Is the Nature of Knowledge a Psychological Disposition?
“Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer
Your Freewill & Meta Teachings
Introduction
As the title of this article suggests, after considerable thought and deliberation about the Human condition, I posit that the efficacy of the study of Human knowledge, known as epistemology, is entirely dependent upon the psychological dispositions of the individuals, schools and institutions that participate in its endeavour. I will go as far as to say that all human academic disciplines, such as the humanities, philosophy, science (including all subcategories), medicine, theology and mathematics etc., spring from various psychological perspectives.
This proposition is generally known as psychologism, being “a philosophical position that attempts to reduce diverse forms of knowledge including concepts and principles of logic and mathematics to states of mind or phenomena that occur in the mind. It takes psychology as the fundamental discipline that can explain and justify knowledge in philosophy.” [[1]
So, what is a psychological disposition? All Humans have a relationship with what we can call the unknown, being that which we don't know. This is the set of things that I know that I don't know. This is a central feature of self-aware conscious entities! An example of this 'I don't know what you are thinking'. I know that you exist, I know that you are probably thinking, but I don't know the contents of your thoughts. There is even a higher set of indefinites, called the 'unknown unknowns', which is information that we don't know that we don't know. It means that it's impossible to be aware of the existence of something if you don't know that it exists. I can't give you an example of this, because I don't know one! This situation is the basis of the psychological disposition that we all suffer from. This condition creates anxiety in Humans, more so that we care to admit. To overcome the uncertainty/ambiguity/doubt, we adopt various positions, known as belief systems, to offset this state. Psychological dispositioning is the relationship between the sense of the immensity of unknown unknowns, and our ability to balance that abyss with a known story/theory/myth, even though under examination, that relationship is asymmetric, and always will be.
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
This claim arises from the simple observation that until Humanity understands the basis upon which it holds certain beliefs and why it acts in specific ways, how can it begin to truly understand and map the world around it to any degree of certainty? For example, a physicist working on string theory, who strongly disbelieves in the existence of God, and is firmly established in atheistic material reductionism, will come to entirely different interpretations and conclusions about the nature of reality than a Catholic priest. This may seem obvious example to solve, but do we really understand the reasons why? In short, I believe that the difference lays in the hidden biases and cognitive dissonances of their differing psychological perspectives.
Why is that some people become scientists, whilst others become doctors, athletes, ministers, teachers or writers? Some of us believe in a God devoutly and others are ardent agnostics and atheists. Unfortunately, science itself has come to dominate our perspectives, presenting concepts and ideas about the world, humans and the subject of psychology itself, in absolutist terms, leaving no room for doubt. This is the fundamental issue; I propose that the mainstream underlying cultural viewpoint, which dominates our personal perspectives, is a psychological outlook itself. I posit in this article, that Science (and by extension, all of its academic sub-disciplines) should be objective, but is itself born from mass psychological subjectivity, masquerading as an authoritative source of truth!
The human species in general is tribalistic and egotistical in nature, being a collection of wounded and defended individuals, suffering from various forms of personal and mass pathological neuroses and psychoses! Now, I realise that this is a bold statement. But look around the world at what is happening today and at the historical record itself - We have only known 8% of peace in the world, over the last 3,400 years [2]. The world is apparently controlled by the super-rich elite, where the eight richest men in the world are worth more than the bottom 50% of humanity [3]. These claims can be characterised as conflict, control and oppression, all of which can be explained in psychological terms.
As Schopenhauer has suggested in the opening epigraph above, we project the perspective we hold about ourselves and the nature of reality, out onto the world, in near absolutist terms. I advance that any and all perspectives we believe, are defined by our psychological nature and inclinations, which in turn are defined by what has happened to us in our lives,’ arising from our traumas and imprints at a personal and collective level, known as our conditioning.
It is apparently a well-known fact, arising from countless studies, that we are all driven by what is taking place below our conscious awareness, in what is defined as the unconscious, by as much as 95% [4]. This implies, nay presupposes, that what we believe and how we act, arises directly from the unconscious part of all of us. The unconscious is a part of our psyche, composed of habits, patterns, creativity, emotions, personality, beliefs, biases, long term memory and automatic body functions. Whilst the conscious is composed of will, planning, critical thinking, short-term memory, judgments and decisions [5]. One can easily conclude that our conscious capabilities are mostly, if not all, driven by the unconscious.
If that is the case, then the arc of our lives, the jobs that we supposedly select, the partners and friends that we pick, the beliefs we hold, the authority we believe we have and the groups and tribes that belong to, are not consciously chosen. They are unconsciously thrust upon us, by the unknown influences of our hidden cognitive biases, unresolved traumas, unspecified imprints and indefinite mass psychosis’s, percolating down into us. Any conclusions, interpretations and certainties that we believe that we have, are at best built upon shifting and indeterminate sands, providing psychological safety and security and at worst, inflated, borderline disorders, verging upon narcissistic and psychopathic pathologies! This is what I call a ‘psychological disposition,’ which is not just a personal, but also a collective status. Moreover, society, governments, legal & scientific bodies and institutions are not immune from this depiction. On the contrary, it is these structures which are the prime purveyors of these disorders.
As Abraham Maslow stated in ‘Toward a Psychology of Being,’ “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”
To a lesser or greater degree, the human species is wounded by a plethora of unresolved life experiences, which have unwittingly and apparently unknowingly, left their mark upon our fragile and ill-equipped personal and collective psyches. The extent of our grandiose arrogance of the denial of this situation, is mirrored by the lack of humanity’s acknowledgement of its own psychological sickness as a species by its authoritarian governments, administrations and institutions. The individuals running these organisations are by definition in general the most supercilious of all, protecting themselves within their ivory towers of superiority and self-importance. As we shall see later on below, none of us are exempt from this predicament – we all defend and justify our various positionalities with the zest of deposed and downtrodden God’s.
That is why I believe that the sum total of all human knowledge, arises from the skewed perspectives of our psychological dispositioning. Ideology can so easily be misconstrued as scientific and philosophical objectivity by those in power who have not examined their own grandiose, and inflated egotism’s. Only made worse by the support of supposedly innocent lay bystanders, who are so easily prepared to sacrifice their own power, by projected idealisations upon the power brokers.
The best example we have of this monumental and utterly ludicrous labour of folly, is the high degree of certainty claimed by various scientific theories about the nature of reality, without first understanding the nature the consciousness itself which is undertaking the task. This is exactly the same as pursuing epistemology without first establishing a well-grounded and widespread theoretical and empirical psychological understanding of the Human species, which is undertaking the epistemological study. This endeavour can be compared to the example of a blind man (as a metaphor for Humanity) singlehandedly trying to reach a destination, for which he has no description, which is of indeterminate distance, with no help or knowledge of the landscape along the journey. How would he ever know which direction to take, or how to maintain that direction, or even know when he had arrived?
