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The Fractal Nature of Human Consciousness, The Evolution of the Global Human, and The Driving Forces of History
Get PDFUsing chaos, consciousness and meme theories, developmental psychology and family systems theory, this paper explains the fractal structure of the human race and how, every human activity in each era, is influenced by a dominant set of attractors, E.C.+P.P.S.= P.E. (environmental conditions)+(psychophysiological state)=(physical events). Using these disciplines an analysis of the cultural evolution of the human race and a description of the driving forces of human history are presented. In addition these other insights result:
The understanding that the human race, as a whole, is a true dynamical system that follows the principles of chaos theory. And that under the seeming disorderly course of the past 40,000 years of human history there exists an underlying order.
This order is the growth process described in developmental psychology, which when extrapolated to global systems is similar to the theory that Phylogeny recapitulates ontogeny, which in turn serves to explain certain aspects of the Bible.
That fractal segments express different aspects of the developmental growth of the whole species and that those who follow the underlying order, that applies to them, succeed, while those who fall out of step with it suffer and generally fail
Alchemy in Education: Towards a Preschool Model in College Classrooms
Get PDFEducation has long been a necessary, yet standardized procedure with little difference from program to program or school to school. In this paper I argue that more of a creative approach using existing educational models such as preschool education would serve us well in the development of student skills at all levels, including college. I also contend that an alchemical metaphor would be useful in the application and acknowledgement of the value of such an approach
Uncertainty, Enaction and Theater: Practicing for the Revolution
Get PDFThis paper discusses how using theater and the creative arts can be a useful tool in changing ourselves and communities for the better. I will also offer examples of using Theater of the Oppressed structures in youth community settings, linking these case examples to concepts of uncertainty, enaction, and transformation. This paper will also offer examples of challenges in facilitating and participating in this community based creative arts work. I will then speak to the urgency of using this creative work in our American systems, arguing that theater and the creative arts can support both young people and adults in exploring and interrupting stagnant, oppressive patterns of racism, classism, homophobia, sexism, etc. I will conclude with suggestions on where to go next with using these creative arts processes, offering current examples of crisis and anxiety
Jack B. Yeats: Journey in Consciousness
Get PDFJack B. Yeats (1871-1957) was an Irish artist and writer. His art evolved from the representational to something much more abstract. By examining six paintings covering the early, the middle, and the late periods of his life, I have endeavored to demonstrate a distinct shift in Jack B. Yeats from the mental structure of consciousness to the emergence of the integral structure of consciousness, as described by Gebser (1984). Artistic evidence of a shift in his consciousness is supplemented by a critical reading of one of his novels. Secondary sources were consulted to gain insight into the literary works that I have not read, and to explore the various contexts within which he worked and lived
A New Method of Remote Healing Through Information Based Treatment
Get PDFHealing, in the form of remote healing, is one of the most exciting proofs of the working of the primordial field described by Ervin Laszlo. Although phenomena of presentiment and faith healing have been with us since earliest times, in each subsequent age, in every culture, and throughout the development of the world\u27s belief systems, systematic attempts to understand these phenomena have been growing ever stronger. The paradigm of western science in the modern age tended to relegate remote healing to the realm of superstition or delusion, but this certainly does not characterize the complete history of science. Even in the present age, compelling evidence has been amassed by experimental parapsychology, albeit some it fails to satisfy the stringent requirements of the scientific method. Thus, the rigorous basis of the Akashic field theory as developed by Laszlo, having been derived as a synthesis of several, hitherto un-reconciled phenomena across various scientific fields, represents a unique, and I my view uniquely valid, development in modern science. On the basis of many years of practice I have come to know from my own observation and experience, the real meaning of this theory. Indeed, I have been instrumental in the very birth of this theory in Laszlo’s thinking: the first evident, and nearly indisputable evidence for the existence of this field came to his attention in the aftermath of the phenomena I encountered following the death of my father (these phenomena have been recounted by Laszlo in his book The Creative Cosmos2). These furnished the impetus for Laszlo to look into the possibility of memory and information in nature as a real factor in the world, and thus impelled him to look for an explanation that can link it with the avant-garde theories of physics. This is how the concept of a beyond-spacetime Akashic field—also known as the Psi field—was born. Therefore with good conscience I can assume at this time the responsible task of supplementing Laszlo’s theory with my own understanding of the Akashic field, as the deep-dimensional medium that underlies the phenomena of remote healing
