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Primal Spirit:
Powerful
Catalysts for Fundamental Growth of Self, Society, and Planet
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·
Holotropic Breathwork
Primal Therapy
·
Pre- & Perinatal Psychology Metaphysics
·
Cellular Consciousness
Shamanism
·
Childbirth &
Parenting
Healing
·
Regression Therapy Past-Lives
Therapy
·
Avatars and Saints
Psychohistory
·
New Physics
Primal Renaissance
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Exploring the Interrelation Between Early Experience, Spirituality,
Culture, Current
Events, and Metaphysics
|
Welcome! Autumn 2009 Issue
Site
Overview, Click Here
Features:
This site is once
again undergoing a great deal of change -- both in terms of content and aesthetics
(special thanks for the contributions of talented artist, Peter Radford).
The Latest Greatest
is the page that intends to show you the very latest additions to the
site -- that which is listed at the top is usually the latest addition --
below it is usually the second newest addition; and it continues like
that back through time. It gives you an accurate list of the
offerings and how long ago they were added relative to everything else on
the site. Readers of this site say that it gives them two things
that they value: easy discovery of the most recent material and (2)
a look back 12 years into the past and with that, very often, a
realization of how much is on this site and the discovery of interesting
and highly relevant material that the Reader was unaware was here or was
still here, because it had been added so long ago. It is really the
best way to see the amount of material that is on this site because there
are no duplicate entries; additions only get mentioned once -- at the
time they are added.
What follows below
is interesting for archival reasons, as it gives an idea
of what was recent activity five and a half years ago (the last time this site
saw such a flurry of activity until starting up with a Muse-driven fury
not long after Obama was sworn in as President in January. This story is
detailed on the current home page,
and that current homepage also
contains the links and information for now -- the Latest Additions (now
offered up as This Just
In), Featured New Material (as Featured
- New Today), Alerts,
This Just In, Found
in the Mailbag, and all else that is current, along with all the
links to the older sections of the site (INSIDE
LINKS), as well as all the older articles individually (FEATURED).
It is pretty comprehensive regarding navigation to everything that exists
here as well as the many closely related sites that Mickel and Mary Lynn
Adzema are building, which contain some stuff that is not on this
site.
What is on the
auxillary sites (OUTSIDE
LINKS) will often end up at Primal
Spirit, but not necessarily, and even if it does, theres no telling
when it will make its way to these pages. Still, Primal
Spirit is the oldest, largest, most comprehensive, most contributed
to, most varied, most technologically outfitted, and most aesthetically
pleasing of all the 20-odd sites we're building. This site will
probably always have that distinction of being like home base for all the
other sites, but let it not be forgotten that the other sites may get
good material sooner than here and in fact often has exclusive material
that will not appear here. So the homepage
here has many links to the outside
sites as well as links to just about all of the inside material.
The advice below,
pertaining to the archival material below, also describes the layout of
the new homepage:
Check out Featured
- New Today at the top; then continue scrolling down to links labeled
Featured-New,
which are still fresh-faced additons; scrolling further next brings up Recent
Additions -- which are important additions but may have been added in
the last six months or so. Finally continuing scrolling lastly
brings you to Featured
Articles, which are classic important statements -- often from the
top person in the field -- which will stand the test of time as far as
can be seen.
As for the older
material listed below, it is all here and some of it is more relevant now
than when it was first published. The links work, so if something catches
your eye, check it out. For that reason I might as well leave these extra
links here for now. And how it works? For Featured Articles, scroll past the
Latest
Additions, and for the complete offerings of this site, click on the
underlined Features above -- Note that this is not
strictly true anymore as this year's additions may or may not be accessed
through Features; and the best way to access
them is the easy way: From the homepage
for the latest stuff and Latest-Greatest
for the latest to everything going back in time for twelve years, when
this site first published.
Nonetheless, the underlined
Features above are links
to established sections, including a great deal of written and scholarly material of all kinds
– from poems and humorisms, to a professional journal of psychology, to an
e-zine, to scores of articles and essays, to three full-length books.
Browse freely to get an idea of the expanse of ideas and visions, offered
by the authors of this website along with major theorists and visionaries
in the fields headlined. Even more full-length
timely articles and books are also waiting in line for publication here. Of special interest are the three free on-line books,
including the one described further down. Following that is the "vision statement"
for this site titled, "Why Primal Spirit?"
We encourage you to enjoy,
become inspired, and to drink fully of
what we have so far.
And if we bring a smile to your face along the way, then we are doing it
the way we intend. We welcome your comments,
submissions, letters as well as longer commentaries for the Primal Spirit Forum,
and suggestions.
