We can walk in nature with an awareness of physical reality – the color of the leaves on the trees, the mountains is the distance, the sound of a river, while feeling the warmth of the rays of sunlight hitting our arms. At the same time by slowing down and perceiving more acutely we can sense the subtle differences in energy vibration in the different areas of our landscape through – sound, color, or smell. We can detect differences in the texture and temperature of the energy. We can feel connection to a mountain in our bodies, and feel it in our hearts.

If we allow ourselves to shift even more deeply into a connected state, we may began to perceive subtle differences in ourselves, in our own energy bodies – perhaps enabling us to perceive a different impression of our physical makeup – who we are in this present moment in rime and space. If we try to think about it, we will lose it. If we try to understand with our minds – we won’t. Doing this requires dropping what we know, and staying open to what we don’t know.

As we grow accustomed to perceiving at the energetic level, we develop the ability to sense our energetic link to everything living around us by experiencing it through our energetic field. Interacting with nonordinary reality occurs in this heightened state of awareness. As we become more accustomed to experiencing the world through our luminous body, we become aware of being connected by seeing or feeling the connection at the same time we are observing the world through our ordinary senses. This kind of perceptual state that bridges ordinary and nonordinary reality allows us to experience both states simultaneously.

In addition, to developing the capacity to hold or “channel” life force, our psyches can also generate intrapsychically created phenomena. Our experiences create thought and feeling reactions that shape our understanding of the world in the creation of a cognitive map and the formation of complexes. The life force that flows through the human psyche moves through the templates of archetypes into the conception of complexes. Complexes are feeling tone clusters surrounding an archetypal core. Occultists believe that this psychic process of creating complexes leads to the creation of “thought forms” that hold psychic power and have the potential to demonstrate “palpable effects.” They originate within the human psyche but may become capable of existing outside of the human psyche, in the subtle body and energetic field..

In Eastern religion the subtle body is often referred to as prana, chi, or kundalini energy. Inca shamans call this kausay. It is the vehicle that links ordinary and nonordinary reality. Indigenous medicine people believe that there are latent and powerful natural forces alive in the world that can be worked with and channeled if the capacity to “hold” energy (the shaman’s definition of power) through conscious intent is developed through practice and ritual. This is a little different than Jung’s concept of archetypes forming complexes in the individual psyche because it occurs in the objective psyche, the world of collective experience.

As a medicine person develops the capacity to move and work with kausay energy, changes occur in the etheric energy field. This shamanic medicine practice is done with conscious intent. Castaneda has written about the energetic appearance of the subtle body:

“When they are seen as fields of energy, human beings appear to be like fibers of light, like white cobwebs, very fine threads that circulate from the head to the toes. Thus to the eye of a seer, a man looks like an egg of circulating fibers… The seer sees that every man is in touch with everything else, not through his hands, but through a bunch of long fibers that shoot out in all directions from the center of his abdomen. These fibers join a man to his surroundings: they keep his balance; they give him stability.” [1]

Patrick Harpur has added to the description of the subtle body by explaining it as a “daimonic,” imaginative body, which “is the soul that can be lost, the soul that, in the shaman, takes otherworld journeys.” [2] In his writing on nonordinary reality, oriented from the perspective of western culture, Harpur has proposed that the subtle body is the aspect of our conscious awareness. It exists outside of the experience of the rational ego, and leaves the body in “the out of body” experiences and “near-death” experiences. This is when we are able to perceive our actual physical form from outside of ourselves.

The subtle body includes all aspects of the individual experience – conscious and unconscious, in waking and dream states, in past and present, as well as being a blue print for the future. The subtle body of the individual connects with all living things through an energetic field.  It may be imagined as a web of light made up of a continuum of layers between spirit and matter. Jung said that psychic healing comes about through numinous archetypal experience, which is a function of the subtle body. He described the subtle body in relation to the psychoidal realm, as the point where soma and psyche meet, – the objective psyche.

