“Be careful what you water your dreams with.
Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream.
Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success.
Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success.
Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.”
— Lao Tzu
In previous posts, I’ve shared a little bit about the ups and downs over the past year of first releasing my novel, “Vision Speak”, with a publisher that didn’t work out and ultimately making the decision that I needed to move on. Since then, I got my rights back and last month, re-released “Vision Speak” via “Future Day Publications” (my company), printed by Ardith. The beautiful new cover for the book was designed by my sister, Rebecca Marsden.
As I am very busy with my job in the software industry and have slowed down promotional activities for the moment, I’ve been experimenting with a new medium for sharing my work – Youtube, I’ve created a Youtube channel called “Future Day Productions” which will have a mix of personal videos, “Vision Speak” related videos and video-blogs (vlogs). I’ve included a couple of the first videos I’ve recently produced below. These are a novice effort but fun to do and I’m excited by the possibilities. Perhaps I’m having too much fun mixing in a variety of pictures and video clips. You’ll have to let me know if you have some suggestions..
Introduction to “Vision Speak”:
Dreams and Wizardry on Silver Creek:
As humans, we are on a collective journey to find peace and love, to live in harmony, to create a better world for our children and to surpass the limits of the form we were born into, to evolve the human spirit to new heights. Some may call it a search for nirvana (not the 90’s grunge band!).
Yet, why over the course of human history, and even today, is there so much violence and suffering? Why do so many of us contribute to the discord and suffering in our daily lives and interactions with our fellow humans? Eckhart Tolle in his truly inspiring video called “Finding Your Life’s Purpose” provides a clear, concise recipe for stopping the insanity and reaching a pure state of consciousness where we will find that collective peace and can begin to create transformation in our world.
Everything that Tolle has produced (books, DVD’s, CD’s, lectures) leads you on this path to the ultimate state of being, living in the now, present to the collective spirit and power of humanity. If you’re not already a fan, check out his web site at www.eckharttolle.com to see everything that he has to offer.
Today I want to share some key lessons from Tolle’s DVD that struck a chord with me.
Our ‘mental noise’ distracts us from our true purpose, from reaching these heights. Our endless thoughts, largely based on our illusions about the past, are constantly churning and often repetitive. Most of them you have thought many, many times, and the negative ones can have more power and be more frequent than the positive ones. We do not need to be dragged along by the mental noise, by every thought that arises.
Instead we must be present in the now. It is all that truly exists. The future is an illusion, doesn’t exist except as a thought, it is a conceptual thing. Be aware, present, find the aliveness within by putting attention on your body, on breathing in and out, on the stillness between thoughts. Use awareness of your breathing as an anchor for being present…
The essence of our thinking mind is that it is usually thinking about the past or the future and it is conditioned by our illusions and judgements about what happened in the past. But can you find the dimension within yourself that exists outside the thinking mind?
Our primary purpose in life does not involve time yet we find it hard to believe in a purpose that does not require expectations about the ‘future’. My primary purpose right now is to sit in my chair, hands on the keyboard, breathe in and out and share the wonderful lessons that Tolle has given to the world. The universe has put me here, right now, and this is exactly what I am supposed to be doing.
What you are doing, wherever you are, right now, you are fulfilling your life’s purpose yet your mind doesn’t think that makes sense… if you’re already here, how can that be your purpose?
So to be here fully, you must align yourself with this moment in eternity, and know that wherever you are, is exactly where you’re supposed to be but this is hard because the mind will expect that everything you “do” must just be a means to an “end”. As the “end” is in the future, which is really just a thought/concept in your mind, we can become ‘frustrated’ causing us to live in constant discontent or fear. Being present means every moment that you are ‘doing’ or being, can be joyous and fulfilling.
Remember, our primary purpose is to be aligned with the NOW which we cannot do if we are always trapped in our minds, living only for the next thing to happen..
So, we must stop living in the phantom world of the mind, constantly judging and labelling and reviewing everything that happens and everyone we encounter (this is the insanity, the dysfunction of our existence), and believing our own stories about who we are.
