Post by Admin on Jun 24, 2012 1:49:30 GMT
youtu.be/LLwTbFLJKqM
Posted from a discussion on another forum; by an anonymous poster -
"What I am researching at present is a way to understand the 'madness' process and to even question the Jungian interpretations etc of the psyche and healing. I read a really great book a while ago called Trials of a Visionary Mind: Spiritual Emergency and the Renewal Process, by John Weir Perry. For those who may not know, Perry provided a safe loving space for people deemed 'schizophrenic' and the place was called Diabasis, and they had real good success with the people who were supported there, but as with other places offering the same kind of support, like Soteria House, the pressure from the pharmaceutical industry and those with vested interests in it closed down these alternative places.
But what is making me ask questions is more the support offered. Although I VERY much welcome it, I have a passion to ask questions . I am very aware that the world all this is 'madness' is happening in is insane. I differentiate 'madness' from 'insane' in that with madness it is the natural healing process in different manifestations trying to resolve the crisis we and others are in, and the insanity are those deemed 'normal' who call US mad or 'mentally ill' thoufgh they do or support wars, and other horrors, and all the dead reality we are living that is destroying other species, causing millions of children and adults to live in poverty and starve, and destroying the very planet Earth. THAT is insanity.
So anyway, Perry was trained in Jungian theory--though in the book he does challenge some of Jung's ideas, that eg, 'schizophrenia' was a biological disease (which however Jung did see could be a healing process), but in his reports of the peoples visionary experiences==at Diabasis-- their interpretation is Jungian. So for example we have the idea of a 'Self' which can manifest as a mandala, and at its centre is the 'Big Man' or 'King' and these mythic reenactments are going back 5000 years (which is about same time as the emergence of the patriarchal belief systems imposed on indigenous peoples etc). Perry says that these visionary experiences will often include the experience of the ego dying and of world destruction. I have read a good feminist critique of the Jungian idea of the 'heroic self' as rather being a concept which separates us from community and nature. So I am aware of that.
Now what interests me is this: I am aware (because I already have had a deep interest in mythologies for quite a few years. Myths are like the stories we tell ourselves and have told us which develop the image we have of the world and ourselves) that people who suffer various distresses, including spontaneous visionary experiences which this culture calls 'mental illness' are victims OF a VERy oppressive patriarchal system, and of course this will mean that this and its words and images will be internalized in our visionary imagination. So I am wanting to know how understanding a more ancient and compassionate mythology will be of help for our understanding of madness and of course life.
The mythology we are used to, although it it not often openly called this, is the patriarchal solar mythology, and the one that is far more ancient and which the solar one subverted and suppressed is the Lunar mythology of the Great Cosmic Mother. And so I want to learn about this and tell people about this, because they dont teach this in schools and not many people are even aware of it---hence its suppression. So we need to re-member.
I would like you to view this video where it is explained in more depth. This Lunar mythology is really deep and beautiful and for me it is no wonder that so many of us have gone mad in the solar oppressive myths that straightaway blames us as soon as we can understand words as being sinful creatures destined for hell if we don't believe in a vengeful God or a 'loving' God who is full of contradictions or--in the secular world--to believe we are just robots--bags of skin full of chemicals that can become 'unbalanced' and then need the 'Man's' 'treatment to keep us as near 'normal' as possible so we can be productive and consumers in a meaningless dead world. THAT is insane and the recipe for madness"
Posted from a discussion on another forum; by an anonymous poster -
"What I am researching at present is a way to understand the 'madness' process and to even question the Jungian interpretations etc of the psyche and healing. I read a really great book a while ago called Trials of a Visionary Mind: Spiritual Emergency and the Renewal Process, by John Weir Perry. For those who may not know, Perry provided a safe loving space for people deemed 'schizophrenic' and the place was called Diabasis, and they had real good success with the people who were supported there, but as with other places offering the same kind of support, like Soteria House, the pressure from the pharmaceutical industry and those with vested interests in it closed down these alternative places.
But what is making me ask questions is more the support offered. Although I VERY much welcome it, I have a passion to ask questions . I am very aware that the world all this is 'madness' is happening in is insane. I differentiate 'madness' from 'insane' in that with madness it is the natural healing process in different manifestations trying to resolve the crisis we and others are in, and the insanity are those deemed 'normal' who call US mad or 'mentally ill' thoufgh they do or support wars, and other horrors, and all the dead reality we are living that is destroying other species, causing millions of children and adults to live in poverty and starve, and destroying the very planet Earth. THAT is insanity.
So anyway, Perry was trained in Jungian theory--though in the book he does challenge some of Jung's ideas, that eg, 'schizophrenia' was a biological disease (which however Jung did see could be a healing process), but in his reports of the peoples visionary experiences==at Diabasis-- their interpretation is Jungian. So for example we have the idea of a 'Self' which can manifest as a mandala, and at its centre is the 'Big Man' or 'King' and these mythic reenactments are going back 5000 years (which is about same time as the emergence of the patriarchal belief systems imposed on indigenous peoples etc). Perry says that these visionary experiences will often include the experience of the ego dying and of world destruction. I have read a good feminist critique of the Jungian idea of the 'heroic self' as rather being a concept which separates us from community and nature. So I am aware of that.
Now what interests me is this: I am aware (because I already have had a deep interest in mythologies for quite a few years. Myths are like the stories we tell ourselves and have told us which develop the image we have of the world and ourselves) that people who suffer various distresses, including spontaneous visionary experiences which this culture calls 'mental illness' are victims OF a VERy oppressive patriarchal system, and of course this will mean that this and its words and images will be internalized in our visionary imagination. So I am wanting to know how understanding a more ancient and compassionate mythology will be of help for our understanding of madness and of course life.
The mythology we are used to, although it it not often openly called this, is the patriarchal solar mythology, and the one that is far more ancient and which the solar one subverted and suppressed is the Lunar mythology of the Great Cosmic Mother. And so I want to learn about this and tell people about this, because they dont teach this in schools and not many people are even aware of it---hence its suppression. So we need to re-member.
I would like you to view this video where it is explained in more depth. This Lunar mythology is really deep and beautiful and for me it is no wonder that so many of us have gone mad in the solar oppressive myths that straightaway blames us as soon as we can understand words as being sinful creatures destined for hell if we don't believe in a vengeful God or a 'loving' God who is full of contradictions or--in the secular world--to believe we are just robots--bags of skin full of chemicals that can become 'unbalanced' and then need the 'Man's' 'treatment to keep us as near 'normal' as possible so we can be productive and consumers in a meaningless dead world. THAT is insane and the recipe for madness"