Consciousness as Ecosystem

 In a vision, Philemon supposedly informed Carl Jung that thoughts were not self generated, not ours, but appear like animals in a forest.  Of course, Philemon, would be one such creature in the forest.  As such, Carl's mind was not Carl's, just as our mind is not ours, but can be thought of as a ecosystem.  And we can experience (or walk) through the ecosystem just like we can walk through a forest.  And we can experience the myriad of animals, plant life, wind, rain, growth, death, decay all existing in our experiential reality.  Consciousness is like a forest walk.  We can listen to the forest, feel the forest and its creatures, nurture it, touch it, explore its boundaries.  It is us after all.  A more expansive us.

And I think the forest is governed to some extent by certain natural laws. Or at least rhythms.   Maybe more like alchemical cycles.    There is calcination, solution, separation, putrefaction, congelation, and in the morning, rubedo.  And perhaps understanding those principles can make us better forest stewards.

Perhaps what we think of as us is akin to a caretaker of the forest.  The part which responds when something disturbs the forest.  When we are relaxed the waters run though the forest peacefully.  And the birds and breeze sounds with a comforting rhythm.  

Some call the forest "imagination."  Which makes sense.    I think the imagination is like the sunlight than comes through the canopy in certain moments  to illuminate certain aspects of the forest we didn't realize were there.  Or when we stick our heads in the small pond over there to see something in the darkness.

In a way, the mystery is whether my forest is the same as yours.  And whether Philemon is part of my forest.  And it some ways, I think I would rather meet and connect with Philemon than Carl Jung.  It was probably more interesting.  Philemon was indeed an "it".  And I think we are all "its."  Cheers to all the its out there.

 

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My life started out predictably.  Kind of like a sit com of sorts.  My earliest memories were all based on that television object that I later rejected.  I remember this for example:  

Introduction: Live from our Burbank Studios we present America's favorite game show where knowledge is King, Lady Luck is a jester, and everyone tries to be Woody Allen, yes, its time for "Whose Got Woody."

(applause)

Introduction continued: And your host, Gilbreto Filberstein.

Gilbreto Filberstein (GF): Thank you Don. Our first contestant tonight is a Reform Rabbi from Brooklyn where he is with the Temple Shalom Paki, everyone please welcome our returning champion Isaac Snagglepuss. (more applause).

GF:  And our challenger tonight is a lawyer from Edwardsville, Illinois, a big hand of applause for  Sri Pseudo Pumpkin (marked less applause).

GF:  Now, contestants, I'm sure you know the rules.   We will give each of you a hypothetical situation, and your job is to react to it just like Woody Allen would do.  Each member of our studio audience will then electronically rate your performance on a scale of one to ten.   As the returning champion, the first question goes to you Mr. Snagglepuss:

(GF reads his card):   "You are at a dinner party and are asked what you think of the psychiatry of Freud:"

Mr. Snagglepuss:   Thats an easy one.  I tell them I worked with Freud in Vienna. We broke over the concept of penis envy. Freud felt that it should be limited only to women.  (laughter)

GF:  Lets see, our audience survey says, you earned a 9.24.  Very good Mr. Snagglepuss.  And now a question for our challenger:

(GF reads his card):  You are at an art opening and the attractive artist asks you what you think of the controlled brush strokes of her paintings and how they symbolically represent the control she has in her life.   You respond?

Mr. Psuedopumkin:  I tell her that this ontological structure is similar to kind of structure in Heidegger's "Being in Time".   Specifically, the control represents what Heidegger wants to get at--he wants, in the Dasein Analytic, to uncover the fundamental structures of Human existence.    (silence)

GF: Survey says 0.2.   I'm sorry, Mr. Pseudopumpkin, because your score is less than 2, it gives Mr. Snagglepuss a chance to steal the question.   What do you say Snagglepuss?  What does the control mean to you?

Mr. Snagglepuss:  I tell her that you can’t control life. It doesn’t wind up perfectly. Only art you can control. Art and masturbation. Two areas in which I am an absolute expert.  (roaring laughter)

GF:  And the audience survey says 8.78.  We'll it looks like our champion has successfully won round 1.  We'll be back for an exciting round 2 right after a word from our sponsor,