Carl Jung – Page 2 – Time is Art

What Carl Jung Learned from his Near Death Experience

on March 7, 2016March 7, 2016 By Katy Walker Mejia 10 Comments

red book, carl jung, time is art — Still from ‘Time is Art’

On 11 February 1944, the 68-year-old Carl Gustav Jung – then the world’s most renowned living psychologist – slipped on some ice and broke his fibula. Ten days later, in hospital, he suffered a myocardial infarction caused by embolisms from his immobilised leg. Treated with oxygen and camphor, he lost consciousness and had what seems to have been a near-death and out-of-the-body experience – or, depending on your perspective, delirium. He found himself floating 1,000 miles above the Earth. Seas and continents shimmered in blue light and Jung could make out the Arabian desert and snow-tipped Himalayas. He felt he was about to leave orbit, but then, turning to the south, a huge black monolith came into view. It was a kind of temple, and at the entrance Jung saw a Hindu sitting in a lotus position. Within, innumerable candles flickered, and he felt that the “whole phantasmagoria of earthly existence” was being stripped away.

It wasn’t pleasant, and what remained was an “essential Jung”, the core of his experiences.   He knew that inside the temple the mystery of his existence, of his purpose in life, would be answered. He was about to cross the threshold when he saw, rising up from Europe far below, the image of his doctor in the archetypal form of the King of Kos, the island site of the temple of Asclepius, Greek god of medicine. He told Jung that his departure was premature; many were demanding his return and he, the King, was there to ferry him back. When Jung heard this, he was immensely disappointed, and almost immediately the vision ended. He experienced the reluctance to live that many who have been ‘brought back’ encounter, but what troubled him most was seeing his doctor in his archetypal form. He knew this meant that the physician had sacrificed his own life to save Jung’s. On 4 April 1944 – a date numerologists can delight in – Jung sat up in bed for the first time since his heart attack. On the same day, his doctor came down with septicæmia and took to his bed. He never left it, and died a few days later.

Apparently Jung also witnessed his doctor’s astral body leave this world for the next. It’s no coincidence that writer, Jennifer Palmer, the central figure and narrator in the documentary film, ‘Time is Art‘, also experienced the feeling that her aunt’s astral body or spirit had left the room after she passed. This supernatural experience opened her heart and mind to the metaphysical world and caused her to experience profound synchronicities.

Here is Jung’s account in his own words.

“The images were so tremendous that I myself concluded that I was close to death. My nurse afterward told me, “It was as if you were surrounded by a bright glow.” That was a phenomenon she had sometimes observed in the dying. . . .

It seems to me that I was high up in space. Far below I saw the globe of the earth, bathed in a gloriously blue light. I saw the deep blue sea and the continents. Far below my feet lay Ceylon, and in the distance ahead of me the subcontinent of India. . . . Far away to the left lay a broad expanse – the reddish-yellow desert of Arabia. . . . I could also see the snow-covered Himalayas, but in that direction it was foggy and cloudy. . . . I knew that I was on the point of departing from the earth. Later I discovered how high in space one would have to be to have so extensive a view – approximately a thousand miles! The sight of the earth from this height was the most glorious thing I had ever seen. . . .

I had the feeling that everything was being sloughed away; everything I aimed at or wished for or thought, the whole phantasmagoria of earthly existence fell away or was stripped from me – an extremely painful process. Nevertheless something remained; it was as if I now carried along with me everything I had ever experienced or done. . . . I might also say; it was with me, and I was it. . . . I consisted of my own history, and I felt with great certainty: this is what I am. . . . I believed I would at last understand – this too was a certainty – what historical nexus I or my life fitted into. I would know what had been before me, why I had come into being, and where my life was flowing. . . . My life seemed to have been snipped out of a long chain of events, and many questions had remained unanswered. Why had it taken this course? Why had I brought into earth life these particular assumptions with me? What had I made of them? What will follow? I felt sure that I would receive an answer to all these questions. . . .

While I was thinking over these matters, something happened that caught my attention. From below, from the direction of Europe, an image floated up. It was my doctor Dr. H. – or, rather his likeness – framed by a golden chain or a golden laurel wreath. I knew at once: “Aha, this is my doctor, of course, the one who has been treating me. But now he is coming in his primal form. . . . . In life he was . . . the temporal embodiment of the primal form, which has existed from the beginning. Now he is appearing in that primal form.”

Presumably I too was in my primal form, though this was something I did not observe but simply took for granted. As he stood before me, a mute exchange of thought took place between us. Dr. H. had been delegated by the earth to deliver a message to me, to tell me that there was a protest against my going away. I had no right to leave the earth and must return. The moment I heard that, the vision ceased. . . .

I was profoundly disappointed, for now. . . . The painful process of defoliation had been in vain. . . . Disappointed, I thought, “Now I must return to the ‘box system’ again.” For it seemed to me as if behind the horizon of the cosmos a three-dimensional world had been artificially built up, in which each person sat by himself in a little box. And now I should have to convince myself all over again that this was important! Life and the whole world struck me as a prison, and it bothered me beyond measure that I should again be finding that quite in order. I had been so glad to shed it all, and now it had come about that I – along with everyone else – would again be hung up in a box by a thread. . . .

It was only after the illness that I understood how important it is to affirm one’s own destiny. In this way we forge an ego that does not break down when incomprehensible things happen; an ego that endures, that endures the truth, and that is capable of coping with the world and with fate. . . . Nothing is disturbed – neither inwardly nor outwardly, for one’s own continuity has withstood the current of life and of time.”
– Carl Jung

‘Time is Art’ screens Wednesday, March 9th
7:30 pm at the Buffalo, NY C.G. Jung Center
Followed by a discussion by Professor Paul Kochmanski, M.A.
408 Franklin Street, side entrance
Tickets via www.apswny.com

Five Ways Jung Led Us to the “Inner Life”

on January 13, 2016January 13, 2016 By Katy Walker Mejia 1 Comment

by Gary S. Bobroff via The Mind Unleashed

Lying behind much of the way we talk about the inner life today is the work of the Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung. He revolutionized how we discuss dreams and archetypes and gave us our words “introvert,” “extravert” and “synchronicity.” However, what made him a true psychological pioneer was that he looked inside himself in a way that is still unique today.

#1) Dreams

From earliest beginnings of human civilization, we have considered dreams a doorway to the soul. Jung saw that they showed us parts of ourselves that were being rejected by our waking consciousness: strengths unexpressed and shadow figures run amok; qualities that we were missing about ourselves; and desires that we’d rather not acknowledge. The mission of dreams was to balance us, to compensate for our often one-sided attitude toward life and lead us to integrate what we need for health and growth. We know today that dreams can have messages for us that are not only psychologically relevant, but even biologically urgent, relaying information about illness. Jung introduced the term “wholeness” to describe the aim of the unconscious: the further filling out of ourselves; an increasing completeness in the unique being that we are.

