And: Time

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the unconscious cannot be limited to the confines of dreams, hunches, slips of the tongue, and fantasies or daydreams. Many psychologists have tried to do this, but it is essential to imagine the unconscious as much broader. If we regard these things as the only way the unconscious manifests, then we seemingly create a paradox: A dynamic, autonomous entity that forces itself into consciousness with enough power to disrupt the ordering influence of the ego is nevertheless relegated to subservient status - something that is "below" or "inferior." Can we really imagine an unconscious which just jumps out of its hiding place from time to time? What does it do when it's not "interrupting" the ego? Just chill?

It seems to me more helpful to consider the unconscious as a life-force - that which powers all things and makes all things possible. In this way we have broadened our definition of the unconscious to include all psychic phenomena, and also done a better job of capturing its power, not to mention its autonomy and dynamism. The factor, heretofore unmentioned, that makes this model plausible, is movement. In accord with Heraclitus' dictum, "Nothing endures but change," we must imagine the unconscious as moving - all the time.

Now here I get confused. I can't decide if it's the psychic or "inner" eye that witnesses the moving, or some bigger "now" window which creates the phenomenon of "the present." In either case, one can imagine the implications: Time becomes merely the byproduct of an observing entity watching the rest of the "stuff" of the psyche flow by. In other words, time is equivalent to the observation of psychic material that is in the process of moving and is, moreover, a phenomenon exclusive to human consciousness.

Humans have made time linear, but psychologically there is no justification for this assumption. Time, it seems, is just movement in the psyche. Physicists talk about time beginning with the Big Bang - but this overlooks entirely the fact that human beings are the only species talking about time (not to mention that claiming time has "started" is a mind-bending propisition). If humans are the only ones noticing time, shouldn't we take a few minutes to consider the characteristics of the psyche which allowed the observation?

It seems then, that all the therapeutic techniques that support "mindfulness," and Buddhist thought, and any other discipline that encourages "presence" has its roots in the experience of connecting, or aligning the observing entity with that which flows "through" or "past" it. But here we must take up the idea of the collective unconscious, for without it we could get very confused about what exactly this "stuff" is that is appearing to the observing entity.