Cosmology cosmology or main menu
The Post Modern Cosmology is a synthesis of "meta narratives" of religion, science and magic cast in a subjective, aesthetic form. It is a systems model of evolving phenomena and involving identity where each level transcends and includes the levels below.
I will try and provide an introduction to the essential concepts that make it so different from other attempts at a "theory of everything". I refer to myself as a cosmologer rather than a cosmologist, since the latter title today has become the monopoly of astrophysicists whose interest is restricted to physical cosmology.
Between 1967 and 1971 I experienced great changes in my social roles, from senior cultural administrator to junior sociology academic and from political activist (the fun revolution) to conflict mediator and catalyst, and finally from socio-psychological experimenter/wizard to conceptual artist. In 1968 my professor terminated my thesis and fellowship without explanation (to the dismay of the Vice Chancellor and Student Union) at the same time my marriage broke down.
During this time I found myself enthusiastically reading a wide variety of books and articles (the writings of Arthur Koestler were particularly helpful) and experiencing ecstatic insights about the interconnectedness of concepts that had been at the back of my mind for years. At the same time I was dreaming of patterns without content, a remarkably satisfying process. I should point out here that I had become unpopular with many colleagues for refusing to use, or even to recommend the casual use of, hallucinatory drugs.
My struggle to understand the theories of Talcot Parsons, the structural-functional sociologist started me off on cosmology construction, but this was limited to cultural, social and psychological theories. In 1971-4 at Melbourne University Union I taught my cosmological synthesis in the old Pathology Lecture Theatre which the Vice-Chancellor kindly made available for my personal use. I was assisted by Dr Derek Banks who provided valuable information about the physical aspects of cosmology.
The complete cosmology developed by chance. Initially my interest was in understanding the relationships between psychological, social and cultural phenomena. Talcott Parsons had produced a theory attempting to specify the essential connections between them. I considered his avoidance of reductionism and use of systems theory and information theory (with control and feedback/upgrading loops) were ideal for describing the levels in terms of complexity. Before the writings of such investigators as William James and Sigmund Freud, too much had been assumed about the role of consciousness in human history. At the historical level both Max Weber and Karl Marx understood the importance of often unrecognised ideal and material interests in the explicit symbolic explanations made by cultural leaders.
Although Parsons relied mainly on psychoanalysis for his understanding of the psychological motivations of human behaviour, I found the theories of ethologists like Tinbergen must also be considered for a proper grounding for understanding all animal behaviour. Like Freud and Jung, but unlike Parsons, I also believed that much important human action as expressed in social roles was influenced by semi-conscious or unconscious myths.
The classical Four Temperaments were already at the back of my mind as they so closely resembled the ‘ideal types’ adopted by psychologists and sociologists when they categorised social and psychological phenomena. I was stunned when I discovered that the self-funding scientist Pavlov had dared to conclude his studies with a categorisation of the nervous systems of the dogs he had spent years conditioning, as Phlegmatic, Choleric, Melancholic and sanguine. Magical thinking based on the oppositions between Inner and Outer and between Active and Passive or receptive, seemed to fit in well with my explanation of the ‘kinematics’ of the observable world "out there".
A book that encouraged me was "The Sleepwalkers" by Koestler. As a magician-scientist, Kepler had struggled to link the motions of the moon and planets with the operation of divine love rather than the operation of purely mechanical forces. A universe where love has no part to play, and which is little more than a complex ballistic description structured by gravity, seems monstrous to me. I made the Marxist assumption that the ballistic work of Galileo and Newton had been adopted on account of its usefulness to the emerging class of secular military-industrial rulers in Western Europe.
It was at this time that I came across "The Phenomenon of Man" by Teilhard de Chardin. His cosmology was both non-reductionist and evolutionary and was aiming towards a convergent unity. It provided an inspiring example, although, like Aquinas and Aristotle, he made his reality system at least partly dependant on a divine governor. I adopted his new concept of involving will, as a necessary connection to the orthodox concept of evolving form. Prigogine’s theory of non-equilibrium thermodynamics of self-dissipating systems appeared at this time and provided the vital missing link between evolving inorganic and organic phenomena.