Instead, be present to the other dimension of your being, to the formless presence that exists in the stillness, between thoughts, that is your very essence. You will only find it in the NOW before consciousness becomes thought, a sense perception, your interpretation, your stories about the past, etc., etc…
Sadly, if you read our history books or watch the news, you will be reminded that the collective human ego has wreaked havoc and human suffering for millenia. If there is no shift in our consciousness then the madness will continue. How can our species survive unless there’s a change in our collective spirit, our consciousness? The only way that we can affect such as a transformation is by working on our own individual consciousness.
So, from the point of view of a truly present, enlightened being, you will be able to feel the sacredness of the world around you, of our universe, the sky, the garden, the people around you but when your mind takes everything down to a conceptual state, using judgement and thought, this can deaden the beauty around you.
There is a vast power in the inner stillness of this formless dimension of consciousness.
Achieving this state, right now, in this moment, is our ultimate life purpose..
I recommend that you get Tolle’s DVD and listen to it yourself.
Love and Peace to all…
Hello friends,
I’m offering some personal reflections as a means of enhancing the feelings of peace, love, compassion, tranquility, fellowship … which exist in every moment of every day of our lives, but sometimes become overshadowed by events which sadden or frighten us. As well, it is a way to connect to those of you who ‘talk the same language’ as me … have been walking along a similar path of spiritual discovery, because I think now more than ever, we need to support each other in our quest to bring as much harmony, love and peace into this world as possible.
Upon learning of the death of two volunteer firemen here in Listowel this week, I have been aware of how often my mind and heart turns to them, to their families, friends … and the sadness that comes up for me. Although I didn’t know them personally, they were a part of my community and therefore, I am affected. They were two men. The sadness I feel today can be multiplied by so many other hearts grieving for loved ones in peril or who have died in Japan, New Zealand, Libya and so many other places on our planet where there is tragedy and suffering…
The very fact that we ARE so affected shows us that we have a universal yearning to love and honour our fellow brothers and sisters worldwide. I hold my hands together and say Namaste to you for your compassion.
And now also, I urge you to remember to love and feel compassion for yourself; to do whatever it takes to recharge your spiritual batteries so that the sadness and fear does not become overwhelming. We cannot give from a cup that is empty, thus must take this opportunity to infuse ourselves with memories of joy, beauty, love, Christ consciousness …. whatever it is that feeds your soul. For some it may be sharing laughter with friends; it may be walking in the woods and thanking Mother Earth for her many gifts; it may be meditations in which we hold the world in a bubble of loving Godlight … whatever.
I simply encourage you to give yourself an emotional/spiritual hug – for your sake, and the sake of us all. I feel gratitude to each of you, for being people to whom I can say these things, and know that in connecting my heart to yours for a brief moment in this communication, I am also receiving your heartfelt compassion.
Thank you for the contributions you have made in my life in the past, and will continue to do so. I am including a link to Peggy Black’s Morning Messages. She channels a group of beings who are always so loving and encouraging. This particular message came in just 2 days ago, and it seems so appropriate right now. No coincidences, right?
Thank you for being who you are.
Susan
What is “happy” and is it really attainable? In this age of fast-paced, information overload, what do we really want from life?
I believe we want what people have always wanted. We want to be happy. We want to love and contribute to others. We want to be loved. We want to think we’re making a difference, that there’s a “reason” or purpose for our existence.
While some might argue that happy (as in merrily skipping along through life) is an overused term and not a practical goal, let’s consider happy as being peaceful and content, as being the opposite of miserable, as being empowered to be all that we can be in life, to be able to have loving and sustainable relationships. And then, I think, everyone will agree that this is a state where we would all like to be centred.
Based on my own personal exploration into this essential quest, I’ve summarized what I view as the Top Ten tips to a Happy Life, as taught by many of the thought leaders today who are great authors, speakers, and spiritual teachers..
TOP TEN:
1. Be Present, Be Here Now
Studies suggest we have somewhere between 12,000 to 65,000 thoughts per day, although I’ve seen reference to a wider range (between 2,000 to 600,000!). Most commonly, 50-60,000 is considered a good estimate.
