A quick note: I have read scattered accounts of people getting started in UM by first receiving a UM DVD or tape.
Would be interested to know if listening to or viewing these thing trigger some sort of
sublime experience or relaxation response.
If so this may lead the subject to feel convinced that UM must have something special if a mere UM DVD can elicit such seemingly profound experiences/emotions.
Friends, I am sorry to report that we human beings are
wired for such responses. We are social animals and diddling our imaginations and emotions and minds in some ways will generate bonding responses.
Shamans have done forms of this for centuries.
Today, greatly refined, these same seemingly intimate and sublime experiences can be created via music and images, and methods of communication that by pass consious thought.
A fellow who analyzed the work of a contemporary film maker, Stan Bakhage, wrote this in the introduction to the book.
Its quite all right to enjoy this as art. But dont make a decision about purchasing a car or a decision about health care based on this sort of thing.
Sales techniques can be quite potent when using these same methodology and we dont know what is going on.
Artists usually dont try to get us to change our lives----or influence how we live with our families.
[
books.google.com]
Quote
narratives provide explanations for actions that lead to their focal event, though these explanations are based partly on identification, regression, and primary process thinking, as well as logic and reality testing.
Narratives make use of devices such as analogical parallels that help us make sense of the succession of events they recount. They embody attitudes toward the characters who create or react to the events the narrative depicts.
Narratives offer an interpretation on the incidents and characters they represent or at least they guide their reader toward a specific attitude and interpretation. (Corboy emphasis. If a salesperson is doing this, his or her narrative guides you toward purchasing his or her product)
They instruct us on the attitudes we should take towards the characters, the morality of their behavior, and the explanations we are to give about why the characters behave as they do.
What is more, narratives, especially realistic narratives rely on devices, most drawn from analogical thinking that encourage their readers to respond unwittingly to these instructions.
Readers are unaware of these devices (which use analogy) for two reasons:
They engage primary process thinking, the operation of which is preconscious or unconscious
And second, the realistic effects of the the narrative conceals these devices and their mode of operation.
Analogy thinking is based on similiarities and correspondances. Its characteristic of very early childhood, trance, dream states and artistic creation.
These are worthy but need to be balanced by concern for finances and timely diagnoses of health problems while these are still treatable.