The course I had been giving at the School of Sociology at the University of New South Wales on primitive Revitalisation Movements, together with my reading of Friedrich Nietzsche, influenced my decision to regard personality as potentially a higher level emergent than culture, whereas most sociologists, anthropologists and psychologists seemed either unclear or regarded personality as a purely psychological phenomenon. A personality may be a cultural innovator who creates a new synthesis of meaning which may become a new culture. This in turn includes the new roles necessary for a new social system and the social roles affect the psyche and nervous systems of the individuals involved.
Although revitalisation movements have taken place in pre-literate or mainly pre-literate societies, the theories of Marshall McLuhan, regarding post-literate cultural transformation through electronic communication, caused me to think that such movements might be possible in a post-industrial world especially since I was surrounded by the revitalisation of popular culture at the time, which I used as illustrations during my lectures.
No psychologist can make any important statement about individual behaviour without assuming, either explicitly or implicitly, some form of psycho-dynamics which cannot be observed but only deduced. I assumed that to avoid reductionism to the psychological level I had to hypothesise a dynamic to account for social action phenomenon. Like Freud I realised the importance of myths and adopted the term mytho-dynamics. Following other writers, I chose the term ideo-dynamics to account for the expression of symbols at the cultural level.
I could not see how I could avoid the use of hypothetical constructs to account for phenomena at all levels of complexity. Although materialists oppose the adoption of hypothetical non-observable concepts to explain phenomena, scientific theorists do hypothesise energetic forces producing changes in what is observed.
Induction based on objectivity may result in regular, predictive scientific laws, but to accept their fundamental reality remains ultimately an act of faith which has essentially utilitarian justification. Solipsism, where the subject becomes detached from outer reality and subjectivity dominates, is much rarer in science today than its opposite, objectivity. Obviously much New Age thinking is solipsistic.
I proposed integrating the introverted and the extraverted orientations to reality by bringing them together in time as an "event". Combining probability theory and regarding time as essentially historical, I assume time to be a hierarchy of events culminating in an existential moment. The total behavioural system or ecosystem together with the emergent animal social system and human cultural system could be portrayed as an event hierarchy of created, realised systems.
Recently reading "Science and the Modern World", I found that A.N. Whitehead had proposed a similar concept of an event as a matrix where the interaction between subjective apprehension or 'prehension' (for non-intelligent intention) and the outer, or objective extension, takes place. Whitehead describes the reasons for adopting his radical new concept of process, with great philosophical sophistication. His concept of organism is what I term a realised system in the hierarchy of events. Only these systems are historically real. The objective world can never be 'prehended' or apprehended except through existent systems involving such processes as learning and memory at all levels. This is a major paradigm shift away from what Whitehead called "the fallacy of misplaced concreteness" which, after four hundred years, still holds sway in the orthodox scientific view of objective reality. Readers are recommended to consult Whitehead's text to grasp the reasons for taking this radically new approach.
In 1972 I proposed that objective phenomena were extended from the fields of intention through various forms of energy. The prehension or apprehension of these phenomena is an event in the realised (historical) eventuality hierarchy. Thus intention, extension, eventuality, energetic causation and the act of prehension/apprehension (observation) could be linked into realised, hierarchical, historical systems, with levels maintained by feedback and control.
Like many others I am appalled by traditional dualistic models of the universe which omit the obvious actions of love or which restrict it to the human and supernatural realms. I chose to name the different levels of energetic expression above the material as bios, philia, storge, eros and agape.
Having been a student of the philosophy and history of science at the University of Leeds in 1959, I was disappointed but not surprised to find no interest in my new synthesis. Many years later my interest was stimulated when I came across the theories of the biologist Rupert Sheldrake, who, in order to account for such phenomena as embryonic development, proposed dynamic fields of intention which operate as formal causes which direct energetic causation. Someone was thinking along the same lines, even if in a more restricted way. I realise that my adoption of the term 'intention' to indicate all dynamic processes, both conscious and non conscious, is in opposition to the philosophical meaning of the term which restricts its use to conscious beings. However, philosophers make use of the term 'extension' to indicate both symbolic and material phenomena so I retained the use of the term for all 'noumena' for proper balance.
The Universe is shown as a self-actualising, self-organising system. Theories of the self-organising universe have now become acceptable. I must pay tribute here to Erich Jantsch’s excellent book "The Self Organizing Universe", a splendidly planned and written book following up the implications of Progogine’s breakthrough in non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Before attempting to describe the hierarchical feedback and control systems, I must distinguish between (in principle) observable phenomena or extension, and (in principle) deducible noumena or intention, and their interaction as historical events in the hierarchy of probability or eventuality.