Being human means being inundated with thoughts all day, every day: endless observations, judgements, interpretations, complaints, worries, ‘what-ifs’, memories, regrets, wishes, desires, dreams about our future, anger about our past, and on and on. I’ve seen statistics indicating 95% of them are similar from day to day. Some thoughts seem completely random, others can hijack us as we follow a thread and let our emotions react to what are sometimes completely irrational, twisted versions of reality. For me, it has been a major breakthrough to understand that I am NOT my thoughts. For too long, my thoughts ran me. They still try to, every single day, but I am watching them now. I used to look to my thoughts for meaning, wondering why I was suddenly upset when nothing had happened.
So how much of an average person’s thoughts are rooted in the present moment? Some suggest that the majority of our thoughts are rooted in the past (somewhere between 70 and 90%) with about 10-20% ruminating or dreaming or imagining what will happen in the future. A small percentage of our thoughts actually focus on the present moment in a purely experiential manner. Within our minds, our perception of the past, how it is affecting us now and into the future can often become warped.
Eckhart Tolle, author of “The Power of Now” and “A New Earth” and other books is a well-known speaker and teacher in this area. Tolle tells us: “Stay fully present in the now—your whole life unfolds here. In the now there is joy of Being and deep peace”.
In Deepak Chopra’s “Seven Spiritual Laws of Success”, he says that pure potentiality is pure consciousness, the field of all possibilities and infinite creativity. Meditation to connect with our inner being to be present and master our thoughts can help us to find that state of pure consciousness.
2. Your Thoughts Create your Reality
When you start to understand that you are not your thoughts, that you are a being with a powerful inner spirit that happens to also have a brain that does what brains do, non-stop generation of thoughts, you can step back and observe this and take control. Consider how you can choose how your brain operates just as you make these decisions about using your arm or your fingers or your eyes every day of your life.
The realization that you actually could control and direct your thoughts to create whatever reality you choose can open up a whole new world. If, for example, you tell yourself that you cannot succeed at something – then you probably won’t. So, the obvious question is why tell yourself that? And yet we do it all the time..
There’s so much groundbreaking work in this area over the past decade, everything from the books on the Law of Attraction (including the blockbuster work called “The Secret”) and new science indicating that thoughts are actually bits of quantum energy (see previous post “The Science behind the Mystery“), which opens up even more unbelievable implications for our potential capabilities if we can master our mind.
Louise Hay (founder of Hay House) is an inspiring example of this powerful concept in action. Her countless books and CD’s on Affirmations show how you can change your life by the very simple practice of constantly generating positive, life-affirming thoughts. From “Power Thoughts” by Louise Hay at www.healyourlife.com: “Trust life to hear and respond to your positive words. Say these affirmations every day and your whole world will change for the better.”
3. Be Grateful
Expressing gratitude, especially if you can make it a daily practice to declare everything you are grateful for in your life, can create positive self-affirming thoughts instead of negative ones and align your attention to everything that is good in your life. This alone can be transformational. Many current thought leaders and spiritual teachers encourage people to keep a gratitude journal. For a good example of this in practice, check out my Aunt Suzy’s Grateful List that she circulated at Christmas and I have since posted on this blog.
If you do a search on Gratitude quotations, you will find many empowering thoughts. Here’s a few:
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” G.K. Chesterton
“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say ‘thank you?’ ” William A. Ward
“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you’, that would suffice.” Meister Eckhart
4. Trust that the universe is unfolding as it should..
Or perhaps an easier way to say this is, Have Faith. Sometimes in our darkest hours, when nothing seems to be going as we had wanted or expected, we can’t see this. We want only to fight against what is. Everything will not always go our way but, if you trust life and let it unfold, as Mick Jagger said, “you just might get what you need”.
For some this could mean a belief in God, aligned with one of the great faith traditions, for others it might just mean knowing that there is a greater life force, that we are all a part of it, and that life will take us where we need to go if we surrender to it.
5. Practice Forgiveness
Oprah and others, have defined Forgiveness as recognizing that you can’t change the past. We hold onto a lot of resentment and in the end, who does it hurt? We hurt ourselves more than anyone else. Accepting what has happened and creating the space to move on can be a powerful step forward.
