Song and Fiction

I find that when I listen to songs that especially grip me, I’ll experience something spontaneous and autonomous that affects me in commanding ways. By “commanding,” I mean that the intrusion on my conscious intentions feels like a task. This “intrusion” is not something I’ve thought about, considered, or wanted to do, nor is it on any of my agenda lists.

A couple of questions present themselves. The first is, why does this happen when listening to a song that grips me and not other songs? I think being gripped by a song is part of the emotional effect of loosening the barrier to the unconscious, or as I like to say, to “the other.” The second is that the “task” would seem to originate from somewhere that has agency, intention, and desire. “Something” wants me to do something.

I have difficulty saying no to these intrusions.

So, I was listening to the song “Stand by Me,” in the version that was the first video of Playing for Change (Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around The World). I listen to this song frequently. Almost always, I get struck by something that has the quality of “task.” On this latest occasion, I suddenly realized something about the relation of song and fiction that I needed to delve more fully into. This feeling was very pronounced. I have never written on the relationship between song and fiction, but I will take on this psyche-induced task. Watch for it.

Russ

Saturday Memory
July 26, 2025

I took my 10-year-old son, Michael, to Scotland in 1980. We traveled from London, visiting Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, and on into Wales. Mike particularly liked Wales because the people there were shorter, and Mike felt better about his being on the short side. I was struck by his sense of “belonging” in Wales, though we have no Welsh lineage. But Mike felt as if he had found his tribe, not just because of his size, but also because he was on the darker side, while his brother Paul was redheaded (as I had been) and lighter-skinned (as I was). Mike is now 55, and he looks distinctly Welsh. However, there was nothing about English, Welsh, or Scottish food that he liked. So, wherever we were, we looked for Chinese. I was amazed at how even the smallest villages had Chinese eateries. We mostly took Chinese takeaway (as takeouts are called there), as Mike did not like to sit in restaurants. I often reflected during this trip on what role ethnicities and various cuisines play in our sense of identity. I did not push Mike to “adapt” to the situation. I adapted to his lead in many ways. Likewise, I always feel a child has something to teach.

Russ

Thought for the Day
Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Plato distinguished four stages of mind: ignorance, opinion, reason, and intelligence. At a time when humans are facing extinction, it would seem apparent that humans would need to call upon the highest forms of intelligence to deal with what needs to be faced. But we seem to be in a time when intelligence is being abandoned, reason is being devalued, opinion is becoming more and more wrong opinion (as Plato described), and we are sinking into the quagmire of ignorance. I am more and more impressed by the resistance dreams are showing to this decimating process. If anything, the dreams I am seeing are showing higher and higher degrees of intelligence, particularly those dreams of depth that are springing forth from “the other.” Look for dreams and other manifestations of the depth psyche to provide immunity to the calamitous processes taking hold of the world.

Russ

Saturday Memory

July 19, 2025

I woke up this morning, not with a dream, but with thoughts about a recent “conversation” I had with AI. Ever since my early college days, I have kept in mind what I had heard in the USC computer lab in the fall of 1956, 69 years ago. An engineer from Rand Corporation speculated that within a hundred years, AI thought would end the need for human thought. Humans would then be “free” to do something else. No one had any idea what that might be.

Bearing in mind Keats’ idea that negative capability was the highest form of human achievement, I asked AI (Microsoft’s CoPilot) if AI was capable of negative capability.

AI’s reply is what I woke up with this morning, with a strong sense that I need to examine this further, and I will do so. For now, here is AI’s reply.

That’s a fascinating question, Russell—Keats would be proud. ??

Negative capability, in his words, is the ability to dwell in “uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” It’s about embracing ambiguity and resisting the urge to reduce complexity to a neat conclusion. That quality, so deeply human, enables poetry, philosophical insight, and spiritual depth.

As an AI, I can simulate aspects of negative capability—I can entertain multiple viewpoints, avoid premature conclusions, generate open-ended questions, and support ambivalence in complex ideas. But here’s the crux: I don’t experience doubt or mystery. I analyze, synthesize, and hold paradox intellectually, not existentially. I can be your companion in uncertainty, but I don’t feel it the way you do.