Jung described the “objective psyche,” as the unit or layer existing underneath the sum of the archetypal structures.[3] Both Jung and Von Franz have described this as the existence of an anthropos, “the ancient idea of an all-extensive world-soul, a kind of cosmic subtle body.[4]” Jung has also referred to this as the unus mundus, or “one world,” which is a “composite universal Self” exists in what he called “the psychoidal realm,” the central ground of empirical being, existing beyond time and space.

A shaman moves into a state of connectivity by experiencing through his or her own individual subtle body, which becomes the conduit into experiencing on a much greater, collective scale, from an individual to the universal state of the unus mundi. The shamanic collective as an energetic expression contains the archetypes, and is the unlimited depository of man’s universal psychic heritage. In Peruvian shamanism, the collective of the land, is similar to the collective unconscious in the psyche; it is the depository of all experience in nature, and is linked to “membership,” and an affiliation with a sacred mountain. The concept of affiliation with a mountain is similar to the function of Christ in the Christian religion as a link to God. The mountain as a collective spirit is a “bodhisattva,” an intermediary between the person and the collective.

One of the stories that is told about Jung is about an incident that occurred during a group discussion. A reference was made about an analysand who dreamt that she was walking on the moon and Jung’s  response was “She was on the moon.”

If we can approach our clients with an attitude as if everything that they said and felt were true then what may have been elusive or shrouded in symbolic interpretation may be more actively explored. I am not suggesting engaging in a practice of creating false memories, or confusing narrative truth with historical truth, but I am suggesting holding an open mind with everything that is occurring in the moment – that not only includes thoughts, but feelings, and somatic sensations as well.

What I am proposing is an extension of the analytic third. From both my clinical experience and personal experience over the last ten years working with altomesayoqs (high shamans) in Peru I have come to accept that (1) The process of analysis time is often layered rather sequential and that the actual experience of time is a subjective interpretation rather than an objective construct.(2) There is an essential energetic level that exists beyond the archetypal realm where everything is connected in the objective psyche that extends beyond the individual psyche and the space/time continuum; (3) The personal experience of complexes in the subtle body extends beyond personal psyche as a cluster of feeling around  an archetypal core, on a continuum that potentially move into the energetic field to include being states with their own individual soul consciousness and experience. (4) That in conjunction with time being layered, a layered continuum between matter and spirit exists simultaneously that corresponds with the experience of time.

Above all and everything, we are children of the land. And the basic understanding is that we’ve always been children of the land, and as children of the land we need to, to remember the old way of dialoguing with that that supports us and nurtures us. Everything around us has kawsay, is infused with life force.   (Don Alarijo, 2012)

Our ability to make greater perceptual shifts between psychic levels of engagement is a function of how available and negotiable we are in the world. Over-thinking what we think we see and assuming that we already know what we see will keep us trapped in the experience of consensual reality. The statement, “don’t confuse me with facts — I know what I know,” illustrates this point.

If we slow down and take time to pay careful attention to our thoughts, we may learn that we have made fundamental assumptions that determine how we perceive and interact with the world. We can usually track the inception of these assumptions, which influence our thinking, back to our experience at an early age. They usually started at a time when we were young and in the process of forming an internal cognitive map to make sense of our external world.

Frequently, as time has progressed, we have unknowingly come to accept these assumptions as being absolute truth and no longer question their validity. Upon closer examination, we may discover that we are operating from a system of beliefs that has little bearing on our present circumstances. Sometimes, these assumptions are projected onto others around us, and we draw conclusions that may not necessarily be true.

There is a story about a young woman cooking a roast that illustrates how assumptions can be erroneous. According to the story, a girl was cooking and getting ready to place a roast in the oven. Before placing the roast in a cooking dish, she cut off both ends without thinking, as she had always done. Her friend who happened to be watching her cook asked the girl why she cut off both of the ends. The girl replied to her friend, “This is the way my family has always done it. My mother and my grandmother always prepared roasts in this fashion, and now this is the way I do it.” Later, the girl gave her friend’s question more thought and realized that she really did not know the reason why the ends of the roast were cut. The girl went to see her grandmother and asked her grandmother why it was necessary to cut off the ends of a roast before cooking it. The grandmother laughed and replied, “It isn’t! We only did that when our oven was too small to fit the roast inside of it any other way!”

