Becoming Aware (Consciousness) Archives

Genius and Intelligence

November 21, 2017 By Daniel Davis Leave a Comment

What is your gift? What can you do that no other human being can do just like you?”

“There is nothing special about me!” said the character, Jack, in the film, The Fisher King. “I control my own destiny.”

Life is mysterious. Yet I believe that we all have a certain genius. The word genius comes from the root of gignere which was to ‘beget.’ We bring forth or give birth to something, according to this definition of genius.

In the late 16th century, the word genius had evolved to mean natural ability. By the mid 17th century, genius came to mean ‘exceptional natural ability.”

The evolution of the word genius seems to reflect our cultural perception that we are not all gifted as individuals. There are special people who are different than average humans, like you and me.

It is my experience that everyone has unique gifts. School can be confusing, because of its emphasis on language and mathematical ability. Often we see a person’s I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) as a number which defines whether she or he has genius or not. Further, our I.Q. is too often seen as fixed and never changing.

Alfred Binet originally developed the intelligence test to identify which French students would have difficulty in school to assist them. It is ironic that we now use the concept of IQ to label and shame others. IQ scores have a long history of gender and cultural bias.

Fortunately, Howard Gardner developed the ideas of Multiple Intelligence. He asserted that there are nine different types of intelligence:

1. language (Verbal-Linguistic)
2. mathematics (and logic)
3. science (Naturalist)
4. artistic (Visual-Spatial)
5. athletic (Bodily/Kinesthetic)
6. musical
7. interpersonal (social)
8. intrapersonal (self-awareness)
9. existential (meaning of life)

Your IQ score will not reveal your creativity, your common sense, or your social skills. The singer, Lady Gaga has high Musical Intelligence. The tennis player, Serena Williams has great physical abilities. The teacher, Thich Nhat Hahn has high intrapersonal Intelligence.

Yet one does not need to be famous to have genius. I think each of us has unique gifts with which we are born. It is our opportunity and privilege to develop these talents. The saddest thing is when families and schools fail to recognize the uniqueness of each child, leaving one to feel insignificant, powerless, or unlovable.

If we work hard at developing our natural gifts, then we are able to experience the joy of expressing our gifts in sophisticated ways. Richard Bolles writes, “where your great passion meets the great need of the world, that is where your work lies.”

May each of us have the courage to take the heroic journey of individuation. May we work and struggle to develop the natural gifts with which we are born.

Charles Baudelaire writes that “genius is childhood recaptured.” A healthy relationship with our inner child may assist us in developing our unique talents in love and work. Please watch this video by Judith Peterson,M.A., on the Inner Child:

Do You See What I See?

February 7, 2017 By Daniel Davis Leave a Comment

We assume we are so evolved in our modern world. We have amazing technology – iPhones, Tesla cars, trains that speed at 200 miles per hour. Yet as humans, we remain fragile. We are vulnerable to over-reaction and self-deception. “When I fall in love, it will be forever. And I’ll never fall in love again,” sings Nat King Cole.

Falling in love can feel like having my feet swept out from under me. I may see my beloved as flawless. All I want to talk about are the astonishing qualities of my beloved. As I talk about my beloved, I feel high – like I am on cocaine. Such is the power of projection.

Our self-deception can enable us to take on worthy challenges, like education, marriage, or parenting. Yet our ambitious decisions can also lead to chaos, disease, and even death.

We may believe in modern life that we are free of the superstitions of our ancestors, yet this 2 million year old archaic mind is present in each of us. It will operate unconsciously in our lives. If we fail to honor our archaic mind, the cost is very high. Yet if we do integrate the wisdom of our unconscious mind, our lives are enriched beyond measure.

Please watch this video by Manuel Costa on projection:

Synchronicity

January 24, 2017 By Daniel Davis Leave a Comment

What is real? Certainly not a dream. I was on a cruise ship on the 30th of December 2008 when I had a dream: a cat is walking down the street as it is carrying a dead animal in its teeth.

When I left the ship on the 2nd of January, I checked my messages. I learned that my dog, Abbie had died on December 30th of 2008. I loved my dog, Abbie. She was a wonderful companion during a difficult part of my life.

