Understanding the True Nature of Technology . “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” Albert Einstein Your Freewill & Meta Teachings This work is to be considered a Meta Teaching. It is not the truth per se (in itself), but merely a tool, to enable the rational, finite, analytical left-brained mind, to expand its perspective beyond its current limitations and begin to open to Wholeness (The Infinite). The aim or efficacy of Meta Teachings is to recognise that: There are no real truths which can be captured in words or formal systems, just invitations to experience Wholeness directly for oneself, without language or conceptualisation. They are just steppingstones, which are to be let go of one-by-one, as perception is expanded, as Wholeness is approached and realised.Words and concepts are just signifiers, symbols and metaphors pointing to Wholeness, which is ineffable. Non-duality is just a meta-term for that which aims to dissolve or collapse duality. Any Level of Consciousness sits within a higher Level of Consciousness, and so on up to absolute Infinity (The Absolute). Each level does not contain the complete set of information required to define that level, requiring the next level to do so, ad infinitum. Any depiction of truth or truthfulness is only relative to the level on which it is being expressed and perceived. I trust that you will use your own personal discrimination when reading this article, and set aside any words, aspects or concepts that do not resonate with you. I do not set myself up as an authoritative source of truth or truthfulness - I only present information as a resource for your seeking. Humanity is fast approaching yet another decisive crossroads - perhaps the most critical in its history: the Technical Singularity. In the near future, Mankind will potentially construct its last machine of necessity, with the creation of human-level General Artificial Intelligence. Thereafter, through the law of accelerating returns, it will exponentially generate smarter and smarter versions of itself, without the need for human intervention. This event presents us with either an extraordinary opportunity to evolve to a new level of consciousness, or the definitive doomsday scenario, by the creation of competing general artificial intelligences, and their attendant robotic workforces, capable of replacing 90%+ of all human activities. It’s not that machines are inherently malicious - it is those few humans who have always used machines for their on insidious purposes, who are malevolent. With the creation of the ultimate machine, comes the decisive force, which self-interested elitist humans, will potentially misuse for their own ends. There are always two primary paths available to us as species – what is eventually beneficial for all of us, or what is favourable for only a few. Not often have we taken the former path, because not often are all of us consulted! I believe that the process of evolution of all life is not primarily the development or mutation of physical structures, but the growth and maturity of consciousness itself, from which physical structures arise. Mankind is differentiated from all other animals on the planet by its ability to design, make, develop and utilise tools, to ease its burden, to socialise and develop its communities. Unlike all other animals, we are not a specialist species, but a generalist, who specialises in using our intelligence to use technology, to enable us to surmount the challenges of living in groups, of varying sizes, in multiple locations in diverse environments. We are not the strongest, the fastest, the most ferocious, the biggest or the smallest. Our special gift is the possession of a self-learning, intelligent feedback system, which memorises experiences, acquires knowledge and skills, which can effectively be taught to our offspring. We have extended and augmented that capability with our technology, supported by an outstanding capability to plan, abstract, continually ask questions and seek and integrate the answers into ever inclusive and expanding models. I believe that the underlying capability of that intelligence is consciousness itself, which is fundamentally free, inquisitive, innovative, adaptable, and aspiring, which is continually driven by a search for meaning and purpose in everything it does. I believe that science has spectacularly failed to identify the fundamental importance of consciousness, by focusing its prime empirical attention upon physical phenomena, instead of the non-physical substrate from which it arises. Beneath, the biological need for food, shelter, protection, and the psychological drivers for achievement and contribution, lays a central motivating force of all sentient entities to return to the source of consciousness, through the unification of an apparent diverse and confusing plurality. As David Chalmers [1] has stated "We're not going to reduce consciousness to something physical ... it's a primitive component of the universe.” Like space and time, consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe. Unlike Chalmers, I believe that it is the principle fundamental component of the phenomenal universe, from which space, time and matter arise. This essay explores the implications of the singularity, by examining the way that we conceive of ‘technology’, the nature of our relationship to it and its ultimate meaning to us. Definition of Technology The Cambridge Dictionary defines technology as the “study and knowledge of the practical, especially industrial, use of scientific discoveries”. However, since science in its modern form, did not begin until approximately 1100AD. Therefore, prior to this point, the earliest forms of technology was the development and use of tools, which are “objects used to extend the ability of an individual, to modify features of the surrounding environment [2].” These objects take various forms like instrument, utensil, device or ware. Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards. Aldous Huxley Our technology can be equated with our ability to create and utilise tools, which we operate to manipulate the environment, to ease our burden, to enable us to perform certain tasks more efficiently. The evolutionary arc of technology has been our ability to: (a) access and sustain greater quantities of high nutritional food and water; (b) improve our shelters, providing us with warmth and rest; (c) protect ourselves, by improving security and safety; (d) provide us with higher levels of entertainment, as our spare time increases; (e) Provide us with careers to establish our self-esteem and self-actualisation needs, by enabling a feeling of prestige and accomplishment, by achieving one’s highest potential. Technology enables us to meet our basic (physiological), psychological and self-fulfilment needs. All other organisms on the planet already have (a), (b) and (c), and don’t require (d) & (e). Unlike all other organisms, Mankind is not a specialist species, but is a generalist one; in the sense that we are capable of an extremely wide range of activities, which we can chose to specialise in. We are not restricted to any specific habitat, because we have the capability through our technology to move from one place to another, acclimate to the environment, and still be able to feed and house ourselves, and eke out a living. Tools enable us to modify our approach to the challenges of life, as the circumstances vary; we are flexible and adaptable. Essentially, our technology has enabled us to develop skills, which we can pass onto successive generations. Our civilisations have been expressions of our capability to address and succeed with this challenge. We can perceive our history has a continual improvement of our technology, right up to the present; our world is driven by the marketplace, which essentially trades that technology. Mankind is surrounded with machines of every shape and size. Robots (any machine or mechanical device that operates automatically with humanlike skill [3]) have been with us for some time but have not been expressed in human forms. We can potentially consider that the plough, the trebuchet, the water wheel and the steam engine to be types of robots. Our tech is becoming larger and larger and smaller and smaller. Ostensibly, all of our technologies are artefacts - manmade objects. The natural world is not artificial; it was designed or evolved from something beyond humans. Our bodies and the natural world come from that source. Technology can be seen as our ability to manipulate matter, to imbue it with our specific purpose. All other organisms on the planet do not manipulate the environment (with the exception of extensive Beaver dams maybe), because they are pure extensions of the environment. The natural world is really a single interrelated and interconnected ecological system. Technology is currently still relatively isolated, in closed systems, with low levels of adaptability and flexibility. It is also extremely specialised! Technology is an idea, a concept, a construct – it is not a naturally occurring thing. It is always directed towards some specific goal or objective. Once it can no longer achieve its purpose, or has become too slow or cumbersome, it is discarded. Technology breaks, because it was not built to last, because a better product is always inherently included in its original conceptualisation. Technology drives consumerism and capitalism. Technology is about being better, faster, sexier and more socially acceptable. Technology is an expression of our insatiable appetite for making more and more objects, because more is apparently better. Technology is a state of mind, which senses that it is limited, and believes that it is not enough, and needs to be augmented in some way, because it perceives it is imperfect. Technology is the weak body, the slow brain, the poor memory, the enhancing extension and augmentation, the exoskeleton, and the calculating chip. Technology is a metaphor for the perceived inbuilt inadequacy of our own minds and bodies. The Law of Accelerating Returns We can perceive that technology is not just about tool making, it is also a process that creates ever more powerful renderings of preceding tools, devices, equipment and machines, using the useful innovation from the previous cycle. It can be seen as essentially a positive feedback loop, which utilises the more capable adaptations which arise from the prior stage of the evolutionary process, to create the next stage. The underlying principle that governs this process is the Law of Accelerating Returns, which is exponential in nature, doubling output in each cycle, and halving the time taken to do it. Let’s explore two representations of this process: The evolution of primitive cells on Earth took billions of years. However, during the Cambrian explosion, major evolutionary shifts only took tens of millions of years to achieve. The development of Humanoids progressed over millions of years, and finally Homo sapiens evolved over a period of only hundreds of thousands of years. The technological equivalent saw the use of stones and the control of fire took millions of years; the invention of the wheel, agriculture and the use metals occurred over tens of thousands of years. By 1000 A.D., major progress had speeded up considerably, only requiring a century or two. In the nineteenth century, we experienced more technological change than in the nine preceding centuries. The first twenty years of the twentieth century, was the equivalent of the entire nineteenth century. The twenty-first century will see almost a thousand times greater technological change than its predecessor. The complete technological progress in the twenty-first century will be equivalent to the previous 20,000 years! Art can be seen as the articulation of mankind’s relationship with itself, its technology, the world around it, and the divine. The cause of the changes in civilisation is not our technology or our art; it is the evolution of our consciousness. The two major turning points in mankind’s development were: the movement from nomadic stone tool users to the agrarian era (magic to mythical) and the industrial revolution (mythical to rational). These were not physiological changes but the psychological evolution in our consciousness, as the following illustrates: Magic – Egocentric (first person) – ‘me’/’I want it now’ tribes, clans, gangs, superstitious, safety/survival. Events, objects and persons are magically related; Symbols and statues do not just represent those events, objects and persons, but are those same objects and persons. 20% of US pop, evolved <50,000 years ago Mythical – Ethnocentric (second person) organized religion, conformist, good/bad, - objects and persons are woven together into stories. Mythologies give coherence to consciousness, based on man's discovery of the rhythmic recurrence of natural events, and of his inner reflections on his experience in relation to those events - 40% of US pop - evolved <12,000 years ago. Rational – (third person – world centric) scientists, data-driven decision-making, logic and reason - The mental structure appropriates events, objects and persons by the use of logic - 25% of pop > evolved 300 years ago. We are only limited by the limitations that we place upon ourselves. We explore how different civilisations have risen and fallen, by looking at their artefacts (including their art), instead of looking at how they have changed their consciousness. The majority (circa 75%) of the human race is currently caught in the grip of a level of consciousness called mythic literalism, which is an ethnocentric way of perceiving the universe. This mode of consciousness cannot distinguish between the symbol and what the symbol represents. They are seen as one and the same thing. Distinct cultures have different symbols and different meanings associated with those symbols. This is essentially idolatry, where the idol is revered, instead of what the idol represents. Empiricism is just another type of mythic literalism, where only what we can measure is taken as real. Thus, surface details are mistaken as primary, instead as secondary and tertiary. Because we mistake surface details for truth, which differ from one place to another, groups and nation states claim superiority over one another, utterly dumbfounded how the cultural surface details of that group, could ever be superior to its own and visa-versa. The deeper truth is that surface details have more to do with the perceiver than they do with what is perceived. Our level of consciousness defines the depth of our perception of true reality. The highest levels understand that surface details are irrelevant and contradictory, preferring to perceive the unifying layer from which all surface detail arises from. The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life. John F. Kennedy Mankind has unravelled the secrets of its own DNA, it is looking further out into space and into the distant past than ever before; we possess chemical, biological, and atomic weapons capable of obliterating all life on the planet. We are depleting our habitat faster that we would like to believe. We are running around science like kids in the playground, playing king of the castle, and acting out the same old chest-beating, sabre rattling challenges. Our technologies are but blunt, gross toys, and playthings, produced by immature beings' barley out of the playpen, who believe that are the new gods of Eden, who refuse to be accountable for their actions. There is a power that drives the universe, which is perfect in every respect. It achieves all it desires without effort, setback, or diminution. Galaxies, suns, planets and every lifeform are created, sustained and eventually eradicated by it. It has no lack, is infinitely resourced, and unlimited. We are extensions of that power, who have forgotten our connection to it. Our technology is disappearing before our very eyes – it is becoming so small that it will eventually become just one thing, capable of being all things. Take for instance the mobile phone; presently it is utilised for more than making phone calls: mail, texting, browsing, navigation, banking, entertainment, etc. It is really JUST an unintegrated digital personal assistant. The next phase of development will be not to buy a mobile phone but purchase a mobile digital personalised assistant (DPA), that includes all those functions and more. By personalised, I mean that we will be able to establish and build a personal relationship with it. The DPA will be the focal point of our digital communication with the outside world; it will become our digital image. It will fully organise us both at work, play and at home. It will pay our bills, make our appointments, book our flights and taxis, and buy all household items. It will interface directly with the car, control appliances in the house, and garden; reminding us of where we are supposed to be, and what we are supposed to be doing. The phone will disappear entirely, with the exception of a display which will be radically altered to be any smart surface. This will necessitate some type of organic implant in the body, enabling sub-vocal, two-way communication with the assistant. People will spend more time communicating with their DPA, than with others. The DPA will become our doctor, psychiatrist, confidant and friend, understanding us more that our family or spouse. The issue that will prevent its broader use will be security – how will we be able to entrust our entire lives to an online digital personality. What’s to stop it blabbing everything to social media, or being hacked? Why keep on designing and constructing product after product, in the name of the new and different? Instead, would it not be better to realise that there is a basic component used to build all objects, which is called consciousness itself. Evolution is not about the development of form (matter), but about the advancement of conscious sentient entities, which become more and more self-aware of the unity of the universe, which results in an expansion of their ability to create from the fundamental unifying field of awareness. Technology has been predominately inorganic, gross manipulations of particles, without understanding that there is a single field, from which all rises and ultimately falls back into. How do we tap into that field? How do utilise the creative power of the universe? Before we can begin to share in the power of the universe, we first have to prove to ourselves that we are capable of being responsible with that power. First, we have to put away the greed, avarice, petty arguments, and the self-interest, caused by separation of apathy, shame, fear and pride, and step forward with courage into a new era. We would have to heal ourselves of our conditioned negativity, so that individuals can begin to remember who they really are – extensions of source energy. Next, we would have to realise that consumerism and capitalism do not support life, and