A Notation for Edinger's Alchemical Operations

I find it handy to have a symbolic notation for alchemical processes. According to The Philsopher's Stone Dom Pernety first associated processes with signs of the zodiac in the eighteenth century. Alas his twelve alchemical operations are in no way compatible with the seven which Edward F. Edinger applied to Jungian Psychology in Anatomy of the Psyche. Hence I've made my own notation for Edinger's processes:

	Calcinatio: Intense heating of a solid in order to drive off water and all other constituents that will volatilize. Only fine, dry powder remains.
	Solutio: Turns a solid into a liquid. The solid seems to disappear into the solvent as if it had been swallowed up.
	Coagulatio: Turns something into earth.
	Sublimatio: Transforms earth into air; a fixed body is volatilized.
	Mortificatio: Killing, experience of death. (Synonymous with Putrefactio.)
	Separatio: Discriminates composite mixtures of its component parts.
	Coniunctio: Two substances come together and create a third with different properties.

Our Unconscious Religion: Fractal Pantheism

If we weren't to unconsciously believe in Fractal Pantheism, some movies wouldn't be more popular than others because we wouldn't see ourselves in them. We would not be intrigued by some of our dreams. We would not be interested in Astrology. Eastern medicine would not assume that our body somehow represents our soul. Youngsters wouldn't pick flower leaves to find out if the person they desire is in love with them as well. There would be only pictures; no art.

Stories like Gulliver's Travels, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, or The Matrix would not be fascinating at all.

Many people are probably aware that life goes on on different levels. In superstring theory, after all an attempt to understand the world, they defined ten physical dimensions for describing the world.

But why should there be only ten dimensions?

Well, just judge yourself which of these pictures you find a more attractive image for understanding the world:

The Calabi-Yau Manifold


or the Mandelbrot set:

Questions to Ponder

Is it true that people think great ideas in parallel, whereas misunderstandings are individual?

Do chimpanzees also believe that human beings are smarter than them?

Mosquitoes' metabolism dissolves HIV, how does it do this?

Is logic really a universal value or rather cultural?

Is there a Big Bang theory in terms of thought processes?

Why isn't there a popular religion that could be classed as fractal pantheism?

Do nuclear bombs feel guilt?

Holacracy

Ideas taken from: Agile Methods + Ken Wilber + InterStrength(tm) = Holacracy

I've found this interview illuminating, listed here.

The World According to Cultural Orientation

External Information

Likely to accept world views different from their own.

Information Processing

Associative: Rote learning teached in schools

Focus

Matters may be viewed from a universal or particular level.

Evidence

Either subjective feelings, scientific facts, or religious faith are accepted as evidence in negotiations.



Data are based on Conway and Morrison: "Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands", 2nd edition

The Myth of Communication Systems

In this posting I try to combine Scott Adams' critique of communication with the concept of Jungian Archetypes.

In "God's Debris" Scott Adams notes that humans can be differentiated from other living organism by having elaborate communication structures, that, by this day and age, allow us to communicate with each other regardless where we are.

One could assume that our increased ability to communicate also helps us to protect ourselves better than other organisms, but yet at times it seems as if all this even gets in our way. For example, animals don't have artificial communication systems, and yet they are better than us to recognize environmental threats like earth quakes or tsunamis. Each year many scientists work together hard on a new vaccination against seasonal flu viruses, but still many times those simple creatures are smarter to recognize how they can avoid termination.

I would say that our communication systems are a little too inefficient to be just for exchanging information, and yet very few people question communication, begging the question whether we just perceive communication systems to be a great idea. Or, saying it in Jungian terms: Communication systems are cultural complexes that are most attractive to our psyches rather than giving us a real benefit.

This all leads to concepts related of the Jungian Archetypes which argue that there is a raw, unconscious, and unstructured way of communication. On top of this I would add that for most living organisms archetypal communication is probably quite natural and only for us humans it is not easy to perceive. Maybe this is one of the reasons humans had to invent communication systems in the first place.

49 Killing Fantasies

Some pictures of this worthwhile exhibit.

Mindmap of Beebe Archetypes

Clare Howard has kindly made a mind map based on my notes of John Beebe's Memphis workshop and also extended them a little.

(You need the OpenSource software FreeMind to view the file.)

