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Okay you guys. I did as you suggested. Please see my post called “On The Spiritual Use of Psychedelic Drugs.” I’m wondering if I’ll get any reaction. Later…
Okay… I think I shall start a new conversation. I’ve just finished polishing off a long essay that I emailed to a pen-pal called, “On Religion and Spirituality.” Said pen-pal is actually my friends mother, who really likes me, and told me in no uncertain terms that I was not like any hippie that she had ever met. It took reams of email-paper as well as a 39-page Wikipedia article on hippies to disabuse her notion of hippiedom. She has lived in Tiberon for a long while, so she was smack dab in the middle of the Bay Area hippie explosion of 1967. It was a long row to hoe, let me tell you, but I think she’s softening up her attitudes. She’s definitely most Christian, but not overly so, as far as I can tell, so she hasn’t discarded what I have to say out of hand.
So I’ll probably try to adapt that essay into a new conversation. I haven’t taken the time yet to see how conversations work on this site. You know, can I write too much? Am I allowed to quote authors such as Campbell, Groff, Watts, et. al? Are there any rules that I should follow? Please let me know.
Hey Stephen, thanks for your reply!
So I did read a number of Biographies on Jung back in the 1980s, but don’t remember which ones they were, other than a couple of them were female disciples (probably the right word, students? patients?) of his. They were very interesting. One book I found insightful is called Invisible Partners by John Sanford. I thought I read somewhere that Jung felt that one cannot very well analyse one’s own dreams (is that right?), and since there’s no chance of me talking to a Jungian analyst, I kind of ignored dream interpretation. It seems like one has to be well versed in various mythological themes to be any good at it. Campbell said something like “Be careful in casting out the devil in you, that you don’t cast out the best part of you,” which seemed to me to be a kind of warning. I’d like very much to read A Dilettante Among Symbols, might make me feel better about myself 🙂
I like your advice to start a discussion. I doubt very much I have much interesting to say on Jung that hasn’t been said a thousand times before by thousands of people. My favorite books of his are Anima and Animus, Psychological Types, and Memories, Dreams, and Reflections. His work on Alchemy and Synchronicity are pretty much out of my league.
I do like your suggestion on science fiction and fantasy. Although I’ve read LeGuin’s Earthsea trilogy and books like The Sword of Shannara, The Lord of the Rings is the only fantasy novel that really appeals to me. However, I don’t think I’d have too much to say about it, as I don’t really agree with Tolkien’s cosmology, athough I like very much the beginning of The Silmarillion. It was Gandalf and Galadriel (the first fictional, indeed, any, person that I fell in love with) that I liked best about the book. (The first time I read it, in high school 1976, I was about to put the book down when Gandalf fell, but I looked ahead and saw that he came back, causing me to finish the tale.)
But I am intrigued with starting a thread on the Dune series. That book puts all the other science fiction books I’ve read to shame! There are so many interesting ideas in it!
My other area of interest is in the spiritual uses of psychedelic drugs. Might that be a topic to find a home on this website?
Mark
I have not read much of Robert Heinlein, although I certainly know his name. As a teenager I used to read Arthur C. Clark a lot, Imperial Earth (1976) being my favorite story of his. Rendezvous with Rama and Childhood’s End were memorable too.
However, I am a superfan of Frank Herbert’s Dune series. Add J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings and William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice, and you have the 3 stories that I would bring to that proverbial deserted island to keep me company.
I met Frank Herbert at a book signing in Santa Barbara late in the 1980s. As I walked away, I turned, and saw him looking quite intently at me, with his piercing eyes. I won’t forget that one. Coincidentally, he was born in the same hospital as I wa in Tacoma, WA, although a couple of decades earlier than me. Crazy that his created world, Arrakis, was so unlike the Pacific Northwest, with it’s endless grey skies and its clouds depressingly hovering just over the tree line.
Hello Stephen!
Thank you so much for welcoming me to your club! It’s taken me a little while to get back to you because I’ve been busy trying to rescue my old Toshiba laptop with Windows XP. It’s an ancient operating system, but it’s done the job for me for 15 years, and I stupidly took it online and got infected, necessitating an operating system overhaul. All is better now.
Joseph (Joe?) once said that if you find an author who grabs you, you should read everything he wrote, and then go read what that author had read, and the world opens up for you in a consistent way. So, of course, I’ve read most all of Campbell’s works. And, believe it or not, I’ve read most of the Collective Works of Carl Jung, many decades ago now. You see, I’ve always been anima-obsessed, and it wasn’t until I read Jung that I even had an inkling of what I was up against. I’ve spent many years trying to exorcise her, or, more precisely, to at least mollify her somewhat. I haven’t quite turned her into an ally yet, but I’m getting there. She’s very strong, and dangerous, in me. But learning about the anima turned out to be only half of the story. I recently came across Dorothy Tannoy’s 1979 book Love and Limerence, and let me tell you, it would have come in mighty handy during a particularly fraught period for me, 1986-1991. Alas, I remained mostly blind to my own condition, and now have the scars to show for it.
