Dreams, nightmares, and nonviolence.

Dreams, nightmares, and nonviolence. Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was a British anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. , in one of his lectures, asked "Do you seeme?" The audience murmured assent, that of course they saw him infront of them. But he pointed out that what their nervous systems wereperceiving were patches of moving colors in their cortexes that they hadlearned to interpret. Their quick responses showed their lack ofconsciousness of abstracting. In a similar way, if I ask "Who are you?", a quickresponse may be to give your name, showing the lack of awareness of anorganism-as-a-whole-in-an-environment. A person's life experiencesshould be included, and, further, the recognition of having a mind-bodyof the genus homo Noun 1. genus Homo - type genus of the family Hominidaemammal genus - a genus of mammalsfamily Hominidae, Hominidae - modern man and extinct immediate ancestors of man , with roots in the archaic past, as Alfred Korzybski Noun 1. Alfred Korzybski - United States semanticist (born in Poland) (1879-1950)Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski, Korzybski points out. Using the terms "colloidal colloidalof the nature of a colloid.colloidal batha bath containing gelatin, bran, starch or similar substances, to relieve skin irritation and pruritus. " and"cortico-thalamic," he emphasizes the underlying"animal" aspects of our species, and cautions us to be carefulin our responses, taking time to evaluate appropriately when presentedwith an environment that may provoke fear, anger, hunger, or sexuality.Responses should be tempered with an adult human consciousness ofabstracting. Humans, as well as mammals in general, process abstractions ofabstractions that we call dreams and nightmares. Few people in ourWestern society pay attention to these subjective happenings, but inMalaysia the Senoi, Temiar, and Semai groups of aboriginal peoplesworked with their dreams and nightmares on a continual basis, asreported by anthropologists Kilton Stewart, Robert Dentan, Sue Jenningsand Marina Roseman, and ethnologist eth��nol��o��gy?n.1. The science that analyzes and compares human cultures, as in social structure, language, religion, and technology; cultural anthropology.2. Richard Noone. The communal sharingof dreams and utilizing dream music, songs, dances, stories, designs andinventions, the researchers reported, resulted in such a harmoniouslifestyle that Dentan titled his book The Semai, A Nonviolent People ofMalaya. This learned collaboration between "conscious" and"unconscious" can start with the awareness of other commonverbal splits such as mind-body and feeling-thinking. Isolating the twosides of the hyphen hyphen:see punctuation. leads to separating the organism into parts thattend to operate autonomously. Alfred Korzybski has written that"(i)t should be remembered that in the human nervous system thecoordinated working of the higher and lower centres is a necessity forthe optimal working of the whole" (Science and Sanity, p.511). Hepoints to "... the non-aristotelian type of communication found ingeneral semantics gen��er��al semantics?n. (used with a sing. verb)A discipline developed by Alfred Korzybski that proposes to improve human behavioral responses through a more critical use of words and symbols. which is based on proper evaluation, made possible bythalamo-cortical integration" (p.xlix). He emphasizes "... thebenefit in enlarging the field of 'consciousness', by bringinginto 'consciousness' important factors of the'unconscious' and thereby counteracting the semanticpossibility for arrested development or regression" (p.503). Korzybski has the human organism beginning 100 million years ago(p.494), evolving through the ages to its present form. The primitivefear of snakes, of falling, of strangers, of darkness and the unknown,come from archaic times. The love of family and friends, the need forfood and protection, Abraham Maslow's lower needs of survival, forprocreation PROCREATION. The generation of children; it is an act authorized by the law of nature: one of the principal ends of marriage is the procreation of children. Inst. tit. 2, in pr. , come from this period in evolution. These"animal" needs, instincts and energies were useful in thecontinuation of the human species. We copy animals in many of theseways, but should do so with consciousness of abstracting at the humanlevel. These factors become the source of many dreams and nightmares, butlittle attention is paid to them in our society. We need to understandand evaluate the output of our unconscious processes, experiencing themfrom both a rational and an emotional