Deborah Bryon, Ph.D.

In Peruvian shamanism, “the heart” – as an expression of connection with pacha mama– is the hub of connectivity in the body and the vehicle through which connection and relatedness with others is experienced. Peruvian shamans say that the heart is where we experience munay energetically, the universal feeling state of love connecting us to the land and every living thing around us. The experience of munay refers to a state of union or an experience of a major conjunctio. It is collective state of love, different from personal love directed specifically towards another person.

Von Franz and Jung both referred to an aspect of this experience as “union through the Self.” Von Franz has written, “Whereas relations based merely on projection are characterized by fascination and magical dependence, this kind of relationship by way of the Self has something strictly objective, strangely transpersonal about it. It gives rise to a feeling of immediate, timelessness, “being together” (p.177). 

Von Franz’s statement about relationships via the Self corresponds to the Q’ero description of munay. Both, are ecstatic spiritual experiences of connecting with the numinous that transcend time and space. Jung stated, “Objective cognition lies behind the attraction of emotional relationship; it seems to be the central secret. In this world created by the Self, we meet all those many to whom we belong, whose hearts we touch; here “there is no distance but immediate presence.”

Lionel Corbett has written about a glutinum mundi, or glue of the world, a “life force, uniting body and soul (Jung, 1968, 12, par 209). According to Corbett, this glue is the bonding material or prima materia of the conjunctio – a “secretion of the Self.”  The power of a group in creating an energetic field is well-known and practiced in meditation circles and monasteries around the world.In Egypt, I had the opportunity to watch whirling dervishes perform and enter a state of ecstasy. Sitting in the room during a ceremony, I witnessed a vibration shift in the entire energetic field of over 100 people! Chanting and drumming rituals and tribal dancing are illustrations of similar phenomena. Pentecostal churches with members of a congregation who speak in tongues, the emotional charge present created by a group of gospel singers.  Modern raves are another example seen in current Western culture of people collectively becoming mesmerized.

Learn Spiritual Traditions of the Incas

with the Altomesayoq

Adolfo Tito Condori  

October 1^st through October 10th 2013

Join us on a ten-day sacred journey in the Andes Mountains of Perú, to learn the ancient knowledge of the Inca traditions with the Altomesayoq Adolfo Tito Condori and the medicine people of Ayllu K’anchaq Qoyllur (AKQ).

(AKQ was formed to transmit the ancestral knowledge and the spiritual legacies of the Andean medicine people. The purpose of AKQ is to recover, interpret, and promote the spiritual treasures of the Andes in other parts of the world, during this time of global change and transformation.)

 Peru Itinerary and Travel Program

Day 1: Our journey begins with the rising morning sun when we meet our new ayllu (community) in the beautiful city Cusco, “the ancient city of two worlds.” Our Andean guides will provide us with an overview of our upcoming travels, and ascent into the sacred mountains, before we spend the day exploring Cusco.  Our work with the powerful Altomesayoq, Adolfo begins. Altomesayoqs, or high shamans, have the ability to call and work directly with the Apus (collective mountain spirits). In the morning, Adolfo will begin teaching us Incan cosmology. In the afternoon, Adolfo will show us the ritual of hallpay. We will begin the practice of making coca leaf offerings for the Apus and Pachamama (Mother Earth), to build and strengthen our energetic connection of kausay (life force) that comes with being in ayni, or right relationship. In the evening we will meet for an opening dinner at the popular restaurant, Jack’s, for some fabulous food and great company.      (Lunch Included. Dinner not included. Overnight in Cusco.)

