Gentle Teaching is an existential process in which our challenge in the beginning is to simply be in the moment with the alienated person and express unconditional love. This presence must be non-burdensome, almost invisible. It is literally just being with or even near the person and gradually and slowly entering the person’s space. When a marginalized person see us, he/she does not actually see us, but rather “sees” an amalgamation of a long line of past caregivers with images, not of our real self, but of past memories of abandonment, rape, molestation, grabbing, cursing, mocking, ridiculing, torture, refugee camps, asylums, seclusion rooms, physical management, token economies, confining group homes, dozens of foster homes, and incarcerations. These past traumatic experiences swirl in the person’s heart and rip it apart. We have to slowly and tenderly bring new meanings to each person’s life through an extremely strong example and the development of an evolving narrative regarding the person’s goodness. When a person lacks a sense of connectedness, life swirls downward into a deep hole of loneliness, withdrawal from others, aggression toward others, cutting oneself, or any number of other alienating deeds.. Many pass through life enveloped in a sense of death, a robot-like or distancing machine-like attitude that increases our own loneliness, lowers our self-esteem, and leads to a profound sense of emptiness. Oppression is an inner-heaviness that many bear, a sense of being under someone’s thumb, incapability of having self-worth, and bitter coldness that leads to self-destruction or wanton aggression.