Presence
Presence (it. presenza, fr. présence) is, in the Paret Method, the quality of being fully here and now — in the body, in the breath, in the gaze — and at the same time the operational foundation on which all of the school's non-verbal techniques rest. It is not an atmosphere nor an innate charisma: it is a trainable state, and its training logically precedes every induction technique.
The central claim is that most people live in a state of everyday trance: attention scattered in rumination, memory and anticipation — that is, outside the present. Presence work consists in stepping out of this habitual trance. On the neuroscientific side the school connects this mechanism to the activity of the default mode network.
This page is the English twin of Presenza; the two are kept in parallel rather than merged, because the school teaches in both languages.
1. Why presence comes before technique
In the school's corpus, presence exercises appear as a prerequisite, not as a complement. Fascination performed without presence is a fixed, empty stare; magnetic passes performed without presence are mere gestures. What makes a non-verbal action effective is not its outward form but the fact that the operator is genuinely there while performing it.
Hence the teaching order: first presence is built, then it is projected. Personal magnetism is, in this reading, presence made perceptible to the other.
2. The exercises
Internal sources document a recurring progression:
- Body awareness — bringing attention back to the body, to weight, to contact with the ground (grounding).
- Presence and vitality exercises — breath, tone, opening of the perceptual field.
- Mirror work — the Miroir Magique and the Tratak exercise: holding one's own reflection without blinking. It is the bridge between presence to oneself and presence to the other, and it flows into Mirror Fascination.
- Hyper-presence — intensifying the state beyond its ordinary threshold; the basis of the instant methods.
- Quantum Presence — presence integrated with the framework of quantum psychology.
The documented caveats are consistent: do not lose consciousness, avoid hypnotic sleep, do not recycle a limited energy but draw on a wider field. Presence is a state of heightened wakefulness, not of drowsiness.
3. Presence and deep states
The apparent paradox of the school is that the operator's presence should serve to produce altered states of consciousness in the subject. There is no contradiction: it is precisely because the operator is anchored in the present that the subject can let go. In the hieratic techniques this quality is brought to its most formal, ritual expression — hieratic presence, presence as sacred posture.
4. Ethical note
The exercises described require, according to the sources themselves, the guidance of an experienced teacher and continuous practice. They are not therapeutic protocols and do not replace medical or psychological care.
See also
Bibliography
- Paret, Marco, The Magnetic Gaze, 2011.
- Paret, Marco, General Study Plan, 2012.
- ISI-CNV internal materials: Presence and vitality exercises, Presence cultivation, Develop Presence to Yourself, Levels of Mirror.
- Wolinsky, Stephen — see Stephen Wolinsky.