The way you talk about yourself and your life-your story-has a great deal to do with what shows up in your day-to-day experience. Your thoughts create filters through which you view your life. If you think of yourself as a Victim, you filter all that happens to you through the lens of DDT, and you find plenty of evidence to support that viewpoint. That's why the orientation you adopt is so important: it exerts a powerful influence on your life direction.

Every Victim requires a Persecutor. But the Persecutor isn't always necessarily a person. The Persecutor could also be a condition or a circumstance. A persecuting condition might be a disease or a heart attack, or an injury. A persecuting circumstance could be a natural disaster, like a hurricane or an earthquake or a house burning down.

A Rescuer isn't always a person. Addictions to alcohol or drugs, sexual addiction, workaholism-all the ways we numb out-can rescue the Victim from feeling his or her own feelings.

All victims have experienced a loss-a thwarted desire or aspiration-even if they're not aware of it.

Your life is a kind of laboratory where you're constantly experimenting with your own higher knowing, always increasing your capacity to design the life you choose. Human beings must create; it's hardwired. The question is, are you consciously creating or only sleepwalking through your human life?

TED-The Empowerment Dynamic-counteracts the poison of DDT, the Dreaded Dram Triangle. TED is the antidote for DDT.

Victims may be defensive, submissive, over-accommodating to others, passive-aggressive in conflict, dependent on others for self-worth, overly sensitive, even manipulative. They're often angry, resentful, and envious, feeling unworthy or ashamed about their circumstances. Have you ever felt or acted this way?