#2) Personality Types

Jung saw the differing pathways in our personalities. He observed that some people got energy from interacting with people, while others were drained by it. Introvert or extravert, intuitive or sensate, thinking or feeling; he described these differing forms as Psychological Types and they led to today’s MBTI categories. In normalizing different kinds of personality, Jung helped us to get over our natural biases against other types.

While he recognized variety in human personality, Jung believed that there was no one-size-fits-all approach to therapy. He saw each individual as having a unique blueprint for growth, an untold inner story, and he knew – from his own experience – that one man’s medicine is another’s poison.

“The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.” – C. G. Jung

#3) Archetypes

Jung also saw that the unconscious sometimes conveys information beyond the personal. He saw that the dreams of his patients sometimes echoed mythological motifs from far-flung foreign cultures. He saw the action of peoples’ lives following forms depicted in Greek tragedy. He discovered ancient, even timeless, pathways that energy flowed into: toward some things and away from others, attracted to some things, repulsed by others. This level of the psyche is beyond the personal and Jung called it the collective unconscious.

“I thought of Jung as a noetic archeologist, [he] provided maps of the unconscious.” – Terence McKenna

The collective unconscious shows us eternal, dynamic qualities in our nature: they are alive and timeless. One of these archetypes is our inner opposite sex figure and soul guide–what Jung called the Anima or Animus. We encounter it both in our dreams and when just the right person walks up to us and we fall in love at first sight. Even though we experience this figure through others, but it is ultimately up to us to integrate it for ourselves.

Once we’ve learned to recognize these archetypes, we see them throughout classic literature and film and even in modern sitcoms. However, we may not really discover them for ourselves until we’ve been battered and bruised and are wondering how we got into this mess (again). Usually we need a little help to gain sight of these figures in our own lives.

“You don’t see something until you have the right metaphor to let you perceive it.” – Robert Stetson Shaw

#4) Synchronicity

Jung’s psychology is only really understood when it is a lived experience, and nothing exemplifies this more than the mystery of synchronicity. Jung coined the term synchronicity to refer to extraordinary moments when outer happenings reflect inner states. What we see in such a coincidence of events is a meaningful interplay alive in our reality. The notion that there’s a deeper principle actually operating in the world can be frightening to people from a culture that believes that it’s the only conscious force in the universe. Yet at the same time, discovering that there’s more going on can be experienced as a profound relief. In order to get through our resistance to such experiences, it helps to hear others’ stories and share our own (and you can do so here). Incorporating the meaning of these experiences for ourselves requires something authentic from us – a real inner change, the genuine achievement of a new attitude.

“It is addressing life in the present that cleanses and heals a festering wound. Jung never tired of saying this. After the past is explored, additional inquiry into yesterday does not lead to further healing. A change of attitude into the present does, and this change of attitude is exactly the business of a synchronicity.” – J. Gary Sparks, At The Heart of Matter

#5) Our Inner Life is Real

Tending to the unconscious, to dreams and to the inner voice are the acts that define Jungian psychology, but it’s not just the act that’s definitive, it’s the attitude. Jungian psychology recognizes that we’re more than just our ego and that there is more to the psyche than just the conscious mind. With this in mind, engagement with the inner voice is pursued not as a form of inner housekeeping, but rather in the humble service of the development of a relationship with an intelligence present within us but greater than our own. Committing to that service means relating more deeply to our inner nature; its only end-goal is the whole-bodied, whole-hearted, full blossoming of who we really are.

Is the Modern Psyche Undergoing a Rite of Passage?

on January 6, 2016January 6, 2016 By Katy Walker Mejia 1 Comment

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By Richard Tarnas

“A mood of universal destruction and renewal…has set its mark on our age. This mood makes itself felt everywhere, politically, socially, and philosophically. We are living in what the Greeks called the kairos – the right momentfor a “metamorphosis of the gods,” of the fundamental principles and symbols. This peculiarity of our time, which is certainly not of our conscious choosing, is the expression of the unconscious human within us who is changing. Coming generations will have to take account of this momentous transformation if humanity is not to destroy itself through the might of its own technology and science….So much is at stake and so much depends on the psychological constitution of the modern human.” – C. G. Jung

What are the deep stirrings in the collective psyche of the West? Can we discern any larger patterns in the immensely complex and seemingly chaotic flux and flow of our age? Influenced by the depth psychology tradition founded a century ago by Freud and Jung, and especially since the 1960s and the radical increase in psychological selfconsciousness that era helped mediate, the cultural ethos of recent decades has made us well aware how important is the psychological task of understanding our personal histories. We have sought ever deeper insight into our individual biographies, seeking to recover the often hidden sources of our present condition, to render conscious those unconscious forces and complexes that shape our lives. Many now recognize that same task as critical for our entire civilization.

What individuals and psychologists have long been doing has now become the collective responsibility of our culture: to make the unconscious conscious. And for a civilization, to a crucial extent, history is the great unconscioushistory not so much as the external chronology of political and military milestones, but as the interior history of a civilization: that unfolding drama evidenced in a culture’s evolving cosmology, its philosophy and science, its religious consciousness, its art, its myths. For us to participate fully and creatively in shaping our future, we need to better understand the underlying patterns and influences of our collective past. Only then can we begin to grasp what forces move within us today, and perhaps glimpse what may be emerging on the new millennial horizon.

I focus my discussion here on the West, but not out of any triumphalist presumption that the West is somehow intrinsically superior to other civilizations and thus most worthy of our attention. I do so rather because it is the West that has brought forth the political, technological, intellectual, and spiritual currents that have been most decisive in constellating the contemporary world situation in all its problematic complexity. For better or worse, the character of the West has had a global impact, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Yet I also address the historical evolution of Western consciousness because, for most of us reading these words, this development represents our own tradition, our legacy, our ancestral cultural matrix. Attending carefully and critically to this tradition fulfills a certain responsibility to the past, to our ancestors, just as attempting to understand its deeper implications fulfills a responsibility to the future, to our children.

A paradox confronts every sensitive observer about the West: On the one hand, we cannot fail to recognize a certain dynamism, a brilliant, heroic impulse, even a nobility, at work in Western civilization and in Western thought. We see this in the great achievements of Greek philosophy and art, for example, or in the Sistine Chapel and other Renaissance masterpieces, in the plays of Shakespeare, in the music of Bach or Beethoven. We see it in the brilliance of the Copernican revolution, with the tremendous cosmological and even metaphysical transformation it has wrought in our civilization’s world view. We see it in the unprecedented space flights of a generation ago, landing men on the moon, or, more recently, in the spectacular images of the vast cosmos coming from the Hubbell telescope and the new data and new perspectives these images have brought forth. And of course the great democratic revolutions of modernity, and the powerful emancipatory movements of our own era, vividly reflect this extraordinary dynamism and even nobility of the West.

