You are something the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is something that the whole ocean is doing. The real you is not a puppet which life pushes around. The real, deep down you is the whole universe. - Alan Watts
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Spirit Road is for people who like to learn deeply about reality, consciousness, awareness and perhaps possibilities beyond, not taking the current given explanations for granted, researching beyond the belief systems and the broadly held dogma’s or norms of society. Investigating anger, fear, ignorance, false beliefs, and judgments and how they may create suffering and unhappiness in life. Spirit Road is an ongoing philosophical and practical quest that takes place in the heart, mind, body and the experience of the world of the person. Rather than focussing on a mysterious ideal of enlightenment, the focus is on living your potential and accepting what comes out of the process. So there is not a goal, it rather is a road travelled bij a spirited personae, a Spirit Road.
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Seriously investigating and handling all the encounters on the spirit road—such as deeply-held beliefs, moments of chaos, hedonism, escapism, fear, and feeling trapped in suffering—requires awareness, intention, direction (a compass), and self-love. These are like tools in the backpack. When we wake, the ‘I’ in the psyche assembles itself along the lines it is used to. I think people can learn to grow and adjust their inner assembly point where consciousness connects with the luminous body of the psyche to a place where they are more balanced and more free. This transformation happens through ongoing training of the will while assembling one’s self on a daily base.
Before heading on a journey it is good practice to study the maps of the territory. What are we going to have to deal with? Being prepared makes a difference. There are many maps of the psyche. Below are some of the maps of impressive researchers on the mind and the psyche.
There are many more maps, but what's fascinating to me is how they converse with each other. From the work of these remarkable scholars emerges a general map with distinct shared components: the ego (or first-person experience), conscious or "wake" states, dream states, and unconscious states—both personal and collective. These maps also reveal a portal to a higher self and a vast unknown. They contain dynamic elements: fields of awareness, archetypical themes, and transcending processes. There's also a clear sense of evolution and development as we age. The mind continuously develops, reconstructing itself across different levels of being.
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When I embarked on my Psychology studies at the University of Amsterdam in 1986, I wanted to study consciousness. After finishing Art School, I felt a need to expand intellectually beyond my artistic background. I initially started with Philosophy, which turned out to be a mismatch, but when I switched to Psychology, I felt right at home. There were many inspiring and intelligent researchers exploring human behavior. It was an exciting time—behaviorism's failure to explain human behavior was becoming apparent, and new cognitive hypothesis and models were emerging. While the field was advancing with computer-aided modeling and testing, I felt I wasn't making substantial progress in understanding consciousness. Jung wasn't part of the curriculum, and consciousness was relegated to religious studies, which disappointed me. I focused instead on scientific methodology, intelligence, and memory models. I felt science captured only half or less of the full picture, so I also explored alternative therapies. Though I completed my studies, I had no desire to pursue further scientific research—there were so many other exciting new age and alternatives rising. Concepts like Rupert Sheldrake's morphogenetic resonance. The dancing WuLi masters. Bio-energetic work. Osho. And Allen Watts moved me into the pseudoscience. The prevailing paradigm that memory and consciousness were solely located in the brain felt too restrictive to me. So I looked beyond the scientific realm to learn more.
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