PSYCHE INTEGRATION

Anthony Blake, April 2004

The personality develops through education and social interaction. It thinks to itself and imagines that it is in control of life, but is intrinsically fragmented. In contrast, both spiritual and psychological investigators have said that there is a deeper self, hidden in the psyche, which can be a source of wholeness and hence of healing. A meaningful life is one in which the personality is ‘saved' or redeemed by what lies within. This is what we mean by ‘psyche integration'.

There are many paths available, crafted over centuries to suit different temperaments and cultures. Our seven-fold methodology is a largely secular and impartial spectrum of experiences that combines individual exploration with group process:

Text Box: THE SEVEN METHODS Bringing the everyday self under the sway of wholeness
  1. Experienting – work with the very ‘stuff of experience' through attention while sitting
  2. Social dreaming – association to the meaning of dreams that are shared in the group as a collective insight
  3. Movements – gestural language to evoke whole body images that can evolve into a story
  4. Tissue paper collage – a form of active imagination to bring to the surface unconscious material
  5. Median group – dialogue of equals to share meaning and develop mutual understanding
  6. Logovisual technology – articulation of molecules of thought and their integration into unifying insights
  7. ILM – accessing the field of active information through music and sounds

Each of the radial axes (see diagram) offers its own kind of self-observation, self-knowing and self-understanding. As the personality – represented by the circle at the top of the circular mandala – travels through these experiences, it comes under the influence of the hidden wholeness – perhaps the ‘black hole' – at the center. A labyrinth connects inner with outer and each person follows a path governed by their question or quest. The inner self is shown as a small circle because it represents the ‘still, quiet center' of ourselves in contrast to the active, loud and discordant personality on the outside.

In the center are the mysteries of how our individuality is involved in the being of others, and how our own unconscious dwells in the collective unconscious. We cannot understand if we are isolated.

Jung said that the second half of life should be more and more given over to the search for meaning. But even young people can find a deeper education through our ‘psyche integration' that helps them begin to restore their intrinsic harmony.

Brought into temporal cycle

A schedule projects the methods into a sequence. Below is one solution, showing the point of entry. In this case, the sequence runs clockwise. Each version implies special relationships between the methods, while also structuring the time available. Another solution is to start at the opposite point of the circle and proceed anticlockwise.

In both versions, collage is split into two sections, which involve different processes, so that the ‘everyday self' is pictured as entering into the circuit just as people enter and leave medicine wheels in the Amerindian traditions. Choosing the point of entry and direction of movement was considered of great significance.