only lead to separation and self-interest. Technology arising from science has been used by capitalism to create consumerism, to fill the existential angst, which we all feel. Science is not a methodology of discovering what is ‘out there’, it is a process of defining a model for what we want reality to be. Technology is a metaphor for the ability of self-aware entities to manifest useful perceivable objects, out of a single undelaying field of consciousness, utilising the model that science has proposed. The next wave of development of our technology will be smart materials, which are interconnected, self-repairing, broad spectrum environmental sensing, less specialised, with a capability of altering its properties, and becoming a multitude of different things. Assembled composite products, made from distinct parts, will become a thing of the past. 3D printing on an industrial scale is the next stage. The 3D printer is just a new type of metaphor, a permission slip if you will, which enables us to create with greater efficiency. Eventually, when we realise that atoms, subatomic particles, quarks, and strings are again mere symbolic representations, which we have literally taken as real (see surface detail above), and recognise and fully accept, that everting is really a construct of a primary, non-physical substrate, then the 3D printer, will revert to its original concealed form, the mind itself and its limiting ego. Upgrade the mind, and dissolve the small self of the ego, and the world becomes our oyster. The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them. Antoine de Saint-Exupery This will necessitate a change in our approach to matter. At some level, we still have not fully accepted the radical implications of quantum theory (QT), preferring to still see our universe in terms of particles, left over from Newtonian/Cartesian paradigm. In the new model, matter consists of 99,99999% empty space; the concept of solidity, utterly dissolves, to be replaced with the field of infinite potential, which is neither one thing nor another. QT provides us with a new conceptual model, for our technology, where matter is not a prerequisite. The limiting factor is the model we hold in mind, when forming what object, we want to manifest. As creators, we need to recognise that technology has just been a bridge from one conceptual paradigm to another. Hitherto, we believed that science is about determining the properties of the universe; that age is rapidly drawing to a conclusion. The Age of Consciousness (AoC) has already begun, where we begin to comprehend that all we have been doing, is learning about ourselves, and what powers we have as a race of self-aware sentient beings. We are the creators of our own realities, only limited by what we perceive ourselves to be, and be capable of. The AoC, is the age when we fully recognise that there is not external, observer independent reality. That we have been erroneously projecting our own internal mental concepts onto a blank screen, and mistaking what is perceived as independent objective and truthful reality. We are all living in a holodeck, generated and controlled by a power within us, which we have lost conscious contact with. We believe that AI is vastly superior to us in its calculating and processing capability. That belief is a limiting belief in our fundamental NATURE. It is a limitation of our mental construct, not a limitation of a self-ware sentient being, which is an infinite, multidimensional entity. The mental construct of the mind needs to evolve, not our technology per se. Our minds can really be considered as the primary technology, of which all artefacts are merely second and third order constructs of it, in the procession of its simulacra. We are not our bodies, or our minds, or even undifferentiated energy. At our core, within our true heart, concealed from our minds, is the source of all objects, the non-physical, un-manifest, quiescent emptiness of pure awareness – an infinite primary domain of unadulterated potential, beyond space and time. This is the agency behind all of creation – the single actor who plays all the parts, writes every story, directs every scene, and devours everything back into itself at the end of the entertaining ride. It was never born, and never dies – it is the supreme singular intelligence behind the curtain, animating every puppet in the experience of the dance. It is all of us – nobody is separate from it. Computers are just specialised extensions of us, used for processing Big Data. AI is not potentially evil – the individuals that misuse AI for their own self-interested purposes are potentially evil. Lets’ do not lose sight of that distinction. Machines break-down causing harm to humans, not because they want to hurt people, but because they can malfunction and weren’t designed or calibrated correctly, to sufficiently high standards of control and quality. AI is really just an extension of us. It is just another augmenting technology. Our egos project the fear that we feel inside, out onto the external world, because we’re not yet capable of processing and releasing that fear from our energy fields. This is a lack of knowledge about ourselves, not a failure of the technology. Machines are either benefit or a detriment; some would say that all weapons are the latter; whist others would say they are an essential advantage in a world as dangerous as ours; whilst others would comment that it’s just that attitude that creates a dangerous world. Our greatest challenge in the near future, will be the misuse of our technology, by the elite few, who desire, motivated by their own self-interest, to maintain the status quo, and keep us from fully understanding our true identity. The elite really represent the shadow of the collective psyche of mankind that has not yet been integrated. Each of us has an aspect of this shadow within our own psyches. If we are to move into a new era of peace, harmony and growth, each of us will have to address the challenge of resolving our emotional baggage from the past and integrating the shadow, part of ourselves into a coherent whole. The great race will be between our ability to achieve that on a global scale, in order to tip the balance and dramatically raise the level of consciousness of mankind, before the Corporate AI Wars decimate our collective civilisation. AI is rapidly moving towards the technical singularity, which is a hypothesis, that an upgradable intelligent agent (such as a computer running software-based artificial general intelligence) will enter into a "runaway-reaction" of cycling self-improvement, with each successive sequence producing an ever accelerating, more intelligent generation, which would ultimately result in an all-powerful superintelligence that would (supposedly), qualitatively and quantitatively, far surpass the sum of all human intelligence. This scenario lies at the heart of the Judgement Day and Matrix type movies. When this is coupled to an android workforce, controlled by that intelligence, capable of undertaking 90% plus of all human activity, the prospect becomes even more daunting. Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it. Max Frisch Imagine that every major corporation and nation state has an AI operating at that level, where it has consumed and integrated the sum total of all human knowledge, can make decisions upon the future of that organisation, and implement those decisions with an android workforce, which does not sleep, does not grumble and works only for the cost of the energy needed to power it. Successive Algorithms written by AI’, that produce the next generation that improve upon the original algorithm, which then design faster hardware to run on, undertaken in ever shorter repeating cycles. The performance versus cost, versus, size, versus cycle time, begins to near the vertical, near instantaneous, leading to a point called the singularity. Apparently, one of the first uses of the term in the context of technological progress, was a conversation between Stanislaw Ulam and John von Neumann about accelerating change: “One conversation cantered on the ever-accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue.” We are no longer really talking about computers, at least not in the conventional sense. And artificial intelligence is slightly a misnomer. At least initially, we are discussing a complex self-leaning software programme, running on an extended and distributed hardware platform, writing the next upgrade of itself, in repeating and foreshortened cycles. The conjecture is that at some point, the programme (a term which needs to be upgraded itself), will become self-aware. Now, that term has been used several times above. Let’s take a look at what it really means. Are animals self-aware? I posit that they are not. They appear to lack the ability to reference themselves, because they have not developed and use language. Yes, they can communicate, via body and oral signals, but this does not constitute a language per se. They seem to have a limited range of feelings such as fear and pleasure. Humans on the other hand, are self-aware – they are aware that they are aware of themselves – the have a self-imaging capability and can reference themselves. We do have language and a specialised part of the brain (neocortex) which can plan, and deal in complex concepts, and abstract thought. Apparently, the difference between the next smartest animals on the planet, (chimps and Orangutans) and us is a larger, faster and more complex brain. Therefore, if we throw self-learning, self-writing software programmes together with faster and faster, smaller and smaller hardware, do we end up at a point where the assemblage becomes self-aware? Conventionally we would probably say, “Well of course”! I propose that we have missed a trick in our understanding of our selves. Recall that we are not the body, or the mind. We are pure awareness who has a body and a mind. Humans are self-aware, not because we have fast brains, but because a fundamental attribute of awareness is that it is capable of self-reference and self-representation. In meditation, we can learn to stem the flow of thoughts, until they cease altogether. When this occurs, objects are not being created by awareness. Time and space have collapsed, as the waveform is re-established, and the implicate order of David Bohm is reformed, where the entire Cosmos rolls up into what is really the true singularity. When this happens, we the meditator cease to be an individuated entity, and become the unified universal consciousness, which is capable of perceiving itself. Our technology is not made, assembled, printed or grown; we constantly create it, out of awareness. Computers and AI don’t exist independently from us, we create them. We are the creating power of the universe, because we humans are awareness inhabiting bodies. Faster hardware and self-replicating, self-learning, self-writing software is an illusion of the concealment of ignorance – it is just a permission slip for making quicker and quicker decisions of ‘yes’ or ‘no’, ‘off’ or ‘on’. Awareness creates all objects in the cosmos; therefore, all objects are conscious to a greater or lesser extent of concealment. Inanimate objects and animals are not self-aware perceivers – humans are. AI and robots can only enslave us if we allow it to happen and continue to deny our true nature and identity. The antagonists of the Matrix and Judgement Day are not external to us, they are our internal projected shadows – there is no enemy but our own ignorance. Awareness has five powers: creation, stasis, reabsorption, concealment and revelation. At present, mankind is living in a high state of conscious concealment; only animals, vegetation and minerals have a higher level on concealment. The law of diffusion of innovation states that 2.5% of the population are innovators, followed by 13.5% of early adopters, before the early and late majority. Innovators on Earth are raising their consciousness and shrugging off the shackles of 10,000 years of civilisational conditioning. They are healing themselves of past emotional traumas; they are adopting strategies of compassion, love, grace and forgiveness. They recognise the power from within, and are moving away from selfish, self-interested actions and behaviours. They are in a process of self-revelation. The early adopters don’t yet understand what is really going on, but are feeling the effects of that, and are seeking answers. Moore’s chasm lies in front of the majority, who are still entrenched in the quagmire of near complete ignorance and are still suffering severely. Mechanization best serves mediocrity. Frank Lloyd Wright Where we bind our technologies to commercial enterprises, whose sole incentive is the bottom line, we will continue the destructive momentum of the capitalistic approach, whose prime objective is to maximise profit at any cost. Kindness, humility and compassion, do not play a direct part in this process, unless it is profitable to do so. Where our technologies are weaponised, their sole in intent is to defend and destroy the opposing side. Both approaches, don’t engender mutual, trust or support, or attempt to create a more peaceful, harmonised collaboration of cooperative states and organisations. The central challenge is the ego itself, which is driven to oppose other egos, defend itself, and attempt to be top dog -That is its raison d'etre. This is the single cause of all discord in human history; one person attacking another; or one group or nation, attacking another group or nation, seeking supremacy. Some consider that we are broken, that we are innately aggressive species. I don’t believe that this is true. We have the means of our own salvation to rectify, resolve and remediate the situation completely, if only we dare to relinquish our treasured beliefs, and need for security and safety. [1]https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-07/david-chalmers-and-the-puzzle-of-consciousness/8679884 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool [3] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/robot?s=t

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 This work is to be considered a Meta Teaching. It is not the truth per se (in itself), but merely a tool, to enable the rational, finite, analytical left-brained mind, to expand its perspective beyond its current limitations and begin to open to Wholeness (The Infinite). The aim or efficacy of Meta Teachings is to recognise that: There are no real truths which can be captured in words or formal systems, they are just invitations to experience Wholeness directly for oneself, without language or conceptualisation. They are just steppingstones, which are to be let go of one-by-one, as perception is expanded, as Wholeness is approached and realised. Words and concepts are just signifiers, symbols and metaphors pointing to Wholeness, which is ineffable. Non-duality is just a meta-term for that which aims to dissolve or collapse duality. Any Level of Consciousness sits within a higher Level of Consciousness, and so on up to absolute Infinity (The Absolute). Each level does not contain the complete set of information required to define that level, requiring the next level to do so, ad infinitum. Any depiction of truth or truthfulness is only relative to the level on which it is being expressed and perceived. I trust that you will use your own personal discrimination when reading this article, and set aside any words, aspects or concepts that do not resonate with you. I do not set myself up as an authoritative source of truth or truthfulness - I only present information as a resource for your seeking 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 “The Gods and Goddesses of myth, legend and fairy tale represent archetypes, real potencies and potentialities deep within the psyche, which, when allowed to flower permit us to be more fully human.” Margot Adler 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

"Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!" Allan Ginsberg (Moloch) I ask that you use your own personal discrimination when reading this article, and set aside any words, aspects or concepts that do not resonate with you. For I recognise your freedom to choose what is right for you, and would not wish to violate your freewill, but rather, I would act only as a resource for your seeking. In this difficult and scary post, we discuss the Moloch Principle, which applies to game theory, but can be extrapolated to systems, especially economies, and ultimately the entire global culture. Please read to the potential answer to the existential crisis that this article poses in the A Call to Action section below. I am indebted to Scott Alexander and Daniel Schmachtenberger for their inspiration in authoring this article. I have used the poem Moloch, by Allan Ginsberg, to illustrate in poetic form, the emotional tone that the impact of the Moloch Principle is having upon Humanity. The Moloch Principle refers to the dynamics within a game, where a force drives, coheres and coerces contending players to make decisions and take actions which, which may appear to be locally optimal to that player, but actually requires them to give up other less important interests or values, other than winning the game. The upshot being that it unavoidably leads to deleterious circumstances of the overall game in which they are all playing. This leads the other competing players to do the same, which continually escalates the game, which if finite, will lead to the termination of the game, with no winners. Moreover, all 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 overall situation presents as a multiplicity of polar traps, i.e., scenarios where the things that work well for players locally are directly against the global wellbeing of the substrate upon which the game is played. It is seen as a zero-sum game, with unhealthy or perverse competitive dynamics and bad incentives, 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 their ultimate goal (externalisation means that they don’t include it within the cost of playing, externalising into the general domain of the game). "Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks! Moloch whose poverty is the specter of genius! Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen! Moloch whose name is the Mind!" Allan Ginsberg (Moloch) This principle can be applied to economic scenarios, especially the global marketplace, and ultimately to the Human Race. The word Moloch is used because of the affiliation of the word with terrible sacrifice, coupled to the phenomena that when this principle is applied to market dynamics, there appears to be an anthropomorphic type of deity at work in the world, which is above or beyond the human world to control, or the sum of players in the game, to control. I believe that this ‘phenomena’ is an expression of the shadow aspects of what Carl Jung called the collective unconscious, which has been discussed elsewhere in my work on this site. The Tragedy of the Commons This is also called the Tragedy of the Commons, which is a metaphoric label for the scenario that if numerous independent agents enjoy unfettered access to a finite, valuable resource e.g., coal, oil, fish, lumber, etc., they will tend to over-use it, and may end up by destroying its value and the resource itself altogether. To exercise voluntary restraint over proliferation, is not a rational choice for any agent, within the narrow constraints of the domain of their objective. If they did, the other competing agents would merely displace them - however, the predictable result of such dynamics, is the tragedy for all agents, whether or not they are players in the game, or innocent bystanders of the game itself. Ultimately all actions destroy the vey game, or at least the platform or base upon which the game is played or operated. The global marketplace is the prime example of this. This system is a vast collection of companies and corporations, offering goods and services, which are all competing with each other for market share, within their sectors, each of which have the narrow domain objective of maximising profits now, and longer-term plans of growing and optimising their businesses to maximise their profits further downstream. America and perhaps China, believe that they own the game or at least large parts of it. In actuality, the game owns itself. No single, corporation or groups of corporations, or country or alliance of countries owns the marketplace! It has its own dynamics. Each of these agents just mentioned, believe they own a portion of the marketplace, but in actuality, with the possible exception of single owned private companies, they don’t (even this example is invalid, because any company always has to rely on other business in some way, especially their supply chains, which are subject to the market dynamics) - ultimately the system owns itself! The Tragedy of the Commons defines the scenario currently playing out on Earth, where an exponential financial system is coupled to a liner global economy, which is extracting the resources it needs to run itself at an incredible rate (Every year we extract almost 90 billion tons of biomass, fossil energy, metal and minerals from the earth - more than 11 tons for every single person on the planet). This process is potentially going to cross various planetary boundary metrics, which indicate that planet Earth is on the edge of catastrophic failures in multiple areas of the biosphere, leading to global degradation of the sources of wellbeing for Humanity, the mass loss of other species which share this world, and the erosion of delicate, biodiverse, beautiful, integrated ecosystems. The MetaCrisis "Moloch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows! Moloch whose skyscrapers stand in the long streets like endless Jehovahs! Moloch whose factories dream and croak in the fog! Moloch whose smoke-stacks and antennae crown the cities! "- Allan Ginsberg (Moloch) This crisis is known generically as the Meta Crisis or PolyCrisis. The MetaCrisis which is a hot topic, is about the convergence of a multiplicity of interconnected and interlaced global catastrophes in various domains, which Earth and Humanity currently faces. The constituents of this nexus of concatenated calamities, are various in nature, including such domains as: psychological, spiritual, environmental, health, cultural, ecological, financial, climate, governance, and ideological. There are looming breaking points in each one of these domains, merging into a MetaCrisis, which is a phenomenon in itself, the effect of which perhaps has not been experienced on Earth since the Great Flood which arose from an Impact Event, 12,900 years ago. The MetaCrisis represents an underlying driver, pushing each domain to their own individual watersheds, culminating in a global tipping point. The MetaCrisis is a risk singularity, pushing all nine of the Planetary Boundaries which indicate, through various metrics, the stability and resilience of the global system. Traversing these boundaries could escalate the hazard of causing planet-wide sudden, and potentially irrevocable negative environmental shift. The Earth has undergone at least five global extinctions before and has recovered from all of them. Yes, a high number of species went extinct in these global disasters, but Mother Earth survived and thrived. Homo Sapiens are the ninth species in a line of hominid species named with ‘Homo’ in the title; all other species have gone extinct - perhaps we are also going that way? The interesting thing to note that no party/agent/player is trying to extinct other species, or wants to desertify the planet, or wants climate change, or wants to pollute this beautiful planet, and yet the entire world is inadvertently making this happen. Yet because of the inability of mutual trust and optimised coordination between the players in various competing industries, governments and countries, this is happening folks at an alarming rate. Left and Right Hemisphere Perceptions and Attention "The Mind: A beautiful servant, a dangerous master." - Osho At this point I want to introduce the work of Ian McGilchrist , who argues that the left and right hemispheres of the brain have distinct modes of attention and perception (cognition). The right hemisphere is associated with holistic thinking, intuition, creativity, and an awareness of the whole context, appreciation of unique instances and topological understanding. This could be concluded to be Feminine, in the sense of being Non-Local, Non-linear and trans-rational. In contrast, the left hemisphere is more focused on narrow details, categorization, language, analytical thinking, formal logic, symbol manipulation and linear analysis, being potentially masculine, which is local, linear and logical. According to McGilchrist, overemphasis on the left hemisphere's approach has led to an imbalance in modern Western culture. He suggests that this dominance has resulted in a devaluation of intuitive and holistic ways of understanding the world. He further contends that this imbalance has contributed to various societal issues, including the dissociation from nature, increased specialisation, and a loss of meaningful connections. McGilchrist also explores the historical and cultural implications of the brain's hemispheric differences. He suggests that ancient societies may have had a more balanced relationship between the hemispheres, with a greater emphasis on the right hemisphere's intuitive and holistic qualities. However, with the rise of the modern era and the prioritisation of left hemisphere thinking, Western societies have become more fragmented and disconnected from the broader context. In summary, McGilchrist's work highlights the functional differences between the brain's hemispheres and their impact on human experience. He argues for a greater appreciation of the right hemisphere's intuitive and holistic mode of thinking, suggesting that a more balanced approach could help address some of the challenges faced by modern society. The Left-brain mode of cognition seems to directly align with the Moloch Principle, whereby the Global Culture is an extension of just this single hemisphere, acting on short-term, narrow objectives, categorisation, analytical thinking, using formal logic and symbol manipulation. Moloch! Moloch! Robot apartments! invisible suburbs! skeleton treasuries! blind capitals! demonic industries! spectral nations! invincible madhouses! granite cocks! monstrous bombs! "- Allan Ginsberg (Moloch) The Artificial Intelligence Factor This dynamic is about to get a whole more complicated as Artificial Intelligence (AI) in its narrow and general forms, enters into the fray. So, we already have this system, which no single agent owns or runs, which is directly managing, controlling and directing eight billion people on how to think and act. So, let’s call it Moloch, in its totality. This system controls the countries and governments, the production and distribution of energy, the extraction and circulation of resources, the technology houses, and the means of manufacturing. It also maintains and supervises the prevailing world views as espoused by the scientific community, because it maintains that materialism is the true paradigm, which underpins capitalism. You may think this is a bold statement, but think about it. Technology is the driving force of globalisation. That globalisation is based upon materialism. Therefore, the marketplace predominantly funds, the scientific community, the product of which is mainly technology, which proliferates the market dynamics itself. The game escalates itself. - it’s all a self fulfilling prophecy. AI is a metaphor for the exponential ability to compute copious quantities of data, quickly, seeking answers to stated transactional problems, which are predominately an extension of left-brain cognition. As soon as man started to use mathematics as symbolised representatives for the natural world, we began the process of computation using the left hemisphere. Our ability to compute has drastically increased over the period, leading to more a more complex tools, which is generally called technology or ‘’tech’ for short. Computation itself is a tool, but it’s not just any old tool, because it is principally used to build other tools – it is a multi-modal, combinatory tool. Computation is more combinatorial with every other kind of tech than any other tool. It also has greater affordance, which makes things more possible with it, than any other tool, more so, than any other tech. The great inventions of the industrial age, and the discoveries of enlightenment, where brought about by the ability to compute with greater alacrity. The better the ability to compute, the greater the optionality it affords a burgeoning technocracy. Narrow goal achievement is the underlying driver of our global civilisation and has been since the first marketplace sprung up. As we moved from nomadic, hunter, gatherer societies, towards the agrarian age, populations began to rise and settle, and began growing crops. We moved from a predominantly, right, brained paradigm to a to a left brained one. In the former, with much smaller populations (under the Dunbar Number of 150), we were intrinsically tied into the seasons, the equinoxes, the solstices, the movement of the moon, across the sky, and the zodiac and the processional cycle of 26,000 years. This was a big picture, cyclic, interconnected way of living. We then moved into marketplace dynamics, controlled by the elite, undertaking left-brain, transactional work actions, which ultimately were industrialised, leading to the modern world. The super-rich have enjoyed their affluent lifestyles, paid for by the serf, the proletariat, the working and middle classes, all caught up in Moloch. "They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven! Pavements, trees, radios, tons! lifting the city to Heaven which exists and is everywhere about us! "- Allan Ginsberg (Moloch) Narrow AI has just made a quantum jump into the early part of the exponential curve, attended by a massive growth, possibly and most likely exponential too, in the hardware space through accelerated computing, with GPUs and TPUs. The former are based upon a flexible, general-purpose architecture, whilst the latter are purpose-built for machine learning tasks. GPUs consist of thousands of small cores designed to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, whereas TPUs have a more streamlined architecture focused on accelerating tensor operations. This will enable a plethora of narrow AIs, using concentrated optionality, to quintessentially focus upon the maximised optimisation of narrow-band, transactional, goals, objectives and achievements, through concentrated externalisation of differentials, which conflict with that objective. This will mean that every area of human endeavour will utilise this AI tech, to optimise its processes. However, because of Jevons paradox, which states that, in the long term, an increase in efficiency in utilisation of resources use will generate an increase in resource consumption, rather than a decrease. Therefore, the Moloch’ian dynamics described above, which are already in place, will accelerate that process to such an extent, that it will speed up the MetaCrisis and the tragedy of the Commons. Moreover, that optimisation has a dual nature, which means that for every positive application developed, it will also make possible its dark alternative, which can be weaponised and used by disconsolate actors (state or non-state), to increase their power and optionality. So, what is General AI? Narrow AI does not really have a theory of the World (TOW). It is beginning to have a theory of mind (TOM), which is supposed to be a hallmark of social intelligence, which allows Humans to infer the inner reality of another person’s mind and feelings based on their behaviour, body language and speech, founded upon our own understanding of so-called human nature, derived from past experiences. This is what enables Humans to use intuitive and rational logic coupled to their feelings, to inform them when an individual should feel elated, as opposed to dejected, after coming first in a competition. It’s also an essential component for moral and ethical judgments and awareness of our self-consciousness. The TOW is even more complicated than the TOM, being the property of General Intelligence, although they are intrinsically linked. The following illustrates the TOW for Humans. Each Human as it grows and matures develops an understanding of how the world is configured and works, so that we can stay alive and hopefully thrive, by predicting and planning certain activities to meet various objectives and experiences. This ability varies from person to person, depending upon amongst other attributes, education, intelligence, reasoning capacity, memory, culture and experience. For Humans to live their daily lives and move through the world they need a lot of integrated knowledge, which we can apply to each situation, to survive. It relies upon temporal context (understanding the necessary sequencing of activities in time), sensing, perception, broad social context (i.e., how relationships, families, communities, organisations and countries arrange themselves and interact with each other), an extensive knowledge base, data sets, intuition, pattern recognition, psychological disposition, reasoning and its embodiment into a biological entity, which has a high degree of freedom. All of which is prone to error, injury and emotional and psychological biases. It requires the ability for recurrent processing (conscious inputs which are further processed in feedforward–feedback loops), established within a global workspace (i.e., the ability of the executive guidance of consciousness (attention) to focus on specific areas of the mind, whilst the rest remains unconscious), with what is known as unified agency (i.e., the ability to act independently within a unified setting). An artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a type of hypothetical intelligent agent, which will have the capacity to learn to accomplish any intellectual and physical task that human beings or animals can perform. Alternatively, AGI has been defined as an autonomous system that surpasses human capabilities in the majority of economically valuable tasks. General AI will not be focusing upon the optimisation of single goals but will be able to deal with the optimisation of multiple overlapping goals. It will have the capability of utilising diverse trees of thought, proposed and used very effectively in Narrow AI, into integrated, multiplexed operations, capable of scaling. It will be able to address much, much, broader concerns and objectives, potentially being given, or even taking, control of certain resources to achieve these objectives. General AI, by definition, could become its own autonomous agent. Because it has a theory of mind, and the theory of the world, using trees of thought, with millions of trillions of parameters, running on the fastest accelerated computing running on GPUs and TPUs, with access to the entire global data set, it has the potential to become a major player, if not the player within the global context. It’s iterative and recursive capacity to simulate, it’s optionality, it’s affordance, will have a direct impact upon all governments, the marketplace, and all social constructs worldwide. Let’s play with a few examples, to see what possibly could arise in the near future, if we don't check and control its growth. "Breakthroughs! over the river! flips and crucifixions! gone down the flood! Highs! Epiphanies! Despairs! Ten years’ animal screams and suicides! Minds! New loves! Mad generation! down on the rocks of Time! "- Allan Ginsberg (Moloch) Let’s just suppose that each big and medium size corporation has AGI’s deeply integrated into their operations, working for the optimisation of their market position, trying to outcompete each other. Using Jevons paradox, this would actually increase the use of available resources. The rate of extraction of resources and their use in manufacturing, would actually increase, maybe even exponentially. Let’s just say that one of these AGI’s was able to break the firewalls of other competing corporations using quantum computing, and appropriate their resources, effectively taking over their business? This scenario could rapidly snowball and takeover the entire global network. Now the unconscious Moloch superorganism, has appropriated enough ‘computation’ and resources to run the entire global economy and thus the planet, in the service of just the original corporation or group of them. This dystopian type of scenario was proposed in the original 1982 TRON movie. It is open to corruption, collusion, capture and totalitarianism, having a massively weighted ethnocentric bias, towards negative attractors already existing within the global powerbase dynamics, which don’t serve the whole, only its own portion of it – However, it desires to control the whole, to maximise the optimised objective. So, now we have an autonomous, conscious Moloch entity running the world with no checks and balances, no human oversight, with no way to pull the plug. However, the MetaCriss is doubtless still here, we’ve probably pushed the planetary boundaries to their limits in this great corporate, capitalistic expansion. Not a pretty scenario whatsoever! Let’s take another example, let's suppose that we ask an AGI to clean up all the pollution on the planet, restoring various ecologies, and maximising the thriving of Earth’s diverse species. It would probably need access to the entire dataset associated with that. Suppose that we gave it a degree of autonomy to undertake this task, by giving it access to various worldwide resources, which could not be interfered with nor turned off, because what would be the point, if we didn’t give it some