Many people tell me in confidence about having such experiences after a person or animal close to them passes away. Yet people rarely talk about such morbid matters in polite conversation.

It is just a coincidence, one might say in response to a tale such as mine. The science of Isaac Newton from the 17th century dominates biology and physics. From this point of view, the universe is assumed to be mechanical. Human beings are viewed as separate from the universe as a whole.

It is our personal experiences of synchronicity that confirm that we are connected to the great web of the universe. We are all part of the quantum field.

From the years 1909 until 1913 Albert Einstein was a dinner guest of Dr. Carl G. Jung on several occasions. At the time, Einstein was developing his theory of relativity. Jung was captivated by Einstein’s ideas that time as well as space are relative. For years, Jung pondered that relationship between time and space to the human psyche. Dr. Jung also was trying to make sense of the baffling coincidences his clients reported to him in therapy. He also had the coincidences in his own life.

It was not until 1930, when Jung finally used the term “synchronicity” publicly. In a letter on Einstein and synchronicity, Jung wrote: “It was Einstein who first started me off thinking about a possible relativity of time as well as space, and their psychic synchronicity”.

Dr. Jung defines synchronicity as “the coincidence between an inner image or hunch breaking into one’s mind, and the occurrence of an outer event conveying the same meaning at approximately the same time.”

Please watch this video from Manuel Costa on synchronicity:

Dreams

January 17, 2017 By Daniel Davis Leave a Comment

My dreams never cease to dazzle me with the insight, emotionality, and creativity that are hidden within them. I awake with such gold and jewels. My life is more beautiful, because of the time I take to exam my dream life. Our dreams are trying to convey inner truths to us. There is a reality to our psychic life that can be transformative when we embrace it.

Yet where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, Virtual Reality is highly valued. Science is our religion and technology is our god. Sadly, our dreams are forgotten and discarded as useless trash. When we have the courage to explore our dreams with wisdom and respect, then valuable wisdom can be gained.

Carl Jung said at the end of his life, “I had to understand that I was unable to make the people see what I am after. I am practically alone. . . There are a few who understand this and that, but almost nobody sees the whole….I have failed in my foremost task: to open people’s eyes to the fact that man has a soul and there is a buried treasure in the field and that our religion and philosophy are in a lamentable state.”

Please watch this video by Manuel Costa about dreams:

The Self

January 10, 2017 By Daniel Davis Leave a Comment

“It is not the end of the world,” my dad would say. Often, the crises we perceive as so ominous are not the end of our life as we know it. Sometimes an event, such as disease, divorce, or death can deliver a blow so severe that our life changes. Life can then seem meaningless.

Yet amidst this devastation, we may find something of value. Carl Jung said, “There is nothing so bad that some good can’t come of it.”

That which breaks our hearts, makes it larger. In this breaking, we may find a mysterious wholeness or – in other words – The Self.

The Self is the whole or total personality. A whole personality embraces the unconscious part of our mind which includes our spiritual center. A connection between our self awareness (also called “ego”) and this spiritual (psychic) center is of vital importance for our health and wellbeing, asserts John Sanford.

Please watch this video by Manuel Costa about the Self and living with a sense of purpose:

Merry Christmas

December 27, 2016 By Daniel Davis Leave a Comment

What comes to mind when you hear, “Merry Christmas?” I remember growing up in the Santa Clara Valley in Northern California, USA, and experiencing the wonder of Christmas as a young child. I remember going to midnight mass at Queen of Apostles Catholic Church in San Jose a five minutes’ walk from our family home. I remember my dad’s voice singing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. Upon returning home, my brother and sister and I, open a present from our mom and dad on Christmas Eve before we go to bed. We awake early on a dark and cold Christmas morning to open more presents next to our Christmas tree under the bright lights of my father’s eight millimeter (8mm) camera.

What is Christmas? Jesus being born in a stable in the small town of Bethlehem in the Middle Eastern part of the Roman Empire over two thousand years ago? The angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary and announces: “Do not be afraid. Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High.”