Yet at the same time we are forced to admit that this very same historical tradition has caused immense suffering and loss, for many other cultures and peoples, for many people within Western culture itself, and for many other forms of life on the planet. Moreover, the West has played the central role in bringing about a subtly growing and seemingly inexorable crisis on our planet, a crisis of multidimensional complexity: ecological, political, social, economic, intellectual, psychological, spiritual. To say our global civilization is becoming dysfunctional scarcely conveys the gravity of the situation. For humankind and the planet, we face the possibility of great catastrophe. For many forms of life on the Earth, that catastrophe has already taken place. How can we make sense of this tremendous paradox in the character and meaning of the West?

If we examine many of the intellectual and cultural debates of our time, particularly near the epicenter of the major paradigm battles today, it is possible to see looming behind them two fundamental interpretations, two archetypal stories or metanarratives, concerning the evolution of human consciousness and the history of the Western mind. In essence these two metanarratives reflect two deep myths in the collective psycheand let us define myths here not as mere falsehoods, nor as collective fantasies of an arbitrary sort, but rather as profound and enduring patterns of meaning that inform the human psyche and constellate its diverse realities. These two great myths in the collective psyche structure our historical selfunderstanding in very different ways. One could be called the myth of progress, the other the myth of the fall.

Synchronicity Means Seeing A Heart-Shaped World

on September 16, 2015September 16, 2015 By Katy Walker Mejia 2 Comments

by Gary S. Bobroff via TheMindUnleashed.com

“Where love rules there is no will to power.” – C. G. Jung

You notice a funny thing when you look at the evidence for the extension of consciousness–the mind operating beyond the body: the presence of feeling. Throughout the results of scientific experiments with people and animals looking at telepathy or other similar phenomenon, emotion is a discernible quality.

The Evidence Highlights Emotion

Biologist Rupert Sheldrake (who loves designing scientific experiments to challenge the skeptical prejudices of his colleagues) has shown: that some dogs do know when their owners are coming home and demonstrate it on video; that people can feel when being stared at 60% of the time (watch the discussion with Morgan Freeman here); that telephone telepathy, knowing who’s calling, happens more often with people we’re emotionally close to (here); that family members demonstrate above average ability at card-guessing with each other, and that twins are best at it–and ironically those who don’t believe it’s possible score below average!

Throughout each of these, emotion plays a role: dogs are emotionally connected to their owners and excited for their return, we feel creeped out by being stared at, and people that are close emotionally are far more likely to have an experience of consciousness as a shared field.

Feelings in Synchronicity

Both Sheldrake and the pioneering Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung noticed the statistical reality of ‘beginner’s luck’ and that with the loss of emotion came a change of luck: “a certain affective condition seems to be indispensable.” And as with beginner’s luck, feeling (whether it is conscious or unconscious) also seems to be an indispensable condition for synchronicity. Synchronicities are moments where outer events and inner states come together in meaningful parallels that are too explicit to explain away: we were just talking about someone and they call us; we break up with someone and we run into them all over town; we feel it in our heart when someone we love needs us, or is in danger; and visions of a relative who just has passed away are surprisingly common. So often at the center of those experiences is a big wad of authentic bodily–experienced feelings: love, hate, care, yearning, longing, wanting, wanting to protect. Our heartstrings seem to be the pathways that draw these experiences into our lives.

How can we understand the presence of emotion in the mystery of the extension of consciousness? To do so means radically reconsidering the way we understand our world; it might mean having to give up what you think you know. Our culture teaches us to pride ourselves on always having the right answers and leaves us ill-prepared for handling something that challenges us entirely. But previous cultures were able to consciously recognize this quality of the world and they designed whole systems of living around them.

To the culture in ancient China that produced the I Ching and the philosophy of Taoism, the world was a field in which our sincerity and inner state was tied in with the flow of events in the outer world. Taoism means “the way,” “the way of Nature,” and to this culture, synchronicity was an obviously present reality. They knew for themselves that by reflecting and working with our inner emotional truth, we became better able to move with the Nature’s flow.

“The art of life is more like navigation than warfare, for what is important is to understand the winds, the tides, the currents, the seasons, and the principles of growth and decay, so that one’s actions may use them and not fight them.”
– Alan Watts

Today our culture can consciously recognize this force. But it requires breaking through the overly-Masculine bias in us that has us reflexively seeing the world as a collection of objects, rather than as a “communion of subjects” (Thomas Berry). Synchronicity means that sometimes the world is the subject and we are the object. The Chinese saw this inter-subjectivity as living in Nature and the world as a balance of Yin and Yang, Feminine and Masculine and the metaphor of the sacred marriage is an especially appropriate one for our time. Today our dried-out, over-rational and too-linear Masculine consciousness is being winked at by something mysterious, curving and purposive–a force responding to our feeling connections with each other and breathing new meaning into our leaves. This archetypally Feminine energy is a mystery to us because we’re used to seeing the world through a Masculine lens of over-simplifications:

“As a rule the specialist’s is a purely masculine mind, an intellect to which fecundity is an alien and unnatural process; it is therefore an especially ill-adapted tool for giving rebirth to a foreign spirit. But a larger mind bears the stamp of the feminine; it is endowed with a receptive and fruitful womb which can reshape what is strange and give it a familiar form.”

– C. G. Jung, Introduction to The Secret of the Golden Flower

Synchronicity calls us to exercise the “fruitful womb” inside ourselves: to hold such experiences in our mind is one thing, to hold them in our heart is something else. In this way, it falls to us to bring this wedding into being in our time, to birth the new energy, to come to embody the archetypal Feminine in the world and know in our hearts that “where love rules there is no will to power.”

When we come together to explore this new view and the questions that it brings, I invite you to consider that many of the answers may lie somewhere that you don’t expect. It is beautiful and satisfying, and even world-changing, to realize that Nature responds to the feeling connections we make with each other; we are living in a heart-shaped world! However it is something even more to be that heart! Peace.

