Jul 12·edited Jul 12Liked by Brendan Graham Dempsey
Thanks for all your work on this subject, Brendan. We are clearly in the midst of an exciting and dangerous cultural moment. The meaning crisis has brought people to their wits end, and as the Puritan John Flavel once said (and I don't think I agree with anything else he said!), "man's extremity is God's opportunity." But in the rush to retrieve the deep meaning of Christian theology, many are simultaneously retreating from hard won developmental thresholds. Thus "Christian nationalism" and various other attempts to immanentize the eschaton (Voegelin) by conflating myth with history.
Personally, I think Gebser gets at something important by emphasizing the transparency of an integral structure of consciousness. There is a seeing through the various developmental structures rather than a replacement of one with another. In other words, we ought not to imagine that scientific rationality simply replaces mythic and magic modes of consciousness. That leads us straight into "deficient mental" consciousness, which because it denies its magical and mythic roots, ends up being pathologically magical and mythic in its thinking (witness modern fetishizations of technology and money, the myth of progress, etc.). So the point is emphatically not to dispel "efficient" magic and myth because now we are big boys who only need rationality and science. The point is to understand the unique and mutually enriching phenomenologies and ontological insights provided by each structure of consciousness.
Thank you — and I just check out your website. Your explanatory analysis of seeing highly symmetrical, geometric hallucinations in altered states of consciousness was helpful to me. I’ve been seeing lots of tunnels. Wasn’t sure what that was about… Now it’s a little clearer. Lots of cathedrals too. I didn’t realize these chapels even existed in the United States. I guess I’ll need to make it out to Arkansas one day.
Firstly thank you for your post, I found it most stimulating to my own thought. I have read your post but not yet watched the videos. I would like to make one comment referring to one of my favourite Biblical verses: Ecclesiastes 1:9
“What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.”
We, in our proud modern way, think we are thinking original thoughts. However, I find that echoes of them can be found in the Neolithic writings of the Old Testament. They obviously understood the world with less scientific understanding than we have at our disposal today. However, I don’t believe there has been significant evolution of human intelligence in the era of written language. I therefore think it is perfectly feasible to find similar thoughts to ours in ancient writings.
Thanks for all your work on this subject, Brendan. We are clearly in the midst of an exciting and dangerous cultural moment. The meaning crisis has brought people to their wits end, and as the Puritan John Flavel once said (and I don't think I agree with anything else he said!), "man's extremity is God's opportunity." But in the rush to retrieve the deep meaning of Christian theology, many are simultaneously retreating from hard won developmental thresholds. Thus "Christian nationalism" and various other attempts to immanentize the eschaton (Voegelin) by conflating myth with history.
Personally, I think Gebser gets at something important by emphasizing the transparency of an integral structure of consciousness. There is a seeing through the various developmental structures rather than a replacement of one with another. In other words, we ought not to imagine that scientific rationality simply replaces mythic and magic modes of consciousness. That leads us straight into "deficient mental" consciousness, which because it denies its magical and mythic roots, ends up being pathologically magical and mythic in its thinking (witness modern fetishizations of technology and money, the myth of progress, etc.). So the point is emphatically not to dispel "efficient" magic and myth because now we are big boys who only need rationality and science. The point is to understand the unique and mutually enriching phenomenologies and ontological insights provided by each structure of consciousness.
Where is the cathedral located? It’s such a stunning photograph.
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/arkansas/mildred-b-cooper-chapel/
Thank you — and I just check out your website. Your explanatory analysis of seeing highly symmetrical, geometric hallucinations in altered states of consciousness was helpful to me. I’ve been seeing lots of tunnels. Wasn’t sure what that was about… Now it’s a little clearer. Lots of cathedrals too. I didn’t realize these chapels even existed in the United States. I guess I’ll need to make it out to Arkansas one day.
Ah, you mean the “form constants”?
Yes. I’m very confused. I’ll need more time at your website. I love what you did with the folio pages. Looks like the Red Book. Beautiful!
Firstly thank you for your post, I found it most stimulating to my own thought. I have read your post but not yet watched the videos. I would like to make one comment referring to one of my favourite Biblical verses: Ecclesiastes 1:9
“What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.”
We, in our proud modern way, think we are thinking original thoughts. However, I find that echoes of them can be found in the Neolithic writings of the Old Testament. They obviously understood the world with less scientific understanding than we have at our disposal today. However, I don’t believe there has been significant evolution of human intelligence in the era of written language. I therefore think it is perfectly feasible to find similar thoughts to ours in ancient writings.
Check this out! Gives me hope for the future of true Christianity in the USA!
https://youtu.be/Blph_2RSBno?si=ModXE1Jr7udjmgmW