Email us at
marylnn@primalspirit.com
or mickel@primalspirit.com
Latest Additions to This Site (in 2004; archival interest):
Primal
Spirit
Magazine Spring 2004 Editorial: "Spirit In Action"
(Editorial added
April 6th, 2004) by Mickel Adzema
Bush
Uses Gas Crunch to Push Apocalyptic "Energy" Bill
(MusePaper added April 5th, 2004) by Mickel Adzema
Drilling
For Dollars: Bush- Cheney and the Apocalyptic "Energy"
Bill (Notice added
April 2nd, 2004) by John Kerry and Democrats for John Kerry for
President
Breaking
the Cycle of Violence: Why I Forgave My Assailant (article added
March 24th, 2004) by NYPD Detective, Steven McDonald
Re:
Your Paper on Spirituality and Primal Perspective -
In Primal
Spirit Forum (Letter
added March 22nd, 2004)
Reunion
With the Positive (Self), Part Two: The Therapist's Role - Unconditional
Acceptance Versus Enabling - And "Real" Love As Essential in Therapy
and Spirituality (added March 13th, 2004)
by Michael Derzak Adzema
by
Mickel Adzema. (added March 8th, 2004)
Editorial:
Concerning "The Primal Process" (added March 1st, 2004) by Mickel Adzema.
"Power
and Complexity: Finding Personal Power and At-Home-Ness in the World in
the Midst of Technological Alienation, Consumerism, and Specialization"
(article added
February 28th, 2004) by Mickel Adzema.
"Gurus,
Sacrificial Lambs, Shamans, and Scapegoats: Is There a Collective Pool of Pain?" (article added
February 27th, 2004) by Mickel Adzema.
"Organic
Parenting" (article added
February 25th, 2004) by Geraldine and Gaetano Lyn-Piluso.
"The
UFO Abduction Phenomenon's Challenge to Consensus Reality" (article added
February 24th, 2004) by John E.
Mack, M.D.
"The Seven Stages of Primal Therapy" (article added
February 6th, 2004)
by Stephen K. Witty and Stephen K. Khamsi
On
Service by Sathya Sai Baba (Addition to "Silly
God" Humor/Wisdom on 2/05/04)
Being
Here (Addition to "Silly
God" Humor/Wisdom on 2/05/04)
In
Sunshine or Storm, Remember and Give
Your Best . . . Anyway by Mother Theresa (Additions to "Silly
God" Humor/Wisdom on 2/04/04)
The
Michael Jackson Fiasco . . . "It's the Attack on Uniqueness, Stupid!" (MusePaper added January
29th, 2004) by Mickel Adzema
Dedication
and Editorial Primal Renaissance: The Journal of Primal Psychology 1(1) -
Concerning "Multiple Realities and Primal Visions" and Welcome! (added February 1st, 2004)
"The Only Important Education" (article added January
28th, 2004)
by Johan Christoph Arnold
"A
Gift, Daily" (quote, added 1/26/04)
Howard
Dean's "Primal Scream" Part One: The Republican Media, Repression, and
the Appeal of Stony-Hearted Presidents (MusePaper added January
25th, 2004) by Mickel Adzema
Howard
Dean's "Primal Scream" Part Two: The Scapegoating of Feeling, 2004
Culture Clash, Real Versus Sham News, and "Let's Not Get Fooled Again!" (MusePaper
added January 26th, 2004) by Mickel Adzema
"Nature As Alive: Morphic Resonance
and Collective Memory" (article added January 21st, 2004)
by Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.d.
"The
Lord of the Rings, Ego, and Addiction" (MusePaper added January
16th, 2004) by Mickel Adzema
Falls from Grace: Spiritual and Philosophical Perspectives of Prenatal
and Primal Experience (on-line
book, completely uploaded as of January 20th, 2004) by Mickel Adzema
"Biologically Constituted Realities
" (article added January 5th, 2004)
by Mickel Adzema
"Birthing . . . . Forgetting
" (short story added January 4th, 2004)
by Michael Derzak Adzema
"Reunion With the Positive (Self),
Part 1: The Other Half of the 'Cure'
" (article added January 3rd, 2004)
and
"A Primal Perspective on Spirituality
" (article added January 1st, 2004)
both by Mickel Adzema
FEATURED
ARTICLES
"A
Primal Perspective on Spirituality"
By Mickel Adzema, M.A.
"Planetary Survival and Consciousness Evolution: Psychological Roots
of Human Violence and Greed"
By Stanislav Grof, M.D.
"The
Seven Stages of Primal Therapy"
By Stephen K. Witty, Ph.d & Stephen K. Khamsi, Ph.d.