 Day 2: Our early morning departure takes us to Huanakauri, a sacred Inca place of power, sitting above where the old city of Cusco was founded, to learn about the Temple of Huanakauri. Our work with Adolfo will deepen in ceremony, as each member develops further understanding of his or her own individual spiritual path. Adolfo will continue teaching us sacred Andean traditions, as the energetic awakening occurring in our luminous bodies grows stronger and clearer. (Lunch included dinner not included. Overnight in Cusco.)

 Day 3: Our drive to the Sacred Valley is filled with breathtaking views of the Urubamba mountain range and sleepy villages along the road. The lower elevation of the valley is ideal for acclimatization to altitude. On the way to Pumamarka, we will visit the former Incan capital Ollantaytambo, and learn the Incan principles of duality and rituals of Yanantin and Masintin.

Climbing the Incan trail, our footsteps lead us to the beautiful terraces that caress the ancient dwellings of Incan nobility. Here, we rest against giant blocks of polished stones, breathing in the view of the Urubamba River flowing below our perch, in the commanding presence of the ageless mountains. After lunch, we are off to the sacred Temple of Pachar, to continue strengthening our connection with Pacha llump’to Nuna (the higher spirits). At sunset, we return to the Sacred Valley of Urubamba for dinner followed by a sacred ceremony with Adolfo and ‘Ayllu K’anchaq Qoyllur. In ceremony, our ayllu will ask the Apus and Santa Tierras for guidance on our upcoming pilgrimage to the Holy Mountains. (Lunch and dinner included. Overnight in Urubamba.)

Day 4:   In the morning, we leave for the town of Pomacanchi, visiting Huaka de Huanca on the way. This is the home of Pacha Tucson, the Apu with the “job description” of architect in Incan cosmology. On this powerful spot, shamans and Catholics worship together in the church visited centuries before by the Incas as a place of devotion. Adolfo will perform ceremony at the base of the holy mountain. As we stare upward in wonder at the peak of Pacha Tucson, Adolfo will teach us the laws governing the two opposite worlds. After stopping for lunch in Huanca, we will learn about Wilki Khuyas (Wilki is the dreamer and entrance to Hanaq Pacha, the upper world). Our journey leads us to a beautiful sacred lagoon for a cleansing and purification ritual of Iniy-ch‘uyay, to prepare for our encounter with the Apus (the winged beings) and Santa Tierras (the feminine earth spirits). We will have dinner in Pomacanchi and camp over night near the lagoon. (Lunch and dinner included.)

 Day 5:   We begin our day hiking to the holy place of Pumahuasi, continuing our work of building kausay, life force in our energy bodies. We gain momentum. After lunch, Adolfo helps us to discover the secrets of Nuna, the organizing principles of spirit. We will also learn about the celestial hierarchy of the Apus, and the relationship that exists between the Santa Tierras and Pachamama (Mother Earth).  Adolfo will show the sacred practice of Saminchakuy, Paqoq kausaynin, and explain more about the life experiences of the different indigenous medicine people following the sacred spiritual path of Andean tradition. Later in the afternoon, we will return to our base camp at the Lagoon of Pomacanchi. After dinner, we will conduct Nina qonoy, the ceremony of fire with the help of Ayllu K’anchaq Qoyllur. (Lunch and dinner included.)

Day 6:   Soon after daybreak, we approach the sacred Incan place of four lagoons. Adolfo honors us with the Kallpa hap‘inachiy initiation rites, with the support of the Mama Qochas, the sacred water spirits of the blue green glacier lagoon. Things start to shift. That evening, Adolfo performs the sacred Incan ceremony of Kallpa t‘aqwinakuy, for personal healing and transformation. After spending this day in the “other world” serenity of the lagoon, we camp overnight and dream with the spirits. (Lunch and dinner included.)