“There's none so blind as those who will not listen.” ― Neil Gaiman
The challenge of trying to understand the nature of the Universe without understanding ourselves first, is just as ambitious as the blind man’s crazy navigational attempt. There is no absolute referent by which we can properly pilot our enquiries. How do we know that we are not being completely duped by an illusion of inordinately complex magnitude? How do we know that all we encounter is not a superficial simulation, which is exquisitely embedded directly into our perceptual and sense capabilities? In other words, can we prove or disprove that we exist in a very impressive and immersive simulation, generated by a higher order of intelligence, which could possibly be ourselves? The answer is that we can’t (if we believe we can, then that too is a psychological disposition that needs to be investigated!). The negatives that arise from this line of questioning are Relativism [6]and Scepticism [7], which could be said to be a health approach to this most fundamental of questions.
What could be more important than understanding ourselves? This is our greatest challenge, one that has the potential of overturning all that we believe that we know, leading to a new epoch within Humanity’s evolution, towards a more equitable solution to its challenges. This is why I believe that depth psychology is the fundamental discipline, from which all other disciplines should be derived, or at least flow from. By fundamental discipline, I mean that:
We need to recognise that self-aware beings suffer from psychological dispositions (PD).
The healing of our PDs needs to become a prime activity in our culture, where wellbeing is the highest priority of our global culture, not the pursuit of profit, by the marketplace.
If we don’t accept that position, then at minimum we should establish psychological gating mechanisms, with checks and balances, challenging outrageous scientific claims, unsubstantiated by hard and widespread evidence, which fail to address the majority the observed data. Moreover, it would benefit all, individuals who wish to present, opinions, information, data, perspectives, theories, hypothesis, philosophies, commentary on any and all subjects, topics, disciplines and news, freely submit to psychological testing, to determine the extent of their biases, or proclivity to unconsciously misinterpret and misrepresent their findings and conclusions and undergo healing to enable them to regulate their PDs.
This article will dive into the nature of psychology, in particular the neo-Jungian school, presenting a revised approach to the central search for the meaning of what it is to be Human. All of which will underpin the urgent need to take a long hard look at ourselves, through the eyes of psychoanalytical psychology to determine why we do what we do, think what we think and believe what we believe!
Through the Looking Glass
“If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave.” ― Mo Willems, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs
Let’s start with some fundamentals concerning what is psychology, the psyche and the unconscious, before proceeding to examine two differing axiomatic approaches to the subject. As we move through this analysis it is important that we are not caught up too much within unconscious prevailing thinking in our society, by constantly reflecting upon our internal emotional state, which reveals our underlying psychological disposition. Various positions we hold from a psychological perspective are unconsciously connected to beliefs of security, which are necessary for stabilised Self-systems. Anger, irritation or claims of absurdisms, are usually a sign of denial, which infringe upon our stabilised Self-system’s.
Psychology
This is an academic and applied discipline, which engages in the study of the human mind and behaviour. The objective of Psychologists is to comprehend the role of cerebral and psychic functions in personal and social behaviour, while exploring the neurobiological and physiological processes that underlie certain functions and behaviours. To achieve this, they investigate such phenomena as cognition, perception, emotions, personality, behaviour, and interpersonal relationships. Depth psychologists also consider the unconscious mind and the spiritual nature of human beings.
Psyche
Is the totality of the human mind, including its conscious and unconscious aspects. Psyche comes from the Greek word for Soul or “breath of life,” which was incorporated into English in the 16th century. In Greek mythology, Psyche was an exquisite princess who fell in love with Venus’s son Eros, who was the god of love. She was then subjected to appalling ordeals before being permitted to finally marry him. The myth is seen to represent the trials and tribulations of the soul before it is ultimately redeemed by love. Mythology, as we shall see in due course, is a central feature of how we can understand our psychological makeup.
The Unconscious
Is one of the most intriguing and mysterious concepts in psychology. It refers to the part of the psyche that contains thoughts, feelings, memories, and impulses that are not accessible to conscious awareness. The unconscious influences our behaviour, personality, and emotions in ways that we may not fully understand.
One of the most influential thinkers who explored the nature and role of the unconscious was Carl Jung (1875-1961), a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology. Jung developed his own theory of the unconscious, which differed from that of his mentor Sigmund Freud. According to Freud, the unconscious was mainly a repository of repressed desires and conflicts that stemmed from childhood experiences. Freud believed that these unconscious forces could cause psychological problems if they were not brought to light through psychoanalysis.
Jung, on the other hand, had a broader and more positive view of the unconscious. He agreed with Freud that there was a personal unconscious that contained individual memories and complexes (clusters of emotions and associations around a theme). However, he also proposed that there was another layer of the unconscious that was shared by all human beings: the collective unconscious.
The collective unconscious, according to Jung, was a universal psychic structure that contained archetypes: innate patterns or images that shaped human perception and behaviour. Archetypes were not fixed or static; they could evolve and combine in diverse ways depending on the context and culture. Jung believed that by becoming aware of these archetypes and their influence on one's psyche, one could achieve individuation (see below): a process of psychological growth and self-realisation. Jung also believed that archetypes could be expressed through symbols, myths, dreams, art, literature, religion, and other forms of cultural expression.
Approaches
Unfortunately, as you may have already guessed, the study of psychology is itself subject to the very challenge which is defined in the introduction above. Again, the blind seem to be leading the blind. Therefore, we must tread gently into this arena, for the paths we take out of it, will determine our destiny.
There are two distinct paradigms or schools to psychology:
A psychology where there is no initial structure to the psyche; or
One where each human has an objective, preformed structure in their psyche.
Why is this distinction so crucial? Well, if there is no objective structure in the psyche, then there are no internal guiding patterns and dynamics to Man’s psychic development. Therefore, the external environment and Man’s internal response to it, is the supervisory and regulatory principle. If there is a predefined structure, then this internal arrangement is perhaps responsible, or at least strongly influences, the evolution of Humanity. Either way, as you can see, the implications are enormous.
Atheistic Scientific Materialism
“If your science contradicts your religion, you’ve either got bad science or bad religion.” ― April Papke
The first approach is entirely in keeping with the prevalent paradigm within Western culture based upon atheistic scientific materialism (ASM). As the title suggests, it denounces any link to God, the divine or the sacred. It is entirely based upon the scientific approach, and only recognises the material (physical) universe, as perceived through the five senses, and further extended through machines and measuring equipment.
