Colette Aboulker Muscat's Students:
Larry Pfeffer

The Blue Gate
Copyright (C) Larry Pfeffer, 2005

If one is fortunate then sometimes there is an opportunity to meet someone exceptional. One such person I recently had the opportunity to meet was Madame Colette Aboulker-Mouscat. She was born in Algiers into a well known Jewish family and lived in France for many years. She studied there and with her brother was in the underground against the Germans. She lived in Jerusalem for decades until she passed away in late year 2003, close to her ninety-fifth birthday. About thirty years ago something very heavy fell on her from some height and she was not permitted to leave her house.

I was introduced to her by my friend Arie (George) Lewinnek some time in year 2003 and went to her salon perhaps five times. During weekdays there were few people there, but on Saturday nights her salon was full. Discussions were in English. I often read about salons in Europe, but this was the first time I actually had an opportunity to participate in one. I can’t adequately describe Colette. The summary of my impressions is that she was a pioneer in various fields, including art therapy and visualization therapy, had a quick and clear mind, much wisdom and rapid insights even near age ninety-five, had high intellectual integrity and an exceptional imagination and also a sense of humor.

She lived on a busy but relatively narrow Jerusalem street, Rechov Shimoni, on the ground floor of a small house. To reach her apartment one had to open a blue gate which led to a small front yard. Then one opened a blue door which led to the apartment’s entrance hall and after a short walk one entered Colette’s salon.

My impression is that Colette was touched by greatness – both thru family and contacts with exceptional people. It is easy to overlook the significance of such exposures.

She was a true teacher and a friend to many people. I knew her only for a short time, and regretfully just as I was getting closer to her she had passed away.

She gave an extraordinary amount of her talents and time to help others – both her disciples and future teachers of her methods and to people in need of therapy and advice. As far as I know she didn’t accept payment.

Based on what I heard, she hardly slept and read an extraordinary amount of material each night.

Information in this section is based on things I learned from Arie Lewinnek, who knew Colette much better than I and read a number of books about her.

Colette’s family was apparently among the resistance in Algiers during the war. Her brother, Josá Aboulker, was at one time the leader of the Algerian resistance at age twenty. Later he became a famous neuro-surgeon. Colette was also very active in the resistance and apparently both she and her brother were decorated after the war. Her father, Dr. Henry Aboulker, was also involved and his medical office served as a center of the resistance and a radio was hidden in the bathroom to communicate with the American military. Toward the end of the war they worked closely with the American armed forces to make preparations for a landing.

Arie and I witnessed a very touching ceremony at her house. One of Colette’s students, who was also her friend, visited before embarking on a trip abroad. Colette accompanied her to the stairs leading to the street from her small garden, said a few nice words and sprinkled some water in the direction of her friend. This must have been based on a custom from Algiers. It seemed like we rolled back time to when the pace of things was much slower and when someone leaving on a trip to a far away place left deep impressions. The ceremony seemed like a genuine wish of bon voyage. In some ways it reminds of good byes at large European train stations in the early part of the twentieth century, when a departing train often signified permanent or long-term separation.

Colette’s imaginative powers were reflected in stories of her life she used to relate. This note is a first attempt to jot down some of the stories transcribed from memory. Some of the details were forgotten after more than a half a year. Colette used to tell these stories as if they were true life episodes, and perhaps they were. I and some others found some stories bordering on the fantastic and unsure what part of the stories is based on reality and what part on imagination. To those who enjoyed listening to her the mix of reality and imagination didn’t present a problem. Colette certainly had a very special way of telling these stories, often one story after another, while everyone in her salon was still.

In retrospect I recall a vaguely similar experience in childhood in Budapest when after school I used to go to a place where Jewish boys learned the Torah and later the Talmud. It was called the Tajrasz Emesz Hebrew school or cheder. On rare occasions one of our rabbis, Rabbi Imre Holtzer, rewarded us with a story about the famous founder of chassidism, the Ba’al Shem Tov. In the stories he was able to transcend the ordinary and I recall sitting spellbound listening to every word. A somewhat similar experience was reading folk stories which often act as gateways to the world beyond the ordinary. Perhaps the difference between them and our rabbi’s stories was that the latter had a mystical aura, centered on a revered rabbi, were told by our rabbi, somewhat of an authority in our eyes, and consequently the stories acquired an aura of authenticity. As with Colette’s stories, the mix of real and imaginary, had a powerful effect. There was probably an equally important consideration. Just as the young boys in the cheder believed in our rabbi, those visiting Colette’s salon had a bias toward believing in her and stories she related. The presence of this context significantly enhanced the aura around her stories.