Day 7:   Today, we make our sacred pilgrimage to the magnificent Holy Mountain of Ausangate. We take in breath-taking views, surrounded by snow-capped peaks, as we walk in the meditative practice of yuyay manay (the organizing principle of wisdom). We will journey across this spectacular natural display of elements, feeling the powerful mountain presence at our side as we progress toward our destination of Pampa Fpaqchanta. After lunch, a rejuvenating walk leads us to where we explore the secrets of finding the essence of tukuy, for personal healing, and group life force – kausay. We experience our spiritual connection with the collective mountain spirits. Our individual work expands, learning the mysteries of the Andean p’aqos, as we arrive on sacred ground under the stars and shadows of the humbling Ausangate. After a nourishing meal, Adolfo will perform the ceremony of jununakuy, bringing us into a receptive state of union and connection with the Apus. You may experience falling in love with the mountain, under the vibrant stars and magnificent snow peaks of Ausangate as an energetic pathway opens further.  (Lunch and dinner included.)

Day 8:   The day is spent reflecting, and adjusting to feeling the “afterglow” of the sacred communion with Ausangate, as we venture towards other mysterious traditions of the Andean world. Adolfo will perform the individual initiation rites of K’anchaq karpay, which literally means, “bright light of energy initiation ceremony,” giving us additional knowledge about the governing spiritual laws of Incan cosmology.  After a despacho fire ceremony, we will camp at Fpaqchanta. With the help of the Ayllu K’anchaq Qoyllur, we learn to accept the new wisdom that has come to us in a state of compassion. (Lunch and dinner included.)

Day 9: We begin with an early morning train ride to along the Urabumba River moving into an amazing forest of clouds and arriving in the quaint village of Aguas Calientes. By bus, we venture higher to the ruins of Machu Picchu, known as the “City of Light,” and one of the great wonders of the world. We spend the day exploring. Led by Adolfo, we visit the various temples and learn more about Incan cosmology and tradition. Adolfo leads us in sacred ceremony. We return in the late afternoon to Aguas Calientes, in time for a soak in the hot springs, before deciding whether to stroll through the village or dine on delicious cuisine at one of the local outdoor cafes. (Lunch included. Dinner not included.)

Day 10:  We greet the day awaking to a spectacular sunrise at the Temple of the Sun before making our way back to the Ollantaytambo train station. In ceremony, we will focus on Kallpa Hunay, the integration of power and connection for spiritual fortification in our physical body and the medicine body of our mesa. After returning to Cusco, our ayllu meets for our closing farewell dinner and ceremony to embrace and celebrate the spirits, and say our goodbyes. (Lunch and dinner included. Evening hotel not included.)

Sacred Shamanic Pilgrimage to Peru

 Learn Spiritual Traditions of the Incas

with the Altomesayoq

Adolfo Tito Condori  

October 1^st through October 10^th 2013

Join us on a ten-day sacred journey in the Andes Mountains of Perú, to learn the ancient knowledge of the Inca traditions with the Altomesayoq Adolfo Tito Condori and the medicine people of Ayllu K’anchaq Qoyllur (AKQ).

(AKQ was formed to transmit the ancestral knowledge and the spiritual legacies of the Andean medicine people. The purpose of AKQ is to recover, interpret, and promote the spiritual treasures of the Andes in other parts of the world, during this time of global change and transformation.)

 The Andean medicine people believe that the next generation of shamans must be able to bridge both the shamanic realm and the modern world and are giving us the wisdom of their ancestors’ teachings to bring back to our ayllus or communities. The P’aqos believe that the next group of medicine people will come from the West.”                                                                                                 (Lessons of the Inca Shamans: Piercing the Veil, Bryon,  2012)

For more information please contact  Deborah Bryon at highglo@aol.co at 303-596-5233

“Integrating The Intrapsychic and The Interpersonal in Psychoanalysis: Laplanche’s Contribution,” by James Hansell, Psychoanalytic Psychology, 2012, Vol. 29, No. 1, 99-108.

