Notes from a book called "Quantum Psychology: Steps Toward A Postmodern Ecology of Being"

I did a heavy room clean today and found notes from this book I was slowly digesting during my fifth year of undergrad. After reading these notes from a book written by the psychologist Stephen DeBerry, I realized that this really started a breaking point of my earlier undergrad work to the substances I worked with after these notes and continue to work from now.

Here are some favorites from these rediscovered notes:

Our Universe-> from isolated arena of fragmented and seperate objects to an ecological network of interconnected possibilities. From people as a collection of separate symptoms to a holistic concept of what it means to be alive.

"The first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. This is okay as far as it goes. The second step is to disregard that which can't be measured or give it an arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading. The third step is to presume that what can't be measured easily isn't very important. This is blindness. The fourth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really doesn't exist. This is suicide" - Daniel Yankelovich

IT IS EXPERIENCE, NOT THEORY, THAT IS MOST MEANINGFUL AND MUST COME FIRST


"A quantum approach entails a system of probability in which all possible outcomes are considered. This does not mean that clusters or patterns do not develop from the experience of one's upbringing... patterns reflect general possibilities of tendencies of behavior, where as symptoms reflect specific events. Patterns are dynamic and interactive, whereas symptoms are static and discreet.
Psychological patterns, like waves and particles in the physical universe are interactive; they do not manifest themselves unless certain conditions exist. Interestingly enough, these conditions depend on what we are looking for as well as the methods we employ."

CONSCIOUSNESS PLAYS A ROLE IN CONSTRUCTING REALITY.

The everyday world in which we live clearly follows a Newtonian, classical cause and effect paradigm that is implicated in one of the central paradoxes that quantum psychology inspires. THE PARADOX IS THAT THE COMMONSENSE, ORGANIZED CASUAL WORLD WE INHABIT IS BUILT ON A STARTINGLY MYSTERIOUS, SUBATOMIC, QUANTUM WORLD. In some clandestine manner, it is the interaction of these levels of reality that results in our world being.

Epistemic dualism: a method of reasoning that distinguishes between what in principle must be true and what in reality can be accomplished.

Some concepts:
1. Complementarity "The universe can never be described in a singular, unitary matter, but rather, must be understood through multiple, overlapping reality and perspectives. Such layers of reality sometimes complement one another, but often, they are paradoxical." Niels Bohr

2. Consciousness: "If consciousness cannot affect matter, then it is the only scientific example where one system (matter) can effect another system (mind) without being affected itself." E.P. Wigner

3. The interaction of systems.

4. Non-linearity and non-locality.

• Non-linearity: Chaos: "The irregular, unpredictable behavior of deterministic, non-linear dynamical systems and dynamics freed at last from the shackles of order and predictability... systems liberated to randomly explore their every dynamical possibility... exciting variety, richness of choice, a cornucopia of opportunity." Gleick
• Non-locality: the ability to comprehend something like the actuality of 1 billion people or god
  "Questioning makes one open, makes one sensitive, makes one humble. We don't suffer from our questions, we suffer from our answers. Most of the mischief in the world comes from people with answers, not from people with questions." -John Needleman

Quantum Buttons (based on non-local theories of quantum mechanics)

• Can be thought of as emotional triggers
• Represent sensitive configurations of consciousness that are often below our level of awareness (prelinguistic)
• Resonate in and activate unconscious or split-off parts of early perverbal emotional memories

Quantum Effects: ripples; wavelike after effects of the triggered event (artistic creations, especially music)

Schizoid Phenomena: Indicates a division or split within the mind, and therefore are, in every general way, related to the problem of consciousness.

Psychological dimensions that are affected by schizoid conditions are:

1. Behavior– becomes inconsistent and situational
2. Emotions- represented primarily as a psychological process affected by schizoid phenomena (split off from awareness)
3. Thoughts- thoughts and emotions are two complimentary modes of processing information
4. Sensations
5. Imagery
   

Less Seriously

Allowing myself to not take myself seriously has made the world of a difference, and I owe a lot of it to the wise words of George Carlin found on YouTube, on The View no less.

To see the entire video click here. Below is a translation of him speaking from 3:55 to 4:33. I highly recommend watching all of it, though. Its chock full of excellence on his part.


"When I first changed the kind of stuff I was doing in the late sixties–– I had been a suit and tie comic out of the fifties and I had short hair and all that–– and I realized I was doing the wrong thing for the wrong people and I let myself change into more of a freer (if you would use the word hippie) look and attitude and I realized that, um, I said to my wife at that time when I changed I said, "You know even if I only filled coffeehouses three days a week for the rest of my life I'd be happy doing that." And when you let go of goals and stuff, I mean the attachment to goals–– that's when things come to you. You should have an end point, but not a thing like that."