point of view, thereby increasingthe content of our conscious (p.500). The interaction between these levels of conscious and unconsciouswould optimally take the form of remembering dreams and nightmares,recording them by telling, writing, drawing, painting and otherwisereproducing them in the conscious waking world. This engaging indialogue between conscious and unconscious can be taken to anotherlevel, by inquiring of a dream symbol, in conversation in a dream,fantasy or re-dream, to understand their potential meaning. This procedure, enhancing Korzybski's prescription, has beenproposed by a number of authors: * Fritz Perls Friedrich (Frederick) Salomon Perls (July 8 1893, Berlin – March 14 1970, Chicago), better known as Fritz Perls, was a noted German-born psychiatrist and psychotherapist of Jewish descent. , in "Gestalt Therapy Gestalt TherapyDefinitionGestalt therapy is a humanistic therapy technique that focuses on gaining an awareness of emotions and behaviors in the present rather than in the past. The therapist does not interpret experiences for the patient. Verbatim," assumesthat every dream symbol represents some aspect of the dreamer, and asksa participant to "become" the dream tree, or dog, or person,and communicate what it means to be that dream symbol. * Eugene Gendlin Eugene T. Gendlin is an American philosopher and psychotherapist who has developed ways of thinking about and working with the implicit. Gendlin received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago where he also taught for many years. , in "Let Your Body Interpret YourDreams," asks the dreamer to focus on the bodily felt sense of thedream and verbalize that sense. * Robert Moss Robert Moss is an Australian journalist and author.Moss was educated at the Australian National University where he gained a BA (1st class Hons.) and subsequently gained an MA. He edited The Economist's weekly Foreign Report in the early 1970s. , in "Conscious Dreaming," tells that hisdaughter Sophie, being chased by dream monsters, put on a dragon costumeand chased them back. * Edgar Bergen Charlie McCarthy redirects here, for the Irish hurling player see Charlie McCarthy (hurler).Edgar John Bergen (February 16 1903 – September 30 1978) was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist. , as reported by Jean Houston in "A MythicLife," would talk with his dummy Charlie McCarthy, asking profoundquestions and getting astounding a��stound?tr.v. a��stound��ed, a��stound��ing, a��stoundsTo astonish and bewilder. See Synonyms at surprise.[From Middle English astoned, past participle of astonen, answers. * Judith Malamud, in "Learning to Become Fully Lucid,"writes that fully lucid dreamers are aware of creating their dream, andthat such awareness may also foster awareness of one's creativerole in life generally. * Kilton Stewart wrote in "Pygmies and Dream Giants" thatPhilippine Negritos would ask for a dream message from the image of adeceased parent, to end a period of mourning. Stewart thought that theneglect of the dream in Western education was a blind spot that made usstop short of a crimeless, warless civilization. Our task in dreaming is to work at communicating with images thatmay have something to tell us about ourselves. It's not surprisingthat children have nightmares, with so much unknown and having so muchto learn from people bigger and stronger. Listening to a child'snightmare, or a friend's, will help put the experience intoperspective. Sigmund Freud referred to the "id," Carl Jung Noun 1. Carl Jung - Swiss psychologist (1875-1961)Carl Gustav Jung, Jungimage, persona - (Jungian psychology) a personal facade that one presents to the world; "a public image is as fragile as Humpty Dumpty" tothe "shadow," when writing on the primitive, archaic aspect ofthe human psyche. Georg Groddeck, a pioneer in psychosomatic psychosomatic/psy��cho��so��mat��ic/ (-sah-mat��ik) pertaining to the mind-body relationship; having bodily symptoms of psychic, emotional, or mental origin. psy��cho��so��mat��icadj.1. studies anda colleague of Freud's, called this deep self the "it,"and proposed that this level of the organism influenced all experiences.One's own fears and insecurities can be projected onto others, andsymbolized in dreams in many kinds of images. Since the 9/11/01 attackon the World Trade Center dreamers have reported being chased by peoplein Arabian style clothing. Using this imagery to portray fearful aspectsin one's personal life can unfortunately become a stereotype thatcan be used in the waking world, creating prejudicial behavior. We needto practice consciousness of abstracting and understand our symbolizingprocesses, to control our tendencies to violence.