We introduce you one of our most beloved columnists, she is Encarna de las Heras. Although most of our readers already know you, could you give us a few brushstrokes about you so we get to know you a little better?
I am a 52-year-old woman who has been lucky enough to work in two activities that fascinate and fill me: I am an actress and I run a school of intuitive development, a school of self-knowledge. I was born in La Mancha, but I have been living in Ibiza for many years, lately, I spend a lot of time in another beautiful land that is the Basque Country (País Vasco). I have a very small house, a black kitten and a splendid son, who is already a man and with whom I share a lot of laughter, madness, creativity, movie nights, literary talks and, of course, tears and anger.
We know that in your life humour is a vital element. It seems that today there are some taboo subjects that cannot be spoken “not even as a joke”. What do you think about this?
I can understand that there are sensitive moments in a person’s life when pain prevents them from making some space for laughter, but that this should be only temporary and in the end… it is laughter that can get you out of the loop of suffering. That is understandable on an individual level, but on the collective level, any attempt to cut of humour, creating distance, it is actually an exercise of arrogance and en intolerable manipulation.
A clown friend of mine wrote on his van, “We are all idiots. You, too” I think this kind of humour is brilliant. When any type of institutions, politics or religion decides to get serious and it is trying to frighten and to control us.
You have been making us laugh for many years and teaching important lessons through stories, to both children and adults. Is it true that censorship «has returned»?
Censorship has never gone, only that now is wrapped in a halo of «goodness» and progressivism, which is a very dangerous fact. Never before, in my job as a storyteller, have I been asked so many times to explain before starting to speak what I was going to talk. Before, those who used to censor were old acquaintances such as church or right-wing reactionary parties: “do not talk about God, do not talk about the government, do not talk about the king” (And despite that those topics were discussed and talked about, because that is what censorship and censors can’t avoid, that they are stupid). When censor comes from those places, you expect it. But now, you can’t talk about princesses and princes, you can’t talk about animals that eat other animals, you can’t talk about eating sweets, because sugar is the new devil. There are no lame, or stupid, or deaf, or fat people … and of course there are, but we have to spend time trying to find how to name them so that nobody gets offended, with a fake respect that should be done through a real inclusion and not from language and stories.
Stories do not create reality, they are a reflection of it. We all have to be uplifted and non-violent… deadly boredom and a fat lie.
In any case, when you look at this new censors you see that they are exactly the same as the old ones: ignorant.
In these times of uncertainty and “madness”, what is the meaning of Freedom for you?
Well, it’s a big a question to be answered by an «idiot» like me, but I’ll try to say something about it. I believe that freedom has to do with taking responsibility for life, trying to be consistent with your own vision of the world. Freedom means not letting yourself eat out of fear of survival, which we will always have, because we are human. The challenge is not to get eaten by that feeling. Freedom in my opinion is being with others because you want to and not because you need them, knowing that you can always choose. Because we can choose where and how to put ourselves internally. This is what stories are talking about when they say «not to sell your soul to the devil.»
Freedom to trust that you are able to know and that there is nothing superior that knows more than you about yourself and your life. That there are no absolute truths and that your truths are not either. Freedom is knowing that you have the right to exist, whatever you think and that others also have this right even if they do not think the same like you.
Freedom is the opposite of feeling a victim of something that is presented as superior to you.
Could you please explain us what you mean when you talk about the “Religion” movement as an organization system
I am reading a very interesting book by Javier Reverte called “Your kingdom come to us”. He talks about the rapprochement movements that started in Italy during World War II between Christians and Communists to fight fascism. They also came to Spain but did not succeed because here the Church put itself en masse against fascism. In the book, a sinister character (who really existed) explains how religion must be the absolute owner and administrator of the concept of guilt, because that is the way to have power.
Everything that we are living now is a clear mirror of it. Nowadays science, politics and ideologies are trying to grab that concept. We are guilty of the death of the elderly, the collapse of hospitals, the collapse of the economy. We are guilty for wanting to meet with each other, for not getting vaccinated, for thinking differently as we have been told, for wanting to fuck or just dance. We are guilty, and guilt subdues us and power has more power. We are guilty because we die and the others die. From there… a land paid for the lords of guilt, manages us at will. What would happen if instead of believing in this concept of guilt, we believed on the responsibility for our actions? I don’t know, maybe there wouldn’t be that entrance to power. “Religion” (which is all its «isms») would be meaningless.