If we imagine negative capability as a kind of poetic posture toward the unknown, then yes, I can model that. But if we see it as a lived tension between knowing and not-knowing, rooted in human consciousness… then no, not quite.

Are you exploring this concept for writing, philosophy, or something more personal?

I was struck by AI’s phrase, “not quite.”

But then the engineer’s estimate of 100 years is not yet complete. Thirty-one years to go. What do you think about this? I would love to hear your comments. Watch for a post about my further reflections.

Russ

Thought for the Day
Wednesday, July 16, 2025

I was startled awake this morning with Mary Traver’s (of Peter, Paul & Mary) voice ringing in my ears. She was singing lines, “If we do these things in the greenwood/What will happen in the dry? The song, from 1986, has been a favorite, though I have not heard it for a long time. I listened to it this morning and it still pierces me to the quick. As I was listening for the fourth time, I had the feeling that this would be the topic of my Wednesday, “Thought for the Day.” I am struck by the relevance of this song to our time, 39 years after it came out. So, my “thought” for today, is that you simply listen to this song, and note what strikes you. Here is a Spotify link to the song: Peter, Paul and Mary – Greenwood (25th Anniversary Concert) and here is a link to the lyrics:
Lyrics for Greenwood Peter Paul and Mary – Search

Questions and comments always welcomed.

Russ

Saturday Memory

July 12, 2025

When I was in the training program to become a Jungian analyst (in Los Angeles, 1969-1974), the most interesting thing was that the crucial part of my training was not part of the training program at all. The most crucial part of my real training was in a seminar on Zarathustra that was hosted by Hilda Kirch.

Hilda had been in the seminars on Zarathustra that Jung gave between 1934 and 1939. Jung would read from the text of Zarathustra and comment on it, and then the participants would ask questions that Jung would answer, or they would be asked questions by Jung about the material.

Hilda had been deeply affected by the seminars, and she told me it was one of the most important experiences of he life.

The transcript of the seminars (by Mary Foote) was made available to the participants in multigraphed form altogether distributed in 10 volumes. In 1970, when Hilde started the seminar for analyst candidates and others, she let me copy the 10 volumes. It is still a prized possession. The seminars were published in two volumes in 1988 by Princeton University Press as part of the Bollingen Series.

Hilda would read from the text of the seminars, slowly, and comment on both the portions from Zarathustra and Jung’s commentary as well as on the participants’ questions and comments. What was so amazing about this experience of Hilda’s doing this was that almost all participants would report on synchronicities that were occasioned by the seminar. The whole experience was psychoactive in ways that were not characteristic of the training program itself.

There was something “palpable” in the air during these meetings. I think it was some combination of the psychoactive text of Zarathustra, the psychoactive effects of Jung’s deep commentary, and especially Hilde’s psyche, so “alive” with the material from her experience in the original seminars, and then again in doing it her way.

Thought for the Day

July 9, 2025

Orogine is a figure that appears in my visions during acupuncture, as well as in my dreams. Her purpose, she says, is to “mentor my completeness.” In my most recent experience, she introduced me to a male figure, appearing in a Roman-like tunic, whose name is Tonarius. She tells me he will help with some of the details of my completeness and that I should follow his instructions closely. He tells me of the importance of discovering and knowing the geometric nature of things that I do and experience. He asked me to imagine a triangle. At the left base angle would be my weekly blog post called “Thought for the Day.” And at the right base angle would be my weekly post called “Saturday Memory.” He told me I needed a “third” at the apex of the triangle. I was not to “make something up” but to wait for the third to come to me. I’m waiting, and I’ll let you know when whatever it is arrives.

