(I know the following may sound a bit 'paranoid', but I promise you it isn't...)

I have for the past year or so been engaged single-handedly in investigating the activities of a man whom I now strongly suspect of being an actual sociopath.

He has, since 2009, imposed himself on my brother's life and he - along with an 'accomplice' of limited intelligence but unlimited conceit - have made his life a misery in the guise of 'helping' him. (It's difficult to admit, and it's complicated, but my brother was in a very awkward financial position partly because of bad decisions that I'd made while clinically depressed, and we were estranged at the time.) This man makes many claims about his background and qualifications which have almost ALL turned out to be false when followed up. Some examples (by no means all): He's a 'war hero' (Bosnia, 1990s), 'ex-Special Forces' (RMs), was awarded the Military Cross, runs his own mysterious security company for politicians and VIPs, is a millionaire, has a 'photographic memory', three academic degrees (Maths, Statistics, Criminal Psychology), knows various 'famous' people/historians/members of the Saudi royal family, does consultancy work for the police, is an expert martial artist, has 'contacts' in the military, can get people's legs broken for you, etc... Oh, and he's only about 36 years old... After following these stories up - something nobody else seems to have bothered doing (funnily enough he's a popular guy, big fish/small pond)... well, NONE of them can be verified and most of them turn out to be blatant LIES. He does NOT hold the M.C. for instance. In short, he has spun a web of deceit around himself and people seem happy to believe in it, and him. They really do. He seems to have immense 'personal magnetism' and charisma. Very chummy with everybody. 'One of the lads'. Always right. Knows everything about everything. He's also claimed, over a long period of time, to be collecting money for military charities, and has accepted money from people personally on that understanding ("£6,000"plus, according to one of his public emails...). When I contacted them however, neither of the charities 'involved' had ever heard of him, and at least one of them is making its own enquiries now.

I wouldn't be interested in any of this necessarily if he hadn't self-appointed himself as some kind of petty dictator over my brother. While claiming to be 'helping' him, and gaining the trust of other people and even the local social work department it seems, he has been conducting himself as if he is 'above the law'. This has involved bullying, property destruction, 'theft', what i regard as plain sadism, and ever more lies. I think a great wrong has been done here. My brother is a very trusting/gullible soul and believes this guy's whole 'war hero' schtick. He was in the army himself but still he even went so far as to tell me once that this guy was "a much better human being" than himself... This guy, along with a loyal and moronic sidekick, has conducted a sustained campaign of bullying against my brother under the guise of being his 'friend'. It's possible he may be a very dangerous individual indeed. Possibly psychotic. (I have seen an email from him to my brother - supposedly written by an officer at Sandhurst military academy but quite obviously an illiterate forgery - in which he refers to himself in the third person as "one of the greatest men I have ever met," etc...)

Things seem to be coming to some sort of resolution soon. I've been in touch with other people and am thinking of involving the local media and the police once I am certain enough of the facts. But it's been a long hard road to get to this point, even though I could have been a lot more assiduous in going about some things than I have been. It's been extremely discouraging, like being the only one who can see that the emperor isn't wearing any clothes, and not being able to tell anybody about it - not until I had a better standard of 'proof'. So, to cut to the chase, on Good Friday I cast the coins and asked the I Ching:

"How should I proceed with my 'investigation' of [Mr X]?"

I received 55.4 Feng ABUNDANCE/Fullness

I think this means something like the following, but I'd appreciate anyone else's opinion:

"Be like the sun at midday" (WB): ie. shine the light of truth/clarity/publicity on this man?: "One should give light to the whole world"... A climax (to the investigation)... a brief moment of power (other people listening to me); "here the hindrance is already surmounted" (all the work I've done knocking down this man's lies?) I should draw other people to myself (involve local media/authorities?) "greatness and prosperity in PUBLIC life"... before influence/power wanes again... modesty/humility

It's uncanny the way the Image talks about how the superior man "decides lawsuits and carries out punishments"... and "the clearing of the atmosphere by the thunderstorm of a criminal trial". That is exactly what I think this man deserves, and where this matter is (I hope) heading! Not to sound vindictive, let he who is without sin, etc... but he deserves to be standing in the dock right now.

4th line: "Thus light comes through ACTION... and with it good fortune." Okay, that seems obvious enough. I'm not clear on "meeting the ruler/lord" though... some trepidation there. whether this refers to getting back in touch with someone I haven't seen for ages and have been thinking about contacting or to the man I'm investigating... ?

Karcher: "The Way is open... Accept the difficult task, release bound energy..."

B. B. Walker: "A moment of great influence is at hand. Prepare wisely and act accordingly." [why am i thinking of a line Jack Nicholson says in The Departed...]

"Bringing in the harvest" - Hulskamer

So, basically: the time for ACTION is NOW...

Changing to... (and this is what scares me)...

36: Ming I/Darkening of the Light... ouch...

Injury... wounding... flight... "a man of dark nature [ sociopath?? ] is in a position of authority and brings harm to the wise and able man"... Erk.

Basically: keep quiet, resist the temptation to hit back? retreat, suffer the slings and arrows... remain steadfast even though being attacked? (perhaps slandered, etc?)