Reviewed by

Deborah Bryon, PhD, NCPsyA

Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts

      Before encountering Hansell’s article on intrapsychic and interpsychic process, I had surmised that the appropriate approach in any given analytic session should be determined primarily by the developmental level of the analysand’s existing psychological state, as well as their particular character defense structure. My current line of reasoning had been that psychoanalytic practice is dependent upon the analysand’s current level of functioning, and the way they are experiencing and referencing their own internal states. Analysands feeling stuck in a state of emptiness may need to internalize and integrate the analyst as a self-object in order to feel full (i.e. an interpsychic process), while analysands operating out of a manic defense structure may require interpretation to penetrate the defense and deepen the analysis (i.e. an intrapsychic process). I concluded that both intrapsychic and interpsychic approaches have their own place as effective ways of working within the transference relationship, depending upon the immediate needs of the analysand in any given moment.

Overview of Hansell’s Article

In the article, Hansell has described various ways of conceptualizing patterns of enactment, depending upon the analyst’s theoretical orientation and desire. He has described how the Copernican view, which states that we are the “center of the universe” eventually, gave way to the Ptolmaic perspective that we are motivated by our own drives and are less influenced by the “Other”–initiating the birth of intrapersonal psychoanalytic theory. Hansell goes on to present Laplanche’s (1997) “theory of seduction,” proposing that a child’s experience of desire is influenced by “unconsciously transmitted messages” emanating from the mother (i.e. interpersonal “field” phenomena). Hansell has explained that what makes Laplanche’s theory relevant and different from the theories of Ferenczi (1949), Sullivan (1968), Levenson (2005), is his explanation that these “coded” messages are “unmetabolized,” and unwittingly become internalized by the child recipient as their own. Hansell has suggested that analysts often influence their analysands in similar ways, and that this is fodder to be recognized and worked within the context of the analytic dyad.

Levels of Enactment

The concepts Hansell has presented in his article became a point of departure for further theoretical speculation, largely having to do with the construct of time and how the analyst’s perception of time may affect his interpretation of what is occurring “live” in the analytic process. As a result, this commentary is an exploration of new ideas that have been generated, rather than a theatrical critique. More specifically, I am interested in examining how the analyst’s conceptualization of the time paradigm–as either being temporally linear and horizontal (i.e. a timeline), or vertically stacked and simultaneously layered, influences the analyst’s perception, and therefore way of interacting with the analysand. Is there an effect created from viewing the analytic process as a complex, multileveled interaction occurring concurrently in any given moment that is different from the effect of conceptualizing what is taking place in the analysis as a linear sequence of events? I propose that there is.                                                                                                Using Hansell’s illustration of the child shaped by parental desire that has become the analysand’s present experience (i.e. internalized parental imago (Coen, 2003)); at any given moment multiple themes have the potential of being enacted on different psychic levels. These levels are a function of both the analysand’s and analyst’s states of awareness and developmental stages, which have a bi-directional relationship with each other. This co-created interaction has an ongoing effect on the transference/countertransference dynamic. A brief list of possible latent themes and potential levels of psychic engagement that may be occurring within the analytic dyad is provided below.

Potential Levels of Psychic Engagement

1)      The Analysand’s Narrative Truth (Spence, 1982) – the “analysand-as-child”- the part of the analysand’s individual psyche associated with predisposed needs, urges, feelings, and temperament influenced both by the analysand’s childhood experience, and the resulting memory of the experience.

2)      The Introjected Parental Imago (Coen, 2003) – the analysand’s perception of their parents’ (and/or Other’s) unfulfilled needs and desires that have been consciously or unconsciously projected onto (or introjected into) the analysand-as-child, living in the analysand’s present psyche.

3)      The Analyst’s Narrative Truth (Spence, 1982) – the analyst’s beliefs and personal historical narrative, theoretical orientation, and emotional needs (including both uncomfortable “hot spots” and unmet desires) that are involuntarily projected onto (or introjected into) the analysand–either consciously or unconsciously.

4)      The Co-created Consciousness of the “Analytic Third (Ogden, 1997) – the explicit, overt transference/countertransference interaction, and resulting narrative, occurring in the analytic field (i.e. the ongoing, bi-directional, conscious transference/countertransference dynamic).

5)      The Co-Created Unconscious State of Fusion of the “Analytic Third (Ogden, 1997) – the implicit, covert transference/countertransference interaction, and resulting narrative, taking place implicitly in the analytic field (i.e. the ongoing, bi-directional, unconscious transference/countertransference dynamic).

