A three-week course called, Spirit Possession: Dybbuks, Exorcists, Reincarnation and the Supernatural World of Pre-Modern Judaism will be held in New York on Tuesday February 21, 2006, to Tuesday March 7, 2006 — 6 pm to 7:30 pm.

The release reads: “We will explore the phenomena of spirit possession in the Jewish tradition. We will begin by studying the occult ideas formulated by the Kabbalists in Tzfat in the 16th century. We will read several cases of dybbuks as well as maggids. We will explore how these phenomena of spirit possession highlights aspects of the broader historical context as well as raising questions about the role of women. Additionally we will look at the legacy of dybbuks in literature and film as well as cases of dybbuks in Israel today. Lisa Bennett Tuesday, 6:00 — 7:30 p.m. 3-week course: February 21, 28, March 7 Tuition: $75 for women and men.

Contact Information: http://www.drisha.org/continuinged/talmud

Brought to you by: Drisha Institute for Jewish Education
Drisha Institute
37 West 65th Street
5th floor
New York, NY 10023 .

Thuggishness is almost endemic in modern society. Historians will say that it always has been. But there are good psychological — almost supernatural — reasons for this

It may surprise most people to learn that they have an inner thug. The psychologust CG Jung called it our Shadow — all those bits we don’t like about ourselves. Over the years, especially in youth, we repress these contents and they form an autonomous complex which becomes our “Personal Unconscious”. Since this “self” controls our basic energy feeds, it affects everything we do, usually in a negative and restrictive way.

The inner thug often appears in dreams, sometimes as a fierce black dog. If we aren’t on good terms with our Shadow self, it will attack us. If we accept our inner thug, it will be more friendly, though we still feel anxious around it.

If we absorb the unconscious thug into our conscious self, the dog turns into a pussy cat and works with us not against our interests. Jung made the case for wholeness in his writings on “Individuation”. Here’s what he said:

“Awareness of … the requirements of the total personality eliminate the conditions under which autonomous complexes can survive.”

Goodbye Inner Thug!

Astrology has fascinated me ever since I read that Jung had predicted it would be reinstated in the universities. It’s not clear whether he used astrological means to make that forecast. Oddly enough, some lower-tier colleges in Britain do now offer modules, and even PhDs, in subjects like witchcraft and astrology.

There are, of course, many serious practitioners of this arcane art who take their role very seriously. One such is Jonathan Cainer, who writes in the UK Daily Mail and has a website mirroring his horoscopes (www.stars.metawire.com).

In the immediate aftermath of the 7th of July bombings in London last year, he made the remarkable prediction that there would be no more terrorist bombings in London, and that attacks around the world would fade away.

Exactly one week after 7/7, four bombers got onto the London Underground rail system with identical backpack bombs to the ones used in 7/7. Astonishingly, none of them detonated. Cainer’s head-on-the-block prediction seemed to be true.

Despite the more recent terrorist bombing in Jordan, attacks seem to have tailed off around the world, with the exception of Iraq. Indeed the Jordan bombing caused revulsion in the Arab world and led to Al Quaeda realizing that these attacks are counter-productive.

So, was Cainer’s astrological reading right, or was he just lucky?

I put this post on my personal blog a little while ago, but I think it deserves an outing here:

I awoke this Sunday morning with a curious image in my mind. It was the Sphinx.

In that blissful hypnogogic state between sleeping and wakefulness, I began to receive images and intimations about its meaning. Of course, we now know that the Sphinx is much older than the pyramids it seems to guard. So it has a very ancient message for mankind.

This is what I learned from this thought-stream: the Sphinx has the body of a lion and the head of a god. There is no essentially “human” part to it, yet it represents the nature of humanity.

If that seems a bit opaque, the answer is that humans are provisional creatures having the attributes of both animals and gods. Each one of us is on a path which rises from the ground of nature, beyond what we think of as human, to a kind of divine status above the mundane confines of this Earth.

People can be classified as less or more developed by reference to the Sphinx. We all know folk who are almost indistinguishable from animals. Their humour is based on sex and bodily functions, and their aspirations don’t rise much higher. These people have their centre of gravity right down at the tail of the Sphinx. Others, further up the body, have rather more cerebral or emotional attributes.

But the highest humans are centred up in the head of the god. These are the ones ready to pass beyond the physical to the various spiritual realms, which themselves are progressive. Each of us has an imperative to lift up those who are below us in the chain, as the price of further progress.

The way to get on top of this process is to become aware of it : to make the unconscious conscious. Then we can ourselves aim at higher consciousness. If we don’t do this, the process will force it on us ~ and this will be very painful. Being forced to reject earthy and physical modes of being is a kind of death. We all die many times in a single lifetime. By taking control of our progress, we avoid these distressing adjustments which “nature” makes from time to time, and we move onwards to our destiny.

So, there you have it. Quite a “dream”, but, as with all such Grade A visions, very useful for the future.

Now, where are the Sunday newspapers?