Hey guys. This isn't truly a poem but a paper I wrote for English class. I wanted to share this view with people and this is the only vehicle I knew to use. So here it is. I hope you enjoy it.
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The amplifiers were turned up to ten. The young and fresh crowd looked at us with anticipation.

What were they waiting for? As the music began I noticed the subtle movements and growing tension in

the crowd. Men shook their heads and we shook ours in a violent duet between the crowd and

performer. Women and men flailed their limbs as they awaited the ******. We knew when it was

coming; they did not. When we decided to let it all go I witnessed something crazy! There was a brief

pause in the music and when it began again we kicked it into overdrive. We shook our heads with a

more frantic pace. We jumped about like madmen. The crowd erupted; it became its own entity. You

could feel the heat and power of this new creature. We were locked in a violent psychic-sphere of

crazed young teens and when the ****** was over there seemed to be a sense of relief and happiness

in the crowd. Had my after school hobby become a healing agent, even if only temporary, in society?

This papers purpose is an attempt at piecing together the phenomena of catharsis by merging

philosophy, psychology, history and spirituality.



First, to understand the psychology of catharsis we must think back to the roots of this behavior. Since

human life has existed we’ve formed crowds for various reasons. The first reason held the sole purpose

of protection. Tribes of people, men as hunters and women as gatherers, teamed up for the benefit of

human survival. Erich Fromm says that “the meaning of life is not to be found in its fullest unfolding but

in social service and social duties; that the development, freedom, and happiness of the individual is

subordinate or even irrelevant in comparison to the welfare of the state.”(Fromm, 1947, page 51) This

states that a crowd is actually very necessary to the function of human life. The second reason crowds

gathered was in form of revel, shamanistic healing and worship of deities (Ehrenreich, 30). Men and

woman would often enter trances, speak in tongues and become involved in a collective ecstasy while in

worship of their God. In later years, politics, entertainment and rebellion or protest was a main factor in

the gathering of people (Ehrenreich, 102). People gathered at Festivals that were in the midst of being

suppressed and would dance in mockery of their Kings or leaders.



What exactly is catharsis? Catharsis is a purging of emotional tension brought out in a crowd through

the viewing of a tragedy or tragic play. In the article “The Power of Catharsis” Kearny says the following

More specifically he (Aristotle) defined

the function of catharsis as 'purgation of pity and fear'. This comes

about, he explains, whenever the dramatic imitation of certain actions

arouses pity and fear in order to provide an outlet for pity and fear.

The recounting of experience through the formal medium of plot,

fiction or spectacle permits us to repeat the past forward so to speak.

And this very act of creative repetition allows for a certain kind of

pleasure or release. In the play of narrative re-creation we are invited

to revisit our lives — through the actions and personas of others — so

as to live them otherwise. We discover a way to give a future to

the past. (Kearny 1)

I figure that, even though he states that it is a purgation of pity and fear, it could also be involved with

many other suppressed emotions. Take my introduction for example. These kids were not releasing

pity and fear, they were releasing their angst! They were releasing their desire for competition.

They were making up for the violent feelings of agression they felt in their body that had been

suppressed by society for so long! They were revolting! Could catharsis also be used to purge other

emotions as well such as ****** suppression or communicative issues?





How would one come about actually attempting this catharsis that I speak of? We need to first look at

some ways in which people have controlled crowds in the past and realize that crowds form by

themselves but often look for leadership due to what Nietzche called that “herd mentality.”

In the article “Seducing the Crowd” by Urs Staheli it mentions that repetition is a key factor in beginning

to control the crowd. (Staheli, 69) This means that through repetition you can get the crowd to side with

your beliefs. The crowd could begin to think about what your suggesting and potentially be swayed by

the other people that are now following your ideas. It could also be repetition of body movements as

well. What better vehicle is there to sway a crowd than music? It’s repetitive in instrumental and lyrical

form!



Another way to “******” a crowd is to act like a madman! Specifically how I stumbled upon this in

the first phenomena place.