Imagination v Synesthesia

Both aesthetics and psychology have tried to deal with the confusion of the two senses in terms of "synesthesia" and the relation between poetry and painting (ut pictura poesis). Synesthesia is not only a puzzling quirk in certain sensitive persons for whom numbers are colors, colors tastes on the tongue, or musical tones present sculptural forms. Synesthesia--confusion, interpenetration of one sense with another--goes on all the time in our common speech when we talk imaginatively, or of imagining. Evidently, synesthesia is how imagination imagines. What this does is transform the singleness of any one sense out of its literalness. It brings us to new sense of the senses, making metaphor of sense perception itself. Consequently, synesthesia plays a special role in the arts because it helps art's own intention--metaphorical insight, awakening of sensibility--freeing it from depiction and representation.

(Excerpt from James Hillman: Image Sense, 1979)

Thinking in Sketches: EN

Beebe Movies

Some people have requested that I compile a list of movies that John Beebe refers to in his lectures--this is what I could come up with:

Ang Lee: Brokeback Mountain
Bill Condon: Gods and Monsters
Buster Keaton: The Haunted House
Charlie Chaplin: City Lights
David Frankel: The Devil Wears Prada
David Lynch: Blue Velvet
Errol Morris: The Fog of War
Hal Hartley: Henry Fool
Harold Lloyd: The Freshman
Harry Langdon: The Strong Man
Hitchcock: Marnie (DVD chapters 1 and 14)
Hitchcock: North by Northwest (DVD chapter 8)
Hitchcock: Notorious (DVD chapters 6, 7, 8)
Hitchcock: Strangers on a Train (British version; DVD chapters 1 to 4)
Hitchcock: The Lady Vanishes
Hitchcock: Vertigo (DVD chapter 21)
James L. Brooks: As Good as It Gets
James L. Brooks: Broadcast News
John Dahl: The Last Seduction
John Huston: African Queen
Michael Curtiz: Casablanca
Percy Adlon: Bagdad Cafe
Quentin Tarantino: Pulp Fiction
Stanley Donen: Two for the Road
Stephen Frears: The Grifters
Stephen Frears: The Queen
Victor Fleming: Wizard of Oz

Double Binds in Paintings

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

The guys at visual-literacy.org have done a nice job of mapping out available visualization methods. (Thanks to Elizabeth for mentioning this to me.)

Thinking in Sketches: IN

Computers to Beat Humans in Go Game?

The Economist features an article on how computers could beat humans in the game Go by using Monte Carlo Simulation.

Some Symbols for the Self Across Cultures

Willard Foxton on his Worst Debating Experiences

A very funny video from the World Universities Debating Championships 2007 in Vancouver featuring Willard Foxton's worst debates he has ever been involved in:

2006 Interesting Debating Motions

This house believes that developing nations should nationalize their energy resources.
This house would criminalise the payment of ransom.
This house would impose sanctions against states which tolerate female genital mutilation.
This house would make prostitutes available to the disabled on the NHS
This house believes all serious crimes should be tried by jury.
This house believes that economic growth is the solution to climate change.

(Sources: World Debating News and British Debate Mailing List)

Fabrizio Plessi Virtual Gallery

Eventually Fabrizio Plessi has an online gallery of his "most interesting" works.

Mapping Jungian Archetypes on Cognitive Processes

"John Beebe (1, 2) is a genius!" is a thought I had during the last months each time I pondered about Beebe's idea of mapping Jungian Archetypes on Cognitive Processes.

What follows is my very own summary of his proposed model to map Cognitive Processes on Jungian Archetypes that he explained in detail in a four day workshop (Big thanks to Type Resources for organizing this).

You may want to first read John Beebe's introduction to his model.

There are probably people out there who are more knowledgeable than me to write a summary, but there isn't much published yet, so I hope to make a start.

Besides John Beebe, there are quite some people I feel thankful to for sharing their thoughts with me which in one way or another influenced my summary (but who won't necessarily agree with all I am writing): Linda V. Berens (Please write more on Cognitive Dynamics!), Dario Nardi, Vicky Jo Warner, Robin Wiley.

UPDATE, as people found it confusing: A quote is referring to what someone with the function in that role might say.

UPDATE II: These notes are now also available as mind map.

EN (Extraverted Intuition)

Hero:	Remarkable inferences
Father/Mother:	Opportunity in tragedy
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Take things up for a while: Kanasta, Mahjong
Anima/Animus:	"I am usually very opinionated when I see new information by comparing it to prior experience. At one point, however, I am open to new ideas, although I find this difficult."
Opposing Personality:	Punching holes in proposals
Witch/Senex:	"I accept it, but please shut up!"
Trickster:	"Are you single? Yes, I am but really not." Stellan Skarsgård in "Breaking the Waves"
Demon/Daemon:	"What's new about that idea? It's not going to help anything."

