Actual connections
In the article Junifyh’s philosophy, I have outlined the roots from a trunk, symbolizing this article. The trunk represents a fulcrum in working with individuals, which I call Transformational Psychology. Today’s article deals more with technical answers to the questions of what Transformational Psychology means and what is its practical attitude. It is a working approach to interacting with human beings who live in a specific time that has its challenges, necessities and needs for our humanity. In the time of our system, characterized by performance, earnings, and somehow even an imitation for life. This system creates vending machines of us, and subsequently we become living corpses for the production of other vending machines. This is all measured by economic growth as a result of exploiting and killing our planet. This system no longer makes sense for more sensitive people. This system is obviously destructive and leads us to our own apocalypse. It’s all widely and visibly clear to the more observant individual. This common path is not new to us. Every previous civilization fell at their top so is our collective fall occurring. Now look for a meaning in that! It is foolish to look for something meaningful in that which is dying, and yet we live in it every day. For a long time, civilized man has been looking for solutions to our enormous problems, and yet few realize that the biggest problem on the planet is man himself. Solutions are being sought anywhere outside, and so practically everything is being solved like that across the board. Looking for answers in the wrong places is what characterizes this dead system. And what is dead is soulless. It leads nowhere and only makes things worse. This is how we have lived as humanity for several hundred years. It has been for so long, that we are afraid to admit it, so we rather deny it. We especially ignore that our major problem is hidden individual ignorance – in which lies the solution. On the contrary, this path to the solution is alive and at the same time mostly overlooked. Seek inner freedom. This includes freedom from the system and the given laws of nature. Freedom from everything that rules and controls our ignorance. Freedom to become ourselves and freeing ourselves from robotic life. Such work must always be individual and autonomous. It’s difficult and painful, but at the same time this path heals and mainly opens the heart, a heart that hurts when it is closed.
The article contains my own experiences and proceeds towards my heart. There are also passages from my master and his master, who are “Pjér la Šé’z” and “Carl Gustav Jung”. I dare to say the following lines break a wide range of prejudices about psychology. For example, one prejudice is that only fools who do not know what to do with their lives go to psychologists. I am convinced of quite the opposite, however, and this is also outlined in four parts:
1, The importance of transformation and psychology
2, Work with consciousness and unconscious
3, Conscious, open dialogue
4, Analysis
1, The importance of transformation and psychology
Transformation
“Transformation is a certain technical means by which we can lead to individualization. Individuation would be a deeper, more complex process. Transformation is a partial step towards it”1
The basic spiritual law is progress, development, growth. It is also an expression of evolution. The American Indian lived and lives accordingly. His or her life is a reflection of the laws of the universe. He or she knows that the main purpose is to approach the creator deity. He or she goes so deep as to perceive all the manifestation of the spirit as a teacher. Enriched by the experience the creator has brought to him, he can enjoy life as much as he can endure suffering. Everything including suffering belongs to the manifestations of the spirit. While the white person rejects bitter obstacles, the American Indian perceives such disturbances with respect, and as the greatest master. He or she transforms through the pleasant, as well as through the unpleasant situations. He or she integrates them and thus grows.
If we know that life is a teacher, we welcome any experience. Then we do not worry about transformation, because we live it. In this case, any experience enriches our consciousness, character and therefore our humanity. This is what transformation is characterized by – accepting, learning, and so developing spiritually.
Change is another cosmic law that flows through this world. It is also part of us. If we are steady and unchanged, we are against life, and so resemble corpses. If we are stuck in our opinions, beliefs, attitudes for a really long time, then life does not flow through us. Following this often comes obstacles in the form of harsh diseases, which are just a creation of our ignorance. Obstacles can occur in relationships, at work, in socialization and in many other areas. They are something that takes us back to the same situations. An obstacle is a problem, a challenge, an illness – anything that limits us to a certain extent. Paradoxically, its property is also invigorating. It brings us a boost. With it comes an effort for change. It points out where to gain greater awareness. If the obstacle taught us what it was meant to teach, then its mission is heard and may disappear. If the experience is integrated, it becomes part of our conscious experience. This opens the way out of a vicious cycle. Along with this conscious awareness of the present, we begin to understand more about the situations in which we have found ourselves. We understand more about ourselves and our surroundings. This is then followed by other, more conscious behaviour, bringing other, but also possible enjoyable, challenges.
But if we ignore that obstacle, it pulls us down. Such ignorance reveals that the life situation lacks self-reflection. The manifestation is helplessness growing inside, and often we are not even aware of it. It could also be said that we choose not to know. Problems naturally intensify in strength, making themselves known more and more. If we still fail to pay attention to them, then the obstacles ultimately crash over us. It unknowingly causes us diseases such as cancer or any type of self-destruction. If we do not demonstrate self-reflection and do not listen to our obstacles, then it is likely that our destiny will lead through much greater suffering than it was at the beginning when the obstacle appeared. Continuing to ignore it consistently increases the intensification of negation, destroying and leading one to become an empty being, in which man does the most desperate deeds.