What does this mean to you? How do you feel when you hear these words? They may be vibrant and meaningful. Yet they also may be lifeless. Moreover, these ancient words (translated into English) may bring up rage or fear. As we encounter this story about the first Christmas, we have an opportunity to better understand ourselves as well as our world. There are over 2.2 billion people who are part of Christianity. Yet religion is different from spirituality. Our internal experience is a core part of our spirituality. This is a vital part of what we find meaningful in our lives. If we choose, it is possible to have a different sense of the meaning of Christmas by finding a new relationship to the story of the birth of Jesus.

Manuel Costa has been leading seminars about the teachings of Jesus for many decades with the Guild for Psychological Studies. Please watch this video and learn more about how to possibly see from a new life giving perspective:

How are you feeling?

May 31, 2016 By Daniel Davis Leave a Comment

”It is our feeling function that gives a sense of joy, worth, and meaning to life . . . . No one ever succeeded in finding a reason for living by the reasoning process,” writes Robert Johnson.

“It is as if we have gained the highest technical civilization in the history of the world but at the cost of losing the simpler virtues of happiness and contentment,” writes Robert Johnson.

Every country and every culture throughout the world take on a certain character. The Italians have a reverence for extraverted feeling, says Robert Johnson. This is also true for Mexico. Whereas the Germans have a preference for introverted thinking. Within each culture there are individuals with a great variety of personality types, yet a culture as a whole makes a collective choice about what is revered. The Japanese prefer introverted sensing which can be seen in beautifully manicured Zen gardens throughout Japan.

In India, introverted feeling is revered. “One quickly sees the wealth of vocabulary and corresponding consciousness in the realm of feeling but suffering from a crushing poverty in awareness of the practical elements of science, politics, and planning. One can learn by observing a society that has exactly the opposite pattern of inferiority and superiority from one’s own,” writes Robert Johnson.

Whole cultures make a typology decision. Collectively America has made the decision that thinking is the most virtuous capacity that a human being can portray. “Our superior function has given us science and the highest standard of living the world has ever known – the envy of the third world – but at the cost of impoverishing the feeling function,” writes Robert Johnson.

Apple builds the iPhone. Boeing assembles 767 airliners. These types of accomplishments come from a highly disciplined thinking function. Bill Gates writing computer software code, late at night, is the symbol of the useful, brilliant, and noble man in modern life. The person who develops mastery with the extraverted thinking function is our contemporary hero. The development of the thinking function is the focus of most American schools and universities. In the United States, individuals with a well-developed thinking function are offered the best jobs and are the best paid. The development of the thinking function and the things produced have great value for the world.

Yet when one specializes in one function, then the opposite function is neglected. One specializes in extraverted thinking by robbing from its opposite – the introverted feeling function. “One feels this coldness around people who are who are feeling wounded, and they seem to reply to warmth or relatedness in some objective or dispassionate manner that stops all feeling ‘cold’ in its tracks. It is as if such a person is unable to see over his own woundedness and contact another on a human level,” writes Robert Johnson.

Yet it is our greatest weaknesses that provides us with the means to our greatest triumphs. In the English-speaking world, thinking is the superior function. Therefore, it is in our feeling function that our salvation lies collectively.

Unfortunately, discussing the feeling function in English is a challenge, because there are no suitable words. When we lack vocabulary, it naturally follows that we lack consciousness. “Sanskrit has ninety-six words for love; ancient Persian has eighty, Greek three, and English only one. . . . Imagine what richness would be expressed if one had a specific vocabulary for the love of one’s father, another word for love of one’s mother, yet another for one’s camel (the Persian’s have this luxury), still another for one’s lover, and another exclusively for the sunset,” writes Robert Johnson.
No matter how much we think or things we buy – homes, cars, jewelry – we cannot soothe the suffering and wounded feelings. Money and power will not restore our creativity. “I am often puzzled in going to India to see people who have so little in an outer sense but have so much happiness,” asserts Robert Johnson.

Our Emotional Intelligence is highly related to the development of our Feeling Function. Please watch this video on Emotional Intelligence:

What time is it?

May 24, 2016 By Daniel Davis Leave a Comment

Blog 58 – Time

How do you relate to time? Are you a punctual person?

Our relationship with time is important. Some of us are more oriented to the clock. When someone prefers to use our Judging process in the outer world, then one often has a different relationship to time. One is more aware of Chronos – a sense of time from ancient Greece related to chronological or sequential time. As human beings we have evolved from the sundial to the grandfather clock to the pocket watch to the digital wristwatch. Perhaps, we just look at our iPhone for the time. People who prefer their Judging Function prefer to be timely and organized. They tend to like planning and being methodical.