I’m now on a Will Durant kick. I really liked his The Story of Philosophy book, and so I bought half of his (and his wife’s) 11 volume The Story of Civilization series. That’s about 6 thick books, and I’m only on the first one! Interesting though! I’ve since been able to download (for free) a whole bunch of audiobooks from him.
The problem I have now, as for most people, is time. I doubt I’ll get through 5% of my personal library before I finally kick the bucket and zoom out of here. There’s so much to read, watch, and listen to! I took some comfort from Joe’s experience when he returned from Europe and decided against a Ph.D. You see, unlike Joe, I’m not a scholar, as I have a severe allergy to specialization. The best part of college was studying 4 subjects at once. As soon as I do a deep dive into any subject, I pretty much lose interest, and worse, become depressed. Joe called himself a “generalist,” something I can relate to. Despite interdisciplinary studies, there’s not much profit when you don’t specialize in something. I’ve recently taken some comfort in reading an essay called In Defense of the Dilettante (or was that conveniently just in my imagination? It often runs wild).
Anyway, thanks again for the welcome. I suppose I should look over some of the threads on this site. I don’t really know where to begin, so maybe I’ll just stumble upon something good.
Take care,
Mark Brennan
(Intrepid psychonaut extraordinaire)
Hi Toby.
So you lived in the Haight in 1973? I’m curious about what you experienced then. From all I have read (like from Charles Perry’s A History of the Haight-Ashbury) if you had to choose only one year to live there, 1966 would be it. I wouldn’t be surprised, since in my humble opinion, that was when the best music was written and recorded (Revolver, especially.) By the next year, the so-called Summer of Love, the Haight had deteriorated by the influx of thousands of drift-less kids, a far cry from the “original hippies,” like Peter Coyote of the Diggers.
When I first arrived in the Haight, I was introduced to a beautiful young blonde girl who went by the name of “Angel.” This was because she was seriously strung out on heroin. We conversed for a couple of hours while I was tripping on LSD. We kind of connected in an oblique way, sort of like I could see where she was at mentally through the corner of my eye. She wanted desperately to escape from her “boyfriend.” Alas, I could offer nothing to her. It was very very sad. A real “bummer” trip, if you know what I mean. It upset me for months. Eventually, she disappeared. However, most of the kids I met there were strung out on alcohol, mainly, and were recovering from the death of Kurt Cobain. I kind of understood, as the murder of John Lennon in 1980 kind of destroyed my faith in humanity for a while.
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When posting a new topic or a reply to an existing conversation, check the “Notify me of follow-up replies via email” box (conversations unfold at a leisurely pace: someone might need a few days to let what you write simmer in the back of their brain – this is how you find out someone has replied), and then click Submit. You can also click "Favorite" (top of the page on the right when reading forum threads) to be notified of all responses in a discussion.
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Visit the Contact the Foundation page, select Community and Social Media, and fill out the contact form.
FAQ: Community
Before you start posting and responding in these forums, please read and follow the following guidelines:
- 1. Respect Others You may certainly take issue with ideas, but please — no flaming / ranting, and no personal or ad hominem attacks. Should the opinion of another forum member spark your anger, please take a deep breath, and/or a break, before posting. Posts must be on topic – related to mythic themes.
- 2. Respect Others’ Opinions These are conversations, not conversions. “Conversation” comes from the Latin words con (“with”) and verso (“opposite”). We expect diverse opinions to be expressed in these forums, and welcome them – but just because you disagree with what someone has to say doesn’t mean they don’t get to say it.
- 3. Come Clear of Mind In addition to expanding the mind, certain substances (alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, LSD, etc.) have been known to impair good judgment. We recommend you keep a journal while under the influence and then later make more rational determinations regarding what is appropriate to share in this forum.
- 4. Respect This Space The Joseph Campbell Foundation, a US not-for-profit organization, offers this forum as part of our mission of continuing Mr. Campbell’s work of increasing the level of public awareness and public discourse with regards to comparative mythology.
- 5. Avoid Contemporary Politics Given the volatile nature of contemporary political discourse, we ask that members steer clear of candidates or current political controversies. Forum members come from across the political spectrum. There are other fora across the internet for discussing myth and politics.
- 6. Be Polite Forum members come from many different sets of cultural assumptions, and many different parts of the world. Please refrain from language whose only purpose is offense. If it helps, imagine your grandmother reading forum posts – as perhaps she may, since other folks’ grandmothers are.
