By Cathy Eck

Control Dramas

In James Redfield’s, “The Celestine Prophecy”  the characters discover that there’s a power battle among humans for energy.  There are four major control dramas that people use to steal power from others.  Those four control dramas are intimidation, interrogation, aloofness, and victimhood (poor me).

These four control dramas are the master tools of the false self.  To free ourselves from playing any of them, we must first excavate the ones we cannot see within our own mind.

Intimidation and interrogation are assertive masculine control energies.  They come from our male side, but women also have a male side.  Aloofness and victimhood are receptive feminine energies.  But again, men have a feminine side.  The drama we choose is dependent on our role, not our sex.

When someone wants power over another, they intimidate them with beliefs and threats, or they interrogate them with unanswerable questions.  The recipient of the masculine power-play either backs away (aloofness) or whines and vents (victimhood).

Intimidation generally causes victimhood, and interrogation causes aloofness.  These matched pairs made in hell sit at the bottom of the triangle.  To let them go, we must let go of both sides of the pair even though we’re usually only aware of one side.  The other side is played by another person.

If we appear aloof, we have both intimidation and aloofness within our mind.  We identify with only one side in any given interaction based on our masculine or feminine role.  To see the other side, we have to look at our partner in crime.

Intimidation and Interrogation

Intimidators bully others.  They use rules, the false God’s way of thinking, or out-of-context Bible verses for their justification.  They’re never in win-win, and what they say never feels good.  If they were aware of their emotions, they’d notice them screaming.  But they’re completely rooted in their intellect.  So the emotions usually show up in the object of their attention.

The natural response to intimidation is victimhood.  However, master intimidators play both sides of the mask.  When they’re intimidating another, they’re right.  When another beats them at their logic, they’re a victim.  They’re always on the good side; anyone who opposes them is bad.  Intimidators train their children to be intimidators or victims by demanding that they meet their standards of good.

Interrogators ask questions that can’t be answered or don’t accept any answer as right.  I used to try to answer interrogator’s questions.  Then I realized that they didn’t want answers; they wanted me to waste my energy trying to answer them.  Master interrogators don’t answer questions — they’re aloof and believe the other has no right to ask.  

Intimidation gets people to follow stupid rules.  Intimidators are big on reward and punishment.  People who’ve been raised by intimidators often become overly complementary; they stroke egos out of fear.

Interrogation starts when we’re young, and we reflect our parents baggage.  While swimming in their thought soup, we do something they detest.  We are mirroring the part of their mind that they can’t see.  They say, “Why did you do that?”  We don’t know because we’re mirroring them.  People with strong interrogators early in life often compensate by becoming lawyers or policemen so they can get it out in an appropriate way.  Others become permanent students believing they must find the answer or they’ll die.

Using Intimidation and Interrogation

Intimidation and interrogation can actually be useful in helping us to undo our own false self.  I learned from a master interrogator and a genius intimidator that arguing didn’t work, great logic didn’t work, and running didn’t work.  But turning inward WORKED.

I had to get rid of their voice in my own mind.  Before someone intimidates us the first time, they install a belief that they have authority to do so.  Before the interrogator asks the first question, they install the belief that they have the right to. After the causal belief is installed, we’re fully in their mental world playing the role they want us to play.  By the time, we’re old enough to step out of their world, our mind has both control dramas within it.  Circumstances and relationships demonstrate this, but often we cling to one side because if offers the best chance of winning or looking good.

As I witnessed my feelings looking for the causal belief, it was the intimidator or the interrogator in my life whose voice was speaking.  My fear of them caused me to put their rulebook of beliefs in my mind so I could avoid their wrath.  There was no mean God; but there were mean men (and occasional mean woman playing a male role) in my life.

When I found a belief that pretended it was true, I turned my inner intimidator and interrogator loose on it.  If an intimidator originally put the belief in, I intimidated the hell out of that belief.  I let it know it had no power.  If necessary, I interrogated my belief and asked it why it thought I needed it.  Then I’d tell it how wrong it was.  You see, you say all the things to the belief that you want to say to the person.  Once your mind is free; the other can’t run their control drama on you.  You’ll see it for what it is, and you might be able to help them undo their control dramas.

Now my false self was working for my True Self.  Instead of an annihilation, letting go became more like a clean up job.  My True Self felt supported, powerful, and loved.  That was what counted.  I’d been looking for support and love all my life outside, when what I really wanted was my own false self to support my True Self.

In win-win, both people move closer to their True Selves.  Therefore, when any false self loses power, it’s win-win although you probably won’t get a thank you card.  When people’s control dramas stop working, they stop using them.