"Sathya
Sai Baba, Avatar"
By Mary Lynn Adzema, A.B.D.
"Tears
For Trauma: Birth Trauma, Crying, and Child Abuse"
By Aletha Solter, Ph.D.
Move Over,
World War Two Generation, The Sixties Generation Has Arrived! An Essay
Review of the Movie, "Pleasantville"
By Mickel Adzema, M.A.
"The
History of Childhood As The History of Child Abuse"
By Lloyd deMause
"Reunion
With the Positive (Self), Part 1: The Other Half of the 'Cure'"
By Michael Derzak Adzema, M.A.
"Primal Process and Higher Personality"
By Barbara R. Findeisen, MFCC
"Drugs,
Consciousnesses, and Generational Cultures"
By Mickel Adzema, M.A.
"Ending
Circumcision: Where Sex and Violence First Meet"
By Jeannine Parvati Baker
"Why Fear
When I Am Here?"
(Part 2 in the Sai Baba Series) By Mary Lynn Adzema
For other Offerings of this massive site, click on the Features
above:
Apocalypse, Or New Age?
The Emerging Perinatal Unconscious
Timely Book Available in its Entirety on This Website at No Charge.
Check it Out:
Apocalypse, Or New Age? The Emerging Perinatal Unconscious
WHY PRIMAL SPIRIT ?
We have noticed two things in the New Age/ progressive movement: First, there
is an absolute void when it comes to a forum where information and resources
having to do with the cathartic, deep experiential, deep feeling, "shadow"
work, birth related, spiritual emergency, shamanistic, radically political,
radically spiritual side of the New Age movement can be shared and can cross-fertilize.
This part of the consciousness-transformation movement is the one Jung addressed
when he wrote, "One does not become enlightened by imaging figures of light,
but by making the Darkness conscious." This part of the New Age movement
is often the one that people come to when talking doesn’t work, when affirmations
don’t work, when "positive thinking" and "creating one’s reality through
thinking it" have played themselves out and one is still left ever lured
into negative situations, and so on.
While each of these have
their place and can be helpful at times, it is a powerful seduction to "think"
or delude oneself into superficial change when it is deeper, more difficult,
more experiential change that is necessary. Consequently people wed themselves
to denial, and the vast majority of New Age prescriptions can be used that
way. People often come to the "deeper wave of the New Age" only as a last
resort.
Along with this denial
of our darker and painful side goes the rejection of the knowledge that comes
from it — the facts we would wish not to know. Witness: The rejection
of deMause’s psychohistory and its discovery that the history of childhood
is a history of child abuse, and that it is incest that has been universal,
not the incest taboo (see "The History
of Childhood As the History of Child Abuse"
). The rejection of the evidence for birth trauma and the lifelong
negative effects of the Western techno-pharmacological birth. The similar
rejection of the evidence of the lifelong negative effects of circumcision
and the unconscious role it plays in the creation of killers for the patristic
war machine (see Jeannine Parvati Baker’s article, "
Ending Circumcision: Where Sex and Violence First Meet
"). The rejection of the integration of the body and of Nature as
important on the spiritual path. And the continued widespread rejection
of feeling and passion, even in New Age groups, who often envision the new
consciousness, the new man/woman as akin to the emotionless, robot-like,
and deeply repressed or unspontaneous — like a Spock or a Data.
To the contrary, this
deeper wave of the New Age, this primal spirit is the child noticing and
expressing that the Emperor has no clothes when it turns out he is naked.
And finally — believe it or not — because it takes serious things so seriously
(at times), it is also able to "lighten up" in giddy absurdity and silliness
the rest of the time. (Hence, the name SSILLY God*.) Considering all
this — especially the passion and silliness — this component of the New Age
movement might be called (with deep respect and sympathetic silliness) the
Abbie Hoffman wave of the New Age. Certainly we are those who would
rather be the Yippies than the yuppies of the New Age.
The other thing we noticed
about the New Age movement was its tendency to group into factions, like religions.
There are separate publications for holotropic breathworkers, past-lives
and regression therapists, primalers, psychohistorians, rebirthers, humanistic
psychologists, pre- and perinatal psychologists, shamanism, yoga enthusiasts,
transpersonalists, new consciousness and new physics advocates, feminists,
pagans and wiccans, midwifes, and so on. And despite the fact that
all are to some extent aligned in that they seek to throw out an old and
now dangerous worldview and bring in a new consciousness conducive to harmony
with Nature and others, there is very little overlap in these publications.
In addition, we noticed
each faction promoting their own and denigrating closely aligned groups.
So we’d hear breathworkers scoffing at primalers, primalers putting down past-lives
therapists, psychohistorians repudiating the transpersonal or spiritual,
everybody putting down channellers and UFO theorists, and on and on and on!
