Saturday, July 28, 2007

BOOK WORDS #1

CONNECTING WITH THE FLOW OF ARNOLD MINDELL


Here I attempt the review of three titles by Arnold Mindell. It is a daunting task. Technicalities of math and physics are for me foreign regions of learning. Also, in saying I review Dr. Mindell’s books I certainly do not claim to understand the complexities of texts or man. I read and often have a sense of the author's intention connecting with me on the deep level of poetic movement. This level may well be a form of dreaming in the open way Mindell extends the term— image making musicality out of the virtual realities of parallel worlds; working into harmony of diverse, subtly nuanced polarities. That is, the universal design-shaping mysteries of the circle without center; what Arny Mindell calls the “nonlocality of Dreaming and Dreammaker.”


Admittedly there are times when I am more dismayed than fascinated, wondering if there is a crack in the earthenware, if I am being lead into outer space, or if there is simply a vital link missing in my own experience? Of this however I am certain: Mindell would approve this questioning “if-phase,” encouraging me to be in touch with body, breath and sentient awareness—key terms in the flow-universe of Arnold Mindell.


I came to know of Dr. Mindell rather late in the process of our parallel journeys, having happened upon a copy of his early title DREAM BODY at a library sale but three years previous. That book instantly made the short list of favorite contemporary volumes. It is fortunate for others that there is a new edition from the author’s own Lao Tse Press out of the Process Work Institute in Portland, Oregon.


But now I look to share some of the flow of Arny Mindell as his pioneering enters the 21st century. Before me are three titles: QUANTUM MIND, The Edge Between Physics And Psychology; Lao Tse Press, 2000, paper $26.95; THE DREAMMAKER’S APPRENTICE, Using Heightened States Of Consciousness To Interpret Dreams; Hampton Roads, 2001, hc $22.95; EARTH BASED PYSCHOLOGY, Path Awareness From The Teachings Of Don Juan, Richard Feynman And Lao Tse; Lao Tse Press, 2007, paper $17.95. For anyone familiar with the subjects referred to in the subtitles, these titles intimate the copious content.


Still, the reviewing task remains daunting. First because of the combinations of math, physics and psychology, secondly because the three titles together constitute 1,045 pages. Equally, the guiding thought here, the flow, is often riding the wave-edges between consensual and imaginal reality. By way of yet another metaphor, this substantial body of work resembles a richly flavored alphabet soup. One wants to eat and savor, but one wants to stop and play as well, to see what words of intimate meaning can be fished up from the magical broth. This impression suggest the allure and invitation of genuine paradoxical thinking and EARTH BASED PSYCHOLOGY, in particular, may well come to occupy a place similar to another seminal work from the counter culture of the Vietnam era, namely THE POLITICS OF EXPERIENCE by RD Lang.


All in all, justice cannot be done to the several years, if not decades, of experience based thought transcribed onto these pages. So I read and come to a resolution, knowing that to really connect with this flow I too need months if not years of meditative study, dreaming, dream working, experimentation. Before this challenge I must settle into an open humility, confessing that the best to be had is to share with the reader optimal results of my connecting thus far. Maybe, just possibly, proceeding in this way is to realize some of what Mindell calls “Path Awareness?”


Starting with EARTH BASED PYSCHOLOGY, after three days I make a spontaneous connection between the Mindell discussion of the way quantum waves morph and respond when observed and a personal experience with a passing raven on an isolated, summer road in Canada. The connection is ripe, birthing a prose poem in honor of Arnold Mindell (see below). Next, searching for better understandings for usages of specific terms, I turn to THE DREAMMAKER’S APPRENTICE and on page 25 find a diagram depicting the schemata of three concentric spheres identifying Dreaming, Dreams and Everyday Consensus Reality. The design is titled The Dreammaker’s Plan. Immediately I wonder if this scheme connects with the three reality spheres of the Persian mystic Ibn Arabi: Material World, World of Creative Imagaination and Godhead (Mindell’s Dreammaker). By pages 58-59 I am into practicing a new dream work exercise.


Between the complexity of THE QUANTUM MIND and exquisite teachings of EARTH BASED PYSCHOLOGY, lightening strikes often, with the effect of motive imagination and shamanic dreaming. I read further and suddenly break off to scribble out a note on the subtle possibilities of dialogue. The note reveals how even frustrated non-knowing turns fruitful. “If we speak in languages that are dissimilar but the movement in both listener and speaker (and vice-versa) is a mirroring movement, reflecting shared awareness, has the communication dissolved the limitations of separation and been successful?”


At another read, I turn from a tickling remark about time to reflection on a line from a recently revised poem, where I use the phrase “Sweet Dove of Now.” Again an inspired note: “In saying Sweet Dove of Now, this now is nothing. Yet this seemingly negative becomes affirmation within the Tao of nonlocality. Here Sweet Dove of Now is a specific image-shape, a gestalt, out of the circle without center. And what is that? Self? Tao? Buddha Mind? Christ Consciousness?”


But am I speaking about myself, or about Arnold Mindell? Likely both, because I am engaged and will honestly wager that Dr. Mindell approves the inclusive answer. Arny is, after all, a person talking with us on the deep democracy of creation, and inviting those who feel his words to enter the flow: to be in touch, to breath, to become conscious of sentient awareness.

This is the first in a serious of reviews of new and contemporary books pioneering the spiritual evolution of Earth life. Upcoming reviews will include a new title by Robert Moss, THE THREE ONLY THINGS (New World Library, Sept. 2007), two volumes by Sandra Ingerman, MEDICINE FOR THE EARTH & HOW TO HEAL TOXIC THOUGHTS, and a medley of books by the late American Jungian Dr. Edward Edinger.