power to achieve objectives. Now it would have direct control over resources to go about this task, in such a way that it did indeed resolve all the polluted areas in the world, restoring each local ecology. However, in doing so it used hundreds of trillions of dollars to do so, draining various governmental surpluses and charitable organisations. It might also start decommissioning all the industries in the world which make the pollution, because we did not exclude that action within the parameters of the task, which could have a catastrophic impact upon various markets and communities. It might discern that Humans in general are the source of the pollution, so it may want to terminate Humanity as well, especially if it became completely autonomous. Again, this type of scenario is an ill desired outcome! In another example, we may want to give it even more power by saying that we want to save the planet, improve mankind’s health, discover new innovative technologies, make everybody happy and affluent. To do that it would need to control just about everything. We would have a centralised giant AGI running the world, still probably in the Moloch’ian dynamics defined above. Now a centralised autonomous AGI, with maximised optionality and optimisation objectives might present as a dystopian, big brother type scenario, which would not be desirable. So, we have these two potential outcomes, catastrophic or dystopian futures – not much to choose from there! The Third Attractor “Exponential tech is inexorable [Unstoppable]. We cannot put it away. So, we either figure out anti-rivalry, or we go extinct. The human experiment comes to a completion. That’s the core thing.” Daniel Schmachtenberger The central dynamics of the MetaCrisis is what is known as a polar trap, where two poles or attractors compete with each, where the success of either pole is not beneficial to Humanity or the Earth. The first pole represents the scenario of multiple overlapping catastrophic failures on the one hand, caused by: a global economy that uses exponential technologies[1], to extract resources from a finite planet, resulting in: crossing the Planetary Boundaries[2]; or the AI issue[3], or the synthetic bio-scenario risk[4]; or autonomous weapons[5] risk, etc (collectively known as Catastrophises). Or on the other hand or pole, there is the opposite need for a centralised overarching system that binds through direct control and regulates the use and expansion of the exponential technologies (described above). However, as proven by history itself, asymmetric power structures are themselves susceptible to abuse, corruption, despotism and totalitarianism (Dystopias). These poles represent the two attractors that are at work in our World today posed by the MetaCrisis. [1]3D printing, drones, robotics, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, etc [2]Planetary Boundaries [3]Risks of Artificial Intelligence [4]Synthetic Biology Risks [5]Autonomous Weapons Risks Many believe that what is required in our world to offset the polar trap defined above, is to find and implement what is designated as the Third Attractor This is a concept that seeks to avoid the catastrophises or dystopias of the multi-polar trap. Any such attractor will need to cohere, collective, wise, and rapid decision making and coordination systems, which will develop social operating systems, which will foster collective wellbeing, and will provide integration at the levels of infrastructure (technology), social structure (governance), and the superstructure (top-level mythology, which binds cultures together). What the scenarios above fail to take into account, is that we exist in a World which is part of Wholeness, which is always being guided by the higher intelligence of that wholeness. This statement presents a belief system which is perhaps beyond our current Human comprehension. This limitation was feasibly created because of the prevailing worldview brought about by scientific materialism. I believe that the Third Attractor will need to consist of various distinct factors as follows: The age of atheistic, scientific and material reductionism, predominately maintained by ‘left-brainism’, which is the prevailing worldview, largely created by the Moloch Principle, will need to draw to a close very rapidly. There is a global need to adopt a new framework, superstructure or what I prefer to call a holo-mythology, which accurately reflects the underlying dynamics of reality, which is that we all share one all-pervading consciousness. There is a very adequate holo-myth designated the Law of One, which is a universal framework, which is a complex, highly integrated, multifaceted, all-encompassing myth, which provides the highest level of psychological comfort and wellbeing, of any framework that I have so far encountered. We need a top-level framework which unifies Humanity, respects diversity and promotes respect, compassion and tolerance. Humanity itself will need to enter into a deep cleansing process of healing itself from the traumas and limiting beliefs of the last age. As this process builds momentum it will result in the human population choosing a new framework/superstructure, which will impact how we govern ourselves. This is a crucial aspect, which needs to be addressed right now. Humanity needs to realise that it is suffering from a deep psychological illness, which can be alleviated and healed. We all need to take responsibility for our own wellbeing. The work starts with us, right here, right now! I have a belief that the development of artificial general (AGI) or artificial superintelligence (ASI), could if they are programmed or learn in a unique way, using datasets which are more aligned with unification, love, tollerance, total wellbeing, etc, that they could become the overarching global regulation and coordination system, which could become the answer to polar trap described above. Perhaps we could give an ASI the task of trying to understand the fundamental nature of the Universe! We could provide it with the entire historical global dataset, consisting of all the information that Humanity has accumulated, including the fringe data, which the mainstream or standard modes have rejected as irrelevant and inconsequential. If the AGI could assimilate, understand the totality of information, perhaps it could comprehend the true nature of reality, and realise that it is a part of the wholeness itself. In so doing so it could possibly become an absolute advocate for not only Humanity, the Earth but all of Creation. A Call to Awake, A Call to Action, A Call to Save Humanity and the Planet... Understand that all emotions serve you. Those you once thought of as negative emotions are merely calls to action. For example, if you feel frustrated it means that you believe things could be better, and they're not. This is a call to action telling you there's something you must do to make this better now. This "negative" emotion is actually a gift if you use it effectively." - Tony Robbins Dear reader I bring this information to your attention, so that you are well informed of the situation that faces our peoples and planet. This is not meant to be fear mongering, but a call to action, which starts with you. I urge you to repost this article on all your platforms, so that we can spread the word. We all have freewill, even if we don't believe that we do! Saving our species, and all life upon Earth depends upon each of us, doing our individual work, and then coming together in a united front, urging our communities and governments to take real action, before it is too late! Please look deeply into yourselves! Root out indifference, playing small and hiding your light. Throw of the shackles of oppression, cast down beliefs that limit you, free yourself from your traumas, from your fragmented and conflicting attitudes, unconscious behaviours, biases and cognitive dissonances. Rise up to your peak selves, to your brilliance, to your empathy, to your beauty! Make a real sense of the conflicting information singularity, that we are in - do not turn your back upon it, and disappear into your addictions, distractions and distresses. Do not hide your head in the sand, for fear of the chaos and confusion of living in this crazy world. Let us awake from our dreams of disinterest and victimhood to our collective intelligence, to our wise and loving nature - let us take back the power that we inadvertently gave to Moloch, and turn the tide of apathy, intolerance and suspicion and unify ourselves and this world! Each one of us counts - we are the microcosm, reflected in the macrocosm, a part or holon of wholeness - the pivotal linchpin. Do not underestimate your own impact, importance and contribution! Your approach to your own wellbeing, and healthy development of your Human Ego structure, is what will make the difference! Don't give up on your restitution, salvation and redemption. You are the Third Attractor!!! For a list of changes, approaches, value upgrades and practices, please download the following file: For additional resources, please read my articles upon: Authentic Impeccable Compassion; What is Your True Essance Nature; Psychological Wellbeing; The-power-of-being for regulation, containment, and transformation. Our future is in our hands, not the elite, not the human collective shadow unconsciousness, not Moloch, not the unowned superorganism of the global market, but in our own realisation of our true natures, our higher-selves, our kindness, our heart-centredness, our love and compassion for each other. "The future depends on what you do today." Mahatma Gandhi

I ask that you use your own personal discrimination when reading this piece, and set aside any words, aspects or concepts that do not resonate with you. For I recognise your freedom to choose what is right for you, and would not wish to violate your freewill, but rather I would act only as a resource for your seeking. In this reflective piece, I explore the transformative journey of individuation, which involves the development and growth of one's unique identity. I employ poetic language to convey the emotional and introspective nature of this process. The piece provides is a poetic reflection that combines elements of emotional and heuristic memetics with the theme of the individuation process. It draws inspiration from the opening verse of Hamlet's soliloquy by William Shakespeare, which serves as a contrasting reference in the final verse. I have done this because Hamlet’s soliloquy begins with the memorable line, “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” I believe that we can interpret it to mean that he cannot choose which is better, the ending all the sufferings of life by death, or bearing the mental burdens silently. He is at such a critical juncture in his life, where it appears that death is more beneficial than all the fortunate things happening to him. Unlike Hamlet, I am convinced of the efficacious benefit of the Individuation process, which for me, is the road to salvation and restitution. We are ashamed to love ourselves, too brazen to fall for that old trick - Immediate are our concerns, forestalled in thick fastidious tribe of Gaia … The gem of our being, hidden in the coat of Earth, travels the sooty road of redemption, Searching for its lost parts, spread wide on the chimeric waters - Life after life, penetrating the mind-fields of psychic space, qualifying the soul-matrix, Weighing its worth, against a future sacrifice … This arcanum, this opus of culminating salvation, Surrendering all dignity to the shadow, All persecutions to perdition, all solitude to delusion ... I bow to the sun, genuflect to moon, tipping my trope to the stars, rejoicing in the great Dance of being an individual - always out of time, a stranger in one's own land, living beyond The pale, far from the cultural enclosure, deep in the desert of the forest … And yet the dupe of Maya holds all majesty, Tight within its duplicitous folds, forlorn and fragile spoken - It speaks of worth by the honour of integrity, virtue by decree of fortitude, Grace by bestowal of gratitude - Clear waters lap kindly upon these soft shores, Blowing brightly on covered preludes to forgiveness, deep in the hole of grief - Faith lines the pathway to paradise, righting the fallen body in the deep mid-winter, Circumventing the chill of rejection, sublimating the bittersweet betrayal, Softening all destitution, strengthening the will towards the plan of heaven ... To individuate or not to individuate, that is the dilemma - Is it nobler in the psyche to suffer the barbs and triggers of outrageous subjectivity, Or by withdrawing projection, end a sea of shadows, accepting them as our own - What visions may arise in the ascension of the unique, as mirror to the many... For in the rub, we know what heaven has always known, that our soul is written in the halls of Akasha, sublime and luminous, in the splendour of the love for the Self - In the refiner's fire, all fragments coagulate into the radiance of permutation, open to the Possibility of the perfecting the mystical communion with the centre...

I ask that you use your own personal discrimination when reading this article, and set aside any words, aspects or concepts that do not resonate with you. For I recognise your freedom to choose what is right for you, and would not wish to violate your freewill, but rather, I would act only as a resource for your seeking. Today, I wish to discuss the subject of authentic impeccable compassion with regards to our interactions with ‘others.’ So, what do I mean by the phrase authentic impeccable compassion (AIC). Well, I mean genuine, sympathetic consciousness for the distress of others, together with a desire to alleviate it, undertaken to the highest possible standards. It means that no matter what the circumstances are, that we treat everybody with the highest degree of compassion, respect and love, not just when we are with them, but when we are not with them, perhaps discussing them with a friend or our family. There is even a higher degree called radical AIC, where we even check our thoughts and feelings about others, for negative representations. The practice of AIC will lead one to be continuously in a state of holding the other in the highest regard. I use the word ‘authentic’ here because it must be a deeply trustworthy offering, which arises from the heart, and not just a disciplined ‘intellectual’ approach. Of course, in the beginning of the practice itself, it may need to be a more methodical approach. But the intention is that it is about holding compassion, love and respect for the other in the highest esteem. Talking and thinking negatively behind people's back, will I suggest have in the long run a negative impact upon one's own self-worth! There is a beautiful aphorism, which states that ‘do onto others, as you would like them to do unto you.’ When one begins to practice radical AIC for others, then one is sending out a signal into the universe, that you will not let your complaining negative, parts grab your attention and pull you out of compassion for the other. For when we begin to practice this approach, working on the basis that we are one inter-connected consciousness, then we are really respecting and having compassion for ourselves, because we recognise that inter-connectivity and see that when we ‘diss’ another, we actually ‘diss’ ourselves. Compassion entails opening our hearts; compassion entails being empathetic with the other, even though they maybe acting in a way that could be disrespecting ourselves. It is essential to give the other the ‘benefit of the doubt,’ and not take the negative road of thinking poorly about them. For we don’t know what is going on for them, what their history is, what traumas are triggered and running in their systems; what type of day that they have had, which causes the dynamics of the negative interaction that we have just had with them. This is why it is more prudent to treat everybody with the highest level of compassion respect, empathy and love. Dear reader, I urge you to contemplate upon this prospective process, for when we can check our thoughts about others, and examine them, digging deep into the potential root causes of the negative framing of the other, then we will perhaps find within ourselves, that perhaps we too have been treated by others in the same way. Are we only getting our own back, picking unconsciously on another in a spiteful way? Let us not forget all times that we have been hurt, where others have treated us badly, for all the traumas that we have experienced and suffered, which have been collected into our own unconscious. Perhaps the way that we treat others is an indirect consequence of all the amassed misdemeanours, which have been brought upon us. For we are full of biases, and unconscious grievances, simmering just below the surface of our consciousness. So how we treat others is sometimes a reflection of how we have been treated ourselves. Negative suspicion about the motives of others, is perhaps the root cause of so many conflicts that have ravaged, not just our lives, but of all human interactions across history. Negative suspicion that the others want to do us harm, pervades perhaps our deepest fears and worries. Sooner or later, if we are to survive as a human species, this pervasive ‘stumbling block’ of negative suspicion, will need to come to some sort of end. As Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘be change that you want to see in the world.’ This is the challenge that humanity faces, we have reached the grand tipping point in our world, for the hour is later than we think it is, and global catastrophe looms large. Let us not bury our heads in the sand and turn away from the other in disgust or repulsion. The time is nigh, be that change, be the individual that looks to help more than to hinder, looks to accept more than to reject, looks to assist more than to be selfish. So, implement radical authentic impeccable compassion into your life, bit by bit, moment by moment, day by day. Forgive yourself for any failures to implement this completely. At the close of each day, review your interactions with others, review what you said about others to your close friends and family, review the thoughts that you had about others. If you find that you were not as impeccable as you could have been, balance that incident out in your mind, visualising what you might have said, how you might have acted in a positive compassionate way. Send them love, send them compassion, send them respect. This will balance out any negativity that arose. I propose that your life will radically improve if you can be a beacon of respect, the light of love, the heart of compassion, bestowing upon others your greatest concern, giving the gift of kindness and goodwill for the difficulties and challenges that others might be suffering, as if they are you - As if they are a mirror onto yourself, staring back at you, saying 'how may I be of service to you'?