- 7. Refrain from Sexually Explicit Posts Please do not make sexually explicit posts within these forums, unless they are absolutely germane to the discussion underway – and even in that case, please try to warn readers at the top of your post. Not all members have the same threshold when it comes to taking offense to language and pictures. NOTE: Under no circumstances will we condone the posting of links to sites that include child pornography, even inadvertently. We will request that such links be removed immediately, and will remove them ourselves if compliance is not forthcoming. Any Associate knowingly posting such links will be suspended immediately; we will forward a snapshot of the offending page, the web address and the associate’s contact information to the appropriate criminal authorities
- 8. Refrain from Self-Promotion Announcements linking to your new blog post, book, workshop, video clip, etc., will be deleted, unless they are demonstrably part of the greater conversation. The only exception is the Share-Your-Work Gallery, a subforum within The Conversation with a Thousand Faces. If you have art, poetry, writing, or links to music and other work you would like to share, do so here.
- 9. Search First If you’re thinking of starting a new topic, asking a question, etc., please take advantage of the search functionality of this forum! You can find the search field above the list of forums on the main page of the forums. Also, consider searching on the greater JCF website – this site is full of amazing resources on a wide variety of topics, all just a search away.
- 10. Report Violations If you witness or experience behavior that you feel is contrary to the letter or spirit of these guidelines, please report it rather than attacking other members. Do this by choosing the Report button (next to “Reply”) at the top of the post, and select a reason from the dropdown menu (Spam, Advertising, Harassment, or Inappropriate Content). The moderation team will be notified. Depending on the degree of bad behavior, further posts might require approval, or the user could be blocked from posting and even banned.
- 11. Private Messages Forum guidelines apply to all onsite private communications between members. Moderators do not have access to private exchanges, so if you receive messages from another member with inappropriate or hostile content, send a private message (with screenshots) to Stephen Gerringer and/or Michael Lambert.
Visit the Contact the Foundation page, select Technical Support, and fill out the contact form.
The Conversations of a Higher Order (COHO) consists of ten public forums loosely focused on a central theme. The forums are listed, with a brief description, on the COHO home page (each forum listed on that page also appears in the same order in the menu in the lefthand column – that menu stays with you as you move about the forums). This also shows who created the last post in each forum, and when.
When you visit a specific forum you will see the list of topics people have posted so far in that forum. Click on one to read that post and any replies. Feel free to add a reply if you have something to share, or just enjoy following the conversation. You can return to the COHO home page by clicking the "Home>Forums" breadcrumb at the top of the page – or move directly to a different forum by clicking on one of the listings from the forum menu in the lefthand column of the page.
If there’s anything you want to introduce – a question, an observation, or anything related to Campbell, myth, or one of his many related interests – create a topic in the forum you feel comes closest to including the subject you want to discuss. Most forums include in their description a link to a corresponding part of the website. For example, The Work of Joseph Campbell description has a link to all his published works: you can of course focus on a specific book or lecture, but also any topic related to the ideas arising out of his work is welcome in that forum.
When posting a new topic or a reply to an existing conversation, check the “Notify me of follow-up replies via email” box (conversations unfold at a leisurely pace: someone might need a few days to let what you write simmer in the back of their brain – this is how you find out someone has replied), and then click Submit. You can also click "Favorite" (top of the page on the right when reading forum threads) to be notified of all responses in a discussion.
Click on the Profile link under your user name in the upper left corner above the forum menu. Then select Edit and follow the prompts to upload an image file from your computer.
When you finish your post, before clicking the Submit button check the box at the bottom of your post that reads, “Notify me of follow-up replies via email.” You can also click on “Subscribe” (in the upper right corner of a thread) to follow the complete conversation (often a comment on someone else’s post might inspire a response from you).
We ask that when linking to web pages, please avoid posting the raw URL address in your text. Highlight the relevant text you'd like to link in your post, then select the link icon in your formatting bar above your post (immediately to the left of the picture icon, this looks like a diagonal paperclip). This opens a small field:
Paste the URL of the page you are linking to into the field provided. Then click on the gear icon to the right of that field, and check the box that says “Open link in a new tab” (so readers can see your link without having to navigate back to the forums), before clicking the green “Add Link” button.
To add an image to your post, click on the image icon in the menu at the top of your post (it's the icon on the far right):
In the Source field of the pop-up form, click on the camera icon on the far right. This should give you access to the files on your PC / laptop, or the photo library on your mobile device. Select the image, and add a brief description (e.g., "Minoan Goddess") in the appropriate field.
In the dimensions field, you only need enter the first number (240 is a good size for starters; if too small click the edit icon and increase that number). Then select OK.
Click on the name of the person you want to contact (under their avatar in a any of their posts). This link will take you to that member’s profile page. Then click on “Send a Message,” and compose.
If you witness or experience behavior that you feel is contrary to the letter or spirit of these guidelines, please report it rather than attacking other members. Do this by choosing the Report button (next to “Reply”) at the top of the post, and select a reason from the dropdown menu (Spam, Advertising, Harassment, or Inappropriate Content). The moderation team will be notified. Depending on the degree of bad behavior, further posts might require approval, or the user could be blocked from posting and even banned.
Visit the Contact the Foundation page, select Community and Social Media, and fill out the contact form.