The Quest: Vision in an Age of Crisis. Jungian Psychotherapy

The first of two podcasts on James Lovelock. The evolving ecological crisis is of such gravity as to constitute collective suicide by humanity. This first podcast looks at the theory and evidence.

This is the first episode in a series that explores great visionaries from across the ages who have changed our history and contemporary world. This episode examines Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - an obscure Jesuit priest of the 20th century who gave a blazing vision of the miracle of evolution and offers an alternative view to the materialist world paradigm which has led us, sleepwalking, into our current crisis.

The Quest Season about to begin will examine the great visionaries across the ages in order to seek vision for the crises of our times. These are termed the eight horseman of the apocalypse: the conflict of ideas, the economic, political, military, social, ecological and spiritual crises as well as the alteration of human consciousness as it becomes fused with artificial intelligence. The human race stands at a crossroads or at a dead end. Just as individuals suffer wounds and traumas and need healing, so too with the collective and planetary dimensions. We search the world's wisdom traditions in order to heal the wounds of our age and seek meaning and direction in the evolving crises of the 21st century.

The underlying philosophy upon which these podcasts are based is in the following book and can be obtained at the link below:

The Sower and the Seed

Reflections on the Development of Consciousness

(Karnac Books 2015)

https://rb.gy/xmvpjq

Musical extracts in these podcasts taken from:

1. BBC radio 3 recording of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony 2005 and made available on the Internet Archive on a Creative Commons label. https://archive.org/details/BBCSymphony3Beethoven_1

2. The Internet Archive on a Creative Commons label a 1943 Bayreuth recording extract from the end of Wagner’s Gotterdammerung: https://archive.org/details/Goett42bayreuth3/29+-+3.Szene+4+-+Fliegt+heim%2C+ihr+Raben.mp3

The image accompanying these podcasts is The Sower and the Seed which was drawn by Lindsey C. Harris and was incorporated on the front page of the book of that name.

We explore the connection between this ancient Taoist meditation text and the school of Carl Jung. Despite it being an esoteric text it contains a wonderful meditation guide and an entrance into the philosophy of the Far East. It has much to offer modern psychotherapy and those who seek healing in so far as it has a transpersonal dimension and takes seriously the proposition that spiritual practice is of great value in the healing of emotional wounds.

If thou wouldst complete the diamond body without emanations,

Diligently heat the roots of consciousness and life.

Kindle Light in the blessed country ever close at hand,

And, there hidden, let thy true self eternally dwell.

                                               The Book of Consciousness and Life

The history, metaphysics, and spirtual position of this ancient Taoist text is described. It has an ancient Chinese style which is inherently mysterious, symbolic, and elusive yet it has within its pages a secret of spirtual transformation that is inherently facinating and has stood the test of time.

The Tao (the Way) is that which exists through itself; it is the one essence; there is nothing above it; it is the one primal spirit.

Essence and life cannot be seen but are contained in the light of heaven. This light is the Golden Flower, the true energy of the transcendent one which, if attained, brings life, if lost brings death. One may live in the energy and light but not see it as fish live in water but see it not.

        "Silently thou fliest upward in the morning". 

THE NATURE OF HEALING INTELLIGENCE

Can religions be integrated with a spiritually orientated psychotherapy? Are there psychological skills favouring healing? What is the role of the psychotherapist in this healing process? Is psychotherapy necessary for healing  to take place? Can psychotherapy block the healing process? Can all wounds be healed? What is the wounded healer? Can psychotherapy benefit those on a spiritual path? How is healing connected with individuation and wholeness? What has love and death got to do with it? 

The book upon which these podcasts are based is:  

Healing Intelligence:The Spirit in Psychotherapy

Working with Darkness and Light.

 (Karnac Books 2012).    It can be otained at    https://rb.gy/v4vntt

My initial question (how does healing work in psychotherapy?) and subsequent search has really turned into a longer series of other questions each of which could be broken down into further questions themselves. Let me add the obvious. The ultimate answer will never be given; but like the pearl of great price it might be intuited, approximated, and hopefully lived. Our knowledge in this field is necessarily limited; one can only reach so far into the unconscious, like wading out from the shore of an ocean.

The sweetness of the desert breeze

You can’t grasp in your hands.

She’s like the waters of the Nile,

She comes from other lands.

                The Sower and the Seed - Isis poem

There may emerge unusual features once the inter-subjective field is activated. A field is an area of influence and a shared field is where two psyches, apparently separate, have temporarily dropped their boundaries and a non-verbal sharing of experience, sometimes in the form of images, sometimes with voices, takes place. This is a manifestation of healing, not belonging to an individual psyche; it is the intelligence that organises the field itself.

It is often said that therapists should have empathy. But what is this capacity to enter into the emotions of another and feel things from their point of view? And are there different grades or qualities of empathy? This podcast will provide a perspective and suggest some answers to this important question.

The cosmic principle of the opposites of creation and destruction, life and death as illustrated in Hindu metaphysics with the dancing Shiva is played out in psyche in many ways of which healing intelligence versus the forces that undermine it is one manifestation.

Six ways in which healing works in the psyche are described. There are also numerous impediments in our psyche to this wonderful intelligence functioning properly: twelve are outlined.