Gary S. Bobroff, is featured in the film, Time is Art, and is an author, workshop leader and a Jungian and archetypal coach. He delivers the depth of Jungian approaches in a visual, accessible and engaging form. He is the developer and facilitator of Archetypal Nature and the founder of JungianOnline.com connecting clients with Jungian-oriented therapists worldwide (via phone or Skype). He has a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of British Columbia, Canada and Master’s degree in Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Andrew Harvey called his book, Crop Circles, Jung & the Reemergence of the Archetypal Feminine “an original masterpiece.“ – GSBobroff.com

Synchronicity and the Story of our Lives

on September 7, 2015September 7, 2015 By Katy Walker Mejia 2 Comments

by Gary S. Bobroff via TheMindUnleashed.com
What if I told you that something is pulling us toward a more meaningful future? What if I told you that what’s driving us isn’t our past wounds or our family history but something that wants us to become all that we can be? Bigger still, what if I told you that your ego’s story about who you are, should be or should’ve been, is also not what’s driving you?

The Psyche Is Present and Future-Oriented

When we watch our dreams closely over a long period of time, we see in the patterns a larger evolution unfolding. As we integrate something the dream world has been trying to tell us (either consciously or unconsciously), time and again, we see a corresponding evolution in the next phase of dreams. Internal evolution into greater forms is what Nature does with us through dreams; we are always being pulled toward a future that’s bigger than we could ever imagine for ourselves. The future wants to make us more whole, to flesh us out on the inside, to bring more of our character to life in the world.

The recognition of this force in us is part of what makes the psychology of Carl Jung different from most other schools. Nearly every other method focuses primarily on listening to the concerns of the ego or the past: only Jung’s approach points us toward an unfolding future goal within us. When we feel connected to the stages of growth in the greater story that’s unfolding, we experience our life as meaningful.

Perhaps the most astonishing way in which this unfolding can come into our lives is through experiences of synchronicity: where events conspire to mirror inner images and meaning breaks through into the outer world. When this happens, the calling remains the same: to re-examine our attitude to the world in the present; how are you being called to bring more of who you are into the world?

“. . . it is addressing life in the present that cleanses and heals a festering wound. Jung never tired of saying this. After the past is explored, additional inquiry into yesterday does not lead to further healing. A change of attitude into the present does, and this change of attitude is exactly the business of a synchronicity.”

– J. Gary Sparks, At The Heart of Matter

Don’t Let Ego Get In The Way

One of the ways that we most commonly miss connecting this process is through the ego. Simply by insisting that our own story is the only true one, we can repeatedly avoid seeing the evidence to the contrary. The ego wants to maintain its view of the world and hold onto its comfortable attitudes, and in doing so it blocks us from changing our attitude about the world and we remain stuck. The biblical story of Moses and the Pharaoh exemplifies such rigid ego insistence. Without connection to Nature’s deeper voice in us, we grow too big for our britches. “Without that communication, the ego tries to set up its own kingdom.” –Marion Woodman

We can express this ego inflation in positive or negative ways. Positively, we can color experiences through the lens of what we want to be true, imagining that the world is giving us what we want (when something deeper is often afoot, synchronicities are not always a blessing [article link]). Negatively, we can insist on our ‘bummer’ story and ‘know’ that we’ll never get what we want.

The courageous act is one that places the ego’s attitude at risk. In challenging, not just how we think about the world, but how we feel about it, we come to discover the truth that we’re really living thought. In letting go of the old attitude, we can choose to listen for the larger voice in us. Instead of seeking to successfully solve symbolic puzzles, the goal then becomes one of the heart: successfully living a new attitude. Rising to meet this challenge asks more from us than just rational analysis, we are required to participate with thewhole of who we are. In this way, we can understand what Jung meant when he said that “we don’t solve our problems, we outgrow them.” And is this also not the call of the mystic’s path?

Plugged Into The Big Questions

We can interpret the fact of synchronicity into spiritual or religious forms and call it Grace or something else, but we can’t shut the door on our knowledge–today we know that this force exists, it is a fact of Nature and we can’t pretend it away. Clearly, it’s the same force that the ancient Chinese writers of the Tao and the I Ching were observing, wrestling with and relating to. Objectively something exists in the world that wants us to grow into greater forms–what would you call that?

(Be careful not to put it into a too small a box with your answers, there’s good reason to suppose that such a force might be bigger than our power to ever comprehend it).

The much more important question however is can you plug yourself into that fact (without inflating up and thinking you own it)? There’s a joy in making that connection, when you can.

Participating consciously with reality of the mystery of dreams and synchronicity means no longer settling for comfortable over-simplifications. They call us to full-bodied and whole-hearted participation and no other substitute will suffice. You will be challenged to face your blocks to getting the most out of life and to construct an attitude of genuine, dynamic connection to the source. Here’s a hint: the path is within you.

We’ll be exploring the mystery of synchronicity and the evidence for the extension of consciousness in the work of Rupert Sheldrake online this fall – come join us!

Death By Synchronicity & The Life Of Pi

on August 18, 2015August 18, 2015 By Katy Walker Mejia

by Gary S. Bobroff
Originally published on Collective Evolution

“That bungled goodbye hurts me to this day. I wish so much that I’d had one last look at him in the lifeboat . . . ‘Richard Parker, it’s over. We have survived. Can you believe it? I owe you more gratitude than I can express I couldn’t have done it without you. I would like to say it formally: Richard Parker, thank you. Thank you for saving my life.’”’ – Yann Martel, Life of Pi

C. G. Jung recognized that in the moment of their greatest creative expression, the artist is an unconscious vehicle for something beyond themselves. At these times, their pen carries the unspoken voice of the collective whole of their culture. Like a medium or indigenous healer, what comes through them at this time can be a curative–healing comes as we hear the unspoken thing, as the needed but rejected quality in us comes into consciousness. Here the shadow’s waiting gift is born into our hearts.

Psyche’s roots are webs connecting us all. And more than that, the deepest place inside of us touches somewhere beyond time and space. Jung witnessed innumerable examples of our extending around these bounds in his client’s lives and dreams and in his own. He saw how often we do this, often only recognizing it later, sometimes when it’s too late. ‘Déjà vu’–French for ‘seeing again’–references this part of our cultural experience.

Great art is made for and from the collective–the artist is only a vehicle. (Perhaps this explains why so many artists cease producing great work after they become personally identified with their fame–the true source of their art is no longer available to them, once they think it’s them that’s making the art). A non-ego orientation is your best bet here as the artist can never quite be sure of the value of what they have brought forth.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Edgar Allan Poe’s only novel, was published in 1838. In it, the whaling ship Grampus capsizes during a storm. Four crew members, including cabin boy Richard Parker, survive but are left without food and water. They are able to capture a tortoise and eat it, but are soon starving. Parker suggests that they cast lots to see who should be cannibalized. He loses and is immediately stabbed to death and consumed by the others, his hands and feet thrown overboard. Poe later called the book “very silly.”

