Gaia Community: Jeff Mishlove's Blog

2008 Annual Letter from Jeff Mishlove & Janelle Barlow

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 21:15:19 GMT

What a year! To reuse Charles Dickens, it’s been the best of times and the worst of times. We began 2008 by attending the Rose Parade in Pasadena – where our dear friend, Lynne Morris, choreographed and directed the grand opening of the parade (see previous blog). And, fortunately, we found many things to celebrate since then – especially our thirtieth wedding anniversary and the election of Barack Obama! Both were big events for us. In fact, the actual date of our anniversary, August 28, found us en route to Denver, CO, to attend Obama’s acceptance speech along with 85,000 other people in Invesco Stadium. Later, in October, we celebrated our anniversary again with a visit to the magnificent temple complex in Angkor Wat, Cambodia (after a brief stop in Vietnam). We learned of Obama’s actual election while in the air, flying from Bangkok to Tokyo, on our way home. It was very gratifying to us, as we had been housing election workers in our home for several months.

Above is a photo a Janelle’s hand shaking hands with Obama in Las Vegas. We think that this election signifies an important new era for America – one which will restore integrity back to our political life and put this country back on the track of fulfilling the dreams of our founders for a “Novus Ordo Seclorum” or “new order of the ages” (if you look carefully, you’ll see this phrase on every dollar bill).

It’s been a year of new beginnings for us in others ways as well. We have undertaken two new business ventures: Insight Realty Group, Inc., a commercial real estate firm and business brokerage – of which Jeff is the broker; and TACK USA, a sales training company. TACK has been active for fifty years in over forty countries. Now, we hold the first TACK license in the United States. It is a business that complements our existing TMI customer service offerings.

2008 has been full of activity for us. Janelle received the “Friendship Award” last summer at the international meeting of our TMI partners. She has also been active on the board of directors of the International Federation for Professional Speakers. As usual, her travels have taken her to exotic locations from Dubai to Germany, France, Singapore, Malaysia and Nepal. And, she continues to swim two miles every morning she is able – while Jeff hikes in the nearby Mohave desert as often as his schedule permits. Janelle is also now the Chair of the Nevada Forum for the Women’s Business Enterprise Council. She’ll have a busy year handling that along with our new business.

Jeff has taken a serious interest in karaoke – and has even performed publicly, with his duet (and real estate) partner, Cat D’Angelo, on several occasions for various senior citizens homes and centers. In fact, Jeff and Cat have been joined several times by Jeff’s mother, Rose, who – even at age 87 – still loves to perform.

Another important development this year has occurred at the University of Philosophical Research, in Los Angeles – a distant learning program where Jeff and Janelle both teach and where Jeff serves as dean of programs in transformational psychology. This year, UPR received accreditation. This is a big step forward for the institution that Jeff helped to create about ten years ago.

Another interesting development is a renewed interest in Jeff’s book, The PK Man, among the European avante-garde community. Dutch artist, Jantine Wijnja, has created several exhibitions, articles and theatrical happenings based on the book. Speaking of books, Janelle’s first major trade book, A Complaint Is a Gift, was reissued as a second edition in October this year. She worked so intently on the rewrite that her vision reversed itself. She used to wear a single contact lens to see distances, and her up-close vision was just fine, pretty remarkable considering her age. Then after 6 weeks on her computer, pretty much every day from early morning to late at night, she regained her distant vision, but is now wearing reading glasses. She still hasn’t had a good explanation for what happened.

We continue to host a variety of parties throughout the year; we are blessed to enjoy the wonderful company of our son, Lewis. And, by and large, our families are in good health. We look forward to an enterprising 2009, hopefully an economy and an ecology that turns around, good health for all of us, and lengthy laughter at the craziness in the world.

Much Love,

Janelle & Jeff

Jeff Mishlove's Blog Index

Tags: Janelle Barlow, Jeffrey Mishlove, Barack Obama, Lynne Morris, Cat D'Angelo, University of Philosophical Research, Jantine Wijnja, The PK Man, A Complaint is a Gift

How to Convince an Athiest

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:31:48 GMT

In a previous blog, I mentioned a book called The Heart of the Mind by my friends Russell Targ and Jane Katra in which they maintained that one could experience god directly by opening themselves up to the experience of universal love. This book was aimed at non-believing members of the scientific community. In effect, it provided a recipe for entering into a direct awareness of god. It was an excellent book, based upon time-honored traditions. However, it certainly would not satisfy one of the world’s most prominent, former philosophical atheists, Anthony Flew, who (I believe) still maintains that it is “impossible to infer from a particular religious [and, therefore, I imagine any other personal] experience that it had as its object a transcendent divine being.”

Anthony Flew, one of the most prominent living philosophers has spent over half a century defending philosophical atheism and attacking philosophical arguments in favor of theism or deism. However, to the astonishment of his atheistic colleagues in academia and the philosophical world, in about 2004 he changed his mind and became a philosophical deist. (Of course, I must be clear that philosophical deism is far from a conventional religious belief in a god associated with Judeo-Christian -- or Islamic -- revelation.)

Flew believes that his acceptance of the “god hypothesis” stems strictly from rational and scientific considerations. Personal experience played no role in his conversion. And, although he has been a lifelong student of parapsychology (to his credit), he employs none of this (very significant) data to justify his believe in a divine creator.

Flew began his philosophical career in the 1940s at a time when the logical positivist school was quite influential. According to adherents to that point of view, questions concerning the existence or nonexistence of god were so completely meaningless that it was impossible to argue intelligently one way or another. In a very significant paper, published in 1950, titled “Theology and Falsification,” Flew rejected that argument. He argued that the claim for god’s existence should, logically, exclude other claims and that philosophers should be able to weigh the evidence on both sides of the argument. Then, and in many other subsequent publications, he argued that the evidence in favor of the god hypothesis was either nonexistent or inconclusive. In the absence of evidence favoring god, one should logically be an atheist – he claimed.

Following the Socratic dictum to “follow the argument wherever it leads,” Flew now claims that recent advances in science have led him to conclude that the arguments in favor of god’s existence now have the upper hand. What are these arguments?

Probably the strongest argument influencing Flew’s conversion was derived from work in the field of genetics. The incredible complexity of the genetic code convinced Flew that it could not possibly have been the product of blind chance (as proposed by the atheist biologist Richard Dawkins). The odds of this happening are so small that the universe, as large and old as it is, would have to be gazillions of times larger and older for such an event to have occurred by chance. It was the discovery of this simple fact of mathematics and probability (originally articulated by the Israeli scientist Gerald Schroeder), I believe, that led Flew to a reexamination of other arguments in favor of god.

Flew was particularly impressed by the statements of Albert Einstein – and many of the other great theoretical physicists – who maintained that the laws of nature, intricate and rational, as discovered by science implied the existence of a divine mind that created those laws.

Furthermore, he then engaged in a reexamination of the foundations of philosophy in ancient Greece – observing that Aristotle, himself, cogently argued that the existence of motion in the universe necessitated the existence of an “unmoved mover.”

Flew also pointed out that the very existence of something (i.e., the universe itself) rather than nothing at all is a problem calling out for a solution – and that the “god hypothesis” offers the only available, satisfactory solution. Flew now rejects, as inadequate, arguments that he once accepted such as the notion that the universe came into existence of its own accord or that the laws of physics exist in and of themselves requiring no other foundation for their being.

Flew also now accepts the argument for god’s existence based on the anthropic principle – i.e., that the laws of the universe (including many of the observed constants of physics, such as the “fine structure constant”) are uniquely fashioned to support life as we know it. The slightest deviation in these constants would have made biological life impossible.

All of these arguments are consistent with the controversial concept of “intelligent design.” In fact, Flew – the former atheist – was one of eleven academics who signed a petition urging the British government to teach the theory of intelligent design in the public schools. Ironically, regarding this issue, he now seems to be aligning himself with the religious fundamentalists – whose cause he certainly does not, in other regards, embrace.

Personally, I am in agreement with Flew’s present position, in almost all regards. (I still find the Buddhist arguments for "anata" or the non-existence of any "self" -- including god -- to be quite impressive.) I would go further than Flew, however, and argue that his case can be strengthened even more with reference to the data of scientific parapsychology – and with reference to developments in the mathematics of hyperspace.

Jeff Mishlove’s Blog Index

Tags: Anthony Flew, Gerald Schroeder, Richard Dawkins, Russell Targ, Jane Katra, The Heart of the Mind, There is a God

The (Not) Republican Party

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:59:54 GMT

Not long ago, the accounting firm of Arthur Anderson was literally put out of business. This occurred as the result, as I recall, of a criminal prosecution stemming from illegal activities of the firm on behalf on the now defunct Enron Corporation. Many people complained at the time that the prosecution was unfair and that thousands of innocent employees were the victims of this prosecution. Yet, the principle prevailed that a corporation engaged in criminal activities had to be held accountable.

In my opinion, the Republican Party has done far more damage -- through its culture of unethical behavior -- to the United States than the Arthur Anderson firm ever did.

This, I believe, goes back to the electoral activities of Richard Nixon. It has gotten to the point where the vicious, biased, negative campaigning that we see today in behalf of the Republican presidential campaign is considered "normal" and "appropriate" by the party faithful.

I won't go into the hundreds of details right now to support my contention. But, I think the fact speaks for itself that many prominent Republicans (such as Colin Powell) are making the same point.

I believe in a two-party system, or a multi-party system. But, at this point, I do not believe that the Republican Party has shown itself worthy to govern or to be a part of that system. Political parties in the past (i.e., the Federalist, the Whig) have had to disband. And, I believe that time is running out for the Republicans.

How, ironic (and hypocritical), in my opinion that the party that once expected to have a permanent majority and lock on both houses of congress, plus the presidency, and governorships -- is now complaining that the Democrats might achieve this same objective in the coming elections.

One of my friends, an intuitive filmmaker, with a deep spiritual orientation, is Dorothy Fadiman. I highly recommend her newest production "Stealing America, Vote By Vote." Here is the website:

http://www.stealingamericathemovie.org/

It documents the tactics used by the Republicans to control elections, and suppress or miscount votes, going back to 2000. It strongly suggests that if all of the real votes were fairly counted, G.W. Bush would never have won or held the White House.

The picture that I have at this point is that the Republicans gained office by, essentially, cheating the voters. Even worse, once they achieved power, they engaged in the active pursuit of proving correct their contention that "government does not work." They made it so. They have been so destructive that, I imagine it will take many years to fully uncover the depth of their deceptions. And, unfortunately, even longer to restore our lost global stature -- and, yet, even longer to restore our economy. (As I recall it took more than a decade to recover from the Great Depression.)

To my Republican friends, I don't doubt your intelligence nor your sincerity in posting arguments that are consistent with the Republican Party line. And, to be fair, I realize that some of the Republican critiques are important and even, occasionally, accurate.

But, on the surface, the Republicans have so muddied the waters of our American political discourse that I now believe that every statement coming from their camp is best viewed with suspicion. For me (admittedly a lifelong Democrat), it has gotten to the point that the Republican college student who, recently, fraudulently claimed that a black Obama supporter had mutilated her face (by carving the letter B) has become almost emblematic of the entire Republican Party.

Let me add, that I do not make such a claim lightly.

I am aware that it rubs up against the very grain of the eight intuitive principles that I, myself, drafted and have posted on this blog in the past. It rubs up against the primary directive that I see in all mystical traditions -- that we are all one. It risks falling into the trap of duality and devisiveness. And, my only antidote to these concerns is to accept that, at a deeper level, odd as it seems to me -- we are all Republicans!

So, while I advocate a complete cleansing of the Republican party, I guess this

implies something even more profound -- a deeper inner cleansing of ourselves and of the American psyche.

Jeff Mishlove's Blog Index

Tags: Republican Party

Philosophy of Love

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:21:10 GMT

The following article is my edit and condensation of Bernard S. Talmey's chapter on the definition of love from his 1933 book, Love: A Treatise on the Science of Sex Attraction. As this book was originally published 75 years ago, it's focus tends to be primarily on nineteenth century romantic philosophy -- with no emphasis on such movements as existentialism, feminism and post-modernism. Certainly, however, one must turn to the romantics (several of whom are quite obscure today) when considering the nature of love.

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Two intense desires rule and govern mankind and control all man's thoughts, his joys and sorrows. They are man's two appetites, hunger for food and craving for love. Curiously enough, while man takes great pains in the education of the young to prepare them for the gratification of hunger, the much tabooed question of sex has been excluded, in our present civilization, from every discussion.

Yet love lies at the foundation of society, it permeates unconsciously the thoughts, aspirations and hopes of mankind. Love is glorified as the source of the most admirable productions of art, of the sublime creations of poetry and music; it is accepted as the mightiest factor in human civilization, as the basis of the family and state. The egoism of passion and the power of love are absorbing all other considerations. Virgil calls love the greatest conqueror: "Love conquers all; let us yield to it." Solomon sings: "Love is strong as death."

The word love is, as a rule, employed very loosely and made to do duty for almost any attraction, whether purely physical or wholly sentimental. Even great philosophers and distinguished writers rarely differentiate between animal passion and human love or between pure sensuality or the physical part of sex, and mental attraction or the psychic phenomenon.

Plato says that love between a man and a woman is mere animal passion, far inferior in nobility and importance to love for boys, to friendship, or to filial, parental or brotherly love. According to Plato, Socrates understood nothing by love except its science. Eros Uranos (heavenly love) incites only youth, the more intelligent sex, to love and this only at a time when their good character and high culture are beyond doubt.

Plutarch says: The passion for women causes at the best the gain of sensual pleasure and the enjoyment of bodily beauty. The Greeks, therefore, applied the celestial kind of love only to friendship and boy-love, never to the love between men and women.

Guiseppe Sergi finds the cause of love in the stimuli of the reproductive organs, and in the senses of touch and temperature.

Ernst Haeckel says: The oldest source of sexual love is found in the chemical attraction which the male and female sexual cells exercise upon each other. This sexual affinity is found even in the lowest stage of plants as in the protophytes, where both cells swim toward each other to unite.

Johann Karl Friedrich Rosenkranz finds in nature only an empire of love, of a love that penetrates all things and leads them to a common end. Gravitation is love dominating nature. Organic life is a continued phenomenon of love. Even in inorganic nature the combination of substances, one with the other, is a trait of love. The appearance of heat and the flash of light that accompany the chemical process are, in a manner, the heralds of lust felt by the substances while uniting. Love of the sexes is a love for things that is ignored and unknown and which is not yet even in existence. The lovers must perish that love may continually rise to new life; the individual dies that the species may live. Love is not the aim but the means, serving life and development.

