Stray Thoughts

Part three of six parts

Part III: Accepting Nietzsche’s Challenge

Against this backdrop, our deeply personal preoccupations with such questions as, “How can I harmonize my right and left brain functions?” may seem like selfish, petty conceits. But what I am arguing is precisely the opposite: We do not have the luxury of dismissing or ignoring our own inner warning systems. Nature is speaking to us and through us. Our individual quest for balance and harmony is the expression of a wider and deeper wave of positive change, just as surely as our individual acts of ignorance and greed contribute to the mess we’re in. It works both ways. After all, we have to start somewhere.

As I mentioned earlier, my own search began with a (mostly unconscious) yearning for connection with the lost, “magical” parts of my self. This yearning triggered a disturbing upheaval of right-brained activity, including a number of odd experiences that did not fit my standard, left-brained definitions of rationality–or, for that matter, of reality. The questions continued to pile up.

Continue reading Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (3)

For part one of this paper by Joseph Felser, Ph.D., see yesterday’s post.

Part II: The Nightmare of Reason

As I struggled to make sense of my experiences, I was not aware that my bad dreams were more than my own private nightmares. The maverick British philosopher Robin George Collingwood argued that we never struggle with our problems in isolation.(3) Whether we know it or not, our deepest personal challenges are rooted in the common ground of our cultural and social difficulties. No one is an island.

What is our chief problem? As Bob Monroe observes in Far Journeys, it is that we are a “half-brained society.” (4) That half, of course, would be the left side of the brain: our rational intellect. But what about the other half of us–the right brain of feeling, intuition, psychic sensitivity, and imagination? Like the sorrowful mother rabbit of my dream, this creatively fertile, “magical” aspect has, by and large, fallen asleep. In psychological terms, this means it has fallen into the unconscious, where it becomes an unknown object of fear and misunderstanding.

Continue reading Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (2)

My friend Joseph Felser, Ph.D, a professor of philosophy, gave the keynote address to The Professional Division of The Monroe Institute in March, 2006. He called it Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason, and I found his insights remarkable. He has graciously allowed me to reproduce it here. It’s long, so I will publish it in six parts on successive days.

Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason:
The Philosophy of Robert Monroe
by Joseph M Felser, Ph.D.
Keynote Address
20th Professional Seminar
March 25-29 2006
The Monroe Institute

Well, it’s a great delight to be back at TMI once again. Arriving here always feels like a homecoming. As I know you will agree, this is a unique–and uniquely valuable–institution.

I feel deeply honored to have been asked to give this keynote address to the professional division. I want to express my sincere gratitude to Shirley, to Dar, and to Laurie for their most generous and welcome invitation.

Continue reading Reasonable Magic and Magical Reason (1)