Transformation can only occur if we are endowed with self-reflection. Then comes the process of change through which one must integrate the obstacle. How much we benefit from that challenge is up to us, and we can proceed to individualization. This a process that forces us to think about the spiritual side of life, if we are willing. Where our steps lead depends on the degree of self-reflection, as well as how large this obstacle appears to be. The more dramatic the life situation, the more we are pushed into deeper, unknown aspects of ourselves. In this case, self-reflection is a gateway to the unknown, which deepens and expands personal consciousness of the unconscious, or even establishes a relationship with the collective unconscious.
In the case of individuation, we cease to be less involved in micro-managing our life situations, and are more interested in living life more freely. Example – we no longer deal with financial concerns as much, because we have already found ourselves in this area, and we are more interested in what we enjoy and in what fulfills us (often subconsciously). I added a passage in the next section called “Working with Consciousness and the Unconscious.”
Psychology
This section could be expanded into an entire book. But I will focus on a basic view, and will include my personal experience, since a decisive factor determining how a person practices psychology is based on how he perceives psychology.
As a science field, psychology deals with many issues and can expand into various directions. There are many who work in the field of psychology, and at the same time their focuses are very different. From the beginning, when I started practicing psychology, I had problems with my direction and specialization. I suffered from insecurity in every conversation with people who had their specialty. Their words were supported by certainty and stood on the foundations of the methods they were using. Even though I was an accredited coach, that word “coaching” always troubled me. So when somebody would ask me what I am doing, my answer was: “I work with anyone who is looking for a change.” Synchronicity was throwing me into these situations more and more until I realized after a long time of suffering that my insecurity could actually be solved very simply. The ubiquitous meaning of the word psychology comes from the Greek word psyche meaning soul or spirit, and from logia meaning science. So it is the study of that which deals with the soul. And the soul equates with life. Thus came my answer in the question: “How else does one study life, except through individuality?” After all, the soul in this case specifies the personal. A person itself is a science, a miracle, a mystery, a method, a universe. We as individuals are a “basic” unit of the universe. We have everything already inside us. Questions, answers, sorrows, happiness, life. So why reduce psychology to methods and specialization, when man himself is all that? This discovery of human essence is the deepest and simplest foundation that satisfies and makes sense to me. When this foundation is set, we can go in many directions from here. One may argue that methods are beneficial, and they certainly are, but only in certain cases. And they are not everything – not even close! A method is only a form and each form is limiting. Man has no limits unless one succumbs to a form. Looking for form is like looking for a guide. In some cases it will help, but depending on the guide, it will inhibit us and degrade us to unilateral action.
If we point it out simply, then what I find genuinely in myself is also a method, but it does not have the character of a form. It is more flexible, more natural, It flows with life itself and thus flows with change. The psyche has a divine spark and it cannot be bound by form. If we give space to a free being, then it flows in harmony and naturally. Psyche is the most real being because it is what is initial. So everything occurs in the psyche. This psyche divides C.G. Jung primarily to consciousness and the unconscious.
2, Working with consciousness and the unconscious
I will not address what the concepts of consciousness and the unconscious represent. I just want to describe how these two types of consciousness relate and are complementary. I hope to show how beneficial it is to work with both of these entities.
The core of an apple determines what it is on the outside. Analogously, this applies to man. This core can be called the unconscious. It is primary and subsequently consciousness grows from it. A dream corresponds to that. A person’s subconscious dream tells much more about his life than a conscious mind which tends to wander in its own imagination. Experience shows that with the unconscious – the core – the average person has little, if any contact.
The average person often rejects the idea of the unconscious. This is typical and he has a right to do so, but that does not change the fact that 98% of his psyche is unconscious, as are 98% of the bodily processes also happening within the body, unseen to oneself. And yet, if one admits the idea that the unconscious exists, it does not guarantee that he or she has any relationship with that subject. Collectively, we deny this fact and thus move away from our true home. If a person has displaced and masked his core with ego, how can he make contact with it? How to work with a person who lacks contact with his core?
Dreams are a wonderful way to listen to one’s essence – the core. Synchronicity is also a tremendous path, but that way is very unknown to many. If we move and live only in the gray cortex, then the core and its manifestations are foreign to us. Therefore, it is necessary to relativize and silence the ego that has us in control. I boldly say that only when one connects these two subjects within – that is, the unconscious core and one’s conscious mind – that only then can one be really, truly happy. It is completely logical, because the core is our true essence. It forms our being. The traditional way of life leads man to the core. The modern way resides exclusively on the surface – in its consciousness. Following will be a comparison that gives an explanation.
A civilized man is afraid of death because he does not know that he is an immortal being. The American Indian is not afraid of death. He is afraid of losing his soul.
