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According to all reports, the Dalai Lama is turning his attention from Buddhism towards the “secular ethics” of selflessness, compassion and connectedness. Actually, this doesn’t sound too far from the Buddha’s teachings, though the new approach may be from a slightly different angle. How rare to see someone refuse power within grasp, pushing away adulation and insisting that he is an ordinary human being, like everyone else. When asked if he would be reincarnated once again after his death, to be reborn as the Dalai Lama in new form, he said “No.” According to the tradition that installed the first Dalai Lama around 1400, this is his 14thstint, and this is it. Ready to go elsewhere. The position is no longer relevant, he says, because the world is moving toward something new in spiritual development. But like it or not, “ordinary” or not, Tenzin Gyatso, enthroned in 1940 at the age of four, may be one of the leaders of this new movement, as people flock to hear him when he appears in public. Interesting to see where this goes, don’t you think?
What is “religion,” anyway? Why is it such a controversial subject, not to be addressed at proper dinner parties for fear of offending someone? How are we to understand its eruption on today’s political scene? How did fear, suspicion, hatred, exclusion and intolerance come to be a part of religious baggage, and what meaning can we retrieve from religious traditions? What part will quantum physics play in a new approach to meaning? And maybe a more whimsical subject (or possibly not so whimsical): Can robots make soul?
To that end, this year’s conference will help us sort out what “new religion” means, with reminders of old practices and a calling out of zealotry. Zealotry is often a mark of secret uncertainty, part of the old religious order. The new order may be one of less certainty and more openness to questioning. |
| | | Speakers
Craig E. Stephenson – This year, Zurich-trained Jungian analyst/author/ scholar –will help us view the past as prologue with his exploration of a 17thCentury case of demon possession that offered both Freud and Jung insight into our psychological scaffolding –a launch-pad to today’s mangled, fractious and violent demonization of “believers” and “non-believers.” How does Jung’s concept of possession help us assess the cultural assumptions of Western psychopathology? He’ll also walk us through an intervention of zar cult possession that challenges monotheistic attitudes toward mental health and well-being.
Professor Jeffrey Kripal – Rice University’s J. Newton Razor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought and former chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Rice, will dip into his Midwestern roots and Benedictine monastic training to tease apart the implications of privileging this ethnicity or that religious ego over our shared global humanity. (He’s also a sci-fi maven.)
Jungian analyst Wynette Barton will guide us into the purposeful life depicted in the Gospel of Thomas –an enigmatic text that exhorts individual consciousness over religious rules, the sacred over the profane. (How did that revolution get co-opted?)
Leslie Harrell Dillen – Star of the recent one-woman show The Passions of Mabel Dodge Luhan will perform and reflect on Taos host, Mabel Dodge Luhan, who brought C.G. Jung, D.H. Lawrence, Georgia O'Keefe, and other luminaries to her New Mexico home.
Beloved musician Jacqui Hairston returns.
Porter Swenzell, member of the Santa Clara Pueblo as well as a member of one of the Kiva societies, will offer a blessing on our gathering.
Small group discussions are sprinkled throughout. The daily social dream matrix continues. And Kim & Co. at Pinon Catering will feed us deliciously.
Co-sponsored by the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts
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| | Location
The Civilization in Transition (CIT 6) Conference will be held at the IHM Retreat Center, 50 Mount Carmel Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico, with outstanding food prepared on-site by Pinon Catering. Lodging there is simple but adequate, and inexpensive. For those who prefer more luxurious quarters (and an elevator) or who need handicapped facilities, we will help you make arrangements nearby.
Audience
Civilization in Transition 6 is open to the public, clinicians, analysts.
•8
CE credits are available to Mental Health Workers through the Texas
Department of Health, LPC Division. Please check your licensing board re
reciprocity.
•8 APA CEs for psychologists, advanced level.
The
Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts is approved by the American
Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for
psychologists. The Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts maintains
responsibility for this program and its content. For further information
on presenters and educational objectives, go to jitzurich.org. |
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| Registration
Registration is $799, all meals included, for registration on or before May 31, 2017. Registration received after June 1 is $849. Cancellations received prior to August 15 are refundable, less a 10% handling fee.
To register, please fill out the form found on the registration brochure and mail it or email it –per instructions on the brochure– with full payment or a $400 initial deposit for the conference. The remainder –plus IHM room charge –is due by July 15. Note that you will not be billed for your second installment, should you opt to make two payments.
Jungian International Training Zurich is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.
Board members on this completely voluntary board are David Barton, Co-chair WynetteBarton, Treasurer Kate Burns, Co-chair Kathryn Cook-Deegan, Barbara Lane, Secretary Margot EstabrookStienstra, Vice Chair Murray Stein. |
| | | A vital discussion of cultural upheaval –with a focus on the historical concept of possession that underpins Jungian thought and challenges Western notions of psychopathology; the implications of privileging this ethnicity or that religious ego over our shared global humanity; the force of personality in effecting spiritual awakening and societal change. (Mabel Dodge Luhanaficionados/un-aficionados: come!)
The Jungian International Training in Zurich Foundation (www.jitzurich.org) and the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts invite you to join us. Help sort out what “new religion” means, while being reminded of old practices and a calling out of zealotry –often a mark of secret uncertainty, a part of the old religious order. The new order may be one of less certainty and more openness to questioning...
Note that this roundtable is part of a 3 day conference, should you wish even greater immersion in the subject. For details, please visit www.jitzurich.org.
RSVP to Kathryn Cook-Deegan, kcd@cookdeegan.com, 202.738.0301, in Washington, DC. |
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