The most obvious difference between my "theory of everything" and those of other contemporary theorists is that it not presented as a fragmented series of explanations but is essentially a set of diagrams showing inter-connectedness. I have a great difficulty in communicating in prose. It may be that the very dislike I have for laying out thoughts in a sequential structure is the reason that I was able to synthesize, simplify and interrelate such a mass of diverse material into a single system. It was rather like doing a jigsaw.
The unusual process of gestation preceding and accompanying my creation was more akin to the activity of writing poetry or composing music and I have found it almost impossible to properly account for this synthesis of so much material from so many different sources. I have been relying upon aesthetically formulated diagrams rather than prosaic description. Perhaps my creation is an example of non-linear, non-equilibrium "symbol kinematics of evolving values"!
I have no idea how the "Tree of Life" diagram came into my head. The cosmology itself is something of a jackdaws' nest, weaving together theories from seemingly incompatible sources. It also suffers from my lack of proper knowledge particularly in the fields of biology and physics. However, as an artistic creation by a 'living work of art', a weird and wonderful magic spell by a wizard and as a powerful stimulant to studying recent ideas in both science and religion, I still believe that it deserves more than an ignorant or impatient dismissal.
DEFINITIONS OF SOME IMPORTANT TERMS
Intention; the curious lack of identity and will in descriptions of the universe greatly puzzled me. These seemed to be located outside the cosmos, either in the form of a supernatural creator and more or less absent ruler, or as an observer. Pantheism is little more than nature-worship, and if everything is holy then the term is redundant. I assumed that the growth of materialism and atomism initiated by the Greek natural philosophers, who separated "Nature" from "Supernature" or the divine, had led to this objectification of the universe. I brought will or intention back into my cosmological theory by integrating it throughout the entire system as morphogenetic fields of identity, in other words, formal causes or predispositions operating at each level. Sheldrake, the heretical biologist has made similar assumptions.
Eventuality; I was not satisfied with the Judaeo-Christian concept of time as a single linear dimension. Time in my cosmology is a probabilistic hierarchical ordering of events which form themselves into systems in order of complexity.
Eventuality better represents the connection with the probability of an event occurring. It also emphasises that event probability is the way that intention and extension interface in the comprehensible systems that we actually experience as participants in the historic cosmic process.Extension; the Greek notion of space as emptiness between material bodies can no longer be sustained, especially after Relativity Theory. Moreover what is observed must not be taken for what is really "out there" as the act of observation is an interaction between the observer, a human being and part of the universe, and the observed. This process takes place as an historical event in the culture system.
Kinematics: until 1978, Dr Banks and I were using the term mechanics to describe the manifestations in space, or extension, of causation or intention. This latter term carries with it assumptions of patterning, which is not realised until both intention and extension are integrated by eventuation in a stable, historic culture system. The term kinematics better indicates the range of observable processes, which far exceeds those that can be identified by observers and located in a theoretical structure by inductive reasoning.
Systems; these are maintained by control and qualitative upgrading from the outer kinematic phenomena and provide control and upgrading to the identity fields. Alteration of any identity field is shown by changes in the expression of that field which then affects the operation of the kinematic processes.
Convergence; Extension is treated as an evolving and converging system of location; from "Nowhere" (the Big bang) to "Here" (the hypothetical convergent central place).
Intention or being, expressing itself though various types of love, is treated as an involving and converging system of identity; from "Nothing" (The Big Bang) to "Me" (the hypothetical convergent centre of being). Eventuality is treated as an evolving and converging historical system, from "Never ", or impossible (the Big Bang) to "Now" (the hypothetical inevitable convergent moment when the universe realises itself in person).
Note. Since "hard" science is reductionist, due to its location in history as a cultural phenomenon, I have here restricted my explanation to the inter-relationships at the upper system levels. I would like to point out that similar hypothetical forces, which are manifested at various levels at these levels, are adopted by physicists. Dr Banks and I have used some of these terms. Beginning with Leukos (the Em Force) and rising up through Mesos (the Strong Force) and Kinos (chemical bonding) that manifest the lower levels of physical and sub-physical reality. Bios (the id or old ‘life force’) is hypothesised to realise the intention of the biodynamic morphogenetic field. The physical levels of the cosmology are described by Dr Banks in The Physical Levels of the Post Modern Cosmology.
