Ann, maybe it's a fine line between admiration and being gaga over a charismatic person. As for which comes first, health or quiet charisma, I'd guess that good psychological health would be the foundation.
On Wednesday, April 16, 2014 9:03 PM, "awoelfleba...@yahoo.com" <awoelfleba...@yahoo.com> wrote: ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <sharelong60@...> wrote : Ann, in this post as well as in my previous posts, I often write to discover what I think rather than to declare what I think. Plus I get a lot from the input and questions from others. Like this question of yours about where charisma comes from. My immediate response was that it comes from Being, from Life and I'm not giving that thought up completely. OTOH, I think both Martin Luther King and Hitler had the gift of public speaking and their charisma was funneled through that gift, the big difference being, imo, that King was grounded in spirituality and Hitler wasn't. Nick Vujicic comes to mind as a contemporary charismatic person. He's a young, Australian fellow who was born without arms and legs and has gone on to live an amazing life which includes uplifting and inspiring others. I'd say his charisma comes straight from his spirit and doesn't get distorted much on the way to expression. Have you seen him in person? Or are you thinking/confusing charisma for admiration for the man? There is a big difference. Charisma is a palpable magnet coming off the charismatic in my experience. You are mesmerized or at least drawn to stay near the charismatic. They are attractive in all sorts of ways that goes way beyond physical attraction. They seem to hold out a promise for something they can give you if you stay near them or listen to their words. It is quite a physical sensation. My guess is that it's easier for the quiet, charismatic people to stay psychologically healthy than it is for the expressive charismatics. Chicken or the egg? (I seem to be asking that a lot lately.) On Wednesday, April 16, 2014 12:23 PM, "awoelflebater@..." <awoelflebater@...> wrote: ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <sharelong60@...> wrote : Ann, I think I've mainly been in the presence of healthy or developed charismatic people like Martin Luther King. My guess is that charisma is a gift that can easily be misused and thus the world has known many unhealthy or undeveloped charismatic people, like Hitler. But I would also say that a charismatic person can be mainly either quiet or expressive. Hmm, so that just about covers the range of possibilities. Funny, because earlier you were talking about charisma as being all fire and brimstone and theatrical. For example, I'd put Fr. Keating in the group of healthy, quiet charismatic people whereas I'd put MLK in the group of healthy, expressive charismatics. What do you think, do you think charisma has to do with the person or their message primarily?