People who prefer to use their Perceiving Function are more spontaneous and flexible. They seek to experience and understand life as opposed to wanting to control it. They are adaptive and change course. People who prefer their Perceiving Function are more aware of Kairos – another sense of time from ancient Greece that is related to “a time in between.” While Chronos is quantitative, Kairos is qualitative.

The term Kairos reflects an earlier sense of time before sundials or clocks. Originally, our sense of time as human beings came from the cycles of nature – summer, fall, winter, and spring. The length of a day changes throughout the year depending on the season. The weather often varies from season to season. Time is variable. Farmers plant in spring and reap in the summer. The length of the light during the day waxes and wanes. Our bodies change with the cycles of nature – a woman has a period.

Yet the clock has become an unquestioned assumption for many modern people. We have a mechanical counting which reflects a 24 hour day. Our digital time is different from the rhythms of nature. A day in late December is very different from a day in the middle of June in Kansas City, USA, or Johannesburg, South Africa as well as for most of the world. Before we developed clocks our sense of time was different – more natural.

We had a different consciousness: sometimes referred to as mythical consciousness. These ancient people were keenly aware of nature and its rhythms. They perceived time as more of a circle of death and rebirth. “The ancients are said to have perceived events as iterations of a cosmic eternal return and regeneration within a specific place, whereas we believe that events occur on an irreversible, linear timeline that is independent of place,” writes Glen Aparicio Parry.

Most of us just assume that this ancient perception of time is fairytale, but that linear time is real. We do not even consider the possibility that this ancient view of time has validity. “The idea that time and space exist as independent dimensions is a relatively recent development. For most of mankind’s existence, knowledge of time and space was dependent upon place, for it was closely tied to the observation of the natural cycles of celestial and earthly phenomena surrounding one’s homeland. Knowing when and how to hunt, gather, and eventually to plant food all depended upon a close monitoring of the recurring rhythms of a place. What we know as time and space were merged into place,” writes Glen Aparicio Parry.

Our present day view of historical time assumes that time is simply a mathematical abstraction. This belief came from Isaac Newton who asserted that there was an “absolute” time. He asserted that time was then divorced from space.

Much of our modern thought originates from ancient Greece. One needs to carefully tune in to recognize an opening of Kairos. This is the source of the expression, “Seize the Day!” Kairos is also associated with an ever moving wheel of fortune. “Kairos time lives somewhere between intervals of Kronos time,” writes Glen Aparicio Parry.

“An Indigenous sense of time, it seems to me, includes both Kronos and Kairos and then maybe something more. It is understood that all is in flux, that everything is always changing and that even natural rhythms must be closely monitored because they are not guaranteed to remain the same. Monitoring these natural rhythms and cycles helps to develop an intuitive awareness, an awareness that recognizes the opportune time to act within a given cycle. This awareness seamlessly takes into account as host of variables, which are not logical or able to be broken down or counted because they are far too numerous – but they are understood nonetheless at an intuitive level,” concludes Glen Aparicio Parry.

Please watch this video on the Whole Brain State by Dr. John Omaha:

Anima and Animus

April 12, 2016 By Daniel Davis Leave a Comment

Have you ever been carried away with a mood? We can be swept away with our emotions and thoughts. A mood can come over us, and we may look back and think, “I just wasn’t myself today.”

One way to think about these emotional storms is that there is a psychological benefit to these reactions. Carl Jung identified the animus and anima as parts of ourselves that erupt and interfere with our relationships and work. A woman has an animus, and a man has an anima. June Singer writes that “anima and animus are those unconscious part of ourselves that carry the mystery of sex which is not ours.”

How we identify with our masculine gender role or feminine gender role can vary greatly from one culture to another. It is obvious that there are – in fact – differences between men and woman. Whether these differences are more psychological or physical is debatable as well as complex. Yet it is obvious that men and women are different.