The leader himself is possessed and hypnotized by the ideas

and visions he holds, obsessed to such an extent that he cannot rationally exercise

control over the crowd. Instead, he devotes himself to fascinating the

crowd by more ecstatic means.8 He often resembles a madman but fascinates

by the mere power of his determination. What distinguishes the leader from

the rest of the crowd is his will alone, not any particular intellectual capacity

or a superior morality. (Staheli, 68)

The theory is that through mythological story telling or acting tragically and in a spectacle, we can

actually release negative emotions and potentially even heal neuroses or psychic ailments. Later in the

article he goes on to say that a shaman was actually documented to have cured a woman with a blocked

birth canal and in labor by telling her a story about a warrior trying to exit a cave that had monsters on

the outside trying to get in.

The function of a shaman is to heal his tribe. He uses drugs or plants to change his state of mind and

then by going over to the other side of reality he invokes spirits that help to heal.

In the séance, the shaman led. A sensuous panic, deliberately evoked through drugs, chants,

dancing, hurls the shaman into trance. Changed voice; convulsive movement. He acts like a

madman. These professional hysterics, chosen precisely for their psychotic leaning, were once

esteemed. They mediated between man and spirit world. Their mental travels formed the crux

of the religious life of the tribe. (Morrison 1967 pg. 71)

This shows an ecstatic crowd dancing and chanting while one man acts out a tragic spectacle. Through

this spectacle the shaman acts like a madman. This causes wild emotions within the crowd and allows it

to release their built up and suppressed emotions. Also, the dance and chants bring them to a feeling of

unity and oneness!



One may not believe in the spiritual shaman because of their own beliefs about God and religion. Some

may not believe in the other world that parallels our own.  It is a skeptical concept without a doubt and

there are probably many people who disagree with the legitimacy of the shaman. Is there a way that we

could think of the phenomena in a psychological sense rather than strictly spiritual? The answer lies in

Carl Jung’s theory of the unconscious mind and dream therapy as well as in Nietzche’s philosophy on art

and aesthetics.  



Carl Jung believed that there is a conscious mind and an unconscious mind. The conscious mind is the

everyday mind that occurs in waking life. It is rational and helps us survive. The unconscious mind can

be found in dreams or whenever you experience a déjà vu (Jung 1964 21).  He also believed that through

the study of dreams you could heal certain aspects of your psyche that have been altered by neuroses.

Symbols and archetypes make up dreams and the unconscious, and often you will find that archetypes

appear in the form  of people. Jung believes that through living in society that men and women have lost

touch with their feminine or masculine characteristics depending on their gender. Dreams can help us

get back into union with these lost roles through connecting us with our anima(female) or animus

(male) through symbols in our dreams or unconscious minds. Jung wrote that when society was

formed people took on roles and caused a dissociation in their psyche and caused a duality rather

than a unity when they suppressed one side of their mind.  He mentioned that at all times the

unconscious mind is connecting us on a psychic level.



How does this tie into shamans and catharsis? It seems like something completely different all together

right? My theory is that the shaman or crowd leader brings forth a forgotten union of the masculine and

feminine forces in the universe. Nietzche believed that there are two polar forces that are natural in this

world and in art. These forces are given the names of deities in his book “The Birth of Tragedy.”

The first is the Apollonian force that is masculine. This force in art governs form and dreams. The

Apollonian artist directly takes ideas from his dreams and brings them to life whether it is in form

sculpture or poetry. Apollo appears through an oracle often in tragedy or in visions of the waking life.

The second force is the Dionysian which is feminine. This force governs intoxication, revel and ecstasy.

Dionysian artists are improvisers and dancers and are usually tragic figures. Nietzche believed there are

three different types of artists: Apollonian, Dionysian and the fusion of both (Nietzche 1872 14). This

latter artist is what I believe the shaman is.



Through connecting these polarizing forces he fixes the psychic neuroses in his own mind. He becomes

a unified artist, or a magician of duality. The shaman, as stated above, takes drugs to intoxicate himself.