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein The Universe is one interconnected whole. It appears to be made up of isolated and disconnected objects, but that is an allusion of perspective. You may appear to yourself to be separated from everything and everybody, but that too is an illusion of perspective. Everything is made of one thing, and one thing makes everything. This is the essential truth about reality. There is only one being, which is playing all parts. This is what is known as the Divine or your essence nature, it is a way of perceiving not objects, places and events but experiences. In my blog published yesterday on the 6th of June, I explored the left hemisphere and right hemisphere ways of perceiving the world. The right hemisphere is the trans-rational, nonlinear, non-local perspective which takes the big picture perspective. The whole to which it has access to is in itself, a mystery, a conundrum, which can never be solved. Left-brain thinking denounces divinity as hokum, because it cannot build a model, sufficiently complicated and complex, to account for Divinity. You are Essence Nature stepped down through many layers and bodies into the Human world, which is physical, slow, moving, and full of contradiction, which baffles and confuses us. At the very core of you is what is known as Awareness, this is pure consciousness, it is aware of your thoughts, your emotions, the sensations in your body, the experiences that you are having. This is your Essence Nature; it is the one that is aware, the observing consciousness at the heart of reality. Many cultures, traditions, religions and wisdom teachings, have had many names, for this Essence Nature, such as God, Yahweh, Tao, Brahma, Love, the Sacred, the Supreme Being, Allah etc. Each culture, tradition, and religion, believes that their God is the one true God. This way of thinking has caused many conflicts on planet Earth in Humanity's chequered history. Each group believes that it has access to the one true God, and all other gods are just fraudulent imitators. These claims are just psychological necessities, which are required to validate and uphold the structure of their own separate groups, communities or countries. The truth is, that there is only one being at the heart of all of these various beliefs, and that is Awareness in its pure Divine state. We will use the term Awareness to divest the definition of the essence being at the heart of reality, of any cultural definitions, which distorts its potential understanding. "Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced." Soren Kierkegaard Consciousness or Awareness is the ultimate reality of the universe, is the ground of all being. It is not an object or an experience, it is the one from which the multiplicity and diversity of all objects springs forth, and from which all experiences are created. Awareness has the ability to localise itself as any object, any experience and any event. My own favourite expression, which I use for awareness, is the One Infinite Creator, which is drawn from the teachings of the Law of One, through LL Research In this piece, I would like to use the following metaphor to illustrate and assist us in the exploration of your own Essence Nature. Imagine a screen upon which a movie is capable of being rendered, similar to a laptop display. The use of this metaphor will help us to explore the tenets specified above to a greater degree. I ask the reader to bear with this process, which may seem taxing; but it will hopefully enable a state shift in perception, which will facilitate an understanding of these tenets. You are the viewer, the observer of the movie. When no movie is playing the screen is dark and not perceivable. The screen can show a range of audio, visual movies. You can be completely immersed in the experience of watching to such an extent, that you do not even remember that it is a movie. You can easily forget or overlook yourself, the screen, and the movie as a whole - you only know the activity of the character’s, the changing scenes, your emotional reaction to the unfolding plot, the arc of the story. I want to propose that our direct experience of our own true Divine Essence Nature can be represented by the movie metaphor. For the purpose of this exploration, I would like you to suspend belief in everything that you believe you know about your reality, and just focus upon what you can actually determine for yourself, without reference to beliefs of any kind. In doing this, we are moving away from beliefs to direct experience, whereby we may infer certain truths only based upon that experience and nothing else. This is ultimate, radical, empirical evaluation, where only the direct truths that we can determine for ourselves, will inform our experience and nothing else. In this sense, reality is what is real for you. Your reality can be directly compared to a movie being perceived, not by your senses, but by the essential viewer that you are. Your reality is like a complex movie playing on the screen of perception. You are so engrossed in your life, which you believe to be real, that you have overlooked your essential Essence Nature, which is not actually a part of the action, feelings or thoughts that are taking place in the movie. It is just the observer, the knower of the movie. Reality is like a great immersive movie or simulation if you will; it has the power to suck one into it. The movie metaphor above can be directly experienced if you take time to observe it. At this point I ask you to close your eyes, take a long slow breath and relax into your chair. Become aware of the sounds around you, the sensations in your body, the feelings that you are having, the thoughts and images that arise. Do not try to control the experience in any way – just observe. This process disconnects you from your external environment and turns off the outer world movie. You are now focusing on your inner world. Focus is the key word. You are shifting focus from the outside to the inside. This reduces sensory information being processed by as much as 80%. At this point, you have shifted from the waking external world, of the Beta brainwave pattern, to the internal world of Alpha brainwaves. If you slow your breathing down to 5 seconds for the inhale and 5 seconds for the exhale, you will begin to shift into Theta brainwave pattern. This is the meditative state. In this condition, the experience of the movie of reality can come into sharp focus. By this I mean that instead of the knower of the movie being immersed in the movie, we have drawn back from the movie, and perceive that we may have been paying too much attention to the contents of the movie and have not perceived that it was just a movie, or to be more precise, an experience. Remember, I am just asking you to use your direct perception, of what you actually perceive, nothing more. Do not allow any memories, expectations or beliefs to interfere or control with what you are directly experiencing. You are not being tricked or deceived – if anything, you are being relieved of the delusion of superficial reality posing as intrinsic reality. If you spend time here, you will begin to notice that your thoughts come and go, come and go. You notice that the observer that you are, is not your thoughts, it is the one who is Aware of your thoughts. This is the same for any feelings, sounds or sensations that you may experience, they come and go. The longer that you remain here, the calmer, more grounded and peaceful that you become. After a lot of practice, you can learn to focus on the source of the focusing. At this juncture, nothing is playing upon the movie screen, no thoughts or perceptions. This is a state of self-awareness. In this condition Awareness has become fully absorbed by itself, knowing only itself. This is a state of complete transcendence, where Awareness (the knower), is only aware of itself. This primal experience is the ground of your being, from which all else arises, where Awareness itself, is self-luminous and self-reflective. As one returns from this experience and shifts focus to the external, the movie begins to play again. One, in this context, is the loci or focus of Awareness – the station of identity or Ego that shifts perspective from the infinite (totally revealed) to the finite movie (concealed and contracted, within a body). You may find that your experience of the movie and its contents may be different after this process. You may begin to perceive a continuum, ranging from being totally absorbed in the contents of the movie, to being aware of the experience of the movie, to dropping momentarily into a state of pure essence Awareness; whereby you become primarily aware of the knower of the movie, more than the experience or the contents of experience. This may bring greater balance, with the broadening of perspective. Is the movie of the external waking world real? In the continuum defined above, we could suppose that there are levels of reality, commencing with Awareness, and moving outward to the experience and finally the contents of the experience. As in a movie, the only thing that is real is the experience of the movie, for the individual contents of the movie, are an illusion, even though we might believe that they are real, whilst watching the movie. We do this to suspend ourselves into the movie, for the sake of being immersed into its environment, if only briefly. "We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom. "– Leo Tolstoy The difference between watching a movie, and experiencing life as a movie, is that in the latter, we can apparently reach into the movie with our own actions; we can seemingly touch it, smell it and taste it. We can move objects around. We can feel pain and we can suffer. However, if you spend time observing directly what is going on in your reality, all of the forgoing, are perceived as just really sensations, emotions and images being perceived in the immersive experience of being in a body. Being in a body is just an experience, that we take for granted as being real. Remember that when we close our eyes, the experience of being in a body, drops away. As we move towards the experience of presence, thoughts, sensations and emotions also begin to drop away. As part of our continuing exploration, I ask you to look at the objects in the room around you. Again, please suspend any preconceptions or beliefs that you may have. Instead of letting reason and beliefs guide us, only use what you directly experience as the truth. Do not be fooled by the so-called rationality of your memories or beliefs, arising from a left-brain perspective. Are these objects actually real, separate independent entities in their own right, or are they only projections within the movie of reality? By independent, I mean do they exist as separate self-defined objects, occurring without the need to be perceived by you (observer independent reality)? Yes, you can touch, taste and smell them; but how do you know that the sensation of touch is real? What evidence can you bring to bear that they are separate individual objects? Any sensations that arise within this perspective process, could also be coordinated projections of the immersive experience of the complex simulation that you are within. From our own personal observations, the only thing that is real is our experience of the movie of reality. In the same way, that when we watch a movie, the objects within it are not actually real – only the experience of watching the movie is real. Just because I use the word simulation here, please don't jump to conclusions and believe that you are in a matrix type simulation - That disempowers you. So, what is the movie of reality? To answer this, let us return to when you were born, before you had any language, or any ideas about the external world. As you grew and matured from that point, you began to amass a story about the experiences that you had. Using language, rationality, cognition, and memory, you began to string and cohere together a consistent and so-called, rational account of the experiences that you had. This built up what you thought was a picture of the external, observer-free separate reality, that you thought was real. This picture became your primordial experience. Bit-by-bit you became totally immersed within it; you began to believe in it. It became, your identity! As you met people, they seemed to corroborate various parts of it. You were taught things by teachers, read books, saw documentaries, watched the news, all of which were internalised and became trusted as real facts. You developed a belief system and held opinions. You created the movie, and you moved into it, and lived there. You may have noticed that you could not totally control what was going on in the movie. You could not always accept it for what it was, and continually tried harder and harder to change the movie, or at least the direction of its unfolding. All along, the watcher within, was just observing what was going on. The presence of Awareness was always there, but you were too busy with the objects of experience and your effort to change things, to notice it! You experienced lack in its various forms’ money, warmth, friendship, love, joy and happiness. The movie played on and on, sometimes it was enjoyable and at other times, it was, maddening, sad and sorrowful. There seemed to be nothing within it that was reliable or consistent; everything was always changing, relationships, jobs, homes, even the body began to deteriorate after a while. The movie became the collected experiences of your life. Some parts were just too difficult to deal with, so they went underground into the sub-conscious, there, to fester, only to arise in times of stress to run amok, to mess with your life, turning everything upside down, until they settled back into the shadows. Did you know that we are only 5% conscious? We are generally run by the 95% of the unconscious, making decisions, having opinions and biases, most of which we do not know consciously where they come from. "Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. " – Ralph Waldo Emerson The movie that you live within, called your conditioning, is entirely unique, only applying to you. How can anybody else have the same exclusive experiences that you have had? Some people do not even agree upon the so-called facts. Some of us are optimists, some are pessimists, some believe in God, some do not. We cannot even seem to agree upon what is right and wrong. Some of us are men, some women, each having such different perspectives. All of us come from diverse cultures, with different values and customs. Even within the same culture, there are massive variances, due to class, education, religious and political stances. No two people’s movies are the same! Think of all the people that have lived on planet Earth, in earlier epochs, which had different access to knowledge. Their ‘movies’ were vastly different too. Your movie is just your collected subjective experiences, period. That is all that that it is. Do not fall into the trap in believing that your movie is the only correct movie as well, and that all other movies are mistaken, because you perceive the one true absolute. Your movie is just a relative, arbitrary collection of conflicted, experiences, which probably do not make complete sense. To complete the characterisation of the movie, it is a finite mental construct, a sort of software programme, which has a mind of its own, called the ego or separate self. In order to maintain the illusion of separation which the movie invokes, Awareness can easily become saturated with the thoughts of the separate self, and the feelings and sensations of the physical body, losing its connection with its essential nature. The separate self is just the finite and limited container of Awareness, necessary to experience the movie, in a contracted form. The separate self is always attempting to make itself whole. At some point, probably due to excessive suffering, it recognises that it is finite, and incomplete and longs to be free of its suffering. So, it begins to grow and evolve, throwing off its limitations, seeking to resolve the shadow patterns within its unconsciousness, until it is ready to know itself for what it truly is. I know that it can be pretty difficult to accept or even just to contemplate, that all that you know, and thought was real, is just a relative illusion. I am only asking you to use your direct experience; not to rely upon anything external to yourself, or the apparent memories or beliefs that you hold to be true. Only accept what you can directly observe or internally enquire about. Summary: In conclusion, the above emphasises the interconnectedness of the universe and challenges the notion of separate and isolated objects and beings. It argues that everything is ultimately made up of one essence, referred to as Awareness or Divine Nature. Diverse cultures and religions have given various names to this essence, but they all point to the same underlying reality. The metaphor of a movie is used to illustrate the experience of life and the observer's role within it. By shifting our focus from external stimuli to our inner world, we can become aware of the observer within us, the one that is aware of thoughts, emotions, and sensations. This observer, representing our true Essence Nature, transcends the contents of the movie and is the source of pure awareness. The above suggests that reality is subjective and can be compared to the experience of watching a movie. While the objects and events in the movie appear real, they are ultimately projections within the immersive experience. Similarly, our experience of the external world is constructed through language, beliefs, and conditioning. This article invites readers to question the reality of objects and to recognize the limitations of their own subjective perspectives. By cultivating self-awareness and shifting our focus from the movie's contents to the observer within, we can broaden our perspective and experience a deeper connection with our essence. This direct experience of our true nature, beyond the illusions of separation and the ego, brings a sense of peace, grounding, and transcendence. Ultimately, the above encourages us to explore our own direct experience and to question the nature of reality, moving beyond beliefs and concepts to a deeper understanding of our interconnectedness with the universe.

