Today we kick start the Depth Psychology Alliance book club look into Isis Code : Revelations from Brain Research and Systems Science on the Search for Human Perfection and Happiness.
Hi everyone, my name is Ariane Page and I am the author of this book. I will be your host this month. Together, depending on your questions and reactions , we will shed a light on some aspects of this book. I say some aspects because at 600 pages, it covers a whole system which, itself, covers all aspects of human life. A little bit daunting for a short month! Isn't it.
You will have to keep in mind that I am French, therefore my impulsive English writing isn't perfect and I must right away apologize for this.
This book took three full time years to write since I had to look into all the newest brain research results to see if the thousands year old system I refer to is in harmony with these results. And it is.
What does this means for us? It reveals that the greatest Traditions of humanity, through their texts have intuitively expressed this system therefore , reading these sacred texts puts us in contact with the expression of a balanced system- in fact, the mandate of these texts was similar and exactly that-.
In Isis Code, I use three examples throughout the book: the legend of Isis and Osiris of Egypt, the Five Books of Moses and the Tao. Those three Traditions cover both Eastern and Western Traditions and are built on the same system.
To get back to the physical book itself, it is also offered in a ebook formal through amazon and google as well as other. We will not cover the different chapters as a month is too short for this to be done properly. However, I can certainly answer your questions. The first part of the book, including Chapter 1 and 2 sets the system into our actual vision of the world and introduces the two polarities ( feminine and masculine) as well as the system itself. The following chapters take us on a journey through different aspects of our brain which are attached to different worlds. I have named these in consideration of the world they are attached to and of the physical structures they control. Hence, for example, the Reptilian brain introduces us to the dimension of space- the what and where level, the physical world and associated to the masculine polarity. We find here structures associated to the R-complex brain system. At the beginning of each chapter you will find all the correspondences with each brain aspects which really are little brains in themselves. The sum of all of these gives us the LIFE biosystem (Law Inherent to the Five Elements) which is another name really for Isis Code.
I suggest that this book be read little by little from one chapter to the other and this for a simple reason. It was written in the fashion of the sacred texts of old. The aim therefore is not to give intellectual knowledge to the readers, although it also does that- but to serve as an expression of the system, balanced. What does this do to the reader? It puts all the pieces together in a harmonious whole. Indeed, we all are like Osiris: we have been cut in pieces (physical, emotional, symbolic/ analytic(mental), social) but true health can only be attained through theses pieces rejoining and working together, in harmony . In the legend it is Isis and Isis only who can recover all the pieces and put them together. This is what happens when we read this book. Unconsciously, our inner Isis puts together the pieces. The dreams we might have during the process are a way to verify this. So, I suggest that this book be read a little amount of pages at a time and that dreams occurring during this period be written down.
In this first day, I wish to bring our attention to the question we all ask when we meet someone new and wish to define who this person is: "What do you do in life?" We all answer the same way with what we do to generate money for us and our loved ones. In fact it becomes the following equation: who we believe we are/ what society offered us= what we do which eventually becomes who we are. If the society we are in has no opportunity to offer us than who we are becomes very reductive and problems arise because humans are more than a what.. Any reaction on this?
Replies
The month of September really flew by for me but I didn't want to let it go without offering a huge thanks to Ariane for tending this book club so thoughtfully and thoroughly. Thanks to each of you who participated as well. This is truly a remarkable book and if you are one who didn't get through it all during the month, I hope you'll continue to read and to reach out to Ariane with comments and questions. Thanks again, all!
As you have investigated Alternative medicine I wonder what you make of this?http://autohemotherapy.blogspot.fr/2009/06/dr-luiz-moura-autohemoth... it is a form of feedback therapy but it reminds me of jungs remark about celebrating a Last supper with ourselves. I have been doing it for 3 months. Thanks
Hello Wallace, I did experience the therapy in 1985. Because it is associated with information regulation ( read the Human Brain chapter in my book) you are right with the "celebrating a Last Supper with ourselves" . My experience (it was a little more complex than autohemotherapy and was performed by a renown French doctor) showed me that it is a case by case therapy, this meaning it is not good or bad in general, it depends on many factors. In the same way Jung said that sunrise can drive you mad while my personal experience showed the reverse, rituals which target the regulation of information in our personal LIFE biosystem ( physical, emotional, mental, social) must be dealt with the utmost respect and support. What changes have you witnessed that you would like to share here?
