People of Interest

[Deusdrum]

This thread is dedicated to people who have influenced us in some way. They could be an author, Spiritual leader, scientist, philosopher, psychologist, guru, thinker, musician or whomever has either had some impact on your life over the years or whom you have followed with interest. I figure it could be both educational, and a chance to shamelessly promote our personal preferences and favorites to everyone in regards to whom we consider as being/having been influential, important people of humanity throughout history.

I guess the one rule would be to stick to one person per post, and if someone has already posted about them, then add some sort of additional and new information pertaining to them. Feel free to add quotes, links, interviews, personal analysis and opinion about them, etc. Without further ado, I will go with, as my first person of interest, sort of playing it safe, yet i think he is noteworthy enough to start off with;


Carl Jung (1875-1961)


Was a Swiss psychiatrist/psychologist who had a relationship with Sigmund Freud for several years, before the infamous and permanent break with him, as many of you probably know. He coined the terms 'synchronicity', 'introvert and extrovert', along with several others (link below).

Here is a quote from a book i have been reading for about 5 years. Actually i haven't read much of anything from it for probably 2 or 3 years, and am about 2 thirds of the way through. From 'Psyche & Symbol' (pg. 210); A section i always found interesting, though i am not sure i fully agree with or even understand necessarily. But does strike a chord of sorts enough from personal experience, that i find it worthy of consideration.

"This conflict between conscious and unconscious is at least brought nearer to a solution through our becoming aware of it. Such an act of realization is presupposed in the act of self-sacrifice. The ego must make itself conscious of its claim, and the self must cause the ego to renounce it. This can happen in two ways:
1. I renounce my claim in consideration of a general moral principle, namely that one must not expect repayment for a gift. In this case the "self" coincides with public opinion and the moral code. It is then identical with Freud's superego because it is projected, and therefore essentially unconscious and identical with environmental circumstances.
2. I renounce my claim because i feel impelled to do so for painful inner reasons which are not altogether clear to me. These reasons give me no particular moral satisfaction; on the contrary, I even feel some resistance to them. But I must yield to the power which suppresses my egoistic claim. Here the self in integrated; it is withdrawn from projection and has become perceptible as a determining psychic factor. (...)

The superego is a necessary and unavoidable substitute for the experience of the self.

These two ways of renouncing one's egoistic claim reveal not only a difference of attitude, but also a difference of situation. In the first case the situation need not affect me personally and directly; in the second, the gift must necessarily be a very personal one which seriously affects the giver and forces him to overcome himself. (...)

So long as the self is unconscious, it corresponds to Freud's superego and is a source of perpetual moral conflict. If, however, it is withdrawn from projection and is no longer identical with public opinion, then one is truly one's own yea and nay. The self then functions as a union of opposites and thus constitutes the most immediate experience of the Divine which it is psychologically possible to imagine." (p.210, 211)

Funny to me how often Jung compares and contrasts with Freud's theory in his writing. Obviously there is a tension still there, and a grudging respect to mention him so often, and also an acknowledgment of Freud's contributions. That is sort of how i read it anyways.

Next thing will be the last, since i don't want to write a novel here and make this post too overloaded, something that i found online, a glossary of Jungian terms. http://www.terrapsych.com/jungdefs.html Thought i'd put the entry for 'Archetype'.

I find it a useful term, and one that makes sense to me based on personal experience, though i do not claim to know exactly what Jung meant by it, (if it can have an "exact" meaning) but i've adopted it to suit how i perceive it relating to situations in my own life. I also think of archetypes as similar to the Major Arcana cards of the tarot, though that is probably something i read somewhere once, nevertheless it seems to fit, imo.

