The idea that sentience is an inevitable outcome of evolution, is a tacit understanding by most scientists. The consideration that there are other populated planets in distant galaxies, where intelligent life exists, with which we might communicate, defies credulity, especially where it is linked to the notion of space travel. The whole universe is suffused with non incarnate intelligence, all of which is seeking to communicate all of the time. The universe is in our minds and our minds are in the universe, a priori, it can only be so. It is simply that the scientific method can only deal with objective material phenomenon, overlooking the non material phenomenon it uses in making these observations, but which it worships i.e. The Mind.
Communication is measured in wave, structure and form, all of which we can observe, but the universe also communicates through symbolism - a realm that art seems to have made its own and which science dare not enter, except perhaps through maths, where structure and symmetry has abundant meaning. There is nothing in the universe that is outside of symbolism, it is the basis of mind and it is the basis of creation, it is simply that it exists in an area adjacent to the focus of our modern materially conditioned mind.
When I was fifteen I put forward the idea that the only thing that could exceed the speed of light was thought. I hereby modify that statement. The only thing to exceed the universal material constant by its instantaneous communication, is transcendent thought. Think it and it shall be so, for we are only masters of our own minds, when we realise that our thoughts are not our own.
... and that our lives are an endless series of symbols.
A recent dialogue for me and a much less recent dialogue for them: when a student asked his guru, 'why can we no longer see the face of God, like our forebears did', The master replies: 'because we cannot stoop low enough'.
The inflation of the Persona is commensurate to the inflation of the Shadow. These two, more or less personal components of the human psychological personality are inextricably linked in a system of compensation (the bigger they are the harder they fall).
The Soul, or Anima/Animus archetype supplies The Shadow with its transcendent connection to the Old Wise Man archetype, which is more or less indistinguishable from the Spirit, or God. ...and it is all very unconscious... (see Jung Red Book)
Science sees (the effects of) this configuration from an empirical standpoint, using sense perception, whereas art sees it from a similar standpoint, but using intuition.
The fact that there has been a massive inflation in the human spirit in the last sixty years, impacts mankind through this archetypal configuration. This inflation arrives at the level of the Anima/Animus, where the Yang component is held in suspension - giving rise to a massive material, (Yin) compensation in the Persona. This situation cannot continue indefinitely...
The biblical statement, my cup runneth over, is something I have had to live with all my adult life.
Seems complicated!
The idea is as simple as e=mc2. it is the implications that are as yet unseen. Each element of Jungs original notion of The Marriage Quaternity: Persona, Shadow, Anima/Animus, Old Wise Man, is, under certain pre-determinants, capable of autonomous action through what we regards as our conscious personality. Thus my statement, 'our thoughts are not our own'.
Some people, the so called, 'intuitives', seem capable of 'seeing' in a way that those with locked vision, 'sense perceptionists' can't. People with a fixed, sense perception minds are more likely to fall prey to being completely overwhelmed by contents from the Shadow complex, when their Persona orientation breaks down, than those with a more intuitive mind, simply because they have no intimation that there is anything more.
However, those with an inner vision are more likely to have regular communication with elements of their unconscious. This inner vision often handicaps such people into not easily seeing through the function of sense perception, hence the division between the so called, scientific and artistic mind sets.
The active archetypal process in the breaking down of the Persona is what Jung called Individuation. Its function is to re-orientate the personality ahead of death, where subjectivity is subsumed by a more objective state of psychical reality (the repository of the collective unconscious as Jung called it).
When I meet someone who has a magnetic effect on my Anima (soul), I ask the question, who is this - not only empirically, but also and more important, spiritually. These relations can be fleeting, or long lived, the important thing is the underlying symbol. When you next think about those that cross your path, for good or ill, take yourself beyond the realm of subjectivity and consider how your personality structure has been affected, or not - in this lifetime...
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