the ‘there’ and the ‘here’ are for Pato real but at the same time also affective and
imaginary constructs of place. His words exemplify a process of consciousness that
is consistent with a continuum of place, from the sensate and actual to the imaginal,
symbolic and archetypal. I ndeed, I believe that the aetiology of symbolic places,
sacred places and imaginary places reflects an archaic psychoid process that
manifests at the interface between the individual and the physical environment.
The archetype is activated by a complex or emotionally charged ideas or images
(Jung, CW 8, par 201 and 198), such as the cave pictographs or the images
produced by MLC and SC.
I n some indigenous cultures, and also with individuals experiencing altered
states of consciousness, the inner world of the self is synchronous and often
symbiotic or interdependent with the outer world of place while in others, egoistic
factors, cause the inner world to dislodge the outer world, to colour it. My
hypothesis is that the perception and experience of place is more than a
neurological event. The correlation of place with the field of consciousness in the
quantum-theory sense of interconnectedness may be exemplified in the six realms
of existence in Buddhist cosmology (Thurman, 1994:2 9 - 33 and Kornfield,
1993:141). The most painful of these six realms is an unending hell,
characterized by an intensity of pain, fire, icy coldness and torture whilst the highest
of the realms is experienced as being filled with pleasure, angelic beings, rapture,
celestial music, delight and peace. Between these extremes are two visible realms,
the animal and the human realms. The animal realm is often characterized by fear
(eat or be eaten) and dullness, while the human realm is said to have the right
balance of enough pleasure and pain to be optimal for spiritual awakening. The
final two realms are realms of spirits. One is a realm of power struggle called the
realm of the jealous and warring gods, a domain of territoriality and titanic struggle.
The other is a realm of intense desire called the realm of the Hungry Ghosts,
characterized by beings with pinhole mouths and enormous bellies who can never
be fulfilled in their seeking or longing (Kornfield, 1993:141). This description should
not be dismissed as merely poetic or metaphorical. Henry Corbin speaks of
perception as possessing a personal character; of the field of vision defined by the
dimension of being (Corbin, 1977:78).
I suggest that there are similar ways in which an individual might experience
place, a variety of possibilities ranging from the sublime to the bizarre. As an
affective phenomenon, it might be loosely characterised by one of the following
ron
(Ron)
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