Contact

The transition from identity with past object relations to the presence of the Personal Essence is a prerequisite for true personal contact... It is always the case that when someone is working with the issue of contact, he is working on the realization of the Personal Essence. Contact is the most specifically personal act, and when it is real it is the act of the real Being. (The Pearl Beyond Price, pg 84)

The personal contact then is as actual, as concrete, as immediate as physical contact. In such contact one is touching the other's Being with one's own Being. The substance of one's unique personal beingness touches the substance of the other’s unique personal beingness. It is touching of each other without the presence of ego boundaries, and without the loss of one's unique individuation of Being. One is present, as oneself, as one's unique individuation. One is not being anything from the past, so one is totally unique. One is personal. One is present as an individuality of Being, a unique human being. And contact is this Presence being with another Presence. (The Pearl Beyond Price, pg 88)

When you are yourself, your personal beingness, then and only then is it possible to treat other people as people, as humans in a personal way. Then they are no longer objects to you. When you are yourself in this way, it is possible to have personal contact with others. When you are not yourself, when you are the personality of ego, the personality is a barrier between you and the other. Or, if you are the universal aspect, you also cannot make personal contact with someone else. You can envelope them in the universal way, you can be open with them, but that person-to-person, being to being, heart to heart contact is missing. Some place in the heart of the other person is not touched, and there is no personal meeting. Regardless of how much you love the person, have compassion for him, or want to help him, if you are not personal in your contact, he will not feel met. The personal contact establishes trust. (Diamond Heart book 2, pg 205)

Real personal contact occurs when we feel our soul itself is in direct contact with the other person's soul. It is when Essence itself is making contact, is itself contactfulness. I am making contact without completely merging into you or the universal -- the contact is immediate and with no boundaries, but still not all one big ocean. The substance of one soul is touching the very substance of another soul, two Essences coming together. You are free and spontaneous, not conditioned. You are fullness, and aliveness, and abundance in being yourself. (Diamond Heart book 2, pg 206)

Contact and transference

To state the case succinctly: there is no genuine contact when there is transference. True contact happens when one is free from transference. This is not an either-or case; the most accurate statement is that the less identification there is with past object relations, the more genuine personal contact is possible. (The Pearl Beyond Price, pg 82)