Once upon a time, a king had three daughters. The beauty of the youngest, Psyche, ψυχή was beyond description. The fame of her beauty was spread all around that people from other countries would come to see her, and were fascinated by what they saw. In her praise, they sang odes to her and surrendered her with chaplets. So much so that even the altars of Venus were abandoned. Offended by the growing exaltation of a young mortal, Venus exclaimed : “ She…
Many myths about creation reached us from ancient Sumerians up to the present day, preserved on reliefs, stone tablets, pictures and epic legends. According to what was written in Sumer (3000 BC) and the epic of Gilgamesh, which is one of the oldest sources, the universe and God existed since the beginning of time. The God of wisdom Enki created the rivers Tigris and the Euphrates, thus created the waterbeds, and made the water flow from the mountains to these rivers. Then he…
Marcelo Gleiser, an astrophysicist and philosopher exploring the origins of the cosmos and creation accentuates humanity’s perpetual struggle to understand its place in the universe : We are naturally driven to make sense of the world and our place in it. Advances in math, technology, computers, all have revealed deeper mysteries, and the true vastness of space and time. Yet there are so many questions we still have no clue about. Because nature is smarter than we are, we’re always playing the game of catch-up.…
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn. –David Whyte “ One wonders only when he is alone, and seeks the truth,” said Einstein. The great thinker and ploymath Goethe, discovered that creative inspiration came only when he was alone. Winnicott, the pediatrician and psychologists, defines “the capacity to stay on his own” as a crucial indicator of child development. H.D. Thoreau, the notable American philosopher and nature lover proclaimed that he made his spiritual discoveries during his…
If our celestial soul is shrouded in the dark smoke produced by the imperious self, our soul will cease to reflect the divine spark within it. – Ostad Elahi Do you ever find yourself caught between opposing ideas when you are about to make a decision? For example, you plan to finish your work in good time, and yet switch your mind to watch a television program that you like. Meanwhile, you find yourself saying that it will not be the end of the…
But already my desire and my will Were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed, By the love which moves the sun and the other stars. in his timeless Divine Comedy, Dante described the euphoric state of love as the gravitational force which moves the solar systems and which holds the universe together. Simone Weil (1909-1943), the renowned French philosopher, teacher and activist with outstanding intellectual gifts and mystical devotion said : Two forces rule the universe: Light and gravity. She described…
“ Love is really the only thing we can possess, keep with us and take with us when we depart. ” Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross (1926-2004), in her pioneering work with patients nearing the end of their lives in palliative care, interviewed them on their feelings about life and death, and how they measure the life they lived. The results of her work show that the patients unanimously expressed their emotional state as a “yearning for love, ” a shield needed against the fear of…
Siri Hustvedt, the prizewinning writer and scholar, describes the meaning of life through her work, the joy she finds in the creative impulse and the urgency to write driven by it. Her knowledge of psychoanalysis, art and neuroscience is woven in her stories in which she asks the essential question “Who are we ? ” In an interview about the creative impulse, the intersubjective experience of art and the emotional punch found in art, she discloses her “writing self. ” Märit Aronsson (M) : I’d…
How the intelligence of the trees is measured and what it means for maintaining our life on earth Plants are sentient beings which have emotions, who feel the pain when damaged, enjoy Mozart, can respond to unspoken thoughts of humans and more. Cleve Backster, a former intelligence agent, best known for his experiments with plants using a polygraph (lie detector) instrument in the 1960s long before science has discovered the intelligence of plants capable of cognition, learning, memory and communication. He hooked up the galvanometer…
The story of how Hypnos, the god of sleep made Zeus fall asleep and how the Greeks went across the Aegean and won the Trojan war. The Greek god Hypnos was represented as a gentle and calm young man, with wings attached to his temples. His voice had enormous power over the mortals and immortals including Zeus, the god of the gods. The word hypnosis derived from his name is used today as a psychological method to put someone into a deeper state of consciousness…
