Month: October 2014

 The Eleusinian Mysteries form the basis of Greek Mythology.

Overcoming the fear of death.

Initiation involves the experience of changing consciousness or a mini-death.

The Eleusinian Mysteries depict the initiation ceremonies that mark the right of passage into Greek Society.

 

Tribal Initiation.

Mircea Eliade: Wrote his thesis in Rumania on Buddhism, moved to Paris then the US and later wrote on tribal shamanism and mythologies. Best known for the Encyclopaedia of Religion he chaired Religious Studies at Chicago University. Died 1986.

[Initiation’s] function as an  entry into the culture.

It reveals a world open to the trans-human, a world that, in our philosophical terminology, we call transcendental.”

It makes [the initiand] open to spiritual values.”

The Freemasons.

Cognitive Dissonance.

•In psychology, cognitive dissonance is mental stress   or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs.  The brain strives for consistency.  [Leon Festinger].

•Cognitive dissonance causes irrationality.

•Psychology experiments have also shown that initiations increase feelings of  affiliation.

The Fox and the Grapes Aesop’s Fables. [Aesop classical Greek story teller.

Origins of Hermeticism.

Abu Mūsā Jābir ibn Hayyān
8th Century AD

     Born in Iran of Syrian parents and the Umayyad Caliphate  (Al-Ḫilāfat al-ʾumawiyya),  This was the second of the four major Islamic calipates established after the death of Muhammad. 

Umayyad Caliphate  (Al-Ḫilāfat al-ʾumawiyya)  Empire.  750  AD.

Sufism and the Whirling Dervishes.

While all Muslims believe that they are on the pathway to God and hope to become close to God in Paradise—after death and after the “Final Judgment”—Sufis also believe that it is possible to draw closer to God and to more fully embrace the  divine presence in this life.

Dervish: Proto-Iranian cognate with the Vedic Sanskrit 1500–600 BCE.

• Water that’s poured inside will sink the boat

• While water underneath keeps it afloat.
Driving wealth from his heart to keep it pure
King Solomon preferred the title ‘Poor’:
That sealed jar in the stormy sea out there
Floats on the waves because it’s full of air,
When you’ve the air of dervishood inside
You’ll float above the world and there abide…

•  Rumi writes in Book 1 of his  Masnavi.

    First Mother Goddesses.

Estimated to have been carved 24,000–22,000 BCE [Upper Paleolithic] Venus of Willenforf.

Venus of Dolní Věstonice

29,000 BCE – 25,000 BCE Found Brno Czech Republic.

Mother-Goddess: The palace of Qusay Amra Al-Walid II (743–44).

Concubine School of vocal arts and dance.

Great Mosque Cordoba. 

Berber heroes: Jabal Tariq:
(Gibr Al-Tariq)  Gibraltar and Dihya.

Berber warrior led the Visigothic Hispania  conquest  711 AD.

Daya Ult Yenfaq Tajrawt, Dihya, or Damya 7th century AD military leader. Monument in Khenchela, Algeria

Origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries In Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad.

The Mycenaean  Myth of the Trojan War.

The Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Greeks after Paris  of Troy took Helen   from her husband Menelaus  king of Sparta (1600–1100 BC). Troy was located in the vicinity of the Dardanelles in what is now north-western Turkey. By modern times both the war and the city were widely believed to be mythological.

Greek version of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Persephone (sometimes described as Proserpine and as Cora or Kore), when gathering flowers, was  abducted by Pluto, the god of Hades, and carried off by him to his abode in the Underworld with Zeus, the brother of Pluto and the father of Persephone having given his consent for the abduction.

When Persephone’s mother Demeter found out she was so angry she left the heavens and came down to Earth [Eleusis] and caused the fields to be barren.   Since there were no gifts to sacrifice to the gods they got angry and demanded that Hermes command Zeus to tell  Pluto to return Persephone to her mother.

Hermeticism: Hermes Trismegistus [Thrice Great].

Alchemy, Astronomy and Ritual.

•  Persephone, having eaten the pips of the pomegranate  was forced to return to Hades during the months of winter when the fields were dormant.

•  Demeter renewed the fields in the summer months and all who witnessed the rebirth were warned against upsetting the gods.

 

 

 

 

 

Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of  the 450s and 420s BC, it reached its height in the 5th Century BC.

Ancient Greece was a  period that lasted from the Archaic period  of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity ( AD 600) and the Early Middle Ages.   Classical Greece flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC .   Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great the  Hellenistic civilisation stretched from Central Asia to the Western end of the Mediterranean Sea. 

