Image Carriers. Genel Anthony

that she no longer required ongoing counselling support. Evelyn kept in contact with Adam as she liked and trusted him. She considered him a friend of sorts and told him this on many occasions. This was a rarity for her as she found it very difficult to trust or care for anyone. Adam also decided to allow her to visit on occasions because he and Carol had also grown to like Evelyn and she appeared lonely and lost.

      Evelyn was not a typical-looking middle-aged woman. She had no friends because of her sometimes peculiar behaviour, which at times made people feel uncomfortable. She had brown hair that always hung untidily just above her shoulders. She had long strands of grey hair in the mix, and she did not bother much about those. She also had a strange personality, talking in an abrupt manner at times, causing people to think that she was rude and arrogant, while others thought she lacked social skills. Adam realised that these were all part of Evelyn’s idiosyncrasies. She didn’t appear to have any family and never talked about her personal situation. She harboured many secrets and would not share them with anyone.

      Evelyn would always change the subject if anyone asked about her personal life or would act dumb and focus on something else, leaving the speaker mystified. Adam was aware of these traits and knew they were a coping mechanism for her. He often wondered what happened in her past to make her this way. Furthermore, people would often look at Evelyn and think that there was something amiss; a screw loose or something wrong with her. However, Evelyn didn’t mind what people thought, and she stuck to her eccentric ways and lived in secret somewhere, although Carol had recently discovered that she lived somewhere on the northern beaches of Sydney, popping up from time to time and then going missing for months on end.

      Adam was aware that some of his peers probably thought he was just as strange as Evelyn, especially after publishing his article on the NO people. A well-known journalist interviewed Adam one day many years ago about coining the term “NO people.” Since then, he and Carol and many of his clients and associates affectionately used the term, but many others found the term politically incorrect, so they decided to only use the acronym among themselves.

      The term “NO people” describes people who contribute little or nothing to society or their families, or even themselves, as “NO” is an acronym for None-operating. These people seem to be empty on the inside; they often describe feeling stale and purposeless. They report that they feel as if they are not part of life; not operating normally anymore and seemingly going around in circles and achieving nothing. Many of them say that they feel lacking in energy, as if they are not living their lives properly and missing out on opportunities. Some report that they cannot distinguish between the petty and the important any longer; in other words, they go about their everyday business focusing on insignificant things while ignoring the more important stuff. They also feel guilty about things that are not in their control, or for no apparent reason. Some in the profession has reported that it may be part of an anxiety or other mental disorder. Either way, Adam found that many of his clients related to this term very quickly and were very keen to free themselves from this none-operating existence.

      Since this article was published, Adam’s reputation went up among some of his peers and clients and down among minority groups who thought that he was labelling people. Either way, Adam was content with this term as it helped motivate his clients enormously and many still thank Adam for what he taught them. This approach worked so well, many of Adam’s colleagues have adopted this therapy.

      Most people are aware that the majority of mental disorders come in many forms, moreover, people presenting with varied symptoms; although individuals may have the same disorder, say anxiety, treatment may vary depending on their situation and personality type. Coining the term, NO people, gave many a quick understanding and insight into their situation, giving them the power to take some control and responsibility for making changes in their lives. These people also knew that this was the first step in many steps towards the path of inner contentment.

      Adam created an effective strategy to challenge the NO people’s situation and to get them operating as they should. First, they need to learn how to take responsibility and become a creator rather than a victim. Then the work really begins. Therapy will not work if you are the victim or a passive passenger just going along for the ride. You need to be the creator and the driver of where you want to go or what you want to achieve. And once word got out about this new approach, the NO people scrambled to Adam’s office to learn ways to free themselves from the dreaded curse of being a None Operating person, and in turn, towards managing the deeper issues of their disorders and malfunctioning. Sadly, many of these clients were misinformed in the past, been told they could achieve anything no matter how unrealistic; also encouraging young minds into areas that are not a good fit for them, while failing to address the real and deeper issues of the individual. Subsequently, this left the poor misguided person feeling even more helpless, confused and embarking on a crooked journey of no growth or resolution of their issues. Hence, no progress and more despair. Many happy and successful clients of Adam often put their hands on their hearts and proclaimed to the world that they were once NO people, but not anymore. They have broken the loop of deception, removed themselves from the confining swamp and returned to their road of freedom, where their real destiny can be found. Adam has encouraged these muddled individuals to free themselves from someone else’s reality.

      Carol often got hot under the collar when she read or heard people criticizing Adam about his article on NO people. Most of the information was not factual, and many of their unsubstantiated comments were fabricated and sensationalised, painting Adam as an evil person. Carol often wondered how they got away with printing and reporting untruths about people.

      Adam wasn’t disturbed about all of the above, as he ran one of Sydney’s most popular and successful counselling businesses. His unique and upfront style was a hit with many people, including well-known types and some of Australia’s wealthiest individuals. He had no worries about his business ever going under, although one journalist in particular seemed to want this. Carol also believed that some of these media people were envious of his success and enlightened approach. They didn’t like what he had to say, as it went against their own agendas and ideologies.

      Over the last few years, Adam began taking an interest in psychic phenomena, extrasensory perception and the like, as some of his clients reported information that defied normal explanation. These reports occurred too often for him to ignore any longer. He had always had an interest in that part of life and instinctively knew that there was more to existence than just the physical world and what could be seen. Furthermore, Adam had his own set of mystical experiences over the years; experiences that he ignored or filed away in his too-hard-to-solve psychological basket. But three accounts of his past continued to haunt him, and he had no explanation of why he had those paranormal experiences.

      One of Adam’s first freaky experiences, if you like, was with a young female friend named Drizzy, many years ago.

      When Adam was around ten or eleven years old, he befriended a strange-looking girl he had not seen before. The girl told him that she was ten years old and lived in the adjoining area. They became friends and often played together in the local park and surrounding forest. Adam’s parents lived in a rural area, and their house was at the end of a road near a large wooded forest.

      Adam’s other friends didn’t care much for the girl and couldn’t understand why Adam was showing interest in her. Her name was Drizzy, which was a strange name. She was a girl, and if that wasn’t bad enough, she was also foreign to the neighbourhood, strange-looking, with pale skin, jet- black hair that hung a long way down her back, and earrings in both ears. Back in the late 1960s, people were very suspicious of strangers with exotic names, especially if they had bizarre customs, and for a child to be wearing earrings were simply not on.

      Adam didn’t know what all the fuss was about and found Drizzy very interesting. She was like a tomboy in many ways. She could climb trees, run just as fast as he could and was ready to fight anyone that crossed her.

      He eventually found that he was meeting her in secret in the forest, in a tree house that he and his friends had built the previous year. They would also walk further into the woods and sit by the river and talk for ages about things that Adam couldn’t recall years later. All he knew was that he found her exciting to be around at that time.