Imaginary Characters in Your Head?

It was Anne Tyler who said, "You would be surprised at how much companionship a group of imaginary characters can offer, once you get to know them."

I was struck by the word companionship. Com- means "with." Pan- means "bread" or "meal." So companionship carries the image of eating bread or a meal with someone. This is a rather delicious image: to break bread with imaginary figures.

Paco and I certainly know the feeling Anne Tyler is describing.

Do you?

Comments welcomed!

The war on truth and the war on imagination and the war on action by the corporate-governmental-academic establishment is wrenchingly documented in the documentary, "The Intenet's Own Boy," the story about the life and contributions and the suicide of Aaron Swartz. Watch it all the way through. You are likely to be left with the feeling, what can I do? Let's talk about it.

Here is the link:

Analyst in training, Mackenzie Amara, explores a dream-based approach to the alienness of psychedelic trips.

Here's the link:

https://psyche.co/ideas/to-learn-from-a-psychedelic-trip-explore-the-dreams-that-follow?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=july_drive_2021&utm_content=newsletter_banner

Hi all,

Posts and comments are increasing at fexandcoo.website on the relation between fictional narrative and the psyche

prompted by the novel Fex & Coo by Russ Lockhart and Paco Mitchell. Join in!

Paco's essays, "The Coming Storm" and "The Flamenco Letra" are now available at the website paraceleteofcaborca.com

This site is now available for registration.

A question I get asked a lot is what am I reading now and what articles have impacted me.

I'm currently enjoying Stephen King's new novel, The Insitute. I'll have some comments on this soon.

I've been a follower of Camille Paglia for many years and was quite taken with an article entitled

"Camille Paglia declares cinema done." Read it here: Camille Paglia declares cinema done | electric ghost

Umair Haque is a writer I follow. He is not a mincer. A recent essay: "We're Losing the Battle for the Future."

You can read it here: We’re Losing the Battle for the Future | by umair haque | Jul, 2021 | Eudaimonia and Co (eand.co)

Watch for the first edition of the Owl & Heron Newsletter.

It would be helpful to  me if you did the following:

If you receive this notice, please let me know if you have been receiving email notifications of posts and comments.

I just want to make sure everything is working propery.

Have a good weekend!

Russ

As a newborn mammal opens its eyes for the first time, it can already make visual sense of the world around it. But how does this happen before they have experienced sight?

PSYCHOACTIVE

Dictionaries will tell us that “psychoactive” refers to the effects on the mind of drugs. The effects typically mentioned are changes in the nervous system which alter perception, mood, consciousness, cognition or behavior. The drugs indicated are psychoactive drugs, psychopharmaceutical drugs, and psychotropic drugs. The word came into use in the 1940s and has reached its maximal use in the latest analysis (Google, 2019).

I use the word differently. By psychoactive I mean the unexpected, autonomous activation of the other at odd angles to one’s conscious intentions. The activation may manifest in dreams, visions, synchronicities, strange and inchoate body sensations, visual or auditory perceptions, feelings and thoughts.

My use of other here is meant in place of the general use of the word unconscious. The word other carries a sense of phenomenological animation. I further characterize it as the presentational psyche because these experiences are “presented” to ego consciousness. I have further characterized this as involving the invitational psyche because these experiences have a sense of inviting the participation of the conscious ego in further acts of imagination and creativity.

More on this post at fexandcoo.website where the relationship between psychoactive and narrative is a key question.

You may find my essay, “Appassionato for the Imagination,” to be useful. See Russell A, Lockhart. Appassionato for the Imagination. In Murry Stein and Thomas Arzt (Eds.) Jung’s Red Book for Our Time: Searching for the Soul under Postmodern Conditions, Asheville: Chiron Publications, 2017.

I've finally decided. This is my choice for the best performance and conducting of Ravel's Bolero, with Sergiu Celubidache conducting the Munich Philharmonic orchestra. Celubidache was a master of manifesting restraint as a way to build tension, a master at the restrained release of restraint, and a master of the total release of all restraint. It is altogether incredible.

ON MARKET STREET

I walked Market Street today

you know that place

junk stores and some say junk people

where I tried on that Greek fisherman's

cap authentic at 10.99

my head was too big my head was too big

my head is too big became a chorus right there

on Market Street but no one heard

except this guy who shot out of that store

like an unguided missile whose any target

will do meant me and this junked man

he crashed into me and when I said sorry

like mama taught me to do in all special

circumstances he only said in a commander's

voice supreme at ease and in the very next breath

was shocked into recognition of who was soldier

and who was commander exactly and that junked

man commander saluted my head too big

and shouted with respect in-boned yes sir yes sir

and I knew that from analyst to commander on

Market Street is not an easy promotion

yet I took his gift of rank and its cap just right

when I heard him shout at ease and saw him

salute and yes sir yes sir even to that girl

with one arm that girl not even bumped

into became a commander too on

Market Street today

when girls are commanders who will be nurses

who will be nurses on Market Street

when that man that mad man

has made commanders of us all

it will be yes it will be madness

yes madness itself yes because

on Market Street where I walked

today is where madness is

psyche's only nurse.

Lockhart, Russell. Psyche Speaks: A Jungian Approach to Self and World. The Lockhart Press. Kindle Edition.

Available at Amazon:

https://amzn.to/3hH3rea

Like the delta variant of Covid-19, the alternative reality virus (ARV) is
spreading wildly and becoming more virulent while the mainstream powers
push to open “the economy.”

Denial of reality carries serious consequences. It is not simply a different
Opinion or viewpoint or political perspective. At the core of the ARV is
a pervasive suicidal impulse. The death imagery, slogans and memes among
those infected with ARV is clear. The ARV seems to have excited Kali in
major degree.

For previous posts on ARV, use the search box.

Join Fex & Coo at fexandcoo.wwebsite