This is hardly the way for a new-paradigm movement to act! We need
to stop thinking in terms of "us versus them" and instead think in terms
of alliances, win-win networking, and "we’re all in this together" ways.
This new-paradigm movement -- all factions of it -- needs to learn how to
walk its talk: It simply is not enough to talk about
"interconnectedness," "unity," "one
consciousness," and "win-win," -- to mention just a few -- while
one is greedily elbowing one's way into prominence and position.
To both of us — who’ve
been involved in political movements, with Mickel actually having had a successful
albeit short career as a political activist — this tendency in the consciousness-transformation
movement to factionalize strikes us as crass commercialism, sometimes as
greed, sometimes as evidence of denial and projection, and always as evidence
of old-paradigm, old-age, patriarchal "wolves" dressing up in new-paradigm/
New Age sheep’s clothing. Sometimes we feel the New Age movement should
"unionize"! . . . if it expects to have any real effect on the larger
world.
So seeing these
things
that add up to a void in the New Age movement — the utter lack of a
place
where deeply serious cathartic (and yet silly) elements of
consciousness-change can cross-fertilize with closely aligned
modalities, information,
resources, and viewpoints — led to the birth of the publication, Primal
Spirit Magazine, and to this more comprehensive website,
Primal Spirit,
of the same intent. At first we thought of this venture as a kind of
Whole Life Catalog of the Deeper Wave, with articles; it is already becoming
more than that. We hope you enjoy this site and that it enriches you;
and we invite your participation in it.
Live long and lighten up,
Mickel & Mary Lynn Adzema
Our Use of a Multimodal/
Multisensory Interface to Enhance the Educational and Pleasurable Aspects
of the Site.
Visitors can choose to scan the text, or to
chill out and wait for the full page to load so as to receive the
integrative experience intended.
WHY VISITORS MIGHT WANT TO
WAIT
PATIENTLY WHILE PAGES LOAD SLOWLY;
WHY THEY MIGHT LOAD SLOWLY THE FIRST TIME;
AND WHAT EXPERIMENT IN COMMUNICATION THE WEBMASTER OF THIS SITE IS
ENGAGING IN FOR YOUR BENEFIT,
AND HOW YOU MIGHT GET THE MOST ENJOYMENT FROM IT, OR AVOID IT IF
PRESENTLY NOT INCLINED FOR IT.
Visitors can choose to scan the text, or to
chill out and wait for the full page to load so as to receive the
integrative experience intended.
WHY VISITORS MIGHT WANT TO
WAIT
PATIENTLY WHILE PAGES LOAD SLOWLY;
WHY THEY MIGHT LOAD SLOWLY THE FIRST TIME;
AND WHAT EXPERIMENT IN COMMUNICATION THE WEBMASTER OF THIS SITE IS
ENGAGING IN FOR YOUR BENEFIT,
AND HOW YOU MIGHT GET THE MOST ENJOYMENT FROM IT, OR AVOID IT IF
PRESENTLY NOT INCLINED FOR IT.
On the one hand, even an broadband you may have
to wait up to and over five minutes for some pages to fully load -- you
can tell if it is still loading, e.g., a song that will play, by looking
to the lower left of your browser; it will tell you if and what might
still be loading.
Concerning
the Multimedia integrated into especially the more recent parts of
this website:
This
website was founded in 1997 - 12 years ago -- and the technology has
much changed. Now it is quite easy to offer video, audio, images and
graphics in creative ways, music...what's next? Used to be
just text and graphics, much like what you would find in a
book. It is not only easier to offer multimedia; it is even
cheap, most often costing nothing but the time and effort.
I come to this place in my thinking
after decades of observing and participating in the fruitless
conveyance of information by mere words alone.
Meanwhile, I have grown up in an
age that has presented information in more and more understandable
ways by including sound, sight, video of the thing itself -- most
obviously in movies, but also documentaries, TV news programs, and so on.
I have decided to bring my
knowledge of other ways of communicating -- having some background
in photography as well as my training in holotropic breathwork and
the use of sound -- certain kinds of music, or rhythms -- to effect
consciousness. Adding this to my interest in humor, comedy,
and farce as ways to make points which was one thing among many that
I learned about communicating/ conveying facts and perspectives/
showing falsity/ and ultimately hoping to raise consciousness of
people in ways that they would see more clearly and be more able to
see what their interests were, where they were being manipulated,
how they could further their ends and those of others like them and
not be patsies propagandized into undermining themselves.
So I do not know how many websites
are like this one; perhaps none; perhaps a lot.
