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SIX ARCHETYPES WE LIVE BY

CAROL S. PEARSON

The author begins by thanking some authors who assisted her to see
that to some extent, our viewpoints and even our archetypes
do not merely add to our view of the world, to some extent, create
what kind of world we are in.

Quote

In writing this book, I realized that each of
the archetypes carries with it a way of seeing the world.

The external world tends to oblige us by reinforcing our beliefs about it.
For example, people who see themselves as victims get victimized. Fur-
ther, even when the world does not mirror us, we see only those
aspects of the world that fit our current scripts, unless, that is, we
are developmentally ready to move on.

(However)I have reservations, about some New Age thinking, such
as that found in books like Richard Bach's Illusions.

The external world exists and is not totally in a single individual's control.

It is one thing to believe that we have total responsibility for our lives
and at the soul level choose the events of our lives, and quite another
to see everything external to us as illusory. It is critical to developing

into a responsible human to see that other people exist, as do poverty,
sickness, and suffering.

Further, I fear that some New Age thinking encourages people to believe
they can skip their journeys and live returned to Eden without completing
critical developmental tasks.

[forum.culteducation.com]

Carol S Pearson tells a story of how the first edition of her book, The Hero Within
was received. It was not publicly marketed, and its success was based on word of mouth.

Many people liked it. Some did not.

Pearson tells a most interesting story of the latter:

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Of course, I do not mean to suggest that every reader of The Hero
Within was empowered, or even liked the book.

One woman, for instance, railed at me for writing the "Magician" chapter,
wondering how the author of such an otherwise useful book could write such
garbage!

Another woman, explaining why she could not get into the
book told me, "," a response coming from such a deep sense
of loss and vulnerability that I could not help sympathizing with her
point of view, no matter how committed I might be to moving
through the pain to find meaning and thus joy.

"It's clear to me that you want spiritual depth. I just want the pain to stop."

"I just want the pain to stop."

I can sympathise with the above statement as that was the sole motivating factor for me also. I had a virulent loathing of all things religious and to this day cannot define what is meant by 'spiritual'
I would have willingly sold my soul and anything else I had in order for the pain to stop.

It took me a long time to realise that the pain would not even begin to ease until I began the process of examining and changing the beliefs I had regarding my personal history, my worldview, my ability to make different choices for the future and to change my own behaviour in my own best interests.
I had to deal with the very difficult knowledge that although I could not be held responsible for the factors in my life that were causing me such pain, I was entirely responsible for the painful work required to make any changes.

Knowing what a difficult position this is makes me very sympathetic to the above statement.
To anyone struggling with a similar conundrum, I would say forget about spiritual depth, that is just a different terminology, it really doesn't matter what you call it.
Its going to be painful and its not really a choice between two different kinds of pain. Sticking the word spiritual in front of the word pain doesn't make the pain any easier.
If you want the pain to stop you have to grit your teeth and make a start on this painful business of sorting out the confusions in your own thinking and emotional responses. It does work, the pain does ease over time and the work gets easier until it is no longer work or painful, its just what you do.

As a result I am a 30 year student of buddhism. I would not describe myself as buddhist or religious or spiritual but I would describe myself as completely free of the historical pain that caused me so much grief. I have the normal day-to-day pain of being human and can deal with that.
There isn't any magic pill or technique or system of labelling developmental stages that avoids confronting the pain, no matter how expensive or fancy the promises.

Freud said something about converting "neurotic misery into ordinary unhappiness."

[forum.culteducation.com]

From a thread on Sedona Release technique. 'epyx' wrote this:

Quote

Quote

Quote:formerreleaser had written:

After releasing for so long, I feel like a woolen cloth has been pulled over my awareness and that the better parts of me have been grayed out.

From epyx:

FormerReleaser: This is exactly the long-term outcome I would expect for Releasers.

In my understanding, SM/RT is primarily about non-attachment. It pathologises emotions - "Feelings Only Lie" - and views them as a pesky barrier to feeling good.

If one practices non-attachment long enough in this context, then one must surely end up feeling chronically emotionally-detached. The result would be a flat existence without the vibrance and emotional colour we normally expect out of life.

The thing that annoys me most about SM/RT is that it bases itself in one or two Buddhist practices, but it divorces them from their ethical system and philosophical underpinnings.

It invokes acceptance in a weak way, even going so far as to re-formulate acceptance in terms of non-attachment! I see releasing as only a partial, trivial response to the problems of imperfection and impermanence in human experience, and ultimately, a response that will leave adherents unsatisfied.

'Freud said something about converting "neurotic misery into ordinary unhappiness."'

Yes, but 'neurotic' is quite a mild description for the misery I was suffering.

Freud, as a man of his time, tended to class neurotic suffering with hysteria and other ailments of women which he concluded were largely imaginary and a result of the weaker female constitution.

