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Brains in Vats Paradox

Penfield’s classic brain experiments of the 1930s inspired a certain famous riddle, long since dubbed “brains in vats” by philosophy students. It goes like this: You think you’re sitting there reading this post. Actually, you could be a disembodied brain in a laboratory somewhere, soaking in a vat of nutrients. Electrodes are attached to the brain. And a mad scientist feeds it with a stream of electrical impulses that exactly...
Contradictions and paradox

Can truth be a liar?

When it is exclaimed that contradictions may very well be true, numerous analytic philosophers will screw up their face into an appearance of discomfort, and say ‘But I just don’t see what it could be for a contradiction to be true’. They could mean numerous things by this. ‘See’ might just mean ‘understand’, by which case they might be complaining that traditional two-valued semantics leaves no room, as it were,...

Do Social Psychologists have a Problem with Rebels?

Compared to other social scientists, it appears that social psychologists appear to be especially concerned about the negative effects of rebels in groups. For example, sociologists often point to the important function that deviance plays in group life and the beneficial effects of deviance. Emile Durkheim (1958) highlighted that deviance and crime are important activities within any healthy society. He argued that, in the process of responding to deviance, group members come together and bonds become tighter. It alsoenhances an […]...
Otto Maier Dreams

Dream journeys and the mythical reality

In physics, we speak of energy and its various manifestations, such as electricity, light, heat, etc. The situation in psychology is precisely the same. Here, too, we are dealing primarily with energy . . . with measures of intensity, with greater or lesser quantities. It can appear in various guises. . . . As I worked with my fantasies, I became aware that the unconscious undergoes or produces change. Only...

From Ancient Rites to Modern Revelations

Initiation—an evocative term that conjures images of secret rites and profound transformations—has intrigued anthropologists and scholars of religion for generations. As Joseph Henderson wisely noted in his seminal work, Thresholds of Initiation, “Initiation more than any other body of knowledge has suffered throughout history from the fate of continually being forgotten and having to be rediscovered” (Henderson 2005: 1). In 1909, a remarkable resurgence of interest in initiation rites occurred,...
heresy

Heresy and Heretics

Heretic Middle English: from Old French heretique, via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek hairetikos ‘able to choose’ (in ecclesiastical Greek, ‘heretical’), from haireomai ‘choose’. In the Encyclopaedia Britannica one can read:“The word heresy is derived from the Greek hairesis which originally meant an act of choosing, and so came to signify a set of philosophical opinions or the school professing them. As so used the term was neutral, but once appropriated by Christianity it began to convey a note of disapproval. […]...

Hypnosis in Advertising and Politics

Hypnosis, suggestions can drastically alter the way individuals perceive and think about their world. There has always been tension between the rulers and the ruled, the masters and the masses. It is the centrifugal pull of self-desire against the welfare of the larger society, the tether that holds human history together. For much of that history society at large was the concern of a governing class: kings or priests, who...
Stars

Is this reality?

Otto Maier and his theory about waves, reality and time curves are rooted in the works of the men he looked up to, Leibniz and Descartes. In his “First Meditation” (1641), French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes decided he could not be absolutely sure he wasn’t dreaming. Most people would probably disagree with Descartes. You’re not dreaming right now, and you know it because experiences in dreams are different from...

Jung on Evil – Are we the origin of all coming evil?

The problem of evil is a perennial one. Theodicies abound throughout history, explaining God’s purposes in tolerating evil and allowing it to exist. Mythological and theological dualisms try to explain evil by asserting its metaphysical status and grounding and the eternal conflict between evil and good. More psychological theories locate evil in humanity and in psychopathology. Probably humans have forever wrestled with questions like these: Who is responsible for evil? Where does evil come from? Why does evil exist? Or […]...

Jung’s Seminars on Nietzsche’s Zarathustra

C.G. Jung’s seminars on Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, held between 1934 and 1939, are a monumental exploration into the depths of Nietzsche’s philosophy through the lens of analytical psychology. Jung was profoundly influenced by Nietzsche, and in these seminars, he delved into the psychological underpinnings of Nietzsche’s work, examining it from the perspective of the collective unconscious and archetypal symbolism. Jung saw Zarathustra as an essential text for understanding the...

Orchestrated Subversion

Subversion, as a concept, involves the deliberate effort to undermine or destabilize established institutions, authorities, or societal structures. It is often carried out through covert or manipulative means, aiming to erode trust in institutions, demoralize populations, and foster discontent. In the context of the Western world, subversion has taken various forms, and its impact on trust in institutions and contempt for established power can be attributed to several key mechanisms....
Albruna Gudrun Maier files

Soror Mystica

The anima as a friend or soror mystica (mystical sister) has always played a great role in history. In the “cours d’amour” (courts of love) of René d’Anjou she even takes precedence over the wife. The term maîtresse actually means mistress or master. In the Middle Ages, for example, the worship of the anima led to courtly love, in which the knight was committed to his lady and was at her service. In later history we know of women such […]...
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