TRANSPERSONAL CONSCIOUSNESS: CAN PRESIDENTS CRY?
 As a somatic therapist who facilitates somatic-emotional releases in my clients, and as an educator who teaches bodyworkers that emotional releases are a natural function of our biophysiology, I am amused by the recent media hooplah over Hillary Clinton allowing a wave of emotion to move through her speech in front of a small group of women voters in New Hampshire before her primary victory. Clinton was quickly depicted as both “crying and breaking down” and faking crying to get votes. I consider myself a crying expert of sorts, my business is reading people’s emotions, and what I saw was not a cry per se, but a wave of authentic feeling about what it means to Hillary Clinton to run for President in this election. In humans, who are by the way the only species to cry emotional tears, emotions fire the pre-motor cortex which directly control the facial muscles.
For humans, facial expressions of emotion communicate authenticity. Check out the footage for yourself if you haven’t seen it . And let’s face it, after Benazir Bhutto’s recent assassination while campaigning against her military-affiliated opponent Pervez Musharraf, anyone can see that Hillary Clinton is brave to even run. I think we all need to give her that much, whether we vote for her or not. The question that was posed by the media was whether we could have a Commander-in-Chief who is a woman. The real question is: can we have a President that is not primarily a military commander who does not see the world as a battlefield and diplomacy as war gaming? That is the real question of the day-both for the United States, and for Pakistan. As the Bhuddist writer Pema Chodron says, there is always a crucial moment when we have to choose between peace and conflict. Choosing peace may mean choosing political leaders who can still feel.
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