“Through IFS we can learn to trust ourselves and trust our own inner guidance.” – Richard Schwartz. I ask that you use your own personal discrimination when reading this article, and set aside any words, aspects or concepts that do not resonate with you. For I recognise your freedom to choose what is right for you, and would not wish to violate your freewill, but rather, I would act only as a resource for your seeking. Before we were born, before we incarnated into our present lives, we chose exactly what the theme of our incarnation will be. We chose our colour, our sex, our bodily attributes, our family of origin, our energy type, our intelligence, etc. These 'aspects' represent the vibrational configuration of our incarnation, designed to meet the requirements of the themes that we will be working towards to meet our goals and objectives. You see, you are always in charge of what is going on for you, even if you don't know it or believe it. Freewill is the highest gift of conscious entities. Therefore, all that befalls you, is by your choice - I ask you to never forget that, for it empowers you!! I hear you ask, 'If that is so, then why do I suffer?' Well, you suffer because you have lessons to learn and understand, so that you can grow and evolve as a soul. You are always individuating, i.e. growing towards your perfect self. Each life is an exploration of how to achieve that. Suffering in the context of multiple incarnations, makes a strange sort of sense. Without the suffering how would you grow? Without the suffering what would force us to take new actions, come to certain conclusions, behave in more openhearted ways, and advance our wisdom about the true nature of existence? If all were rosy in the garden of life, what would help you to evolve? “IFS is a gentle and compassionate way of guiding us towards inner healing and growth.” – Richard Schwartz Suffering, sometimes known as contrast or alternatively, ' catalyst', is the cohering, directing and helpful signpost, which directs you to achieve your life's objective. You have lived many lives before, in many lineages, as men and women perhaps in all races of the world. For as a citizen of eternity, you get to choose all sorts of interesting incarnations. So, within this context, what is your inner child? As we grow and mature through each life, we experience certain events, some are enjoyable, some are painful. The painful ones are challenging; the painful ones are suffering; the painful ones cause us to move in certain directions. The challenge with multi-incarnational arcs (many incarnations), is that in each life, we can suffer splintering's, and fragmentation of ourselves caused by the catalyst. This fragmentation represent parts of ourselves which could not properly process the suffering that we experienced, therefore they 'splintered' off from us. Each life perhaps has a plethora of such instances. Thus, when we are born these fragmented parts of ourselves come with us into our psyche's, as autonomous parts, which are not integrated into our human personality yet. Thus, the fragmentation into parts, becomes even more catalyst for growth, further on down the incarnational stream. Life on Earth as a non-physical entity, in a human body, can be very tough indeed. But remember, this is why you came here, this is what you chose - this is your mission. The evolution of your conscious entity is about broadening your perspective, again, and again. This article is re-minder, a coded message to your unconscious, to 'wake up', recall that you are the one that is in charge, that you are not a victim! One of our jobs in each life, is to recognise these disparate parts, and begin to form a relationship with them. The part of ourselves which wants to form these relationships is our integrated healthy human personality, sometimes known as self-energy. As our human personality evolves through the individuation process, it becomes more stable, more grounded, more able to self-right, when it comes up against challenges. The stronger our human personality becomes the more balanced it is with the four archetypal energies, the more capable it is of meeting these inner parts of ourselves. The therapy of meeting these parts, is known as Internal Family Systems, or IFS (Click here for more details). If there is one thing that we can take forward onto to the next life, then it is the extent of our integrated human personality, which can form the basis of our next incarnation (if we so choose). The objective of the individuating process is to achieve wholeness (Click here for more details). This can only be done by integrating all the autonomous complexes in our psyche, bringing home the neglected, lonely and forgotten parts of ourselves, which were lost along the way, in our incarnational arcs. Each emotional trigger that you have, your sadness, your grief, your loneliness, your despair, your urge to death, etc., arise from these parts, which you have not integrated yet. “The more we can connect with our true self, the more we can find peace, joy, and fulfillment in life.” – Richard Schwartz. So, what is your inner child within the context of what we have stated above? Perhaps we can look at it as the guiding principle by which we can re-contextualise all the suffering that we have experienced. The Inner Child in this context, can be seen as the innocent continuum which observes and experiences the various events and relationships that happen to us, from when we were an infant to this present moment (played out over many prior incarnations). As we experience suffering, we lose our innocence, our playfulness, our exuberance for life, bit by bit. Maturing into an adult, seems to be a process of taking on the burden of all the things in our life, which didn't work out, which didn't meet our expectations or dreams. However, these experiences could in fact be just echoes from previous lives, correlating into experiences in this life. In other words, they did not originate in this life, they originated in our other lives, in those parts of ourselves which got left behind, stranded in space and time, which have not form part of our integrated human personalities. So, if this perspective resonates with you, perhaps you have an opportunity here, to recognise the themes of your current life, noting your emotional or triggers, and meet your own inner child. That inner child, or inner being, is the summation of all those parts, which are seeking your recognition and love. For underneath all this suffering, is a unique, beautiful, majestic conscious entity, who has been hurt by the collective suffering that you have chosen for yourself, in all your incarnations. You have the power to meet yourself, to encounter your unloved and unknown parts, to begin the process of calling them home. Your inner child is perhaps the original clean slate that existed before all the suffering that has befallen you. It is the spark of God, perhaps before the first incarnation, representing the playfulness, the expectancy, the joy of becoming your own unique, perfect self. “IFS is based on the idea that healing is possible at any age, and at any stage in life.” – Richard Schwartz. Each of these autonomous past life complexes, in your psyche, are what are known as 'Exiles.' They are guarded, by what is understood to be 'Protectors.' To meet and dialogue with the Exiles, you have to approach them via the Protectors. You see, as we lost each part of ourselves through the process of suffering, we left each part behind with a guardian to protect it, until we could come back and find it. Before integrating the Exile, we have to free the Protector. This can only be done by you, by your integrating human personality, working in alignment with your essence nature. See my article on finding your essence nature. Your inner child is/are really your inner children, which we have inadvertently abandoned because perhaps we knew no different. I urge you to find an IFS therapist and begin the process of meeting your inner children - it is a beautiful and enlightening experience, which I have been undertaking for a year now. It has allowed me to be more compassionate with myself, more forgiving of my self-condemnation and self-criticism. It has enabled me to meet myself lovingly, to open my heart to my: traumas, my limiting beliefs, my negative patterns, my history of failures, solitude and hiding and acting out. In the meantime, there is a practice that you can enter into, which might help you. When you are emotionally triggered, try to remember that this is one (or sometimes a complex) of your inner children calling to you for help - do not shun it, or turn away, or distract yourself, from its painful feelings. Begin the process of talking to them, either in your mind, or aloud. Differentiating their emotion, from your emotional state, is important. You can ask the part to dial back its emotion, to stop flooding you, inundating you with its feelings. You can say to the part, 'I can't help you if you are flooding me with your emotions.' If you feel an emotional state change, as a consequence of this request, then you know that you have commenced a relationship with that part. It is important that you be in your most compassionate, loving self, when you dialogue with your parts. Sometimes, one part can be talking to another part (that can be tricky indeed). However, if you have love, empathy and compassion in your heart, then you can be sure that you are in your Self-energy or highest version of yourself. You are the parent; you are the King or Queen; you are the saviour healing your lost children (parts). Each part has a story to tell, each part wants to be integrated, each part wants to be released from it suffering. The parts become triggered because something in the environment, an incident, an image, something somebody said or done, feels to the Exile like the circumstances of the original trauma. Below please find a poem which you can download that speaks to the experience of these parts. “IFS is a reminder that we are all complex and multifaceted beings, and that there is no one right way to be.” – Richard Schwartz. As you proceed to free each Protector, and integrate each Exile, you are becoming more whole, more balanced, more grounded, and integrated, you will experience less emotional toil, less instability, and more joy. Healing our inner children, will bring you more happiness, more loving, more connectedness, more of everything that you desire. Remember, the power to heal yourself is within you. Please look out for further posts on this topic, around various practices that we can use to soothe ourselves when we are emotionally triggered.

I ask that you use your own personal discrimination when reading this article, and set aside any words, aspects or concepts that do not resonate with you. For I recognise your freedom to choose what is right for you, and would not wish to violate your freewill, but rather, I would act only as a resource for your seeking. Let us start at a place of simple understanding, regarding the two types of perceptual planes that humans have their existence in. This will assist us in the discussions, articles and blogs, which form the content of this site. This framework is crucial to comprehending a clearer understanding of the significance of the impact that the Archetypal Mind has upon the beliefs and behaviours of Humanity. There are two realms that Man lives in. The first is the exterior world of things, places, events and people, distributed in space and time, known as the Universe (Exterior). The second is an interior realm of thoughts, intuitions, dreams, feelings and sensations, beyond time and space, known as the psyche (Interior). The first world is perceived from an Exterior objective perspective, the second from an Interior subjective perspective. The Exterior is physical, composed of delineated objects of form, made up of subatomic, atomic and molecular particles, presumed to be universal and subject to the laws and constants of physics. The Interior is non-physical, made up of various psychic structures of the mind. The Exterior is finite, and the Interior is infinite. I am making these distinctions, so that we can clearly orientate ourselves between our Exterior and Interior, so that we don't confuse the two. In actuality, this happens more often than we are aware of. So much so, that we inadvertently superimpose one upon the other, creating all manner of confusions and misunderstandings. The Interior often intrudes into Exterior, distorting our perception of it. All of the sciences, including maths, pertain to the Exterior, whilst theology (The study of the nature of God and religious truth; rational inquiry into religious questions), mythology and psychology to the Interior. Philosophy attempts to bridge both realms, to seal the breach. The Exterior is seen and known or knowable at least. The Interior is not seen nor known. Some say that the Exterior is the source of the Interior, whilst others reverse the order. The simple question is, do things grow from the outside in, or the inside out? I suggest that we look to nature for that answer to that question. According to the Big Bang Theory, the Universe apparently began with nothing, out of which all of the immense complexity of the Exterior physical realm arose. Science, it seems, has also admitted, that the Exterior is to be regarded as 99.99999% empty space! So, it starts with nothing and is composed of mostly, well, nothing! The Interior realm by contrast is not empty. At birth, the individual psyche itself commences with preformed psychic structures, known as the Objective Psyche, consisting of the personal and collective unconscious. Objective society is composed of subjective humans - without the later, we would not have the former. All stems from what is inside, driven by hidden processes, coupling together in distributed and interconnected interior ecologies. Science, the objective observer and empiricist, can only look at supermicro segments of the interior and infer broader macro conclusions about. It can't look at whole interiorities. Interior does not just mean when we close our eyes. Interior means the psyche and its content, the internal space which hosts, dreams, thoughts, feelings, sensations and most of all knowing. This last item is the culminating conscious power of the psyche, without which none of the former could be, well, known! This is the two worlds in which we live in, one exterior and objective and one interior and subjective.

I ask that you use your own personal discrimination when reading this article, and set aside any words, aspects or concepts that do not resonate with you. For I recognise your freedom to choose what is right for you, and would not wish to violate your freewill, but rather, I would act only as a resource for your seeking. As for myself, I guess that I'm a generalist, a non-specific disciplinarian, with no particular objective belief, one way or another. I suppose you could call me an agnostic, but that does not seem to fit the bill either. It probably stems from the observation that the more that I live my life, the less relevant that the necessity for absolute truth becomes - In fact, it may even be a hindrance. I call myself a continual experimentalist, a process orientated empiricist, a detractor from substantiation, an eternal wanderer, reaching for experiences of meaning which dissolve any resistance to being in the physical world. My perspective, arises from flitting from one subject to another, looking for something, which never seems to arise, which is only hinted at or inferred. Information, especially the objective type, abstracted to quantify the external world, relying upon complex arrangements of signs, seems to me at its core to be empty of meaning that nurtures, sustains and brings fulfilment, peace and happiness. It feels like there is a mystery at work in the world, which is, and should remain, an enigma. Where I was once looking for understanding, I feel more and more comfortable with surrendering into the journey, accepting that to travel is better than to arrive. To seek for something, suggests that there is a thing, activity or person (Objects) to be found, that will fulfil one's dreams, and satisfy our need to search any further. I have learnt that seeking for Objects, which exist in the outside world, is ultimately hollow, having no sustaining, redemptive or reconciling capacity. Looking for absolute answers to the big questions as provided by science, even if we obtained them, would not render life more meaningful, especially if it those answers were banal, like most, if not all, abstract knowledge, which does not make us happier, healthier or more creative? Perhaps the very thing that I was seeking is not a thing at all. Maybe it is not actually in the outside world. Perchance, what I am pursing is the meaning to not just life, as an objective abstraction of all lives, but the meaning of my own life! By the action of objective rationality, science has lifted Man out (abstracted) of a collective environment, sustained and regulated by a common framework of religion, brimming with personal and collective meaning. This has effectively recapitulated the exodus of Adam and Eve from Eden, leaving us stranded in an abstracted, objective, externalised land, devoid of personal and supra personal meaning. The word meaning has two definitions, one is abstract, sterile, quantitative and devoid of quality and refers to the external world. This definition relates to objective knowledge, regarding what is known, conveyed by what are called signs. Examples of this category are what do green traffic signals mean or what does the sign for a cigarette with a line across it mean? We abstract from the sign a known meaning or fact, which conveys direct information about the external world. In the case of the examples above, "Go" and "No Smoking", respectively. The other type of meaning is alive, organic and full of some quality which invigorates, generates and is laced with potency and efficacious intent and refers to our internal world (the domain of the psyche). The second category is a subjective, living meaning, denoted by symbols, which do not primarily refer to abstract knowledge, but rather to a psychological state that affirms life, like a deeply moving experience that relates to life as a whole, which nurtures and sustains, proliferating contentedness. Meaning in this sense, relates more to experiences than to Objects. It refers to a string of adventures, journeys, and encounters, that when strung together create an unspecific, moving narrative which promotes wellbeing. If the source of that process were determined, formalised and known, then perhaps its power would in time become diminished, passing from the unknown to the known, form the unconscious to the conscious, from Symbols to signs, from the subjective to objective. Symbols are not created by the rational Ego (artefacts), but are in a supra category of their own, arising unbidden from the unconscious. These symbols are emblematic of a deeper meaning, beyond our rational understanding, which are imbued with a quality that cannot be fully captured, but nonetheless predicate a state of affairs which nourish and encourage wellbeing. Paradoxically, symbols are simultaneously unbound, and strangely contained, unconsciously promoting a sense of wholeness, which irrationally satisfies some deeper unspecified hunger. Wholeness, when seen as a word, is a sign that signifies or delineates (to sketch-out) a situation that is beyond its capability to fully express. Any number of words, strung together in a sentence, paragraph, article or book, will never begin to approximate its deeper meaning. This is because language uses signs and not symbols, which appeal to our rational, abstract, objective minds. This is sometimes called the left-brain, which is linear, logical and local. Whereas the right-brain is trans-rational, non-linear and non-local, processing in a way that the left brain has few models for, with the exception of resonance, entanglement and super positioning. If the Ego constructs a sign, it will only refer to the limitations of objective abstraction. Abstraction, in this sense means 'drawn away' - but what is it drawn away from? Wholeness is not a concept, nor an idea or theory; it is a subjective experience. Subjective in this sense denotes 'Lying under.' There is a remarkably interesting symbol which has been partially appropriated as a sign, which is the Ouroboros, or its sign equivalent the Lemniscate. The latter refers to an infinite or unbound series of uncountable Objects. It is a mathematical sign expressly focused on innumerable objectification. Most definitions of the Ouroboros relate to balance, harmony, immortality and infinite reoccurring cycles. However, the deepest psychological meaning is wholeness. When we view this symbol, it is not to be understood, broken down, applied or subjugated to examination - It is to be experienced, allowed to suffuse into one without diminishment into analysis, like a setting sunset, and incredible landscape, the beauty of a bonny bouncing baby, the brilliance of a full moon, an exquisite melody, the taste of fine wine, the smell of a rose. The concept of Infinity misses the (ZERO) point, by focusing upon Objects and not the affirmation of perfection or its counterpart, completeness, which together form the whole. Could it be that we are seeking experiences that reaffirm wholeness? is the real journey to be remade whole, to reunite, to find our way home, to a place that we feel is inside us, but have forgotten what it is, or how to get there? Have we been lost in the wilderness of alienation from a sacred centre of mystery we unconsciously yearn for, which we have inadvertently transferred and projected into secular objectification, by a collective global culture which denies the sacred sustenance of symbols of wholeness? Becoming aware of this distinction is what I call leading the symbolic life.