This position claims to be the ‘real’ objective and irrefutable truth, denying all other perspectives. In essence, I don’t believe that this an objective scientific position – I propose that it is a psychological narrative, which represents a certain level of conscious evolution, whose expiry date is long overdue.
This perspective denies the potential existence of any guiding principle, meaning or purpose, and the non-physical, transpersonal domain. It sees the universe as a giant, accidental, deterministic machine, which is running down and needs to be repaired. It has become so ingrained within our collective and personal consciousness, that most people don’t even question it. Its Cartesian-Newtonian validity was completely overthrown by the discovery of quantum mechanics at the beginning of the 20th century. Science has moved on to a new paradigm, leaving this antiquated sociobiological theory far behind. The fact that is still so embedded within our culture, exemplifies that it is a psychological perspective that has become an ideology, not an objective position concordant with the latest scientific discoveries.
ASM was perhaps created in the wake of the death of God, for in a universe that has no creator, design or purpose, how can we explain the way things are? Perhaps the death of God arose from one of theology's most important, and mostly unanswered question; "Why does God allow bad or Evil things to happen?" Maybe this led to an existential crisis within the intellectual and ruling elite! If God apparently allows bad or Evil things to happen, then perhaps this whole God concept is all fucked-up and fallible and needs to be upgraded? The rise of science and its protégé, material reductionism, in essence, can be seen as the taking back of power from an untrustworthy God, who not only allowed human evil, but allowed natural disasters, droughts and famines to befall Humanity. The death of God in this context, or the need of God, I believe refers to the conceptualisation of the Old Testament Biblical variety, which was presented as a sub-optimal, flawed and morally reprehensible. The western Enlightenment mind was not presented with the Eastern version of God, as suggested in Taoism, Buddhism and Tantra, which are not so anthropomorphically represented into personalised Gods, whose morality is not so reprehensible and ethically challenging.
Enlightenment Man perhaps considered that the scientific method was the answer to the problem. With enough theories, experiments, data and understanding on the way the universe works, perhaps they could rectify the great imperfect and corrupt machine that the universe apparently is. Humanity, led by a ruling, intellectual and rationalistic elite, would lead the way to a New Eden, where the crops and livestock are abundant, there is plenty of work for everybody, the weather is tamed, the masses are regulated and entertained, and all is rosy in the Great Utopian Garden.
Maybe this is why this ideological narrative has been so successful? From a psychological perspective it represents the need for the Ego to assume control of the ordering of the Cosmos, battling against the forces of chaos. Instead of relying upon a absent and untrustworthy God or God’s to do so, intellectual rationalism decided to take hold of the reins of Human development. God was killed so that the Ego could usurp power and protect the chosen few from a dangerous and uncertain world. That uncertainty was mostly created out of the need to control and manipulate, growing populations built in and around city states, with the rise of agriculture, which were springing up all over the world. In due course the modern mind was thus born, supported by philosophy and science and the undeniable need to build machines to improve our fragile human condition. The rise of industrialisation based upon mechanisation, became an oppressive contrivance for controlling the unruly masses, broadening the class structure, and enrichening the aristocracy and the landed gentry. Technology is the physical extension of this ideology.
Transhumanism is perhaps the ultimate goal, where, as the name suggests, Humanity will be merged directly with the machine, to create the perfect worker citizen – compliant, entertained, controlled and subjugated. Maybe there is also an agenda to seize immortality for the ruling elite, from the vagaries of the mortal coil?
The scientific method is a wonderful tool for exploring the Natural World. But in the hands of an entitled ruling elite, who perhaps only have their own interests in mind, the conclusions it drew, which it forced perhaps on a willing and aspiring academic class to elucidate and embellish, were skewed towards maintaining its own power structure. The challenge of science and the scientific method is that Man is trying to explain how the world works, which suggests that there is something wrong with the World, which somehow needs to be understood and fixed. This is a psychological challenge, not an ontological or epistemological one!
Peter Berger (1967) in the Sacred Canopy, proposed a name for this phenomenon called the Nomos. In sociology, nomos (plural: nomoi) it is a habit or custom of social and political behaviour, which is socially constructed and historically specific pertaining to groups, communities, institutions and countries. It refers not only to explicit laws, but to all of the normal rules and forms and beliefs, which people and society take for granted in their daily activities. Because it represents order that is validated by and binding on those who fall under its authority, it is a social construct with moral, ethical, ideological and theological dimensions. Thus, the edifice of ASM, its institutions and societies can be represented as ‘plausibility structures.’ These are defined by Berger as groups of people who maintain a body of knowledge, along with the institutions they have created. The Nomos will seem credible as long as it is supported by strong plausibility structures.
As we shall see in due course below, the oppressive and entitled ruling elite represent a psychological imbalance in the collective human psyche. The kings and Queens, Emperors, Caesar’s and Tzars of the pre-modern world have become the presidents, prime ministers, CEO’s and super-rich elite of the modern and post moder world. The reasons for their existence and their success will be discussed as this article progresses.
The Two Brain Hemispheres
At this point I want to introduce to the two ways of perceiving the world around you. The brain has two distinct hemispheres, separated by the corpus callosum. The left hemisphere is what is known as local, logical and linear. It is predominantly transactional, dealing in one thing at a time, in a disconnected way. It does not see the big picture, only fragmented moments in time, which can be categorised and broken down. The right hemisphere, in contrast, is trans-rational non-local, and nonlinear. It perceives the connection between all things, it sees the entire picture, it connects all the dots, providing a holistic meaning. The left-hand side is used to do one-off specialised, separated tasks like catching a ball, driving a car, adding two and two together. The right brain provides an intuitive, universal, unified perspective. Some are prepared to go as far as to say that the left-brain is masculine, whist the right brain is feminine. We could go one step further and say that the former is the Warrior archetype, and the latter is the Lover archetype. This is not a distinction of men and women, but a distinction of energy types, generating differing perspectives.
Because the left-hand hemisphere is transactional, it sees everything as single one-off actions, with no overall coherency. On the other hand, the right-hand brain is about relationships, connection and affiliation. The left brain is the logos, whilst the right brain is the mythos. Science has fallen into the trap of the left brain, measuring, categorising, filing the world into separate disconnected silos. Our modern age is the epoch of the left brain, devoid of meaning and overall purpose.
Because of this perspective, the left brain sees the Universe as a great machine, running down, without meaning or purpose, where perhaps mankind has been abandoned, by an uncaring God. It believes that this machine is broken and needs to be fixed, managed and upgraded, in accordance with its perspective, which is devoid of meaning and overall purpose. The right brain transcends transactional, linear reality. It connects us to something beyond ourselves. This universal connection is inherently mysterious, it transcends, space and time, which are foundational constants of the left-brain perspective.