For one thing this website's main goal is to educate. Education in
itself can relieve a lot of suffering; because untruths are often inflicted
to hurt, control, manipulate, or to take. Sometimes the
purpose of lying and misinformation is to keep people cowed and
afraid of change and also attached to strong patriarchal
protective symbols. So the goal here has been education, at
least for starters.
But this website is now different
in that I am employing all my ways of communicating and, with my eye
on presenting an integrative EXPERIENCE, which always results in a
deeper more comprehensive understanding of the communication than
mere words, especially if they are just written and contain none of
the author's tone, intent, passion, sadness, glee, or whatever...in
addition to the myriad subtleties we unconsciously pick up on when
we hear the actual author's voice along with the words.
So this website is already offering
this. People will have various opinions as to whether I am at
all successful or even helpful in attempting to convey
a multi-sensory, multimedia communication. I am doing this
consciously and my years of helping people in therapy I think give
me an edge as to what affects people and what messages they get from
various things. Still, I have no idea how well I will be able
to communicate to you with these things in play; I can only try.
I hope that people will give me
feedback on what works, what doesn't and why, and suggestions of
their own that I could try.
HOWEVER, AS THIS EXPERIMENT GOES
ON, THERE ARE A FEW TECHNICAL PROBLEMS AND A FEW THINGS TO
MAKE VISITORS AWARE OF TO AVOID UNNECESSARY CONFUSION OR
FRUSTRATION.
ONE: MANY OF THESE PAGES WILL
NEED FIVE OR MORE MINUTES TO FULLY LOAD FOR VARIOUS ASPECTS OF WHAT
IS INCLUDED IN THE PAGE TO BE FULLY LOADED INTO YOUR COMPUTER AND
TO BEGIN WORKING. BACKGROUND -- EVEN FOREGROUND --
MUSIC IS BEING USED LIBERALLY, IN AN INTEGRATIVE WAY, AND IT
REQUIRES TIME TO FULLY LOAD. YOU WILL NOT EVEN KNOW, MOST
OFTEN, WHAT MUSIC, WHAT MIX, WHAT SEQUENCE WILL BE
PLAYING. AND YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WAIT TO HEAR THE MUSIC OR
TO PARTICIPATE IN THE INTEGRATIVE EXPERIENCE THAT I
AM ATTEMPTING TO CONVEY. BUT IF YOU DO WISH TO TAKE IN
MORE THAN JUST THE TEXT AND EXPERIMENT ALONG WITH ME TO SEE
WHAT IT MIGHT BE LIKE FOR YOU, THEN YOU NEED TO KNOW TO
WAIT AND BE PATIENT. LOOK TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE OF
THE BROWSER AND IF IT SAYS THE PAGE IS STILL LOADING
SOMETHING, THEN YOU KNOW SOMETHING MORE IS COMING. MORE THAN
THAT, I AM HOPING TO PROVIDE THE BEST, MOST PLEASURABLE, AND
MOST LUXURIOUS LEARNING EXPERIENCE. I WOULD SUGGEST THAT YOU
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO OF THE COMMUNICATION (USUALLY THERE'S ONE), KEEP
AN EYE ON THE TEXT, KICK BACK AND LISTEN TO THE MUSIC MIX THAT I
HAVE CHOSEN TO AID THE MESSAGE -- INDEED LET YOURSELF FEEL
THE EXPERIENCE -- AS THAT IS THE MOST ENJOYABLE AND MOST
MEMORABLE. ALSO THERE MAY BE VIDEO PLAYERS TO PLAY WHEN YOU
CHOOSE TO, TO AUGMENT THE EXPERIENCE -- SEE IF THAT ADDS TO THE
EXPERIENCE. THERE MAY ALSO BE MUSIC PLAYERS WHERE YOU CAN
CHOOSE MUSIC OR JUST LISTEN TO WHAT COMES RANDOMLY. AND THERE
MAY BE WAYS IN WHICH YOU CAN CHOOSE TO REPLAY MUSIC THAT INITIALLY
PLAYED ON ITS OWN AT THE BEGINNING. THIS IS WHERE THE
INTERACTIVE PART COMES IN, BECAUSE EVERYTHING INCLUDING HUMOR,
MOVING AND STILL IMAGES, MUSIC AND THE SPOKEN WORD AND TEXT
FOR THE MOST PART ARE FOR YOU TO PICK, CHOOSE, MIX,
MATCH, JUGGLE, REJECT, WHATEVER YOU WISH THAT IS IN LINE WITH
YOUR INTENTION.
