Archetipes are interesting and there are energy based meditation and stuff focused around them. Like reiki where you learn to manipulate energy, only you use archetipes.
So like think of a symbol, or character, and that is the perfect combination -the whole- of what is stands for. So lets say the symbol is one of healing. The theory is that this symbol is not only a whole construct of a certain healing energy, but it is made up of all the things needed for that healing. Think something like a building, or construction, made from energy that once complete is that symbols.
Ok so to explain, there are many traditions that follow certain figures. In one eastern tradition there are many gods, each represent a certain emotion or state of being, and the image of that being is a complete combination of all the things that a specific emotion or state of being is made from. By focusing on it, meditating on it, and worshipping it you can bring into your life the archetept of that being. You develop all the things that archetype stands for. So if you focus on the being of shiva, the destroyer, you connect to that energy and transform (if you got the intent to do this). You destroy all the parts of yourself that are petty illusion, until you come to your core being, thus get enlightened. The same can be said about jesus, if you were to really pray, which is a form of meditation, then you could focus on jesus to such a level that you are transformed. Come closer to what his energy or state of being stands for and tried to teach others. That IMHO makes more sense then nit picking over his teachings and getting into ego battles with others to see who's knowledge is longer.
That is how I look at it, some may disagree. These things are very powerful aspects of human psychology and are cultural phenomina too. Like the corperate symbols that stand for certain businesses, the logo what represents it all. Or a countries Flag ect.
In reiki you get the same thing. Each healing energy has a different symbol, and even though the energy is fluid and stuff, you focus on the symbol during healing. Its not just that the symbol represents the energy, but it is the energy, like how you get various constructions that form atoms.
I guess there are similar things in psychology too, although rather then symbols you use words. So if you say someone is aracnaphobic, it means he is scared of spiders, and if I am mistaken then lets go with it anyway. And so this word means a combination of things, and not just fear when around spiders. It means they may get anxiety, may suffer from physical changes like rapid heart beat, and a variety of things that make up the term aracnaphoic.
So, if you were to meditate on the god of forgiveness, you could develop all the things accosiated with forgiveness. ie all the things you need to truly forgive someone. At least that is my interpritation of this issue.
Molybdenum said:
I think that if everything gets stripped at once it's much harder for the remaining personality structure to function properly since it's such a massive change which is why people who dropped all of their constrictions at once, and I do believe they exist, can have a non-functional period while they readjust and rebuild.
There is no such thing as a non-function period. If someone gets this experience and decided to sit down and look at their hands in total bliss for two years, then that is their choice. They looked at the pros/cons and decided that from their percpetive, it makes sense to to do that. Plus in these experience you no longer have a perception of time, since you are focused on motions -which is all that there is. You either conduct motions and are focused on what your doing as you move through the world, or you sit down motionless and be aware of the ebs and flows of the motions around you. You cant say that about 4.5 seconds have gone past since you stopped talking. It doesnt work that way, since time doesnt exist but is more of a measuring stick to understand how things move. ie things move in time not along time. Looking at hands is understandable, you've seen yours all your life, and so if you suddenly really see them via a perfect view of reality.. it is interesting. But I think the bliss bit is why you would sit down for so long, and your not inactive, your more conscious then ever so who knows what your thinking.
Overall I do not think you were long enough in the experience to even being to understand what was going on. I think you shut it down before it had fully developed. And you are always in full control, more so with this stuff, since your consciousness is free. It has more of an effect.
) Perhaps you could characterize the collective unconscious as a certain moderately well-defined and moderately variable template energy that all humans tap into to some extent that guides structuring of human form and thought during stochastic/random genetic decisionmaking processes. Might work, say, by influencing thoughts through the brain's EM field, or more likely by influencing the color of thoughts that people have by influencing other, coarser energies, which influence the brain's EM field. Or you could buy that it influences the color of thoughts in the mind, which is outside the body, to make them noticably "modern human," and then the mind influences the brain to produce behavior through the brain's EM field. (I'm such a broken record this week, but perhaps Sheldrake's idea of morphic resonance might come into play here too!)