During World War II Colette was in the resistance and much of the time wore black, since unfortunately far too often many of her comrades were killed. Shortly after Paris was liberated her father was scheduled to give a talk at a mental institution outside Paris and he invited Colette. This was probably a well known institute in Charenton, directed by the well known Dr. Henri Baruk.

Colette’s father gave her elaborate instructions on how to get to the mental institute from Paris. Colette borrowed a blue sweater from a friend, and enjoyed not wearing black for a change. She arrived early and was met by the institute’s director, whose hand was heavily bandaged since he was recently attacked by an inmate wielding an ax. Colette and the director walked around the grounds and saw many patients on the grounds which was slanting toward a nearby river. Colette noticed ten men wearing black standing motionless, silently staring toward the river. The director explained that they were in a concentration camp and since they were brought to the institute they didn’t move or speak and had to be fed.

There was a phone call and the director was called back to his office. He apologized and said that he would be back in a few minutes. Time passed and Colette noticed that the ten men turned around and were looking directly at her and were slowly moving. Much to her concern she saw that large numbers of patients were now on the grounds, were all looking at her and were also slowly moving in her direction. Colette was near a large tree and stood there so at least her back would be protected. She felt danger and at first didn’t know what to do. Suddenly, for an unexplained reason, she started singing Christmas songs she learned as a child in Algiers. She kept singing and noticed that gradually more and more patients joined in, even the ten men who didn’t speak until then. She looked up at the nearby buildings and saw patients looking out and also singing along with her. Later she found out that the ten men were not Jewish.

The director was alerted that Colette was in danger and rushed to her. He couldn’t understand how Colette was able to handle the situation. He grabbed her arm in great excitement and asked her to explain what she did to avert the danger. Unfortunately he grabbed her with such a force and suddenness that he dislocated her am, and Colette had trouble with that arm ever since.

Colette was an attractive young woman and was alone in her house in Algiers when a group of Italian prisoners of war entered her house to do some work. She noticed that the men were intently staring at her and she became very concerned for her safety. She started to sing and walked out of the house toward a more inhabited part of the area, and the men followed her, singing all the way.

Colette said that once she was walking in a village with her children and suddenly a bull was approaching them. She moved close to a wall and placed the children behind herself. As the bull was getting close to them she started singing and that calmed the bull.

When Colette was about five years old her family lived somewhat like a dynasty and there were many children. One day Colette heard that her grandmother, to whom she was very close, called one of her very popular girl cousins, about Colette’s age, “peach”. Later Colette asked her grandmother what fruit she is and was told that she is an “apple”. That pleased her, but secretly she always wanted to be a peach.

Colette followed the prior “peach story” with a story about a very special peach tree which only grows peaches every 3000 or so years in China. She said she was once given a peach from that tree and supposedly the fruit had some unusual effects.

Colette’s father was a surgeon and often traveled to conferences with his wife who was a beautiful woman. They were in Prague and had an early meal with the others. She only ate some fruit because she kept kosher. She left the meal early and walked toward the old Jewish cemetery, where she saw some lights in the watchman’s small house. She looked in thru the window and saw a number of men sitting around a small table, having a Friday night meal. Suddenly they looked up and saw her in her long dress and later said that the Schina visited them. As far as I recall Colette said that decades later she looked much like her mother, and on a visit to Prague walked by the Jewish cemetery one Friday night. She too saw light in the small house, looked in and when the men looked up they recalled that just like that night, decades ago, they saw the Schina.

Colette said that in her early childhood she had some problems with her vocal cords and her father, a well known doctor, felt that she shouldn’t talk for a number of years. Her mouth was taped shut and the tape was only removed during meal times. During those formative years in Algiers she was only allowed to talk on rare occasions. It was impressive to hear how she coped with this as a child. One of her coping techniques was to walk around with a dictionary in her pocket find words. She said that the first word she looked up was “martyr”. It is possible that she compensated for lack of verbal communication by focusing on her imaginative capabilities, which developed to an unusual degree. Perhaps this is what helped her at a very early age to invent or practice visualization therapy – to help people with serious health and other problems by teaching them to address the problem thru visualization.

Colette told a story about a Seder night and someone dressed in red pajamas being taken to be Eliyahu Hanavi by the children.

Another story linked Jews from Iran to the Chinese concept of chi.

She told a story about visiting the oldest synagogue in Amsterdam which her ancestors built. She said that she got a very unusual reception.

Colette said that she was a very accomplished sculptor in Paris. She also said that she was one of the inventors or the inventor of art therapy.