SO THIS IS WHAT I AM NOTIFYING THE
VISITORS OF THIS SITE FOR THE FIRST TIME. I HEARD THAT SOME
PEOPLE'S BROWSERS FROZE UP AND THEY HAD DIFFICULTY WITH SOME PAGES
BECAUSE OF THAT. I HAVE DONE SOMETHING TO CHANGE THAT.
BUT I WOULD APPRECIATE, AGAIN, FEEDBACK, IF SOMETHING IS NOT WORKING
CORRECTLY OR IS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.
I AM ALWAY REACHABLE AT mickel@primalspirit.com
I thank you for visiting; I know
you are hear to find out things that you do not know.
On the other hand, my intention is to bring here lots of things that
people would be better off knowing, but more than that, I WANT TO
GIVE YOU THE MOST ENJOYABLE, PLEASURABLE, TRANSFORMATIVE, AND
MEMORABLE/ EDUCATIONAL/ INSIGHTFUL EXPERIENCE THAT I CAN in helping
you to get what you want. I will do the best I can; and I will
need the reactions and impressions of others who try out what I am
offering, so that I can improve -- no doubt I can improve, who
can't? I do think that you will enjoy what I have arranged so far.
Thanks for reading this... I hope
you will choose to participate and even to give some feedback.
But in any case, I hope you will enjoy and benefit from my efforts.
SillyMickel Adzema
I
am pointing this out because I have had a long-standing involvement in
communication through the written and spoken word. I received
the majority of my official education largely through words -
text. Yet, as a primal therapist, I was well aware how even
people in the highest echelons of academia could not seem to hear
each other, and the discussions thus took on the qualities of monkey
poo-flinging. There was no attempt to find or discover truth
-- as in a Socratic dialogue -- rather people seemed to have
preconceived notions of the truth; thus their only attempt would be
to proselytize and influence -- using all kinds of slick and not so
slick rhetorical gambits -- and thus be seen as the
"winner." The champion poo-flinger.
Obviously
what was lacking was a status of non-attachment to the ends of a quest
into the true nature of anything. We see that this has become
a pattern that now takes over our country from Town Hall meetings to
Congress, as of the past summer and the past week.
In
primal terms, it became clear to me that education at the highest levels,
relying on written reports from flawed human beings, having biases
and preconceptions and smart enough to cover them up and even better
to convince oneself that they don't exist inside oneself.
Well, it didn't work; and I happened to be in a doctoral program in
psychological anthorpology at UC San Diego at a time when more and more
women and natives of cultures were doing ethnographies. The
startling and revolutionary upshot came about in the stark
realization that women and natives of cultures would produce vastly
different ethnographies about the same cultural or primatologogical elements
than had been produced for sometimes hundreds of years by men.
So
we not only see things vastly differently because of our different early
experiences, traumas, and the defenses and life agendas that arise
from them; but we also can interpret things in wildly disparate ways
depending upon whether we see through feminine or masculine eyes, or
whether we grew up in the culture or it was totally alien to
us.
The sad idea that dominated much of the bad ethnography and thus untruth
about what humans are like centered around such old-fashioned
notions as that a person completely unaware of a phenomenon can be
more "objective" - meaning see it more
accurately, clearly, more in lines with what could be expressed as
truthful than could a person who had intimate knowledge of a
phenomenon. Certainly we are biased by being close to a subject; but
total ignorance of the phenomenon is not better. Besides it lacks
the native's insight that can only come from total immersion and
produce insights so subtle that they could never be seen,
approached, or apprehended without years of intimate involvement in the
object of investigation.
WHY VISITORS MIGHT WANT TO
WAIT
PATIENTLY WHILE PAGES LOAD SLOWLY;
WHY THEY MIGHT LOAD SLOWLY THE FIRST TIME;
AND WHAT EXPERIMENT IN COMMUNICATION THE WEBMASTER OF THIS SITE IS
ENGAGING IN FOR YOUR BENEFIT,
AND HOW YOU MIGHT GET THE MOST ENJOYMENT FROM IT, OR AVOID IT IF
PRESENTLY NOT INCLINED FOR IT.
Concerning
the Multimedia integrated into especially the more recent parts of
this website:
This
website was founded in 1997 - 12 years ago -- and the technology has
much changed. Now it is quite easy to offer video, audio, images and
graphics in creative ways, music...what's next? Used to be
just text and graphics, much like what you would find in a
book. It is not only easier to offer multimedia; it is even
cheap, most often costing nothing but the time and effort.
I come to this place in my thinking
after decades of observing and participating in the fruitless
conveyance of information by mere words alone.
Meanwhile, I have grown up in an
age that has presented information in more and more understandable
ways by including sound, sight, video of the thing itself -- most
obviously in movies, but also documentaries, TV news programs, and so on.