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE UPPER LEVELS OF THE COSMOLOGY
THE ANIMAL ETHOSYSTEM AND THE PSYCHO-DYNAMIC FIELD
No one active in the field of psychotherapy can function without the hypothetical construct of psychodynamics. This must not be confused with observable neurophysiological phenomena in the brain. Animal behaviour can be studied and theories derived from this are often referred to as ethology; hence the term Ethosystem. I have combined the two fields, together with psychology, to show the links between the neural kinematics in the brain, the animal ecosystem, the psycho-dynamic field, and the transmutation system of the biosphere or Gaia, from which the higher levels evolve. The ethologists’ concept of Innate Release Mechanisms (IRMs) is used throughout.
I divide behaviour into nurturing, fighting, copulating and dreaming/imagining. These categories are produced from the dialectical oppositions of excitated (equilibrating) versus inhibited (non-equilibrating) and weak versus strong central nervous system, proposed by Pavlov. They also correspond with Freud's oral, anal, genital and latency stages of human development. I was not satisfied with the concept of latency since I regard the brain itself as an organ whose activities cannot be simply reduced to serving other organic desires. I replaced it with the term 'neural' and associated it with such activities as dreaming and building mental models of the environment.
NERVE KINEMATICS
Nurturing…(Inhibited/Weak CNS)
ORAL Nerve Complex. Feeding and security IRMs. Succouring/dependency. Resolving nervous tension associated with fear of starvation or abandonment.
Fighting…. (Excitated/Strong CNS)
ANAL Nerve Complex. Attack/defence IRMs. Resolving nervous tension associated with aggression against threats.
Copulating…(Excitated/Weak CNS)
GENITAL Nerve Complex. Mating IRMs. Exhibiting/reacting. Resolving nervous tension associated with sexual relationships
Dreaming…(Inhibited/Strong CNS)
NEURAL Nerve Complex. Reality testing IRMs. Resolving nervous tension associated with cognitive mapping.
The psycho-dynamic field 'predisposes' an energetic expression which I term philia. The result is observable in the form of neural kinematics of evolving or devolving behaviour in species, these neural kinematic processes either resolve and express or repress nervous tension. Feedback and control processes modify and shape the realised animal ethosystem in the eventuality hierarchy through releasing. Nerve kinematics also condition the lower level transmutation system. The psychodynamic identity field of intention is modified by control from the realised ethosystem through reflexing and by feedback/upgrading in the form of excitation from the lower level transmutation system. The ethosystem provides feedback/upgrading to the mythodynamic field through stimulation. Action kinematics in the form of role performances inhibits the ethosystem.
THE MAMMALIAN SOCIAL SYSTEM AND THE MYTHODYNAMIC FIELD
At the social level the double dialectic which drives the Action Kinematics associated with evolving roles in families, is the opposition between dominance roles and submissive roles, often age-based, and between male roles and female roles. I adopt the word action here from Parsons’ core theory of social action; the expression of roles through action is the essence of social reality. As at other levels, the resolution or repression of tension is essential to avoid devolution.
ACTION ROLE COMPLEXES
Affective…(Dominant/Female)
MATERNAL Action Role Complex. Performing and responding in these interactive mother/offspring roles is essential for the socialising of mammalian offspring with their extended infancy. Human infants are particularly dependent. Roles are not fixed biologically, as in the social insects, and males may perform female roles and vice versa.
Instrumental…(Submissive/Male)
SURVIVAL Action Role Complex. Performing and responding here is necessary for dealing with threats in the environment, as well as developing male independence from dominant parents. Hunting parties in pre-agricultural societies, warrior cohorts in agricultural societies and sports teams and supporters in industrial societies help resolve these role tensions.
Collective….(Submissive/Female)
COURTSHIP Action Role Complex. Performing and responding in these roles is essential for mate selection where males perform and females respond. The fact that human females are always on heat and are capable of sexual orgasm, indicates that their bonding with males is more significant than that of other female animals. Initially the females’ response is decisive, later the males play an important part in maintaining the bond and must avoid regression to mother/offspring roles. This is a common pathological phenomenon amongst human beings. Non-sexual bonding between human beings, winning friendships and forming social groups is also part of this role complex.