Sometimes, particularly if you have been a victim of crime or abuse, whatever happened may seem ‘unforgiveable’. In these cases, remember that forgiveness does not mean you have to let that person back into your life but it can release you from the hold that this has on you.
In other cases, we may have imagined transgressions that were in reality, minor. Caroline Myss, medical intuitive and author of a number of bestselling books including “Sacred Contracts”, outlines the common archetypes that drive our behaviours. She identifies the “Victim” as one of the four archetypes for survival which can lead you to believe that “you are always taken advantage of and it’s never your fault.” If this feels familiar, her work may be of interest.
Regardless of the situation (and many may lie in between these two extremes), if you have anger or bitterness in your heart, you must do the work needed (whatever that is for you) to let it go. It literally will suck the life out of you and can affect all your relationships. The serenity prayer from AA says it all: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.”
6. Follow your Bliss
One of Joseph Campbell’s famous quotations….
Many will say that they would love to follow their bliss but they have to pay the bills, don’t have time, it’s too late to change course, or any other number of excuses.
I would contend that for many of us, we don’t really know what our ‘bliss’ is. Of course, it seems like it must be the greener grass on the other side. Certainly, the idea of walking away from a tough job and living in luxury seems blissful – but this is not what Campbell intended.
Sometimes we need to take a hard look at our life circumstances and make adjustments along our journey. The important thing is to be conscious. Make conscious choices. Embrace work that you love. Remember, even when you’re “following your bliss”, there will be tough sledding at times. This is certainly not a free ticket to quit.
7. Choose your Life
This is another perspective on “Follow your Bliss”. Sometimes, it’s not our outside circumstances that need to change but our interior dimension.
I took a course called the Landmark Forum many years ago, and this was a key concept after 3 long days of workshop. It correlates back to the idea that ‘your thoughts create your reality’.
When you declare that your life, your spouse, your children, your job, your world are all exactly what you always wanted, then they will become that for you.
8. Don’t take yourself too seriously
Or, put another way: “Get over yourself”.
No one likes criticism and we all have fragile egos… but sometimes, when our thoughts hijack us, we can turn the simplest comments into conspiracy theories.
The truth is that not everything is about you, sometimes when people scowl at you, it’s because they’re unhappy inside. If a person says something to you that you don’t like, you don’t have to react in kind. In fact you may be able trigger transformation in another by not letting your ego take over, instead be present with that person and be compassionate.
Deepak Chopra asserts that “…the ego is not who we really are. The ego is our social mask, it is the role we are playing.”
If you are aware and present with people, not coloured by past injustices or imagined indignities, then you can choose to always have powerful, meaningful conversations.
Not being driven by ego takes focus, commitment, and courage…
9. We are all one
When you take steps to be present, become committed to not ‘be your ego’ or run by your thoughts, to be grateful for the people in your life, and to create your reality then you will start to sense more and more that you are not alone but a part of something much greater, the collective spirit of humanity.
Even the latest scientific breakthroughs with respect to quantum consciousness and unified field theory are demonstrating that the universe and everything in it, ourselves included, are interconnected by a vast field of energy.
In this collective space, love and contribution become natural which in turn can fuel harmony and peace in your life.
10. Conscious Evolution
Last summer, I took the Evolutionary Worldview Course through Enlightennext Magazine and Andrew Cohen and then a few months ago, I watched the event: “A Call to Conscious Evolution, Our Moment of Choice” which was also hosted by this group. Both experiences were inspirational and eye-opening. As Deepak, one of the many renowned speakers at the Evolutionary Leaders’ event, said: “…the only way to transform the world is to transform yourself..” and “…even well-meaning activism is often coming from a place of outrage rather that creative consciousness..”
