SYMBOLS & IMAGERY AS STORY ELEMENTS & INFORMATION VECTORS

How the ancients used Symbols & Imagery to convey information and create specific responses.

What modern neuroscience shows us about how S&I function.

How you can use S&I as story devices.

How you can use S&I as vectors in non-fiction situations to convey information.

Plenary #250): The Future of Consciousness

THE FUTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

What Myth and Metaphysics Foresee.
What Science Observes.
What Media Shapes.
What Imagination Creates.

Plenary #271): The Original Biofeedback System

Ancient Biofeedback -- The Ajna Center

For thousands of years, advanced spiritual disciplines have taught their devotees a sophisticated system of biofeedback. The Ajna Center (often depicted as a small golden sun in front of the forehead) is the chakra that, unlike the others, must be consciously built. Through a progressive process of balancing and integrating the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies, the aspirant learns to assess one’s reactions to situations and alter one’s internal mechanism.

This presentation will explore the history of the Ajna discipline, the physiology of the processes, and a sample focus and meditation.

Workshop #252): THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE

THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE

Myths of Tragedy and Catharsis

Does Modern Media Fulfill the Same Service?

If not, why?

How can we remedy that?

My talk will include a video showing how "sound creates form" to illustrate that any lasting changes must come from the inside out, from consciousness to matter.

The spine of the talk will be that the Future of Consciousness might well be as posited in many interpretations of many cultures' predictions of the transition from Tribal to Individual to Group Consciousness.

To that end, I’ll be giving examples of these transitions in myths (the myths of Prometheus and Gilgamesh), history (the Vikings evolving into the contemporary Scandinavian socially supportive countries), and science and technology (the internet, artificial intelligence).

We'll look briefly at patterns of progression, and at the end of each section I’ll be posing questions: Here’s the progress so far in this arena (stem cells, space exploration, the UN), where are we going next?

Creating an Ajna Center requires an awareness of how one’s body and brain function. Its goal is to isolate, investigate, and then balance and integrate one’s various bodies.

The physical body, emotional body, mental body, and spiritual body are each explored with attention to how they are affected by food and drink, physical activity, environment, thoughts, emotions, cultural influences, and spiritual trainings.

Aspects of the Ajna Center focus are found in Tibetan monks who sit on icy snow fields wrapped in wet sheets and must learn to heat them dry; Egyptian priestlings who go into 3-day “deaths” to explore past lives; shamans who roam the realms of faerie and animal spirits; warrior castes that teach Shibumi, the ability to see the enemy’s intention before they act; and more.

People with developed Ajna Centers are said to be able to manipulate the past, present, and future. Much of this is done via memory and vision, using story to project meaning to others.

You’ll see diagrams of the neuro-physiological wiring and how it shifts from a non-Ajna to an Ajna system, involving the pineal and pituitary glands in an internal bio-feedback system.

In former times, you had to sit in a cave in the Himalayas for ten years eating cold rice and yak butter to develop these skills. Current technology offers astonishing shortcuts. When coupled with the ageless Wisdoms, the crafted charisma of a developed Ajna Center can affect not only that individual, but others around them.

This interactive workshop will explore how myth and story have always been reflective of the foibles and tragedies of human existence. We'll look at a number of consistent psychological problems, individual and societal, that appear throughout most times and cultures and note the stories that explain their origin and/or reveal how people have dealt with them.

Techniques such as soul retrieval, chop-up-and-re-join cauldron ceremonies, initiation rites, and death rituals will be examined, along with the stories that accompany them.

We'll discuss selected films, TV shows, and games that feature aspects of the Dark Side and the Shadow and how to deal with them in order to compare their efficacy with the mythic tools of the past.

In open discussion, therapists and healers who use story or media in their work will be asked to contribute examples and insights.

Based on what we know worked in the past, we'll brainstorm ideas for new media content and delivery systems to promote individual and societal well-being.

Pamela Jaye Smith
7231 Franklin Ave.
Hollywood, California 90046

phone: 323-874-6042