Can Synchronicity be Invoked? Synchronistic Inquiry and the Nature of Meaning
Get PDFThis paper examines synchronicity, the concept first proposed by Carl Jung, of an “acausal connecting principle” (Jung, 1952), or, a meaningful coincidence linking inner and outer events, from three distinct angles. First, it reviews the theoretical framework for synchronicity, and specifically explores the nature of meaning as an arbiter of synchronicity. The paper then asks whether, considering the co-determined nature of meaning, synchronicity can possibly be consciously invoked. Drawing upon anecdotal examples from personal experience, the outlines of a possible research process, personal synchronistic inquiry, are proposed. Finally, this paper presents a personal attempt to implement the research protocol outlined above in the form of a case study, and briefly examines the themes emergent in the data therein. As itself an expression of synchronistic inquiry, such emergent themes include the nature of time, apocalypticism, sexuality, and messianic consciousness
An Alchemy of Heaven on Nature\u27s Base : Intimations of the Universal Opus in the Integral Yoga and the Divine Life in Man in the Work of C. G. Jung
Get PDFThis comparative study addresses two main questions. First, considering the status of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as spiritual teachers and Jung as a psychologist: might their respective views on transformation be too divergent to warrant comparison? Second, considering that one of the goals of the Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s yoga was the transformation of physical substance, could their relationship be viewed through an alchemical lens? The discussion begins with a comparison and differentiation of integral and analytic psychologies and a discussion of the nature of awakening in the two traditions, which leads to an extended amplification: “a method of association based on the comparative study of mythology, religion and fairy tales, used in the interpretation of images in dreams and drawings” (Sharp, 1991a, see entry under “amplification”), of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s relationship and yogic goals through analysis of the coniunctio motif in various alchemical traditions. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are described as living symbols (in Jungian terms) of the union of divine masculine and feminine principles. A comparison of Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s views on the supramental speciation and Jung’s on alchemical transformation follows. A final, personal reflection concludes the paper
A Neurotheological Approach to Spiritual Awakening
Get PDFA neurotheological approach suggests an analysis of spiritual awakening experiences by combining phenomenological data with neuroscience. This paper presents a synthesis combining information on the thoughts, feelings, and experiences associated with spiritual awakening experiences and neurophysiological data, primarily from neuroimaging studies, to help assess which brain structures might be associated with these experiences. Brain structures involved with emotions correlate with emotional responses while areas of the brain associated with the sense of self appear to correlate with the key feature of these experiences in which an individual loses the sense of self and feels intimately connected with God, universal consciousness, or the universe. This paper also seeks to address the assumption whether awakened states as described in popular spirituality are similar or different compared to spiritual enlightenment as described in Eastern spiritual traditions. Thus, the implications of such a neurotheological analysis are also considered
A General Introduction to Integral Theory and Comprehensive Mapmaking
Get PDFWhile attempting to keep to the larger vision of integral studies as a whole I shall be proposing a rudimentary outline of an underlying assertion primarily based upon the works of Ken Wilber, Jean Gebser, Don Beck and Christopher Cowan (based on the work of Clare Graves), and Mark B. Woodhouse. Robert Kegan, Howard Gardner, James Mark Baldwin, Susan Cook-Greuter, and Carol Gilligan are influences working in the background.
Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when trying to understand integral studies as a field is that a fundamental, underlying message in Wilber\u27s, Graves\u27, Beck\u27s, Gebser\u27s, and Woodhouse\u27s work is that we are currently in a pivotal transition from one age to another.
The idea, and this is a rather popular idea, is that we are in the throes of a rather deep and penetrating shift in collective consciousness complete with its own once-in-a-lifetime phenomena. In my humble opinion, the works exemplified in this essay are among the most sophisticated, timely, and comprehensive manifestations of this general perception of global transformation.
The main function of this essay is to serve as a preliminary introduction to the new field of integral studies by looking into four particular theorists. Three of these, Wilber, Beck, and Gebser, are highly influential and central to the field. This has much to do with Wilber\u27s highly influential work. Woodhouse, on the other hand, exemplifies an outsider perspective yet remains, I believe just as inclusive.
This is an argument for the validity of the integral approach and a call to awareness about the transition that is represents. By proposing a context for the field within the boundaries of the common underlying message of a profound shift in human consciousness, we can come to a greater comprehension of what can be considered to be among the most refined manifestations of human potential to date