By Bernie Bell

I’ve been watching repeats of ‘Star Trek – The Next Generation’  –  again.  Some of the episodes are incomprehensible, and some are just plain silly. But, some contain very interesting ideas, including the most recent one I watched – ‘Dark Page’.  At first, I thought that it was about the ’down side’ of being Betazoid.  Being so sensitive and receptive to everything around you, could be over-whelming.  In this episode, Deanna Troi explains that the Betazoid brain has an ability to block, or protect, the psyche from over-load.

At the beginning of the tale, Counsellor Troi’s mother, Lwaxana, is working with a telepathic alien, Ambassador Maques, who wishes to learn spoken language, so that he can communicate with non-telepathic forms of life.  Lwaxana collapses, and, at first, it is thought that the intensity of her experience with Ambassador Maques has been too much for her.  Then Doctor Crusher finds that the protective aspect of Lwaxana’s psyche, has turned in on itself.  But, why?

The conclusion is that a massively traumatic event could have caused this, but, when had it happened? 

Deanna checks with all her mother’s friends and associates, but nothing traumatic has happen to Lwaxana recently.

With the help of Ambassador Maques, Deanna connects telepathically with Lwaxana,  and it unfolds that Deanna had an older sister, Kestra, who died in an accident, for which Lwaxana blames herself.

Lwaxana then deleted all record of the life of the child from her journal, and never mentioned her to Deanna, who was a very small baby at the time, and has no memory of her.  In effect – deleted all memory of the child – or tried to.

The child was still there, deep in Lwaxana’s psyche, and eventually, triggered by an accident which happens to Ambassador Maques’ little girl, reality exerted itself, Lwaxana succumbed to the years of guilt and suppression of guilt, and collapsed.

Through telepathic connection, Deanna talks with Lwaxana, and persuades her to meet with Kestra.

Lwaxana tell Kestra how sorry she is, they hug, and Kestra….dissolves – is gone.  Lwaxana’s guilt being released, also releases the child.

This can be the case, if a person has unresolved issues with someone, or with an event.  Sometimes they bury the uncomfortable feelings, then, possibly years later, these feelings re-surface, and, even if they would like to resolve them, they might feel that they can’t – that it’s too late to do so. It would be best if they could meet with the person involved, and talk it through, but, by this time, the person might live far away, or have passed from this life.

One possible approach, is the empty chair.  The troubled individual can picture an empty chair, sit themselves down opposite this chair, picture the person they feel out of harmony with sitting in the chair, and – talk it over with them.

Getting it out in the open, out of the dark corners of their mind, can help  – and start to clear the dis-harmony.

It’s never too late.