John Girgis
@clappingcactus
John Girgis
What Is Transpersonal Psychology?
One of the key initial findings of the early transpersonal researchers was that exceptionally healthy subjects—whom Maslow called “self-actualizers”—tended to have peak experiences that were spontaneous, ecstatic, unitive states of consciousness and similar to mystical experiences that had been reported and often... See more
One of the key initial findings of the early transpersonal researchers was that exceptionally healthy subjects—whom Maslow called “self-actualizers”—tended to have peak experiences that were spontaneous, ecstatic, unitive states of consciousness and similar to mystical experiences that had been reported and often... See more
We are literal, scientific, rational, surface-oriented, and fast-paced. Yet without imagination, the world becomes arid. Mythopoetic language is magical; it brings worlds into being. Stories of warriors hunting the windswept plains, gods who trick and deceive, maidens transformed into sea monsters, and spiders that weave the web of life have long
... See moreJoanna LaPrade • Forged in Darkness: The Many Paths of Personal Transformation
The main teaching in cultures where spirits visit frequently and the world itself is a bridge—such as those of Haiti, West Africa, Melanesia, and the circumpolar peoples we group together as Eskimos—focuses upon knowing the distinct nature and name of the different visitors, their rank, their powers, their spheres of action. These cultures have
... See moreJames Hillman • The Soul's Code
The hero is the human being who dares descend into the darkest depths of the unconscious—to the very source of our creative power—and there confronts the monsters thrown up by the fright-stricken infant psyche. As the hero pursues the journey, the phantoms and dragons all vanish or lose power or even become allies.
Gabor Maté • In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear’s path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
Frank Herbert • Dune
What does it mean to be a hero in the liminal? Perhaps not what it means to be a hero in the regular world. It may be that there is an inversion at play — that to survive the underworld, we need to embody the opposing qualities of our old culture. Humility over control. Surrender and acceptance over striving and efforting. This does not mean
... See moreAlexander Beiner • Traversing the Underworld: What Myth can Teach us During the Pandemic
Jung’s life-long exploration of the powerful, archetypal forces of the unconscious led him to conclude that they “possess a specific energy which causes or compels definite modes of behavior or impulses; that is, they may under certain circumstances have a possessive or obsessive force (numinosity!). The conception of them as daimonia is therefore
... See moreConnie Zweig • Meeting the Shadow
For me, the Greek gods reflect what happens to humans when we see only ourselves and our own needs. The great gods have such infinite power and resources that they have forgotten what it’s like to want, to suffer, to show empathy, to face all of life’s minor inconveniences. They have forgotten what it’s like to be told no, and it has turned them
... See moreMadeline Miller • CIRCE
This is why the Greeks needed myth: for that boundary, to know where they stood amidst the infinite. No one can simply coexist with the ocean, storms, the cypress trees. They had to codify the elements with language and greater meaning, and create gods out of them—gods who looked suspiciously like themselves—so that even if they were powerless over
... See more