Thing is, I believe this guy may be capable of ANYTHING. He's opportunistic, seemingly without conscience and willing to tell ANY lie to get himself out of a jam and cast doubt on other people (ie. me, and possibly my brother too). In fact I fully expect him to come after me once I 'expose' him... It's something I've thought about before. Not sure if violence is likely or not but he's certainly going to lie because THAT'S WHAT HE DOES. He's also got inside my brother's head so that he's told him some things in confidence that I'm sure he'd be unprincipled enough to try to use against him. Nothing illegal but certainly 'embarrassing'. And also a few similar things about me, I'm sure. I think that's what 36 seems to be indicating, anyway. And I'm not looking forward to that...

Success. Light. Triumph. Then a period of darkness/adversity/shame...?

Any thoughts? Does that make any sense?

Sorry for going on at such length... it IS a complicated situation to explain.

Wow, well if this guy is as dangerous/ manipulative as you make him sound i'd think about it a bit more before taking action.. maybe wait a few weeks and throw the coins again?
Be careful with this.

Megan:bows:

I think that if you take proper action against the man, you will succeed and send him into retreat. I would suggest that you contact law enforcement as he may have committed fraud or some other crime. I don't know what the law is where you are, but I can't believe that if he lies as he does that he hasn't lied to get some ill-gotten gains.

Thanks, Megan and Icastes, for your replies.

55 seems to indicate 'the time is now' however... or at least this is a short 'window of opportunity' or time in the midday sun. I don't want to hang on and squander it, lose the initiative, neither do I want to charge in unprepared without knowing all the facts first (I'm sure one of the trans. I've checked (Pocket I Ching?) specifically has a line about "establishing the facts" or similar - don't have it in front of me right now sorry).

He is certainly manipulative. On one occasion my brother was talking to him calmly and reasonably trying to persuade him to 'leave him alone' and he blew up, started shouting about my brother being "an ungrateful little man" and how dare he cause him all this stress (??) and worry and finally ending the 'argument' by out of the blue claiming that "I'VE GOT CANCER!"... (what kind of cancer he's never said) In my opinion he's just told the first lie that came into his head in order to 'win the argument' and trump the opposition, to win sympathy. He's supposed to have some sort of kidney problems too but who knows what's true and what's not. To lie about having cancer as some kind of debating-point, is nauseating. My father died of lung cancer. It's nothing to lie about.

On another occasion, whilst he and some pals of his were 'helping' my brother by 'tidying' his flat (which I'd already had a head start on doing and had been engaged in doing for weeks beforehand) he picked up a paperback, with a bookmark in it, quite clearly being read, and asked: "Are you reading this?" When my brother replied 'Yes', he ripped it in half in front of his face, saying "Not any more you're not"...

This actually happened. I am not making this up; neither is my brother (he's somewhere on the autistic spectrum, high-functioning, not diagnosed, but this means that he finds it very very hard to lie and simply doesn't make things like that up - he's very truthful and it gets him into trouble sometimes). To my mind this is psychotic behaviour.

He ('Mr X' that is) is very given to prescribing what's best for other people (or at least people who can't fight back very well). For instance he tried to make my brother throw out almost all of his books. According to him nobody should own more than TEN books, (or 20 CDs...) or else they're "insane". You should download everything off the internet... Books just take up space. He told my brother: "Choose your ten favourite books" and get rid of the rest... Just insanity. This from a man who claims to be educated (to hold three degrees...) Yet he says that "you only need to read one book on any subject" and that "reading more than that is a waste of time"... He made my brother throw out a book on Roman religion, or instance, sneering: "Who do you think you are, some kind of academic?" I mean, words fail me.

Also according to this guy, "Listening to Heavy Metal music is a route to criminality" (??), and he made my brother sell/give away most of his CDs, as well as throwing out his vast collection of (valuable) band/tour t-shirts and clothing just because he disapproved of them: "Grown men don't wear Heavy Metal t-shirts"... (!!?) He did this, like almost everything else he's done, without even asking permission or approval. My brother only found out later, and was very upset.

Yet with all this, and much else besides, that he's done to him, my brother still 'looks up' to this guy, and thinks he's 'superior'. Not to mention the esteem he's held in by everybody else. "Everybody knows [Mr X]"... "He's a great guy"...etc etc.

I've gone on again, sorry. I am more and more convinced, by his behaviour and his lies and his cynical/opportunistic manipulation that this guy is a clinical sociopath capable of anything. He's a world-class fantasist, certainly, with all the confidence of a professional conman. He's got balls. But he's reckless. He may just turn out to be a sad harmless 'little man' (despite claiming to be a millionaire he still lives at his parents house), or he may have suffered some kind of breakdown, or he may be a very dangerous psychopath. Perhaps all of the above. I'm quite willing to take him on, because it's my duty as a brother, but I'm a little scared of him too, or rather the consequences of 'going public'.

(I should add, to be 'fair' to him... maybe he's mentally ill and maybe he really does need some kind of treatment... but I still can't forgive him for what he's done, he still needs to answer for it. This has been a consistent pattern of behaviour on his part, ongoing, and, I think, the 'real' him. He's never apologised or given a hint of contrition for ANY of the things that he's done.)

I need guidance. Hence asking the I Ching. Hence asking the community here...

"energy complemented by wisdom" - 55 line 4

But what is wisdom here? Just to get everything out into the open and hand things over to the authorities...?