Posted for Erik - Blog 2

I am very interested in the angle that Carl Jung proposed dealing with dreams. I always had a tough time accepting Freud's analysis that dreams were based in a sexual nature. Yes, I will agree that the sexual angle is deeply rooted in our nature as humans, however, there is more to us humans than the desire to procreate. Jung's position that dreams are a gateway into a collective world that people from all over the world share and can tap is fascinating. Looking back at ancient cave paintings, you can see similarities that are hard to explain, unless there was a commonality that these ancient humans were exploiting. There is a huge portion of the human brain, that has been said, to be unused. Scientists say that humans use a mere fraction of our brains functional capacity. On the same token these same scientists admit that they know very little about how the brain works. So, are we, as humans, really NOT using the majority of our brains? I am not a scientist, but I highly doubt it. I think that humans are using all of their brains, but individually at different capacities. Perhaps dreaming and the construct of altered states take up a great deal of brain "space". Perhaps the supposedly "unused" areas of our brains is actually there for random access, much like the ram of a computer. I think Jung and Freud have both made compelling attempts to unravel and explain the highly complex subject and tangibility of dreams, their function, purpose, and meaning.

I have studied Jackson Pollock and his work for many years. I was rather excited to hear him mentioned in this book as he had an interest in the psychology of shamanism and Indian stimuli. Jackson tried with urgency to achieve psychological control. Many of his paintings were, with minimal success, copied from a source of inspiration for him, that of the Cubist master, Picasso, who's work is arguably Freudian. Jackson's work's at attempting the Cubist approach have been said to be unsuccessful because his mind, or creative juices, worked more 'Jungian' in nature. Jackson said that, "When I am in my painting, I'm not always aware of what I am doing" which, is what we can all say, most of the time, about when we are dreaming.