These differences show up in our dreams and fantasies. The anima shows up in a man’s dreams as an image of a woman, whereas the animus shows up in a woman as an image of a man. This is because the anima and animus are related to what is the opposite of our conscious attitude. When we mature, we develop the opposite attitude to what we cling to in our youth. “Men have dared to discover their vulnerability and their feeling side, while women – more confident now of their strengths – are beginning to take risks which would have frightened them before,” writes June Singer.

Animus is defined as a “usually prejudiced and often spiteful or malevolent ill will” or a “strong feeling of dislike or hatred.” Aminus is the masculine form of the word soul in latin. Yet the animus is not as much masculinity repressed as it is the unconscious other that a woman is prevented from being in her daily life. The part of herself that is furthest from her waking life is what makes up a woman’s animus.

Carl Jung describes the animus as a strange passivity. “In the depths of the woman’s being, the animus whispers: ‘You are hopeless. What’s the use of trying? There is no point in doing anything. Life will never change for the better.’”

When a woman is able to separate herself from her animus, she is able to see that part of herself objectively. She is able to be detached and just notice these negative thoughts and feelings. She does not fall into the false belief that these thoughts are her thoughts. When she simply observes these thoughts and realizes that her response to them makes all the difference, she is able to main a healthy detachment.

A woman’s animus assists her in becoming a complete person by shifting repressed energy into active and creative pursuits. The animus does have negative qualities such as “brutality, recklessness, empty talk, and silent, obstinate evil ideas.” Yet the animus also has a positive and valuable side. The animus can “build a bridge to the Self through creative activity.”

For a man, the anima, represents his unconscious feminine other. The anima symbolically represents the eternal feminine. For a woman, the animus represents her unconscious masculine. Conversely, the animus stands for the eternal masculine. Robert Johnson writes that the “anima and the animus function most effectively for us as mediators between the conscious and unconscious parts of personality.”

When one learns to work with the animus or anima, one discovers a certain kind of genius within oneself. Please watch is short video by Judith Peterson on the animus and learn how to work with this energy to improve how you feel, behave, and feel:

Do you have a faith that works?

March 28, 2016 By Daniel Davis Leave a Comment

“Thoroughly unprepared, we take the step into the afternoon of life. Worse still, we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and our ideals will serve us as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning, for what was great in the morning will be little at evening and what in the morning was true, at evening will have become a lie.” Quote by Carl Jung

Our lives have different eras. What was true when we are young is a lie at midlife. When we are young our lives are focused on educating ourselves, obtaining work, and finding love. These are the appropriate tasks of our early life. We may get married and have children.

Our initial experience of religion is often about certainty. It creates meaning about being a separate individual. If we practice the correct rituals and believe the correct rules – dogma – then we will be saved. Someone translates other people’s experience of God. Yet this level of religion does not change the consciousness of the person. It is all about me – saving myself. This level of spirituality consoles the self and this is needed. It defends us. The problem is that we can use this type of religion to not become a more loving person. I can justify our self-centeredness.

Spirituality can also be transformative. As a young person we need to develop our ego boundaries by separating from our parents. We need to leave home psychologically and develop an identity of our own. We need to distinguish our values from those of our parents and friends. It is important to have meaningful work to do.

About 35 to 45, we reach midlife. Jung called this the afternoon of life. We have the opportunity to grow into a deeper consciousness not possible in our younger years. Richard Rohr says: “This process of transformation does not fortify the separate self, but utterly shatters it. Not consolation but devastation. Not entrenchment, but emptiness. Not complacency, but explosion. Not comfort, but revolution. In short – not a conventional bolstering of my usual consciousness, but a radical transmutation and transformation at the deepest seat of consciousness itself.” Our transformation comes indirectly, “catching us off guard and out of control. We have to be empty instead of full.”

Richard Rohr goes on to say: “The lust for certitude. The lust for answers the last 500 years of the Western Church has not served us well. Once we lost our spirituality of darkness for light, there just wasn’t as much room for growth any more. Everything was . . . words.”
Our journey of spirituality inevitable leads inward. There are many paths on this inward spiritual journey, but they all lead to an experience of the divine. This conscious knowing leads us outward again toward others. We are willing to risk vulnerability to join with others in intimacy. Our spirituality isn’t about looking good, but simply loving others. Please watch this video by Bob Epperly on centering prayer to discover one of many paths inward toward the center of our being: