11 Comments
May 10Liked by Colin E. Davis, Harrison Koehli

Excellent (x ♾ ) article! So well written!

Expand full comment
May 24Liked by Colin E. Davis, Harrison Koehli

Fantastic task. Love "projecting our gold on to psychopaths"

Expand full comment
May 24Liked by Colin E. Davis, Harrison Koehli

Love the image of a pilot just looking at gauges and meters and being able to fly without actually seeing where they are going

Expand full comment
May 27Liked by Colin E. Davis

5000 years of Ayurvedic principles brought to contemporary consciousness for increasing numbers of people by Deepak Chopra, incudes Sanskrit mantras and Buddhist sayings and poetry. Dr. Chopra, ever reminding his listening public that he is a medical doctor, claims that deep meditation "has been shown in scientific research" to be capable of healing telomeres.

In the difficult transitions of youth, I went to my shadow for years; in midlife transitions with desires for suicide, I travelled to the ecumenical charismatic Christian healing ministries, experiencing and observing manifestations of the miraculous touching the shadow work that I and others in ministry sought to release. But now in early old age, after a lifetime of chronic "pain", physically manifested shadow pain, I find Dr Chopra to be correct. The powerful effect of deep meditation via the Ayurvedic tradition, Buddhist thought and yoga is deeply healing, whereas Jungian work is no longer as relevant, ie in old age, with chronic physical pain. Maybe the personal work can lead one to that place over a long arc of one life, to being receptive to the power of the healing arts which is clearly a power that is to be brought out from within the individual person.

From my perspective, after a time of life or a life of having grappled with one's shadows, there comes a point at which that work is light on the mind and heart, and the Ayurvedic and Eastern traditions are more vital.

Expand full comment
author

If you get time, check out the methods I list here: https://resolveyourtrauma.wordpress.com/

Expand full comment
May 25Liked by Colin E. Davis

Am walking on trails at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in NYS, very beautiful and peaceful - desiring to stall the masochism train, having just listened to this extraordinary talk.

I too have had agonizing transitions in my college years, in midlife and now in early old age am stuck on the exo darkness as a Substack keyboard warrior.

So here is a healthy thought : The Rockefeller Foundation saved my Jewish grandparents' lives, literally from certain destruction by the Third Reich, a beautiful story involving my concert pianist mother as a teen, the Wittgenstein connection in Vienna, the Pres of the Bank of France and the Rockefeller Foundation - all very elite people from the Old World elite. My humble mother's musicianship in her day gave her some entrance into that world.

So, I can contemplate as I walk, the extraordinary autocratic personalities of the Carnegies, the Rockefellersand the Wittgensteins of history or I can contemplate the beauty of this nature preserve and how the intervention of this particular powerful family saved my dear grandparents who greatly

enhanced my childhood.

I am however still obsessed such that I need to constantly write even when trying to not get lost in this park. The universe sent a petite elderly Asian woman to cross my path and enlighten me that it was time to turn back as the sun would be going down. A sign of a friendly universe.

Expand full comment
author

Indeed. The universe and humanity is infinitely varied. Perhaps the best reason to focus on the shadow is because we have denied it so long. But this is medicine that is not appropriate for all people in all times and places, as you know.

Expand full comment
May 25Liked by Colin E. Davis

meant "fantastic talk"

Expand full comment
May 11Liked by Colin E. Davis

Why was it that I was thinking of Batman whilst reading this piece?

I haven't read those comics for years, but I still remember Frank Miller's graphic novel "The Dark Knight Returns"(1986). A young Bruce Wayne is out playing in the grounds of the Wayne estate when he slips and falls into a dark cave full of bats. The terrified boy is rescued by the loyal Alfred.

Later on, I thought it was a totally ridiculous concept. Who the heck builds a palatial mansion directly over a cave system? The Wayne family were rich and powerful, what was their architect doing? He would have surveyed the building site thoroughly! Totally unbelievable.

A few years further on than that, after some scars on my skin and miles under my belt, I caught myself thinking "Well that isn't really the point, is it Jack?"

After the murder of his parents and his years of wandering, Bruce Wayne must return to stately Wayne Manor, and descend into The Bat Cave (now named with the definite article) to gain the armor, weapons and skills he needs to fight the evil and become the hero.

So, we're not going to stop The Shadow but we're not going to stop The Batman either, heck who even started Batman? It wasn't Frank Miller in 1986 but it wasn't really Bob Kane and Bill Finger in 1939 either. And as Batman is about 85~90% Zorro (first appear in 1919) the story has thousands of authors.

I think there is some hope in that for us all.

Expand full comment
author

:-) The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. - Joseph Campbell

Expand full comment
May 11Liked by Colin E. Davis

most interesting…

like want to jump right into the middle of this and see what happens…

yes shadow and Jung and does anyone beyond MLvF really understand the deeper aspects of Jung?…

like myself just claiming hobby scholarship level interest yet totally amazed at how Jung’s concept of example the inner opposites is apparently not well understood…

like more the opposites are typically considered within the scholarly competitive constraints of who is best at demonstrating rote memorize and regurgitate of Jung…

like ponder is shadow meaningfully considered as the inner union of our denied shadowed festering desires for relatedness this finding grounding/union with our inner denied festering unresolved fears…

so then also leading to the question of does consciousness itself have the structural complexity of an, as above so below…

as above as our setting/non-temporal/stage level perspective empowered by our desire for relatedness which is brought into consciousness within our relationship with uncertainty…

as below perspective as our the actor/temporal/individual level perspective, hungry seeking food perspective, so more will to power driven, also allows us to create the necessary illusion of ourselves as a unique authentic essence…

that the biggest shadow issue is then a result of us being unaware/rejecting that we are at the most primary modeled level an inner yin/yang co-created unity of consciousness…

that the glue that binds this collective shadowed evil burden is the seeking of absolutism, that as uncertainty becomes more banished then we are left with a mono conscious masculine psychological principle mindset this while we shadow our feminine psychological principle…

which is really odd when you consider that the best science can do is a modeled approximation offering the value of meaningful predictability…

where value is a philosophical, as above, type of concept…

Expand full comment