Often the drug of choice is wine or alcohol though it could be hallucinogenic drugs as well. This tied with

repetitive revel is the Dionysian side of the spectrum and also helps draw the crowd’s attention through

spectacle and repetition. Everybody is ecstatic and experiencing the collective vibrations of the crowd.

Through his intoxication he is able to go into the unconscious mind and produce dream symbols in

reality! The crowd follows the leader into this unconscious mind and brings back forgotten wisdom of

mythology and archetypes. This is the Apollonian side of the spectrum because it deals with the

unconscious mind and dream images. It also could be this “other world” that traditional shamans speak

of. Now the psychic duality is merged and a tie is formed between the masculine and feminine forces of

nature! People feel at one with themselves and the crowd and the societal suppression is vanished

briefly. All the neuroses caused by the suppression fades away in the ecstatic revel. This is the appeal of

the rock concert. Notice how many leading figures of rock bands have androgynous features and

shamanistic nature. This is because they have fixed the psychic neuroses in their own mind and become

at peace with the masculine and feminine duality of their psyche.



Stumbling upon this phenomena in my rebellious youth was very eye opening. Ever since I have been  

very excited about this theory and I’ve been trying to piece it together. It seems to be coming along

further and further in my study of this. What exactly this ancient wisdom is; I don’t entirely know. I

do know that I have witnessed this in reality and the subject is interesting and fascinating. My theory

still has a lot of work before it is completed but I think that within this article I’ve given a decent

amount of history about the topic as well as my own thoughts. Whether this phenomena is true or

not, we can leave that up to the psychologists and philosophers to decide, though I think many may

agree. Either way, catharsis surely does exist and it is a fun way of entertainment as well as a

therapeutic option for many stressed out individuals out there

I have this quote in my diary. apparently I was already reading Erich Fromm as a teenager. I don't remember reading Fromm that long ago  BUT I can definitely recommend the books: "the Art of Love" and "The Art of Human Destructiveness" because those are two books I have given to friends.

under the shell, inside
my chest, lies a hole,
blacked and beatting still
all the sorrow burn it down
at my 20s, later the pain becomes
a chain hollow and vain

and after all y become free,
from the chains self made
for contain the pain,
only need the one
, that breaks the spell
hearing
nutshel  in my heart

he give my stregth to persist
untill im dead y will die free,
as a man not a creep or a shame,
just a ***** man, trying to be free
fromm pain and deceit.

sacre femme set my freee
fromm the pain and release me
fromm  the burden of shame
and the eyes in my back, looking
some girl to wash them
and take the stains by loving me.

as a beast looking for the one, who
let him free fromm chains of the curse
just by love the sacred connection
that perhaps will set me free.

YOU SEE DAD AND STAN BURNS AND STAN NIEMIC DESPITE WHAT THEY BELIEVED IN ON EARTH

FIXED A SATLLITE PLACED BY NASA, WHERE THE WA FIRES WERE PLAIN TO SEE FROM UP THERE

YOU SEE, DAD GOT HELP FROM SCIENTISTS AND PEOPLE INTERESTED IN BUILDING THE WORLD

AND I START TO FIGURE, IF WE CAN SEE THE FIRE FROM UP THERE, WHY CAN’T THE ALIEN FORCES

FORM A REALLY HEAVY RAINSTORM TO ERUPT IN WA, TO PUT THE FIRE OUT, MIND YOU

DAD, WAS HAVING A FIELD DAY, WITH THIS TELESCOPIC LENS, MAKING IT EASY FOR SCIENTISTS

TO TRACK DOWN WHEN EARTH IS IS UNDER ATTACK FROM RAGING FLOODS OR BUSHFIRES

AND, IF MORE SCIENTISTS AND ASTRONAUGHTS HAD MY BELIEF, THEY WOULD WORK WITH MY DAD

AND FORCE A BIG RAINSTORM, TO PUT OUT FIRES EVERYWHERE, YOU SEE DAD MIGHT BE DEAD

BUT HIS SPIRIT, CAN SLOWLY SAVE THE EARTH AND THE UNVERSE, EVERY BLADE OF GRASS

AND SCIENTISTS HAVE SILLY INVENTIONS SOMETIMES, BUT, MY DAD IS IMPLYING, THAT, THERE

MAYBE A WAY TO FORCE RAIN, FROMM UP ABOVE, I THINK MAYBE THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO DO

AND DAD AND THE TWO STAN’S DECIDED TO SEE, MMMMMM HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET RID OF THESE FIRES