Love is the joy at another's existence and is stronger than the delight at one's own existence. Love transforms the nuptials into a jubilee even where it is the eve of death. It is hence as strong as death. There exists not only a natural love, but also a spiritual love that is stronger than death. Natural love is not the true love, but only a stepping-stone. True love is no longer blind and necessary, but conscious and free.

Arthur Schopenhauer sees in amorousness an individualized sexual impulse. The growing affection of the two lovers is, in reality, the will for life of the new individual that they could and might beget. The species has a prior, nearer and greater claim upon the individual than the frail individuality itself. The exact destiny of the individuals of the future generation is a much higher and worthier end than the extravagant and transient bubbles of the enamored. The beauty or the ugliness of the mate has nothing to do with the gratification itself, so far as it is a sensual pleasure depending upon a pressing necessity of the individual. Yet beauty is a matter of great consideration, because it represents the will of the species. Every lover finds himself deceived after the accomplished great work. For the delusion has vanished by which the individual was deceived by the species.

In defining human love, Schopenhauer says that every individual exercises a sexual attraction proportionate to the moral and physical perfection it possesses which we attribute to the ideal of the human species. The attraction of two individuals will be the more energetic the more the deficiencies of the one will be counterbalanced by the virtues of the other, and the union of the two promises a child more conforming to the type of the species. Thus the greater the disparity the stronger will be the attraction.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau says: The physical desire is the one which drives one sex to unite with the other. The moral one is that which determines the desire and fixes it upon a single object exclusively, or at least gives a greater degree of energy for this preferred object. Now it is easily seen that the moral element in love is a factitious sentiment born of the usage of society and glorified with assiduity and care by women to establish their dominion.

Franz Joseph Delboeuf looks for the basis of love in the chemical action by which the female sex cells, or ova, exercise an attraction, magnetic in nature, upon the spermatozoa, and vice versa.

Baruch Spinoza defines love as “a pleasure accompanied by the thought of its external cause.”

Alexander Bain finds the cause of love in the charm of dissimilarity.

Paolo Mantegazza defines love as a desire for a particular beauty.

Eduard von Hartmann says: Man is moved by instinct to look for an individual of the other sex to satisfy his physical necessity, imagining that in this way he will enjoy a pleasure he would look for in vain elsewhere. This pleasure, one lover dreams to find in the arms of the other, is only a delusion. Subconsciousness uses these deceiving means to oppose the egotistic reflection and to dispose the individual to sacrifice its own interest to the interest of the future generation.

Herbert Spencer says that the passions that unite the sexes are the most complex and the most powerful of all feelings. Admiration, respect, reverence, love of approbation, emotion of self-esteem, pleasure of possession, love of freedom, love of sympathy, they all unite in the one powerful feeling of love. They represent a variety of pleasurable ideas, not in themselves amatory, but have an organized relation to the amatory feelings. The complex sentiment, termed affection, can, therefore, exist between those of the same sex, but it is greatly exalted in love.

The poet, Philip Sidney declares love to be the most intense desire to enjoy beauty, and where it is reciprocal, the most entire and exact union of hearts. The instinct, on the other hand, is absolutely sensual; it makes the exterior its object and has no other end than sensual pleasure. Every individual, therefore, loves more or less spiritually or sensually in proportion as it approaches to the spiritual or bestial nature.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel says: Love is the complete surrender of the "ego" to another "ego" or to an ideal. Not the sacrifice of the possession or wealth of the ego, but the "I" itself must be given away.

Finally, Pierre Janet declares love to be complete madness in its origin as well as in its development and mechanism.

These philosophic definitions of love all have an interest for the reader, since they help to indicate the difficulty of classifying or of describing the emotion. However for a practical study of love it may be sufficient to show two distinct types of love; i.e. "sensual" love and "sentimental" love. Sensual love is the instinctive form of the emotion such as is found in all nature. Sentimental love, although grounded in the self-same instincts of self-preservation and racial perpetuation, has added to it the mental qualities found only in civilized human beings.

Gustav Teichmuller says: In sensual love, Nature makes use of the individual only incidentally by making the propagation of the species a personal concern of the individual. She gains her end by a mystification. The individuals, by virtue of the innate impulse, consider the external aim of nature as their own personal concern, for which they voluntarily hazard everything, even life itself. Teichmuller further claims that in physical love only the state of irritability and the sensibility of the nerves of the subject are important. The object is only concerned as a soliciting casualty. The natural impulse cannot aim at lust, for lust is not an end, but only expresses the coordinate state of the subject during the actions. Every desire aims at a specific action as its end. The musician does not long for lust but for music. The pleasure connected with it ensues coordinately with the success of the performance.

Of sentimental love, Teichimiller says, the individual loves an ideal that it has itself created in its thoughts and fancy and with which the actual need not harmonize at all. For that reason the "treasure" lies not without but within the lover. The beloved person outside is only the key that understands how to unlock the treasure. The key is not able to create the wealth. Whoever is poor and desolate within, for him no key can unlock the treasure of love.

When a man, for instance, is attached to a woman because of her outward harmonious appearance, i.e., beauty, it means that she pleases his sense of sight. If he is fascinated by her beautiful voice, then his sense of hearing has been appealed to. When he falls in love by the touch of her soft little hand, then his tactile sense has been excited. The meaning of all such attachments is the desire to satisfy the senses. Hence the love is sensual. For any of the five senses may be the starting point of sexual desire.

Jeff Mishlove's Blog Index

Tags: love, philosophy, bernard s. talmey, schopenhauer

Sexuality and Religion

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:55:13 GMT

The following article is my edit and condensation of a chapter written by gynecologist Bernard S. Talmey titled, "Love in Religion." It appeared in his book titled A Treatise on the Science of Sex Attraction (New York: Eugenics Publishing, 1933).

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Love has been exalted by the ancients in song and story and extolled by priest and philosopher. "To the Spirit, to Heaven, to the Sun, to the Moon, to Earth, to Night, to the Day, and to the Father of all that is and will be, to Eros." Such an invocation was possible only among the ancient civilized nations. They recognized the importance of sexuality in life. They could not see any moral turpitude in actions regarded by them as the design of nature and as the acme of felicity. They discovered in Love the focus of life. For this reason sexuality among the ancients was an object of pure reverence as the fundamental force of life. The divine adoration of sex was the practice of every tribe and nation of prehistoric antiquity. Even the organs of sex were considered beautiful and pleasurable objects, and were admired accordingly. The phallus, or the male sex-organ, and the yoni, the external female genitals, were symbols of the worship of the ancients and were objects of special religious rites.

In the remotest antiquity the worship of the generative principle was the only religion known to men. Sex-worship was not confined to any one race. It was the form of worship common to all primeval nations of the globe. The Hindus, Chaldeans, Hebrews, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Celts, Teutons, Britons and Scandinavians, all shared in phallicism and yonism.

The study of sexual activities and of generation was the basis of ancient Hindu theology. Siva had on his left arm a ring on which was portrayed the sex organs in the act of procreation. The Greek bacchanalia, and the Roman saturnalian mysteries, the free love that prevailed during the festivities in honor of Mylitta, Anaitis, and Aphrodite were still relics of sex-worship. Herodotus' statement that in Babylon women offered themselves, once at least in their lives, in the Temple of Venus, and that only after so doing were they considered free to marry, and his further report that the women on the vessels sailing for Bubastis to the festivals of Isis uncovered themselves in the presence of the men, show that sex-worship was not unknown among Assyrians and Egyptians.

In the historic time sex worship was almost replaced by other forms of religion. Yet there are traces of the cult of the phallus to be found everywhere in ancient profane and sacred history. The temple in which the emperor Heliogabalus was brought up was represented on a bronze coin of his reign; an ionic peristyle with a peek into the Cella; but instead of the statue of a god was a gigantic phallus. Even the Hebrews worshipped in the phallus the principle of the production of life before the adoption of the cult of Jehovah. Records of phallicism can still be found in the Old Testament. Instead of invoking the Deity in taking a solemn oath, Abraham orders his servant to place his hand upon his phallus, because the phallus was still kept in its former high veneration. The slain enemy was, for this reason, deprived of his phallus. David bought Saul's daughter with a trophy of two hundred phalli, taken from the slain Philistines. Circumcision also shows the incorporation of phallic ritual with religion.

In the same light and with the same veneration as the phallus was the yoni worshipped. In the yoni was worshipped the receptacle of life, the divine ark, within the hidden enclosure of which was contained the mystery of life. Its interior was considered the holy of holies. The yoni was for that reason often represented by an ark, which was the holiest of all symbols in the worship of the Ancients. The worship of Osiris took place before an ark; the sanctum sanctorum of Jehovah's temple harbored an ark

Yonism was the adoration of the vulva, as the organ through which the sexual powers are manifested. It is through the woman that the divine sexual emotions are aroused; it is the sight or thought of her that calls into activity the man's generative nature and powers.

The female principle in nature was hence not considered simply as a passive medium, but was exalted and worshipped as a potent factor in the mystery of creation and reproduction. The earth itself was considered feminine, and all natural orifices have been regarded as typical of the part that characterizes woman. The vulva, therefore, was the sacred symbol of the female principle in nature.

The Ashereh, so often mentioned in the Bible, was nothing but the image of the yoni. It was a symbol of Ashtoreth, or of the union of Baal and Ashtoreth. The Ashereh was made of wood and had in its centre an opening or fissure as the door of life. Above the fissure was a small elevation as an emblematic representation of the clitoris.

The most common forms of the feminine symbol were those made,in representation of the mons veneris. The mountain of Venus was represented by mounds, columns and pyramids. Mounds and hills were considered holy. The graves of Egyptian kings were erected in form of huge pyramids in honor of the feminine creative deity. The yoni worshippers of the Old Testament had the temples of their feminine deity on high hills. The obelisk, pillar, column, altar, mount and cave, all have their origin in the pristine symbolism of yonic worship.

Even the present belief in the lucky horseshoe is connected with the ancient emblems of the female genitals, the yoni. In Ireland the yoni seem to have been the symbol of sex-worship most in use. Even in the arches over the doorways of Christian churches a female figure, with the person fully exposed, was so placed that the external organs of generation at once caught the eye. In olden times, the people were in the habit of making charcoal drawings of the female genitals over the doors of their houses to ward off ill luck. Now, the horseshoe has a great resemblance to the form of the vulva. Hence the drawings over the doors resembled a horseshoe. From this symbol originates the horseshoe's alleged power to ward off evil and to bring luck. Father Dubois found that the lingam that the devout Hindus attach either to their hair or arms or is suspended from the neck is a small amulet representing the organs of both sexes in activity. Even the symbol of the cross has been identified with the earliest records of sex-worship.

Thus with the ancients the passion of sex and the fervor of religion were closely interwoven. Accordingly every ancient temple had within its confines a number of consecrated women whose office it was to submit to the embraces of any man upon the payment of a specified sum. The money was used for religious purposes. To the mind of the ancients no more appropriate nor holy means could be devised for raising money for the maintenance of the temple than a sanctified indulgence in the divine act. It was the most sacred and sublime of all human functions. Hence the temple-courtesan was held in high honor and was considered as sacred as the priest. The Old Testament calls the temple-courtesan "Hakdeshoh," the consecrated, the holy; and it was not in the least degrading to associate with her in the early history of the Hebrews, as the story of Judah and Tamar shows. Later on, Amos complains that the Hebrew maidens received the embraces of men at every altar. Hosea distinguishes between the common prostitute and the temple-courtesan.

The lapse of Israel into the former sex-worship, at the time of these prophets, caused a reaction against any sex-manifestations. This reaction is especially noticeable among the faithful adherents of the religion of Jehovah in the latter days of the second temple. The pious men sought the greatest virtue in chastity and celibacy and looked with contempt upon sexuality. In the beginning only individual persons took to celibacy, as did Elijah and Elisha. Later on these celibates became more numerous and formed different orders, of which the order of the Essenes was the most important, because Christianity took its origin within the folds of this order.

In accordance with its origin, Christianity never looked with favor upon sexuality of any kind. The immaculate virgin is the ideal. Even holy matrimony was only tolerated. "It is good for a man not to touch a woman," writes Paul to the Corinthians. Christianity, therefore, always surrounded with a halo those who vowed chastity. To overcome the passion of sex was always praised as the highest virtue, and asceticism was held in high veneration. Justinus says that total sexual abstinence is a high virtue, and that sexual activity is unnecessary to life. Hieronymus claims that God and the Church requested singleness and only permitted marriage. Christianity entirely overlooked the tremendous strain upon the physical, mental and moral forces such an unnatural life must carry with it. For though complete abstinence is possible and feasible during the period of adolescence, men and women, when mature in years, suffer under such enforced abstinence, and although the final act, or the culmination of the sex-attraction, may be suppressed by the will, yet its emotions are irresistible. The neurotic nun who imagines herself being embraced by a saint thinks that she has subjugated the instinct of sex, but in reality her emotions have a sexual origin.

Actions caused by great sexual excitement may be found in the life of many a saint. St. Augustine, in his confessions, says: "My heart was burning, boiling and foaming with unchastity; it was poured out, it overflowed, it went up in licentiousness." Origen found sexual abstinence too difficult and castrated himself. For that reason he never was canonized. For the spirit should kill the flesh. Parkman's report about Marie de l'Incarnation is highly interesting in this respect. While in a trance she heard a miraculous voice, Christ promising to become her spouse. Months and years passed, when again the voice sounded in her ear, this time with the assurance that the promise was fulfilled, that she was indeed his bride. Now ensued phenomena that are not infrequent among female devotees, when unmarried or married unhappily. In her excited imagination, the divine spouse became a living presence, and her language to him, as recorded by herself, is of intense passion. Her prayer is, "O! my Love! when shall I embrace you? Have you no pity on the torments that I suffer? Alas, alas, my Love, my Beauty, my Life! Instead of healing my pain you take pleasure in it. Come, let me embrace you and die in your sacred arms."

A curious instance of perversion in religio-sexual feeling, bordering on zooerastia, is the case of St. Veronica. According to Friedrich she was so enamored of the divine lion symbolizing St. Mark, that she took a lion whelp to her bed, fondled it, kissed it "and suckled it at her breasts."

Thus the preaching of the Church on the subjugation of the flesh was no great success even among the saints. If the ascetics are not frigid they remain subject to the emotions of sex. Mankind at large is surely ruled by the dictates of the sex-urge in our day no less than at the time of sex-worship.

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Tags: yoni, lingam, Bernard Talmey

Infant Psychology

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:49:36 GMT

Jeffrey Mishlove, 1947

The following abstracts reflect ideas circulating in the psychological literature in the past decade or so concerning the consciousness of infants.

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Spirit Babies. Reviews the book, Spirit Babies: How to Communicate with the Child You're Meant to Have by Walter Makichen (2005). When do babies become conscious? Is it at conception, at some time in the mother's womb, when they take their first breath? Ancient wisdom from various peoples around the world offers differing answers. The author of this book states that it all starts before conception. And, he says, there is not a one-directional conversation. There is a contract, made by all participants, although sometimes broken. What sets this book apart from many on soul, spirit, out-of-body experiences, near death tales and the like, is that it will likely be understood and acceptable to both those who are devoutly religious and to agnostics. It offers additional insights for those who already believe that human beings come into a body having made a plan for this lifetime. Makichen's perspective is indeed convincing, illustrated with numerous stories of the author's work with clients who have come to him over the years for a variety of reasons. The topics Makichen covers include ones that many pregnancy and birth books leave out – prematurity, miscarriage, abortion and stillbirth – and he seems particularly wise on these subjects yet offers no platitudes nor cookbook remedies. Makichen does offer a wide array of simple yet profound processes for parents-to-be that he calls "meditations." Each of these processes is a combination of inward focusing and quieting down, with visualization and prayer or chants of different kinds, which places the woman or man in a state of calm readiness. He reminds the reader that each prospective parent has a natural connection with their spirit baby. What he offers just enhances that connection, helping the baby to be born healthy.[1]

Emotional architecture of the mind. In recent years, through our research and that of others, we have found unexpected common origins for the mind's highest capacities: intelligence, morality, and sense of self. We have charted critical stages in the mind's early growth, most of which occur even before our first thoughts are registered. At each stage certain critical experiences are necessary. Contrary to traditional notions, however, these experiences are not intellectual, but rather, subtle emotional exchanges. In fact emotional rather than intellectual interaction serves as the mind's primary architect. Our research points towards a new understanding of how the mind develops in the earliest stages of life, one that integrates the child's experience of emotional interactions with the growth of intellectual capacities and, indeed, the very sense of self.[2]

Boot camps for babies. The essence of the advice books is that they treat the baby as an enemy. It is a hostile invader. The mother must arm herself against her baby in order to train it effectively. They inculcate highly anxious parenting. To rock, cuddle a baby to sleep, or slip in an extra feed when no one is looking, makes a woman feel very guilty. If she does not obey the rules to the letter she is failing as a mother. Failure to interact with a baby in an intimate, loving way and offer generous pleasant sensory experiences, such as comforting touch, may have long-term consequences in the development of personality and the ability to form social bonds. There is evidence that the vasopressin and oxytocin neuropeptide systems, important for the establishment of social bonds and the regulation of emotional behavior, are profoundly affected by early social experience. The evidence from history, and from cultures all over the world, is that, by and large, ordinary, spontaneous, loving mothers who are alert to their babies' needs, and who are supported by other women, do better than all the experts put together. Our babies are not our enemies. You don't need an MBA in baby management to be a good mother.[3]

How much do babies see? The visual apparatus in humans is used from birth as an important part of the infant's interaction with the environment. It is a developing sensory modality that at birth is ready to function without prior experience. Eliciting visual behavior in the neonate appears to be positive evidence of central nervous system function. It is difficult to study visual perception in human infants. Direct methods do not work-one cannot ask a neonate what he/she sees since they do not talk. They do, however, initiate limited motor actions and behaviorally and physiologically react to visual stimuli. Indirect assessment methods, such as recording visually evoked potentials (VEP), can become extremely complicated with the data often difficult to interpret. The goal of most of the published literature on infant visual behavior has been to determine infant visual competence as a function of age and/or to describe precisely the corresponding visual behaviors. Gestalt psychology has demonstrated that the individual parts of objects, visual features such as oriented line segments, or incomplete parts of objects, can be organized into coherent wholes. New theories by researchers are moving in a direction that are inspired by and consistent with the tenets of ecological psychology.[4]

Baboons, brains, babies and bonding. On the basis of the extant literature, and inspired by theoretical considerations, we believe that unconscious mimicry serves two important purposes. First, it is an indispensable tool for binding individuals to their social group. Second, and related to that, mimicry may provide a very effective way for the transmission of cultural ways and habits and for the continuous adaptation of individuals to changing social conditions.[5]

The role of familiar names in speech recognition. How do infants find the words in the tangle of speech that confronts them? The present study shows that by as early as 6 months of age, infants can already exploit highly familiar words--including, but not limited to, their own names--to segment and recognize adjoining, previously unfamiliar words from fluent speech. The head-turn preference procedure was used to familiarize babies with short passages in which a novel word was preceded by a familiar or a novel name. At test, babies recognized the word that followed the familiar name, but not the word that followed the novel name. This is the youngest age at which infants have been shown capable of segmenting fluent speech. Young infants have a powerful aid available to them for cracking the speech code. Their emerging familiarity with particular words, such as their own and other people's names, can provide initial anchors in the speech stream.[6]

Intimate contact with your baby. Reviews the book The Vital Touch: How Intimate Contact With Your Baby Leads to Happier, Healthier Development by Sharon Heller (1997). This book is the best, most comprehensive guide to good, early parenting on the market today. This book synthesizes all of the current research on attachment parenting issues, such as baby-wearing, breastfeeding and the family bed. These issues and the corresponding research are vitally important to our babies, who aren't allowed a second chance at childhood. The first third of the book heralds "the power of touch" as "the first connection" and "the rock of love." Touch, or lack of it, profoundly affects birthing practices, newborn stability, the quality of mother-infant attachment, and how much developmentally important sensory stimulation our babies receive. Part two discusses the cultural habits that put us out of touch with our infants: all the containers in which we nest our babies; our prudish sense of our body, which leads to a withholding of affection, unsuccessful nursing, and a distortion of normal sexual development; our lack of support for the nursing mother; and our taboos against co-sleeping. Part three discusses how modern parents can compromise, between nature's call for closeness to their babies and our culture's "plea for distance."[7]

Mothers, Babies and their body language. This book describes, through an eighteen-month research and observational study from pregnancy to the earliest months of life, the complex interactions between mother and baby. Learning to interpret babies' language is a useful basis for getting in touch with his or her needs. This capacity to understand the baby's sign language and needs enhances our communication skills and attunement in other relationships. This book is intended for parents to read through while thinking back to their experience. It is a guide for discovering the space of their body self image, a space to sense, to feel, and to think about, in order to be able to have their needs met. I believe that it is only by acknowledging their own needs that parents can meet the baby's needs and become attuned to her or him.[8]

Mothers’ emotional investment in their babies. In sufficiently mature women, pregnancy and the birth of a baby bring about an adaptive transient increased flexibility in otherwise stable psychic structures, with, specifically, an increased flexibility in ego functions engendered by the anticipatory need to be ready to accommodate to the coming infant, an organism only vaguely known prior to its birth. Once born, the increasingly experienced infant compels accommodations in the mother to which many a mother is surprisingly fluidly responsive. The infant too accommodates to the exigencies imposed by the mother's reality-based needs, expectations, and wishes. The reciprocity and the accommodations both parties make to this childcaring/mothering process require of both much give and take and evolving compromise.[9]

A century of denial in medicine. During the 20th century when medicine rose to dominate childbirth in the United States, it brought with it a denial of infant pain based on ancient prejudices and scientific dogmas no longer supportable. The painful collision of babies with doctors is seen in neonatal intensive care, infant surgery without anesthesia, painful obstetric routines, and genital mutilation of newborn males. This presentation includes a historical review of experiments on infant reactions to pain, the persistence of medical practices causing pain, and speculation about the reasons for professional indifference.[10]

Infant rearing practices in Egypt. Discusses the choice of close contact and low contact child rearing styles among Egyptian mothers, and considers the effects of mothering style on infant personality and behavior. Uneducated mothers living in extended families and educated mothers living in nuclear families in the same village were observed. While uneducated mothers chose the close contact style, educated mothers chose the low contact style. It is suggested that close contact style is selected by mothers who desire an obedient child with strong family attachments, while a low contact style is selected by mothers who desire a more independent, achievement oriented child.[11]

[1] Arms, Suzanne. Review of Spirit Babies: How to Communicate with the Child You're Meant to Have. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. 2006, Sum, Vol 20(4), 351-354.

[2] Greenspan, Stanley I.; Shanker, Stuart G.; Benderly, Beryl I. The Emotional Architecture of the Mind. In Cavoukian, Raffi & Olfman, Sharna (Eds). Child honoring: How to turn this world around. Westport, CT, US: Praeger Publishers/Greenwood Publishing Group (2006), pp. 5-15.

[3] Kitzinger, Sheila. Sheila Kitzinger's Letter From Europe: Boot Camps for Babies. Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care. 2006, Mar, Vol 33(1), 77-78.

[4] Groffman, Sidney. How Much Do Babies See And When Do They See It? Optometry and Vision Development. 2006, Vol 37(3), 99-103.

[5] Knippenberg, Ad van; Baaren, Rick van. Baboons, Brains, Babies, and Bonding: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Mimicry. In Van Lange, Paul A. M. (Ed). Bridging social psychology: Benefits of transdisciplinary approaches. Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 2006, pp. 173-178.

[6] Bortfeld, Heather; Morgan, James L.; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Rathbun, Karen. Mommy and Me: Familiar Names Help Launch Babies Into Speech-Stream Segmentation. Psychological Science. 2005, Apr, Vol 16(4), 298-304.

[7] Lincoln, Kelli Cymraes. Review of The Vital Touch: How Intimate Contact With Your Baby Leads to Happier, Healthier Development. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. 2004, Win, Vol 19(2), 177-179.

[8] Sansone, Antonella. Mothers, babies and their body language. London, England: Karnac Books, 2004.

[9] Parens, Henri. On mothers' emotional investment in their babies. In Mendell, Dale & Turrini, Patsy (Eds). The inner world of the mother. Madison, CT, US: Psychosocial Press, 2003, pp. 43-70.

[10] Chamberlain, David B. Babies don't feel pain: A century of denial in medicine. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. 1999, Fal-Win, Vol 14(1-2), 145-168.

[11] Brink, Judy H. The effect of infant rearing practices on the personalities of children in Egypt. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. 1994, Sum, Vol 8(4), 237-248.

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Tags: infant psychology

Prenatal Psychology

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:34:25 GMT

Few people today are aware of the vibrant field of prenatal psychology. Many of its findings are consistent with those of parapsychology as well as near-death experience research -- and also transpersonal psychology. I am posting below some abstracts of recent academic publications in this field. All of these findings point toward a new understanding of the unborn child and his or her capacities.

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The role of fathers in the life of the unborn. In this paper the author explores varying behaviors of fathers during the prenatal life of the unborn from a psychoanalytic and family system perspective, enriched by studies from the field of prenatal psychology. He emphasizes the importance of the communication of affect in assessing whether an expression of caring and love is genuine and sincere. This is not only important to adults, but especially so for the unborn, who cannot speak or understand adult language, and who are especially sensitive to picking up on affect. The threat of being aborted is discussed, and the consequences of this in the creation of abortion survivors. It is essential that therapists be alert to the possibility that prenatal dynamics are operative in patients' symptoms and transferences. The use of and understanding of metaphors, polysema, synesthesia, and similes as a measure of the creativity involved in having meaningful relationships is stressed, and note is made of the remarkable change of speech in this direction that occurs when abortion survivors recover. After exploring positive and negative behaviors of men, the author also deals with the phenomenon of depreciation of men in today's society, which makes it difficult for men to find support, respect, and encouragement, particularly in their roles as fathers and husbands. The overall dehumanization of our culture and society has reached a point where love and responsibility have taken second place to narcissism and materialism. This also has affected the relationship between men and women, and their relationship with the unborn. In the closing section suggestions are made for making positive changes to remedy this situation, and in particular to improve the behaviors of fathers - and mothers - in their relationship with the unborn, with each other, and with their families in a rewarding, committed marriage.[1]

Memories of the womb. The purpose of this study is to clarify the possession rate of fetal/infant memory in the womb and/or at birth and to validate its characteristic. A total of 1620 answered questionnaires of the 3601 distributed were returned, giving an overall recovery rate of 45.0%. The possession rates of womb and birth memory were 33.0% and 20.7%, respectively. Parents, too, responded with regard to their own memory from birth, and 1.1% appeared possessing such memory. The possession rate is relevant to the mother's feeling and speaking to the fetus during pregnancy, and irrelevant to the irregularity in delivery. Most memories were positive.[2]

Communicating with the prenate. After a struggle of many decades, the true dimensions of fetal consciousness are emerging, thanks to a growing literature of firsthand reports from parents and abundant observations of life in the womb. In retrospect, scientific views of the sensory, emotional, and mental nature of prenates and newborns, grounded exclusively in a brain-matter paradigm, were grossly inadequate. A new paradigm is replacing it based on baby awareness and knowing. This presentation offers some initial guidelines for parents and birth professionals who seek two-way communication with babies before birth--a dialog that promises greater safety, meaning, and satisfaction in pregnancy and childbirth.[3]

Born with a purpose. In each individual there is a life project, which can be traced back to conception. The life project exists in the depths of a child's being, close to their essence; from there, it influences all the internal and external processes. The life project contains what a person needs to realize personal potentialities that are present from conception. The life project seldom appears clear to the parents from the beginning although unborn children send signals of their existence and their character. Unfortunately, in our materialistic culture signals from the unborn are systematically ignored, deflected and then forgotten by parents. Education begins from conception and can be properly achieved by parents only if they establish a deep contact with their children, communicating with them, and coming to know their life project.[4]