The story of philosophy and geometry.

The story of philosophy has close links with ancient geometry, its axioms and theorems.  The word geometry means “measurement” and it comes from the Ancient Greek and arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers; arithmetic, both of which are rooted in Egyptian, Babylonian and Indo-Grecian migratory civilisations.  The earliest recorded beginnings of geometry can be traced to ancient communities of the Indus Valley [see map above] and ancient Babylonia from around 3000 BC.   These people discovered the obtuse triangle about 1500 years before Pythagoras expounded his theorem; that is if he did expound Pythagoras theorem?

Egyptian Rope Stretchers and the beginning of Geometry.

Geometry spread in Egypt when rope stretchers were sent out to put back the boundary markers washed away by the Nile. Today we call it surveying. [Tompkins, Peter. Secrets of the Great Pyramid. NY: Harper, 1971. p. 22].

Picture: The Thinker by DuBrae. 

      Kay Redfield Jamison is an American clinical psychologist and writer who suffers bipolar disorder and as a Professor of Psychiatry at the John Hopkins University she has written extensively on her mental health experience. She ends her book  An Unquiet Mind  with the following notation: 

I long ago abandoned the notion of a life without storms, or a world without dry and killing seasons. Life is too complicated, too constantly changing, to be anything but what it is. And I am, by nature, too mercurial to be anything but deeply wary of the grave unnaturalness involved in any attempt to exert too much control over essentially uncontrollable forces. There will always be propelling, disturbing elements, and they will be there until, as Lowell put it, the watch is taken from the wrist. It is, at the end of the day, the individual moments of restlessness, of bleakness, of strong persuasions and maddened enthusiasms, that inform one’s life, change the nature and direction of one’s work, and give final meaning and colour to one’s loves and friendships.[i]  

      Darold Treffert  is a world expert on autism and savant syndrome who believes the main quality that holds Outsider artists together is love and support.  Yet, it is something of an irony that so many who have been diagnosed with a mental difference and who have also contributed greatly to the culture and are responsible for some of the world greatest works of art still face the stigma and discrimination on associated with terms like, madness, insanity, idiocy or lunacy.  This happens because there are two main fears afflicting the human psyche, death and madness and they seem to be conjoined in a delusion because neither are truly what they appear to be.  The only real basis for any of these fears is a fantasy.

‘Mental Illness’ and Evolution.

    There is a strong school of thought that mental illness, or madness has an evolutionary basis and it could actually be good for you.  Evolutionary theory views modern human behaviours as fundamental traits of natural selection that stem from our ancestors. Of particular interest to evolutionary psychiatry is the modern prevalence of depression.  Estimates of depression in Western nations are put in the range between 5% and 20%.  This prevalence appears to be partly associated with genes, which suggests a possible adaptive trend might be already present in our genome put there by natural selection.   One version of this idea is the adaptive rumination hypothesis [ARH] which posits that depression helps to solve difficult inter-subjective problems.   Instead of being pathological, depression could be a useful tool that allows people to withdraw from the world when such a separation is needed. [ii]  

     The above idea does not go uncontested.  Depression and anxiety are closely linked and we know that many people still die in a state of depression or from its long term consequences.  Also,  there is no way of truly describing the pain people suffer from depression.

    Notwithstanding, terms like madness imply that human consciousness is always stationary or stable.  Consciousness is never stable and even a slight mental instability can be either a devastating or an enriching experience.  In fact the term mental illness is as misplaced as  the term madness and what we should be calling these conditions is a “mental shift”. 

Schizotypy

      In psychiatry schizotypy is a theory that sees personality characteristics ranging from normal dissociative, imaginative states to more extreme states related in the range of psychosis including schizophrenia. The Swiss psychiatrist Paul Eugen Bleuler [1857-1939] did not believe in a clear separation between sanity and madness, rather that psychosis was an extreme expression of thoughts and behaviours that could be present to varying degrees throughout the population. Bleuler is believed to be responsible for the early use of the term “autism” [1910] at the time he was describing the symptoms of schizophrenia. Bleuler is also known for having a neurological disorder called Synaesthesia whereby the main senses [touch, taste, smell, sight, become confused and overlap with each other.  [iii]

       Prior to Bleuler the first recorded reference was in fact that of French physician Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard [1775-1838].  He reported the case of a ‘wild boy’ named Victor, otherwise called ‘Wild Boy of Avalon.’  Victor displayed several signs of autism and in 1797 is thought to have lived his entire childhood alone in the woods near Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance.  Itard treated him with a behavioural program designed to help him form social attachments and to induce speech via imitation. Victor’s life was dramatized in François Truffaut’s 1970 film l’Enfant Sauvage. [iv]

      Bleuler’s ideas were picked up by many psychologists such as  Hans Eysenck and Gordon Claridge  who sought to understand this extreme differences in unusual thought and behaviour patterns and devised a  personality theory.  Claridge named his concept schizotypy and by examining unusual experiences in the general population and the clustering of symptoms  in diagnosed schizophrenia, Claridge’s work suggested that this personality trait was much more complex, and could break down into four factors.

