bl2ed9407

[PATRICIA DESERT]

Dear Adam--I enjoyed your reflections on extraordinary knowing and it 
mirrors what I have pondered for years and what I refer to with my clients 
as simply "different knowing" for lack of a better  way to explain 
anomalies.  I have never believed that events are random or that experiences 
can be explained by a single dimensional paradigm of cause-effect.  I love 
that we are learning how complex and inexplicable our experiences are.  I 
love knowing that perception changes that which is perceived and in turn, by 
definition, changes the perception.  I am continually startled and excited 
when again and again I have a thought or image that in the next moment my 
client expresses.  I love believing that energy is staggeringly complex and 
seemingly bears consciousness--and don't we see this over and over in our 
therapy rooms with our clients.

I remember having a teacher suggest to me that when I am stuck for what to 
do with a client exhibiting towards me barely controlled rage for not 
knowing something h/she refuses to tell me, to focus on my heart and then 
image loving energy moving from my heart to my client's.  My teacher told me 
the shift to what is behind the rage will be palpable and powerfully healing 
for the client and for me.  He was right.

Every time I have felt stuck or angry or frustrated or inept I have done 
this--either directing that loving energy to my client or towards me or 
towards us both.   Every time I have experienced a release of tension and 
movement towards healing, for my client and for me. How to explain this?  I 
leave that for others to figure out and for me to read about it when they 
do.  For now it is enough that I know it.  And I am gonna look for Mayer's 
book tomorrow at our local bookstore.

Thanks for your, as always, provocative comments on a fascinating and 
relevant subject.  Warmly, Patti


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Adam Blatner" <adam at blatner.com>
To: "Edward Hug" <edwhug at verizon.net>
Cc: <list at grouptalkweb.org>
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 10:59 PM
Subject: Re: bl2ed9407


Dear Ed & Grouptalk, I recently came upon the following book:

Mayer, Elizabeth Lloyd. (2007). Extraordinary knowing: science, skepticism, 
and the inexplicable powers of the human mind. New York: Bantam. 
www.bantamdell.com       This highly-reputed, well-established psychoanalyst 
died, unfortunately, soon after writing this book. It's surprisingly 
good---seems different from just another book on
parapsychology. Her depth psychology angle adds some depth, so I feel drawn 
to read it out loud to my wife, Allee.

        If we concede that a truly anomalous experience occurs not as a 
random event---this is where the dynamics overlap with synchronicity---then 
we are invited to question our entire paradigm of causality.

       By the way, I have a hypothesis that explains all this: The mind is 
not a manufacturer and transmitter, but rather an antenna, a receiver, 
especially of more refined forms of knowledge. In its less-evolved 
functioning---reptilian and mammalian brain, chronic defensiveness and 
simple limbic system functioning, much of the mind's functioning is 
relatively rooted in more conventional theories of reflex and child 
development, basic psychoanalysis, etc. When the limbic system relaxes, 
though, opens to the neurocortex, not only thinking can enter the picture 
(in the spirit of Goleman's Emotional Intelligence book in 1995), but, I 
suggest (very tentatively), opens to other dimensions that cannot be 
explained in terms of ordinary cognition. The savant syndrome, related 
conditions with musical ability recently described by Oliver Sacks, and many 
other phenomenon transcend any regular paradigms of mind.

      (I somehow see a parallel with astronomy. In the last thirty years or 
so, evidence for dark matter and then dark energy has accumulated. We don't 
know what these are, but it seems that as far as the dark matter, it, or 
something, accounts for 95% of the mass in the cosmos; and in terms of the 
seeming acceleration of distance, in its aggregate and
distance, dark energy may express perhaps a quantity equal to or greater to 
the explainable types of energy. So more folks are coming to a fresh start 
place after the period of the spread of science and its extension into 
scientism between the mid-18th and early 21st century: New frontiers of 
staggering degrees of mystery are coming to the surface of our collective 
awareness.)

I envision many implications here: What really is hypnosis? What if most 
kids in a generation or two are taught self-hypnosis as a matter of course, 
like learning to read or write? And also intuition training and related 
skills?
        What if we accept a dimensional depth in our lives without having to 
presume to know what  it means---leaving it without dogma---but yet of 
course it becomes a powerful question that shifts the nature of spirituality 
away from the authority of an intermediate function (the clergy, the 
rituals), and towards a more democratic, populist---I don't know the right 
words---reaching for people to discover and explore the spiritual domains 
using their own symbol systems?

What if therapy begins to shift toward acknowledging this dimension?

Theory 2: Psychic phenomena increases with expectation, meditation, 
relaxation, feeling safe, letting oneself go into trance.   We as therapists 
should talk about extraordinary knowing in as matter-of-fact as taking a 
sexual history, or a spiritual history. We might be surprised by the way 
people will talk about it nowadays, but only if asked in a truly respectful 
manner. Well, I'm just warming up to all this. Open to your comments. 
warmly, Adam


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Edward Hug
  To: Adam Blatner
  Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 6:38 AM
  Subject: Re: bl2ed9407


  Ho Adam ...

  I knew the elf was in there somewhere peeking out. I look forward to your 
Christmas designs.

  Yes, neuroscience cuts both ways. It is reductive science, fragmentary and 
un-wholistic. But it is science, and so gets the attention of the money 
people .. agencies and all. But it is also supportive of more integrative, 
wholistic approaches .. psychotherapies, pschoanalysis, even psychodrama. 
And actually, once you get into it, there is a kind of Awe in it. Just read 
Oliver Sacks and you get that there is a Ghost in the Machine. 
Reductionistic language and terms of reference in service of that which is 
so obviously beyond it. The spiritual aspect comes through without using the 
spiritualistic language (so common in New Age blather). So yes, it is a 
bridge in this way too!

  I guess you've seen Horvatin & Schreiber's "Quintessential Zerka". I had a 
peek into it on Amazon. Seems well written. Captivating. At $54 I'll wait 
for the paperback though.

  Is your latest paper on your website?

  Cheers ...  Ed


    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Adam Blatner
    To: Edward Hug
    Sent: Monday, September 03, 2007 10:56 PM
    Subject: Re: bl2ed9407


    Hi Ed, what fun. Well, I'm turning my attention to a new game, mixing 
the kinds of drawings / cartoons I've been putting on my Christmas Holiday 
letters for 27 years with the emergent playful elf-based philosophy.
            An activity of seeking a kind of wisdom within folly. So this 
comment below seems particularly apropos.

    EH: Ah yes ... that golden "10% ... where is it to be found? Is it to be 
found somewhere OUTSIDE the folly, or is it to be found WITHIN THE FOLLY 
ITSELF? My feeling is the latter. What we CALL "folly" may be wisdom dressed 
up to fool us .. or rather, to fool our rational way of thinking. Rather 
than "devaluing", I like to think it useful to go exploring for wisdom 
within that which others devalue. Nor do I feel pessimistic about all this. 
Funny thing is, I think the Elf part of you already knows this!

       As for the other things, well, it sounds as if we are in pretty much 
agreement. The idea of using neuroscience to bridge intrigues me. I think 
psychodrama is wilting ever further. Did you hear the journal might be 
closed down and perhaps sold from lack of contributions?
           So my latest paper says let's unpack Moreno's best ideas and see 
where they can be useful.

        Warmly, Adam


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