Individualistic… (Dominant/Male)
REGULATION Action Role Complex. Performing and responding to the ordering of the society by authority figures generally. Preservation of order, initiation rites, connection with the sacred etc. Represented by elders and shamans in hunter-gatherers, warlords and priests in agriculturalists, capitalists and scientists in industrialists, and managers and advertising psychologists in post-industrial societies. I am again indebted to Parsons for the action alternatives of affective v instrumental and collectivistic v individualistic which are associated with the obvious social necessities of nourishment, mating, protection and government.
Mythodynamics
I depart from other sociologists and psychologists by postulating an involving Mytho-dynamic field of identity. There is a suggestion of this in both Freud and Jung. Role actions are motivated by unconscious or semiconscious intentions deriving from myths of relating to others. Unlike psychiatrists and other sociologists I chose not to reduce this field down to a psychodynamic field. My training as a sociologist has accustomed me to follow Durkheim’s principle that social phenomena cannot be understood by regarding them as no more than a summation of psychological phenomena. In view of the originality of this concept and its importance in this cosmology I will go into further detail.
Most obvious of the relationships between myth and social phenomena is Freud’s so-called Oedipus complex. This should really be called the Jocasta Complex as Oedipus himself is not motivated to kill his father or marry his mother. Killing an old man in a quarrel and accepting a marriage proposal from a wealthy and powerful older woman are much less conscious choices than Jocasta’s actions, which she carries out in the full knowledge of the prophecy. Incest taboos are the responsibility of parents, not their offspring.
Freud’s Electra complex seems another odd choice. The original Greek myth concerns Orestes rather than his sister. Orestes is commanded by the Gods to kill his mother who has killed her husband and married a younger man and who has banished Orestes and cut off her Electra from the succession. Orestes’ action in killing his mother is not an act of passion but a loathsome duty and he suffers the consequences for years afterwards. Finally all role tension is resolved. This is the only Greek family myth where this is the case. Freud assumes that Electra drives Orestes to the deed because she was in love with her father and hates her mother, a totally different scenario. As Brown points out, myths change in time. This throws light on why Aeschylus chose to write his theatrical masterpiece the Oresteia at a time when values were shifting away from feudalism to mercantilism. The myth undergoes great changes of emphasis over the century following. Euripides’ later Electra is closer to Freud’s interpretation.
I emphasise this aspect of mytho-dynamics because it is of fundamental importance to the functioning of role complexes in human societies. In hunter-gatherer societies great attention is paid to initiation rituals to separate young boys from their attachment to their mothers. Another very important myth is the Fall of Man, found in most agricultural societies in various forms. This is an account of the disaster that befalls when the archetypal man disobeys his archetypal male master, choosing to obey a female sexual partner instead. His subsequent blaming of the woman for his own failure shows that he is reverting to infantile irresponsibility. The accounts found in myths of interaction of parent and child and man and woman have proved invaluable to psychotherapists.
Mythotherapy and Logotherapy
The control and feedback links from the ideo-dynamic field though the symbol kinematics to the mytho-dynamic field show that, once unconscious myths have been revealed and explained, they can be brought under conscious control with important consequences for resolving role tension. This is also the assumption behind psychiatric theory. The psychologist Frankl has pioneered the use of the concept of logotherapy in which adequately functioning meaning systems are seen as essential for psychological and social wellbeing.,
Storge. The Mytho-dynamic field is expressed into the phenomenal world through Storge, a Greek word specifically used for parental love. See The Four Loves by C.S.Lewis.
THE HUMAN CULTURE SYSTEM AND THE IDEO-DYNAMIC IDENTITY FIELD
The sociologist Max Weber has made important theoretical contributions to the ways that ideas, as expressed in symbols, result in the evolution of values in institutions. He was careful to avoid the reductionism to purely economic interests which he considered to be the weakness of Marxist theory. Both "ideal and material interests" have to be considered when attempting to explain an historical paradigm shift when a culture evolves into a radically different form, such as the shift from religious feudalism to materialistic industrialism.
Institutions, the basic family structure, together with religious, legal, intellectual, economic and political institutions etc, have to deal continuously with structural and functional necessities to resolve or repress symbolic tension. The "strain to consistency" is the term used by Talcott Parsons whose work is invaluable in this field of study. The resistance to changes in scientific world view or ‘paradigm shifts’ has been well described by Norman Kuhn. The dialectics involved are the tension between functional and structural necessities, and that between subjective interests at one extreme and objective interests at the other.