     Unusual experiences: The disposition to have unusual perceptual  and other cognitive experiences, such as hallucinations, magical or superstitious belief and interpretation of events. 

1.       Cognitive disorganization: A tendency for thoughts to become derailed, disorganised or tangential.
2.      Introverted anhedonia: A tendency to introverted, emotionally flat and asocial behaviour, associated with a deficiency in the ability to feel pleasure from social and physical stimulation.
3.       Impulsive nonconformity: The disposition to unstable mood and behaviour particularly with regard to rules and social conventions. [v]  

     What Claridge describes of course are the many different behavioural traits of the Outsider artist.   A study looking at 300,000 persons with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or uni-polar depression, and their relatives, found a distinct overrepresentation in the creative professions with the greatest overrepresentation for artistic occupations among people diagnosed with schizophrenia. [vi]     Another study involving more than one million people, conducted by Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute, reported a number of correlations between creative occupations and mental illnesses. Writers had a higher risk of anxiety and bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, uni-polar depression, and substance abuse, and were almost twice as likely as the general population to kill themselves. Dancers and photographers were also more likely to have bipolar disorder. The question raised then, is should we regard the arts as a form of natural prevention for these kinds of mental illnesses? [vi]

Drug Abuse.

      Mental difference can include a high propensity for alcohol and drug abuse.  In the case of alcohol Western societies still do not see excessive use/abuse as a mental social problem.  A book of literary biography called The Trip to Echo Spring: Why Writers Drink, by Olivia Laing describes six famous drunken writers and comes to the conclusion that writers drink for the same reasons everyone else drinks: to offset anxieties     The  Karolinska Institute found that  ‘creative’ people have more ‘cognitive disinhibition’ than most people; that is, that their brains are less adept at filtering out extraneous details. This is a trait shared by people with schizotypal differences. If the sufferer is of high intelligence, this mess of perceptions can lead to great insights and/or what is known as savant syndrome. [vii] 

•     Repetition compulsion includes re-enacting the event or putting oneself in situations where the event is likely to happen again. This might not be clear in the artistic creation, but it drives the process to manifest shapes and symbols that fill the perceived empty space.   This kind of extended reality can also take the form of dreams, hallucinations and visions in which memories and feelings of what happened are repeated and distorted.  Often patterns of repartition rely on distressing events that have taken place early in the person’s life. It can also happen after a crisis, an illness, a loss, a fear and/or anxiety.    Art offers two avenues for the expression of traumatic experiences, acceptance or regression. From the observers point of view both are equally intriguing and both make good and bad art.  Notwithstanding, several questions arise, who is to be the judge of artistic value?  Further, who can truly know what is hidden in the deep unconscious; we can only hypothesize.[viii]  
  

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[1] Philosophy means the Love of Wisdom.

In the West Philosophy has three major sub-categories that relate to human ideas.

[2]  Epistemology  which is concerned with the relationships between truth, belief, perceptions and how we justify things. 

[3]  Metaphysics which is concerned with being, time, reality, objects, causes, the mind body relationship, and cosmology.     

[4] Aesthetics which is concerned with art, beauty, taste and creativity. [The term aesthetics is post-eighteenth century; all forms of aestheticism were previously relegated to the realms of the Divine].

[5] Why is philosophy important?

Philosophy provides abstract ways of thinking about the world, it raises existential and “qualitative” questions and provides deeper insights and debates. In particular it seeks solutions for unintended consequences.

[6] What is meant by abstract?

•Thoughts are subject to primary and secondary processes.

•The primary processes are abstract concepts that may or may not produce a conscious  thought. 

•Primary thoughts become secondary thoughts.

[7] Conscious thoughts are only the tip of the iceberg, they are not the whole story.

[8]    Primary and secondary thoughts and concepts.

•Consciousness includes everything that we are aware of and that which can be argued rationally. 

•Pre-consciousness represents ordinary memories which we often lose track of, but which can be retrieved and brought to consciousness .