Fetal awareness of emotions during pregnancy. Contemporary research indicates that the mother's emotional state and that of her unborn child are far more closely related before birth than was thought to be the case only a few years ago. The purpose of this study was to explore possible correlations existing between the primary emotional states of birthmothers during their pregnancies and the subsequent awareness of these emotional states of birthmothers by their offspring. To achieve this goal, 12 pairs of mothers (ages 44 to 85) and their offspring (ages 9 to 61) were hypnotically age regressed to the time of the pregnancy. Hypnotherapy/ideomotor technique was employed, in separate sessions with each mother and each offspring, by licensed professional psychologists, who were selected because they routinely used hypnotherapy in their private practices. Within the findings across all 12 pairs, there were 79 identified instances of correlation, derived from a content analysis from the regression session transcripts. The data from this study yielded a striking variety and quantity of detailed information about prenatal consciousness and a wide range of recalled prenatal experience by the offspring, as well as supporting information from the birthmother.[5]

Prenatal memory recall. Focuses on the experience of healing through prenatal and perinatal recall. Interviews were conducted with 7 adults who variously attested to having healed conditions of: syncope, phobias, arthritis, asthma, migraines, depression, suicidality, obsessive-compulsion, side pain, and dysfunctional interpersonal patterns. Intentions were to: (a) illuminate the experience, (b) examine the benefits and drawbacks, and (c) underscore the impact of obstetric intervention. Existential-phenomenological research methods were used with Hycner's (1982) 15-step analysis for interview data. Two in-depth interviews, a demographics form, and a follow-up question were the instruments used to access data. Data analysis revealed seven individual, two unique, and two general themes. All 7 remembered pre- or perinatal trauma, and subsequent child abuse. Three remembered deleterious effects from obstetric intervention including long-term depression, slowed labor from anesthesia, pain from forceps, and vertigo from inversion at birth. After treatment all co-researchers felt the mitigation of psychological and/or physical conditions they had suffered. Results imply fetal/neonatal memory/consciousness and the need for research into the long and short term effects of obstetric procedures.[6]

Psychospiritual guidance before birth. This paper examines the cross-cultural appearance of myths, stories, customs, and legends that refer to images of protection and guardianship of a fetus before, during, and after birth. Included in this discussion are the Jewish angel Lailah, the Christian guardian angel, the Greek daimon, the Roman genius, the Chinese goddess Kuan-yin, the Mauri goddess Hine-Titama, the Egyptian god Bes, as well as a look at indigenous peoples' mythologies that appoint guardianship status to trees, land, animals, and inanimate objects. An attempt is made to make sense of these images through an examination of the biological aspects of prenatal development and birth, as well as through a more transpersonal or spiritual perspective on human development. It is concluded that further research into these images can help shed light on specific aspects of human development including understanding our need for inner images of protection and guidance, and comprehending the deeper passions or stirrings of "the genius within us," who assists us moving through our lives.[7]

Reliability of birth memory. Compared the birth memories of 10 mother-child pairs to determine the reliability of the memories of the children obtained via hypnoanalysis. Child subjects, who were between 9 and 23 yrs old, had no conscious birth memories. Mothers were 32-46 yrs old at the time of the study. All subjects were capable of hypermnesia. Hypnotic induction was used. Mother and child reports of the same birth varied in perspective, content, and detail, reflecting the fact that the birth experience was somewhat different for each of them. Reports of mothers and children indicated that (1) children's birth memories appeared to be real rather than fantasy; (2) birth memories contained errors; and (3) memory contents suggested a sophisticated level of physical, mental, and emotional consciousness at birth.[8]

Consciousness before birth and after death. Veridical evidence of a physically transcendent source of consciousness comes from both extremes of the life span when central nervous system functioning is compromised, suggesting that some form of personhood can exist independently of known cellular processes associated with the body. In pre- and perinatal accounts, veridical memories have surfaced of events in the first two trimesters, long before the central nervous system is fully functional, continuing through the third trimester, when measurable brain activity begins, until just after birth. In the empirically verifiable out-of-body phase of near-death experience (NDE) accounts, a source of consciousness has been shown to record events when measurable metabolic processes, including brain activity, have ceased altogether. These two states have similar phenomenologies, suggesting that a physically transcendent source representing individual consciousness predates physical life at the moment of conception and survives it after death, and that its maturity and functioning do not directly reflect the level of central nervous system functioning in the body.[9]

[1] Sonne, John C. The Varying Behaviors of Fathers in the Prenatal Experience of the Unborn: Protecting, Loving and "Welcoming with Arms Wide Open," vs. Ignoring, Unloving, Competitive, Abusive, Abortion Minded or Aborting. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. 2005, Sum, Vol 19(4), 319-340.

[2] Ikegawa, Akira. Investigation by questionnaire regarding fetal/infant memory in the womb and/or at birth. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. 2005, Win, Vol 20(2), 121-133.

[3] Chamberlain, David B. Communicating with the mind of a prenate: Guidelines for parents and birth professionals. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. 2003, Win, Vol 18(2), 95-108.

[4] Soldera, Gino. The Individual Life Project: A New Way of Discovering the Unborn Child's World and Potentialities. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. 2002, Sum, Vol 16(4), 361-376.

[5] Ham Jr., John T.; Klimo, Jon. Fetal awareness of maternal emotional states during pregnancy. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. 2000, Win, Vol 15(2), 118-145.

[6] Marquez, Anne. Healing through prenatal and perinatal memory recall: A phenomenological investigation. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. 2000, Win, Vol 15(2), 146-172.

[7] Armstrong, Thomas. The Genius Within Us: Psychospiritual Guidance During Prenatal and Perinatal Development and its Connection to Human Potential After Birth. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. 2000, Spr-Sum, Vol 14(3-4), 291-297.

[8] Chamberlain, David B. Reliability of birth memory: Observations from mother and child pairs in hypnosis. Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health. 1999, Fal-Win, Vol 14(1-2), 19-29.

[9] Wade, Jenny. Physically transcendent awareness: A comparison of the phenomenology of consciousness before birth and after death. Journal of Near-Death Studies. 1998, Sum, Vol 16(4), 249-275.

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Tags: prenatal psychology

Sigmund Freud on Love and Hypnosis

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:15:39 GMT

I have condensed the following essay titled "Being in Love and Hypnosis" that was originally written by psychoanalytic pioneer Sigmund Freud in 1922.

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In connection with this question of being in love we have always been struck by the phenomenon of sexual over-estimation—the fact that the loved object enjoys a certain amount of freedom from criticism, and that all its characteristics are valued more highly than those of people who are not loved. If the sensual tendencies are somewhat more effectively repressed or set aside, the illusion is produced that the love-object has come to be sensually loved on account of its spiritual merits, whereas on the contrary these merits may really only have been lent to it by its sensual charm.

The tendency that falsifies judgment in this respect is that of idealization. But this makes it easier for us to find our way about. We see that the love-object is being treated in the same way as our own ego, so that when we are in love a considerable amount of narcissistic libido overflows on to the love-object. It is even obvious, in many forms of love choice, that the love-object serves as a substitute for some unattained ego ideal of our own. We love it on account of the perfections that we have striven to reach for our own ego, and that we should now like to procure in this roundabout way as a means of satisfying our narcissism.

From being in love to hypnosis is evidently only a short step. The respects in which the two agree are obvious. There is the same humble subjection, the same compliance, the same absence of criticism, towards the hypnotist just as towards the loved object. There is the same absorption of one’s own initiative; no one can doubt that the hypnotist has stepped into the place of the ego ideal. It is only that everything is even clearer and more intense in hypnosis, so that it would be more to the point to explain being in love by means of hypnosis than the other way round. The hypnotist is the sole love-object, and no attention is paid to any but him. The fact that the ego experiences in a dream-like way whatever he may request or assert reminds us that we omitted to mention among the functions of the ego ideal the business of testing the reality of things. No wonder that the ego takes a perception for real if its reality is vouched for by the mental faculty that ordinarily discharges the duty of testing the reality of things.

The complete absence of tendencies that are uninhibited in their sexual aims contributes further towards the extreme purity of the phenomena. The hypnotic relation is the devotion of someone in love to an unlimited degree but with sexual satisfaction excluded; whereas in the case of being in love this kind of satisfaction is only temporarily kept back, and remains in the background as a possible aim at some later time.

It is interesting to see that it is precisely those sexual tendencies that are inhibited in their aims that achieve such lasting ties between men. But this can easily be understood from the fact that they are not capable of complete satisfaction, while sexual tendencies that are uninhibited in their aims suffer an extraordinary reduction through the discharge of energy every time the sexual aim is attained. It is the fate of sensual love to become extinguished when it is satisfied; for it to be able to last, it must from the first be mixed with purely tender components— with such, that is, as are inhibited in their aims—or it must itself undergo a transformation of this kind.

Hypnosis would solve the riddle of the libidinal constitution of groups for us straight away, if it were not that it itself exhibits some features that are not met by the rational explanation we have hitherto given of it as a state of being in love with the directly sexual tendencies excluded. There is still a great deal in it that we must recognize as unexplained and mystical. It contains an additional element of paralysis derived from the relation between someone with superior power and someone who is without power and helpless—that may afford a transition to the hypnosis of terror that occurs in animals. The manner in which it is produced and its relationship to sleep are not clear; and the puzzling way in which some people are subject to it, while others resist it completely, points to some factor still unknown that is realized in it and that perhaps alone makes possible the purity of the attitudes of the libido that it exhibits.

It is noticeable that, even when there is complete suggestive compliance in other respects, the moral conscience of the person hypnotized may show resistance. But this may be due to the fact that in hypnosis as it is usually practiced some knowledge may be retained that what is happening is only a game, an untrue reproduction of another situation of far more importance to life.

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Tags: Sigmund Freud, love, hypnosis, idealization, repression, cathexis

Western Interpretations of Tantra

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:20:19 GMT

Several recent books about Tantra, by younger scholars who have studied in India, suggest that popular, western interpretations of this tradition are quite sanitized and have little to do with the original traditions that were dominant in India during medieval times. This strikes me as a fair criticism. And, at the same time, it seems as if the term "Tantra" is being used creatively in our own era. The following academic abstracts paint a picture of how the term has been used in the west in recent decades:

The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra. In contrast to the approaches of conventional religion, tantra does not attempt to soothe the turmoil of existence with consoling promises of heaven and salvation. The tantric practitioner chooses to confront the bewildering and chaotic forces of fear, aggression, desire, and pride, and to work with them in such a way that they are channeled into creative expression, loving relationships, and wisely engaged forms of life.[1]

Long-term practice of ceremonial sexuality. Sexuality in Western culture is often complicated and confusing. As a major aspect of the human experience it is an important area of study. A subculture exists that explores alternative sexual experiences as a spiritual practice. Twenty participants of Tantra, Quodoushka, and Taoist sexual practices participated in the study. This study found that the long-term practice of ceremonial sexuality is a viable spiritual practice. The experiences of the participants included instances of altered states of consciousness, direct experiences of the Divine, enhanced self-esteem, and intimate connection to others. Each participant found that his or her life had been enriched through practicing ceremonial sexuality, and each reported challenges and pitfalls. These included challenges in relationships with primary and family relationships, relationships with teachers of ceremonial sexuality, and cultural taboos. Background and family history of the participants varied, however the majority reported that they came from conservative homes in which sexuality was not discussed openly. Several reported repressive sexual education or sex-negative messages from parents or religion. For these participants engaging in ceremonial sexuality included the challenge of breaking through these early experiences. Both women and men reported body image issues that were healed through the practice of ceremonial sexuality. Penis and breast size, body type and shape, and idealized body expectations were all encountered as challenges. Learning to love and appreciate their bodies as they were led to enhanced self-esteem and confidence. The practice provided all of the participants with tools for creating better relationships with significant others and deeper intimate relationships in general. The practice creates challenges in relationships, such as jealousy over partners engaging with others in ceremony. Overcoming these challenges is a focus of maturity in the practice. Seventeen of the 20 participants stated that they found an increased sense of spiritual connection through their practice of ceremonial sexuality. When asked if they felt they had benefited from the practice all of the participants enthusiastically responded yea. The fact that all continue their practice is evidence that for these twenty participants the benefits out weigh the pitfalls.[2]

Testimonials of practitioners. In a combination of personal narrative and theoretical presentation, the life of the polyamorous tantric circle "Cherry Blossom" (founded in 1985) and the teaching of the tantric Master Aba Aziz Makaja are presented. The disassociation of body and mind and consequent separation of sexuality and spirituality are left behind through a concise presentation of Makaja's "Theology of Sexuality." The narrative shows how, on the one hand, sexual intercourse can support a person's spiritual efforts and accelerate his or her self-realization or realization of God; on the other hand, how spiritual growth increases one's ability to love and therefore enjoy. Through the example of her intimate life, the author, who lives polyamorously, shows that the essence of Tantra is the disciplined training of virtues, including love, truth, and consciousness. Through this training jealousy is transformed into joy as a result of one's partner's happiness. Sexuality becomes conscious and ecstatic, and the realization of God is accelerated.[3]

Religious insight in psychoanalysis. Religion and psychoanalysis move toward a shared sense of the apprehension of the highest quality of mind as object. Whether this be self as Jung thought of it or Godhead, personal or impersonal, may be merely a matter of terms. As we actually experience them we may simply be unable to differentiate clearly the human from the divine, just as we cannot distinguish the object as a thing in itself from the phenomenon as the mind constructs it. Contemporary psychoanalysis has taken the object's primacy to development as Klein described it and brought out its duality in the internal parental couple. Of all religions, it is tantric Buddhism that anticipates this development. The importance of the couple symbolizing the object and its psychic contribution to container/ contained is reminiscent of the Oedipus complex and its dissolution. The religious repudiation of the senses finds its equivalent in the psychoanalytic technique of abstinence. This can be seen in religion to be a matter of making room for religious experience and not just moralism. This is explained by Bion in the idea of saturation and the way the senses may obscure the direct apprehension of mind. It may be that as religion passes from the exoteric belief in the unprovable to the esoteric discipline of religious experience, it ceases to be religion at all and becomes an empty concept, something we can know only by experience and cannot possess as an object of knowledge.[4]

Insight into a tantric community. By constantly developing the ability to love consciously and unconditionally, it is possible to transcend the problems of a monogamous partnership, as well as the jealousy that often accompanies it. Here is a personal account of the transformational process of one of the first members of Komaja's tantric circle Kamala, which has existed for thirteen years and has fifteen members. This demonstrates her struggle to be free from the limitations and expectations acquired from parental and social belief systems, as well as the illusions surrounding sexuality. Included are several practical examples of how the spiritual schooling of Aba Aziz Makaja, founder and spiritual master of the international community Komaja, assists in the cultivation and spiritualization of sexuality, as well as the development of conscious love. The fruits of this transformational process lead to intensive spiritual development, a happier and healthier love-erotic life, and long lasting relationships. Here is a glimpse of what could be the possible future of marriage.[5]