This jives with many of the teachings of Andrew Cohen and his team with respect to the evolution of our interior dimension and our culture. Last year, I wrote a short post on “Evolution of Consciousness” vs.”Conscious Evolution” when I began to perceive the difference. Our mind, our being, or our “interior dimension” as they call it have evolved just as our bodies have. They talk about 4 billion years of evolution on this planet and how we, as sentient, powerful beings, can now choose where we go from here. They ask questions like: “how does your own evolution come into the culture, into changing the world?” and “To what degree are you enabling this process of evolution through your own heroic efforts?” so that we can leave the world a better place because we were here.
Andrew Cohen’s annual Being and Becoming Retreat delves deeply into these possibilities. I hope to attend this one day myself and will continue to explore and discourse on this topic in future posts.
I recently spoke at a women’s dinner meeting and shared my Top Ten tips, asking for their feedback. One suggestion, which happened to come from a Chinese medicine doctor, was “Your Body is your Temple”. A wonderful suggestion and I believe that, in many ways, this is an extension of this commitment to conscious evolution.
Making conscious decisions everyday to feed and exercise your body for optimal health and well-being is the other side of the coin to choosing the thoughts that you feed yourself for optimal mental health and well-being. WILL POWER has a whole new depth of meaning…
If you’re reading this post and have opinions or suggestions on what your top ten are, don’t be shy. Share your ideas.
I’ve just finished viewing the Evolutionary Leaders’ “A Call to Conscious Evolution, Our Moment of Choice”. This was a special evening held at UCLA on August 31st. They had some technical challenges with those of us who signed up to watch the evening event live online so this weekend was our opportunity to view the program with the sound issues resolved.
The roster of speakers at this event were a long list of the “Who’s Who” in the evolutionary, quantum consciousness, personal transformation world of thought leaders (see list). The common message was that we are all living at a unique moment in time, facing global crises. In this pivotal time, we must consciously evolve or face the danger of extinction. Gregg Braden gave an impassioned talk and referenced Scientific America’s recent cover: “A World of Crisis, Crossroads for Planet Earth…. will we choose to create the best of all possible worlds?”
Deepak was the opening speaker. He must be one of the most prolific authors/speakers in this area today. With over 50 books, a radio show, and connections or partnerships with countless, it seems like I’m hearing something from him everyday – whether it’s an email, a tweet, his radio show or something I’ve found on youtube.
A couple of Deepak’s significant points were that the only way to transform the world is to transform yourself and that even well-meaning ‘activism’ is coming from a place of ‘outrage’ rather than creative consciousness. Conscious evolution calls for more creative powers. A couple of hours ago, en route to the Home Depot to pick up paint supplies, I turned on my XM radio and guess who I heard? Deepak chatting with his pal Stuart Hameroff about Consciousness. Yippee, my favourite topic! They were comparing the Vedic concept of pure consciousness being before ‘perception and thought’ with Hameroff’s “proto-consciousness” and how this relates to the quantum super-position idea where observation of a particle collapses it down to one place (just like conscious thought collapses us down to a specific reality).
Sorry, I digress! Back to the Evolutionary Leaders’ event..
Jean Houston gave an energetic view of the evolution of the universe, our planet, life on earth, and humanity, with special emphasis on the “jumps” that caused significant transformation. She said we need to be the ‘creative wellspring’ to trigger our new evolutionary path.
Bruce Lipton talked about the collapse and rebirth of various civilizations and reiterated that we now face crises at the global level unlike ever before. He reviewed four ‘Myth Perceptions’ that we must overcome to build the foundation for the next civilization where we live in harmony and balance with the universe, with nature. To give you an idea of his four myth perceptions, he talked about our current understanding that our biological processes employ quantum physics (not classical), that our perceptions can control our biology, overcoming genetic, that rather than the survival of the fittest which says our evolution is driven by competition, it can be driven by cooperation, and that evolution is not just random but adaptive.
There were so many fabulous speakers and the messages all coalesced. I was thrilled to see Lynn McTaggart of “The Field” and “Intention Experiment” fame talk about the power of intentions and how we must be committed to an “enormous paradigm shift” together, in order to overcome the world’s challenges. I think it was Barbara Marx Hubbard who talked about the physical emergence of a co-created world and introduced a video talk by Marianne Williamson whose message on our evolutionary potential and the danger of a species who has become maladaptive to its environment (yikes, that’s us!) was very powerful.