Hello all! If some of you would like to read a little more about Isis Code's ideas, I suggest you read my blog at www.IsisCodeblog.com or go to my facebook page www.facebook.com/IsisCode or even visit my website at www.IsisCode.com. Have a great day!
Hello everyone,
This is my last day hosting the bookclub for Depth Psychology Alliance. Thank you to all those who commented and to the 400 viewers. Please feel free to add your comments today to which I will happily respond. Starting tomorrow keep sending me your personal questions through Depth Psychology Alliance email system. Thank you Bonnie for allowing this. A sage of the 7th century said " Keep searching for knowledge, even if you have to go all the way to China for this". There is no complete knowledge without the soul factor. Therefore I wish to all of you the light of knowledge as it is the only one that can free us globally from the shadows of ignorance and destruction. Thank you
Hi Ariane, I am not familiar with your book. I meant to respond to this quote above, "if we speak of belief..." but I don't know if here a response is supposed to look at the quote in the context of your book. If so, I apologize.
Your comments about ages of consciousness reminded me of the concepts of original, present and final participation described by Owen Barfield in his extraordinary book POETIC DICTION. POETIC DICTION is I think, the closest a book comes to describing this evolution of consciousness from the point of view of consciousness. This he does by examining language and myth. Myth he calls the "ghost of concrete meaning" or original participation.
Original participation is Barfield's equivalent to what Jung describes in this quote above "In his naivety, the primitive does not believe, he knows, because he gives, with reason, as much value to inner experience as to outer experience... He orients his life through necessity following exterior facts as well as interior ones which, contrary to us, he does not feel and live as separated. He lives in a whole world ..."
Instances of that consciousness or of a consciousness that "reintegrates Nature" as you say, are called Visionary. Alan Moore accounted for the visionary world of the poet William Blake in a similar but much simpler way by saying, "He thought the things inside his head were as important as things in the material universe,"
This sentiment becomes even more recognizable when spoken of in the context of environmentalism: I recently heard in a radio interview from Japan with the Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, I think goes very well with Willi Paul's efforts regarding mythology and permaculture I hear about on this site: "Haida believe that our culture is based on the culture of the land. We don't see any separation between the life of a human and a natural world. We think that we are intimate with the world. All humans are very intimate with the world. What this means: even if you are a young woman in Tokyo you are intimate with the nature. You are a natural creature. You are not an artificial creature. You're a real natural phenomenon."
Hi Kerry,
You perfectly describe this "other half" that went underground with our search for sense through the material world. To echo this, here is a quote from Robert Johnson: " Mythology was sacred to primitive people; it was as though their myths contained their very souls. Their lives were cradled within their mythology and the death of their mythology. as happened with the American Indians, meant the destruction of their spirits." Unfortunately this happened to everyone. There is a parallel to draw here between desacralization of life in general, the poor state of the environment, the condition of women around the world and the rise of depression across the globe. The common cause of these can be found in the negation of this second half. It is all part of the march of evolution. "We don't see any separation between the life of a human and a natural world" To go further in human evolution, we need to make this sentence a conscious mantra. Here the qualities of distant past will again flourish and bring humanity to a more conscious, higher spire. Otherwise regression and most probably destruction awaits us. By understanding the brain and the system common to all mythologies, we can highlight what is common to all humanity and create a common space where all of us, from past ,present and future, all of us from east and west can finally understand each other. We are a fractal element of nature.
Good evening Ariane,
Thank you for your explanation.
Have a nice weekend - Ric.
Hi Gloria,
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. I believe the chapter on the Human Brain (5) which relates to the period of 14 to 21 years old might shed light on your painful experience. With what you said at the beginning of the discussion, the pull/ push gets an explanation. Indeed, falling in love is an invitation to union with your absolute. If we look at human evolution, this is a driving force.It reveals what the acorn we human being are should become once mature.
Good morning Ric , exactly. In the limited world of awareness, our perceptions differ, we indeed assume what the other person might feel. Interestingly, some brain structures and a type of neurons have this specific mandate to make us feel what another person might feel. These structures are associated to what I define as the feminine polarity, very much in charge of perception. We tend to project unto the other how we would feel in a certain situation and how we would react. This is one of the difficulty between gendersas women tend to assume a man should react the way they would in a given situation and vice versa. If the feminine polarity is functional, this sense is more acute and our perceptions are closer to the truth as we can process more data from the other without projecting ourselves. If the feminine polarity is not functional, there is a lack of empathy, an extreme example being that of a psychopath.
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