Mysticism distinguished from psychosis. Examining the fundamental conceptual organization of psychotic and mystical mental states not only elucidates the observed similarities between them, but can highlight the differences, and the processes by which negatively evaluated pathological features can be seen to emerge. Oriental philosophical systems such as Tibetan and Zen Buddhism, and Tantric Hinduism, provide conceptualizations of mystical states of mind, from which a model can be drawn, while the epistemologies of these systems provide an illuminating metaphysical perspective on both psychotic and mystical experiences. It is concluded that mystical and psychotic experiences can be distinguished not only by emotional and behavioral consequences, but by real differences in the states themselves; certain features, such as loss of subject/object boundaries and loss of the relative dimensional structure of perception, are common to both processes.[6]

Experiences of tantric couples. One area that has engaged some couples is the goal of combining sexuality and spirituality. Some couples in the United States and Europe are experimenting with and practicing ritual and techniques that are being termed tantra, sacred sexuality, or spiritual sex, and many hold the belief that these practices bring them considerable benefit. The purpose of the present study was to understand the meaning that the ritual of sacred sexuality/tantric practice has for couples who engage in this practice. Additional goals were to understand how these practices affect relationship satisfaction for the couples, and how couples that practice sacred sexuality experience their relationship. Participants in the study were ten couples who had been practicing sacred sexuality consistently between one and ten years. Data collection was completed by personal interview, with each interview taped and transcribed. The analysis was informed from a qualitative perspective, and data inspected by an interpretive phenomenological analysis. Detailed review of the original interview transcripts revealed five major themes and three minor themes. Major themes were: (1) feeling of deepened connectedness with each other and relationship satisfaction; (2) feeling of spirituality or spiritual experience; (3) experience of altered states of consciousness or mystical experiences; (4) experience of viewing the relationship as an opportunity for relationship and personal growth; and (5) experience of deepened connection and involvement with the community at large. Data analysis supported the general view of the couples that the practice of sacred sexuality had a positive impact on the relationship and on each partner. It was also apparent that the area of sexuality and spirituality is a relatively unexplored and that it offers many opportunities for further research in its depth.[7]

Tantric brain states. We studied autonomic and EEG correlates of Tantric Yoga meditation in 3 groups of Ss as they progressed from normal consciousness into meditation. The groups consisted of 10 college student controls, mean age 22.9 yrs, 10 "trainee" meditators, mean age 23.7 yrs, and 10 "expert" meditators, mean age 25.8 yrs. Measures of skin resistance, heart rate, respiration, autonomic orienting response, resting EEG, EEG alpha and theta frequencies, sleep-scored EEG, averaged evoked responses, and subjective experience were employed. Unlike most previously reported meditation studies, proficient meditators demonstrated increased autonomic activation during meditation while unexperienced meditators demonstrated autonomic relaxation. During meditation, proficient meditators demonstrated increased alpha and theta power, minimal evidence of EEG-defined sleep, and decreased autonomic orienting to external stimulation. An episode of sudden autonomic activation was observed that was characterized by the meditator as an approach to the Yogic ecstatic state of intense concentration. It is concluded that these findings challenge the current "relaxation" model of meditative states.[8]

Tantric cannibis use in India. The sacred beverage described in the Veda texts was probably made from a hallucinogenic mushroom, but it was replaced by hallucinogenic hemp in the 7th-21th centuries. Oral ingestion of marihuana and sexual intercourse were ritualized into a ceremony of great liberation.[9]

A Jungian seminar on tantra. At the invitation of the Psychological Club of Zürich (the circle surrounding Jung), the Indologist Hauer of Tübingen held a seminar on the Yoga in October, 1932. He treated especially the Kundalini or Tantra Yoga on the basis of the Sanskrit text The Six Bodily Centers, which is known in the West through Arthur Avalon's translation The Serpent Power (London, 1919). These centers (Chakra) represent psychic experiences which in time, place and expression are widely separated from us and can be understood only by persons having an inner affinity for them. Approaching the subject through religious history, Hauer brought out the dual man-woman principle, which is the distinguishing characteristic of the Tantra Yoga, and the predominance of one or the other aspect at various eras. A similar rhythm occurs in other religions, including Christianity. Hauer discusses the Hindu methods of experiencing the divine and their working-out in the attitude toward death and evil; also the different forms of Yoga, their metaphysics, the misunderstandings of the West concerning them, and the interpretation of the Chakra. The Tantra Yoga is an attempt to bring harmony into a life which threatens to succumb to a chaotic outbreak of its deepest forces. For this purpose it has created symbols which are the organic forms of experiences that could not be grasped otherwise. The central idea of the Chakra is a hierarchy of the unity of opposites.[10]

[1] Preece, Rob. The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra. Ithaca, NY, US: Snow Lion Publications, 2006.

[2] Trull, Charles L. Toward a deeper understanding of the effects of long-term practice of ceremonial sexuality. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences. 67(5-A), 2006, 1767.

[3] Konstanza. Part Two: Testimonials and Reports from the Field: In the Forecourt of Paradise: A Report on the Possible Love-Erotic Future of Humankind. Journal of Bisexuality. 2004, Vol 4(3-4), 121-132.

[4] Mendoza, Steven. The emerging religious dimension of knowing in psychoanalysis. In Bishop, Bernardine; Foster, Angela; Klein, Josephine; and O'Connell, Victoria (eds.). Elusive elements in practice. Practice of psychotherapy series: Book three. London, England: Karnac Books, 2004, pp. 35-50.

[5] Ray, Numa. Love Is Born from the Pulse of God's Heart: An Insight into the Polyamorous Circle Kamala. Journal of Bisexuality. 2004, Vol 4(3-4), 133-139.

[6] Brett, Caroline. Psychotic and Mystical States of Being: Connections and Distinctions. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology. 2002, Dec Vol 9(4), 321-341.

[7] Kruse, Cheryl Lynn. Couples' experiences of sacred sex/Tantra practices. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering. 63(2-B), Aug 2002, 1034.

[8] Corby, James C.; Roth, Walton T.; Zarcone, Vincent P.; Kopell, Bert S. Psychophysiological correlates of the practice of Tantric Yoga meditation. Archives of General Psychiatry. 1978, May, Vol 35(5), 571-577.

[9] Aldrich, Michael R. Tantric cannabis use in India. Journal of Psychedelic Drugs. 1977, Jul-Sep, Vol 9(3), 227-233.

[10] Kranefeldt, W. M. Bericht über das Yoga-Seminar von Prof. Dr. J. W. Hauer. / Report on the Yoga-seminar of Prof. J. W. Hauer. Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie. 1932, Vol 5, 707-713.

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Tags: tantra

The Ways and Power of Love

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 21:07:45 GMT

One of my great intellectual heroes is the sociologist, Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin (1889-1968). In previous blog entries or tributes I have written about other pioneers of consciousness, and/or psychic friends, who have exerted a major influence on my thinking. They include Jean Houston, Stephan A. Schwartz and Charles Tart, Kay Rhea, Kevin Ryerson, Saul-Paul Sirag, Dean Brown, Sheba Penner, Alan Vaughan, James P. Driscoll, Lynne Morris and Arthur M. Young. In a very real sense, I feel Sorokin has touched my life in the same way as these dear friends. The difference, however, is that – although I was 21 years old when he died – I never had the pleasure of meeting Sorokin. In fact, I was not introduced to his work until after his death.

The way that Sorokin’s writings reached out and touched me with a vital force is somewhat akin to the influence upon me of the ancient Roman philosopher, Seneca. One example is Sorokin’s “Integral Theory of Truth and Reality” – an essay of his that I have excerpted and posted on the Intuition Network website. Another (related) example of this influence on me is my article, “Intuition: A Source of True Knowing” published in the Noetic Sciences Review.

I believe that connections of this sort reveal a great deal about the nature of love itself. And, interestingly, Sorokin is – in my opinion – one of the most important writers ever to address the nature of love and its role in human civilization. His book, The Ways and Power of Love, originally published in 1954 is truly a classic.

My blog post, today, about Sorokin, is – actually – part of the series of recent posts (starting July 26, 2008) concerning the role that love plays through the entire human life cycle. My (probably unattainable) goal in this project is to arrive an a unified understanding of love that integrates biological, psychological and spiritual perspectives. I think that Sorokin’s work is crucial to this endeavor – insofar as he dedicated much of his illustrious academic career to the integration of spiritual perspectives within American sociology.

I think that Sorokin, himself, would question the possibility of my achieving the ambitious goal that I have set forth (above) for my book on love. He would point out, I believe, that our present, chaotic cultural environment does not readily lend itself a unified understanding of love. While the integration of science and spirituality is a desirable goal, it is quite premature to think that it has yet been achieved – at least in a fashion that is likely to penetrate into the cultural mainstream.

I cannot disagree. Yet, realistically, my own thoughts and synchronistic reminiscences I have about love and the human psyche are also far from the mainstream of our culture. Perhaps some day in the future this will all change.

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Tags: Pitirim Sorokin, Dean Brown, James P. Driscoll, Arthur M. Young, Jean Houston, Kevin Ryerson, Alan Vaughan

Sarah Palin's Lies

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:25:45 GMT

Tonight I have created a new graphic image I call “Palinocchio.” I hope that readers of this blog will feel free to appropriate it for any useful purpose. It is my own way of expressing outrage that the Republican ticket has taken the low road in this election for the highest offices of our land.

I believe that the time has come for American’s to absolutely and unequivocally reject the brazen politics of deceit. I would like to see people wearing these “Pinocchio McCain” and “Pinocchio Palin” t-shirts present at all of their public events. They say that a picture is worth 10,000 words. Perhaps such a gesture will help to awaken people.

Below is a list of articles describing and documenting the shameful style of politics that Republicans seems to regard as normal and conventional.

Sherrie Goll, “Thanks But No Thanks, Keep Clueless Sarah Far Away,” Sun Sentinel, September 21, 2008

Caille Millner, “Governor Palin More a Token Than a Feminist,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 21, 2008

Nico Pitney, “Olbermann Gives $100 to Charity for Every Palin Lie, $3,700 This Week Alone,” Huffington Post, September 20, 2008

John Wojcik, “Liar, Liar,” People’s Weekly World, September 19, 2008

Andrew Sullivan, “The Odd Lies of Sarah Palin, XI,” The Atlantic.com, September 18, 2008

“McCain, Palin Defiant in ‘Lies’ Storm,” AFP, September 15, 2008

“The Media Call McCain and Palin on Their Trail of Lies,” Newsday, September 15, 2008

Hilzoy, “Fact Checking Palin,” CBS News, September 4, 2008

“A Thousand Points of Lies,” Birmingham Weekly

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Tags: Sarah Palin, Pinocchio, deceit, politics

John McCain's Lies

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:25:44 GMT

Pinocchio McCain (illustration by Jeff Mishlove -- may be freely used)

Although I wish to add my voice to the outrage being expressed in many places over the frequent, repeated lies being spread by the McCain campaign – I don’t think there’s any need for me to go into specifics. The facts are already too well documented. I have listed thirteen recent news stories and editorials below -- with links. And, many of these also link to nonpartisan websites that specialize in political fact-checking.

My main point is that this dishonest behavior cheapens the American electoral process and damages the body politic as a whole. Furthermore, it gives the lie to the idea that McCain and Palin, if elected, would govern differently than Bush and Cheney. In fact the technique of deliberate, brazen lying in American politics was taken to new heights by Bush and Cheney. McCain and Palin are simply demonstrating that they are perfectly willing and able to carry on this frightening tradition.

Also, I wish to go on record as rejecting the cynical contention that “all politicians lie” or that “the Democrats lie just as much as the Republicans.” I do not see evidence for this.

Of course, it is tricky – because one does find distortion and misrepresentation throughout the political spectrum. Although I am an avid Obama supporter, I am not blind to the truth-stretching that comes from his campaign. But, overall, I believe that Obama has made a real and sincere effort to conduct an honorable campaign. I wish I could say the same of McCain. But, the fact that he and Palin repeat their blatant lies, every day on the campaign trail, even after the factual errors are exposed – tells me that their motives are less than pure.

They are using lying as a deliberate campaign strategy. This strategy shows no respect for the intelligence or the integrity of the American voter. And, to my way of thinking, the soul of America is in peril if we, as a nation, reward this ugliness in the coming election.

“McCain is At It Again,” PhoenixvilleNews.com, September 20, 2008

Dan Nowicki, “McCain’s Negative Ads Could Backfire,” Arizona Republic, September 20, 2008

Frank Rich, “Truthiness Stages a Comeback,” New York Times, September 20, 2008

Alan Wolfe, “The Lying Game,” Salon.com, September 20, 2008

David Olive, “News Media Abetting ‘Carnival of Lies,’” Toronto Star, September 20, 2008

Patrick Healy, “Let’s Call a Lie a Lie … Finally,” New York Times, September 20, 2008

Kathleen Reardon, “The Real Reason Why Rove Criticized McCain’s Lies,” HuffingtonPost.com, September 19, 2008

Siri Agrell, “Why the ‘L’ Word Matters More This Time Around,” Globe and Mail, September 18, 2008

Gary Ater, “Third Party Confirms That McCain and GOP Misrepresent Obama, Again & Again & Again,” American Chronicle, September 18, 2008

Joe Klein, “John McCain and the Lying Game,” Time.com, September 17, 2008

Mark Mellman, “Lies, Damn Lies & John McCain,” TheHill.com, September 16, 2008

Tom Teepen, “McCain Has Become a Serial Liar,” SeattlePi.com, September 15, 2008

Count the Lies, www.mccainpedia.org

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Tags: John McCain, lies, soul of America

Ten Reasons Why I Support Barack Obama

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:03:14 GMT

Honesty: Obama has consistently conducted himself with dignity, honesty and character during this campaign. In this regard, he shows a striking contrast with his opponent, Senator McCain, whose campaign has been characterized by major media outlets as one of the sleaziest and dishonest in modern electoral history.

Global Stature: Obama will work hard to restore America’s stature in the world. His opponent, Senator McCain, shows many signs of continuing the same foreign policies of George W. Bush that have alienated us from our own allies and have caused people around the world to fear and distrust us.

Economic Solutions: Obama will seek real solutions to the very serious economic problems this country faces. His opponent, a champion of excessive deregulation, carries with him the very same mindset that helped to create many of these problems. And, as Albert Einstein once said, you cannot solve a problem from the mindset that created it.