YOU SEE, THERE IS WATER UP IN OUTER SPACE, WE JUST NEED TO FIND IT, DAD IS TELLING ME, TO TELL YOU

NOW, YEAH, I KNOW THERE IS WATER UP THERE, BECAUSE CLOUDS ARE FORMING LIKE A DISH IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM

AND IF WE CAN FIND OUT WHERE THIS WATER IS, IT COULD PUT THE FIRE OUT, BUT, WE NEED TO CONTROL IT

CAUSE IT COULD CAUSE FLOODS, SO JUST ENOUGH WATER TO DROWN THE FIRE, YOU SEE DADS MAN, WAS HE WAS INTERESTED IN

HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT, WE THREW HIS ASHES IN COPPINS CROSSING AND I RECYCLED HIS ASHES TIN

SO DAD CAN HELP IN THE FUTURE, AND, DAD HAS STARTED, WITH ALLOWING NASA, TO BE ABLE TO VIEW

FIRES FROM WHERE HE IS, AND I AM SURE DAD WILL BE GLAD TO HELP BRING RAIN TO THE APPROPIATE PLACES THAT NEEDS RAIN

EVEN IF IT MAKES LUCKY CRANKY, BECAUSE LUCKY BLAMED DAD FOR THE RAIN, AND NOW HE’S DEAD, DAD CAN

WORK ON CREATING RAIN ONLY IN PLACES THAT NEED IT, WHILEST LIKE EVERYONE HAS EARTH BODIES TO LOOK AFTER

NOW I AM INTRIGUED, IN HOW DAD CAN RALLY PEOPLE TOGETHER, TO BEAT THESE TERRORISTS, WHO THREATEN THE LIVES

OF PAUL BERENYI AND OTHER MEMBERS OF MY PREVIOUS LIFE, AS WELL, AS MY KIDNAPPER OF THE PAST

DAD FLEW OFF AND GOT PAUL BERENYI TO HELP HIM, FIGURE OUT A WAY TO FIND A WAY TO SEND RAIN DOWN TO

RID THE DREADED FIRES, I CAN GO UMMMMMMMM  GET RID OF THESE FIRES  UMMMMMMMM GET RID OF THEM NOW

UMMMMMMMMM SEND RAIN MR BARRY ALLAN, UMMMMMMM WHEN YA CAN, UMMMMMMMM GET RID OF THESE BLASTED FIRES, RIGHT NOW

YOU SEE DAD KNOWS IT WILL BE HARD WORK, BUT  IT CAN BE DONE

UMMMMMMMM GET RID OF THESE FIRES   UMMMMMMMMM  SEND RAIN MR BARRY ALLAN, UMMMMMMM TO RID THE FIRES FOREVER AND EVER

UMMMMMMMM I WANT DAD TO GUIDE SCIENTISTS TO FIND A WAY TO MAKE RAIN, BECAUSE MY RAIN DANCE OVER SOUTH AUSTRALIA WORKED

UMMMMMMMM   COME ON SCIENTISTS, LET DAD GUIDE YOU  WHERE THE RAIN REALLY IS

SO NOBODY LOSES THEIR PROPERTIES, UMMMMMMMMM I KNOW IT’S HARD WORK, BUT WE MUST MEND EVERY BLADE OF GRASS

UMMMMMMMMM  WE MUST MEND EVERY BLADE OF GRASS, UMMMMMMM WE MUST MEND EVERY BLADE OF GRASS

IF WE GET THE RAIN TO COME, DAD NEEDS SCIENTISTS TO HELP, UMMMMMMMM UMMMMMMMM UMMMMMMMM I AM A BUDDHIST HEALER

UMMMMMMMMMM  DAD STAN BURNS AND STAN NIEMIC AND PAUL BERENYI  ARE TRYING TO HELP SCIENTISTS BRING RAIN WHERE IT NEEDS RAIN

UMMMMMMMMM EVERY BLADE OF GRASS  UMMMMMMMMM EVERY BLADE OF GRASS  UMMMMMMMM EVERY BLADE OF GRASS

On A Scale FromM 1 To 10, I'm The 9,,,, AnD YouR ThE OnE I NeeD.