•The unconscious mind contains all feelings and emotions, thoughts, desires, urges, and memories that reside beyond our conscious awareness. 

[9]  Slips of the Tongue [parapraxis].

Sigmund Freud believed that all human behaviour and personality derive from constant contests between the governing psychological forces that operate at three different levels of awareness.  For example; a person might make a statement intending to convey one meaning, but the words are incoherent to the intention and mean something unintended.   Freud also argued that this is not an accident. Rather, it is the unconscious material [primary abstract concepts] that are being revealed to the external world.

[10] Abstract concepts need abstract theories for effective analysis.

• “Experience” is derived through abstract concepts, therefore we need abstract theories to comprehend the concepts.

•Hence, philosophy has more in common with the arts than the sciences, albeit  Modern Philosophy of the Mind  has links to the cognitive sciences.

[11] Abstract concepts in Ancient Greek philosophy.

Everything in Ancient Greek philosophy has a Divine origin.  Nothing is considered new or innovative.

[12] The Philosopher’s Maxims.

The Ancient philosopher spoke in Maxims [a kind of poetry]  For example  the stone mason Socrates, wrote the Hermaic maxim “Know Thyself” at the opening of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

[13] The  Gymnasium.

•The gymnasium [gymnos means naked]. Athletes competed nude supposedly to encourage aesthetic appreciation of the male body and as tribute to the gods, in particular the Olympian God Hermes. [Pausanias [geographer] Guide to Greece, 4.32.1].

[14] Hermes.

•Hermes is a God who can travel freely between the mortal world and the Divine. 

•Hermes gathers together the souls.

[15]  Myths are philosophical metaphors.

•In Hindu mythology Hermes is represented by Sarama who is also referred to as  the bitch  of the gods, or Deva-shuni.   She first  appears in the Rig Veda in which she helps the god-king Indra   to recover divine cows stolen by the demon Panis .

[16] Goddess of Nature.

•The  Mahabharata   makes brief reference to Sarama. One scripture  describes Sarama as the mother of all wild animals who was Artemis in Greek mythology and Diana in Roman myths.

[17] Ancient Greek philosophy was predicated on closing the gap between the human and the Divine.

Philosophy  aimed at closing the gap between reality and the Divine and was  expressed in mythological creatures called  hybrids. 

[18] The known and the unknowable in the symbolic hybrid.

The two headed monster and Medusa.

[19] Human – animal wholeness in the hybrid creature.

Minotaur and Phoenix.

[20] Mythological Wholeness in Janus.

     According to Plato’s “Symposium”  Greek Mythology tells how humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.

[21] Unity of souls in homosexuality.

      Same-sex unions were a common feature in Ancient Greek and Roman societies as well as in Ancient Mesopotamia and regions of China such as the Fujian province and at certain times in European history.  They continued until the birth of Christianity.  The Christian emperors Constantius II  prohibited same sex marriage and ordered that those who were so married were to be executed.

[22]  Examples of same sex marriage in Ancient Greece.

     Emperor Nero married at least two males and the 4th Century Christian Martyrs Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus were united in ritual.

[23] As Above so Below.

    Plato for example believed there was nothing original about the world or life everything was copied from nature.  Hence, there was no word for “creativity”.  There was one exception poetry, which was linked with strange behaviour [madness] and a direct connection to primary causes or principles.

[24]  The story of nature was also the story of the conscious and the unconscious.

    Persephone was the goddess queen  abducted by the god Haides.  After eating the seeds of the pomegranate she travelled to and from the underworld in winter. 

[25] The greatest influences on Western society have come from the Ancient Greek philosophers.

Pythagoras:              Socrates:                      Plato:                           Aristotle

Astronomy               Democracy                Structure                        Science

              

FUN AND PHILOSOPHY

At

The Foster Manna Gum Shop and Lounge.

Wednesdays: Starting  October 8th 12.30-2pm.

[Bring your lunch and/or refreshments available.]

 

Philosophy dominates every aspect of our lives, but we rarely think about it! Come and share your ideas about life in a friendly and informal group conversation.  

 Gain some insights on what makes us sensitive, complacent, inquisitive, creative and human. 

Topics Covered:

Health, happiness, love, beauty, relationships, sex, consumption, environment, anger, violence, hope, peace, what makes us successful and how we can create a better world. What does philosophy have to teach us?

Be Surprised:

Test your perceptions:  Find out what influences your decisions. Learn about being mindful.

 

Venue: Manner Gum Community Shop and Lounge. Foster and District Community House, corner of Court Street and Station Road. Inquiries: 035682 1101 or 0411 797396.