Psychology

The LORRAX process optimizes our likelihood of noticing synchronicity when it pops up unexpectedly. When we follow it, we are more likely to get into flow.

Back in the day, people feared that grandmama might fall victim to a familiar masquerading as a cat or fly. Now, we fear that grandma will fall prey to fake news or a scam spread by a bot. Familiar Shapes, a documentary in production by Heather D. Freeman, explores surprising similarities between bots and familiars.

Human language is both a blessing and a curse. Nowhere is this so apparent as when one is talking about oneself or expressing what one wants in ritual.

To survive the disorder accompanying scientific-rational awareness, something new and unique in the history of humanity was wrought: the ego. But this ego has become extremely insensitive to the effects, much less the necessity and usefulness, of its created disorder.

I can’t help but to ask Jung’s opinion about the fact that someone as clearly pathological as Donald Trump has become president. As if anticipating my question, Jung says, “As soon as people get together in masses and submerge the individual, the shadow is mobilized, and as history shows, may even be personified and incarnated.”

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes the creative state of mind in which we “want to pursue whatever (we) are doing for its own sake” as “flow.” Engaging in this process develops the maker mindset.

There are three simple things that make council special as a way of meeting together, making decisions, solving problems, dealing with conflicts, and building community: Sitting in a circle, beginning and ending with a ceremony, using a talking stick, circle.