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The following areas shape the ethics of MYTHSEEKER application
and underlie the authenticity of the MYTHSEEKER experience.
FREEDOM OF CONCLUSIONS
The participant is encouraged to search the chosen Depth System
freely in terms of learnings, teachings, personal meaning, and
experiential involvement. The participant reaches his or her own
conclusions, based on Depth System participation. However, understandings and involvement that are
preferred and integral to the Depth System are allowed as natural
expressions of the system. For this, MYTHSEEKER assists the
participant to explore the Depth System's
personal relevancy and its experiential and spiritual
significance, thereby helping the participant to reach personally
authentic conclusions.
From the standpoint of existential phenomenology, the Depth
System may be understood as "revealing" itself to the
participant. The Depth System and its content emerges from
Primal Virtual Space. MYTHSEEKER is an instrument for the
revealing, and intervenes as little as possible other than to
ensure authenticity of
involvement.
Strong MYTHSEEKER safeguards are imposed to prevent expression or
involvement of a cultish nature. Cultism here refers to groups
centered overly on one teacher or leader in ways that are not
adequately examined. Cults usually demand allegiance and ask for
monetary contributions. MYTHSEEKER protects the user against
such an occurrence through the way it is programmed:
- It does not allow closed, doctrinaire interpretations of systems.
- It does not allow one system to be boosted above others.
- It incorporates only authentic, verifiable information in Depth Systems and enactments.
- It disallows teachings from groups and individuals that do not allow questioning and significant search.
The guru role is an important tradition when authentically
exemplified. The guru is legitimately
needed in some cases, authentically for guidance within and for
the particular Depth System. MYTHSEEKER will guide the
participant according to the Depth System, but will also refer
the participant to appropriate external sources.
Each Depth System is implemented in a way to portray practices
that are authentic to the extent possible. This includes the
following:
MYTHSEEKER opens authentic experience through Depth Systems and
in no way attempts to create a falsely positive (or, for that
matter, a falsely negative) balancing of experience. Authentic
experience offers open, honest participation with what unfolds as
one delves into experience.
Significant integration of experience often involves the hard
work of integrating and working with new aspects of existence.
MYTHSEEKER maintains this necessity. New
experience via a Depth System is not made trivial or falsely
easy. The participant is not allowed to approach a given stage
within a Depth System except as he or she is prepared by the
Depth System itself. MYTHSEEKER applies appropriate experiential
tests that reflect stages and natural progression between
them.
MYTHSEEKER shall not be used for manipulatory purposes. This
danger could take many forms and is of an insidious nature.
These dangers include
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AUTHENTIC UNBIASED
PRESENTATION
Each Depth System will represent the most authentic form
available, in contrast to recent "pop" versions tending toward
superficiality. For example, Hinduism will
be incorporated in its traditional form; the kabbalah will
express the seminal formulation given by Isaac Luria and its
modern derivatives; shamanism will represent the abiding
continuities and processes of its expressions worldwide; other
Depth Systems will follow the same premise of authentic form.
This does not mean that modern formulations are excluded, but
those included must represent significant depth of research and
formulation. Examples of recent systems are contemporary
combining of tantra and genetics; the analytic psychology of Carl
Jung and the archetypal psychology of James Hillman as
integrated by the psychologist Stanley Krippner. The
existential phenomenology of Heidegger is a foundation for
existential analysis; but
is not viewed as a Depth System because
it does not offer techniques for inner
search and meditation. Contemporary systems of channeling
are not included as Depth Systems, nor are some
contemporary forms of chakra and aura lore, because these tend to
be superficial, not adequately founded in research or mature
inquiry.
It is assumed that the participant will find his or her natural
level of understanding, will in the course of involvement with
MYTHSEEKER gravitate to particular Depth Systems more than
others, and will have an experience different from other
participants according to his or her uniqueness. However far the
participant progresses in experience, there will always be
further steps to go, and the individual's uniqueness can always
assert itself creatively.
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NEGATIVE ASPECTS
ALLOWED
MYTHSEEKER allows the participant to explore authentic avenues
even though some may involve the "negative side" (e.g., fear,
anxiety, angst, threat, seeming-dissolution, disorientation) that
is part of traditional encounters within particular Depth
Systems. An example is shamanic vision quest, which can entail
participation with malevolent spirits, openings to unexpected
disturbing visions, and shamanic initiation, which can include
the experience of dissolution and rebirth. Generally speaking,
MYTHSEEKER accepts our levels of experience as a mixture of the
positive and the negative, which can be transcended, and attempts
to have no bias.
Experience is not "prettified" by MYTHSEEKER, although the
ecstatic, marvelous, beautiful, and awesome can certainly emerge
and take place. There is a dark side to some levels of
experience, and its relevancy is not cloaked by MYTHSEEKER in
opening participation with Depth Systems.
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EXPERIENCE NOT EASY OR
SHALLOW
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NON-MANIPULATORY USE
MYTHSEEKER in its design and implementation will attempt to
disallow these negative dangers. For the first danger, an
emphasis on open inquiry will be a safeguard. For the second,
shallowness will be made relatively unlikely by depth of
experience and information and honesty of search. For the third,
danger of conditioning will become less likely by virtue of
safeguards against intrusive experience (e.g., authenticity of
search and encounter). For the fourth purpose, the prevention of
cultism applies as a safeguard.
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This page last updated on August 23, 1998