Forty-seven years later, on May 19, 1884, the Mignonette departed Southampton, England bound for Sydney, Australia. On July 5th, its bulwark was washed away and the crew abandoned ship into a lifeboat. As in Poe’s story, the 17-year-old cabin boy in the boat was named Richard Parker. And, as in his story, they were able to catch a turtle for food on July 9th, but by the 21st they were again starving and discussion of drawing lots for self-sacrifice began. Poor Parker had drank seawater and was drifting into a coma and a few days later was killed and eaten by at least 2 of the others. On July 29th, a sail was sighted and they were rescued by the German ship Montezuma–named after the infamous Atzec cannibal king. The incident is well documented because it became an infamous criminal case.[ii]

There is great cultural opposition inside of ourselves to integrating this synchronicity-filled worldview. We deeply cherish our reductive over-simplifications of the world. It is hard for us to let go of the security blanket of our view of how things are–whether we got that view from somewhere else or really worked on it thoughtfully ourselves.

“I chose the name Pi because it’s an irrational number. Yet scientists use this irrational number to come to a ‘rational’ understanding of the universe. To me, religion is a bit like that, ‘irrational’ yet with it we come together, we come to a sound understanding of the universe.” [iii] – Yann Martel

It is Jung’s deeper view of our reality that best includes all the parts of our experience. In gazing into that view, we see a world with purpose; a reality that conspires for our benefit: a cosmos that winks to us and lets us in on its secrets. If a single synchronicity has ever occurred, then we live in a world that has been built, since the beginning, for the creation of meaning. Extending our whole selves into recognizing that fact is the most radical and revolutionary act we can perform–in doing so we feel ourselves living in a heart-shaped world. Can we take this reality not only into our minds, but also into our hearts? Can we be healed by it?

Is such an understanding the one we most desperately need? Jung felt that it was only through connection to this inner, transpersonal center that true psychological resilience could be found. When we sink down through feeling and touch the timeless in us, an unsinkable connection to reality is made. The Tao Te Ching and I Ching are texts dedicated to the achievement of this state.

Today, possibilities for our participation with the meaningful nature of reality are laid at our doorstep. We can look objectively and know that the psyche extends beyond the physical bounds that materialistic illusions imagine for it. This is offered to us through our experiences of synchronicity, precognitive dreams and art, near death, tantra and plant medicines–all the ways that feel the breath of the timeless on our necks; and through theoretical approaches such as quantum physics and extended mind research. The latter is catalogued extensively in Rupert Sheldrake’s A Sense of Being Stared At (and he writes about the larger issues discussed here in his newest book The Science Delusion – see him discussing both in Joshua Tree in September).

Ours is the time of the objective discovery of the meaning-filled nature of our subjective selves. “May Richard Parker always be at your side.”[iv]― Yann Martel

Gary S. Bobroff on Coast to Coast Radio

on August 12, 2015August 27, 2023 By Katy Walker Mejia

Jungian psychology expert, Gary S. Bobroff who is featured in Time is Art is on Coast to Coast Am with George Noory! Listen to the show ‘Synchronicities & Crop Circles’ here>

Along with systems and management consultant Cynthia Cavalli, they will discuss the scientific evidence for the extension of consciousness in humans, plants and animals, as well as synchronicity and coincidence, and how they relate to everything from crop circles to your career and love life.”

With a cumulative weekly audience of around 2.75 million unique listeners the film will receive an incredible amount of exposure. The Coast to Coast website features this special clip and Gary also talks about his upcoming webinar with Rupert Sheldrake (also featured in the film). Check out the clip and info below.

A GROUNDED EXPLORATION INTO THE HEART OF THE MYSTERY OF THE EXTENSION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

5 session webinar • begins September 13th, 2015 • Hosted by G. S. Bobroff & Cynthia Cavalli
• A grounded look at objective evidence • A whole-bodied search for meaningful understanding • Featuring brand new dialogues with Rupert Sheldrake

Since 1981, Rupert Sheldrake has been exploring the scientific evidence for the extension of consciousness in humans, plants and animals. Pioneering Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung coined the term synchronicity following his observation of powerful meaningful coincidences in his life and the lives of his patients and developed his theory through discussions with preeminent physicists Albert Einstein and Wolfgang Pauli. Taken together the work of Sheldrake and Jung allows us to proceed in a grounded and whole-bodied way into meaningful inquiry about the nature of our reality.

Jung & Sheldrake: Synchronicity & the Extended Mind Webinar

is live Sundays 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. PST beginning September 13th, 2015

Session 1 – Evidence for the extension of consciousness: How can we know objectively that consciousness extends beyond the body? We’ll look at Dr. Sheldrake’s scientific research including exclusive video and highlights from his books: The Science Delusion, The Sense of Being Stared At, Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home.

Session 2 – Jung on Synchronicity and Meaning: How can we understand the fact of meaningful coincidence? Is every synchronicity a positive indicator? How can we better house within us the meaning that these events bring? We’ll look at the connection that Jung saw in synchronicity to the feeling-based holistic worldview of the ancient Chinese traditions of the Tao and I Ching. Co-hosted by Cynthia Cavalli.

Session 3 – Sheldrake In Dialogue: a brand new video conversation with Rupert and Gary filmed in 2015. (This session will consist entirely of a new pre-recorded interview and will not be convened live).

Session 4 – Best Synchronicity Ever! We’ll look at some of the juiciest synchronicity stories in history: real life modern examples, Hollywood and musician’s tales, unbelievable literary examples and we’ll hear your Best Synchronicities Ever!

Session 5 – Heart of the Mystery: How can we participate more fully with synchronicity? How can we bring our whole selves to these experiences? What role does the heart play in this mystery? How does the fact of synchronicity change our view of the world and ourselves? Co-hosted by Cynthia Cavalli.

Each session will include time for discussion, reflection and sharing of our experiences of this mystery.

Video recordings of each session will be available shortly after broadcast.

“The work which is now to be done is to work out the concept of synchronicity. I don’t know the people who will continue it. They must exist but I don’t where they are.” – Marie-Louise von Franz

YOUR HOSTS:
Gary S. Bobroff, M.A. was the producer of the SYNCHRONICITY: Matter & Psyche Symposium in 2014–a landmark celebration with visionary leaders whose work pioneered our understanding of the unity of consciousness and reality. He is an international speaker, author and workshop leader. His work brings insights from Jungian psychology to our pursuit of modern questions. He is the primary developer and facilitator of Archetypal Nature. He has an M.A. in Counselling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2002. His first book, Crop Circles, Jung & the Reemergence of the Archetypal Feminine, was published in August 2014 by North Atlantic Books. “An original masterpiece.” – Andrew Harvey.