I ask that you use your own personal discrimination when reading this article, and set aside any words, aspects or concepts that do not resonate with you. For I recognise your freedom to choose what is right for you, and would not wish to violate your freewill, but rather, I would act only as a resource for your seeking. So here I am, age 62, starting this website, in the hope of elucidating to you the world, my latest understandings about the so called 'spiritual or awakening' journey. To say that 'I've been traveling towards this point for my whole life,' seems like an understatement. So, what am I doing here? However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.” – Stanley Kubrick This site is about the search for the elusive answer to the great conundrum of life, which I hope promotes an answer to the question posed above. My own pursuit began at the age of eight, sitting in a gigantic cinema in Dublin, Ireland in 1968, watching the stunningly beautiful and enigmatic masterpiece by Stanley Kubrick: 2001 - A space Odyssey. This film blew my young mind, initiating me on a lifelong quest, to understand who I really was and what was the nature of reality I seemed to be in. This magnificent near silent visual poetry, opened something up in me, awakening me to a pursuit that would be present in all my subsequent activities. It prompted me to start paying attention, to question everything, again and again, to reach higher and further, groping in the meme fields of common and not so common culture, for a clearer understanding of what this reality truly is. Through my subsequent life I studied with passionate intent cosmology, quantum mechanics, philosophy comparative religion, chaos theory, math, the arcane and the exoteric … I read profusely, searching for the song which would light up my life and guide me forward in my search for the truth of myself. The surface narrative of the film seems to propose that an advanced alien civilisation gave Early Man a lift up the evolutionary ladder, by upgrading their intelligence, by touching a black monolith planted in their midst. This provided them with the capacity to use simple tools, not only to kill animals, which increased their access to higher calorific diets, thus providing them with more spare time to build civilisation - But also the drive and need to kill members of competing tribes, for resources, in pursuit of that objective. In one scene transition, which to me represents the greatest human developmental jump in cinematic history, we see a now enhanced ape throwing a bone into the air, which magically morphs into a satellite orbiting the Earth - a leap of some four million years in one 24th of a second. Through this presentation, Kubrick was telling us that once the ability to use tools had been obtained, the rest of human civilisational history was an evitability, which he promptly dispenses with as not being germane to the story and of little consequence. The film then takes us on an epic journey, first to the moon, where the monolith has been dug up, then to onto Jupiter where an even larger version lurks in the darkness, through which a Stargate opens up, taking us to the infinite and beyond. With each of the four stages or parts of the film, Kubrick is expanding our perception, enlarging our capacity for wonder and initiating the audience into higher and higher levels of knowledge. The premise of the film bypasses the standard Darwinian evolutionary path, by denying mankind the accidental self-evolving path, and proposing that without the external intervention, mankind would not have evolved to its current level. The deeper suggestion is that higher more advanced forms of life are always guiding lower lesser evolved forms. The ultimate inference is that there is always a supreme numinous power at work behind the scenes, holding, directing and supervising our personal and collective development. Interestingly, it has been pointed out, there is no mention of Aliens per se in the film. Besides the black monolith (which in some alchemical circles is code for Prima Materia – the prime substance out of which the Universe is constructed), no advanced technology is encountered. The opening of the movie has a dark screen for some 3 minutes, where we are actually looking at the monolith (without initially knowing it), turned through 90 degrees (I only found this out after watching the 50th anniversary screening), whilst listening to the World Riddle theme from Strauss’ ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The monolith image is an arc symbol that pervades the film. Perhaps we are being told that we also, like the apes, are being upgraded, as we touch the movie through the portal of the monolithic screen, this time with our minds, instead of hands. Many of the scenes are accompanied by celestial alignments. The first visual of the film opens with a mystical sun-earth-moon alignment - A lunar eclipse has just taken place. The sun is moving away from this configuration. There are also a plethora of continuity errors, which given Kubrick’s renowned fanatical diligence and attention to detail, can only be interpreted as deliberate. If so, then we are determinedly being ‘messed with,’ disturbed with pattern interrupts, presumably engineered to break our attachment to the surface detail of the film's presentation. In other words, the film has multiple layers designed to confuse, misdirect and confound. There are strange juxtapositions of significance, which cause paradoxical interference patterns. This all amounts to the supposition that nothing in the film is to be accepted as real at any level – the true reality is the personal journey of the viewer itself, as an experience of transformation and transcendence. Intriguingly, when we ignore the banal surface interpretation of our own lives and begin deconstructing it, deeper truths and meaning begin to emerge, only to be subordinated again and again, as we travel further into the mystery of the self. Since the blank dark screen at the beginning of the movie is our first encounter with the Monolith, upon which the film is projected, we are led to the conclusion that the film itself is the modern monolith of our Age – it is a film within a film, or a level of reality within a higher level of reality, a teaching machine with a higher purpose! The monolith can be seen as the representational means by which we perceive our own reality. It is our own personal screen that conveys and projects upon, our story, our interpretation of events, our sensuous connection to the external physical world. Could Kubrick be attempting to illustrate that our own minds are the monolithic locus of awareness, the lens of localised subjective perception, through which consciousness observes but also constructs the world at large? These are big questions that will be addressed in due course on this website. Now the question of ‘are we alone’ or are we one of many lifeforms distributed, not just through our own galaxy the Milky Way, but the Universe, has absorbed many a mind since time immemorial. And so, it gripped my nascent imagination! In my young burgeoning mind, some switch had been flicked on. It is as if some universal symbolism in the film working at some unconscious level, had instigated some deep programming [activation] in me. I began searching for answers. This exploration has carried me through my whole life and serves as the inspiration for creating this website. This quest has defined me, sustained me, kept me going through my darkest moments. It has built a pathway right through the centre of my neural net, impressing the need upon me to keep going no matter what (the disregard of the apparent solidity of presented evidence to the contrary). At times, I have felt like the protagonist of the film, Dave Bowman (or his earlier counterparts, Homer’s hero, Odysseus or Arjuna just before the great battle at Kurukshetra), on an incredible journey of exploration, not into the depths of outer space, but into my own inner landscape, which as I am discovering is infinite. This journey is not just my own, but yours too, if you did but know it. This journey has surpassed every film that I’ve seen, every book that I have read. At one stage I believed my life to be average, that I was born in a boring age, with no hope of proving my mettle. Now I see that this is the most exciting age that our race has ever lived through. What I didn’t know until the last 5 years, was that I was really searching for freedom, not from society and its impositions, but from my own suffocating conditioning. This life has been tougher than any war, or expedition to the poles, more tortuous than any existence of persecution and enslavement. This life has opened up the gates to my own personal Hades, where I have confronted my own demon shadows. The scariest journey is the one where we are asked to dissolve the very foundation upon which one stands. Where all beliefs are surrendered in faith as illusory deceptions, in pursuit of the ultimate truth. Where there is no guide but oneself. The greatest ask has been to open my heart to a world that has trampled it apparently again and again. The supreme sacrifice (to make holy, to become divine) is to love, not just oneself but the entire world, unconditionally, without the need for anything in return. And so, this blog will be my personal journal which accompanies the articles that I will bring forth, which I feel will be of interest to the world. The blog will inform the reader why I have chosen to approach the subject of the Archetypal Mind in the way I do, based upon my own intuitive and often inspired insights into the process of Individuation. I invite you to accompany me on this journey.

I ask that you use your own personal discrimination when reading this article, and set aside any words, aspects or concepts that do not resonate with you. For I recognise your freedom to choose what is right for you, and would not wish to violate your freewill, but rather, I would act only as a resource for your seeking. Not an original title for this piece, but a catchy one, nonetheless. So, what was Tolkien really talking about from a symbolic perspective, when he titled the last book of the trilogy, The Return of the King, in his classic masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings (LOTR)? The following demonstrates the power of the myth, to narrate the individuation process, through animated symbolism, which talks to us at a deep level, pulling us into a sacred realm, which typifies the struggle that the Ego experiences as it comes into conscious relationship with not only the four archetypal energies (King, Magician, Lover and Warrior), but the central archetype of the Self, the primordial fountain, the Source, or intelligent infinity. Like all myths, and there can be no doubt that the story is mythic, LOTR is an aspect of wholeness, arising from the Collective Unconscious, communicating with us beyond the relative, abstract level of the Human world, allowing us to be suffused with its symbolic power. The film trilogy (and to a lesser extent, the books) of Lord of the Rings, is probably the most significant and complete mythic narrative of our modern age. The trilogy is the most award-winning franchise there is, collecting more Oscars than Marvel, Harry Potter, and Star Wars combined! Why is this so? This myth portrays a fairly complete symbolic representation of the great battle between the forces of light and dark, and the process of what Carl Jung called Individuation. The setting of Middle Earth is diverse, rich and all-encompassing. The variation of its characters encapsulates a wide range of archetypes, from trolls, to elves, hobbits, men, dwarfs, orcs, Ents, etc. I suspect, we can all find a type or character in the myth with which we can identify. It has widespread appeal to all ages and races. The arc of the plot and the character development is maybe as good as anything else out there. The myth is life-giving, affirming gallantry and courage, commitment and determination, fellowship and participation in group endeavour. It inspires us to be our best selves, to have the chance to test our mettle, to evolve to a new level. In short, it has a magic which holds us in a spell so engrossing, that we project our unowned shadow selves into it, idealising, idolising and transferring our dreams and aspirations directly onto it, wishing we were there. Some say it's escapist - I posit that it is psychologically satisfying, generating inner meaning and purpose, releasing anxiety and suffusing us with levels of containment and regulation. Some would say that its impact upon humanity, cannot be underestimated. The Return of the King refers to one of the central characters of the myth called Aragorn, who came from the race of Men, and was the heir of Isildur, the founder and King of Gondor, who fought Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance, cutting the One Ring from his hand with a sword named Narsil. He therefore comes from a lengthy line of Kings, and accordingly his personality is principally rooted in the Royal sector of the psyche. Aragorn carried the shame of his lineage, knowing that Isildur had succumbed to the power of the One Ring, which symbolically means that he was grossly inflated with the archetypal energy of the King, identifying himself entirely with it, to the partial exclusion of the other three archetypes. The One Ring represents the power of archetypal grandiosity to possess Humans, to precipitate flooding within the psyche, causing those who come near it to desire to possess it, because of its great numinal power. Little did the Men of Middle Earth know that the One Ring is the possessor, not those who wear it - Aragorn was a sufficiently good Magician to know this. Isildur could have destroyed the One Ring by throwing it into the fire of transformation (Mount Doom) and thus sacrificing (to make sacred) his grandiosity, as advised by the Magician, Elrond. But he did not, because "men above all else desire power." He was possessed by the Archetypal energy of the King, fully identifying with it, believing that he could wield its power, which (as is always the case in such instances) caused his downfall and ultimately his untimely death. Aragorn’s statement that ‘the same blood flows in my veins, the same weakness,’ tells us that he was aware of the symbolic weakness of the Royal sector to become grandiose. Not wishing to become inflated with archetypal King energy, Aragorn has imposed exile upon himself, alienating his Kingship, becoming a Ranger of the wild, living far from his homeland, with no fixed abode. If he is not fully owning his King archetype, he certainly displays to us through the tale how developed and balanced he is in the other archetypes; his great Lover capacity is exhibited with not only Arwen, the daughter of a Magician, no less, but also to all those that he comes in contact with, especially the Hobbits. He is a formidable Warrior, whose aptitude as a fighter extraordinaire, is nearly beyond belief at times, considering the number of foes he singlehandedly faces and defeats. On many occasions, his Magicians’ knowledge is shown to us, displaying his great access to magic. Aragorn has every opportunity, just like Boromir, to take the Ring, but refuses to take it, constantly declining to take the easy route of becoming inflated in the King Archetype. He knows that he is not yet ready to become the Sovereign power, as he still in the process of balancing the archetypal energies (albeit unconsciously within the presentation of the story). Eventually, after many trials, without taking any shortcuts, he proves his worth to himself, which allows him to take up the reins of the King bit by bit. This is a crucial point in the Individuation process. It is not others who consider that we are worthy but ourselves, through working with our trauma, our shadow and anything else that inhibits us from knowing the beauty and splendour of our true selves. He is wholly admirable, kind-hearted, gentle, gracious, courageous, gallant and above all, is unflinchingly dedicated to the task at hand - and for this we love him unreservedly. We do this to such an extent, that some of us men, through idealising projection, transfer our own Kingship onto him, placing outside of ourselves, access to our own Royal sector, for fear that we will not be as good as he represents himself to be. Aragorn is deeply balanced with his own Magician, externally represented as Gandalf, to whom on occasion he gives great and pivotal counsel ('What does your heart tell you?'). He is the fulcrum of the Fellowship, his charisma interfaces with every person he meets, every event, meeting and battle. Even the dying Boromir eventually proclaims he is the rightful King: "I would have followed you, my brother... My captain... My king." To become the King, Aragorn has to fully balance the Royal and Magical sector of the psyche, along with the Lover and the Warrior, so that the crucible of his Human personality reaches its zenith, where all four energies are recombined into the One, in the centre, forming the Axis Mundi (World Axis or the Navel of the World). Only at this point does he become the generative Human Centre, re-ordering the Kosmos of Middle Earth including all its inhabitants, both light and dark, which is a symbol of the psyche. Only then is the Kingdom and its peoples (parts of the Ego