Colette said that as a child, maybe eight years old, she was at the World-War I front lines, visiting her father who was a noted surgeon. As she walked thru the wards she saw soldiers with various serious injuries. As far as I recall she said that was when she invented visualization therapy and was able to help many of the wounded. I think that she mentioned rubbing pure snow on the wounds and imagined that she can enter the injured organs and repair various injured or destroyed parts – such as blood vessels, bones, ligaments. Frankly I have difficulty understanding how things she imagined can cure another person. It is somewhat more credible that a person under her guidance can cure psychological problems via guided visualization.

She said that when she was about twelve years old she cured voice problems of a leading opera singer.

Whereas I was fascinated by Colette’s stories I was also interested in how her visualization therapy works. We didn’t have an opportunity to discuss this in any depth. The impression I now have is that Colette said that her technique is based on very short imagination therapy sessions and that the therapy must take place in a very brief period of time, otherwise it loses potency. She explained that this creates directed and controlled internal shocks, which do the actual work. Just how this works, whether the shocks are psychological, physiological or hybrid, and how “shocks” thru the psyche can have physiological effects I didn’t understand, but perhaps would have if I had studied with Colette. I am not certain that more accepted pseudo-scientific therapeutic techniques, such as psychotherapy, are any more effective or make any more sense than Colette’s technique. In fact I give more credence to Colette as a therapist than to a Freudian psychotherapist. Perhaps, in part, because based on what I observed in a few contacts she had a high level of intellectual integrity.

Colette once gave an example of the dynamics of her visualization therapy. Once someone she knew, a young and attractive woman, called her and said that she is no longer interested in life. Colette told her to come over right away. The woman was very interested in art and when she arrived Colette decided to base her therapy on a theme from art. She told the young woman to close her eyes and imagine a certain painting by Giorgio de Chirico, a famous Italian surrealist, whose works were familiar to the young woman. The painting depicted a jarringly empty street and, as far as I recall, the imagery of one side triggered associations of hopelessness and the other side inspired hope. If so, then the painting in a sense represented an abyss, which unlike the magnificent Grand Canyon in the United States, is passable via the empty street connecting the two sides. Perhaps the abyss is the blockage in a person’s mind discouraging moving from one side to another.

Colette asked the young woman to close her eyes and imagine she is standing on the side of hopelessness carrying on her back all the burden which recently made her disinterested in life. There was a short pause, to let the woman’s mind absorb the surroundings and for its mood to permeate her consciousness. Then Colette instructed her to imagine looking at the other side of the street, toward the side of hope, and to slowly start walking to it. As the young woman imagined being in the scene and slowly walking away from the side of hopelessness she was instructed to slowly toss behind her back each of the burdens she was carrying, one by one, and pace her walk in such a way as to reach the side of hope only after all of her burdens are discarded. There may have been one or two added instructions which Colette gave the young woman. Apparently after the short visualization therapy the young woman regained her zest for life.

“Sometimes I found Collete’s quarters easily; other times, I walked back and forth on her street for many minutes before I spied her blue door. The exterior of the building was unadorned cement but the interior of Collete’s living room was decorated with a profusion of scarves, plants, paintings and wall hangings. She was a French Algerian Jew. She told us that before she came to Israel, her family had been very wealthy and she was treated like a princess. She said that every hour had its own auspicious location in their home. For example, at 12 noon, one might work in the southeast corner of the room; at 2:00 p.m., the area along the western wall would be more comfortable; and at three o’clock, the middle of the room would be best. Colette followed these guidelines in her daily life, moving from one position to another.”

“Visitors from all over the world came to work with Colette, some for just a day, others for weeks at a time. Some paid nothing for her instructions while others paid whatever they could afford. On Friday evenings, Colette extended an open invitation to anyone who wanted to drop in. These sessions were known as Colette’s Salon and there was always someone interesting and stimulating to speak with. “

“I think Colette must have been very beautiful at one time.”

There were a number of book written about Colette, apparently some also by her. Based on what I heard books discuss her family history, her life, therapy techniques and stories. Two books about her stories were written by her student in Jerusalem, Tamar Bergman. One is a children’s book called “Conch of Secrets” and the other is called “A Polished Mirror”. Both are available in Hebrew and can probably be obtained via Steimatzky bookstores. Possibly an English translation of the “Conch of Secrets” can be obtained from Tamar as an eBook by writing to her at

zevtamar@netvision.net.il

Colette had many students and close associates. Guidelines for submitting material about additional students and associates may be found on the Home page.

Jan 6, 2009 (prior July 28, 2007)