Even though you had begun
when I was only 1 I got His Son
I do this just for fun, Crushing grooves
is how I moves fleet feet like horse hooves
it would behoove you to soothe
true your ego stop that flow
cause you know that if you blow
it'll show a snakeish temper let me simpl-ify before I die get so high when I try
to defy desire it lights a fire
for my lord forge the sword
to cut the haters rippin satyrs in two
separate the man Fromm the hoof
common brothers raisin roof
while I woof and howl
underdog on the prowl
with a cowl of divinty
rhyme flow infinity
the seed I sow for the Holy Trinity
Wholly subliminally lace beats minimally
more a cappellas speakin in simile
that's a metaphor that I wore
out from the thrift store
I gift more than billionaires
with my sterling silver hairs

I'll tell you a story
Of Two men
Who were best friends
One who had a predisposition to feeling nothing
The other who had a predisposition to sadness, suffering, and helping the people whom he loved
Their names were pity and melancholy
Respectively
One day pity said:"I want to be sad Mel. I want to feel sad. I wonder what being sad feels like?"
"Rather terrible I'd assume Pit." replied Melancholy
"Well I guess I'll never know." Said Pity and with that the two friends went their seperate ways
Melancholy was conflicted because he wanted to give Pity everything. Including sadness.
So he sat down and started planning. He thought of sadness and raindrops and death and tears and scars and pain and cruelty and anger and many sad things about the human race.
He drew things. Things that created tears in his eyes. Things that caused the void in his chest to deepen.
Then he was ready
He gathered all of his pencils and pictures and paints and brushes and palettes
And he set out to paint the streets with sorrow
He painted raindrops on the walls
And death on the floor
And cruelty on the lampposts
And suffering on the windows
He painted and painted
He painted a man's tears raining down from the walls
To drown the men on the floor
As the demons sniggered in delight from their lampposts
And their victims of torture hung fromm the windows
Melancholy painted.
He turned the river of tears into a river of blood
And when he ran out of red paint
He slit his wrists and used his own blood
Pouring his life into his sadness
Pouring his life into his river
And then it was finished
His masterpiece of sadness was complete
"Maybe Pit will feel sadness." he thought as he lay in the wet paint and blood with a small smile on his face
Pity walked around the corner and saw the tears and the demons and the corpses and he was scared
He followed the ominous river and at the end he found an extremely well painted corpse
It looked just like his friend Melancholy
He picked up the painting and as he watched the life abandon his sad friend's eyes he felt it
The pit
The void growing in his chest
Painful as if it were an acid that burnt up into his throat
As he watched the life abandon melancholy's life he cried
Because his friend was dead
And he was sad

see the mirror in your eyes don't explain
the pain and cries
the what if the whys why should i try
why should i not cry so
we try t hide what we feel inside whats the point
why hide the cries yes you here your not left be hind think positive whip the tears Fromm your eyes you should feel lucky your living and alive

the trickks has 2 pass fromm mi to herr shee has 2 knoww mi andd things better than me and everything there is out here andd beyond

enter these bewitched place you who dare tones of eye bells fall on you and your only rescue is your immagination which you can avoid fromm catching up with you

the trickks has 2 pass fromm mi to herr shee has 2 knoww mi andd things better than me and everything there is out here andd beyond

traces of you, in mi skin,
a taste of you in my
tongue, and the smell of
you, clouding me


i close my eyes and i see
you, the inner goddess in you,
holding my hand, walking next
to me, the strength in this cat

the reason to live, and advance,
and the owner of mi life, the muse,
the patron, queen and ruler
of this broken and blackened heart

i walk beneath dark clouds,
as if rains followed me, threw
the creepy and stocking me city,
followed and wounded, but strong
as a lion, with a proud smile.

