 Look at M840 here. So one of the big differences between the right and the left, the modern and the trad, and frequently the secular and the religious, is the permeable self versus the protected self. So the traditional, the religious, the right wing, they tend to conceive the human being is having a permeable self. So there's someone of a different race, religion, sexual orientation, moves next door or onto the block, along with a traditional perspective, is going to be much more likely to not be thrilled with that because from a traditional perspective, what's going on with you is going to affect me. So if you're engaging in sin or if you believe incorrect things about God, or if you're doing things that are deviant or ascertaining, all right, that has a tremendous ability to negatively affect me. And so traditionalists, conservatives, they're religious people, they're much more concerned about what's going on, you know, on their block. So this is why conservatives tend to have concentric layers of loyalty. So their first loyalty, first concern is usually with themselves, with their family, extended family, community, and just keeps radiating outside of that while people on the left tend to have, you know, leapfrogging circles of loyalty. So that's why the traditionalists, the conservatives, tends to be much more upset about change and to find it much more disturbing, all right, because it has much more possibility of upsetting their equilibrium. So there's a book on just this theme, The Permeable Self, Five Medieval Relationships that came out in September 2021 by Barbara Newman. So the tribe, the conservative and the typical religious person is much more medieval than the modern and the secular and the lefty, all right. So people on the left believe much more that through the power of reason we can transcend ourselves, we can transcend their primitive conceptions and their atavistic religious impulses, we can overcome all that and we can become very reflexive and self-secure, self-directed and achieve great things. But back in medieval times, all right, there's much more of a sense that whatever's going on with you is going to affect me. So there's a story here about Marjorie. All right, she's in top form during a meal with a bunch of monks telling them that God has put all these good words into her mind. She's so charismatic, the one monk who had long despised her has begun to think that maybe she is telling the truth. So he seeks her out, asks her if he will be saved and if she can disclose this sense to him. He says, I will not believe in you unless you can tell me my sins. So medieval conception, the tribe conception is much more about we have an ability to read other people's minds. So Marjorie consults with Jesus and Jesus gives her the information about what's really going on with this monk, that he's guilty of lattery, despair and keeping worldly goods. But he can save his soul if he confesses and abandons the secular office he holds. So he asks, has her for more corroborating detail, have I sinned with wives or single women? Marjorie doesn't hesitate, you have sinned with wives. So he's convinced that she's tapped into the Godhead. And he believes that she's fair dinkum and he changes his life for good because of this interaction. So from a modern perspective, this is absolutely astonishing that it's none has such an effect. But this is fairly common in the experience of mystics. So the conception of the self back in the medieval times is very different from what we hold to be the self. So it's much more porous, meaning permeable. Now we are much more vulnerable to interference from both natural and supernatural forces, from both the human and the divine, both good and ill. So this porous selfhood is articulated in the Christian doctrine of co-inherence. So that's the notion that three persons of the Trinity dwell in one another simultaneously. This extends to human beings too, say participate in the mystical body of Christ and in one another. So relations between people even in secular context such as romantic love, right, they are permeating each other. So there's an ethical imperative with this doctrine, right, if we're so interconnected then injury done to one is an injury done to all. There's also a troublesome downside. Person self as self, sense of self can dissolve under the pressure of external interference both demonic and divine. So that's why the Trad tends to be much more concerned about holiness and cleanliness and keeping on the lookout for the forces of decay and dirt and disorder. So in the Middle Ages you'd have demons tormenting a holy woman by having sex in her presence, monks would imagine themselves to be pregnant, lovers would eat one another's hearts, and holy people would have the gift of prophecy about each other's sins. But on the other hand they had an emotional, spiritual, physical connection. It would not be recognisable today, right, people felt closer to each other, frequently closer to their students or their clergy than to their own families. So the condition of the mind can be discerned from the state of the body, St. Ambrose wrote in the 4th century, it sounds very much like Alexander technique. Some people's walk, you see the very image of frivolity. It looked like wandering jesters. So Hugo of Saint Victor in the 12th century says the discipline that regulates the movement of the limbs cause all the disorderly impulses of the mind. So Alexander technique would say that what's going on with the body is going to affect the emotions and the thinking. What goes on with the thinking is going to affect the emotions in the body. That goes on with the emotions is going to affect the thinking in the body. But we're all in it together constantly affecting one another. So if you're free and easy in your body, then you're going to be free and easy with your emotions and your thinking. So Alexander technique has helped free me up from all sorts of layers of unnecessary compression and tension. Down more at ease with myself and more at ease with other people. More at ease with the curves that life throws me.