I have made partial use of Parsons’ theoretical formulations in finding terms for the institutional value clusters that accumulate around the interactions of the pair of dialectics that operate at all levels in the cosmos. I hope the rather unusual terminology does not confuse the reader. Study of structural-functional sociology should clarify the reasons for choosing the terms. For sociology to become less vague and ideologically unbalanced, clear and unambiguous terminology showing the relationships between the different parts of the whole is needed. I have not come across any other attempt to link these processes in a systematic way. My attempt is certainly clumsy and inadequately formulated. I must leave it to others to correct and refine my efforts.
Subjective v Objective Evolving epistemological phenomena, or world-views, must obviously provide sufficient symbolic support for the inner significance of the various institutions which make them up or they will lose trust and meaning and dissolve in chaos. At the same time, if they fail to relate adequately to their outer environment and to others they will be destroyed. This dialectic may swing from one extreme to the other in times of crisis.
Structural v Functional Evolving epistemological phenomena must also provide symbolic support to maintain the structures of the institutions. This involves the creation and maintenance of absolute values. In order to function with necessary flexibility however at the same time there must be relativistic symbolic processes to reform these absolutes should the need arise. Again the dialectical process may swing suddenly from one pole to the other in times of crisis. Value Orientation Theory in cultural anthropology summarises the overall process.
SYMBOL COMPLEXES
The kinematic process of the two dialectics at all levels of the cosmos leads to the clustering of phenomena into four complexes. These "ideal types" are of course heuristic devices and must be understood to be simplified contructs.
Evaluative… (Subjective/Structural)
ARBITRATION Symbol Complex. Explanation and understanding of values concerning justice, what is fair or unfair, are paramount. Values in legal/religious/ideological institutions. Strongly emphasised in traditional societies.
Cognitive… (Objective/Structural)
IMPLEMENTATION Symbol Complex. Where explanation and understanding of how to control the environment are pre-eminent and concerns magical and scientific institutional values. Emphasised strongly in industrial societies.
Cathectic… (Objective/Functional)
CONCORDINATION Symbol Complex. Where explanation and understanding of consensus values in the culture, or what is acceptable or unacceptable, are paramount. Values in institutions engineering consent through symbolic interaction, such as education, news media, communal ritual gatherings etc. Strongest in consumer societies. Like Parsons I use the term cathectic, derived from Aristotle.
Ecstatic (Intuitive)… Subjective/Structural
LEGITIMATION Symbol Complex. Where explanation and understanding of ultimate reality and purpose is associated with values in religious, philosophical or ideological institutions. Unlike other symbol complexes, these values are transcendent to the whole culture. Ecstatic or ‘standing outside’ is similar to Jungian theory of intuition and is also associated with imagination. Emphasised strongly in hunter-gatherer societies.
THE HISTORICAL HUMAN CULTURE SYSTEM
This is upgraded through understanding of the values evolving from the symbol kinematics. The control of the lower-level social system is through discouragement of role actions that threaten the equilibrium of the social system and there is upgrading from the social system into the ideo-dynamic field through the encouragement of those role actions that benefit the system. This identity field is modified though explaining.
Eros. The Ideo-dynamic field expresses itself into Symbol Kinematics though Eros. This form of love transcends and includes parental love or storge. Eros is associated with the psychological, social and cultural interaction between male and female which has a great deal to do with the formation of culture. See N.O.Brown, "Life against Death" and "Love’s Body", for my meaning here. Even amongst the animals, the proto-cultural, symbolic phenomena which are associated with courtship display, and which may not be particularly adaptive to survival, cannot be reduced to the purely biological, psychological/behavioural or even social levels for explanation.
THE PERSONALITY SYSTEM AND THE SOUL DYNAMIC IDENTITY FIELD
The "being" which is self actualising is the involved identity at the highest level. Since this a deduced dynamic which cannot itself be observed, I describe it as the Soul Dynamic Field of involving identity. It is through Agape, the highest form of love, that this is expressed. The observable aspects of these personality phenomena I have termed the Ego Kinematics of evolving Androgynes in Cosmological space, the total world view or meaning system.The involving identity is deduced to be a kind of 'magnetic' field of intention, whereas the expressed Ego Kinematics can be observed as they are manifested.
