There once was a time in the Public Service when good practitioners would be able to take their expertise and practical abilities to higher levels of policy involvement. There were opportunities for solid rational and logical debate, where creative ideas, thoughts and practices could be discussed, heard and implemented.

The feeling is in this day and age that there are not the avenues for open dealings that were possible.

Why are the guardians of public policy so afraid of exploring for truths that relate to human realities?

I guess there are as many views on this as there are people who can offer their opinions. I further wonder about these opinions and on what basis they are made. Our society encourages, quite rightly, that people should have an opinion. This surely is a great human value that must be encouraged to enable democracy to work. But still I wonder on what basis are so many of our opinions are based.

As a reasonably mature student in training college I was intrigued to see pupils in primary schools being taught to believe what they read as the truth. They learnt this information and were passionate in repeating it as though it was a truth-not just an opinion. Many of those pupils will now have quite important positions in our policy decision- making systems. Most of their opinions will have come from their many hard years of study and hard work to get where they are at now.

No doubt many of these people have also had many years of practical experience in many aspects of their work to give some substance to their opinions. So I wonder further how come so much of these opinions seem to be narrow, model driven, based on overseas views, or stated in such language that only a few people can understand what they have to offer. Is it that they are really so brilliant that it is beyond the capacity of us ordinary people to understand what is going on?

From my 20 odd years of practical work in the area of human relationships in, largely, what I call the pathological model or process, I am reasonably convinced that many people work in many areas of their life as a way of working through particular complexes they have inherited or developed. This in itself is fine if they are aware that that is what they are doing.

In extreme cases, in very responsible positions of power over people, this can be very concerning if the people are not aware that they are actually working out their internal complexes externally on those around them,( my article "Soul Loss" gives some details in the educational area).

As I have discussed elsewhere, for over 15 years now, it is necessary to look at the emotional state of individuals to see if they have the emotional maturity, or awareness, of their internal state and how this effects their actions.

Not to put too fine a point on it many people go into counselling as a way of working out their issues. People go into politics to deal with their issues- power maybe? As stated above that is fine, but there must come a time when a realisation occurs, the " mid-life" crisis, existential crisis, or some significant event in their life, when the body begins to speak about the emotional needs that need to be addressed. To ignore these signs is when we get in to the pathological state that many people are too scared to get out of. They realise that it takes real hard work to begin the spiritual journey that must be made.

In our present society there are not the same institutions available to help guide you to your spiritual quest. The mainline churches are primarily social agencies filling in the gaps left by the coagulated Welfare system. Many other spiritual avenues are extreme and put off the well balanced individuals. The search is often a lonely one of trial and error through the pitfalls of many groups and organisations who are, again following their own complexes, without an awareness of what they are doing in relation to their fellow beings.

If one looks at this in an evolutionary sense it could be viewed that with the demise of the institutions that assisted us in the past to have a spiritual journey, of sorts, it is now necessary to have that journey initially on our own. The matter of choices are so open that it is possible to search for that which fits in to your particular belief systems.

If you chose not to become more aware of your complex issues then our present society highly rewards you from this. The more you can follow your complex the more our reward systems will give you the material advantages. The more you get the more you judge yourself and others on that basis. So the net effect is that in our country the more highly rewarded the policy people reward themselves and create cosey clubs -own language, symbols, style of dressing etc.- then the more are they able to protect themselves from their own inner reality.

So it is necessary for them to project their complex on to the public through their inane policies. The public are unfortunately trained to accept this as these important people have told them so. Things start to get a bit circular here. If you were taught to accept what you read at school then of course you must believe what the important professional people tell. After all they have degrees that must mean that they know what they are on about. Well the degrees these days are just higher forms of what was going on in the primary schools, only more sophisticated rationalisations and intellectualisatons of their projections. I guess by now you have got the drift of what I am suggesting here.

Until people focus on their emotional maturity development then most of the well meaning energies that they pour into the communities are often wasted. An emotionally mature person is in a good space to provide clear policy to enable people to help themselves to find their identity, develop their emotional maturity and be involved in their own spiritual journey with whatever support they choose.

This will mean that the policy makers at present will have a long way to go to reach in to themselves with the shields of power and the trappings that they live on now. Many will not make it this time, but if they have real courage they have the same chances as anyone else. It would be wonderful if these people, with their immense experience and knowledge, could make that transition and use the readily available technology that is present to add really meaningful value to our public policies.

By a brief reading of Daniel Goleman's book on Emotional Intelligence it would be a start in getting a cognitive understanding of what is possible. It is this simple beginning which can enable the courageous to begin their journey into a greater understanding of themselves, what they are doing, and how to channel their energies into life-enhancing practices for themselves and for all whom they are responsible.