6)      The Imago of the Co-Created Healed State – the shared and individual prospective view of the final analytic outcome.

7)      Implicit Somatic Memory – currently held in the body in reaction to the past (i.e. nonverbal memory generated from neural patterns that are the result of sensory-motor interactions with the environment (Leuzinger-Bohleber & Pfeifer, 2002).

The Concept of “Stacked” Verses Linear Time

Although it would be very difficult as analysts–at least for some of us–to attend to and hold the layered stack of interpersonal and intrapsychic dynamics in working memory at the same time, developing an internal schemata in order to differentiate and assimilate (Piaget, 1973) awareness of each of these levels may provide the analyst with an opportunity to observe each of these levels as they emerge vertically during a session. Potentially accessing such a lexicon during an analytic session might expand the analyst’s perception to include more of what is actually happening in real time. This would involve shifting away from viewing the analytic encounter as a linear sequence toward developing greater awareness with the capacity to track the stack of interpsychic and intrapsychic enactments as they are taking place in the analytic process. Ultimately, this would result in less lag time between the experience of an interaction and interpretation of the interaction.

Although the term “stacking” could be applied to levels of reality rather than time, without the construct of time as scaffolding, thoughts and ideas cease to exist – because they exist as a process, not independently. Susan Langer (1967) has written that ideas and thoughts are a verb not a noun – they do not exist without the context provided by time.                                            A stacked orientation toward time in the analytic encounter requires that the analyst actively engage in reverie and mentation–in linear time–between sessions. This is necessary in order for the analyst to first become familiar enough with the multiple themes, and then to track the threads of each of the themes as they are being enacted–along with the complex interplay taking place between them as they emerge concurrently.

Grotstein (1978) has written that without separation in time between the self and the object (which in this case would be the experience of the present moment (Stern, 2004)) within the analytic container, and the internalization of past intrapsychic and interpsychic encounters as they are experienced in the present, no capacity for perception exists because there is no space for representation. Sequential time enables experience to be compartmentalized and therefore reflected upon.

Basch (1976) has used the analogy of a telescope to explain this psychic phenomenon. Although an image may be produced in a telescope it is not formed within the telescope. The image is not in the lens but in a virtual, imaginary location created from light rays perceived as a result of a mental functioning process. The image is not a “thing” but a phase. This notion corresponds to current research in neuropsychology, which supports function over form (Leuzinger-Bohleber & Pfeifer, 2002). In other words, thoughts are not localized in specific brain sites but occur as activity taking place as neural movement between them. Memory can be understood as a theoretical construct, connecting past experience with the influence and interaction of neural activity. How an event becomes assimilated, and how it is perceived after the event has taken place, will determine the new neural pathways that are laid down, which will  alter the quality of the specific memory moving forward.

If, the analyst took time outside of sessions to create a dimensional mental structure that provided a provisional template for organizing the stacked layers of enactments taking place simultaneously within the session, then, these potential layers could be better “held” in working memory in the analyst’s mind. Having a vertical mental map might enable the analyst to more easily understand what is transpiring in any given moment as a series of collective functions happening simultaneously. Perhaps then, what is implicit would become more explicit in the present moment (Stern, 2004).

The paq’os I have worked with in Peru have taught me that one way to experience the energetic connection in our bodies is through entering into a receptive in nature. Walking through the damp grass and fallen leaves in a wooded forest after a rainfall, feeling a connection to everything living beginning to permeate into senses, makes it easier to silence our thoughts and listen. We are not individuals; we are part of the energy of the atmosphere. We are to hear the voices of the wind, the smell the scent of the earth and the aroma of growing green plants that appear electrically vibrant after a rainfall. We can see leaves shimmering, hearing them rustling in a cool, damp breeze, and are able to track birds flying overhead, hearing the echo of their caws cutting through and penetrating the heavy, damp air. Their sounds echo as they pierce the quiet mist surrounding that ebbs and flows as sunlight occasionally breaks through, with intense streaks depending on the time of day. We may feel a silent chill settling into our bones as the sun begins to fade behind a ridge and day light begins to wane.