I have decided to bring my
knowledge of other ways of communicating -- having some background
in photography as well as my training in holotropic breathwork and
the use of sound -- certain kinds of music, or rhythms -- to effect
consciousness. Adding this to my interest in humor, comedy,
and farce as ways to make points which was one thing among many that
I learned about communicating/ conveying facts and perspectives/
showing falsity/ and ultimately hoping to raise consciousness of
people in ways that they would see more clearly and be more able to
see what their interests were, where they were being manipulated,
how they could further their ends and those of others like them and
not be patsies propagandized into undermining themselves.
So I do not know how many websites
are like this one; perhaps none; perhaps a lot.
For one thing this website's main goal is to educate. Education in
itself can relieve a lot of suffering; because untruths are often inflicted
to hurt, control, manipulate, or to take. Sometimes the
purpose of lying and misinformation is to keep people cowed and
afraid of change and also attached to strong patriarchal
protective symbols. So the goal here has been education, at
least for starters.
But this website is now different
in that I am employing all my ways of communicating and, with my eye
on presenting an integrative EXPERIENCE, which always results in a
deeper more comprehensive understanding of the communication than
mere words, especially if they are just written and contain none of
the author's tone, intent, passion, sadness, glee, or whatever...in
addition to the myriad subtleties we unconsciously pick up on when
we hear the actual author's voice along with the words.
So this website is already offering
this. People will have various opinions as to whether I am at
all successful or even helpful in attempting to convey
a multi-sensory, multimedia communication. I am doing this
consciously and my years of helping people in therapy I think give
me an edge as to what affects people and what messages they get from
various things. Still, I have no idea how well I will be able
to communicate to you with these things in play; I can only try.
I hope that people will give me
feedback on what works, what doesn't and why, and suggestions of
their own that I could try.
HOWEVER, AS THIS EXPERIMENT GOES
ON, THERE ARE A FEW TECHNICAL PROBLEMS AND A FEW THINGS TO
MAKE VISITORS AWARE OF TO AVOID UNNECESSARY CONFUSION OR
FRUSTRATION.
ONE: MANY OF THESE PAGES WILL
NEED FIVE OR MORE MINUTES TO FULLY LOAD FOR VARIOUS ASPECTS OF WHAT
IS INCLUDED IN THE PAGE TO BE FULLY LOADED INTO YOUR COMPUTER AND
TO BEGIN WORKING. BACKGROUND -- EVEN FOREGROUND --
MUSIC IS BEING USED LIBERALLY, IN AN INTEGRATIVE WAY, AND IT
REQUIRES TIME TO FULLY LOAD. YOU WILL NOT EVEN KNOW, MOST
OFTEN, WHAT MUSIC, WHAT MIX, WHAT SEQUENCE WILL BE
PLAYING. AND YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WAIT TO HEAR THE MUSIC OR
TO PARTICIPATE IN THE INTEGRATIVE EXPERIENCE THAT I
AM ATTEMPTING TO CONVEY. BUT IF YOU DO WISH TO TAKE IN
MORE THAN JUST THE TEXT AND EXPERIMENT ALONG WITH ME TO SEE
WHAT IT MIGHT BE LIKE FOR YOU, THEN YOU NEED TO KNOW TO
WAIT AND BE PATIENT. LOOK TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE OF
THE BROWSER AND IF IT SAYS THE PAGE IS STILL LOADING
SOMETHING, THEN YOU KNOW SOMETHING MORE IS COMING. MORE THAN
THAT, I AM HOPING TO PROVIDE THE BEST, MOST PLEASURABLE, AND
MOST LUXURIOUS LEARNING EXPERIENCE. I WOULD SUGGEST THAT YOU
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO OF THE COMMUNICATION (USUALLY THERE'S ONE), KEEP
AN EYE ON THE TEXT, KICK BACK AND LISTEN TO THE MUSIC MIX THAT I
HAVE CHOSEN TO AID THE MESSAGE -- INDEED LET YOURSELF FEEL
THE EXPERIENCE -- AS THAT IS THE MOST ENJOYABLE AND MOST
MEMORABLE. ALSO THERE MAY BE VIDEO PLAYERS TO PLAY WHEN YOU
CHOOSE TO, TO AUGMENT THE EXPERIENCE -- SEE IF THAT ADDS TO THE
EXPERIENCE. THERE MAY ALSO BE MUSIC PLAYERS WHERE YOU CAN
CHOOSE MUSIC OR JUST LISTEN TO WHAT COMES RANDOMLY. AND THERE
MAY BE WAYS IN WHICH YOU CAN CHOOSE TO REPLAY MUSIC THAT INITIALLY
PLAYED ON ITS OWN AT THE BEGINNING. THIS IS WHERE THE
INTERACTIVE PART COMES IN, BECAUSE EVERYTHING INCLUDING HUMOR,
MOVING AND STILL IMAGES, MUSIC AND THE SPOKEN WORD AND TEXT
FOR THE MOST PART ARE FOR YOU TO PICK, CHOOSE, MIX,
MATCH, JUGGLE, REJECT, WHATEVER YOU WISH THAT IS IN LINE WITH
YOUR INTENTION.
