Alexandra McGee
Hi Bill,
I enjoyed reading your thoughts. Thanks Joshua for confirming some understandings around archetypes. Bill, you said, “the feel of sages from the past, ancestors, gods and angels participating in our creative becoming and responsively presencing with us”. I don’t know about these entities relationships to God, but I do think that they are present…and I also believe they show up in the prehensions of every moment of those who make up my cultural history (which is quite intersectional) who have experienced some of these eternal objects.
An anecdote in my life – I am half Greek and as a teenager became interested in the Greek Gods (as well as Christianity). I didn’t believe in them as real, but I couldn’t shake the identification I felt with Athena. Everything she did to help Odysseus, I would do, had I the power. And her birth from the head of her father, Zeus, felt so familiar. Even today, when I hear my father speak on YouTube (he is an academic/architect who is interviewed frequently) he says things and uses phrases that I know… I sometimes don’t have the courage to say them, because I am not as famous as he is – but they are sitting right there inside me. That archetype of a woman who is a “helper of man” (meaning of my name), but has the wisdom inside her from the brain of her father, feels real to me! Then again, so does Cinderella sometimes. ;DHi Roni,
You said, “a path forward that retains what is good in religion and what is good in science while rejecting/modifying aspects of both religion and science that are devaluing”.
Yes, I agree with you that Whitehead’s process philosophy seems to allow that path forward. I know it has for me personally.
I took a life coach certificate training at UC Davis, and I was pleased to see that helping a client understand their own values was primary to serving the client as a coach. There is room still for the coach to question value statements that sound incoherent or contradictory – but even just the open-ended exploration of values has elicited deep reflection in my clients. I agree that the philosophical question (perhaps originally from Whitehead?) that Matt has stated, “What kind of universe would make creatures such as us that have values that matter to us and affect the way we live?”I appreciate Dennis’ summation: “time is created through the becoming of actual occasions. I think this makes sense. Time is not a container waiting to be filled by actual occasions. I also believe that space is not a container waiting to be filled by actual occasions. I think interactions and relationships of actual occasions lead to what we think of as space and time.”
If these “becoming of actual occasions” are the definition of time and space, and the actual occasions are inclusions of prehensions and choices made of possible actualities and then becomes a prehension – then every actual occasion has slightly or greatly different prehensions to choose from than others. This explains the variety, in fact the evolution that we believe occurs. For me, in my therapy practice, it teaches me to listen very carefully to what are the prehensions and possibilities in my client’s life? They will have some similarity to mine, if for example, they live in California. But there may be huge differences of the prehensions that are existing in her life. And listening for those histories, experiences, relationships to the world/universe of that person is the most important thing, not labeling them reductively with the “identities” they have.
I could be mistaken in my understanding still about actual occasions -so Joshua or others who have more knowledge – feel free to correct any misperception. 🙂Hi Johannes,
I also appreciated your post. You said, ” the principle of Occam’s razor suggests that the simplest explanation is to forgo postulating any underlying substance altogether and focus instead on what is actually there: patterns of interaction.” You ask why this isn’t obvious to most scientists. I think perhaps, as Joshua mentioned, what matters most is what effect – how pragmatic – is this idea of process? And it is only when people are un-siloed or perhaps have grown up in an environment that is difficult, or experience some personal trauma, do they begin to question the materialist view.Hi Enrique,
I appreciate that you said, “aligned with its purpose of “to be” through its actual occasion or concrescence”. It seems to me to be a key to understanding this purpose in the universe. And how that purpose happens in every actual occasion must have to do something with the nature of the Creativity and its constant work through God in the evolution of the Universe. I also love the way that makes all of nature, including space not empty or dead but burgeoning with purpose and meaning.
I have studied a little bit about birds, crows especially, and it is wonderous how they observe us humans and decide who they like and who they don’t like. I have seen crows and geese fly over and caw unusually aggressively at unknown cars and people (not the usual delivery vehicles or people) when they come in my rather secluded neighborhood. Why should it matter to them? Except that there is meaning in every event in the universe.Hello Aliman,
Nice to meet you. I am interested in your behavioral health clinic in Honolulu. Do you have interns? I am an AMFT in California and I’m looking for process thought oriented clinics to work at. I am currently working at a very process inclined clinic in California, but I am interested in becoming registered in other states as well.
You can write me directly at alexandra@alexandramcgee.org if you prefer. Or answering here is fine with me as well! 🙂
Warmly,
Alexandra McGeeHello Marcia,
Very nice to meet you and hear of your work and book writing. I will look up your books. A theology of embodiment sounds super interesting.
Warmly,
Alexandra McGee