For more information on this organization, the evening event and the conference they are planning for 11/1/11, go to the Evolutionary Leaders web site.
I’m inspired by this event as I continue to discover how best to contribute and consciously evolve – along with these transformational leaders.
Maybe I’ll see you there in 2011.
Could we become “superconscious” beings if we were able to master both our conscious and unconscious psyches? If we are, in fact, connected to everything in the universe over a quantum field of energy, what could man become with awareness and control of our superconscious beings?
Let me back up. In a previous post (https://edenrwatt.com/2010/09/can-our-conscious-and-unconscious-become-one/ ) I discussed concepts about the unconscious or subconsious explored by Freud and Jung.
Most of us are intimately acquainted with our conscious mind – the endless thoughts and emotions, judgements and reactions, the logic and reasoning abilities we use in our day to day life. One of our greatest challenges is how to quiet our mind, master these thoughts, and keep ourselves present (instead of flying off into the past to relive encounters or in the future to imagine what we might say or do).
If we can gain mastery over our conscious mind, we have the potential to be powerful beings, present in our daily lives, loving and grateful, sending positive affirmations to our inner selves and to others. If all of humanity were able to achieve this, we would already be evolving to a higher state as a species.
But what more is possible, if we could gain mastery and awareness of both conscious and unconscious? What would that mean? How would we be different?
Carl Jung identified the unconscious mind as having two distinct areas: the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious contains our lost memories, painful experiences that are repressed, subliminal perceptions (that we may not have consciously observed), and other contents and abilities that are not yet ready for consciousness (representing our potential).
But beyond this personal, very individual level, Jung identified the collective unconscious which contains instinctive and other elements, a blueprint within our psyches, that have commonalities within tribes, races, nations, and even all of humanity. Evidence appears in dreams, mythology, creative works such as art and literature, throughout the ages and all over the world. Jung said the collective unconscious is “detached from anything personal and it is entirely universal and… its contents can be found everywhere...” This deep inner part of our being has also been defined as the spiritual side, where we are connected to all life, to the universal life force that flows through all of us. In “Vision Speak”, I imagined that we could consciously connect with others using this ‘vision source’.
Deepak Chopra has defined pure consciousness as the field of “all possibilities and infinite creativity“.
Taking these ideas to the another level…. for over two decades, scientists have been involved in discovery about the nature of consciousness (where is it? what is it??) Many have reached the conclusion that human consciousness can best be explored with quantum physics, hence the popular term – “Quantum Consciousness”. Although the early scientists espousing these theories may have been considered renegades, with more and more scientific research backing these claims, they are now leading experts in this emerging field.
If you haven’t seen the documentary movie called “What the Bleep do we Know?”, this is a good place to start. It’s available in it’s entirety (in 12 parts) on Youtube. Check out the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QlZ5O8_bGk or the roster of scientists involved at http://whatthebleep.com/scientists/ . Lynn McTaggart’s bestselling books – “The Field” and “The Intention Experiment” and Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” brought to public awareness the scientific breakthroughs in the areas of quantum physics and consciousness with progressive scientists such as those at the Institute for Noetic Science (http://noetic.org/). Stuart Hameroff and Deepak Chopra and others have written and broadcast continued findings and dialog on this subject.
The underlying discovery driving all of this excitement is that all living creatures are interconnected in a quantum field of energy. Our thoughts, our dreams, our beings are not just encased within our bodies or our brains but actually exist at a quantum level beyond what we had ever imagined in a field of all possibility.
The implications for this are fantastic. Our thoughts, our intentions, our consciousness create our reality.
And taking this to another place, I imagine that if we achieve a ‘superconscious’ state then we will be able to connect at a deeply spiritual and emotional level where words and misunderstanding will no longer be necessary. I imagine that we will find other life in the universe – perhaps we will connect to those that have left us to move to another dimension or perhaps we will find other life forms who we may never meet and could certainly never talk to but within our superconscious spirit, maybe there will be a common vision source which will allow us to communicate..
