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Transpersonal
Psychology
NEWS, THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS
AUTHORITY
There seems to be a real problem in relation to authority at this current time, either because there is too much of it and we are being deprived of our rights or because there is not enough and people can do more or less what they want with impunity. The old belief systems, controls and social structures are breaking down and need to. Nothing yet has evolved that can replace them. This is because they cannot be replaced by more of the same. A shift in the collective level of human consciousness is absolutely essential if we are to find a viable way through the current crisis and this can only happen if enough individuals work to bring it about.
This shift, if it is to come, must begin with you and me, with the people who want a real and lasting change and begin to see how we can bring it about. I doubt that people are deliberately setting out to destroy society and choosing to take refuge in gross materialism. Nor does anyone really want to look forward to a future in which nothing lasts, especially relationships, which seem to break down as fast as they are formed. But with the old controls all but gone, we are at the mercy of our inner demons. Our fears, anxieties, hopes and dreads drive us into uncharted territories and we hardly know how to cope. There is a real feeling of loss of individual power. The vulnerability and confusion that this creates hides behind anger, aggression and denial, which may for a moment delude us into believing that we are still strong and in control.
True authority must come from within.
There is much that we can do to bring about a real transformation in our own lives and the collective destiny of the human race. The way is open to all who are prepared to see things differently, and to re-evaluate who and what we really are and, more importantly, what we might become.
The majority of people settle for living in a three dimensional world, whilst being dominated by theimperatives imposed by the fourth dimension of space-time. Phenomena addressed from this perspective do not make sense and give rise to endless futile questions and debate. Physicists require eleven dimensions in order to interpret the universe as they encounter it.
In the transpersonal, psycho/spiritual world we may find answers and solutions that enable us to put everything into some sort of perspective and forge a creative relationship within the limitless parameters of Consciousness and Being.
It is possible to go beyond the limitations imposed by materialism and discover a relationship to the creation that is cohesive, integrated and unified. There are many ways in which this may be achieved: Through movement and stillness, sound and silence, images, symbols, painting and visualisation and by connecting with the energy and teaching issuing from the Primal Pattern we can connect with the multidimensional world, which alone can make sense of all that we can encounter.
Extract from Newsletter January 2010
THE SHADOW
The shadow is that part of the collective and individual psyche that we are normally unable to see or acknowledge. It is not necessarily negative but given that many of its impulses are primitive, fear-based and dedicated to personal survival it can, when operating unconsciously, create havoc and chaos in human affairs.
In our sessions we give considerable thought to the part the shadow plays in group dynamics and hopefully we are able to appreciate and understand:
a) that it has the power to bring about the complete disintegration of a group and
b) it also has the potential to become the source of a group’s strength and creativity;
c) that the shadow as a factor in the collective and individual human psyche, is unavoidable. Like Caraboss it will come to the feast whether or not it is invited. If invited it can be held in consciousness and disarmed. Its energy then becomes creative. If uninvited it will act corrosively and destructively.
d) Given that everybody has a shadow, short of an operation to remove those parts of the brain in which it lurks, (virtually all of it) a safe environment in which to work can only be created if enough people in the group are able to identify and hold in consciousness the manifestations of their own shadow, this then facilitates the ability to understand and contain the negative effects experienced when the shadow in others is activated. It is on such people that the ultimate survival and value of the group depends. At this stage in the development of human consciousness I can think of no greater or more important work. It is not only groups that are torn apart by the activities of the shadow. The whole planet is currently in the process of being destroyed by it.
For me to actually create and maintain a ‘safe’ environment in which the activities of the shadow are limited would involve the promulgation of laws and controls that would mitigate the worst effects of a rampant shadow. People would then ‘behave’ because they were told to and not because of an inner sense of worth, valuation and understanding, (and anyway I’d never get away with it given the individuality and independence of the group members) It is of course the very freedoms and differences within the group that form its attraction for people and enhance its creative potential.
So far the groups function simply because enough people value what they offer to want them to function. This valuation cannot be enforced any more than I can enforce the presence in the group of the ‘duende’ or ‘spirit’ with which we work. One creates the space with good intention and hopefully the right good thing will happen and miraculously it usually does. The creation of that space is however very much a matter with which we as individuals and collectively can concern ourselves for if we do not it will be occupied almost entirely by the shadow in its fear-based, controlling, manipulative and ultimately destructive mode.
Extract from Newsletter Sept 2006
TRANSFORMATION
Some people have been coming to grief because of the nature of the residential courses. They are referred to from time to time as ‘holiday’ courses and I know that for some of you they provide a much needed break from the press of daily routine. However the word ‘holiday’ in this context can be very misleading and needs really to be dropped forthwith before I am sued under the Trades Description Act. What I am offering primarily is a course in ‘personal development’. But that term is hardly more helpful as it can mean almost anything according to which sub-persona is attempting to interpret it and thereby ‘develop’, and one might argue that a persona can be divided and added to but hardly ‘developed’ in terms that I would find acceptable. Personal ‘Transformation’ seems nearer to the truth of the matter. Transformation implies something more radical than ‘development’. After all, builders ‘develop’ sites and they are seldom any better for it. What we get from them is more of the same. With transformation one ends up with something completely different.