Gary is also prominently featured in the upcoming film: Time is Art: Synchronicity and the Collective Dream. His related articles include: Death by Synchronicity & Life of Pi & Synchronicity and Romantic Fate

Cynthia CAVALLI, Ph. D., is a systems and organizational management consultant specializing in strategy development, future studies, and the dynamics of change and transformation. She has 30 years of experience in aerospace engineering, a Ph.D. in Human Systems, an MBA, and a BS in Physics. Dr. Cavalli utilizes a unique approach to individual and organizational transformation that integrates the principles of complexity science and Jungian psychology. She focuses on the patterns and stages of transformation to help individuals and organizations optimize and creatively leverage periods of uncertainty and ambiguity. See more at: http://www.cynthiacavalliconsulting.com. Cynthia will be co-hosting the second hour of the 2nd and 5th webinar sessions.

Related articles by Cynthia: Objective Meaning in Transformational Synchronicities

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We are also offering a special discount for the 4 Rupert Sheldrake and Gary Bobroff Synchronicity Symposium presentations at 40% off, just enter code: WEBINAR

Our Enduring Fascination with Synchronicity

on July 13, 2015July 13, 2015 By Katy Walker Mejia 2 Comments

When I decided to create a documentary built around the theme of synchronicity, I had no idea what that actually meant. Most filmmakers create treatments, even for documentary films. Being a transmedia artist, I decided to go the more experimental route. I wanted to see where synchronicity would take us during the process of shooting scenes and b-roll located in NYC, San Francisco & eventually at the Synchronicity Symposium in Joshua Tree, California. So we started out with a short film which quickly grew into an epic (and at times overly ambitious) feature length film.

The subject matter is so rich and so fascinating and inspiring that we just couldn’t stop coming up with ideas for the film. That has now spilled over to a book version of the film, of the same name. I also wrote a thriller/love story screenplay that is built around one incredible synchronicity. I’m not sure if it will ever be made into a film, but its a testament to just how inspiring the subject matter truly is.

It all started on October 2012 on a flight over the Yucatan on my way to visit the sacred Mayan pyramids in Mexico. I was reading a book called the Mayan Factor by José Argüelles when something clicked. Perhaps the reason we are so lost as a civilization is because we are out of sync with nature, ‘natural time’ (and ultimately the spiritual path).

How could I convey this crucial message in a documentary film? First, I needed to research the mysterious phenomenon of synchronicity and I had no idea how popular the concept was! I also needed to EXPERIENCE synchronicity to truly understand what it felt like. I had to get out of the intellectual headspace and into the feeling heart space.

This year is the 63rd anniversary of Jung’s (1952) concept of synchronicity. “In response to the seemingly growing popularity of this concept, Princeton University Press, in 2010, decided to reissue the seminal publication Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle. Although a complete formulation of synchronicity was published only in 1952, Jung had used the term in his lectures as early as 1929 (Cambray, 2009).

Carl Jung used synchronicity to refer to a meaningful coincidence of an outer event with an individual’s inner state in which there is no apparent causal relationship. The term consists of the Greek words for joined with and in time, suggesting a bond that takes place in temporal correspondence. Synchronicities are also associated with the uncommon and often consist of numinous, life-changing, and deeply spiritual experiences (Main, 2007); these synchronicities can play a critical role in an individual’s growth and personal transformation (e.g., Richo, 1998).” – Dan Hacoy

This year also marks the 32nd anniversary of the Police’s 1983 hit album “Synchronicity”. Early on in the making of our film ‘Time is Art’, I had a pretty wild synchronicity concerning the Police’s album. We were traveling back from the Berkshires in Massachusetts and had stopped at a funky looking restaurant serving questionable Mexican food. I recall the owner mentioned that she was an ex Hollywood makeup artist (or just liked to wear a ton of makeup). She literally looked as if she had come from a 1950’s hollywood set. The tiny place was packed full of a surprising amount of old magazines, art and furniture from the 50, 60’s and 70’s. In that moment I was thinking about the film, as it occupied my mind constantly, since we were still hashing it out through research, conversations and brainstorming sessions. There was a large stack of old Life Magazines and Rolling Stones from the and 70’s and 80’s. I looked through a few and by the third one I was just flipping the pages quickly and came to a page with an advertisement for The Police’s Synchronicity album!

At the time, even though I was a huge Police fan, I did not realize that their most popular album was called ‘Synchronicity’. For some reason I had not connected the dots, so for me this was confirmation that the project warranted more thought and research. (Whats unprecedented is that the album was so massively appealing that millions purchased it as well as the preceding four Police albums in numbers great enough to place all five on the 1983 sales chart simultaneously at year’s end.)

the police, synchronicity

A quick survey of popular books and academic publications indicates that the idea of Synchronicity has never been more popular.

Just in the last year, several large international conferences have been held on synchronicity and related topics, including the Synchronicity: Matter & Psyche Symposium at Joshua Tree National Park where much of the film ‘Time is Art’ takes place. In August there was a held at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY features a plethora of academics and researchers such as Jon Turk, PhD, and Neurosurgeon Eben Alexander, MD.

Synchronicity is clearly a fascinating topic that resonates with people into esoteric philosophy, unexplained phenomenon and those seeking a deeper meaning in their lives. There are many documentaries and films about synchronicity, too and we wanted to make something totally different. In order to make a compelling narrative documentary film, I knew I needed to find the right person. When I came across writer, Jennifer Palmer through her numerous articles about synchronicity, not only was I drawn to her prose, I was also drawn to her story and the fact that she experienced her spiritual awakening through synchronicity. She told us her incredible story which you can watch here in the first episode of the web series “Sync Stories“.

The first film shoot was a DIY trip to San Francisco in which we filmed massive street art murals at Lilac Alley in the Mission District, the famous labyrinth at Grace Cathedral, Dolores Park, Muir Woods National Forest, Oakland and even Silicon Valley. One of the most experimental scenes turned out to depict a very strange synchronicity with a UFO that was captured on our camera without the crew actually seeing it. The complete story is in this article: Synchronicity, Owls & the UFO Rabbit Hole and the montage is below.

Fast forward over three years later and the film is finally complete and ready to premiere worldwide on 11/11 (a very auspicious date for numerologists).

‘Time is Art’, a narrative documentary that explores synchronicity and the role of art as a tool for healing and expanding consciousness. The film follows writer, Jennifer Palmers’s metaphysical journey through inspiring urban and natural settings in California and New York. Guided by author, Graham Hancock, biologist, Rupert Sheldrake, Carl Jung historian Richard Tarnas, mystic, Toko-pa Turner and many other scientists, artists and activists, we track her experience with synchronicity – the concept that all beings are interconnected and that time is not so much a chronology as it is an infinite cycle. The transmedia project which also includes a book of the same name, comes at an important moment in new science, quantum physics and consciousness studies.

