As
you may know I am writing a book for public consumption based on the research I
did for my Ph.D. dissertation, What is
the Future of Ego. What follows are excerpts from my upcoming book. These
bits of Chapter 5 offer more clarity to those wanting to understand my new
work.
“I have founded out of this research The Center for Imaginative Action. The
mission of The Center is, through
adult education, to contribute to the expansion of self-awareness in the world
through inner fitness. My research into Freud, Jung and Steiner, has yielded a
synthesis of how their ideas work together, and can serve modern living.
The take away on Freud are the methods of
establishing a strong ego in the world and what I call outer fitness. This is
an essential task in the Western spiritual tradition. In the past, this stage
of ego development was primary to the first half of life. Today in our liminal
white-water world however, this ability to recreate yourself in the world is
valuable for a person at any age. The development of outer fitness has lifelong
value.
As we have learned Carl Jung had an
awareness of other modes of experience and knowledge early on in his life. His
personal dreams and visions that were the foundation of his life work. Jung,
unlike Freud, could be certain of the reality of precognitive events as he
experienced them. What Freud instantly judged as “sheer bosh” Jung knew was
actually quite real. Our challenge is to
understand the methods that Jung developed to process these volatile
unconscious elements. This method I call “Redbooking” and once understood and
implemented it, becomes a powerful tool of inner fitness and leads to a more
meaningful lifestyle.
The third aspect of our work at The Center involves the awakening of new understanding through
contemplation. The clients interested in this work typically have an inner
fitness ritual and are seeking to fine-tune it. Others have become aware of the
benefits of inner fitness and want to set up a plan to integrate soul-spiritual
rituals into their lives.
The work of Rudolf Steiner becomes the focus here and
clients learn some of the basic techniques and explore the big ideas associated
with his spiritual psychology. In the same way as Leonardo Da Vinci demonstrated an
understanding of the laws of aerodynamics 500 years prior to the first flight
by the Wright brothers, Steiner has given us, through his prescience, a
conception of the future of ego. This aspect of The Center’s work involves studying the great chain of being and becoming
aware of new ways of thinking about the world. Out of these insights the prize
of self-awareness is understood and becomes an ever-present goal.
Clients learn to enter “the exceptional state” of self-awareness and begin
to create and focus on inner images. These images are very different from the
dreams, visions, imaginations that have been the source of the work in the
strengthening and deepening stages. They are not given to us by our dreams rather;
we construct these images in our clear waking state of consciousness.
The
images are constructed through imaginative action and are held inwardly for a
short period of time. When the practice is concluded, one returns to daily
life. In the same way as one cannot rush a marathon training, this inner
training takes discipline. Yet there soon emerges a new level of awareness with
the benefits radiating into all aspects of life.
Most of us are living out of the empty
self yet this path is untenable. The symptoms of decline in our culture based
on material knowledge alone are everywhere. It is essential that we learn to
gain access to the other fields of knowledge that exist all around us. These
fields, are virtually untapped, and offer us a way of knowing that has a vastly
different quality to it. These are realms of knowledge that are teeming with
wisdom and insight and potential. These are realms of knowledge that are inaccessible
to all forms of “intellect without intelligence”.
The evolutionary step for the
individual and the species is to uncover this spiritual spring of knowledge
that is choked up in most people. This process of opening up this spring of
knowledge is demonstrated in Carl Jung’s Red
Book, and is the key to understanding Rudolf Steiner. The methods and practice and discipline
required to open the spiritual spring are all elements of what I call inner
fitness. Jung taught us how to process images and participate in imaginative
action that links us to something more meaningful and serving wholeness.
Steiner emphasized the essential nature of contemplation and meditation to
inner fitness. He pointed out that with our newly won scientific crystal clear
skills of observation and thinking we can rekindle a relationship to the soul
spiritual dimensions by developing an Imaginative
Knowledge.”