However, with transformation, as I am constantly at pains to point out, death and rebirth are integral to the process. Before we can effectively help each other or save wayward humanity and our planet as a whole, this inner shift of energy and consciousness needs to have been set in motion. Unless and until this ‘Great Work’ of inner transformation is begun we can only react to conditions, circumstances and each other in ways that are incapable of bringing about the transformations we might claim to seek and for as long as we are simply reacting to each other and to events we are in fact only adding to the psychological pollution and existential insecurity that already have the planet in its grip.
Of course we will have to deal with the very difficult behaviour with which our fellow humans confront us on a daily basis. We might need to defend ourselves against them when they encroach upon and threaten us but if in doing so we forget that it is ourselves and our reaction to them that we are trying to transform and not the other person’s behaviour, we have lost the whole point of transformation. It must and can only begin with an inner awareness of one’s own part in the equation. The ultimate strength of a group arises entirely from the efforts of its individuals to transform their own negative reactions to its members. If, in order to be happy, we have to wait until everyone behaves well, and more specifically, behaves well towards us personally, we are not going to be all that happy.
The extent to which we react to the behaviour of others towards us is a useful barometer indicative of the extent to which we are not centred or present in deeper being and will therefore be projecting soul and losing power. As a general guide, when under attack: centre! Of course we do not and cannot know intellectually and from ego what the centre is. Krishna Murti is helpful in referring to a state of ‘choiceless awareness’. We can assume that in the centre we will encounter a Pure Being-State. This will require no defence and no justification. All this can be said of ‘being in the now’. So people who stir us up and get us going have the valuable function to perform of showing us how uncentred we are and to what extent we are holding on to an idea of who and what we are that was formed in the past. No wonder Gurdgieff paid difficult people to come to his groups. We can be grateful to them for the opportunities for growth that they bring us.
I am constantly amazed at the extent to which a small group of people, gathering together in a beautiful setting, simply to Be, can generate so much existential angst. The burden of bearing the being of oneself and of other members of the group seems at times to be insuperable. We are given things to do that require a flexibility of being that feels at times as though our sense of identity is being tested to breaking point by taking us beyond known and accepted limits and controls. We are asked to make movements and noises with which we are totally unfamiliar and seem as though they could be the end of us as we know ourselves. The good news though is that there is all that profoundly dark and negative stuff to transform. What potential! So much to look at! So much to understand, so much power to release and re-claim!
THE NEW ENERGY
The energy manifests through each individual, regardless of our level of development. It wells up from the Centre-of-Being around which each of us is formed. In some of us this will manifest as an unaccountable upsurge of joy and purpose, in others it will cause feelings of insecurity and even dread, giving rise to confusion and aggression. Even joy can be a problem when it is taken over by the Ego, thereby stimulating the manic activity that occurs wherever humility and understanding are scarce. Some might just feel overwhelmed and go into reverse or simply shut down. We need to learn how to connect with this force in such a way that we can work with it consciously and creatively. Pious hopes and holy words are not enough. The adjustments need to be practical and thorough if we are to take the situation at all seriously.
TOWARDS THE DEEP CENTRE Updated April 2010
During the past two years I have been offering a series of day courses, at intervals of roughly six weeks, under the general title of ‘Towards the Deep Centre’. These presented many different exercises and techniques through which we have been learning to recognise the energy in question and work with it directly and consciously. We have been examining how it can be engaged at different levels, each with its own potential, and how the body can turn itself into a reliable conduit once other aspects are in place. Bringing greater awareness into the body is a vital aspect of this work. We have been working individually, in pairs and with the group as a whole to achieve this. The size of each group has been limited as each participant needs space in which to work.
The Deep Centre Energy relates closely to the energy of the Zero Point Field and the Holographic Creation to which we have been giving our attention on various occasions recently. Einstein demonstrated that energy and mass, time and space were all inter-related but it was Bohm who indicated that the innate sense of order and relationship that could be observed to underpin the whole creation had to be a manifestation of consciousness. In certain quarters a great deal of attention is being given to this underlying field of energy/consciousness. This work presages the next huge development in human consciousness and needs to be addressed now if we are not to descend collectively into greater chaos.
Extracts from Jan 2010 newsletter
At the beginning of a new year I will resist the impulse to wish you all a happy one because, as has been pointed out by others, happiness depends entirely upon what haps. If our centre of gravity lies in the happenstance of external events we are bound to suffer. There is no way round it.
I will instead wish you a centred year, an integrated year, a creative year and so on. Above all I wish you a year in which you enter ever more deeply into the total mystery and miracle that we call life, consciousness, being and love. This latter is the most mysterious of all. As I understand it we have hardly scratched the surface of this phenomenon and are prevented from understanding more by the assumption that we already know all about it.
Day Courses will, we hope, continue on a regular basis at the new address. For the time being they are to carry the general title of ‘Other Dimensions’. There will be sub-titles and explanations but under such a heading I will be able to present a much wider range of material depending on needs, requirements and inspirations. The direction these courses take depends very much on input from those who attend and also from those who would like to attend and have a clear and viable idea as to the sort of ground they hope to cover. I will try to notify people in advance as to the likely emphasis and content of each session.
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Harmony in the Midst of Change.
Nothing is ever fixed or still, at least not for long. “All is flux.” Things are either coming or going or at various stages in between. Some periods of change can be particularly disruptive, leaving devastation in their wake. How can we create an Ark that will ride the storms of life? How can we take the stuff of chaos and make from it something that is luminous, significant and beautiful? We will see!
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Brian
CONTACT
Phone 0151 200 2728 or email:- info@briangill.org
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