Exploring The Shift
The shift is not a thing. It is the action of discovering Self.

Last week a news item which went around the world caught my eye. A girl who had been abducted at the age of 11 and who had been assumed dead had reappeard after having been held capture for eight years. If you have missed the story, here is an article from the 24th from SpiegelOnline and one from the International Herald Tribune of the same day (one day after her escape).

I don't want to go into details about what appeared when and where in the media, except this: After she escaped, the police describe here in reasonably good physical shape and as reponsive and intelligent. Later it was reported that she did and does not want to have contact with her parents (she is currently in a secret place and does not appear in public as of her own choice) but did meet with teenagers of her own age. Police reported that said that she had sexual contact with her kidnapper (Mr. Priklopil) but said she was not forced and that it had been her free will. Then there was an item about the fact that she had shown signs of sadness when she was told that Mr. Priklopil had died (he had committed suicide on the day after she escaped). Some time later a neighbor was found who said that he had visited the house once to borrow a tool while she was there, not knowing who she was he thought that she might be a friend or relative. He said that "she seemed friendly and happy". Also, she has written an open letter, which was published two days ago and which I will link to further down in this text.

The reason why I mention all this is that due to lack of hard news (detailed interviews or more details from the police), the media did interviews with experts, who offered their view of what might have happened, which state she may be in, etc. A representative example is this article from BBC News. In all of those articles the term Stockholm Syndrome was mentioned and a German psychologist offered the following: "… now [after Mr. Priklopil's death] there is only the psychic reality of the girl. This does not need to match actual reality - also in relation to the sexual abuse" (source).

This may be good and well in the light of mass beliefs and established truths, but viewing it from a conscious creation standpoint I am generating an entirely different perception (which of course comes from the fact that I do not believe in actual reality). Viewing the abduction itself as conscious creation may be quite challenging and in fact I do not want to go that far at this point. But what seems obvious to me is that one way or another she has dealt with the situation quite well, coming out of it as anything but a victim. She seems to know what she wants and there is a snippet in her open letter, where in relation to Mr. Priklopil she says: "But he picked the wrong person - and both he and I knew that."

Ms. Kampusch actually sees some benefit in her experience, saying (also in the open letter): "I have been saved from some things, from starting to smoke or drink, or from having bad friends." which in another article a psychologist interpreted as a sign of how deeply she had been manipulated by Mr. Priklopil. Now, I'm sure there are many parents who would be happy if their child didn't smoke, drink or get around with bad company, but of course the same view from an young woman who had been in the hands of an abductor is the result of manipulation and a severe lack of a sense of reality.

What I see here are two totally different realities. One where Ms. Kampusch perceives herself as having been in control of a reasonable part of her life, despite the fact that her options in physical movement (leaving her chamber or the house) was limited. And psychologists who perceive a victim which was under such total control of her abductor, that he could dictate or manipulate her preferences so that she lost track of what really happened.

If there is such a thing as "what really happened", if there is a reality outside the subjective reality.

In fact, if you believe in victimhood, the idea of the Stockhom Syndrome is quite perfidious from the subjective standpoint of the victim, because when a person in a situation of limited control makes choices and when later society does not approve of those choices, that very person is denied the validity of those choices by society (or psychology) by declaring that these choices were the result of a lack of sense of reality. In other words, society and psychology tries to perform that very act which it disapproves of, that is the act of excerting control over the person and denial choice and in that way victimizes the victim again. The person may come out of such a situation with a reasonable psychic stability because they mainteinted some sense of control, and then they get into a situation where they are told that they got it all wrong and that they can't trust themselves.

The case of Natascha Kampusch is interesting in this regard because (as the psychologist whom I quoted above correctly observed) through the death of Mr. Priklopil only her version of reality exists. As I said, I do not believe in an official reality, so her reality is her reality and therefore valid, no matter what anybody else creates as their reality, but even assuming that you do not buy into this and that you sympathize with the idea of Stockholm Syndrome in this specific case, let me challenge this.

We have a girl abducted at an age of 11, held captive and out of control for eight years without school, being under the sole influence of a grown up man all of the time who was able to manipulate her into believing whatever he chooses. A person in other words, who has no will of her own but who needs to adjust to outside demands in order to survive.

Please now ask yourself how you would expect such a person to respond to a situation where she is exposed to the influence of media, society and parents and their demands for details and their very strong and clear ideas about how to judge and interpret what had happened, and maybe keep in mind how normal people react to media pressure.

Now please read Ms. Kampusch's open letter.

Do you see a victim?

I don't!

And she doesn't seem to do that either.

Monika Pinterits, a children's lawyer in contact with Ms Kampusch, said the young woman was avoiding self-pity.

"She's very sensible and eloquent. She's following the media coverage with great interest. It disturbs her that she is often portrayed as special case. She (doesn't see herself as) a poor victim, but a grown young woman," Ms Pinterits told APA.
(source)

Interestingly enough, the general public seems to have a sense of that. I also like the last reader comment on the BBC News article which I linked above.

I must admit, that initially I had been highly irritated by the idea that she may may now become a victim of the Stockhom Symptom idea as outlined above, until (in fact only through the course of writing this article) it occurred to me that if she has not been a victim during the time when she had been held in capture, she sure will not be one in the time afterwards. It is my impression that she learned to focus on her needs in an environment where someone else thought he was in control and I guess this ability may serve her quite well in the future.

What a remarkable person!

UPDATE1: If you want to read more about the case, I found the coverage on the International Herald Tribune quite balanced. Simply use their serach feature to look for Kampusch.

UPDATE2: Also see my later blog posts about the case (interview transcripts and thoughts)