The video clips below are from a presentation I made at the Creativity and Madness Conference, July 2019. The presentation was on the radical revision of psychology and therapy, based on research findings from the contemplative sciences. The breathtaking findings change everything. My work integrates contemplative science into a new vision for 21st Century depth therapy.
BECOME WHO YOU TRULY ARE
Dr. Manganiello explains the undertaking of what Jung referred to as the privilege of a lifetime: “To Become Who You Truly Are.” We must go beyond the limits of our surface thinking-mind and enter our deep intuitive-mind. Where we can encounter direct experiential knowledge of our essential core identity, our very soul. Jim also references the important connection between depth psychology and art. If we can learn how to SEE, and not just look at authentic art images, we can directly experience the truth, beauty and wisdom that is our real nature.
IF WE STAY WITH OUR OWN MIND
Dr. Manganiello explains why we must become savvy observers of our own mind. If we can stay with our own mind, we’ll discover the forces at play that give rise to our emotional confusion and mistaken assumptions about what is real. These forces leave us tethered to a conditioned self-image. To break away and fly free, we have to liberate ourselves from a false identity that is far too small for who we truly are.
THE REAL PURPOSE OF MEDITATION
Dr. Manganiello explains meditation’s real purpose. Like the word stress, the word meditation has been used so much, by so many, that its meaning has been lost. Meditation is more than mindfulness. The real purpose of mediation is to experience our mind’s natural condition, in the timeless awareness that is NOW. Most of us are seduced into, and distracted by waking dreams, created by our thinking, conceptual mind. Our lives have become removed from the health, sanity and wisdom inherent in our mind’s true nature.
THE SCENT OF SANITY
Dr. Manganiello pioneers next steps in depth psychology by integrating the findings of the contemplative sciences and entheogen research. Depth psychology needs a fresh blood supply. It’s become tired and mired in the problems that arise when a path becomes weighed down by institutional formalism. In the west, we call people psychologists who pass tests and write dissertations. But Jung discovered what he was talking about only through direct experience. First person experiential knowledge is the foundation of contemplative science. Experiential knowledge results exclusively from the well-trained systematic observation of one’s own mind. Not from abstract conceptual theories, experiments on others and statistical data.
THE WAKE-UP CALL
Dr. Manganiello has been a contemplative practitioner for more than 30 years. He explores how, in a moment of startle, we can experience a more awakened state of mind. A mind liberated from the noise and confines of our conditioned identity. Jim gives the audience a direct wake-up call using a sudden exclamation of the word PHAT, often uttered by Tibetan contemplative practitioners, to exorcise the grime and “demons” of the discursive thinking-mind. So they can then directly experience the pure awareness of the natural state of mind. And stabilize and strengthen their ability to do so in an ongoing experience soaked in wonder.