The Covert Overt

In Royce's classes, an overt is an act not motivated by love. An act of suppression, or manipulation, dishonesty, third-party gossip, judgement, fraud, and false impersonation, are all overts.

Also, not doing something can be an overt. If you don't stop to help someone in need, when you easily could have, is an overt. Not picking up a piece of trash when you are walking by it or not showing appreciation when you could have is an overt. Withholding appreciation or love, is an overt.

A covert overt, is something you have done, an overt, that is posing as an act of kindness but is really motivated by something other than love, and you don't know you're doing it. You may be doing it everyday and not be aware that it is an overt.


I have a friend I love dearly. She is a gossip. She loves to sit and talk about how fat or how bald or how dumb or how ugly or how stuck up someone we know has become. She came back from a vacation in New York where she met up with some old classmates and all she wanted to tell me about was how fat Ginny got and how bald James is and how tacky Vicky is..... Here's the deal. I sat there and listened to her go on and on as she always does and I didn't stop it. I let it continue, as I always do. I don't enjoy the conversation but I listen. I thought that was the polite thing to do. I sat there, on the phone, feeling uncomfortable, but not saying anything. That is a covert overt. By not saying anything I allowed her beliefs and judgements to go unchallenged. By not stopping her I gave her the impression that it was okay to talk that way. I didn't know it was an overt....it was the covert overt.

All overts stimulate a sense of guilt. It may be a subtle feeling of discomfort but it is there. We may not be able to figure out why we are feeling guilty because the overts are not always the first thing we look at. We look at others for why we are feeling what we are feeling. It must be his fault or her fault that I feel this way. She's making me feel guilty or he manipulates me with guilt. That is not possible. If you are feeling guilty, then you are guilty. Someone can't make you feel it if it isn't already there to feel.

What is the antidote for guilt? Forgiveness. Learn the lesson, forgive yourself and TRUST your process.