IT (Introverted Thinking)

Hero:	Intellectual clarity
Father/Mother:	Explaining to others using a reasoning process, naming for others
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Collecting wise quotes; being pedantic at times.
Anima/Animus:	"As much as I want harmony with others, at times I need to make a tough decision."
Opposing Personality:	"Of course you can think everything through until death"
Witch/Senex:	"Principles are not a sufficient means to describe things." Movie: Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada"
Trickster:	Deliberately misunderstanding a point
Demon/Daemon:	Messy principles

EF (Extraverted Feeling)

Book: "Lectures on Jung's Typology": The Feeling Function by James Hillman

Hero:	Harmony, subconscious knowing
Father/Mother:	Being asked by others, censoring oneself
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Divine affection; easily hurt
Anima/Animus:	"As my logical statements do appear harsh at times, I need to reassure others of my affection." Movie: Cary Grant in "Notorious"
Opposing Personality:	chit-chat: exhausting, game Cordelia in the very first scene of "King Lear"
Witch/Senex:	"come to my house so I can eat you" (Hensel&Gretel)
Trickster:	"Let me assist you to make us both feel uncomfortable" Movie: Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain"
Demon/Daemon:	Disregarding other peoples feelings, being manipulative Movie: Linda Fiorentino in "The Last Seduction"

IS (Introverted Sensing)

Hero:	Memento, Recognition of the natural order of things
Father/Mother:	Remembering things for others
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Collecting memorabilia; can be wearisome.
Anima/Animus:	"Constantly having new ideas may turn things into a chaos, so at times I need to get things in order again."
Opposing Personality:	"Don't bother me with all that detailed information that's not relevant to what's happening now."
Witch/Senex:	Remembering something that really pokes you.
Trickster:	Recall inaccurately: "Didn't we agree that ...?"
Demon/Daemon:	forgetting peoples names, unorderliness, hallucinations, Others ask:"Have you been in this body for long?" Movie: "The Lady Vanishes"

IN (Introverted Intiuition)

Hero:	Vision, one line image, demanding, regarded scary
Father/Mother:	There are other ways to do things for others
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Imagining what could be a trend next year, sometimes hopeless about the future
Anima/Animus:	"After considering all the facts, I eventually realize what it's about."
Opposing Personality:	"There have to be alternative futures"
Witch/Senex:	Deflate dreams
Trickster:	"That's just superstition!"
Demon/Daemon:	This idea is trying to ruin us very badly; God speaks to us

ET (Extraverted Thinking)

Hero:	Telling others what to do that really helps movie: Katharine Hepburn in "African Queen"
Father/Mother:	Generative thinking for others
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Enjoying diagrams, sometimes confusing objectivity with being blunt
Anima/Animus:	"I am able to establish rules or make plans to achieve what I consider as important."
Opposing Personality:	"This is a cheap shot, not well thought through." Albert Brooks in "Broadcast News"
Witch/Senex:	Rebel against structure and schedules.
Trickster:	Misguidance in organizing things more efficient.
Demon/Daemon:	Having a hard time to tell others bad news.

IF (Introverted Feeling)

Book: "Lectures on Jung's Typology": The Feeling Function by James Hillman

Hero:	Self-supervising, understand in depth ourself, others
Father/Mother:	Charisma, hearing secrets, "I wish you had told me sooner"
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Listeing to music, writing poetry, sometimes stating strong value judgements
Anima/Animus:	"Telling others what to do may appear bullying at times but actually I have a soft core of important values." Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca"
Opposing Personality:	"Moral questions keep bugging me"
Witch/Senex:	"How are moral question going to help ME anyway?"
Trickster:	"As this discussion has now arrived at a point of no return, why shouldn't I do now what you regarded important earlier?"
Demon/Daemon:	"Manipulating others goes against everything that I am"; neglecting fundamental values; not valuing your health Albert Brooks v William Hurt in "Broadcast News"

ES (Extraverted Sensing)

Hero:	Seeing opportunities for action in the here and now
Father/Mother:	Meticulously doing things for others
Puer/Puella Aeternus:	Enjoying activity, sometimes overworking
Anima/Animus:	"It's very easy for me to get a detailed vision by considering just some tiny bits of information, but at times I need to check whether all my assumptions are actually true in reality."
Opposing Personality:	"I am not really good at doing two things at the same time"
Witch/Senex:	Blocking others' proposed actions
Trickster:	Repeatedly dressing up badly for a job interview
Demon/Daemon:	"Things magically break in my presense." "I happen to ignore the facts and rely on my interpretation of things." Movie:Thomas Jay Ryan in "Henry Fool"