Besides synchronicity, the film also explores an alternative to the materialistic and exploitative money-driven society we are all expected to live in. Synchronicity shows us that there are other ways of understanding our role in the universe. When you think of someone and then 5 seconds later they call you, its not a coincidence. During our film shoot with Rupert Sheldrake he argued that synchronicity is also a bit like telepathy. In one of his books he talks about why dogs can sense that their owner is coming home. Elephants, horses and other animals flee and hide for cover hours before massive storms hit. How is this possible if all of life is not interconnected and communicating through unseen realms and dimensions of reality?

‘Time is Art’ is meant to fuel and inspire this growing movement. Says ‘Time is Art’ co-director and my husband, Joél Mejia, “We want to contribute to the awakening in global consciousness that we are witnessing right now. To contribute to the increasing number of conversations about our understanding of time, space and interconnectedness that resonate with so many people right now.”

The title, ‘Time is Art’, coined by the visionary author, José Argüelles, whose work is a major inspiration for the film, is a twist on the catch phrase “time is money”. In the world of the film, “time” is unyoked from the relentless pursuit of material and capital gain and the audience is given an alternative framework: ‘What if we lived in a world where time is linked with creative potential and art?’—hence the film’s title, “Time is Art”.

In a recent article, Aaron Kase of Reset.me says of the film, “ultimately, the film is about how to shift from being caught up in an ego and success-driven society into a state of seeking peace and community anywhere we go.”

Rob MacGregor, author of ‘The Synchronicity Highway’ after seeing the film wrote, “This film will do for synchronicity what “What the Bleep Do We Know?” did for law of attraction.

Brent Marchant via Vivid Life, also wrote “Even though many worthwhile films in this genre have been released in recent years, “Time is Art” could well prove to be one of the most important offerings in this vein.”

The 94 minute documentary film premieres in theaters via Tugg.com on 11/11 and will be available worldwide via VOD.

Awakening to the Synchronic Order

on June 23, 2015June 23, 2015 By Katy Walker Mejia

Excerpt from Time, Synchronicity & Calendar Change by Stephanie South via Lawoftime.org

“Virtual reality shows that we are starved for release into a parallel world, an imaginal realm that is not just a reflection of our worst nightmares, but of our highest most sublime aspirations.” – José Argüelles

“There will come a time when the birds will fall from the trees, the rivers will be poisoned and the wolves will die in the forests. But then the warriors of the rainbow will appear and save the world.” – Prophecy of the Cree Indians

stephanie south

One time is ending, but another is just beginning, an entirely new era in the history of the Earth: the noosphere. This is the message of José Argüelles. We are leaving the world of pure sensory matter, and entering a world of mind and telepathy. In this new world of the noosphere, time is not what a clock measures, but a factor of synchronicity, and the synchronization of our minds into ever expanding consciousness.

C.G. Jung first introduced the idea of synchronicity to the modern mind in 1952, with his famous exposition, Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle. This was the same year as the discovery of the tomb of the great Pacal in Chiapas, Mexico. This tomb – the enigma of the man whose body was buried there – was to become a central facet to Jose’s life, especially in his investigation of the Mayan calendar and culture. After years of study and experimentation, Jose discovered that synchronicity is based on an underlying mathematical order akin to the underlying mathematics of the Mayan calendar, though this information is universal, and not strictly “Mayan.” He labeled this the “synchronic order,” the cosmic ordering principle of synchronicity.

José Argüelles Jose discovered that the synchronic order is a matrix of living intelligence; it is a fourth-dimensional order of reality based on the Law of Time. Hence, the Law of Time is the science of synchronicity. In Time and the Technosphere (2002), he states that the future of human evolution is to become a medium of cosmic consciousness traveling back to the stars but through the superior knowledge of the actual laws of time. He believes this is what the Maya foresaw.

His path to this discovery was not ordinary; it was the path of a visionary. In aboriginal society vision is considered one of the highest values to cultivate. In Western culture vision is generally dismissed as not real. The visionaries are those who have had visions and are able to present them to society so the people can become renewed. The visionary sees through and beyond ordinary reality.

Stephanie South is author of Biography of a Time Traveler and Time, Synchronicity and Calendar Change: the Visionary Life and Work of José Argüelles. She is also featured in the upcoming book “Time is Art”. For the past ten years she has been engaged with Arguelles in the Noosphere II project that resulted in the production of the seven-volume Cosmic History Chronicles (2005-2011). She is also featured in Patricia Cori’s book, Beyond the Matrix. She is creative director of the Foundation for the Law of Time. Her blog is 1320frequencyshift.wordpress.com.

Sync in the City

on June 7, 2015June 7, 2015 By Katy Walker Mejia

Time is Art — Growdswell mural by Chris Soria

by Jennifer Palmer

Along with my unwillingness to use a Diva Cup or commit to Yoga, my positive take on city life is perhaps the major dividing line between myself and my hardcore hippie friends. They can’t believe I’ve lived and thrived in NYC or one of its boroughs (most recently its 6th borough, Jersey City) since 1999. How could someone as sensitive as me find stillness and peace in such an energetic whirlwind? Didn’t I long to be in nature?

For these well-meaning folks, some of whom are off-the-grid forest or farm dwellers and others who are hoping to be, the modern city represents everything wrong with our existence. It’s the buzzing, bleeping reality of just how far we’ve succeeded in commodifying everyone and everything and cutting ourselves off from the rich biodiversity of free and thriving ecosystems.

I’m not saying that we aren’t living dangerously out of balance with the Earth. The impending doom of rising ocean levels and super storms reported by climate science tells the story clearly enough for anyone with the ears to hear it. But what if it’s not how and where we live but the way we measure time that needs to change? Is it possible that a transformation in the way we experience time and a heightened awareness of meaningful coincidences, or, synchronicity, can open us up to the natural world that is always there, regardless of how few trees are growing on our block? Instead of living at the mercy of a mechanized time system built upon the idea of quantifying our labor (Time is Money) could we base our lives upon a system that treated time as art?

The word “synchronicity” was first coined by Carl Jung to who defined it as a non-causal connection principle. He gives the famous example of a patient of his at an impasse in her treatment, who told him about a dream in which she received a piece of golden jewelry in the shape of a scarab beetle. Just as she was explaining this dream, there was a tapping on the window pane behind Jung’s desk. He opened the window and in flew a large beetle, which he promptly caught and handed to the patient.