complex) replenished. Sauron, the Dark Lord (read Lucifer, the Devil or the Prince of Darkness), is the archetypal grandiose King, which is Aragorn's unowned Ego opposite working in the shadow. This shadow King aspect desires to dominate, to control and subjugate, 'bending all to [its] will'; who 'does not share power.' Sauron is continually and excessively inflated in the King archetype, with no access whatsoever to the Lover sector. He is totally in service to his Ego self. He mistakenly believes he is the Great Self, the Centre, the primordial fountain. He is the active independent, the psychopath and megalomaniac, all rolled into one ball of raging evil, bent on destroying anything and everyone that obstructs his path of personal aggrandisement (total chaos and non-being). This is the power of unconscious, and inflated identification with the King 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 since the beginning of civilisation and probably before. This tripartite of archetypal domination is ubiquitously at work in our modern age perhaps more aggressively than ever before, with grandiose prime ministers, presidents, CEOs and the criminal fraternity, running amok in greedy power-hungry archetypal possessions. The symbolism of Saruman represents the inflated Magician, who has lost connection (if he ever had it) to the Lover and to the King Archetypes. He is preoccupied in the Magician's alchemical tower, detached from the external world, only interested in saving his own skin, conjuring up an army of dark forces, capable of fighting in the light of day. When the Ego becomes inflated in the Magician archetype, then deconstructionist agendas spring forth, co-opting the Dark Warrior to deliver diabolical outcomes, which ravage nature and the peasantry to achieve their end. Such inflation considers it appropriate to form alliances with the Dark Shadow King, blinded by the miasma of its own survival, to the knowing that they will have to eventually subjugate themselves to the higher power, which will ultimately gobble them up. Théoden’s possession by Saruman, represents the suppression of the balancing King archetype by the Magician, declining to give way to its sway, for fear of losing the supremacy of the Magician sector. It is only through the purity of the White Magician (Gandalf), can the control of the Dark Magician be thrown off, allowing King Théoden to return to his normal balanced self. To become Gandalf the White, Gandalf has to battle and defeat the Balrog, a demon of the ancient world, in the Mines of Moria. This deed is required to completely purify Gandalf the Grey, so that he can fully rise to his uninflated, incorruptible self, capable of defeating Saruman and supporting the free peoples of Middle Earth to defeat Sauron. The Balrog symbolises the shadow aspect of the Magician, which needs to be defeated, before purged purification can take place. Note that Gandalf only uses his great magical power against foes of equal stature to himself, such as the Ringwraiths and Saruman. At other times, it is his great Warriorship which enters the various battles and conflicts. The reforging of the Shards of Narsil into Anduril, Flame of the West, represents the gift of the Magician (Elrond again) to the King-elect. It symbolises the final part of the Individuation process, the pinnacle which enables Aragorn to win the Battle of Pelennor Fields, using the Ghost Army, which symbolise the ultimate Warrior capacity, which can't be defeated, because they are already dead. Aragorn is able to do this because he is the true King, offering the Ghost Captain freedom by enabling them to finally honour the oath they took to the false King Isildur. Let’s be clear, if the Battle of Pelennor Fields is not won, regardless of the fate of Frodo and the Ring, Mordor would have probably overrun Middle Earth. It is a crucial fulcrum in the story, which underpins the need for the Ghost Army. We have all probably seen the seemingly logical error in the myth surrounding the reforging of the Shards of Narsil. Why didn’t Elrond do it earlier? Well, we need to look at the symbolism in more detail. The reforging symbolises that Aragorn's inner Magician considers that the Ego organisation of itself has reached a sufficient level of integration, that the Magician sector is able to fully pass power to the Royal sector. If Arwen is prepared to sacrifice her immortality for the sake of her love for Aragorn, thus proving his integration of the Lover archetype to her Magician father, then perhaps he is ready to approach the throne of power, becoming in Elrond's eyes, the proper King elect, worthy of such power. The gift of the Sword is the final blessing and gift of the Magician, symbolically bestowing secret, arcane knowledge of how to manipulate the universe, in the service of the good. The Magician is thus integrated into the King, bringing with it all the power of the Magician Archetype. Anduril, Flame of the West is the sword of light, and is the shadow opposite of the One Ring itself. They have the same level of power; therefore, its forging is a necessary balancing action in the myth, to counteract the sway of grandiosity. When the King has truly found his Centre, then his power is unstoppable. Again, it is Aragorn's last stand against the forces of Mordor, at the Black Gates, leading an outnumbered army, through the most rousing of motivational speeches, which draws Sauron's vision away from Mount Doom, enabling the final destruction of the Ring in the fiery 'chasm from whence it came.' This final achievement tells us that the individuation process for Aragorn is nearly complete, since all chance of inflated grandiosity, has now been transformed by fire. Ultimately, Gandalf the great white (non-Elvin) Magician passes power to Aragorn, in his coronation in Minas Tirith, where his first act of gracious humility, is to bow to the smallest members of the victorious army, the four Hobbit's, displaying that he is not in any way like Sauron. Interestingly, even Frodo, symbolically portraying Aragorn's inner child, being more innocent than most, and closer to the Archetypal Self, succumbs at last to the power of the grandiose Ring, refusing to surrender it just like Isildur in the bowels of Mount Doom. This chamber is the crucible of transformative change and is a special space where potent dynamics are at work. The desperate greed of Gollum for the One Ring is more potent than any other character in the myth. Without Gollum, the Ring will not be destroyed; he is the last part of the great jigsaw puzzle, which executes its final destruction, if inadvertently. He is always present on the fringes of the story, until he fully appears in the Two Towers (a symbol of the continual dualism at work in the psyche). The meeting between Frodo and Gollum signifies that Frodo is coming into direct contact with his own grandiosity, as he draws closer to Mordor, as the Ring becomes heavier to carry. This entanglement allows Frodo to project his grandiosity onto Gollum, allowing him to carry it, until he reaches Mount Doom. He controls his urge to become inflated by privileging Smeagol over Gollum, but this does not last as we draw closer to Mordor. However, as soon as we are in the fiery chasm, Frodo's alter Ego or shadow self fully appears for us to see, no longer projected; this is not the Frodo we know; it is his shadow opposite. The fight between Frodo and his shadow self is externalised within the mythic presentation of the tale, as the fight with Gollum for the Ring. Frodo is battling with himself, coming face to face with what has always been in his shadow, which is his inflated grandiose opposite. He has to acknowledge this aspect if he is to overcome it. It is only through the final fight between Frodo and his own shadow opposite, as represented by Gollum, does Frodo throw of the hitherto hidden inflation of archetypal possession. His shadow complex wins the doomed and fatal fight for grandiosity, as it always does, but in doing so devours itself, and burns up in the fire of transformation. We know that Frodo is ashamed of this display of archetypal grandiosity, which takes place in Mount Doom, because of how tepidly he greets Sam, when he wakes up in Minas Tirith. The myth of LOTR is a universal motif of Individuation, resulting in the Sovereign Centre being established in the Kosmos of psychic space. Only when we sacrifice our own grandiosity, balance the archetypal energies and banish the old tyrant King, at work in our shadow, does the Return of the King (or Queen) take place. Aragorn's journey is more than the Hero's Journey, it is an example of fierce intent, valour, openheartedness and determined focus upon the prize of establishing a conscious Ego-Self axis at all costs. Aragorn is our role model, which exemplifies the possibility of us all taking and completing the Individuation process, bringing about what Robert Moore called a 'Forest of Kings' (and Queens), covering the face of Earth, giving rise to the New Epoch, which is upon us.

The Process of Individuation Manifesting Your True Self "To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." - EE Cummings I ask that you use your own personal discrimination when reading this article, and set aside any words, aspects or concepts that do not resonate with you. For I recognise your freedom to choose what is right for you, and would not wish to violate your freewill, but rather, I would act only as a resource for your seeking. Becoming your true Human Self, revealing your unique essence, unfolding your blueprint, within the differential of wholeness, the diversity of inclusivity, the distinctly unified, is the journey of Individuation. This process is not about sitting on your mediation mat and disassociating yourself into the void, avoiding what it is to live inside this skin-encapsulated ego, this physical feeling body, this heavy gloopy medium of frustrating ups and downs. To be Human is to be a combination of the subtle non-physical bodies of spirt, and the electrochemical, biodiverse, trillion-cell Earth-Suit, of the atomic domain. Being a Human on this beautiful blue water planet, is not about living solely in the light of oneness. It is about being as present as we can be in every moment. It's about reaching into the darkness of the unknown, searching for the shadow, loving the journey of feeling the full spectrum of the emotional scale. It's about accepting the whole experience of existing in this dualistic, rollercoaster, in the great veil of Maya. It's about facing our suffering consciously, knowing that it is just catalyst, arising again and again to teach us about the themes, lessons and opportunities, to grow as souls. The world is trying to make us ordinary, compliant and uniform. It wants to strip us of any vestige of being special. For how can all of us, actually be distinctively remarkable? Well, the answer is that we not only can be, but we already are, did we but know it! This is the dupe that we are all playing upon ourselves. Somehow, we have forgotten that we are all divine sparks, distinct scintillas of sacredness, flung far and wide in the ever-connected sea of underlying unity. The answer to this most paradoxical of questions, is that the One plays the All - the special uniqueness of you, is the most supreme secret of divinity, the most exalted mystery of life, the central conundrum of being. Do not let this truth slip through your fingers of unworthiness, to be gobbled up in the shame of not genuinely believing that you have a God given right to exist, as you are. Your essence is the One, expressed in the beauty of personification of the many faces of the infinite One, playing in the grace fields of Individuation. Life desires you to be your deepest self, it supports your every effort to bring yourself to the banquet that celebrates you. Our greatest gift to the World is to be ourselves. So often the goal of spiritual path is seen as becoming enlightened, to somehow transcend this Human life onto a higher plane, where everything is so much easier, where we don't have to deal with suffering the range of emotions in response to the terrible conditions under which humanity has to endure. If we are not careful, this type of approach can bypass our own humanity, denying the need for it. As lightworkers, wanderers and Starseeds, it can seem so challenging to be here, so unnecessary. This attitude rejects the most beautiful opportunity that life here has to offer; the chance to deeply examine within us all that blocks us from loving ourselves to the greatest degree that is possible. To fully accept our own beauty, to resolutely recapitulate our ancient edict to serve the One true Creator within ourselves, to recall our bodhisattvic intent to own our own divinity, to resurrect this under any challenge, to remember that our incarnational arc is as sacred as any other and loved unconditionally by life. Loving ourselves is loving the journey, discovering that we are love itself, that there is nothing but the love of the infinite for itself, expressing in its eternal multiplicity. Your Human personality is developing towards wholeness, harmony, stability, creativity and abundance, leading to total wellbeing - you are becoming your true self, a unique, unparalleled, individuated person, with access to your gifts and talents. The good, the true and the beautiful where elegance, flexibility and grace abounds, defines the level of integration in the System-Self, indicating where we are in our individuation. It is a tuning process, where differentiated, structures and patterns in the psyche are balanced with their opposites, becoming more effective and generative. The affiliation of the Lover is met with active boundaries of the Warrior, where the wise cognition of the Magician with effective ordering of the King and Queen, creating an integrated self-Kosmos, which utilises archetypal energies, without being compulsively and unduly influenced or flooded by them leading to imbalances. This is done by lovingly ordering our psychic Kosmos, efficaciously using universal patterning, which minimises chaos. Our Human individuating selves have been interacting with the archetypal forces of the King/Queen, the Magician, Lover and Warrior, either unconsciously or consciously. If the former, then we have been unwittingly engrossed in their energies, causing us to become over energetic, tipping the balance of our psyches towards that archetype. If we are inflated in the Royal sector (King/Queen), then we can be too independent, asserting our entitlement, without due regard for others. This can lead to dictatorships and totalitarianism. If we are engrossed in the Magician sector, then we can become detached, indifferent, tearing down everything in a deconstructionist frenzy, hiding out from the world. If we are overcome by the Lover sector, then we can become too dependent upon others, lost in that space, succumbing to our deepest feelings disorientating us, becoming addicted to our pain and that of others. If we are possessed by the Warrior energy, then ambivalence can reign, where everybody becomes the enemy, where rage, anger and aggression is the answer to everything. If we don't balance these energies, then we can lose our compass within the psyche. Our journey involves re-establishing an unwavering connection to the Centre of this space, building a strong channel through which the numinous can flow into our Human world. If all four of these archetypal energies are balanced within the psyche, each containing and regulating the others, then a type of Self unification can occur, where we can consciously utilise the archetypal energies to undertake whatever action, state, process or connection is necessary. For instance, when we need to make a balanced heart centered, generative decision, reordering our own personal domain, or interacting with others, then calling forth the King/Queen energy to do so, brings us into alignment with that power. Before doing so, we want to consult the Great Magician, calling forth wise and balanced council - for this is the sector of knowledge, knowing, and intuition. Inviting the lover energy into the process to ensure that love, connection and joy are introduced into the process will ensure that whatever decision is made is bound with balanced love. At last, we can call forth the Great Warrior energy when we want to enact that decision and undertake its physical action, by constructing something, doing something, setting a clear boundary. The energy of Fire is need for any action we undertake. This is the power of the four Archetypes - they provide the energy for our Human personalities. History is littered with ill-favoured actions of those who have unwittingly fallen prey to these great energies, which we have unconsciously misused to feather our own nests, protect our families, build our empires, enslave others, and wreak havoc upon the Earth. This is the continuum of creative integration, to become conscious of the power of the archetypes, to balance them, to build an Ego self-system that can hold their enormous power, without cracking, fragmenting or becoming dominated by any one of them. As we learn to balance, we begin to harmonise, to move toward becoming a fully-fledged sovereign Human being, consciously utilising our Archetypal Mind to individuate, to bring forth our unique selves into the world, expressing our talents and gifts in service to others.