Archetype: (from St. Augustine and Jacob Burkhardt's "primordial image"; also, a version of Levy-Bruhl's "representations collectives"): a constitutive prototype or form or Gestalt within the collective unconscious; a ruling "organ" of the psyche and Platonic blueprint for its activity. Complexes of the collective unconscious. Images and emotions (both must be present). The psychic form of preformed mechanism for the development of consciousness by ordering the chaos of perceptions into meaningful patterns. Instinctive behavior pattern grounded in the fundamental structure of living matter. Archetypes organize our perceptions, collect images, regulate, modify, motivate, and even develop conscious contents, plot the course of developments in advance, set up bridges between the ego and its instinctive and collective roots, lead the channeling and conversion of instinctual energy, and "represent the authentic element of spirit" and a "spiritual goal."

All of us inherit the same archetypes, the same invisible patterns or motifs built, like emotions, into the structure of the human psyche, but they manifest in personal and cultural experiences. Examples include the Hero, the Divine Child, the Great Mother, Transformation, Death, and Rebirth. The most important are the shadow, anima/animus, Wise Old Man/Wise Woman, and the Self, all nonpersonal, bipolar vessels extending up into the personal unconscious. Also, archetypes interpenetrate and are hard to tell apart.

Archetypes manifest in myths, dreams, tribal lore, fairy tales, visions, isms, scientific advances, numbers, religions, philosophies, historical developments, and schizophrenic hallucinations. Ultimately, they also drive individuation and provide a counterpole (the "violet end") to instinct (the psyche's "red end"): image and its dynamism. Instinct is felt physiologically and experienced as numinous images that seem to contrast to mere bodily sensations and mechanisms; so archetypes are instincts "raised to a high frequency," just as instincts emanate from an archetype's "low frequency." Just as instincts impel toward behavior, the archetypes impel toward certain kinds of perceptions.

Consciousness rests upon and is organized by its archetypal forms and foundations. Dig far enough into an intense inner experience and you eventually come to the mythological, ageless themes that indicate an activated archetype. Just as an instinct is activated by a certain situation it bears an image of, so is an archetype. Also, its psychoid base puts it beyond both matter and psyche, though it has qualities of both. Although archetypes are energic power sources, they need libido from the ego for their images to rise into consciousness.

Activated archetypes compensate for the one-sidedness of the times and provide preset ways to adapt. They show that a person's problem is also a problem of humanity, a basic human concern. It's healing to know the general human meaning of the problem.

Jung also thought archetypes were Lamarckian deposits of typical subjective reactions of repeated experiences. He also said they entered the picture with life itself.

[Deusdrum]

*tumbleweed rolls slowly by*

Maybe this thread is in the wrong place? Mods feel free to move it to wherever.

Anyways, second person for me is Charles ****ens, one of the first of the true humanitarians in my opinion. I've read probably most of his books. Great expansive sense of humor, and always full of insight and compassion. One of my favorite authors bar none.

Thought i'd just quote some interesting facts people may not know about ****ens that i've found on the net.

But first, here is a PDF of the last book of his i read, from Pennsylvania State University, 'Our Mutual Friend'. Easily one of my favorites from him.

http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/****ens/friendco.pdf

Now some interesting facts.

Today is the 200th birthday of literary hero, Charles ****ens. We all know that ****ens wrote about poverty, injustice, crime with great humor (and at great length). But there are quite a few things we don’t know about the author of A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and many, many other classics. To celebrate, here are a few fun facts.

1. His name “****ens” was a curse, possibly invented by Shakespeare.
Instead of saying, “What the devil?” as a profanity, people exclaimed, “What the ****ens?” The first usage of that word, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. And Shakespeare frequently invented words, just because they weren’t there.

2. He may have saved multiple lives of friends and strangers after a train crash.
According to the New York Times, ****ens was on a train that derailed over a bridge, in the only first-class carriage that didn’t plummet into a river. He not only found the key that freed his friends, he went to the carriages below and gave water and brandy to those who needed it.
Then, in a move that can only be called “bad ***,” the ailing 53-year-old “climbed back into the dangling carriage and retrieved from the pocket of his coat the installment of Our Mutual Friend that he had just completed and was taking to his publishers.”
The reason he was never publicly lauded for his actions? He was keeping it on the down-low because he was traveling with his mistress.