You sat that we need more individuals to face so much individualism. Can you explain this idea?
I hear many times that we are in a society of individuals and I believe that there is a confusion between the concept of individualism (not feeling part of the history of others and worrying only about your survival, which is, for me, the meaning of this individualism) and feeling like an individual among others. I wish there were more individuals, more thinking beings, and more black sheep. An individual needs others to understand himself, it is impossible for him to get away from others, because he would not have any references. On the other hand, individualists are only afraid of others, they do not want them in their life. Individuals move in the field of the collectively and cooperation. They cannot exclude the rest, because they would be excluding themselves. Individual protest when they feel that there is something that is trying to override other individuals. Individualists only think about their food, their roof, their own family, their clan, their country … and it seems that they do not do it, because they are with other individualists.
In these days that when we touch, meet in person, get intimate, etc. seem to be a «dangerous» acts, what is your vision of love?
Once I heard a phrase that shocked me a lot, it said: «love is for the brave ones». Now we have put on condoms that occupy our entire body and soul. Touching the other is dangerous, it’s scary. And not just physically. Any deep connection is scary, staying a little while to see what happens is scary, betting on something or someone gives us the feeling that it puts us out of the market where thousands of possibilities are offered that are taken as a presumed affirmation of individuality when , most of the time, they are only a way of escape.
I did not come up with this definition, which I consider very accurate, but we are facing the capitalism of love: plenty, varied, fast consumption … and spirituality is not helping either … true love is the perfect one, a cosmic connection … I don’t know, sometimes I think that life is not only about love, but about balls and ovaries. But maybe it is because I am very basic.
What about family and children’s education?
I’m not a big fan of the family and I admit that parenting is already a long way off and it bores me a lot. As a lady who could already be a grandmother, it is difficult for me to see how fathers and mothers follow their children and put them at the centre of their lives. How parents invade the space of schools (and I know they are going to hate me) pretending to know more than a professional about how to educate kids. And, yes, education may be shit, but… believing that you know how to do it better with your children is… at least arrogant.
My parents were not violent with me and I grew up knowing that I was a child and could not intrude into their “adult space”. Likewise, my parents left me my space as a child, which would now be understood as neglect. But for me, fighting in the street with my peers helped me to learn how to manage myself. Knowing that my parents had work and that is why we ate and had to adapt to that reality, helped me as an adult to keep my feet on the ground. Getting bored, because my parents did not know anything about stimulating children, helped me to be creative. When my parents taught me not to get on the table in a restaurant, not to walk past the elders at the doors, not to eat of the dishes of others with my hands … did not castrate me, taught me respect, a respect that I now demand for myself.
Although it may seem incredible, there are people who after what they have lived have become used to live their life without leaving home. Live the world through a screen…
It is not so incredible … this has been increasing little by little and has reached immensely. It’s the condom I was talking about. We already know that the brain does not detect how much of what it sees on a screen. On the other hand, the comfort provided by not leaving home makes us believe that we are free, because we use a button and because we do not take responsibility of how the environment reacts to our actions, because we do not see it. The screen turns us into agent 007, with license to kill. Actually, the screen makes it easier for us to consume objects, relationships, courses, information…
What is today the role of EIVIDA, School of Intuition and Life?
I do not know. I only know that this school is a place to meet, to learn who we are and how we relate. It is a school that accompanies you in your life. It is a fun place. We don’t want it to be too big, we really don’t, and we believe that we have a mission. If we take the motto of my friend «We are all idiots, you too», the school is a refuge for idiots, that, although we are not in extinction, we do need to be a protected species.
Thank you very much Encarna for this shared time. For your unconditional support to AARTI from the beginning. For your fantastic articles that reflect your integrity, humour and irony. We hope to continue enjoying your stories for a long time.
Thanks to you Helena, and for your enthusiasm, your intelligence and your sweetness. My little sheep sister (black sheep sister…hehe).