American Unity: Obama’s campaign, as is embodied in his own life story, represents a serious effort to bring all Americans together – regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or political philosophy. His opponent, while occasionally mouthing the language of national unity, has built a campaign based upon vicious sarcasm and policies that tend to focus on “wedge issues” that divide Americans rather than unite them.

Knowledge: Obama is a brilliant scholar, highly educated, a professor of constitutional law, and very knowledgeable about many subjects including law, economics, and world affairs. His opponent was a poor student whose public statements frequently demonstrate both confusion and an attempt to oversimplify complex issues.

Equal Opportunity: Obama is a Democrat and supports policies that will provide greater economic and social opportunities for all citizens. His opponent is a Republican and supports the same policies that have dominated our country for 28 of the last 40 years (since I have been a voter). The consequence of those Republican policies is that the richest 1% of the population have controlled an ever-increasing share of the economic pie – leaving less and less for the remaining 99%.

Judgment: Obama has consistently opposed the invasion of Iraq. His opponent has consistently supported this unprovoked, expensive and unnecessary war.

Diplomacy: Obama supports a foreign policy based upon diplomacy and discussion whenever possible. His opponent, Senator McCain, has consistently based his discussions of foreign policy upon threats of violence and war (i.e., “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”).

Privacy Rights: Obama believes that the government has no business interfering in medical decisions that women make with regard to their own bodies and reproductive systems. His opponent, McCain, wishes to criminalize a woman’s right to choose.

Maturity: Obama has consistently based his campaign on the pressing issues that Americans face regarding healthcare, jobs, and foreign policy. His opponent -- since he cannot win on the issues -- has consistently attempted to distract voters from the issues by focusing on trivial questions of style, celebrity, language and personality (i.e.,false indignation about "lipstick on a pig" or comparisons with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton).

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Tags: Barack Obama

Cultural Attitudes Toward Sexual Experience

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:05:30 GMT

Here is my condensation of the final chapter of V.F. Calverton's 1928 book, The Bankruptcy of Marriage. Calverton's main point is to debunk the idea that certain contemporary attitudes towards matters such as chastity are, in fact, universal:

With primitive man sex was a superstition, with ancient man it was a religious cult. The primeval attitude toward sex was free of pruriency and secretiveness. The sex organs were symbols of potency and objects of adoration. Even the exanimate world was endowed with sexual attributes. In the primitive concept of the gods was embodied the sexual origin of the world. Uranus (SKY), for example, was the male in unending sexual congress with Gaia (EARTH), the female; in this embrace humanity was conceived as in a constant state of propagation. Phallic worship among the Greeks and Romans was a widespread and accepted custom. In all these attitudes sex has a social aspect. It is translated into every form of life. In art its manifestations are arresting and signal The Comedy, for instance, as Aristotle observed, originated in the Phallic performances, in honor of Phales himself. Greek religion is saturated with sex. Judaism likewise embodies the concrete evidences of phallicism.

It has only been since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the rise of the bourgeois class and its narrow-bound morality, as we saw in earlier chapters, that sex became discussion-gagged by the censor. The stork now became the errand boy of the doctor, and ignorance was sweetly cherished as innocence. Candor became a vice, and hypocrisy a virtue. Art in the nude was draped, legs suddenly became limbs, and passion became a sin of the pagans. The difference between the clean attitude of ancient man toward sex and the unclean attitude of modern man is well illustrated in the controversy that arose about the Greek play Lysistrata. In this play, when it was originally staged in Greece, the actors wore artificial phalli, and no one was either shocked, surprised or bewildered. When Aubrey Beardsley, however, illustrated this Greek play according to its original form, with its phallicism manifest, he horrified the bourgeois world, and was scorned and attacked with unmitigated vigor.

To primitive and ancient man, it is clear, sex was a significant phenomenon, which he approached with reverence and candor. He did not allow the element of shame to intrude into his conception of it. He did not attempt to obscure or deny its realities. He spoke of the organs of procreation with affection and with a clean respect for their potency. To him sex embodied the mysterious source of creation and he idealized it in art and religion. Modern man, on the contrary, has been taught either to look upon sex as a sin, or as something unclean and unbeautiful except in its stupid sentimentalities and childish bathos. He has endeavored to hide it, and confine it to the unspoken. He has encouraged ignorance of it as an ideal. Pruriency and smugness grew up as characteristic manifestations of this ostrich-like attitude. An unclean and unhealthy "refinement" was the consequence. It was not until our present generation that this "refinement" was recognized as a form of hypocrisy, a spurious virtue that brought only ignorance and pain, and a sense of sickening impotency with its realization.

Sexual customs in modern times as well as in ancient reveal wide and sweeping fluctuations. The concept of chastity has often been singled out as something which all moralities have advocated. This again is nothing more than an attempt to force historical fact to fit one's moral predilections. It is, of course, essentially fallacious. Among primitive peoples chastity is often considered a vice instead of a virtue. Among the Nasamonians the custom is for the bride to surrender herself to all the wedding guests before she welcomes her husband. Herodotus describes this custom in the following manner:

"When a Nasamonian marries, it is the custom for the first night to lie with all the guests in turn, and each, when he has intercourse with her, gives her some present which he has brought with him."

Pomponius Mela claimed that greater honor attached to those women who had many such sex relations on their wedding night than those who had but a few. Diodorus, commenting upon the customs of the inhabitants of the Belearic Islands, wrote:

"They have a strange custom at their weddings, for on the wedding night the oldest friends and guests lie first with the bride; then the others in the order of their ages. The bridegroom is the last man who is admitted to that honor."

Even at the present day this same custom continues among the Barea of Abyssinia, the Australian aborigines, and the Waitata and the Watveta of East Africa. Similar usages existed in New Guinea, Cuba, Peru and Central America. Among Southern Slavs, until a short time ago, it was the convention for the two best men at the wedding to spend the night with the bride in bed before she experienced the embrace of her husband. Until fifty years ago it was still the custom for the male guests to disrobe the bride in the nuptial chamber. Just as it had been the practice in ancient Ireland for the king to deflower every bride before she reached her husband. Fertility in these early societies was important, and not virginity. The fear of hemorrhage accompanying defloration was perhaps the main reason for the contempt for virginity.

Virginity is often the source of great superstitious fear. Many peoples, for instance, specifically enjoined early intercourse in order to avoid the stigma of virginity. In Egypt the girl had to lose her virginity by promiscuous intercourse prior to puberty. With the Basoga-Batamba of Uganda virginity in a woman, who has reached a marriageable age, is considered criminal. Among the Bushango the aim of a girl after she has been betrothed is to have frequent intercourse with many men in order to occasion a pregnancy. This is an accomplishment which gratifies her prospective husband because it is definite assurance that she is not sterile. The Indians of Canada were so inbred with the same idea that a pregnant girl was the greatest attraction for men anxious to marry. In the Philippines, the Bisayos scorn their wives if they prove virgins. In Nigeria, among the Kaje, this same attitude predominates. A virgin there can command only the price of a goat; a girl who has already borne a child, however, is worth a horse. In the Congo regions a virgin is worth only one-sixth as much as a woman who has had

a child. In New Zealand women are considered fortunate because they have never known when they were virgins—for they have love affairs with boys almost from the cradle. This tendency to unrestricted intercourse from childhood is to be found among most primitive and many ancient peoples. Only in certain places, where virginity is associated with property value, is this general freedom reined-in by an economic custom. It is a curious phenomenon that virginity should be particularly guarded in parts of Africa where the influence of the slave-trade was most profound. And wherever it is guarded it is done so because of its economic value and not moral virtue.

With the exaltation of virginity is associated the subjection of women. Virginity has a value for the man who sells the woman or who purchases the wife. It is not the woman who profits by the economic asset which her virginity commands—but the man. While suicide in defense of one's virtue is not an uncommon gesture on the part of the Chinese woman, Chinese men indulge in a variety of sexual freedoms all of which are entirely approved by custom. Little Wives become their property as well as their Great Wife; female slaves are often employed to offer more devious thrills for their master's erotic proclivities; and the habit of providing prostitutes for the entertainment of male friends is a frequent practice among the mandarins. It is only the woman who is forced to protect her purity. Among those peoples in which women are dominant, we do not find them enslaving themselves in any such manner. In fact they maintain a greater freedom in their sexual relations often than the men. In Uganda, Hawaii, Tahiti, Paraguay, Sierra Leone, Madagascar and among the Bosonge of the Congo, women disdain such virtues as foolish and unnatural. In these places women are not subject to men.

The exclusive possessiveness which has been encircled about the sexual relation it is patent, is only of recent evolution. The habit of lending one's wife, or even daughter, was common in many parts of Europe not many generations ago. It continued even in the fifteenth century in Holland:

"It is the custom in the Netherlands that whosoever hath a dear guest, unto him he giveth his wife in good faith."

The idea that marriage has always been an affair of life-long duration is likewise absurd. Among many primitive peoples marriage usually lasted until the birth of a child or at best for a few years afterwards. Among the Manes of Sahara the women consider it proper to marry frequently; a long married life is condemned as unrefined and vulgar. The Abyssinians have limited or trial marriages as a general practice. The North American Indians also had trial marriages. For instance the Wyandottes had trial marriages which continued for only several days. Among the Hurons, Rev. D. Jones states that women are purchased (for marriage) by the night, week, month, or winter. The Cherokee Iroquois change wives several times a year. The Esquimaux are known for seldom keeping their wives more than a few years. In Malaya individuals marry forty and fifty times during a life-span. These variations could be multiplied without number were we to touch the habits and customs of all the different peoples in our world.

In very modern times the practice of polygamy, which ordinarily is associated with primitive and barbarous peoples—although the Biblical Jews practiced it on the basis of moral principle—was recommended by a poet no less conspicuous than John Milton and a moralist no less ingenious than John Lyser. Milton, who was a Puritan, made a plea for polygamy that was grounded in Biblical testimony:

"Either polygamy is a true marriage, or all children born in that state are spurious, which would include the whole race of Jacob, the twelve tribes chosen by God. . . Not a trace appears of the interdiction of polygamy throughout the whole law, not even in any of the prophets."

In 1650 shortly following the peace of Westphalia, the Frankish Kreistag at Nuremberg, confronted by the decimated population which had resulted from the Thirty Years' War, passed a ruling permitting every man to marry two women.

In other words, it was only a little over 275 years ago when an actual decree in favor of polygamy was issued by a Christian state in what is now Germany. And today we find Norman Haire prophesying polygamy as a possible solution for the sex problem:

“Legalized polygamy would offer many advantages . . . there are many men, and some women, who apparently need more than one person of the opposite sex to make life reasonably happy for them. Before marriage the man and women would state whether they desired the union to be monogamous or polygamous."

The attitude of the Christian Church itself has undergone a surprising change. In the early centuries of its era "married life was treated as absolutely unlawful." St. Ambrose declared that "married people ought to blush at the state in which they are living," and Tertullian maintained that the disappearance of man was better than his propagation by sexual intercourse. The Christian hatred of woman strengthened her subjection. "Marriage and propagation are of Satan" was one of the famous proclamations of the priest Saturninus. Today the Church has reversed its attitude completely. Marriage is now lawful and priests and preachers confirm and bless it. The words of Tertullian are repudiated. It is the multiplication and not the extinction of humankind which is embodied in its opposition to birth control and abortion.

It has been our purpose in this long recitation of varying attitudes toward love and the sex-life to illustrate the relativity of standards and their impermanency in terms of social change. There is apparently nothing inherent or irrevocable in any attitude. We can only speak of values in reference to their immediate environment. They have no universal or unchanging sanctity which can be defended as ideal.

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Tags: V.F. Calverton, The Bankruptcy of Marriage, sex, chastity, hypocracy, customs

The Decline of Prostitution & The New Morality

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:06:52 GMT

The Joy of Life painted by Henri Matisse

Again, I am continuing my condensation of the 1928 work by V.F. Calverton titled The Bankruptcy of Marriage. From his perspective, writing in the aftermath of the first world war, Calverton was able to observe firsthand the beginning of trends that have shaped our world eighty years later. Here is Chapter VII, he writes about how the "new morality" has caused a marked decline in patronage of prostitutes:

One of the most interesting and striking effects of this new morality and the decay of marriage is the obvious decline which has occurred in prostitution. Perhaps it would be more precise to describe the change in terms of the fading appeal that the prostitute has come to have for modern youth. It is not that the economic situation which is the fundamental cause of prostitution has been altered, but that the necessity of the prostitute has diminished with the greater opportunity for sex relations upon the basis of mutual attraction. If the trade of the prostitute has not seriously decreased in connection with men of the old generation, it, nevertheless, has unquestionably declined with the youth of the new. Few men would ever choose the prostitute as a means of expressing their sexual urge if a less indelicate adjustment were attainable. The prostitute has been scorned by the very men who have turned to her for escape.

The story of prostitution is a story of bodies bartered for sustenance. While the history of prostitution had a picturesque career in the life of ancient as well as modern society, it was the Industrial Revolution that turned it from a practice into a plague. The terrific growth of prostitution in the last few centuries attests the evil effects of our economic system and the bankruptcy of the marital institution that has grown out of it. In reference to prostitution and its relationship to monogamous marriage, all men, asserts Bernard de Mandeville, become physically tired of their wives and find the prostitute a very necessary and delectable variation. His own words are striking:

"A proof of this truth (that prostitution is a needed and valuable diversion) is the established maxim among women that the debauchees are mostly married men."

In other words certain women have had to prostitute themselves in order that other women might remain respectable and that monogamous marriage continue as a flexible fiction. Wherever sex desire was thwarted, the prostitute offered a ready recourse. Cultured and uncultured, men dedicated to professions sacred as well as profane, have all found her an enticing diversion. Altogether prostitution is one of the boldest and basest expressions of man's inhumanity to women. It is the direct result of a morality made for men and not for women.