Because of the preponderance of Left-Brained Cognition in our world, mainstream psychology theorises that the human is born as a blank slate, with no objective structure within its psyche that defines its development. This falls in line with the Nomos defined above. For them the human is just a ‘cog in the wheel of the great machine,’ having no real significance or specialness. Its relationship to its family and its overarching culture, determine its development, not some other power which is beyond human comprehension and control. The central endeavour is to build a healthy Self-System (Ego) by addressing certain psychological deficiencies, arising only from the interaction of the individual and its external environments. It denies all spiritual, archetypal, transpersonal internal influences.
Archetypal Psychology
Pre-modern man believed in a sacred dimension to human affairs, realising indirectly and unconsciously, that there was something in the psyche that was all powerful and not human. And so, we come to the second type of psychology known as analytical psychology, that theorises that there is a preformed, objective crystalline structure in the psyche, that is not the Ego, which directs, controls and manages human beliefs and behaviour. This school of psychology is based on the work of Carl Jung and further developed by Edward Edinger, followed by Robert L. Moore (1942-2016), who was an American Jungian analyst and consultant in private practice in Chicago, Illinois. He was the Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Spirituality at the Chicago Theological Seminary.
Key Concepts
“Any legend, any creature, any symbol we ever stumble on, already exists in a vast cosmic reservoir where archetypes wait. Shapes looming outside our Platonic cave. We naturally believe ourselves clever and wise, so advanced, and those who came before us so naïve and simple...when all we truly do is echo the order of the universe, as it guides us. “Guillermo del Toro
Personal Unconscious
This represents the division of the psyche in psychoanalytic theory containing various psychic elements such as forgotten memories, repressed desires, unprocessed traumas, which are not subject to conscious perception, but which are responsible for conscious activity and beliefs.
Collective Unconscious
Central to this psychology is the pre-existing establishment of a Divine Self or Centre (a primal image of God (Imago Dei), within the Human collective unconscious, present at birth, from which diverse types of differentiated archetypical, instinctual energies arise. The Divine Self is the archetype of wholeness and self-transcendence. The unconscious spontaneously generates mytho-religious symbolism and is therefore spiritual, as well as instinctive, in nature.
Individuation
In Jungian or analytical psychology, there is a process known as individuation, where a person develops a differentiated and integrated conscious human Self-system (Ego) in the psyche, from the unconscious (both personal and collective), building through small incremental steps, a coherent, balanced, resilient, functioning, whole Self-system. This process enables a wounded and defended Ego to transcend group attachment, grandiose narcissistic tendencies, past traumas, and limiting and victimised thoughts, patterns and beliefs. Individuation proceeds by fully balancing these archetypes with each other and building an axis from the Self-System (Ego) to the centre, so that a state of radiant, loving, wise, ordered sovereignty prevails.
Mythology
“I think the actor has a tribal role as the archetypal storyteller. I think there was a time when the storyteller, the priest, the healer, were all one person in one body. That person used to weave stories at night around a small fire to keep the tribe from being terrified that sun had gone down." - Ben Kingsley
Every attempt to explain the nature of reality, no matter how simple or complex, scientific or theological, is a mythological exploration of our deep psychological need to find meaning and purpose, in an uncertain and chaotic Universe. In essence, it is an unconscious search for the centre, for the sacred, which sequences and patterns the Universe. In its purest form, it transmutes Universe into Cosmos, representing the recapitulation of the first creative act of consciousness ordering itself, from potentiality into manifestation. It is the attempted establishment of the Axis of the World (Axis Mundi), where the individual and the collective, connects directly to the Divine, which is just a word for the mystery that is at the core of all psychic phenomena. Our theories are just elaborations of the journey's that we take towards, that which we cannot name, for fear of our own derision.
Mythologies are our personal and collective narratives which attempt to account for our own existence, within the broader perception of an external experience. Each age has its mythological expressions. Man is intrinsically a mythologiser, in the sense that we create complex symbolic expressions, descriptions, accounts and theories, to elucidate our perceptions. Science is just another version of a mythology.
Why do I call them myths? Well, they represent psychological narratives, which arise from the personal and collective unconscious. We are essentially being guided, by what we are not conscious of. Myths are frameworks, presented by the unconscious in narrative form, to enable us to comprehend and regulate ourselves, producing optimal pathways to evolve. The implication is that there is a force at work within the psyche, which is beneficial to us in the long run. If this feels a little sinister, then perhaps it is our Ego's at work, acting paranoically, not wishing to trust anything it can't understand or control. Myths are asking us to move away from rational, linear formalism, into trans-rational, non-liner representations, which are beneficial to our psychological wellbeing. Science is always trying to break apart wholeness, deconstructing Cosmos into bite sized junks, which has the impact of isolating us from unity that coheres wellbeing.
The healthy individuating Self-system recognises the power of the unconscious instinctual energies within the psyche, which have a direct bearing upon what we believe, how we feel and what we do. All the images of good and evil that man has created, mythologically and psychologically, represent metaphorically the collective and personal unconscious. This is how powerful it is! That which we do not know is either wrapped in light or cloaked in darkness. It is either an Angel or a demon, a monster or a hero. We live within the tension of these two opposites, struggling internally within our psyches.
Within the unconscious are all the missing parts of ourselves which have not yet seen the light of day. They are the autonomous shadow complexes, enclosing and protecting unprocessed past traumas. They call to us in dreams, they visit us in the disguise of the events that befall us. They are the images that catch our eye, the snatches of music caught on the wind, projected negative encounters with others. That nagging feeling of failure and doubt, the monster in the deep, the fear of chaos, the despairing spectre of solitude. If we don't have myths to live within, which help us with the sacred containment and regulation of theses unconscious influences, through ritual, ceremony and active imagination, with live in profane spaces and time, which leave us psychologically bereft.
Science as Pseudo Mythology
“It’s almost as if science said, “Give me one free miracle, and from there the entire thing will proceed with a seamless, causal explanation.”’ The one free miracle was the sudden appearance of all the matter and energy in the universe, with all the laws that govern it.” ― Rupert Sheldrake
Scientists have just exchanged the religious, mythological conception of the Creator, with non-denominational, neutral, signifiers, which have no moral, sentient, or ethical dimensions. Laws, constants, symbols, maths, equations, hypothesis and theories are just pseudo-mythological terms for the Divine, which have been stripped of meaningful psychological content. Ostensibly, they are all profanities, in the sense that they have lost their sacred basis of expression. Belief in their supposed objectivity, can be reduced to a deep traumatic disconnection from the essence of ourselves. This is a phase of human development, where we have self-alienated ourselves from the archetype of the Self. Science derides the specialness of Humans, reducing us to biochemical, broken mechanisms, which need fixing. This leads to a profound anxiety, dis-ease, isolation, aggression and existential angst. Psychologically, at an unconscious level, Man feels abandoned, betrayed, ashamed and pervaded with insecurities. Mankind has misplaced its moorings to the Centre (archetype of the Self), leaving it adrift in chaos and darkness, awaiting the leviathan of the deep to devour it back into oblivion.