As is evident from this example, synchronicity is not something that makes logical sense: the experience of synchronicity (or sync, as I call it) is weird and wonderful and usually makes us laugh out of amazement. Synchronicity gives us a sudden glimpse, as it did for Jung’s patient, of an order working through the apparent chaos of the everyday, in which our observations of our surroundings have an effect on what occurs.

Time is Art, magda love — Mural by Magda Love

In other words, the universe isn’t just happening all around us; we are taking an active role in co-creating what happens through our awareness. Whether it’s a number that keeps repeating or an actor who keeps “popping up” whenever we watch a movie or TV, synchronicity is a little bit of magic that makes us stop and take note of the possibility of there being more to reality than meets the eye. It reveals connections between everyone and everything, including the connection between ourselves and the planet, regardless of whether we live in a forest or at an intersection.

The connection between living in synch with natural time and humanity’s evolution into a more peaceful and creative way of being was elucidated by the late philosopher Jose Arguelles. Arguelles was both admired and derided for his attempt to replace our current Gregorian calendar with a 13 moon-28 Day calendar. Arguelles believed that by more closely following natural time we’d be in greater attunement with the planet, eventually evolving to the point that we could communicate with the earth in the same way that we communicate with our own bodies–through a giant, planetary nervous system he called the noosphere. One of the major signs of the noosphere coming on line would be a sharp increase in reports of synchronicity, in which seemingly disparate things, people and events would be revealed as having an underlying connection.

While I’m not advocating that we throw out our calendars and clocks, I can confirm that being more aware of synchronicity has proven to be hugely healing for me. When we step out of mechanized time, even for just a little while, and enter a state of natural time that I call “sync awareness,” the experience of universal oneness makes itself known to us regardless of whether we’re in Sedona Canyon or a Starbucks.

One of the reasons I find sync awareness to be such a powerful tool is that it’s something you can do anywhere and without prolonged study, unlike other consciousness expanding activities such as yoga and meditation, which can take years to master.

Sync awareness is simply about developing an appreciation for the so-called “in between” moments, such as when we’re waiting on line or taking a taxi to a party. In these moments, we can really tune in to how perfect everything is if we let go of the old assumptions taught to us by society’s belief that time equals money: namely that there is such a thing as “wasted” or “lost” time. A traffic jam is the perfect occasion to pay attention to the subtle connections between things we happen to perceive: In doing so, we may be able to let go of the anger and stress of “having to be somewhere” as we realize we’re always exactly where we need to be at any given moment.

Being in sync awareness teaches us the profound importance of every moment, even the ones that don’t go as planned. If we look back at the bad times in our lives, for instance, the loss of a job or even the death of a loved one, we can see that while the pain we felt was certainly real, the sense of the event being an irrevocable endpoint was anything but the case. Perhaps the loss of the job sent us back to school where we found a new, more exciting career path, or where we fell in love with a person we would have never otherwise met. The death of a loved one might have had the effect of us reevaluating our own existence, or else bringing us closer to relatives we hadn’t known very well. Out of every ending blossoms a new beginning, but it’s necessary to let go from progress-driven, linear time in order to see this.

The more sync aware we become, the more we realize that each and every thought and action—regardless of how tiny and seemingly insignificant– changes the universe in ways we will never fully understand, but that are always perfect. How many great inventions and discoveries have come about because of failures and accidents? We can let go of our neurotic need for things to “work out the way they’re supposed to” and relax into the idea that they always already do, regardless of whether we can see how.

For all my sensitivity, I’m not beaten down by the city’s frenetic energy because I understand that energy to be perfect, just as I also understand our polluted atmosphere as being perfect. My awareness allows me to see the streams of cars and shouting and garbage as a part of a larger, living “post-organic” organism revealed in everything we do. Even plastics and technology are made from chemicals found in the biosphere. This doesn’t mean that I don’t think we should DO anything about pollution or other aspects of the overarching environmental crisis, but it changes the attitude I have regarding the nature of that change.

Instead of hating ourselves for the mess we’ve made, I believe we humans have to heal and learn to love ourselves–mistakes and all–and realize that we’re here for a reason, and everything that’s happened (including epic disasters like the Gulf oil spill and Fukushima) is a part of that reason. Human consciousness itself is a part of the Earth: our awareness, just like our bodies, IS the planet–not just something overlaid upon it. It’s as beautiful and as complicated and took as long to evolve as a field of flowers or a mountain range.

Once you get in the habit of noticing it, you quickly realize that nature is everywhere in the city. There’s the nature revealed by our dancing and love making and our pets and houseplants. It’s found in parks and snow covered trees and cats hunting in the dark windows of shuttered bodegas and in the long, bright green blades of grass that fill in the spaces between buildings.

It’s no coincidence that teacher plants such as cannabis, psilocybin and Ayahuasca are making their way deeper and deeper into our cities at this crucial point in the environmental crisis. As the dualistic divide between culture and nature breaks down, we are re-learning the lessons of plants, the elder statesmen of this planet who lived for hundreds of millions of years before we entered the picture. Instead of seeing them as dumb, green things to be manipulated to our will, we’re learning to respect the subtle and profound ways they make life possible for us. The permaculture and organic farming movements are not only about growing cleaner, healthier food; they’re about taking the lessons that plants teach us and using them in every aspect of our lives.

After a recent trip to the jungle in Peru, I found myself walking with several others late at night in Alphabet City. A sudden summer storm had us gathered under a large tree on Avenue C. As I listened to the water running through the leaves and watched the colors on the street get darker, I could really feel the connection between the concrete jungle and the actual rainforest; the vibe of everything competing, consuming, growing and twisting against one another for limited resources.

Heat and desire radiated off the apartment buildings, where people were eating food, arguing, having sex and, in some cases, hurting and even killing one another. If the cities are on some level dehumanizing, perhaps this is a difficult yet necessary step to realizing our repressed natural selves so that we learn how to adapt, as plants do, to a rapidly changing world.

Nature is not all sweetness and light and silent serenity. Nature is also about predators and prey and the infinite cycle of death and rebirth. While my hippie friends tend to talk about “saving the earth” from the ravages of human nature, the truth is that nature will go on long after we’ve made ourselves extinct, should that be the destiny we choose. What we really need is to free ourselves from the narrow viewpoint of understanding our choices according to manmade time. We are a part of something much older and wiser than the timeline we’ve constructed. We just need to unplug our alarm clocks and wake up to this.

Jennifer Palmer is the writer and narrator of “Time is Art: Synchronicity and the Collective Dream”, a feature length documentary exploring the role synchronicity has in transforming our world. Please support their campaign to raise funds to go to the Synchronicity Symposium at the Joshua Tree, where they’ve been invited to film the conference and the all-star presenters including Graham Hancock, Rupert Sheldrake and Rick Tarnas. Click here for the Indiegogo Campaign .