Contemplating recent comments about what it means to be a conscious human, I began to consider what really distinguishes us from all the other inhabitants of our planet. There are some distinctively human traits to be sure, but it seems more like a combination of several important capacities and foundational characteristics that sets us apart. … Continue reading The Blossoming of Consciousness
The actual quote from Dostoevsky’s “Notes From The Underground,” goes as follows: “And yet I think man will never renounce real suffering, that is, destruction and chaos. Why, suffering is the sole origin of consciousness. Though I did lay it down at the beginning that consciousness is the greatest misfortune for man, yet I know … Continue reading Origins of Consciousness
In our modern 21st century world, we often seem to take for granted that we have a fairly complete understanding of the physical laws governing the Universe and that we have, with a few exceptions, explained the way things work in the Cosmos. We sometimes look back at the Ptolemaic view of our world with … Continue reading Our View of the Universe
Giving deliberate and purposeful attention to developing some form of contemplative practice is essential for promoting a greater degree of self-awareness, and for encouraging us to conduct the deep inner searching necessary to reach and explore the world within us. In order to begin this process, we must be able to still the mind and … Continue reading Connecting to the World Within
--Marcus Tullius Cicero, by Bertel Thorvaldsen as copy from roman original, in Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen. “We must fight…against old age. We must compensate for its drawbacks by constant care and attend to its defects as if it were a disease. We can do this by following a plan of healthy living, exercising in moderation, and … Continue reading Ancient Beginnings
An image from the Cassini spacecraft shows Earth as a point of light between the icy rings of Saturn. Credit - Space Science Institute/JPL-Caltech/NASA Thanks to the leaps in satellite technology, undertaken by NASA and others, as well as scientific advances as a result of humanity's efforts to conduct space travel, there now exist many … Continue reading Our Place In The Universe
"If we seek genuine psychological understanding of the human being of our own time, we must know his spiritual history absolutely. We cannot reduce him to mere biological data, since he is not by nature merely biological, but is a product also of spiritual presuppositions." - -Carl Jung from a presentation at the C. G. … Continue reading Body, Mind, Spirit
Ever since the hominid brain evolved sufficiently to provide modern humans with a degree of cognitive talent that still surpasses any other known species, the blossoming of conscious awareness slowly provided Homo sapiens with the ability to not only be aware that they exist, but to utilize this new ability deliberately and with purpose. It … Continue reading The Voice of Thought
An interesting corollary subject within the discussion surrounding our subjective experience of consciousness is the way in which all of our previous lifelong subjective experiences provide the foundation for our comprehension and apprehension of our current experience in this very moment. Naturally, without having any previous relevant life or learning experiences to draw upon for … Continue reading How We Experience The World
Nature is not matter only, she is also spirit. ~Carl Jung; CW 13; Paragraph 229. Travel with me for a moment or two. Back...Back in time...even further back...to the dawn of the fullness of true self-awareness in our primitive ancestors. What a moment it must have been when humans were able to finally know with … Continue reading The Dawn of Awareness
John's Consciousness 