Psychology & the Sacred Divine
“The psyche is the inward experience of the human body, which is essentially the same in all human beings, with the same organs, the same instincts, the same impulses, the same conflicts, the same fears. Out of this common ground have come what Jung has called the archetypes, which are the common ideas of myths.” Joseph Campbell
When we use the term psychological, it is a reference to what is unresolved in our unconscious, which individually and collectively, we are not directly aware of, which drives how we think, feel and act. The pursuit of Theories of Everything by Man, is a collective and personal drive to connect again with the Centre (the sacred), which has been lost in the relentless, rationalistic and material exploration of the external world, which excludes the extraordinary, significance, and uniqueness of Humanity itself.
Sacred is just a term for the archetype of the Self, which is called the Centre, the divine, the mystery, the source, the ineffable, the creative principle, or supreme reality, beyond, beneath and back of, the superficiality, which is our personal experience, writ large into cultural dictums and meme stacks. Inherent within Man is the Sacred. We are all Divinity hiding in plain sight. We have just overlooked ourselves in pursuit of intellectual understanding of what we perceive with our senses, instead of dropping deeper into our own non-linear, heart-cantered cores. We have been persuaded by our personal and collective Egotism of our damnation, which prohibits and blocks us from alignment with our true essence.
Psychologically, Man needs the Sacred, to bring order, meaning and purpose back into the Cosmos. Sacred is not the God of the Bible, or any other representation of a wrathful, impatient, disrespectful, unconscious deity. We need a new Myth of the Sacred, one where we are all perhaps connected at the deepest level, sharing perhaps a singular consciousness, appearing in many forms. Where death is but the ending of a chapter (not the book) and Evil, suffering and cataclysm, are seen as Theodicean catalysers of evolution and change. In this myth, the simplest terms to use for the Divine is Consciousness or Awareness. These terms are just symbols, pointers and signifiers, used for the purpose of communication. Conceptually within the myth, everything is made of the one thing and one thing is made of everything.
The challenge of science and the scientific method is that Man is trying to explain how the world works, which suggests that there is something wrong with the World, which somehow needs fixing. This is a psychological challenge, not an ontological or epistemological one. If one addresses any underlying unconscious biases, which promotes separation, victimhood and insecurities, then maybe the need to understand, explain and fix the World, might begin to drop away, surrendering us into more peaceful states of acceptance that all is well.
Spiritual Man does not countenance the existence, centrality or need for the Sacred. Spiritual man may not always feel it, especially when emotionally triggered by external events. Faith, in this context, is the ability to determinably maintain the integrity and belief of the mythical Sacred framework by which one lives and conducts one's life. Scientific rationalism on the other hand is not psychologically beneficial to Man, as it posits problems which need to be solved. Science is extraordinarily good at creating technologies that support Man's physical burden; but when it becomes a dogmatic ideology for social engineering, its psychological value is deficient, only creating division, inequality and ordinariness.
The Four Principal Archetypes
Carl Jung’s most important discovery in psychoanalytic theory was the collective unconscious, or what is better known as the archetypal psyche, or as I use the term, Archetypal Mind. Understanding the geography of this space is essential to the Individuation process. Central to this psychology is the pre-existing establishment of what Jung called the Self, which a primal image of God (Imago Dei), within the Human collective unconscious, present at birth, from which diverse types of differentiated archetypical, instinctual energies arise. The Divine Self is the archetype of wholeness and self-transcendence. The unconscious spontaneously generates mytho-religious symbolism and is therefore spiritual, as well as instinctive, in nature.
Robert L. Moore has taken Jung's work in this area to a new level of development, by maturing the quaternity principle set out in the symbol of the mandala to the next level. He proposes that there are four primal archetypal energies at work in the psyche, these being denoted by the following names:
Essentially, the archetype of the Self is broken down into four further energies, each with their own specialised characteristics, as briefly defined above. These archetypes make up the principal geography of the psyche, forming four distinct sectors. The Human Ego either consciously utilises these archetypes or is unconsciously used by these four enormously powerful energies.
The Human Ego has no energy per se of its own; it is always co-opting one or more of the four archetypes, either consciously or unconsciously. What do I mean by this? If we are acting unconsciously, then the energies maybe using us; if we are conscious, then we will be using them, to undertake specific tasks. The challenge arises that when we are unconscious, we can become identified with the archetypal energy, believing that it actually us. When I refer to ‘us,’ I mean our Human personality, or Ego. When we unconsciously identify with one of the four energies, we can become what is known as ‘inflated’ with it, or alternatively, over energised. If we become too inflated, then we can become grandiose, or what is commonly called egotistical.
When we become grandiose, we begin to act and think unconsciously, so much so that the negative aspects of the four archetypes arise within whin us, causing us to ‘act-out,’ and behave in amplified and distorted ways. For example, the grandiose Royal energy takes on excessive entitled, assertive and arrogant qualities (independent). The grandiose Magician becomes aloof, deconstructionist, and manipulative (detached). The grandiose Lover becomes addicted, highly emotional and obsessive (dependant); and the inflated Warrior becomes violent, rageful, and sadistic (ambivalent).
Such archetypal ‘possession’ can become the ‘norm’ for some people, living unconsciously in a state of inflated grandiosity all the time, without comprehending that something has them by the tail, compelling them into ‘compulsive 'behaviours and ways of perceiving the world around them. Let me be clear, these archetypal energies do not form part of our Ego, they co-opt it, coming from a separate part of our psyche called the ‘collective unconscious.’
The Shadow Kings of the Ruling Elite
It has long been proposed that a dark, shadow organisation, known generally as the ruling elite or the Cabal, has existed on Earth, since the beginning of civilisation, and perhaps before. As we have already mentioned, this oppressive and entitled class of individuals represents a gross psychological imbalance in the collective unconscious human psyche. They exemplify the grandiose royal sector, inflated with the King/Queen (Royal) archetypal energy, which desires to dominate, to control and subjugate, bending all to their will. These psychological types are continually and excessively inflated in the Royal archetype, with very little, and in some cases, no access whatsoever to the Lover sector. They are totally in service to the Ego self and mistakenly believe that they are the Great Self, the Centre, the primordial fountain.
They are the active independents, the psychopaths and megalomaniacs. This is the power of unconscious, and inflated identification with the Royal and the Great Self Archetypal energies, aligned with the inflated Warrior and Magician, which is not being contained and regulated by the Lover sector. This potent and destructive combination has been at work in Humanity's history creating havoc, mayhem, battles, empires, slavery, capitalism, consumerism, wars and genocide.
“I would go as far to say, that the entire multifarious expression of Human actions, interactions, beliefs and events on Earth, across our entire history, can be explained, accounted for and understood, in terms of the dynamic, multitudinous combinations, of grandiose archetypal energies at work in the Human psyche.” Hugh Maloney
This tripartite of archetypal domination is ubiquitously at work in our modern age perhaps more aggressively than ever before, with grandiose prime ministers, presidents, CEO's and the criminal fraternity, running amok in greedy power-hungry archetypal possessions. This type of behaviour is exemplified by the competition dynamics of the global economy, as explained in the following section.
The Moloch Principle
In as separate article (press here) I have written about the Moloch Principle, which is a scenario which Earth is currently facing, which the summary is as follows.
The Moloch Principle is the anthropomorphising energy dynamics within the Global Culture, which appears to be above or beyond the human world. It is expressed as deity like metaphor called Moloch, whose mythological worship was marked by the propitiatory sacrifice of children by their own parents, or in other words, any conceived objective, which ultimately requires abysmal sacrifice to achieve. These dynamic drives, coheres and coerces contending competitors to make decisions and take actions which, which appear to be locally optimal to that agent, but actually requires them to give up other less important interests or values, which unavoidably leads to deleterious circumstances of the overall global culture in which they are operating.
This leads other competing agents within the global economy or system to do the same, which continually escalates the market dynamics. Moreover, all agents or players involved are unable to unilaterally break out of the dynamic or game, being continually incentivised, to uplevel to address the opposing competition in order to stay in the optimal position within the game. The situation presents as a multiplicity of what are called polar traps, i.e., scenarios where the things that work well for individuals locally are directly against the global well-being.
It is a zero-sum game, with unhealthy competitive dynamics, bad incentives, and coordination failures, which motivates agents or players to win the game, through narrow domain objectives, through selfish actions, which externalise disadvantages from their own processes, which are not optimal to the ultimate goal. This leads to the Tragedy of the Commons, where the global economy is extracting the resources from the Earth it needs to run itself at an incredible rate, which is on the edge of going exponential. It has the potential of crossing various planetary boundary metrics, which indicate that planet Earth is on the edge of catastrophic failures in multiple areas of the biosphere. This will lead to global degradation of the sources of wellbeing for Humanity, the mass loss of other species which share this world, and the passing of delicate, biodiverse, beautiful, integrated ecosystems.
This dynamic is the powerplay of the Shadow Kings and Queens, which is the active tyrant, Which is the active pole of the Shadow Royals. The Tyrant, unlike the Sovereign Royal, is not the harmonising centre of the psyche; their power base is so fragile that they detest all new life which threatens their position. The Tyrant believes that they are the Archetype of the Self, not comprehending that they are actually possessed by it. This leaves them with a deep unconscious insecurity around the source of their power, which needs to be protected, covered up and deflected from at all times. Their humiliation of others and all beauty (especially the Earth or Commons) is limitless, as everything good, true, and exquisite reminds them of their own inadequacies. They are extremely sensitive to criticism, and will be deflated by the slightest deprecating observation, reacting with wrath, when what they are experiencing is fear and vulnerability. The Tyrant will sacrifice the Commons to maintain their power, to keep a World in thrall to their dominion.
Psychologism
“The world is a complex, interconnected, finite, ecological - social - psychological - economic system. We treat it as if it were not, as if it were divisible, separable, simple, and infinite. Our persistent, intractable global problems arise directly from this mismatch.” — Donella Meadows
Now we have established the psychological disposition of Humanity, I want to come back to psychologism, and explore it a little further, so that we can fully take in the consequences of its perspective. The challenge to the general public, any academic, and the institutions and organisations that surround them, is that if they are not aware of the influences that the archetypes have upon them, how can we be sure of the ground on which our beliefs and theories are based? If Humanity is always suffering from varying degrees of inflation and grandiosity, caused by unconsciously identifying ourselves with these powerful energies, how does that impact our understanding about the nature of reality?
The importance of psychologism in simple terms, is that I believe that the majority, if not all, disciplines concentrate entirely upon their own discipline, without taking into account the psychological dynamics (as described above) of the individual or group that is undertaking the study of the discipline in question. This challenge potentially arises, because professionals erroneously believe that they are thinking and acting objectively, without taking into account the underlying impact of any cognitive dissonances or biases, caused by unconscious archetypal influence.
If one has not undertaken a radical exploration of one's unconscious psychological dynamics, how does one know that one is not unconsciously influenced by certain cognitive impairments, psychological dispositions and archetypal grandiosity? Given that Humanity is under siege by archetypal energies, as defined above, the situation is even more critical than we might have thought.
This scenario is so prevalent and all encompassing, that even though there is substantiated evidence to the contrary, some entrenched individuals are so ardently attached to their perspectives, that they will do just about anything to defend them. One only has to look at the history of various new and radical paradigm shifts, where the old guard have adamantly argued that the new idea or theory was absolute codswallop, tosh or utter nonsense. It is not that these shifts overturned inadequate scientific concepts or theories in their minds, it is that they threatened entrenched psychological stances and mass formations, causing those who were caught within them, to lose their emotional and bearings, by being asked to shift the security upon which they had built their psychological foundations. This has the impact of creating profound anxiety, fear and ultimately despair. The search for scientific truth for some individuals, is an endeavour to assuage the impending rush of anxiety of meaningless, doubt and potentially chaos and oblivion. How do we not know that whole fields of study are not in themselves, psychological strategies for coping with uncertainty and chaos?
Inadvertently, a monumental shift of this type this type of has taken place with general public. Consider the introduction of the rationalistic, material reductionism, and intellectual approach to the study of the Universe. The modern perspective suggests that we live in an accidental, uncaring, random Universe, with no intrinsic purpose or rationale, presented as a great broken machine, which is slowly winding down. Psychologically, I posit that this presents a terrifying prospect for the Human psyche. Existential meaning is of the highest importance to Man, even if certain individuals are not aware of it. In order to offset that terror, science has presented a plethora of theories to counteract the underlying darkness and futility that this position creates.
