ACTIVE! ENGAGED! FULFILLED!
It's a warm sunny spring day. Last night I drove to a friend's house in Venice, FL. On my way, I got locked in traffic for nearly an hour, which was a drag, but I reminded myself - someone at the end of the clutter is having it worse, possibly far worse than me. I'm not suffering it all; I'm just eager.
The traffic gave me more time to listen to a Robert L. Moore lecture on Grandiosity, the second part to be exact and my drive home at 2 am, I heard the third part. After I got through the traffic and on my way I had to stop to take a leak and after I pulled out from WaWa, continuing to listen to this lecture, I saw a billboard with a senior-aged woman holding out her arms wide with an elated expression and the words above her ACTIVE! ENGAGED! FULFILLED! It struck me as a potent synchronicity paired with Moore's wise words spoken in an Arkansas drawl.
Robert L. Moore coauthored King, Warrior, Magician, Lover; a Neo-Jungian classic about archetypal male psychology. KWML is an excellent intro to this d of thinking, but Moore's lectures are equally enlightening and rich with information on self-discovery and individuation.
In part one Dr.Moore emphasizes (he's speaking to psychoanalysts and theologians) the importance of not overwhelming people with too much information. He says, "One of the most important truths any teacher, healer, or psychotherapist has to learn if they are not going to push people into more chaos is that people have to be given knowledge at an optimal rate. Because the rule is that if more information comes into your system than your processors can process, your system integration will degrade. If you're overstimulated by too much information, even if it's right, maybe even especially if it's right… it will regress you. So if you're working with someone, try to be kind and have empathy for how much their system is already struggling to make sense of things. St.Paul said, be careful about what form of food you give to someone…" and later, "We have information overload now. Technical knowledge has outrun our spiritual capacities, and all the digitalization is making us less capable of regulating. As the increase of digitalization goes on the evidence is that it degrades the quality of interpersonal relationships. And you know what the most important, effective regulator for you is? It's a loving heart connection with someone or someones' and without that heart connection, if we just go with knowledge, it's going to make us crazier."
I've told many people about Erik Davis' lecture Reality Liquified, but it is worth mentioning again after that. And Marshall McLuhan said sometime in the 1960s that the electric age (digital age) would make people more tribal. We can feel something in the air.
Early on in part one Dr. Moore talks about the importance of not being anxious. In those simple words - however you need to do it, don't be nervous. Anxiety makes us lose touch with our rationality and our humanity. It's great to be reminded of this. There is a nonstop influx of opinions and gloom; we must tune it out and get in touch with our humanity. It's crucial for our survival.
In the second lecture Dr. Moore lays out the differences and similarities in each of the three main schools of psychology those being Freudian, Jungian and Adlerian. My knowledge is too limited for me to speak on these differences, but I found Dr. Moores synopsis helpful. One part I could follow was that Freuds ID, the subconscious drives of man are a massive part of all schools of psychology, but they are spoken of in different perspectives. The ID is where all of our drives and preferences come from, it is where the archetypal self is stored. Moore says that the archetypes of our ancient unconscious are parts of ourself we should harness, but not become. A man that is overcome by his Lover archetype might be a drug addict or sex addict, he may bounce from person to person seeking refuge in their company. A man possessed by the warrior archetype tends to be a workaholic and lack closeness in his relationships. For men it is important that we know how these archetypes play out in our lives and which archetypes we tend to get absorbed into. The ideal situation is to benefit from then all: a work drive from your Warrior, an enjoyment in life from the Lover, intuition from the Magician, wisdom and order from the King.
In the third lecture Dr. Moore goes deep into spirituality. He speaks a lot about what the process of individuation looks like in the spiritual perspective. He compares schools of Buddhism, primarily Tibetan with Christianity. He talks about being in-touch with the presence of God, Dharma or the Holy Spirit. He says that we should never feel alone, this is our ego fooling us because for some reason the Ego wants to run off on its own sometimes, but this causes many psychological problems in our lives.
I’m still studying the chakras and bioenergetics, which is somatic (the body) psychology. I think there is a system to be created between all of these and truthfully there already is and has been interpreted through Yogic philosophy, but it’s one of these things that should be reformed and re-contextualized every few generations. I think this is a crucial mission and while I don’t have the schooling or time to really practice this stuff at the highest level I think its important to know. We all have our different ills and melancholies and we should work through those for our own benefit and other people.