3. He helped create a home for “fallen women.”
In a world where women had few options to support themselves and their families, prostitution was a common crime, but one that was severely punished. After an appeal from heiress Angela Coutts, he helped create “Urania House” where former prostitutes could learn to read and write, as well keep house.
****ens searched prisons and workhouses for potential candidates and interviewed them personally. He even established the house rules. Approximately 100 women “graduated” from Urania House.

5. His last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, remains a mystery.
****ens had written half of a novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, but left it unfinished when he died of a stroke in 1870. Edwin Drood was a young man engaged to Rosa Bud, who is also the object of his uncle John Jasper’s affections, as well as Neville Landless, a young man from Ceylon. After he and Rosa break their engagement, Drood disappears.
****ens left no clues behind as to who killed his protagonist, although many suspect his uncle. There have been multiple radio, television, and theater reworkings of this story, each with different endings.
The most recent film of this novel, which aired in the United Kingdom in January, will air in the United States on PBS on April

****ens named many of his children after his favorite authors. Among his 10 children were Alfred Tennyson ****ens, Henry Fielding ****ens, and Edward Bulwer Lytton ****ens. He then gave them all nicknames:

• Charles Jr., “Charley”
• Mary, “Mamie”
• Kate, “Lucifer Box”
• Walter, “Young Skull”
• Francis, “Chickenstalker”
• Alfred, “Sampson Brass,” or “Skittles”
• Sydney, “The Ocean Spectre,” or “The Admiral”
• Henry, “Mr. H”
• Dora, (Died in infancy)
• Edward, “Plorn”

Charles ****ens’s own nickname was “Boz”


Reprinted from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader: Fast-Acting Long-Lasting. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness ..." wrote Charles ****ens, whose life was a rich mixture of all of the above. Here are the 8 odd facts about the novelist: WHAT THE ****ENS? Charles ****ens was the first literary superstar - his popular works reached a wider audience than any writer before him. With classics like Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and David Copperfield, ****ens dominated the literary life of 19th-century England and the United States. But like many remarkable people, ****ens was a complex, multi-layered individual, full of peculiar quirks and odd habits.

• OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE. ****ens was preoccupied with looking in the mirror and combing his hair - he did it hundreds of times a day. He rearranged furniture in his home - if it wasn't in the exact "correct" position, he couldn't concentrate. Obsessed with magnetic fields, ****ens made sure that every bed he slept in was aligned north-south. He had to touch certain objects three times for luck. He was obsessed with the need for tidiness, often cleaning other homes as well as his own.

• EPILEPTIC. ****ens suffered from epilepsy and made some of his characters - like Oliver Twist's brother - epileptics. Modern doctors are amazed at the medical accuracy of his descriptions of this malady.

• PRACTICAL JOKER. ****en's study had a secret door designed to look like a bookcase. The shelves were full of fake books with witty titles, such as Noah's Arkitecture and a nine-volume set titled Cat's Lives. One of his favorites was a multi-volume series called The Wisdom of Our Ancestors, dealing with subjects like ignorance, superstition, disease, and instruments of torture, and a companion book titled The Virtues of Our Ancestors, which was so narrow that the title had to be printed vertically.

• EGOMANIAC. ****ens often referred to himself as "the Sparkler of Albion," favorably comparing himself to Shakespeare's nickname, "the Bard of Avon." (Albion is an archaic name for England.)

• FAIR-WEATHER FRIEND. Hans Christian Andersen was ****en's close friend and mutual influence. Andersen even dedicated his book Poet's Day Dream to ****ens in 1853. But this didn't stop ****ens from letting Andersen know when he'd overstayed his welcome at ****ens's home. He printed a sign and left it on Andersen's mirror in the guest room. It read: "Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks, which seemed to the family like AGES."