With the advancing independence of women and their revolt against the old morality, the prostitute is beginning to lose her monopoly upon the avenues of erotic escape. With youth this is particularly manifest. At one time the young man had practically no other retreat than that of the brothel. Respectable girls, in the old days, as we have seen, were taught to avoid even the minor intimacies of the kiss before betrothal. The passionate caress was a violation of respectable virtue. In these days of petting and necking, however, and the freedoms that often follow, the difficulties incident to sex expression have largely disappeared. This is well-illustrated by the following quote from New Student, April 7, 1926:

"Necking in itself has already lowered—and if properly encouraged would still further decrease greatly—the amount of vice among college men. Under the present short-sighted rules, whether it has done the same for college women is doubtful. Twenty or thirty years ago, as some of the boys of that time tell us, it was quite regular and ordinary for a large number of college men to visit the 'tenderloin' districts, with, of course, terrible results. Some fraternities even maintained private institutions of this nature. That was in the pre-necking era. The cloistered students had no contact with decent women, and so they used such means as were at their disposal. But with the advent of the petting-party that has largely changed."

In brief, prostitution has become much less popular among these college men, because, with the loosening of the old morals, sexual experience with women of the new generation is certainly to be preferred.

The young man of today is turning away from the prostitute because he can find his sex expression with the so-called "decent" girl who has adopted the new morals. According to one survey, only 14% of these men had had any contact with the prostitute at all. How important this is one can only realize when he takes into consideration the fact that in the days before the War, when the old morality was still in the stirrups, at least 90% of these men would have had their sex relationships entirely with prostitutes. It has only been with the rise of the new morality that this contamination could be avoided.

What we discover in the decline of prostitution is a realization of the important part that birth control has played in the development of a finer expression of the sexual impulse. While all of the factors which we have considered in connection with the rise of the new morality have been instrumental in bringing about this freer expression of the sexual urge, it has been the invention of birth control methods which has made possible the "geologic shift in the center of gravity from procreation to recreation as the true goal of sex expression." The flapper and the new woman, informed in the ways of enjoying sex as recreation without procreation, are freeing sex expression from its old fetters.

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Tags: V.F. Calverton, The Bankruptcy of Marriage, prostitution, new morality

The New Morality

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:20:57 GMT

V.F. Calverton's 1928 book, The Bankruptcy of Marriage, suggests that the modern trend toward greater promiscuity among youth began with the generation that came of age following World War I. I find this fascinating, as this data refers to a period prior to the more well-known surveys of Kinsey and Hite or the research of Masters and Johnson:

THE NEW MORALITY IN AMERICA

While men have always been known to sow their "wild oats" before marriage, the moral concept of prenuptial chastity denied this privilege to women. With the revolt of youth, however, and the emancipating enthusiasms of the new morality, this condition has changed. The "sowing of wild oats" is no longer the particular prerogative of the man.

It is not only that girls are beginning to sow their wild oats, however, that is important, but that they are usually forced to conceal it from their elders by device and subterfuge that lead to personal detriment and harm. Certain forms of sexual expression, nevertheless, that once were forbidden, have now become customary instead of exceptional. Kissing, for example, which once was supposed to begin only with the gesture of betrothal, has now become a promiscuous pastime. "Necking" has become an accepted practice. The modern dance, of course, has stimulated these open liberties in conduct. The automobile has given to them the convenience of expression that the fire-side parlor, with parents vigilant behind door or curtain, would never have permitted.

The one man in America who is best equipped to disclose the nature of this phenomenon is Judge Ben Lindsey. Lindsey was judge of the Juvenile Court in Denver for a period of twenty-six years. In this court he achieved one of the most unique experiments in America. He made this court into a laboratory for moral advice and instruction. His attitude was not that of a legalist, but a humanitarian. Youths came to him because they saw in him a friend and not a jurist. They confided in him because they trusted him. What they would have trembled to confess to their parents, they frankly told this sympathetic adviser. There was no camouflage about their confessions.

Lindsey, anxious to be conservative and not extreme, maintains that at least from fifteen to twenty-five percent of these girls unquestionably include the sexual act within the category of their relations with men. That this statement is guilty more of exaggeration in the cause of caution than that of fact is borne out by other revelations and conclusions in Lindsey's book. The assertions of youths themselves, when they attempt to estimate the extensity of the new freedom among the groups with which they are intimate, makes such a small estimate seem absurd. After all, Lindsey was confronted only with those cases that resulted in disaster or distress. The myriads of cases that did not terminate in difficulty or catastrophe, of course, never came to the knowledge of either Lindsey or the world. It is only fair to Lindsey to add, however, that he admits this fact, and in the following paragraphs, quoted from his book, The Revolt of Modern Youth, he states that he has at hand certain figures which "indicate with certainty that for every case of sex delinquency discovered, a very large number completely escape detection. For instance, out of 495 girls at high-school age — though not all of them were in high school—who admitted to me that they had sex experiences with boys, only 25 became pregnant. That is about 5 percent, a ratio of one in twenty. The others avoided pregnancy, some by luck, others because they had a knowledge of more or less effective contraceptive methods—a knowledge, by the way, which I find to be more common among them than is generally supposed.

In another place Lindsey is even more definite in his calculations:

"Consider, for example, that for every one of those 769 girls of high-school age whom I helped in the biennial period of 1920 and 1921, there was at least one other girl whom this court knew nothing about and never reached. That, surely, is as conservative an estimate as can be asked. And yet, conservative as it is, let us see where it leads. It involves a minimum of 1500 girls of high-school age (not necessarily in school) in Denver as having indulged in some kind of sex delinquency. It involves the assumption that 608 of them were actually in school. Assuming that there are about 3000 girls, then, attending the high schools of Denver, that figure 608 would represent about 20 percent over the period of two years, or 304 for each year, 10 percent per annum. It would mean that one high-school girl in every ten, or ten in every hundred in our high schools, have their feet set on more or less perilous paths, are subjecting themselves to regrettable risks, and are in need of guidance and, counsel for one reason or another.

"Let me repeat that these are minimum figures, and that they include only the ages of 14, 15, 16 and 17. They do not include the ages 18, 19, 20 where there is doubtless a larger percentage of such delinquency. Let me remind the reader also of my conviction already stated, for every sexually delinquent girl we deal with there are an unknown number, possibly a much larger number, who escape our attention."

"Very good, we found from our own records that of 495 girls we dealt with who confessed to illicit sex relations only 1 in 20 encountered pregnancy. In that case, 100 pregnancies, taken care of by us, implies, on a ratio of 1 to 19, at least 1900 escapes from pregnancy; and 200 pregnancies would imply 3800 escapes from pregnancy. And that among the girls of high-school age, some in school and some out of school, in a city of 300,000 population. And these figures, let me say again, represent a minimum below the level of probability and common sense. The number of cases is certainly very far above what even these figures indicate."

The decay of modern marriage and the development of these new morals are intimately related. The growth of freer sexual relations on the part of youth has reduced the purely biological necessity of marriage for women as well as men. The sacredness of marriage has naturally vanished under these conditions of chaos. The new morality has brought us to a new cross-road in the history of morals in our civilization.

Material of interest in connection with the problem of the new morality has been gathered by Katharine Bement Davis. Dr. Davis has often been cited by editorial writers as an opponent of Lindsey, and her statistics grossly exaggerated by them in an endeavor to prove that the old morals are unshaken. Certain of the questions asked in her questionnaires, from time to time, we shall find of exceptional interest and importance. Among the 1,000 women included in the study of one questionnaire only 375 are cited as having allowed "spooning with their fiance before marriage; 9208 allowed themselves to be kissed; and 389 allowed no liberties at all. Only seventy-one of these women had had sexual intercourse prior to marriage.

Thirty-five of them had sex relations only with their fiance, twelve had intercourse with one person only, sixteen with more than one person, and eight did not specify the person involved. Of the sixteen who had had intercourse with more than one person, ten possessed information as to contraceptive technique, two had no information, and one did not reply at all.10 Of these sixteen, six were college graduates, one a Master of Arts and one an M.D. Two had several years of college education; three were high school graduates, three had one or two years in high school, one had only advanced to the eighth grade, and one had had private tutoring.

The great number of these women who only allowed themselves to be kissed previous to marriage, and the greater number who did not allow any caress at all, might seem to indicate a conventionality of behavior on the part of women that would deny the triumph of the flapper and the rise of the new morality. An examination of these women, from the point of view of age, however, does not confirm this conclusion. The majority of them were in their thirties and forties when they answered this questionnaire in 1921 and 1922, and, therefore, do not represent the new generation which has become conspicuous by revolt. They represent the generation that immediately preceded. Even this generation, it is apparent nevertheless, did not represent in very perfect manner the closed-in morals of their Victorian ancestors. In the matter of abortions, for instance, we find that 93 of these 1000 women had abortions, one of them having had as many as eight and nineteen of them having had two. And while only seventy-one had sexual intercourse before marriage, one hundred and sixty-three of them had homosexual relations with physical expression, and 381 had practiced masturbation. In many other ways also, different and more subtle questions would have shown that if these women do not represent the modern generation, there was to be found, even in their attitude, an emphatic sign of the revolt that has burst upon us with the youth of today.

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Tags: V.F. Calverton, divorce, marriage, monogamy, Kinsey Report, Shere Hite, Masters and Johnson, Katherine Bement Davis, Ben Lindsey

"The Decay of Modern Marriage"

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:11:42 GMT

Today, I am continuing with my condensation of V.F. Calverton's 1928 book, The Bankruptcy of Modern Marriage. Chapter Four focuses on divorce. And I think it is fascinating to note that the divorce trends observed in 1928 have greatly accelerated since then. Calverton believes that these trends are part of a much larger revolution in modern social relationships:

Monogamous marriage is based upon the idea of a lifetime relationship between one man and one woman. This is the religious as well as the social idea that is behind the conception. Such was its Christian origin, to be sure, and in theological mandate and legal statute the spirit of this conception was written. Even to this day, divorce is denied by the Roman Catholic Church, and is sanctioned only under circumstances of a very extraordinary or extenuating character. The rise of divorce as a consideration in modern marital arrangements dates from the Reformation; as a practice, however, it does not become a factor until the nineteenth century.

Christianity introduced a new attitude which has not yet been erased from the marital ceremony and institution. The concept of sex as a sin is intruded as an ethical attitude at this time, and the theory of indissoluble monogamy was forced upon the world. Divorce was destroyed. The words of Jesus: "What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder," served as the cardinal doctrine for the Christian marriage.

If we say that marriage has decayed, we do not mean that people do not still marry, or that they will not marry in the future. It is marriage as we know it, therefore, the marriage of modern monogamy, of the binding-contract variety, our system of marriage, in other words, that has broken down, and today is bankrupt.

A monogamy which is interrupted by frequent divorce is a monogamy only in fiction, but not in fact. The essential idea of monogamy, as we said, is a relationship of life-long duration. Otherwise Mr. Mencken's witticism: "Certainly I believe in monogamy, one woman at a time," is sound doctrine. In other words, if merely living with one woman at a time is monogamy, then many forms of free-love are mentally monogamous. Many an individual, then, classified by conventional society as a profligate or demirep, is genuine monogamist. But everyone knows that it is not in such ways that monogamy is construed.

Let us observe some of the developments in divorce, which have effected this "consecutive polygamy" that has taken place in our modern world. In Holland there is now a divorce rate of fourteen for every one thousand marriages. In Sweden, there were seven divorces per thousand in 1899, 84 per thousand in 1904, and 97 per thousand in 1909. In Denmark divorces have increased from 550 to 650 out of a total of only 850,000 married persons. In the United States the figures are even more of a revelation. In 1880 the United States had thirty-eight divorces per hundred thousand of the population, and in 1900 it had 73 per hundred thousand. This increase was so startling and appalling that it attracted the attention of the world. Only Japan with an average of 215 per hundred thousand surpassed the American record. Between 1867 and 1886 there were 328,716 divorces, while between 1887 and 1906 there were 945,625. The following comparisons will illustrate the extensity of this increase:

The increase of divorces between 1870 and 1880 was two-and-two-thirds times greater than that of the increase in the population; between 1890 and 1900 it rose to three times. In 1924, for instance, this number had risen to 151. An effective comparison is to be seen in the statistics as to domestic relations in 1887 and 1924. In 1887 there was one divorce to every 17.3 marriages; in 1924 there was one divorce to every 6.9 marriages.

"There were in 1924," writes Professor William Fielding Ogburn, "about 15 to 16 times as many divorces as there were in 1870, and yet the population is only about three times as large."

In specific states, for instance, the conditions are even more astonishing. In Oregon, as we pointed out before, there is one divorce for every 2.6 marriages; in Wyoming one divorce for every 3.9 marriages; and in California one divorce for every 5.1 marriages. If we study divorce libels the conditions are even more astonishing. Divorce libels in Boston, for example, (or in Suffolk County) have increased almost three times as fast as marriages during the twenty years from 1900-1920.

If people are not legally free to contract as they wish in their sexual relations, which would be equivalent to a form of free-love, they modify the law in such ways as to get this effect without being aware of it. They turn monogamy into such a malleable thing that it is no longer monogamy but a chaos of voluntary changes, rejections, and novelties, and yet in still calling it monogamy their fear of convention is pacified. They convert marriage into a kind of experimental liaison, with legal trappings to sanctify it, and convince themselves that by still calling it marriage the institution remains unassailed.

It is instructive also to observe the causes that are assigned for divorces. For example, among 945,625 divorces effected, 642,476 were granted to women, and 316,149 to men. Over two divorces, then, were granted to wives for every one that was granted to husbands, which signifies, in statistical form, an attitude on the part of woman that is distantly removed from that of her Victorian predecessors. In the nineteenth century divorce sought by woman was a sign of stigma. Women then were not to "take arms against a sea of trouble," but to accept it with resignation. Such response was supposed to be part of the innate nobility of her nature. Today woman is in a state of protest and revolt. At one time the double-morality was accepted as a phase of the inevitable. Today, as we know, it is denied. In the matter of desertion, we see a similar situation. Among 367,502 divorces granted on the basis of desertion, 211,219 were given to women, and 156,283 to men. This change is directly connected, of course, with the economic independence of woman that has become so marked in the present generation and which has so decisively influenced the new feminine psychology.