I will cover more on this in future posts, especially an indepth review of some of the ideas behind quantum consciousness.
I wonder if the next great stage in mankind’s evolution will occur when our conscious and unconscious “minds” become so connected and in tune with one another that they become one. What would this mean for future generations? If one believes that the unconscious mind is akin to our soul, our spirit within, which connects us to the greater life force and to every other living being in the universe, then this transformation could indeed be glorious.
Some of my readers may be thinking that I have just taken a great leap with my opening statements, so let me back up, starting with the early pioneers of the unconscious mind – Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. Jung was also a key influencer for Joseph Campbell, a mythologist who applied Jungian theory to his vast knowledge of mythology, spirituality, and religion. Campbell’s work, among many others, has continued to advance us on this journey to understand our psyche and our connection to one another throughout time, particularly at this ‘unconscious’ level. And today’s thought leaders are progressing these concepts to new realms as we are now able to connect quantum theories into our understanding of consciousness.
So first a (very) brief history…
One book I recommend in this area is Carl Jung’s last work, before his death in 1961 which was his only project not targeted for psychology and medical professionals but rather it was intended for the general public, so that we could all benefit from an insight into his lifework. This book – “Man and his Symbols”, edited with an introduction by Carl Jung – was a great source of information for me when I was working on “Vision Speak”. Jung’s quotations referenced below are all from his writing in this book.
“Man and his Symbols”, although intended for the ‘layman, is still not exactly a ‘light read’ so for those who may not be familiar with the breakthroughs and disconnect between the two most famous psychologists of all time, here’s a brief (and simplified) view of Freud and Jung’s material on the topic of the conscious versus unconscious mind.
In the nineteenth-century psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists were beginning to inquire into both the existence and importance of the ‘unconscious’ or ‘subconscious’ mind. The most renowned figure of this period, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), developed comprehensive theories on this subject and early psychoanalytical techniques with an emphasis on the importance of dreams.
Freud believed that dreams were the key to exposing repressed desires and memories, using techniques such as free association, to cure people of neuroses.
Freud’s younger colleague – Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) – disputed some of Freud’s theories on the unconscious mind. He said Freud “worked on the assumption that dreams are not a matter of chance but are associated with conscious thoughts and problems.” Jung maintained that a psychoanalyst could work directly with a patient without need to lead them away from the actual dreams which he believed had “some special and more significant function of their own”. In other words, “one should pay more attention to the actual form and content of a dream, rather than allowing free association to lead one off through a train of ideas to complexes that could as easily be reached by other means.”
“..part of the unconscious consists of a multitude of temporarily obscured thoughts, impressions, and images that, in spite of being lost, continue to influence our conscious minds.” These hidden areas of our unconscious can be uncovered – sometimes triggered by our senses (such as the sound of music or smells from the past), possibly revealed by unconscious behaviours. Sometimes lost memories can be exposed in hypnosis and often appear symbolically in our dreams. But the unconscious is much more than just a repository of past information that is no longer ‘stored’ in our conscious.
“..it is a fact that, in addition to memories from a long-distant conscious past, completely new thoughts and creative ideas can also present themselves from the unconscious…” In fact, our most creative and innovative ideas and inspirations come from this part of our psyche and, we can also attribute our instinctive, psychic, and intuitive insights as coming from the unconscious.
However, one of Jung’s most important theories – the collective unconscious – came when he explored the unconscious mind as it related to more spiritual realms such as religion and mythology, which Freud thought ‘unscientific’.
More on this in future posts … but, for now, here are some more words from Carl Jung from “Man and his Symbols” on the subject of the collective unconscious.
“Just as the human body represents a whole museum of organs, each with a long evolutionary history behind it, so we should expect to find that the mind is organized in a similar way. It can no more be a product without history than is the body in which it exists.
The experienced investigator of the mind can similarly see the analogies between the dream pictures of modern man and the products of the primitive mind, its “collective images,” and its mythological motifs.
My views about the “archaic remnants,” which I call “archetypes” or “primordial images,” have been constantly criticized by people who lack sufficient knowledge of the psychology of dreams and mythology.”