One of the most important lessons that we can learn in the physical plane is to release our emotions spontaneously, as children and animals do. Naturally, we should be able to release our emotions without violating another being physically or psychologically.

This we can do, without a confrontation which might exacerbate the situation, by letting off steam in the privacy of our own room. One very good way is to punch-up a pillow and to rage at it as if it were the object of our hurt and anger. In Japan, in some of the larger workplaces, a stuffed dummy is hung in the centre of an 'emotional release' room and a strong bamboo stick is placed nearby. Disgruntled workers who are feeling up-tight may beat this dummy to release their emotions. The only emotions that can harm us are those that we bottle up. They will reach a point where, sooner or later, they will express physically.

An American family known to the writer of this article kept a man-sized, rag-filled dummy in the basement. The children were encouraged to work out their aggressions on the dummy. It proved remarkably beneficial. Every school should have one.

In Australia most males are emotionally constipated. They are conditioned into stereotype behaviour. "Balmain boys don't cry", "Keep a stiff upper-lip", "Don't wear your heart on your sleeves" and so on ad nauseam. Such conditioning leads the more gullible males to show emotions only when they are making love, or in other macho pursuits such as football. They find it hard to display affection and, more dangerously, they find it hard to display their hurt. Some men, unable to release their emotional hurt by crying, will end up releasing it through violence. "If I can't have you, no one else will". Anger is considered to be an acceptable human emotion. These men do not act out of an inherent evil but out of the unbearable suffering of clinging to painful emotions as if it were a permanent condition. They find no other release for their pain.

Much news coverage has been given recently to the woman who drove her car, with her two small children in the back, into a river. She alleges that she panicked at the last moment and leaped free while the children were left to drown. Before making judgement, imagine the emotional state she must have been in. She was estranged from her husband and her lover had just walked out on her, writing a 'Dear John' letter to let her know. We might say that no matter how bitter and hurt we felt, we would never do what she did. Well, great! Your pains are yours and her pains are hers. Our only reality is the way we feel, and each of us is as unique and individual as our fingerprints. Make no judgement.

Those who demand a similar death for her, and truly mean it, stoop to the same level of behaviour. Before they finish with the physical plane they may have to learn the hard way to judge not another expression of God. As for the children - they were cocooned in unconditional love, comfort and protection before their bodies had to struggle for breath. Many, like this writer, who have experienced drowning, know this to be so. In us there is no doubt.