1 result for (book:notp AND session:756 AND stemmed:action)
[... 27 paragraphs ...]
Sometimes you are deliciously frightened by a horror program, for example. You may feel compelled to see how it comes out, and find yourself unable to go to bed until the horrendous situation is resolved. All the time you know that salvation is nearby: You can always switch off the program. If someone watching a gory midnight special suddenly screams or shouts or leaps up from the chair, how comical this seems, because the action is appropriate not to the “real” situation, but geared instead to a pseudodrama. The yelling and screaming will have absolutely no effect upon the program’s actors, and will alter the drama not one whit. The appropriate action would be to turn the station off.
In this case, the frightened perceiver knows full well that the terrible events on the screen will not suddenly explode into the living room. When you become caught in frightening physical events, however, it is equally foolhardy to yell or shout or stamp your feet, because that is not where the action is (smiling). Again, you have only to change your station. But often you become so engrossed in your life situation that you do not realize the inappropriateness of your response.
In this case you are yourself the programmer, and the true action is not where it appears to be — in the exterior events — but instead in the psyche, where you are writing and performing the drama. In the dream state, you are writing and performing many such dramas.
[... 2 paragraphs ...]