A theist with a ‘metaphysical channel to an extended level of consciousness’

From time to time, I get a call from SuSu Levy, an Encino woman who thinks she has found a way to rid the world of pestilence and psychotherapy.

Over the phone I learned that Levy was once in MENSA, the society for the super intelligent, but dropped out because she found its functions dull. She has been married, but now considers herself a “recovered doormat.”

She also used to be an atheist but has become a theist with “a metaphysical channel to an extended level of consciousness.” That encompasses ESP, God, Spirit, Universal Mind and Optimal Energy.

That last one is Levy’s term for the power she has found to repair damaged psyches.

Levy teaches the technique, which she calls the Optimal. In a flyer, she claims it often “succeeds where conventional religion and therapy have failed.”

Psychotherapy she defines as any treatment that lasts a long time and isn’t effective.

Conversely, the Optimal works quickly because it focuses on what troubles us most, which, in Levy’s view, is a deficiency of love usually brought on by our parents’ insensitivity.

“Babies are born with good self-images,” she argues. Slowly, their natural self-esteem is “supplanted by anxiety, guilt and depression--an individual version of nature’s pestilence, war and famine.”

Levy began teaching her method of reactivating self-esteem about three years ago on KIEV radio, giving Optimals over the air.

Now, she’s teaching it at private self-help classes.

For a long time I declined her invitations to attend. Although I have known anxiety, guilt and depression, I am not so ravaged by them that I feel caught up in a personal version of pestilence, war and famine.

However, on the promise that I would not be called upon to reprogram my life in public, I attended a recent class sponsored by the Experimental College of California State University, Northridge.

About 25 people were there. Some appeared to be college students, but at least half were older, from their 30s on into middle age.

Levy, who just turned 50 and does wind sprints to keep trim, sat like a model at the edge of a desk, wearing a fluorescent yellow jogging suit under a puff of blonde curls.

A couple of the students who evidently knew their way around psychic awareness asked how the Optimal compares with other techniques, such as those that put you in touch with past lives.

“I don’t do past lives,” Levy said. In fact, she was careful not to pin herself down to any other system. She said she throws in a little of them all.

When Levy asked for a guinea pig, a young man who had peppered her with questions volunteered.

“I don’t want to fight,” Levy told him. “The guinea pig doesn’t fight.”

She spotted a quiet young woman sitting with a girlfriend. The young woman blushed and resisted but at last came forward.

Levy coaxed her into saying that she lacked self-confidence because her father always put her down and called her stupid.

“You know, that ‘stupid’ hurts more than a physical beating,” Levy said.

Levy directed the young woman, whose name was Wendy, to Rule 3 of the Optimal Philosophy, which was on a yellow handout along with the Post Optimal Care Sheet.

Rule 3 said: “Honor only those who deserve it.”

Levy asked Wendy to think of a container.

“We put the negative influence into the optimal container,” she explained.

While Wendy was thinking, Levy told about one woman who decided to blow her parents up before putting them into the container. A man who at first had trouble getting past his Judeo-Christian teaching to honor his parents finally decided to put them under water. He was disappointed when they didn’t sink, she said.

The most popular container, though, was the cruise ship.

“It’s more important to isolate them than to punish,” Levy said. “So you reward them with a first-class cruise. You put them up at the top deck, Champagne and caviar and valet service all the time. They’re taken care of.”

Wendy decided to put her father in a dark room.

Next, came the Optimal benefactor, “the antithesis of the negative influence.”

Wendy chose her boyfriend.

“We can accept him,” Levy said. “But could it possibly be someone in the family? You see, the boyfriend might not be here next week.”

Levy also ruled out pets, priests and Jesus Christ, although any of them could be guest benefactors, she said.

They settled on Wendy’s mother.

“What would you want to hear from your mother that would help you to be the capable person you want to be?” Levy asked.

“To like myself and be myself,” Wendy said.

Levy edited the phrase.

“Love yourself like I love you and don’t think about what others think,” she said. “You feel your esteem rising just a tad? You’ll be reprogrammed for the rest of your life.”

Levy then led all the students through their first Optimal. She asked them all to pass it on.

“That’s what it’s meant to be,” she said, “worldwide.”

Wendy had her friend write down the words, so she could use them again.

As for me, the Optimal is just one more thing to worry about. How do I know I won’t end up in a bottle?