SO THIS IS WHAT I AM NOTIFYING THE
VISITORS OF THIS SITE FOR THE FIRST TIME. I HEARD THAT SOME
PEOPLE'S BROWSERS FROZE UP AND THEY HAD DIFFICULTY WITH SOME PAGES
BECAUSE OF THAT. I HAVE DONE SOMETHING TO CHANGE THAT.
BUT I WOULD APPRECIATE, AGAIN, FEEDBACK, IF SOMETHING IS NOT WORKING
CORRECTLY OR IS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.
I AM ALWAY REACHABLE AT mickel@primalspirit.com
I thank you for visiting; I know
you are hear to find out things that you do not know.
On the other hand, my intention is to bring here lots of things that
people would be better off knowing, but more than that, I WANT TO
GIVE YOU THE MOST ENJOYABLE, PLEASURABLE, TRANSFORMATIVE, AND
MEMORABLE/ EDUCATIONAL/ INSIGHTFUL EXPERIENCE THAT I CAN in helping
you to get what you want. I will do the best I can; and I will
need the reactions and impressions of others who try out what I am
offering, so that I can improve -- no doubt I can improve, who
can't? I do think that you will enjoy what I have arranged so far.
Thanks for reading this... I hope
you will choose to participate and even to give some feedback.
But in any case, I hope you will enjoy and benefit from my efforts.
SillyMickel Adzema
I
am pointing this out because I have had a long-standing involvement in
communication through the written and spoken word. I received
the majority of my official education largely through words -
text. Yet, as a primal therapist, I was well aware how even
people in the highest echelons of academia could not seem to hear
each other, and the discussions thus took on the qualities of monkey
poo-flinging. There was no attempt to find or discover truth
-- as in a Socratic dialogue -- rather people seemed to have
preconceived notions of the truth; thus their only attempt would be
to proselytize and influence -- using all kinds of slick and not so
slick rhetorical gambits -- and thus be seen as the
"winner." The champion poo-flinger.
Obviously
what was lacking was a status of non-attachment to the ends of a quest
into the true nature of anything. We see that this has become
a pattern that now takes over our country from Town Hall meetings to
Congress, as of the past summer and the past week.
In
primal terms, it became clear to me that education at the highest levels,
relying on written reports from flawed human beings, having biases
and preconceptions and smart enough to cover them up and even better
to convince oneself that they don't exist inside oneself.
Well, it didn't work; and I happened to be in a doctoral program in
psychological anthorpology at UC San Diego at a time when more and more
women and natives of cultures were doing ethnographies. The
startling and revolutionary upshot came about in the stark
realization that women and natives of cultures would produce vastly
different ethnographies about the same cultural or primatologogical elements
than had been produced for sometimes hundreds of years by men.
So
we not only see things vastly differently because of our different early
experiences, traumas, and the defenses and life agendas that arise
from them; but we also can interpret things in wildly disparate ways
depending upon whether we see through feminine or masculine eyes, or
whether we grew up in the culture or it was totally alien to
us.
The sad idea that dominated much of the bad ethnography and thus untruth
about what humans are like centered around such old-fashioned
notions as that a person completely unaware of a phenomenon can be
more "objective" - meaning see it more
accurately, clearly, more in lines with what could be expressed as
truthful than could a person who had intimate knowledge of a
phenomenon. Certainly we are biased by being close to a subject; but
total ignorance of the phenomenon is not better. Besides it lacks
the native's insight that can only come from total immersion and
produce insights so subtle that they could never be seen,
approached, or apprehended without years of intimate involvement in the
object of investigation.
Primal Spirit Bookstore (Books, CDs, Videos ... )
This Site Awarded:
**
"SSILLY God" -- SSILLY God Ventures is the business name behind Primal
Spirit, the website, its publications -- including the publication of Primal
Renaissance journal and Primal
Spirit magazine, and of the book, Primal
Renaissance: The Emerging Millennial Return -- and its book and other
sales. The name is an acronym --> Silly Sensitives
In Love with Life and Yearning for God are
behind this Venture which brings you this website and the publications
and other ventures mentioned. [return to text]
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