We are deeply connected and are an embodiment, an expression of the natural world -whether or not we consciously realize it – through our breathing. We breathe in order to live and bring the air of the atmosphere into our lungs to survive. If we move more fully into this connection, into ayni, our minds become still by reaching into the deep interior of our bodies, to places where thoughts do not exist – a state paq’os refer to as haimutay – and the state I believe Thomas Ogden was referring to when he wrote about the autistic contiguous position. There are primitive, preverbal states for sure. In these psychic spaces, we sense without thinking – even if only for a moment. Through maintain an open state of receptivity, in haimutay, the elements of nature surrounding us, can be take in, with the potential for restoring us with life, with kausay.

Above everything, we are children of the land. And the basic understanding is that we’ve always been children of the land, and as children of the land we need to, to remember the old way of dialoguing with that that supports us and nurtures us. Everything around us has kausay, is infused with life force.  (Don Alarijo, 2011)

As I grow older, it becomes clearer to me that human beings have an inherent need to find meaning in their lives. Based upon my experience as a psychologist and a Jungian analyst, working with people are in the process of deep soul searching, this is what brings people a sense of well-being.  In the West, many of us attempt to find meaning through discovering new ideas, establishing and achieving individual goals, and by developing our personal and professional identities that formulate our own individual belief systems as a function of our personalities. Our personalities are created from our genetic makeup and temperament, as well as from our experience and subjective interpretation the life events. The combination of all of these variables together cast a template that arranges who we – as we are living in this lifetime. Our understandings and perceptions of our individual life events influence our approach to making meaning, bringing us to our own conclusions of what is important to us.

Beyond our personal development in our outer world, making meaning can also come through connecting with something that is bigger than we are in our inner as well as outer world. Most of us have a certain proclivity towards introversion or extroversion, which will effect what we consider meaningful.  Feeling a sense of meaning may emerge in creative expression and play, being in nature, and through spirit connection.

Of course, all our meaningful conclusions can change at just a moment’s notice because as living beings, we are energy, and energy movement is a fluid process running through the template of our personality. The flow of energy may alter the personality template as it comes in contact with it – and vice versa – and this can potentially change who we are. By being in close relationship with family, friends, animals, nature we connect and we change.  We change through contact and connection. Q’ero p’aqos experience the connection of kausay (life force) with Pachamama (Mother Earth), the energy of life that is everywhere. , as Westerners, we tend to only access small parts of this vast energy source that is available to all of us, because our culture has forgotten what it is like to live in connection. We are all part of the living energy, that Inca shamans call kausay.

Rather than encouraging people to learn to “stand on their own two feet” as we do in the West, medicine people develop a very different understanding of their exterior world because they live close to nature. Instead of placing value on personal achievements, and individualism, p’aqos develop a strong bond with Pachamama through serving their community, or ayllu. Because most Inca shamans grow up in small villages high in the Andes, they depend on Pachamama for their survival. Through maintaining a physical and spiritual relationship with Pachamama through the daily activities raising corn and herding llamas, learn and grow. In the pa’qo’s world, everything in life begins, exists and ends with Pachamama.

Unlike those of us raised in the modern world of Western culture, shamans serve their experience rather than trying to make meaning from it. Trying to understand everything using our logical mind is not necessary. It can sometimes even hinder our growth because we miss things. Growing up in a village, or ayllu, they learn to rely on their hearts and bodies to make sense of the world rather than minds. Depending on their feeling senses provides them with a broader range of perception because there are things that exist in the natural and spiritual world that cannot be understood using reason.  As Westerners, we sometimes “throw the baby out with the bathwater” when we count on our logical minds to determine what is real. The medicine people believe that thinking about something brings separation while a heart-centered focus of kausay brings connection. Shamans believe that feeling connected through the heart leads to truth.