The scientific revolution spawned the industrial revolution, which gave way to our modern, now, post-modern society. In doing so, we have moved further and further from our sacred centre. Science sees Man as a machine, a biochemical mechanism, and like the Universe, an imperfect and deficient one! Science has framed itself as the great answer to the problem of chaos and uncertainty. However, the challenge is that it is not working; The following symptoms are dramatically on the increase within our global society:
Lack of coherent social bonding and an increase in isolation
Experiencing life as meaningless, senseless or without purpose
Free-floating anxiety - forming without any discernible origin
Free-floating frustration and aggression, forming without any defined rationale
Science, in the form of its technologies, has reduced the physical burden upon Man, but it has not alleviated its existential, psychological burden. As a social experient, I believe that it has failed. The flaw in its approach is the initial reduction of the Universe to an imperfect machine, and reducing Man to a broken, ordinary mechanism, which does not fully acknowledge that it has a psychological dimension that needs attending to. An essential aspect of that psychology is that it needs to feel that it is connected to a Universe which has meaning and purpose, which provides Man with the same attributes. Science is a fallible psychological strategy, which attempted to manage chaos and uncertainty, but failed to comprehend this most important of lessons. Science has become an elitist ideology, a coping mechanism, which hides underlying unconscious cognitive dissonances, bias and narcissistic tendencies. Science should be a tool, and not used as a form of social behaviourism.
Any form of philosophical Realism [8], which holds the perspective that things exist independently of the mind perceiving them, is self-evidentially a delusional psychological perspective, on the simple basis that it can't be practically proven in any sense, for all perceptions of the world require a mind. Therefore, no evidence can be collected which proves the point one way or the other, by a non-mind!
Any lesser form of Realism, which holds that interpretations of reality as directed by common sense, empiricisms or the majority, are to be accepted as truth, are also to be regarded as highly suspect. Again, the question of why hold or assert this position arises, which needs to be addressed, which mostly comes down to fundamental factors within the individuals who hold these perspectives, around their upbringing, which have unconsciously influenced them. Negative perspectives about the nature of life, often originate in the developmental experiences of early life. Trauma and imprinting often slip by into the shadows, without the individual even noticing it. Victimhood often has such a detrimental impact upon the burgeoning child, creating psychological needs to be safe and secure within known parameters.
The Rise of Subjectivity as the Basis of Individuation & the New Age
However, the merits of a rational, logical approach should not be fully abandoned altogether, as it is a defined stage of the development of Human consciousness. It enables Man to abstract itself from the absorption of living within preformed mythological templates, arising from the unconsciousness. It allows Humanity to observe and analyse itself more closely, in a systematic subjective way, as part of its individuation process. Again, it is to be seen as a self-realisation tool, not a social-engineering ideology, for controlling the masses. Rationality is a steppingstone, that ultimately needs to be transcended through integration into the self-system. If not carefully handled, Rationalism [9] becomes too deconstructionist, cool, isolating and loveless. Transcending Rationalism recognises that its psychological dynamics need to be fully discerned before it can be used in any practical sense.
Any leaning or bias towards ideology, totalitarianism and narcissism, needs to be acknowledged and rooted out. Surely true Rationalism should ask itself why it has concluded the beliefs it holds, looking for any level of dogma, doctrinairism, or maintenance of outmoded paradigms that underpin psychological and emotional security.
The central feature that has arisen from this period of atheistic scientific materialism is the subjective approach, which has enabled us all to become individuals, to assert our agency, by realising our own rights to be who we are. Atheistic scientific materialism, is essentially a period of estrangement from the Centre, enabling the development of stronger, more robust self-systems for some. Its introduction to Humanity enabled populations to pull away from the hold that various religions had upon the peoples of Earth. Religion was once a regulating container for the ritualistic control of archetypal energies. It effectively, maintained Humanity in a kind of statis, slowing down the evolutionary process.
Summary
“Everything can be taken from a man, but the last of the human freedoms: to choose one’s attitudes in any given set of circumstances.” –Viktor Frankel
The proposition at the heart of this article is that study of knowledge, known as epistemology, is entirely dependent upon the psychological dispositions of the individuals, schools and institutions that participate and promulgate in its endeavour.
We have likened the process of understanding who and what we are, and the nature of reality to a blind man (Humanity as a whole) singlehandedly trying to reach a destination, for which he has no description, of indeterminate distance, with no help or knowledge of the landscape along the journey. Asking how would he ever know which direction to take, how to maintain that direction, or even know when he had arrived? Ostensibly, we are whistling in the dark.
We have argued that atheistic scientific materialism, is a psychological strategy, representing a phase of estrangement from the Divine, which has failed as a social experiment, for it denies the sacred, which is needed by Man for psychological health and wellbeing.
We have reviewed the two types of psychology, being that those which observe the archetypal forces in the psyche, and those that do not and are aligned with the ASM.
We have explored the four fundamental archetypes at work in the psyche, which can possess us, causing us to become inflated, grandiose and narcissistic, strongly influencing what we believe and how we behave. We have looked at the most malevolent aspect of this grandiosity, as it expresses in the shadow kings and queens, and its impact upon the history of Humanity.
We have stated that in our opinion, the entire multifarious expression of Human actions, interactions, beliefs and events on Earth, across our entire history, can be explained, accounted for and understood, in terms of the dynamic, multitudinous combinations, of grandiose archetypal energies at work in the Human psyche.
We have surveyed the positive side of ASM, which has torn us away from religion, promoted subjectivity, enabling us to build a platform for the new age of Individuation.
We have proposed that the age of ASM, is drawing rapidly to a close, whereby a new age of conscious expansion is beginning to arise, which recognises the supreme interconnectivity of our universe, the central edifice of consciousness as the ground of all being, and equal value of the Individuation process of becoming our unique selves.
In the light of what has been stated in this article, we wish to state that it is high time that we undertook a complete re-evaluation of our entire system of knowledge. Our perspective as a species is deeply impacted by our psychological conditioning, which has skewed our viewpoint. The deepest and darkest aspects of our collective unconscious have been expressed in the horrors, depravity, egotism, capitalistic greed and inequality in the way we have constructed our societies, our justice and penal systems, our oppressive regimes, our systems of scientific endeavour and the technologies we produce.
In consequence of the recognition of our psychological dispositions, it would benefit our educational systems to commence with this perspective as a core teaching.
Moreover, the whole educational system needs to be reformed by:
first undertaking a psychological analysis of each student to determine their dispositions
Undergoing psychotherapy to assist in their development
Building into the curriculum the understanding of how psychological dispositions can impact how we think, how we act and what we believe.
Psychology the Fundamental Discipline
“The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt” - Max Lerner
We have arrived at a unique opportunity in the history of Mankind, and our home planet Earth, the like of which we have not seen before. We have the prospect of evolving into the next stage of our development through a conscious choice, and not through an accidental mutation, or an act of defiant stupidity.
In one way or another, we have all been trying to understand who and what we are, and what our place in the Cosmos is. This is our perennial search, the one that drives us forward to meet each new day, and circles back around us in the recesses of our dreams at night. This equates to our ceaseless personal craving to satisfy something deep within ourselves.
