Tag Archives: Symbols

Symbols and the role they play in personal and spiritual development.

Connecting to the unconscious through film

Star Wars IV vs Star Trek V

Star Wars IV vs Star Trek V – psychological vs visionary sources of mythology

I will be giving an online session for the Kent Psychotherapy Network (KPN), on 29th January 2022, 10:30am to noon GMT. It is open to anyone for £10 (KPN’s fee) and will not be recorded, due to using copyrighted material (under ‘fair use’ rules).

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PhD Research into Religious Tolerance

Help wanted!

For the past few years, I have been pursuing some PhD research into the relationship between personality and mythology. The overall aim is to find ways of promoting religious tolerance. It is based on Jung’s analytical psychology and is now in the final stretch.

I would appreciate your help by completing four online questionnaires, which will take about 30 minutes in total. When you have finished, there will be a report in the form of a PDF file, or Ebook, or you can read the results online. There is more information about the research on the page that introduces the questionnaires, at https://research.myers.co. Thank you, in advance.

If you have any questions or comments, please use my contact page (above).

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Is the Swastika a symbol of evil or of good?

Hindu Swastika

A Jew and a Hindu had very different views when debating the meaning of the Swastika on BBC’s Sunday Morning Live (3rd Nov 2013).  As part of Diwali week (a Hindu festival) the BBC asked David Schneider and Kiran Bali to debate the question: “Can the Swastika be reclaimed as a symbol of peace?”

The BBC followed this up with a half-hour programme: The Story of the Swastika.  The two programmes illustrate some of the fundamental differences between how people think differently in the West and East, and how problems of conflict can be overcome from the perspective of analytical psychology.

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The Societal Value of Conspiracy Theorists

On the Sunday Politics recently, Andrew Neil called the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones an idiot, and made a circular motion pointing his finger at his own head to suggest Jones was crazy. You can see the 5 minute exchange using the BBC’s video clip (right, or at the BBC website).

To many viewers, it may have seemed a natural response for Neil to dismiss Jones as a crazy person.  However, from the perspective of Jung’s analytical psychology, that would be to respond to an error with another error – because Neil allowed himself to get drawn into Jones’ black and white thinking.  Also, there is something of potential value in Jones’ intensity of belief and breadth of support – because it suggests there is something else occurring at a much deeper, cultural level.

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The power of symbols

Crosses at West Kirby Marine Lake

Why do dozens of people stand in near-freezing temperature for an hour, holding two planks of wood, saying very little, and for no reward?  In what has become an annual event at West Kirby, at 10:30am on Good Friday, local churches surrounded the Marine Lake – with the sole aim of holding up a cross for anyone in the vicinity to see.

The symbol of the cross unites more than two billion Christians across the globe.1  But – you might ask – what makes it different to other images that are also recognisable across the world – such as the McDonalds, Apple or BMW logos?

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