At the highest level I have placed the Personality System. This is a deliberate and unusual decision and I need to emphasise that it is rare that any personality evolves to this level. It can become so effective that it transcends the cultural system and at this point may, under certain conditions, create a new culture. I was lecturing in primitive revitalisation movements during the upheavals and social experiments of the 1960s. As a result of cultural collapse or decline, an individual who had been through a period of successful self analysis and had reorganised his world view, might appear as a prophet and announce a new set of beliefs and new roles. If accepted by enough people and not eliminated by rival believers, this could form the basis of a new culture system. I was greatly influenced by the article "Revitalization Movements" in the American Anthropologist of 1956 by A.F.C.Wallace, a psychiatrist. He traces the pre-literate prophet’s personal transformation through the organic, psychological, social and cultural levels. Apart from such phenomena, which are common in the pre-literate world, it was obvious to me that such figures as Moses, Buddha, Jesus/Paul and Mohammad and Joseph Smith were successful or partly successful examples in the literate or semi-literate world. Mohammad’s life and teachings are fully recorded and he is an outstanding example of a realised personality of this type. Similarly, powerful personalities like The First Emperor of China, Napoleon, Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, may degrade a culture but may provide important contributions to social infrastructure.
Ego Kinematics; religious sanctions, moral philosophy or psychological theories have accustomed us to regard the ego as a "bad thing" per se. However an examination of the level at which this highest "outered" self can be observed indicates that the ego, once free of cultural constraint ( the Freudian Super Ego) and cultural nourishing ( the Freudian Ego Ideal), can be truly free to be introverted, extraverted, passive or active etc. Neitzsche is one of the few thinkers who takes this point of view. Freud’s Id or life force is presumably the input from lower level systems. I also use the term androgyne to describe the fully realised personality, with male and female aspects in equilibrium. By androgyny I do not mean biological, psychological or social bisexuality, but the balance of animus and anima sought in the alchemical tradition, this ultimate state of freedom is the subject of much philosophising
Aspiration; the final evolutionary stage of Ego Kinematics when, through inspiration, the Ego raises itself above others, is likened to shamanic flying up the cosmic axis or apotheosis through levitation or ascension into heaven. This ultimate form of self-expression is found in all cultures except purely secular societies (where the soul is not regarded as a meaningful term and ascension takes the form of a spaceship going outwards). Dreams of flying, which are a universal human phenomenon, may be the operation of associated innate release mechanisms. Thus "Me", the most involved identity, attempts to reach "Here", the central place or Heaven, at the historical time "Now". The actual possibility or impossibility of such transcendence is a "leap of faith" beyond the brief of this or any other cosmological theory.
The soul-dynamic field of intention is energetically expressed through agape. The result can be observed in the form of ego kinematics of evolving or devolving personalities in meaning matrices. Ego kinematics either resolve or repress, ego tension. Feedback and control processes modify and shape the unrealised, imaginary higher 'heavenly' system through aspiration (expressed as desires to levitate, ascend etc). Ego kinematics also negate (in the Hegelian sense) the lower level cultural system. The soul-dynamic field of intention is modified by control from the imagined transcendent system by inspiration and by feedback/upgrading in the form of affirmation from the lower level human cultural system.
The ego tension between the extremes of the feminine identity, or anima, and masculine identity, or animus, and the tension between introversion and extraversion, is the subject of much study by traditional magician-scientists up to the theories of Jung, whose terminology I have partly adopted. Meaning systems may evolve through these ego kinematics. The double dialectical interaction produces four ego complexes.
EGO COMPLEXES
Feeling….(Introverted/Anima)
PHLEGMATIC Ego Complex. The ego concerns itself with and depends upon others.
Expression....(Extraverted/Animus)
CHOLERIC Ego Complex. The ego expresses itself to others
Sensation…(Extraverted/Anima)
MELANCHOLIC Ego Complex. The ego senses itself in others
Imagination....(Introverted/Animus)
SANGUINE Ego Complex. The ego raises itself above others.
There is considerable literature on the four temperaments or humours in the magical tradition. Theories of self-actualisation in current psychology are also helpful in describing these forms of ego-complexes. The impact of influential personalities on meaning systems is the subject of major historical studies. These are of course "ideal types" adopted for heuristic reasons.