Harry Henderson's blog

What are We Doing for Psychology?

Harry Henderson — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:33:57 +0000

It strikes me that our name, "Guild for Psychological Studies," is a bit odd, in that we (collectively, at least) don't really "study psychology." Our main activity is seminars where we use what has come to be known as the "Guild method." The "axis" of this method is between the participant (as an individual and as ego) and the content and questions placed in the center of the circle by the leader. The expected outcome, too, is primarily individual, expressed in terms of "greater consciousness" and a deepening of the relationship between ego and Self. True, there is a group dynamic and the seminar is something like a temporary intentional community--but it is a community of people each tending their own garden, and perhaps comparing notes on weather and crop yields.

What do we mean when we say we need "meaning"?

Harry Henderson — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 03:22:41 +0000

Lately in the Guild there has been some urgency expressed toward taking "the abyss" or "darkness" or "meaninglessness" more seriously.

One way to not take darkness seriously is to ignore it. Another way is to push it away as evil and an obstacle to goodness. Of course most of us are too sophisticated to do that: we have learned to not take darkness seriously by seeing it as something to be "integrated" and acknowledged as part of some greater whole!

The problem is that I/we don't usually give darkness enough time to speak in its own terms. We rush to learn lessons from it, draw conclusions. We come up with a mandala that is like a neutral atom in which positive and negative are perfectly balanced. Of course this atom is inert and can't do much of anything of interest ... such as bond to another atom and form a tasty molecule.

The Tool that Shapes Itself: the Incarnation and Apocalypse of Technology

Harry Henderson — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 05:54:44 +0000

Note: the following is in response both to the book by Kevin Kelly and to some of the ideas in Hal Childs's paper "Is There Life in Those Old Bones?"

I have just finished reading What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly. This title may seem strange to many people (what can a machine or tool "want"?) but perhaps it might not be so strange to Guild people. After all, some of us ask "what does Soul want?" Such language is sometimes decried as being anthropomorphic (treating the non-human as human), but as we will see, there is equal danger in being anthropocentric (assuming that only humans can have real "purposes.")

"The Grand Design"

Harry Henderson — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 01:07:47 +0000

A review of

The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

If you want to get to the edge of science, there's no place like astrophysics. In this latest book Hawking (who needs no introduction) and his co-author make the latest assessment of the quest of science to develop a "Theory of Everything" that could explain why our universe is the way it is.

The latest news turns out to be rather surprising. After providing a clear, accessible review of astrrophysics from ancient Greece to the latest string theories (no math needed), Hawking and Mlodinow suggest that there not only is no final "Theory of Everything" but that it is quite possible no single comprehensive theory can even exist.

Who I Am I Must Become

Harry Henderson — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 04:01:40 +0000

The description for the 2011 summer seminar "Who I Am I Must Become" is now online. I would urge you to click here and read it with fresh eyes, as though you've never heard of Records or even been to a Guild seminar. See what response comes ...

Soul's depth, Soul's sky

Harry Henderson — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:58:10 +0000

On September 26 Susanna Singer and I will be offering "The Heights and Depths of Soul," the first of a new series of "Expeditions" events. This event will focus on images of the deep sea and far reaches of space as presented in two IMAX films at the Tech Museum in San Jose.
Psyche or Soul is not something found only in the individual person, or in humanity as a whole, but is as wide and deep as nature, as Cosmos itself.
If you look into the eye of a squid from the deep sea, can you imagine the awareness of a place of extreme pressure, darkness, vibrations, currents, and strange chemical signals? What if our reflective consciousness had emerged not on an African savanna, but in such depths?

Is Jung's "Red Book" Relevant to the 21st Century?

Harry Henderson — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:54:08 +0000

Last weekend the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco had a conference on Jung's _Red Book_. A number of other such conferences are taking place around the Jungian world this year.