I was listening to NPR radio this morning and a story about Temple Grandin. Grandin has autism but because of her condition has the gift to understand how animals think since she too thinks in much the way they do...in pictures.

Think about that statement. Animals think in pictures. The psyche of many animals recognize stimuli in the environment because it often means life or death.
Then think how Gandin with her autism condition thinks. In pictures. Pictures are images and in animals there is a natural imprinting of images that warn, or inform animals of impending danger or those things that will help the animal survive.

Now consider that in dreams there are also images, pictures, that do the same psychologically for the dreamer...warnings or things that will help. To me this provides evidence that Jung's archetypes, universal symbols we all possess, are not only correct but are in some ways shared with the animal kingdom as a whole. Evolution connects all things to each other, we all are related, animals and humans {in the Gaia principle so are all things}. It is not a stretch to connect the dots and see how the psyche of the animal kingdom have these similarities and the concept of archetypes takes on new meaning, and acceptance.

I will comment more on this subject after more study. My interest in the intuitive mind, to tap into those greater possibilities afforded to the deeper psyche and use them in the same way Temple Grandin uses her great talents to understand the thought processes of animals. How great are they really, and how do we access them? Does using Jungian psyche help do that? I believe so, my own intuitive experiences {and they are more than just interpreting dreams} supporting these beliefs with credible evidence rather than just the belief itself.

Jerry

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I recently downloaded the audio of The Power of Myth. I had cassette recordings of it years ago, would listen to it, but now I have some life experience in context with it.

Anyway, I'm reading Grandin's wiki-article and I heard remnants of Joseph Campbell when it quoted her saying:

It struck me on another level, one that I've been struggling to realize more clearly lately. That is, we act as if we have no dependence on the animals and plants that sustain us. Campbell explained how our primitive ancestors' dependence made them have great respect for their animals. They even made their primary food animals the central God of their religion.

It's difficult to have that sense of sacredness about the world today. Campbell said the ancestors would thank the animal for giving up its life to us, whereas today it wouldn't cross our minds to thank the animal, we thank our notion of the One who created the animal, detaching us from the immediate reality of life and death, if we thank anything at all.

This also reminds me that he said there is a big difference in attitude of one who approaches life as "thou" to one who says "you" or "it". It would seem to acknowledge our dependence on something as great as or greater than ourselves. Something I see is being elaborately worked in the Sacred Balance Gaia link you posted.

The idea that Grandin thinks in pictures reminds me of a statement Jung made about the foundations of our contemporary thought patterns. It's from his Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious:

""Thoughts" were objects of inner perception, not thought at all, but sensed as external phenomena-seen or heard, so to speak. Thought was essentially revelation, not invented but forced upon us or bringing conviction through its immediacy and actuality. Thinking of this kind precedes the primitive ego-consciousness, and the latter is more its object than its subject. But we ourselves have not yet climbed the last peak of consciousness, so we also have a pre-existent thinking, of which we are not aware so long as we are supported by traditional symbols-or, to put it in the language of dreams, so long as the father or the king is not dead."

I thought it was ironic that Grandin would have such a deep sensitivity to animals and yet consider human emotional bonds as something unnatural to her. Also the fact that she uses anti-depressants, that would suggest that she has emotions. This type of pictorial thinking strikes me as somehow dissimilar to the patterns of typical pre-rational thought. Yet I am not an expert on the complexities of autism. Thanks for the interesting post Jerry.

One little mention, I watched PBS new doc. on Mach Picchu last night, I was awed in particular by the part that showed the "curator" making his daily trek along the traditional trail that led up to the site. The trail wound directly along the edge of a great precipice! The narrator mentioned these were a people not afraid of heights. (To say the least.)
In a way that is like when Jung mentioned to a patient who called him Oncle, that what matters most at the end and fullness of life, is how much we scrubbed the floor. If it was sufficient. It seems he could often be very traditional.

Ironically, I wonder how much I use this inward journey as a barrier to hide from the tasks of life. I still have much to prove, as you recently said, by my "actions".

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