into the house because the dog had fleas!
Over the years the incident with my grandmother receded from my memory but the lesson had become lodged in my unconscious. Without knowing why, when I saw the dog in the house, I simply acted out of that bit of unconscious flotsam. When I recalled the incident, it became possible for my bias to migrate from my unconscious world to my conscious world and now I could make much saner decisions about the dog being in the house. (However, being a slobbering bulldog, I still preferred the dog outside but not because of fleas!)
Such experiences, both comic and tragic, are common to all of us and surely hint that our conscious awareness of any given moment is by no means all that there is to our being. Somewhere, like a vast storehouse, or perhaps better still, like a huge vibrant repertoire of human experience, our unconscious world constantly feeds us with information, not all of which is amenable to rational manipulation.
Sometimes that information is no more profound than the warning that dogs have fleas (!) but the range of human experience we each carry within us is vast, timeless and immensely powerful.
Buried in my unconscious world are the frightening places where I experience the demonic and give a face to the Prince of Darkness. Fortunately, here too, I find nourishment from my Wisdomkeepers, bearers of virtue, and hope and the unconquerable power of love. Rooted in this mysterious universe lies the source of my greatest strengths and also my most fatal weaknesses. Here I hear the whispers that seek to undermine my self-confidence and here the secret gift of assurance that I am loved and I am capable.
From some part of this parallel world come the warnings and shibboleths, disguised as wisdom and passed on from generation to generation upon which we bestow huge amounts of power and authority - with little reflection. Few wars have ever been fought without politicians and generals couching their messages in the language of images fed to us by our unconscious world and every cleaver advertiser has made use of the same technique.
My unconscious world is a mystical place which enables me to understand realities about which no one ever taught me. When you tell me that you are terrified, or that you have fallen in love, or that you are experiencing depression, I understand the meaning of these words, not simply because I have read about them but because I too have experienced terror, love and depression. Furthermore, there was never a time when we did not know about these things. We were born with this knowledge and it is firmly lodged in a repertoire housed in our unconscious world. All we manage to do as we grow up is to give the experience a name.
The ancient Platonists and the Romantics claimed that children were born from another world and entered this world with infinite knowledge. Slowly as the baby grew this psychic knowledge disappeared into the unconscious. Be that as it may, you and I know we share a common repertoire and that enables us to understand each other. It has been well said that we could not engage anything in the world “out there” had we not first encountered it in the world “within.”
If for, a moment, one assumes the existence of parallel universes we are immediately presented with the problem of communication. How do these mysterious, invisible worlds interact with each other? And more importantly, how do we create a bridge across which they might engage one another?
Unfortunately our unconscious universe is infinitely more powerful than our conscious world and the best we can do is simply to be open to a dialogue initiated by that unseen world.
And the dialogue happens!
Sometimes for no logical reason an idea is born or a flash of insight is offered. As far as I can tell it came from within me. It sometimes feels as though one part of me, unfettered by logic or limitations, has made a gift to another part of me! Then I wonder if that
Over the years the incident with my grandmother receded from my memory but the lesson had become lodged in my unconscious. Without knowing why, when I saw the dog in the house, I simply acted out of that bit of unconscious flotsam. When I recalled the incident, it became possible for my bias to migrate from my unconscious world to my conscious world and now I could make much saner decisions about the dog being in the house. (However, being a slobbering bulldog, I still preferred the dog outside but not because of fleas!)
Such experiences, both comic and tragic, are common to all of us and surely hint that our conscious awareness of any given moment is by no means all that there is to our being. Somewhere, like a vast storehouse, or perhaps better still, like a huge vibrant repertoire of human experience, our unconscious world constantly feeds us with information, not all of which is amenable to rational manipulation.
Sometimes that information is no more profound than the warning that dogs have fleas (!) but the range of human experience we each carry within us is vast, timeless and immensely powerful.
Buried in my unconscious world are the frightening places where I experience the demonic and give a face to the Prince of Darkness. Fortunately, here too, I find nourishment from my Wisdomkeepers, bearers of virtue, and hope and the unconquerable power of love. Rooted in this mysterious universe lies the source of my greatest strengths and also my most fatal weaknesses. Here I hear the whispers that seek to undermine my self-confidence and here the secret gift of assurance that I am loved and I am capable.
From some part of this parallel world come the warnings and shibboleths, disguised as wisdom and passed on from generation to generation upon which we bestow huge amounts of power and authority - with little reflection. Few wars have ever been fought without politicians and generals couching their messages in the language of images fed to us by our unconscious world and every cleaver advertiser has made use of the same technique.
My unconscious world is a mystical place which enables me to understand realities about which no one ever taught me. When you tell me that you are terrified, or that you have fallen in love, or that you are experiencing depression, I understand the meaning of these words, not simply because I have read about them but because I too have experienced terror, love and depression. Furthermore, there was never a time when we did not know about these things. We were born with this knowledge and it is firmly lodged in a repertoire housed in our unconscious world. All we manage to do as we grow up is to give the experience a name.
The ancient Platonists and the Romantics claimed that children were born from another world and entered this world with infinite knowledge. Slowly as the baby grew this psychic knowledge disappeared into the unconscious. Be that as it may, you and I know we share a common repertoire and that enables us to understand each other. It has been well said that we could not engage anything in the world “out there” had we not first encountered it in the world “within.”
If for, a moment, one assumes the existence of parallel universes we are immediately presented with the problem of communication. How do these mysterious, invisible worlds interact with each other? And more importantly, how do we create a bridge across which they might engage one another?
Unfortunately our unconscious universe is infinitely more powerful than our conscious world and the best we can do is simply to be open to a dialogue initiated by that unseen world.
And the dialogue happens!
Sometimes for no logical reason an idea is born or a flash of insight is offered. As far as I can tell it came from within me. It sometimes feels as though one part of me, unfettered by logic or limitations, has made a gift to another part of me! Then I wonder if that
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