Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Wisdom-ing
Nice to See You
I saw God. Well, not all of God, but a itty-bitty glow of the fingertip of “Her” fin-ger-tip, so to speak. I saw it by standing on tiptoe on a chair and peeking over the transom (the window above the doorway) and Lo! There She was, a tiny glow under a table. I said, “You’re […]
Ninety-Nine Point Nine Nine Nine
That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Anyway, 99.999 percent or more of everything doesn’t get utilized for the precise purpose for which it was designed. For example, sperm, embryo squids, oak tree acorns, various other kinds of seeds, stars, planets, etc.—most stuff doesn’t directly contribute to its own entelechy. The entelechy of […]
No More Psychiatry for Me
I became a physician because it fascinated me. It was wonder-full—really! Biology is one of the shining sources of wonder for my mind, and I’m privileged to have studied enough to know that what I learned was only the beginning! But I turned 80 recently and I sort of retired 20 years ago—but now I’ve […]
Non-Rational Mind
Reading a book (A Perfect Fit, by Jenna Weissman Joselit) about fashion changes in clothing (mainly women’s) in the period of the late 19th through the early 20th century: I’m impressed with the symbolic power of dressing smart, the boundaries of femininity, modesty, and the depths of feeling evoked by those who felt these changes […]
Non-Rational Mind
In late January, 2011, I wrote about the “amplifying unconscious” as a feature of the mind that is as yet hardly known. This blog will present another category, the Non-Rational Mind, which roughly but not precisely correlates with the “right brain” functions. This category may overlap in a few way with the amplifying unconscious. (I […]
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 […]
Numinous Verisimilitude
I’m giving a lecture series on illusion—part of a long-running series on psychological literacy. Some people have experiences that seem so real, not illusory, and more, the experience is compelling. The word “numinous” means strangely compelling: A thought or image seems is so true and important that it must be witnessed to. It compels you […]
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 Intellectual Inhibition
A friend of mine is interested in the frontiers of consciousness development—as am I—and had recently attended the national conference of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). One theme he noted was the growing confidence that appreciation for the not-entirely- materialistic way of viewing the world was growing. I asked him (as I am wont […]
On Living into Middle Age
Dear Son and Daughter, I realized that you’re heading into the middle years and realized also that things had shifted. When I was young, in my teens and 20s, the mainstream culture didn’t view mid-adulthood as a time of important development. While it was recognized that adults sometimes changed, yet it was not a social […]
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, […]
Oops: Reflections on Coping with Mistakes
Sometimes I mess up. Not that it’s “my” fault, you understand. I have these foibles. Foibles are sort of mental gremlins that fuzzy my mind and generate errors. It’s their fault, so cut me some slack. Seriously, though, mere exorcism won’t do the job, and what I’m really getting at is that it doesn’t help […]
Open Letter on Action Explorations
I sent an email to a wide range of colleagues who might in turn disseminate it to their own wider networks of their colleagues. I am calling for a gentle unification )(at least in principle) of a variety of a variety of fields who participate in methods that combine: group processes that are collaborative 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” […]
Out in Left Field
This is ambiguous: perhaps a put-down, perhaps an expression of guarded admiration and wonder. A friend, a poet, said that she was told by a friend that she was “out in left field.” I responded: “Well, maybe left field is a good place to live. It’s a “place” or state of mind in which one […]
Over-Load Eluded
One of the challenges of the postmodern era is that we become aware—no, we are gently assaulted—with a range of interesting and compelling possibilities, and also calls to action from seemingly noble causes. This morning I was reminded of someone who says the Navy’s sonar testing is hurting the whales and inhibiting their own emission […]
Paradigm Changes in Our Time
I’m aware that this phrase, paradigm change, has become somewhat cliché’d, but I think it useful to recognize what we are going through many cultural trends or shifts of world-view. It occurred to me that while the years around 1901 have been called “fin de siecle,”—meaning the end of the century, our own era, the […]
Passover—a New Interpretation
Those interested in spirituality—in any religion—often seek to make that which is traditional more relevant. Some thirty or more years ago I was impressed by a Passover “Seder” or special ritual dinner in which the host re-interpreted the process of remembrance not from the perspective of a more ethnic or national group, but rather as […]
Peacemaking
Peacemaking wasn’t known in the olden days. Peace was just surrender, a temporary unwillingness to fight, which meant to be dominated. Small-time kings bought off predatory emperors by taxing their people. Peace-making didn’t happen between equals except as temporary truces. The business of kings and emperors was conquest. There were whole castes given over to […]
People’s Lives
I continue to marvel as I become increasingly aware of the sheer complexity of people’s lives. Of course I know all this, perhaps better than most; but the point is that I continue to “get” more deeply the sheer number of stories—threads of becoming—that weave together. I’ve been a little more into the theme of […]
Performance Studies
Those who are more skilled at dramatization know this: Adding a little bit of performance, self-consciousness, exaggeration—just a tiny bit, but enough for you to notice!—enough to be impressive, subtly. This is very influential! People who know this intuitively recognize that a little bit of theatre is effective, But it must me subtle enough to […]
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 […]