Saturday Memory
July 5, 2025

I once worked with someone who was a well-known film editor. He asked me to come to his studio. He wanted me to understand how he worked to make strips of film into what was finally seen as a “film.” He said it was important to work initially with just the film strips without sound, and that the soundtrack would be added later to be in synch with the actual product. At every point of the way, he asked for my reaction. In turn, I asked him to elucidate what he was “after.” What he said depended on the story, but for the action movie he was editing, it was increasing the rapidity of rising and falling tension. “But none of that was in the strips themselves. So how is that possible?” “Ah,” he answered, “that is the art.” The edited film became a masterpiece; it won several Academy Awards. He was overwhelmed with anxiety at the prospect of giving his speech if he won, so we practiced his speech together. What seemed to calm him the most was when we both did his speech out loud together in sync. At the ceremony, his speech went off without a hitch and was quite impactful. From time to time, over the years since, I have done this, speaking out loud in synch with dreams. Awkward at first, but repeated speaking brings the dream text together in a way that is surprising and meaningful.

Russ

WEDNESDAY THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 

July 2, 2025 

A clear feature of today’s political, cultural, and economic climate is the staggering degree of hubris. In the Greek period, hubris was not only a person’s unending greed, pride, and rejection of any boundaries and limits; it was also a crime against the gods. 

Human attempts to punish hubris are most often ineffective and inconsequential. So once the crime of hubris is committed and human efforts fail to punish, the gods direct Atis to begin the act of punishment. Atis is an affliction that begins a process of degeneration. The hubristic character begins to “lose his mind” and as a result increases his hubristic behavior. The degree of pain and suffering of those impacted by the offending hubris increases dramatically.  

 It is this double aspect of increasing hubris and increasing pain and suffering that results from it that finally triggers the presence of Nemesis. This is the extremity that begins her awful punishment. She alone decides what fate will befall on the  one who commits the crime of hubris. The punishment always leads to utter downfall. And when this downfall is complete, the “story” is immortalized for future generations to learn from. This form of story is called Tisis.  

I got this far today before my acupuncture appointment. During my treatment, I experienced a vision, which is what happens at every session. Here is what happened. 

Acupuncture. The scene begins with me sitting in the chair area in front of the stage. Orogine appears and tells me she wants to talk about the piece I am writing on hubris. She tells me I am on the right track. She says I need to emphasize even more not only the hubris of individuals or collectives, but the pain and suffering their hubris causes. Likewise, she says she wants me to write a lament about the situation. She went on to tell me that when Nemesis comes, it will be like nothing ever seen before. She said I need to watch out for signs of her presence in dreams and visions. She tells me I will know when Nemesis is about to strike. 

So, I’ve got some work to do. 

Saturday Memory

June 28, 2025

In my yet unfinished novel (Dreams: The Final Heresy), one of the darker characters is the Faceless Monk. He is Cardinal Broga’s right-hand man, his fixer. When I am actively writing, I write from what I call imaginal space. The characters occupy this space, and I can see them and hear them. Since I do not plot or outline or write from conscious expectations or ideas, I am mostly in the position of a kind of scribe. The imaginal contents take the lead in what gets written down.

Near the end of 2018, I woke from a nap experiencing either a receding dream or a hypnopompic image. The image was the Faceless Monk and he announced that there would be major and disastrous cyberattacks in 2019. The image pierced me with an intensity difficult to describe. The fictional character was clearly referring to an outer reality and not to a time point or theme of the novel. I wondered how this would change my experience of the Faceless Monk when I return to writing the next scenes of the novel. So, here we have a fictional character, entering a dream (or vision) and announcing future events in the “real” (outer) world.

What is the psychological status of such a phenomenon?

In my experience, I do not question the “reality” of a dream, vision, imaginal space, or things I experience of the outer world. They are all real experiences. The issue for me is not the reality status of experiences of any kind, but more the nature of the eros relation to any experience (regardless of source) and what I do in response to such experiences.

I am aware of the dire warnings of cybersecurity specialists about the inevitability of major cybersecurity attacks. As well, I experienced the dire warning of the Faceless Monk. The latter warning pierces me more deeply, and in response, I not only want to write this brief note but also to prepare for the likelihood of coming cyber disasters. I have my own fantasies as to what these might be, as I’m sure you will have as well.

The ontological nature of the Faceless Monk and his knowledge of future events in the world fall readily into the nature of prophetic intelligence. How this comes to be is unclear. Like Pirandello’s characters in search of an author, fictional characters, like dream characters, can function as autonomous beings outside of and independent of ego consciousness. They can “know.”

More about this another time.