I would be loathe to belittle the agony or minimise the relentless pain that some experience, through no fault of their own, as simply neurotic misery.

This looks like fun...

http://www.threemilesnorthofmolkom.com

a bit of light relief from New Age mumbo jumbo -- and some insight into it, maybe...

Quite interesting Sandman

What a bizarre place, it looks like it has a bit of everything.

Another film that looks quite interesting...

[www.shadowoftheguru.com]

[www.shadowoftheguru.com]

This film, by Joan Radha Bridges, is about Muktananda. He appointed two co-successors, Nityanananda and Gurumayi Chidvalas, his niece.

When persons who suffered try to describe the harm they incurred, and speak up so as to make amends by warning prospective recruits about the history of SY, all too often the people who experienced only the bliss, show up and give various arguments along the line of 'I only experienced bliss. What you report is irrelevant and your negativity. God bless this great path.'

A library of material is available on the Ross Institute archives.

[www.google.com]

After a nasty battle, Gurumayi took control and purged the history of SYDA yoga to eliminate all refererences to Nitya. Pictures of him and documents referring to him were destroyed.

In addition to the long hours of work and chanting, described by Joan Bridges, Muktananda was friends with Werner Erhard and two different sources alledge that techniques from EST tech were incorporated into the Siddha Yoga intensives led by Muk. It is to be hoped that her film will mention this.

Re: So-Called Ancient Hindu spirituality concealing American LGAT 'tech'

[forum.culteducation.com]

American Tantric Dissimulation

[forum.culteducation.com]

This has received little attention, even from former devotees.

What worries me is that so very many gurus (both western born and Asian born) continue to show up, claiming enlightenment.

No one bothers to wonder whether they could have learned some potent 'tech' and are concealing it behind Sanskrit chanting and twaddle about nonduality or kundalini.

Worst of all, the bias against 'negative thinking' in the New Age scene gives these people easy access.

And when any attempt is made to discuss this, bang, along come guru apologists who claim the guru isnt the problem, its our own craving minds that are the problem.





After a nasty battle, Gurumayi took control and purged the history of SYDA yoga to eliminate all refererences to Nitya. Pictures of him and documents referring to him were destroyed.

[www.shadowoftheguru.com]

What Joan R Bridges does not know was that in addition to the long hours of work and chanting, her guru was friends with Werner Erhard and two different sources alledge that techniques from EST tech were incorporated into the Siddha Yoga intensives led by Muk.

Re: So-Called Ancient Hindu spirituality concealing American LGAT 'tech'

[forum.culteducation.com]

American Tantric Dissimulation

[forum.culteducation.com]

This has received little attention, even from former devotees.

What worries me is that so very many gurus (both western born and Asian born) continue to show up, claiming enlightenment.

No one bothers to wonder whether they could have learned some potent 'tech' and are concealing it behind Sanskrit chanting and twaddle about nonduality or kundalini.

Worst of all, the bias against 'negative thinking' in the New Age scene gives these people easy access.

A note on guru apologists.

When any attempt is made to discuss this, bang, along come guru apologists who claim the guru isnt the problem, its our own craving minds that are the problem.

It may be that one unspoken motive for the persons for whom guru apologism is a vocation, is that the high point of their lives, the one time they had prestige and became 'insta-Brahmins', was in the good old ashram days when they were inner circlers. Or were prize recruits who made their guru look good and, as a result ranked high in the organization.

Only in a court presided over by a pseudospiritual guru who behaved as a Mafioso did such persons ever feel fulfilled--they became insta Brahmins only in relation to the artificial environment that only an infallible and all powerful guru can create, but is otherwise not available in most parts of the US.

So perhaps for that reason, they defend gurus.

In an open and democratic society, there isnt the same sense of becoming, or hoping to become, an insta-Brahmin.

And most guru converts fail to recognize that unless they are rich, or have a prestigious social background of some sort that brings social connections useful to an ambitious guru, the odds are against their becoming and then remaining 'insta-Brahmins'.

The caste system, whether its ugly and authentic form in India, or the equally ugly fake version in guru ashrams is a pyramid.

There are just a few slots open for Brahmins. There are a few more for thugs (excuse me Khstriyas--the bullies (male or female) who do the guru's dirty work.

There are a few extra slots for the money people--the merchants and accountants.

But, most of the slots are for the sudras..the peons who chop wood, cook the food, make the beds, do the laundry.

And a few spots for the necessary scapegoats (dalits, outcastes) onto whom the perfect guru's shadow material is projected.

Very few ever understand that when love bombed to join a guru, odds are they will be the peons.

And if they become insta-Brahmins, odds are at some point, they risk returning to the state of peonhood or become the outcastes when they fail to please the guru.