Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Spirituality and Philosophy
Nostalgia (Mild)
Slight currents of missing this or that, elements of our old home in Sun City, Texas, the singers’ concert, memories of those who we left behind. Nostalgia, slightly. We’re really very happy, but I was reminded of washes of mild emotionality, like lapping waves—noticeable, but not unsettling—of times, places, groups of bygone times. Some were […]
Not Limited to a ‘Rational’ Philosophy
And now a venture into contemplation—for I am, of course, a “contemplateur.” I have realized that rational philosophy cannot achieve what it seeks. There is too much in living that transcends rationality, that partakes of play, non-rationality, sensuality, poetry, imagery, paradox, feelings that resist articulation. I call this “nibbling at the ineffable,” the word ineffable […]
Novelty in Philosophy
Let’s begin with a quote of a passage—one of m favorites—by Alfred North Whitehead, found near the end of his book, Modes of Thought. He wrote near the end (pp.237-238): “The use of philosophy is to maintain an active novelty of fundamental ideas illuminating the social system. It reverses the slow descent of accepted […]
Off The Deep End
I have indeed gone off the deep end. To someone in the shallow end, this is insanely nuts. To those who swim well, well, that’s where the swimming is best. One cannot readily say that “higher” consciousness is “better,” because in ignorance there is bliss. No, that’s somewhat elitist. Actually, certain advantages accrue to those […]
On “Scient-ism”
In chatting with friends, the theme of “scientism” came up—an interesting term, referring to the tendency to attribute to science virtuous qualities that it has neither claimed or properly earned. While science uses methods that ultimately require the employment of the senses and be replicable, this approach cannot address a wide variety of very relative […]
On Critical Thinking
I suspect that many people who went to college and got exposed a little to critical thinking have not as yet learned what a radical bunch of ideas it involves, and how it applies to almost everything: – what the relationships between men and women should be about – how to parent or […]
On Idiosyncrasies
An idiosyncrasy is a personal and seemingly odd notion, ritual, habit, obsession, etc. How do bright people come up with such a startling variety of notions? Provisional answer: All our powers of reason cannot penetrate the screen of bias, the thick layers of rationalization generated by our “amplifying unconscious.” The powers of rationalized mythmaking are […]
On Knowability
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that asks about how we know what we think we know. I would dig it a bit deeper and ask whether it might be that true knowledge of anything, full knowledge, is truly impossible in a world of cosmic dimensions. In other words, could it be that the notion […]
ON “FAITH-ING”
Faith-ing is a word I use to express the idea that faith is something you do, not something you can “have.” It’s an activity of turning towards your highest values and a somewhat optimistic view of the possibilities in the future. Faith may not require that you think of the future as all rosy; rather, […]
Optimal Effort: 32%
The other day a friend wrote on an email, “When we open our hearts, God opens our minds!” This got me thinking—okay, so, if this were true, how would it work? First, let’s imagine, just for fun, that there are angels and that they manage meaningful coincidences, known as “synchronicities.” I use this “big if” […]
Orders of Magnitude of Complexity
When the number of variables transcend what is relevant for a dimension, then it’s time to pop up to a higher dimension. For example, surfaces in two dimensions can have complex colors patterns, or geometric figures, as well as variations of length, but one dimensional existences cannot appreciate such phenomena. Lines have length but no […]
Other Dimensions!?
I talk to God, as you know, not that I expect that God listens to puny me. But I fantasize that God delegates the message back to me via several levels of archangels and angels. I don’t hear “His” (maybe “Her”?) words exactly because my unconscious mind certainly contaminate—and indeed, this all is probably fantasy, […]
Paradigm Shifts and Action Explorations
This blog poet also might be titled “Psychodrama Beyond the Medical Model.” Psychodrama is mostly used as psychotherapy, but a sizable component does not require the medical model! While psychodrama as psychotherapy is being squeezed out by evidence-based medicine, let’s let Moreno’s work find new life as “creativity expansion” or “action explorations.” This opens to […]
Performance Awareness
There’s something about this on my other website. I’ve been thinking about the degrees of awareness that we are performing for a hidden or not-so-hidden audience. I call this “performance awareness.” and I think there’s a spectrum: At the low end, zero awareness, at the high end, extremely aware of the audience and their reaction. […]
Permeability and Ability
My thesis this morning is that extraordinary abilities are to some significant degree due to an innate permeability of the mind to what some call “psychic” and others call “inspiration.” It occurred to me that our model of mind may be limited, overly materialistic. The reigning paradigm is that the contents of the mind are […]
Permutations
This mandala suggests that external appearances are structured by archetypes, which are in turn structured by meta-archetypes, etc. As categories overlap in dream worlds and at the Platonic levels, one meaning can never suffice. There is of course the geometric meanings, and how one line or part of line in one triangle becomes another line […]
Personal Myth: Considerations (I)
This has come up as a theme in our culture and evokes various thoughts. In the olden days there was no such thing as “myth,” much less personal myth. In our tribe, we all learned the stories about how it really was, and came to believe that was so. Then there were unbelievers, but we […]
Perspectives and Dimensions
We live in a reality that is bigger than ordinary reality, because mind operates beyond reason, beyond its own ability to comprehend it all. I’ve found the metaphor of dimensionality useful—and mainly that there are higher as well as lower dimensions. The point or zero dimensions is the peculiar but widespread idea that words mean […]
Phenomenology
David Arthur Walters from the Miami Mirror emailed me and said “I forgot to tell you I think you are cool.” This then reminded me of my on-again-off-again correspondence with him: He wrote, some years back: DAW: Freud stole his soup from Brentano & Dilthey. Jaspers’ Psychopathologie is right up your eclectic alley, a systematic […]
Philosophy & Depth Psychology
I’m pretty sure these two categories cannot be adequately separated. I’m not talking about the distortions of recognized mental illness, but rather the distortions and illusions imposed by pretty healthy folks who are moderately introspective and somewhat philosophical. As we have learned more about the prevalence of illusion and how compelling this is, it becomes […]
Philosophy (Linus-Style)
I played Linus in a community theatre production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” and so I find his character appealing. Here he philosophizes. Parts of me are childlike and other parts grown-up and other parts….well, I don’t know.
Philosophy and (by Extension) Theology
Rationality is great, and we should strive to develop this part of our mind. Most folks are at what I estimate to be 15 – 20 on a scale of 1 – 100. People have the capacity, most of them, to become a bit more aware of their thinking, how rational it is, and to […]
Philosophy-Poetry-Cartoon Art
I think that things have changed in a fundamental way: People have become empowered to think more actively, flagrantly, to articulate that which used to be taboo. This has been catalyzed by the emergence of “transgressive art,” art that transgresses rules of rationality and decorum, in cartoons, comics, comedians, some television, and less so, but […]
Philosophy: A Spectrum of Coherence
For many people it doesn’t take that much rational coordination to sustain a viable philosophy of life. Such a system can be sufficiently developed and maintained using a limited number of relatively self-evident platitudes and general social norms, loosely assembled and supported by one’s peer group. Interestingly, all that is needed is the illusion of […]
Pioneering?
A friend, Dr. John Christie-Casson in England wrote, in response to my saying that I considered him a pioneer in his researches into the actual authorship of Shakespeare’s plays, “…the fact is I have only travelled on from where others had previously gone.” I appreciated his modesty, but it occurred to me that most pioneering […]