• MESMERIST. ****ens was a devotee of mesmerism, a system of healing through hypnotism. He practiced it on his hypochondriac wife and his children, and claimed to have healed several friends and associates.

• CLIFF-HANGER. When The Old Curiosity Shop was published in serial form in 1841, readers all over Britain and the United States followed the progress of the heroine, Little Nell, with the same fervor that audiences today follow Harry Potter. When the ship carrying the last installment approached the dock in New York, 6,000 impatient fans onshore called out to the sailors, "Does Little Nell die?" (They yelled back that ... uh-oh, we're out of room.)

[norseman]

No contest ! Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese Philosopher-Poet.
http://leb.net/~mira/

Deusdrum - a couple of thoughts occurred to me re. where this thread is seen (since you were wondering if it should be moved to be more interactive). The lounge is a very busy section. If members just scroll new posts it may well not be displayed (unless someone has just posted there). Perhaps a better placement would be members cafe (not so busy, more likely to remain under the new posts section).

Also, it kind of has a doubling up effect, i.e. there is already a quotes section - I realise this is not exactly the same thread...but there is a little overlap.
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Eckhart Tolle has been a mentor for me now for some years. He has many clips on youtube and is famous for his book "The Power Of Now" where he shows how we can overcome our egos and reach a serene on-going spiritual space/place in our mind. He is good at explaining/enabling this process. His style is a little too dry - perhaps requiring focus, more thought - for some.

"Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find you're here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally."

Here is a 4 minute clip on being yourself - from that book.

http://youtu.be/ACg6M781HQw

[knightofalbion]

Jung underwent a NDE whilst having a heart attack. He survived and afterwards became a staunch advocate for survival of the spirit/life after death...

[knightofalbion]

I propose Albert Schweitzer. A man of great compassion for all living things, who dedicated his life to service.

An inspiration for us all.

[Honza]

Dr M Scott Peck - who wrote the road less travelled and other books and examined the psychology of spiritual growth.

[Honza]

Daevid Allen - an Australian singer songwriter who moved to Europe and basically created a whole new world with his music and his band Gong. He is exceptionally imaginative and talented. His music is unlike any other - a hippies dream.

Sir Isaac Newton

Although earlier philosophers such as Galileo and John Philoponus had used experimental procedures, Newton was the first to explicitly define and systematize their use. His methodology produced a neat balance between theoretical and experimental inquiry and between the mathematical and mechanical approaches. Newton mathematized all of the physical sciences, reducing their study to a rigorous, universal, and rational procedure which marked the ushering in of the Age of Reason. Thus, the basic principles of investigation set down by Newton have persisted virtually without alteration until modern times. In the years since Newton's death, they have borne fruit far exceeding anything even Newton could have imagined. They form the foundation on which the technological civilization of today rests. The principles expounded by Newton were even applied to the social sciences, influencing the economic theories of Adam Smith and the decision to make the United States legislature bicameral. These latter applications, however, pale in contrast to Newton's scientific contributions.

It is therefore no exaggeration to identify Newton as the single most important contributor to the development of modern science. The Latin inscription on Newton's tomb, despite its bombastic language, is thus fully justified in proclaiming, "Mortals! rejoice at so great an ornament to the human race!" Alexander Pope's couplet is also apropos: "Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night; God said, Let Newton be! and all was light."

[Adrienne]

Originally Posted by amy green

Deusdrum - a couple of thoughts occurred to me re. where this thread is seen (since you were wondering if it should be moved to be more interactive). The lounge is a very busy section. If members just scroll new posts it may well not be displayed (unless someone has just posted there). Perhaps a better placement would be members cafe (not so busy, more likely to remain under the new posts section).

Deusdrum if you are taking votes the lounge is the perfect place, well visited

for the members cafe, one has to sign in to view