Never before has humanity lived in such a diverse world, presenting such extremes of experience. Our technology both liberates and simultaneously tethers us, by our increasing dependence upon it. We are more connected to each other, and yet paradoxically, more isolated than we have ever been. We have the power and resources to completely eliminate poverty and pollution, and yet never before has the chasm between the poorest and the richest ever been so wide, nor has the planet suffered so much.
Humanity is an enigma onto itself – its creativity is only overshadowed by its depravity, its pursuit of excellence only exceeded by its perpetual nagging insecurities, its zest for unification only surpassed by its perennial selfishness. Just when it believes that it has ‘sussed’ everything out, it discovers another area of unconsciousness, another skeleton from the shadows, dragging it back into the dark communal mire. We are a world in conflict with itself, both at a personal and the group level, one which allows habitat destruction to dance to the tune of consumerism, whilst ‘open farm’ global slavery continues unabated, in a disguised form, made palatable only by its apparent unavoidable necessity.
Beyond the above, the salient challenge of our time is our conspicuously inadequate collective moral compass – our leaders are strangely and worryingly silent, regarding the future of our global community, in terms of its evolution as a coherent body of mutually adaptive states, operating in harmony and peace. To my knowledge, not one single political world-leader in a position of real global influence is extolling the outlook, that our environmental exploitive propensity, driven by capitalism, cannot be continually sustained, without a potentially disastrous impact upon the worldwide ecosystem. Capitalism and its progeny consumerism and technology, still represent the principal endeavours of our time, without little more than a token side glance, at the ethical concerns that they continually raise.
Some say that we are close to the third tipping point [10] in our history, where we potentially move from an industrial to an automated society. The first tipping point was the movement from hunter gatherers to an agrarian or agricultural society, at about 3200 BCE in Mesopotamia, in Egypt and Nubia (now northern Sudan), and in the Indus Valley. The second occurred around 300 years ago in the industrial revolution, precipitated by the rise of the iron and textile industries, and the mechanisation of production, through the use of water and the steam engine. The third is thought to be the physical and seamless merging of humans with its technology, where we transcend our biology, sustained by the rise of artificial intelligence and robotic automation (transhumanism).
The history of the collective civilisations of Earth has been dominated by the conflicts between and within them, seeking supremacy, or control, both internally and externally, by any and all means. In the last 3,400 years, humans have been at peace for just 268 years of them, or 8% of recorded history [11]. This period culminated with the bloodiest of all centuries, the 20th, where through, wars, conflicts, ethnic cleansing, religious persecutions, political purges, prisons and concentration camps (death by human decision); the estimated death toll could be as high as 231 million [12], in approximately 3,700[13] separate occurrences.
Global resource extraction grew more or less steadily over the past 25 years, from 40 billion tons in 1980 to almost 90 billion [14] tons of biomass, fossil energy, metal and minerals from the earth - more than 11 tons for every single person on the planet, representing an aggregated growth rate of 225% [15]. Essential resources (Water, gas, oil, coal, phosphorous, rare-earth elements) have been rapidly depleting since the second tipping point and are rapidly running out.
Every year from 2011-2015 about 20 million hectares of forest was cut down. Then things started to speed up. Since 2016, an average of 28 million hectares have been cut down every year. That’s one football field of forest lost every single second around the clock. The global tree count has fallen by 46% since the beginning of human civilization [16].
These so called ‘facts’ are cited above to promote the notion that as a species, we seem to be out of balance, both with ourselves and the habitat that we all share. If the Garden of Eden is a metaphor of humanity living in a natural balance both with ourselves, each other, the animal kingdom, and the planet, then the ‘Long Road Out of Eden’ [17] has taken us on a treacherous and sorrow filled journey. Perhaps we have been consuming from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil[18] for far too long and have lost our way; maybe it is time to return to the garden, and once again allow ourselves to be nurtured by the Tree of Life[19], where the “the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2).
The age in which we are now living in is the beginnings of a recognition of the Centre, once again, without the controlling strictures of religion or science. I predict that the New Age will be the greatest expansion of consciousness in Humanity’s history. As science begins to explore the subtle, non-physical aspects of reality to a greater degree, giving rise to a monumental paradigm shift, whereby the essential underlying connectivity of the entire Universe will be established. In due course, there will be a recognition of the deeper nature of consciousness itself, as a fundamental ground of not only Humanity’s being, but all physical structures. A new type of mythology will arise, which will bring back real meaning into our lives, which will imbue us with a sense of wonder, excitement and adventure. Where we become the perpetual gameplayers, the citizens of eternity, creators extraordinaire. True meaning will once again abroad. The truth of reincarnation will become more prevalent and widespread, where we begin to accept is that there is only one player, playing all the parts, simultaneously. That player is consciousness itself. The game, in which it plays, is also consciousness. It is all one interconnected, extraordinarily complex, intertwined, and interlaced experience of consciousness, exploring itself, ad infinitum. Once this understanding begins to seep into our lives, the anxiety of meaningless and emptiness will begin to diminish, as we connect more meaningfully with the Centre and consciously come into optimal relationship with the four main archetypal forces at work in the psyche.
Footnotes:
[1]Psychologism - New World Encyclopaedia [2]'What Every Person Should Know About War' - The New York Times (nytimes.com) [3]World's eight richest people have same wealth as poorest 50% | Rich lists | The Guardian [4]Lifting the lid on the unconscious | New Scientist [5][5]Lifting the lid on the unconscious | New Scientist [6]Relativism is the view or claim that there is no absolute referent for human beliefs, human behaviours, and ethics.Relativism - New World Encyclopaedia [7]In ordinary usage, scepticism refers to (1) an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object, (2) the doctrine that true knowledge or knowledge in a particular area is uncertain, or (3) the method of suspended judgment, systematic doubt, or criticism that is characteristic of sceptic’s Scepticism - New World Encyclopaedia [8]realism summary | Britannica [9]Rationalism | Definition, Types, History, Examples, & Descartes | Britannica [10]The critical point that leads to a new and irreversible development. [11] New York Times, 'What Every Person Should Know About War' July 2003 [12] Deaths in Wars & Conflicts in the 20th Century – Milson Leitenberg [13] Our World in Data [14] https://www.theworldcounts.com/ [15] World resources forum [16] Time Magazine - Here's How Many Trees Humans Cut Down Each Year [17] The seventh studio album by American rock band the Eagles, released in 2007 [18] The meaning of the tree is man acting in accordance with a dualistic model, represented by the extremes of good and evil, resulting in a mistaken determination of what is truth, upon which he has based his self-will, and in consequence his actions. [19] the tree of life is a symbol of a fresh start on life, positive energy, good health and a bright future
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