in our social circle provide touch for us in our day-to-day lives. It is to be expected that we would need to be rehabilitated if unloving touch was part of our wounding, as is so typical with abuse. But we do need this rehabilitation if we want to live lives where we genuinely feel connected to other people, at peace with the world and emotionally satiated.

When we are trying to satiate the need for touch, we need to stop suppressing this need within ourselves. We need to begin to look at touch as something that we do for touch sake. For example, we love petting a dog or cat for the sake of the pleasure of that touch in and of itself. It is a pure form of touch because it nourishes both the one touching and the one being touched. This is why it feels so safe for many of us to caress and be physically affectionate to an animal, but not a person. The communication is clear.

See, sense or feel that your body needs touch. Your skin and muscles and organs are starving for it. You are also starving for that form of communication emotionally. Some examples of nourishing types of touch are: 

Sitting with someone so we can feel their body against ours, 

holding, 
 
patting, 
 
gripping, 
 
rubbing, 
 
hugging, 
 
holding hands, 

gentle and comforting stroking, 
 
tickling, 
 
cuddling, 
 
massage, 
 
squeezing, 
 
pulling, 
Forehead against Forehead 
and 
kisses 
to name a few.

When we want touch from someone or initiate touch with someone, we can keep ourselves safe by getting very clear on the meaning of the touch before we do it and communicating with the other person about it. Essentially we must aim to take the room for interpretation out of it. Touch is one of the most powerful forms of primal emotional communication. We need that communication; the emotional message being conveyed through touch. But we also need touch in and of itself separate from a communication tool.

For the sake of your awareness, really ask yourself what meaning you specifically add to the different forms of touch. Where did you learn that meaning from? How does the meaning you add to touch differ from the meaning other people add to touch? Take a day and on that day, just watch people and how they touch. Take note of every time they touch and the meaning or communication being conveyed by that touch. Make a study of this form of communication.

Whenever you are experiencing touch or giving touch, ask yourself: What does this touch emotionally mean and what do I want it to mean? In this way, we make sure we are on the same page. It may seem less organic this way, but it is a necessary part of the rehabilitation. This makes touch safe to give and receive. And when you find yourself in a partnership, you will have to communicate about the meaning of touch as well in order to be on the same page so that touching other people outside the partnership is done in ways that makes both people feel satiated but also safe. Touch is something that creates jealousy in relationships faster than almost anything else.

As long as we are physical, there will not be a day when we don’t need touch from each other. Our sense of well-being is dependent upon us meeting this need for one another. We need to find opportunities for contact comfort and then we need to allow these experiences into our life. And we need to accept that it’s futile to fight against this aspect of our biology. If we can separate out the meaning of touch from the touch itself so as to clearly agree upon it and begin to touch each other for the sake of touch itself, we will create a healthier and more emotionally secure world to live in."

CLARA: 

Yeah. (big sigh) 

Tell you what, seeing as it's goodbye, shall we break a habit?

DOCTOR: 

What? What habit?

CLARA: 

Hug.

DOCTOR: 

Why not. Within reason.

(He stands up.)

DOCTOR: 

Come on, you're on the clock.

CLARA: 

Fair enough.

(So she stands and puts her arms around his neck, and he slowly puts his arms around her.)

CLARA: 

Why don't you like hugging, Doctor?

DOCTOR: 

Never trust a hug. 

It's just a way to hide your face.

CLARA: 

Yeah.

ORESTEIA

Choephori is the second play of the Oresteia - the oldest surviving classical tragedy. The play opens as Orestes, Agamemnon's son, returns from exile with his friend Pylades and dedicates a lock of his hair on his father Agamemnon's tomb. His sister Electra and the Chorus of Trojan Women come to offer libations at the tomb, and in a deeply moving scene brother and sister recognize one another. They swear to avenge their father's death, as they have been directed to do by Apollo. Disguised as strangers, Orestes and Pylades enter Agamemnon's palace and Orestes first kills Aegisthus and then his mother Clytemnestra. Threatened by the Furies, he flees to seek Apollo's help. 

National Theatre's production of Eumenides, as directed by Sir Peter Hall. Translation by Tony Harrison. Recorded from Bravo television channel c.1990. Originally screened on Channel 4 in 1983.

I Was Raised by Witches, Boy.

I was raised by witches, boy. 

I see more with more than eyes, you know that. 

Frigga to Thor as she startles him: 

What are you doing? 

You’re better off leaving the sneaking to your brother.

Thor: 

Now see I was just going for a walk…

Frigga: 

What are you wearing?

Thor: 

(ashamed)

I always wear this. 

It’s one of my favorite sweat…

Frigga: 

What’s wrong with your eye? 

Thor: 

Oh you remember thee, uh, the Battle of Harog when I got hit in the face with a sword. 

Frigga: 

You’re not the Thor I know at all, are you?

Thor: 

Yes I am. 

Frigga: 

The Future hasn’t been kind to you, has it? 

Thor: 

...I didn’t say I was from The Future. 

Frigga: 

I was raised by witches, boy. 

I see more with more than eyes, you know that. 

Thor: 

(Sobs)

I’m totally from The Future —

I need to talk to you. 

*****

Thor: 

His head was over there. His body over there (pointing). 

And what was The Point? 

I was too late. 

I was just standing there. 

Some idiot with an axe. 

Frigga: 

You’re no idiot. 

You’re here, aren’t you? 

Seeking counsel from The Wisest Person in Asgard. 

Thor: 

Yes.

Frigga :

Idiot, no. 

A Failure? 

Absolutely.

Thor: 

Seems a little bit harsh....

Frigga: 

But you know what that makes you? 

Just like Everyone Else. 

Thor: 

But I’m not supposed to be like everyone else though, am I?

FRIGGA: 

Everyone fails at Who They’re Supposed to Be, Thor.

The Measure of a Person, of a Hero, 

is How Well They Succeed at 

Being Who They Are.

Thor: 

I’ve missed you mum. 

Rocket: 

Hi, you must be mom. 

I got the thing, come on we gotta move. 

Thor: 

I wish we had more time. 

Frigga: 

This was a Gift. 

Now you go and be 

The Man You’re Meant to Be. 

Thor: 

I love you, mum. 

Frigga: 

I love you. 

And eat a salad. 

But right before Rocket and Thor take off, Thor remembers something and holds out his hand. 

Rocket: 

What am I looking at?

Frigga: 

Oh, sometimes it takes a second. 

Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir comes flying into the room and into Thor’s hand. 

Thor: 

I’m still worthy!