3. Visionary Humanism

Over the years I have discovered some things about the role our sensitive natures play in our lives. I have also developed ideas about what I describe as visionary power. I have found that whoever can coach themselves has everything in their hands to become a free person. But what is freedom as our goal of self-coaching? What is the positive thing about us being sensitive? What does our sensitive nature mean for our visionary success? What colours, shapes and melody does our visionary power have, or in other words: how does it set us free in the real sense of the word? This is without denial on our human side. Freedom is natural, what fits us like a second skin. In other words: freedom and humanism go together.

Freedom is an attitude that depends on our humanity. Because freedom doesn't just depend on what you experience. Because no matter how free you can live, this does not mean that you also feel free. You can feel free in difficult circumstances and unfree in easy situations. In other words: freedom starts from within. So if you want to master freedom, you will have to master it in your inner self. It also means that whatever we go through, we can keep or regain our freedom. It has to do with our visionary power that starts from our inner source of freedom. Visionary power is based on this freedom. Think, for example, of people whose strength is to stand up for the rights and thus freedoms of others. These people are often willing to endure a lot of opposition. Even to the point that their opponents curtail them by taking away their freedoms. Then they take the latter. Their inner strength and thus their freedom to stand up for others is stronger. The extreme types of these people are freedom fighters who manage from prison not to make their supporters give up the fight, in order to win in the end.

In that sense you can speak of two levels of freedom. On the one hand there is your inner freedom. Also called the freedom of your heart or mental freedom. On the other hand, there is external freedom. Also called material freedom, or freedom from circumstances and context, freedom (satisfaction) on a material level.

Have I stated that the inner freedom takes precedence over the outer in such a way that the latter is superfluous if you make full use of the former? No. We can't go that far. The division is not black and white, not absolute. For no man can do without outward freedom, whatever it may be. Even in prison you will look for these. In prisons where every form of outward freedom is lacking, everyone eventually languishes regardless of the strength of the inner freedom. And, prison can be interpreted broadly. Any abuse of the other is a prison that always leaves traces on the victim. Let's not do this to each other. Let us recognize and affirm each other's need for outward freedom.

Based on the idea that visionary power is liberating, I like to say that especially people with a high humanistic sensitivity are particularly visionary. It is part of our visionary power to understand and respect the humanity in ourselves and others. It is the power that we all more or less have. As I stated in the introduction, being a visionary does not mean being able to predict the future, but tapping into the deeper power within you that you need to establish your life goals. Humanity's ultimate goal in life is our pursuit of freedom. So we need that strength to see clearly what the road ahead is, whether we are well on the way to the land of freedom. You ultimately deal with your visionary power in an extra humanistic way when you share it positively with others, when you use it to strive for a better world.