Can you personally make a difference? Can you, as a single human being, in a world population of six billion (and counting), actually make a difference, have an impact? I know that the not so new age would have you believe you can, like the positive thinkers before them they are into the warm fuzzy feel good stuff. You can't blame them really its sells and let's face it like any religion the not so new age is a business. But forget...
There is great disorder under heaven, the situation is excellent. (Mao Zedong, as quoted in Living in the End Times, Slavoj Zizek) Nothing is ever lost, not even the blood pact with the devil. (C. G. Jung, CW 9.1) This post takes a closer look at the 'apocalyptic' era that we are living in. It is a follow on and amplification of the apocalyptic theme first raised in my last post These are Strange Days. My intention is to better articulate the myth...
In 1980 the iconic American Jungian, founder of the so called Archetypal or Imaginal School, James Hillman made the following observation. I find today that patients [coming to Hillman for analyses] for are more sensitive than the worlds they live in. Rather than patients not being able to perceive and adapt 'realistically' it is the reality of the world's phenomena that seems to be unable to adapt to the sensitivity of the patients. I am astounded by the life and beauty...
One of the classics of contemporary cinema The Matrix addresses a timeless question. What in analytical psychology we would call an archetypal question. Simply: is this it? Is this life, the world and this reality, fundamentally, essentially and absolutely real or not? If we conclude that it is fundamentally real, and furthermore that this is not only it but this is all there is to it, , then that is really that. The question is answered; and we can move on...
This post is a brief look at what creates meaning in our lives. And a list of a few of the containers in which the gift of meaning is to be found. To watch this post as a video click here . Meaning is not the province of reason, it is an irrational phenomenon. We cannot arrive at meaning (in the sense we use the word here) through a process of logical deduction. Meaning is not quantative, it cannot be measured using a...
This post is largely drawn for a recent conference by OPUS (an organisation for promoting understanding in society) appropriately named: Man to Superman, Humans, Robots and Communities. The conference was held at the University of London, 9 October 2010, and included two presentations. The first by Dr. Simon Western was entitled: cyborgs and entanglements: locating ourselves in a strange land Dr. Western tackled a number of interesting issues. The most fascinating of which was Actor-Network-Theory. Very simply the premise of Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) is that technology...
Frequently in life and in the pursuit of meaning we find ourselves frustrated. Despite the best of intentions and the most carefully laid plans we sometimes find our efforts thwarted. An annoying situation to be sure, but one which we no doubt all encounter at some point or another. Even, I suspect, the most spectacular achievers. The difference with these high achievers is that they are able to successfully overcome adversity. Or so we are given to believe. This post is an...
In my last post The Story of Truth I made reference to the: Christian Myth, and my belief that, Meaning is not always Truthful, nor Truth always Meaningful. This post is an attempt to amplify and illuminate these two thoughts. Fundamentalism Fundamentalism in any form is anti evolutionary, even if it is Darwinian Fundamentalism as in the case of someone like Richard Dawkins. Fundamentalism closes the loop, it does not allow for the continual expansion of the imagination. Fundamentalism seeks to trap us in a predefined...
The more time I spend thinking about the significance of stories in our lives the more amazed I am at how significant these stories are. The first peak behind the curtain I got into this, was on a warm summers evening whilst I was walking through downtown Tucson. Under an azure sky splashed with broad strokes of pink and fine highlights of red from the setting sun. A comforting warm breeze blew as I walked along side a philosopher I had...
Part 2 of 2 Read Part 1 first The question is whether our experience of 'meaningful' coincidences, such as Jung's synchronicity, is actually meaningful or is it merely a meaningless symptom of the laws of probability. And if conclude that it is meaningful what do we mean by that? Meaning is not rational it is irrational. Let's look at how the Oxford English Dictionary defines the word meaning: 1) What is meant by a word or idea (isn't that a tautology?) 2) a sense of...
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