Komlosi in his tent office

By Valerie Korinkova
January 28, 2003 | Human Being (species Homo sapiens), a bipedal primate mammal that is anatomically related to the great apes but is distinguished by a more highly developed brain, with a resultant capacity for articulate speech and abstract reasoning, and by a marked erectness of body carriage that frees the hands for use as manipulative members. Humans occur in a number of freely interbreeding... (Encyclopedia Britannica).

So everybody who thinks and talks is a human being. But who would consider himself a professional human being?

Alexander Komlosi does. He regards it as his "calling." When he was born in the hospital, an old man came up to him and told him he would become a professional human being. That is what his mother, Dr. Olga Marlin, told him. "When I was older, I remembered my 'calling' in a dream," recalls Komlosi.

Komlosi is quite a small person with dark hair and blue eyes. But the smaller he is the more flexible and agile he seems. When he was young he felt an internal pressure to prove himself, especially if one thinks about how mean children can be by teasing. So it might appear that he tries the make up for his height like a Napoleon complex. As he is older now, he said "I might have been motivated by it, but then I thought why does it have to an issue? And I accepted it." He learned now that the best thing is to deal with it through humor, "For example, if I meet a woman who is tall, I flirt with her and she says, 'But I'm much taller than you', than I say, 'You know, it's all the same lying down.'" He does not really mince matters and loves women.

For the past four years he has been practicing his professional human being in an office often held in a tent at a festival. He mostly uses festivals because he has difficulties finding a regular place. As part of his introductory session, Komlosi speaks about his origin and asks the client whether he/she is a human being and what one associates with it.

"He was sitting with crossed legs in a tent which seemed like an Arabic tent," remembered Ilona Hejdova who visited his office at the roof of the theatre Disk in 2001. She attended the session with her Ex-boyfriend (to whom she always refers as "Blbec"-Idiot) and thought it would be a theatre play since she knew that her English teacher Komlosi is also an actor. Once being asked by him Hejdova answered, "I associated the professional human being with a perfect human being and I thought the office would help me to become one, too." After the introductory session she got into an argument with her Ex-boyfriend. Hejdova recalls that "all my anger with him which build up during the time now exploded" as she felt like at a psychologist's. It went so far that Komlosi had to stop them, "You are not in a marriage counseling service." But she has to admit that, "It was strange and I think it was not really the intention of the session."

Komlosi's invitation to the office

Marcy Arlin had a different experience. They talked about when he became a human being and had a quick memory flash to childhood. Komlosi asked, "When did you first realize that you were a human being?" and Arlin had a quick memory flash to being an infant. Komlosi took notes and Arlin wondered "What is he writing? What will he do with this? Am I being spied on? What does he think?" After the 15 minute session Arlin thinks, "Yes, this is therapy." Komlosi explained that the first consultation is for free and the subsequent require something. What? This might be a gift and will be agreed upon mutually. And again the client is not sure what Komlosi's intention is, nor what happens with other people, but regards it as "A sweet little trip we took through my sense of being human" and wants to thank the professional human being for "giving me a chance to visit my memories."

Once he even had to deal with a "psychopathic guy." This man in his late 40's kept approaching the tent and was asked to stay away by Komlosi's producer. He left but came back, walked into the middle of the session and "started yelling at me: 'What are you doing? Are you crazy?'" describes Komlosi. So he had to calm him down by listening to him extremely intensely. According to Komlosi, the man might have been so paranoid and suspicious because he was afraid that the professional human being was trying to brainwash the people like it used to be during communism.

"So what is it all about?" one might wonder. A look at his visiting card gives more information: "Alexander Komlosi Professional Human Being understanding - guidance."

He tries to understand his clients and tries to guide them on their way to their internal and spiritual growth. "It's like walking through a forest and I'm walking with you and pointing out things you might not have noticed," explains Komlosi. His initial idea was to guide people who wanted to become human being. If they were already human being, then it would be more about the understanding what it is for each one. He just works with him/her. But, of course, don't expect a "magical process, sari mari boom, now you are a human being."

Now Komlosi's idea shifted to taking notes from the sessions to compile a research about the different perspective of the people. He compares it to a teacher who is not only teaching but also learning from his students. During the past four years he has attended festivals he has had about 600 clients each 15 minutes. According to him, "Some people see it as a joke, as a performance or are not interested at all in the process."

According to Komlosi, the session could be therapeutic, but "I am not a psychologist and this is not a therapy." In a therapy, the psychologists do only rarely introduce their own ideas, whereas he is interacting in the conversation and reflecting what is being said. So a person cannot obtain a guidance to acquire the characteristic from a human being, since, as Komlosi says, "I don't define human being, the client does."

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