reason vs faith vs reality

[Whateverist]

I find the entire human project endlessly fascinating. A lot of my thinking was kick-started when I read Dawkins' work on the "ideosphere" (again back in the 1980s!) where ideas and thoughts evolve in mutual interactions --similar to the biological evolution and interactions of populations of plants, animals, insects, bacteria, etc. in the biosphere. The units of thought ("memes") combine in different configurations to form new conceptual structures which inhabit different populations of minds interacting with each other. Thought structures which are successful in populating a sufficient number of minds will reproduce and become more complex and developed.

In my own thought structures this became one of the foundational ideas which shapes my thinking about all the stuff of being human. I also incorporated a lot of the idea structures from biology to provide models for thinking about the evolving dynamics of being human.

I see our humanity as not a static state but an evolving dynamic interaction between all human minds comprising not merely the universes of thought and ideas but including social interactions, emotional and psychological relationships, cultures, societies, political governance, and everything else we do as humans. All of that is evolving and changing constantly. We are continuously working out what we want our humanity to be.

This whole thing is what I find endlessly fascinating - with a particular soft spot for the phenomenology of the mind ;-)

You may be the first person to present the whole meme idea in a way that interests me. I'll have to look more into it sometime. To be honest, I'm mostly not looking for greater understanding anymore. I've grown content. What has my interest now is the fact that our whole symbolic language using, conscious brain is a fairly recent add on to what should still be a completely functional mammalian brain. Except for direct communication with our own species, I like most when I can sink into purposeful activity without words. I have sworn off discursive thought for all other purposes. I still note realizations that come in that form but I'm less hungry for them. I don't wish to produce self speech. I want instead to make more time to live in and appreciate my mammalian brain.

Unlike our embodied unconscious, I don't believe the collective unconscious has any direct agency. I think of it more as the common core at the base of each of our unconscious minds. The similarities in architecture account for commonalities in the meanings we find/make in life.

yes I agree with your conception of the collective unconscious. But I think of it like a communal well - we can each draw from it and we also each contribute to it. So for the extended self, it seems the collective unconscious could provide a wider scope for engagement of thought and evaluation.

I'm less sure of it being a two way street but I sure don't know for sure that it isn't.

I've had a couple epic dreams in my life that I never forget, one in early childhood and one from the late 70's in my early adulthood. Both have meaning for me and convince me that dreams can be meaningful.

most of my dreams were prosaic but a few were, like yours not only memorable but have stayed with me as touchstones of my self-conceptions.

love James Hillman - discovered him in the 1990s I think. Also one of his students who has also published some great books: Thomas Moore ("Care of the Soul").

I will look him up. One of the points Hillman made that resonated with me is the distinction between spirit and soul. In my twenties I was more spiritual, a peak bagger, looking to get further and further above it all. I think it was my success and excess in seeking spiritual heights which precipitated my one and -thus far- only episode of depression. Where spirit gives detachment, soul is like enmeshment. In Star Wars terms, soul is Dagobah. Soul is the actuality of that which isn't transcendible within. Spirituality without soul is escapism. I've given up being a spiritual cowboy for being a soul-man. I serve soul enthusiastically and am grateful to be included. I think depression may be estrangement from soul, whatever the biomedical signature of that may be.

I was introduced to the phenomenological approach to the anthropological study of religions along with a dozen other approaches (psychological, sociological, political, economic, etc. etc.) and was particularly attracted to the phenomenonlogical methodologies.

Afraid you are right about our old hippie souls. You were on the right coast for that. Wow, Alan Watts and Robert Bly. I just read them, never studied with or met them.

I never actually met Alan Watts but my professor had and infused a good deal of his writing into the course. I was particularly taken by his book "The Wisdom of Insecurity". I read that when I was deeply depressed and it really spoke to me, at a time when I was mostly just sleeping and reading.

Guess we must both be a couple of old, latter day hippies .. of course the age I am isn't yet elderly by the latest revisionist definitions.

yes, 60 is the new 40. We baby boomers are still revising definitions!

Perhaps we should redefine death as being breath and brainwave challenged.

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yes, 60 is the new 40. We baby boomers are still revising definitions!

I turn 40 next year, what is that the new of?

Probably 25 or 30. Thirty used to be the big wake up call that you have left the realm of the youthful. I don't see why that couldn't wait until you become 40, do you?