Proto-theories for a science of the psychic field
Psychic unfolding as the 'process' of spiritual complexity
A lot of this inquiry- essentially all of it, at least so far- is introducing or re-framing concepts. I suppose one way to put it would be that it is more of a creative ‘metaphysical’ inquiry, which aims to explore an understanding of the World starting from the mystery of human embodiment, or spiritual complexity, or the lived experience of being human.
A more accurate rendering of this inquiry, though, the more it goes on and the more questions arise, is not only the investigation of the question of spiritual complexity, but of developing proto theories for a science of the psychic field, or the social field, or intelligible field. Indeed, at the heart of this investigation is the tension between psychic and social (or even intelligible) and how, if at all, to differentiate between the two (or three), and such a meaningful differentiation has not yet been made in this inquiry. And so, the general aim here is to explore whether or not these two (or three) can be teased apart, and if so, how, and if these concepts can lead to a foundation for how to consider them more clearly, and maybe in a scientific way.
One of the broad questions at the heart of this inquiry, then, which always seems difficult to answer, and perhaps cannot even be answered, is: what exactly is science?
We might say that science, whatever ‘area’ or ‘fractal’ it is concerned with, is fundamentally about discovering organizations: biological, ‘social’, chemical, psychical, and so on. We might say that to make scientific progress is to make deep and interesting insights into the nature of organizations, their patterns, their secrets, their logics and how they behave.
It is of course difficult to do this on a psychic scale, or social scale, since it is difficult to say exactly what a psychic organization, or social organization, is. But we might at least point out that in the way chemicals and chemical compounds have certain organizations, so too do the processes of human embodiment, or psychic life, or social organizations; they have a ‘logic’ and organization on their own, more complex than chemical organizations, but equally attuned to structure, or ‘attractors’. Thus, some important questions being dealt with here are: what is a psychic, or social, organization? How, if at all, are they different? And equally, what is the psychic or social field? Or, what is a ‘psychic reaction’; or, perhaps, a ‘psychic compound’? 1 Does ‘psycommons’ capture the idea of a psychic field? 2
In a few more posts, once the initial proto theories and concepts and problems are suggested here, which are a work in progress and by no means fully developed, there will be a glossary to outline the initial ‘first step’ in the project, which are the primary coordinates to continue the inquiry. And so, along with the question outlined in the first post (How do we manage the spiritual complexity of our lives?) another central question is: can there be a science of the psychic field, or social field, or intelligible field, and if so, what would be the starting axioms?
Psychic unfolding
Here in this post, I want to suggest that there isn’t a concept that accounts for the process of human embodiment, or ‘spiritual complexity’ clearly, as it certainly isn’t ‘thinking’, or ‘feeling’ in the way we normally understand it; and I suggest that ‘psychic unfolding’ is a concept to account for the unified process of human embodiment, of what it feels like to be human at any given time, how ‘thoughts and feelings’ enter and inform our being in the world.
As a more precise definition, psychic unfolding here means the embodied process and feeling of our being in the world, through our human bodies/minds. At all times, we are strangely alive and attuned to the world, and this is generally what I mean by ‘psychic unfolding’: the psychic process of our being here, the process of the ‘lifeworld’. In the language of the last post, one might say psychic unfolding deals with the governing and unfolding of spells- or psychic compounds.
One of the clear difficulties (there are many) in this is how to account for our cybernetic placement (as ‘selves’) in this picture. How can one understand psychic unfolding not only as a process of the psychic world ‘unfolding’ within and through us, but also our cybernetic placement in that world, of being apart of that unfolding, of making decisions in it? Along with trying to make a distinction between psychic and social organizations, or fields, this too remains a great mystery: how to account for the ‘self’ in terms of ‘psychic unfolding’? 3
Importantly, psychic unfolding is not merely an ‘individual process’; when, for example, we are in a group, and we are all on the same page (or not), one might say that psychic unfolding is a shared practice. It deals with the mysterious process of being sensitive to the World and how that sensitivity occurs and is illuminated in our own human bodies- and when in groups, this sensitivity happens and unfolds in unique ways. 4
Even though there are a number of problems and uncertainties with such a broad concept that have not yet been sorted out yet, psychic unfolding deals with the process of meaningfully engaging in the World, the ability to exist within and through the World; the process of being magically sensitive to the intelligible world. Or, in the language of this substack, psychic unfolding is the process of spiritual complexity; it is a blanket term to point to our ongoing inner illumination, and our sensitivity to the World in a way that enlivens us, in a way that moves us, in a way that is somehow intelligible.
Perhaps a ‘psychic compound’ can be understood as a ‘spell’
Denis Postle on the psycommons: https://wildernessweb.org/take-4-the-psycommons-a-conference-talk/
That will remain an open question, but one might say that a psychic organization is an organization that fundamentally deals with ‘choice’ and the awareness of ‘choice’.
Another obvious tension, going back to the concerns on ‘psychic’ and ‘social’ organizations above, is how, if there is a shared instance of psychic unfolding, does that make it a social organization, or a psychic one, or somehow, both?