Tuesday

The Collective Mind, Pt. 6

Carl Jung's studies have determined that our subconscious reveals itself through our least developed functions - as in the Four Functions, Thought, Feeling, Sensation, and Intuition. These four functions encompass every way that we experience the world. When one of these functions is left untrained, it is up to the subconscious to control it. Meditation accesses the Thought function - and if you're having a hard time with getting anything out of it, then your Thought function may be in the wrong phase of development. You might want to try a different function.

Remember that exercise where you wrote on a pad of paper "I will remember my dreams" and left it at your bedside? Have you gotten anything significant from it? If you have, then you would probably have an easier time using the Intuition function through what I call 'awake sleep'. When you perform 'awake sleep' activities, you are doing something that does not require thought but does manifest a product of some sort. Here are a few examples:

Even if you can't draw, sit down and doodle - just start off with a circle or square and work from there - kind of a visual brainstorming.

If you are artistically inclined, take up your medium of choice and randomly create something abstract.

Sit down and write with a pen and paper. Start off with, "I have no idea what I need to write, but I know I need to write." Just write whatever words come to mind - don't worry about making sense.

Some of my best works have come from doodling on a sidewalk with chalk. Use mediums that throw you off or that you're unfamiliar with what the effect would be. If you've never used watercolors since you were 6 years old, it might be a good time to pick that up.

The common theme here is to create without knowing the purpose.

Another way to perform 'awake sleep' is to sit in a serene area and concentrate on one natural item. Evaluate it, realize everything about it, then when you're bored, move onto another item. Thoughts will come if you let them through and don't force them.

In a way, you're creating the memory phenomenon I call 'toilet facts'. You know when you're trying to remember someone's name, or the name of a band or producer or some strange fact, and no matter how hard you try you just can't remember it - but the next morning when you're on the toilet it comes to you out of the blue? When you're not thinking about it, for some reason it manifests itself.

Our brain links memories, thoughts, and other intelligent data as they happen, so sometimes things can become quite scattered and disconnected. When you 'place an order' for a specific bit of information, your brain automatically struggles to meet the demand, no matter how long it takes. So even well after you've given up, your brain is still trying to find that one synapse that holds the answer.

This is why that notepad at your bedside works. When you tell your brain that you really want something, it happens in all eventuality. So write in your notepad every night before you go to sleep that you want to remember your dreams, and eventually your 'order' will be filled. You are always connected to the Noosphere - all you have to do is ask for the information, and it will find you.

Tomorrow we begin our journey into explaining everything that you see from many different perspectives, starting with Carl Jung and working our way through Plato, the Tarot, and the Shamanic Plane. Finally, I will guide you to a different place on that meditative plane we've visited before, and let you roam free. That will be the end of The Collective Mind series - and I have something extra special for you after that - Humanitarianism vs. Evolution. Until tomorrow!

No comments: