Pacifica Student Info

P.S. my teacher hated this essay.

Remember the idea of the quantum leap where particles can be in two places at the same time? That is, without seeming to traverse the intervening space (shape shifting).  Particles appear this way because attention is fixed (Einstein). Otherwise, phenomenon appears wave-like (Louis de Broglie). Then Neils Bohr said that waves and particles were complementary, which leads me to imagine that archetypes and instincts are complementary.  Are the archetypes are the waves and our instincts the particles? Do archetypes and instincts shape shift the way that quantum particles and waves do?

Goswami himself said that a manifestation of one quantum object from the act of  observation simultaneously influences its correlated twin object, so surely instincts and archetypes continually influence each other…that is, when there is a new spin on how we react in a given situation, there is likely a subsequent shift in the archetype which relates to the instinct guiding our action.

In contrast, the physics’ principle of locality says that distant objects cannot have a direct influence on one another: an object is influenced directly only by its immediate surroundings. Bell’s tests disproved this. Bell’s Theorem provides evidence against “local realism,” the intuitive notion that particle attributes have definite values independent of the act of observation and that physical effects have a finite propagation speed. According to Bell’s Theorem, if distant objects can be influenced directly by nearby quantum objects, how are archetypes influenced by instincts (neither one of which are “real” but are only known by their effects)?

This led to my mad musings on the effects toxins have upon us psychologically. Did I say that my teacher, who was an M.D., hated this essay? Take the archetypes of Zeus and Bacchus. Zeus is the pure, all embracing archetype of the eternal whereas as Bacchus loves intoxicants.  Humans dance between intoxication and detoxification in their quest for divine life.  The question for me is “What might a drunk god do?”

“Don’t you know there ain’t no devil, there’s just God when he’s drunk” sings Tom Waits.

I suspect that our purgations and detoxifications may have a fantastic influence on the archetypes (and the shape of things to come). The following dream inspired me to detox. This dream horrified me and I left Pacifica Graduate Institute for several months.

News has arrived
(the morning of my death)

Behind closed eyes, flames on the other side, surrender alone resolves the pain of a life turned in upon itself

Going forward and now falling back down the tree, I ascend unto death. Slowly the branches drift by

The leaves and at last a treetop appears, beautiful against the blue sky.
It was my life but now it is the morning of my death.

I need to call my doctor because I have no priest. What is this deep ache in my breast?

See my car parked in the branches that I call home?
I get in realizing: I am driving backwards.

I should not have parked there.
My car doesn’t brake in reverse.

It is a peaceful descent as I surrender
to that death which comes lovely to me.

I felt a love of death all day, no remembrance of birth. Pain and life dissolved into each other and existence felt meaningless. So, I underwent a detox: the removal of toxic substances from my body. Natural detoxification is the normal function of liver and kidneys but when these organs become exhausted there are other methods for eliminating toxic substances. These include modification of diet, the addition of certain herbs, and rituals such as colonic irrigation, juice fasting and sweat lodges.

The idea of ‘detox’ began in the 60’s for drug rehabilitation and also as a way to treat alcoholism. Over the years, the detox morphed into strategies like the ten-day protocol that I undertook. This protocol was an intense period of time on a special diet and it included purging to remove accumulated toxins acquired from pesticides, smog, medications, mold, yeast, and bacteria. Doctors say that there is no scientific basis for the idea of the accumulation of toxins in the body, nevertheless my experience proves otherwise and it has shown me that being toxic is a major cause of malaise in our culture.

My Holy Grail quest started with a liver flush using grapefruit juice and olive oil, and then various minerals and essential oils for 9 days. Everything about the way I felt changed as a result. I had to go through what felt like Hell where I faced my most horrible demons. My studies in Depth Psychology gave me tools to navigate the depths of my soul just like Dante when he went through his Inferno to meet his Beatrix in heaven. Understanding the transcendent function allowed me to personify anguished feelings as images of archetypal wrath (instead of internalized self-hatred). After a dark night of the soul and the period of rest that followed, I felt like I had been reborn. It was like having fought the forces of destruction in my own soul and surviving. Did the archetype of death begin to spin the other way? Did I heal myself?

The Earth is a toxic environment and perhaps it always has been, regardless of what humans have done, from the marine algae to the ozone layer.  The archetype Zeus is the cloud gatherer who sends rain, lightning, thunder, hurricanes, and tsunamis, which are repeated warnings to us these days. is there such a thing as a socio-cultural detox that would help, in other words, can we possibly surrender our excesses? Will the archetypes save us or is it too late? We humans need to change the direction we are spinning so that the archetypes can spin in a more positive direction themselves.

Since from a depth perspective there is not any living organism that does not contain soul, why have I been worried about toxins? Surely toxins contain soul, too. We live in a world full of toxins and they are here for some reason. Maybe they are related to wrathful deities which are, in other words, just shadow material that has yet to be worked with and understood.

When our body is bombarded with more chemicals than it can handle, we experience more frequent and much worse Complexes. This “devil in your soul” comes out because toxins are stored in the fat cells of our bodies and they get released under stress. In my detox I came face-to-face with not only imaginative demons but actual yeast and bacteria which I called “beasties” that were robbing my body of energy. The cleansing or detoxification that I underwent transformed me.

Remember my hypothesis that archetypes and instincts relate to each other as quantum particles and waves do? I wonder if my detox cleansed me in such a way as to cause a shift in the archetype that rules them or vice versa. And that, my friend, is mad musing.

REFERENCES

Seltman, C. (1960). The twelve olympians. Thomas Y. Crowell.

Spretnak, C. (1999). The resurgence of the real. New York: Routledge