the smile and the heart, are content
as thei where never be, complete and
free, yet, still arrased and followed,
even so, free, from the creep against,
trying to be you.}

a kissing poem for the beautiful,
sick muse, loved, admired, worshiped
as the moon, and like it, mi ligth in
dark nigths, next to you, two years without
feeling the loneliness, that usted to be
my soul companion,

the reason and the sense, in this nonsense
place, the trace of your eyes guard mi sleep
with my eyes closed, and feel you, next to me,
and the smell of you my religion,
making me your devoted, devote to your eyes,

devoted to your hips, and to the  smell
of yor skin, every dream of  you, i arise
kissing mi hands, the tip of mi fingers,
as if a trace of you where there still.

fromm heroine to you, i wanted to quit
the smack, but never wanna quit mi
fix of you, cann you be me everlasting dealer.
addicted to the soul and the eyes of
the lady lioness.

Accessible twenty four hours a day
seven days a week,
fifty two weeks a year.

Spring 2022 Curtain call at
Highland Manor Apartments unit b44
framing Mother Nature nook
ever changing scene unfolds
analogous to storybook.

I espy (hear and see)
while sitting at table
housing Macbook Pro
plethora of wildlife
on a band dinned patch of woodland,
yet slated to resemble cookie cutter vinyl city
that sprout like mushrooms and/or toadstools.

Yours truly bares witness to fauna
(most likely oblivious
to encroaching urbanization
most often becoming endangered
and/or extinct creature if lucky
enough becoming cherished, loved, valued
property of zoo keeper),

who rarely encounter **** sapiens
while innocuously and innocently
buzzfeeding, kickstarting pinteresting
linkedin with rites of Spring
fawning, matchmaking, twittering
regarding instinctual self survival tactics.

At a safe distance removed
our perch (chance) analogous
to one way mirror,
whereby yours truly and the missus
watch the nature channel live
never tiring at random antics
exhibited by aural and visual
courtesy spontaneous unrehearsed
Animal planet productions.

While astutely, fascinatingly, keenly, quietly
observing semi, quasi, pseudo... wild kingdom
flashback in space/time continuum occurred.

I observed banned band
of untamed ruffians and outlaws
use wildland as hideout from y'all
sip pose zid smart alecks
who would be surprised country bumpkin
like me can rattle off...
courtesy nasal twang

(or because of) Schwenksville drawl
which can pose difficulty understanding
attributed nysc with submucous cleft palate,
hence droning voice of mine
in tandem with puny size
found yours truly scapegoat
bullies taunted and teased

I felt analogous being
just another brick in the wall
until sharecropper mama and papa Joad
headed west Okie dokie
with truant steering da wheel
driving off into sunset via UHaul
passing zee monotony

doodling Yankee went hoo(t)'n and hollerin
across this country tis of thee
imitating moost every doggone animal
earn'n chump change telling tales tall
like dis here mumbo jumbo
his birthplace home to countless
life forms large and small
some skitter, slither, scamper,

jump, hustle, hop, fly, crawl
and we even encountered
mighty big beef eating fellas
who beat up punks
getting in barroom brawl
adieu fromm simple folks,
cuz nuttin else to write dat's awl!

HOW IS ANY PRISON DIFFERENT FROMM  THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS JUST  TELL MI HOW

Love is a dangerous business.
Men aware of it even if they fail to admit it.
That love is a game of plot and thoughts.

Men plot too.
Except women better at the game.
Men just try it.

Long before DNA men been accused of things against justice.
Fromm allegation of a woman.
Some true.
Some unproven.

On an Episode of Marcus Welby decades ago.
A woman had pleasure with another not her lover.
To be vengeful she called the spur one that turns her down and scratch him.

And that when the set up begins.
The thought and of course the plot.
And we aware of the two that became the main suspect.

Yes, love is hazardous to your life.
When anyone let evil creep into their mindset to be vindictive.