A civilized person starts solving his life issues with someone when he is really at the bottom. He goes to the doctor who gives him something to calm him down, so that he can return to his reformer pattern of life as a member of the pyramid process, so that he can continue with the production of other pyramids. The Native Indian goes to a Shaman when he does not feel happy.
I see a huge gap here. The civilized man follows the values of people who are at the top of the pyramid and are actually empty inside. Some will be offended by this theory and say it is preposterous, but to others it may be very clear that our civilized society truly does lack spiritually. Our whole world is collapsing, and probably the only way out is to reopen the Inner – Traditional – Familiar – Necessary – Spiritual – American Indian way.
3, Conscious, open dialogue
My liberation from seeking a psychological specialization was paradoxical, and so I was not looking for any method, just simply trying to study the human soul. Dialogue has been the most useful and basic means to this. More precisely, an open dialogue has led me to a discovery of the soul, and its characteristics I have divided into three points. These are impartiality, listening and partnership. I do not break them down in this section, because they are already included here – Open dialogue.
4, Analysis
In order for the analysis to begin at all, a client must show self-reflection on his own. Otherwise it is useless work, and probably a person without reflection can not even come to someone to seek answers for his problems. In my experience I have not met with any client in analysis with zero reflection.
An analysis is based on the relationship of two human beings – in other words, the relationship between the analytic and the analysand. I hope readers forgive me, but I do not prefer the word client. I will therefore use the term for a competent person as the analytic, and for a client, the analysand, to better orient the reader in the following context. These terms come from C. G. Jung. They are simply an indication to clarify who is who, and how both contribute to change. It helps describe where their boundaries, competencies, and roles are on a most general level.
This relationship is of profound significance. They meet with the intention of creating the real change. This real change could be described in many ways. For example – open oneself to the unknown, open oneself and thus go through an obstacle, see one’s bias, overcome fear, forgive, leave, etc.
Good analysis connects the analysand with himself. It connects him with the parts of himself that teach him, leading to real changes. To do this, it is necessary to deepen the knowledge of the analysand and draw on the situation he is experiencing, in order to become more holistic and thus freer. The final work is over when the analysand feels that he will be enough on his own. Then the analytic can continue to act as something of a tuner. He is no longer the main fulcrum. Taking example from the American Indian, he seeks mere direction and not one person that he needs to lean on forever.
It is important to realize no one else can decide on our spiritual state but ourselves. No psychologist, either doctor or anyone else, has power over us unless we give it to them. These professionals should only be used to help one stand on one’s own two feet.
Practically, I divide the analysis into three main points, which are interconnected and not necessarily linearly consecutive. This means that they intertwine, change positions and complement each other.
A preview
A preview is a space where the analytic and analysand explore the situation that the analysand is experiencing, the aspects of life in which he lives. These aspects are so broad and individual that I will not go into specifications. In any case, the analytic should have some experience with what the analysand is going through, or if he has no idea, be open to what is new and admit that he does not know. This is the only guarantee that they will study impartially together what the experience is. Only in this way they can go through a new, unexplored world together. At the same time, if the analytic feels that the exploration is beyond his competence, he should admit it. In the beginning, the journey is demanding, almost impossible labour. I was helped to do this by working with Pjér, with whom I continue to analyze my practice. This is a huge privilege for me, and I greatly appreciate the input. Because if there is a situation in which analytic lacks some supporting context and there is an authority behind him who knows what is going on. It helps to orientate much faster and helps to focus to the right direction. I mention this because working in personal development is not only enriching for the analysand, but also for the analytic! But that requires sincerity and humbleness.
A decision is the next step that the analysand must take on his own if he is ready. A decision precedes practically any analysis, because the decision to solve your world with another person is entirely up to you. In general, the decision is an intimate, difficult step that occurs at the beginning of any change. Although it was challenging, after prolonged work, one can also paradoxically conclude that the whole process was merely banality. The decision supports a new world and possibilities. Every step in our lives is preceded by a decision, and the step is easier when we know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. There are different directions to take in the analysis and it is ultimately an exciting journey if the analysand persists, which is our next point.
Perseverance over time causes other subconscious actions. Every human consciousness mediates somewhere. This consciousness has its natural tendencies. For example it likes to stay in its known world and trapped in its own one-sidedness. It has certain well-established attitudes, such as beliefs, faith, etc. These well-established processes are easier to recognize when these attitudes receive feedback – a view, possibilities about which the analysand did not know. Perseverance over time causes other subconscious actions.
Decision as well as perseverance are tasks of the analysand and no one else. It causes the analysand to take the responsibility, to man the rudder of his own life, and if he is consistent, he is guaranteed any of his own required change. All this is supported by the presence of the analytic, so that they can both grow together on many levels. If the analysand cannot make a change, despite understanding where he is and why, then they work through insights into other contexts and deepen the analysand’s experience.