In America the grounds for divorce vary with almost every state in the union. The chaos is extremely annoying and troublesome. It is almost as bad as certain of the marital laws that exist in different states. One white man, for instance, who had married a colored woman in Chicago, where intermarriage between white and colored people is legal, found that when he moved to Maryland he would be imprisoned if he lived with his wife. When he insisted upon his natural rights as a husband he was informed that he could not even get a divorce since in the eyes of Maryland he had never been married. Such cases are numerous. In Reno one can get a divorce after a residence of three months, on the ground of cruelty or one year's desertion. In New York one can get a divorce only on the grounds of adultery, or proof of the unchastity of a wife before marriage. At the same time New York permits a common law marriage. In one case there was a man who was a bigamist in one state and a monogamist in another. There are other instances in which children can be legitimate in one state and illegitimate in another. South Carolina, curiously enough, permits no divorce at all. Nevertheless, its compensations are in other directions. It does not make adultery an indictable offense, and it has actually passed a law, regulating the amount of property a man can bestow upon his concubine. This is one of the most unique gestures of compromise on record. Rather than modify its marital code, and concede the existence of necessary difficulties and deviations in marital relationships, it invents another law to circumscribe these deviations without violating the original statute. Thus the old seems firm and unchanged, although in reality it has been fundamentally altered.

Divorce has menaced the marital institution in every country in Europe as well as America. In Germany divorces rose from 13,344 in 1918 to 36,542 in 1920; in Switzerland from 1,699 in 1918 to 2,241 in 1920; in Sweden from 1,098 in 1918 to 1,455 in 1923. In the United States, with 180,868 actual divorces (an advance of 3.1% over the 1925 record) and 3,823 annulments in the year 1926, it is apparent, the increase has been the most widespread and profound.

It is not surprising, then, that Professor John B. Watson's prognostication that: "the present marriage system will end in fifty years . . . that (since) the mystery of marriage has been broken down. . . we must have a new kind of ethic, based on a scientific study of human behavior as a way to more simple marital adjustments" did not disturb nor terrify the public. Such predictions are no longer uncommon. A century ago, or even two generations ago, however, such a declaration would have aroused horror and disdain. Such utterances, then, were considered the attributes of lunacy and far-flung fanaticism. A few radicals might entertain and cherish such notions, but these radicals scarcely constituted a fragmentary fringe of the public opinion which prevailed. They were social pariahs, and their ideas isolated dogmas that touched the imagination only of the maniac. In the last generation the change has occurred. We have been rushed and plunged across so many new horizons and twisting seas that the very tempo of our life has been broken and changed, and its rhythm shaken into somersaulting jerk and recoil.

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Tags: V.F. Calverton, divorce, marriage, monogamy

The Industrial Revolution & the Sexual Revolution

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:47:28 GMT

This blog entry is a continuation of my exploration into V.F. Calverton's 1928 book, The Bankruptcy of Marriage. I have discovered that Calverton is well-known as the first American, Marxist literary critic. However, in my condensation of his ideas, I have removed almost all of the blatant, Marxist ideology. Here is my condensed version of his third chapter:

THE SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF OUR MORAL CHAOS

Here we have a new morality and a new woman, and a world that in so many ways is changed in appearance and ideal. These newnesses belong to a new age. A new age, however, does not burst upon us with the unanticipated treachery of a typhoon, sweeping all before it with its suddenness. It is only its external manifestations that sometimes dart upon us unawares, and with a strange violence. Its underlying forms are often of old duration.

The question—how did we get this way—is, therefore one of very intricate and complicated character. The World War, after all, was in itself but a sharp climax in the career of modern industrial civilization. It gave rise to a number of forces that otherwise might have taken much longer to acquire their present momentum. The old morals had begun to decay before the war. The economic rise of woman had occurred before the War also; it was the War, nevertheless, that inspired this rise with a sharp spurt and made it take on more gigantic proportions. Behind it all, of course, as the fundamental cause of the changes that we have recorded, is the development of the machine age and industrial civilization. Industrialism drew women into industry and destroyed the unity of the home. The economic independence of woman was made possible through the advance of industry.

Economic independence soon brought about moral independence. The clinging vine type of girl and the submissive type of mother, apostrophized in song and celebrated in sermon, have become obsolescent.

Woman's demands for equal rights with man have extended to the sexual sphere as well as to the social. The invention of contraceptives has fortified her independence as a sexual being, and given her an opportunity for a sex life that is no more handicapped than that of man. With economic freedom there is no need for the surrender of her rights to a morality prescribed for her by man. As long as she owed her livelihood to man, she owed him her virtue. It was a debt that was obvious and unavoidable. With the gradual disappearance of this economic dependence, the necessity for moral subjection was no longer urgent. Liberty to live her life as she pleased, in terms of equality of privilege, now became possible for her after centuries of moral enslavement. This meant revolt against the home, the family, and the rigorous demands of domestic life and virtue.

The Industrial Revolution forced women out of the old ways of life. Eventually women of all classes were drawn into economic endeavor. From the quiet submissive housewife she has now become active as factory worker, vocational adviser, stenographer, teacher, politician, orator, preacher, lawyer, doctor, and in fact, has entered into almost every occupation undertaken by men. This change from the static life of a mother into the dynamic life of worker revolutionized her entire outlook upon existence. It effected the feminine revolt against masculine oppression in economics, politics, education and morals.

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Tags: V.F. Calverton, Industrial Revolution, Sexual Revolution, World War I

The Old Morality

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:52:13 GMT

Below is my condensation of Chapter Two from V. F. Calverton's 1928 book, The Bankruptcy of Marriage. The chapter is titled, "The Old Morality," and describes social conditions in America prior to the first world war. It certainly suggests the enormous changes we have witnessed in our social life over the past century:

Let us turn back to the America of almost a hundred years ago. One of the most interesting pictures of this country at that time was done Frances M. Trollope, who in the last twenty-six years of her life dedicated her talent to the composition of one hundred and fourteen books, of which the overwhelming majority were novels, lived in the United States during the early years of Jackson's first administration. Her stay in America extended over a period of three years. It was in her book The Domestic Manners of the Americans that she gathered together her impressions of this country and its people. It was in the depiction of American manners and social life that she excelled. In this picture of American ladies of the last century, she has given us a humorous and yet not distorted description of the old morality:

"At Cincinnati there is a garden where the people go to to look at roses. For the preservation of the flowers, there is placed at the end of one of the walks a signpost, representing a Swiss peasant girl, holding in her hand a scroll, requesting that the roses might not be gathered. Unhappily, the petticoat of this figure was so short as to show her ankles. The ladies saw, and shuddered; and it was formally intimated to the proprietor that if he wished for the patronage of the ladies of Cincinnati, he must have the petticoat of this figure lengthened. The affrighted purveyor sent off an express for the artist and his paint pot. He came, but unluckily not provided with any color that would match the petticoat; the necessity, however, was too urgent for delay, and a flounce of blue was added to the petticoat of red, giving bright and shining evidence before all men, of the immaculate delicacy of the Cincinnati ladies."

Again, in suggesting a picnic to a young American lady, Mrs. Trollope records the reply as typical:

"I fear you will not succeed; we are not used to such sort of things here, and I know it is considered very indelicate for ladies and gentlemen to sit down together on the grass."

Mrs. A. J. Graves’ book, Woman in America, which appeared under the imprint of Harper Brothers in 1858, purported to be "an examination into the moral and intellectual condition of American female society." Her words are expressive of the attitude that prevailed:

"The supremacy of the husband as the head of the family institution is similar to the supremacy of the governing power in a state, and there is the like obligation to obedience in both.

"She is required, therefore, not only to submit to man as her head in the marriage relation but she must not assume to herself any rights of participation with him in the management or control of civil or political affairs.

"She (a good woman) has no desire to rule where she feels it to be her duty, as it is her highest pleasure 'to love, honor and obey'; and she submits with cheerful acquiescence to that order in the conjugal relation which God and nature have established.

"Woman feels she is not made for command, and finds her truest happiness in submitting to those who wield a rightful sceptre in justice, mercy and love."

Revered but without rights, this nineteenth century woman was dependent upon her husband for her existence. "The actual bond-servant of her husband, no less so far as legal obligations (go) than slaves so called," John Stuart Mill wrote, "she owed a life-long obedience to him at the altar, and is held to it all through her life by law." The husband could sell, lease, or mortgage without his wife's consent any property he received from her at marriage. The husband could appropriate any balance standing in her name at her banker's. The husband could get a complete divorce and remarry if he proved his wife unfaithful, but for the wife to secure a divorce, adultery was insufficient. Other elements, cruelty, desertion, or the like were needed in addition to adultery to justify the woman's case. And in all matters concerning the children the father was in the eyes of the English law the rightful guardian who could take them out of the woman's care at his own discretion.

To leave this society, with such conventions and standards, and enter our own, is to many a plunge from order into chaos. Where before woman's place was definite and limited to certain bounds, it is now indefinite and well-nigh boundless. At one time woman knew her place, as the reactionary is wont to contend, and that place, being sharply circumscribed, assured a certain orderliness in feminine behavior.

Woman's emergence into this wider world has meant, thus, a rapid change in her entire outlook upon life. The revolt has been at once volcanic and profound. Beginning with change in her economic existence, it changed her dress, her manners, her morals, her ideals.

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Tags: V. F. Calverton, The Bankruptcy of Marriage, Frances M. Trollope, Domestic Manners of Americans, Mrs. A. J. Graves

The Bankruptcy of Marriage -- A 1928 Perspective

http://Jeff.gaia.com — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:01:33 GMT

Most people today are aware of the enormous social pressures on traditional institutions such as marriage. Typically, however, we lack a historical perspective on how these pressures have evolved over the last two centuries of the "Industrial Revolution." So, I was very pleased to discover the analysis of social critic V. F. Calverton (aka George Goetz) in his 1928 book, The Bankruptcy of Marriage (New York: Macauley). Below, I have condensed an overview of this book as well as the first chapter, titled "The Jazz Age." Of particular interest, I think, is the emphasis on the effect of the first world war.

Overview

The world is on the threshold of revolutionary change. In some places, of course, this change is going on faster, and in more sweeping fashion, than in others. This is inevitable. The disintegration of the family, and the decay of the marital institution of the modern world, accompanied by the rise and revolt of youth, are revolutionary developments in our civilization.

The revolution in morals which has occurred in our age is the harbinger of a revolution in social life which is hastening upon us. The new morality had already started to stir before the War. It was the War, however, that set these forces into rapid rotation. The present struggle against the sexual ethics of the older generations is but part of a larger struggle against the older ways of life.

Revolt in one field can only be genuinely successful if revolt is also carried into the other fields of life. Moral revolt against an old order can never be secure in its success as long as the old order remains dominant in other forms of existence.

The Jazz Age

At nights, in the large cities, life spins itself into melodrama. The mad dance of youth, intoxicated with the swell of its new freedom, has encircled the western world. Jazz has become an accepted institution. It expresses the spirit of the age. Youth has steeped itself in its intoxications. Repressions have been released, and in the abandonments of modern life, exhibitionism has changed from a vice into a virtue.

In the flapper we find a vivid symbol of this change. This new girl, with all her emptiness of ideas and effusiveness of emotions, is a revolutionary outgrowth on the feminine scene. Her speech, her dress, her gesture are outspoken evidences of the nature of her insurrection. The spread of her influence has been infectious.

In this whirling race of Change, all restraints and restrictions have been sacrificed. The inhibitions once indispensable to feminine virtue have become riddled with scorn. The old sanctity of marriage has been ridiculed by sallies of wit and satire fired at it from every side. Sexual excitements and ecstasies have become experiences to crave and not to constrain. The flapper is consumed by them. Life becomes vivid through their repetition. The old conventions that separated the sexes have been shattered. The old waltz has surrendered to the new jazz. In place of the spinster has sprung up the bachelor girl. She undresses her mind as well as her body. Instead of hiding her ankles, she now bares her knees; instead of corseting her bust, she "v’s” her neck. Instead of the old moral literature, she devours the emancipated new.

The old family has decayed. The old home has been replaced by the movie, the club, the dance-hall. Home has become a place to dine and die.

All over the western world it is the same. This new girl, this modern flapper, with her lack of respect for the ideals of her predecessors; and this new masculine youth, with his disregard for the old responsibilities, his disdain for marriage, and contempt for virtue— both were born in the fury of their revolt, in the days of the World War and those that have immediately followed.

The jazz age was born in its tornado of intensity from the vortices of the World War and its aftermath. In recent years its momentum has increased with melodramatic rapidity. Wherever we turn we find its effects scrawled across the face of things. It is part of the chaos of the era.

It is not that the fundamental cause for revolt against the old morals was found in the World War — it had already begun to stir before the War—but that it took but this catastrophe and its aftermath to set it into rapid rotation.

The World War not only annihilated the flower of European youth, but it left its deeper effects on the youth that remained, and the generation that grew up with the War as its noisy sentinel. Careers were wrecked, plans broken, and inspiration converted into a brutal war-cry. The ideals for which men fought became mere traffic in the eyes of profiteer and prostitute.

Youth was disillusioned of purpose and aspiration.

In Paris the orgy of war-madness transformed the stage into a brothel, with words as mere decoration for gesture and action. The psychosis of the last fling predominated. The imminence of death drove men to the last extremities of desire. Nothing mattered! The theatre responded to their needs. Music halls, cabarets, and amusement resorts had catered to this tendency from the very beginning of the war. Now the theater turned to a kind of sexual insanity in its eagerness to entertain and satisfy the soldier.

The European world had been too startled from its equilibrium ever to return to its old routine and ritual. The returning soldiers were not the same men who had once gone to war. They were apprehensive, restless, and disillusioned. The brutalizing terrorism of the war had made these men into maniacs; and it required more than a sudden truce to calm those impulses which this madness of conflict had aroused. The old moral values had lost their influence and power. Bitterness and hatred had become more than occasional emotions in the lives of these men.

The modern dance was an inevitable outgrowth of this war-madness. Modern youth responded to the wild call. What mattered? To live, to live intensely, to live furiously, to seize from life its every thrill. Such became the new motivation.

In Paris, after the war, they danced. It was the mad, delirious dancing of men and women who had to seize upon something as a vicarious outlet for their crazed emotions. They did not want old opiates that induced sleep and the delusion of a sweet stillness of things and silence. They did not seek the escape which an artificial lassitude brings to minds tormented with worry and pain. They wanted an escape that was active, dynamic, electrical. It had to be an escape that exhilarated, that brought restfulness only from exhaustion. The spirit of tranquillity was alien to the trend of the age.

Youth in its revolt has not only turned against the old traditions, but in its search for the new it is dissipating its energies in extravagance and excess. Things serious have too often become greeted with a sneer. Cynicism has become the new faith.

This World War, then, shot into shreds the old ideals, the old morals, the old customs. It is the same in France, the same in England, the same in America. The Age of Innocence is dead.

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Tags: marriage, jazz age, World War I, V. F. Calverton, George Goetz, The Bankruptcy of Marriage