dark night of the soul

Dark is the Night, a photo by exquisitur on Flickr.

JPS: But do you think that it is possible to become wholly secular, to come out on the other side of the critique and abandon religion all together, without having lost something essential?
GB: Let me introduce the term 'the dark night of the soul' used in the mystical tradition. The mystics claim that in the process of opening themselves to God, there comes a time—sometimes a long time—when they are so much aware of the obstacles to God in their heart, so much aware of their inner fragmentation and outer superficiality, that God seems to have disappeared altogether for them, so much so that they wondered if they had become atheists. They called this the dark night of the soul. But they also say that you have to wait patiently in the night, for it will end through the opening of a new and surprising window. Today, I have the impression, many Christians pass through a different dark night of the soul. They are deeply disturbed by the suffering in the world, the cruelly unjust maldistribution of wealth and power, and the indifference of the official churches to this scandalous situation that they find it increasingly difficult to believe in divine providence. They feel that they are becoming atheists. Some Christians—friends of mine among them—have never left the dark night. They became non-believers because they were inconsolable. They became agnostics for theological reasons—for which God will reward them. Yet other Christians pass through this night and eventually come out of it. They learn that God is in solidarity with the victims of history. A Jewish rabbi once wrote that the Holocaust has brought the end of 'untroubled theism'. The more we believe that God is love, the more difficult it is to believe that God exists. We don’t want a faith that does not raise uncomfortable questions. We long for a faith that is both serene and troubled.
JPS: To emerge from the dark night of the soul, is it sufficient to maintain a passionately secular hope for justice, or does this messianic yearning need to take an explicitly religious form?
GB: Sociologists like to distinguish different kinds of hope. There is a secular, materialist dream of the future which is nourished by advertising on television recommending the right clothes for you, the right house with a garden and beautiful furniture, the right car and so forth. We have here a messianic dream that has problematic personal and political consequences. Sociologist call future dreams ideological if they sustain the present order and make the victims of society invisible, and they call future dreams utopian if they de-legitimate the existing order and create the yearning for a more just society. Of course, utopian dreams could become dangerous. Ernst Bloch became more specific when he defined 'a concrete utopia' as the image of an alternative society that is close enough to the unrealized potential of the present to sustain a realistic historical project.
To dream of an alternative society where peace and justice reigns is a good thing, even if it is not a concrete utopia. St. Augustine’s famous distinction between the city of Man (the proud city) and the city of God (the humble city) provided a utopian dream. He thought that the great society, the empire, created by love of wealth and power, could not be reformed, it was doomed; but small communities defined by love of God and neighbor, created by co-operation and commitment to the common good, could anticipate God’s glorious reign. The church has been inspired by a utopia. But because it has called itself holy, the bride of Christ or his mystical body, the church found it increasingly difficult to come to self-knowledge. The church fathers still had a realistic view of the church: they spoke about it in paradoxical terms, calling it, for instance, casta meretrix (the chaste whore). Still, the Augustinian dream remains valid: yearning for a community of love and co-operation is nourished by the Gospel. I think that today’s counter-cultural movements have inherited this dream. Like Augustine, they do not believe that the great society, the empire, can be reformed, but they try to create on a small scale a community defined by principles at odds with empire.
The modern, liberal dream of industrial capitalism produced by hard work and reliance on techno-scientific reason produced a certain faith in necessary progress. Yet this dream had many dark sides. Max Weber studied several of them. One of them was, according to Weber (though I am not sure if he was serious), that death had become more anguishing in modernity. People work so hard, spend all their energy on getting ahead, don’t take time to live and reflect, and forever postpone their happiness—so that at the time of their death, they recognize how foolish they have been and feel that they have been cheated. In other cultures, Weber thought, people lived more deeply, had more joy and more suffering, and when the end came, they were quite ready to begin the long sleep. The modern anxiety over death has marked even the philosophers: it was central for Heidegger and even influenced sociologists like Alfred Schutz and Peter Berger.


 from

An Interview with Gregory Baum
“Faith, Community & Liberation”
Adam S. Miller, Journal of Philosophy and Scripture

 

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Benefits of exercise

Exercising, a photo by NOAA's National Ocean Service on Flickr.

Serotonin is an important brain chemical (neurotransmitter) that contributes to a range of functions, including sleep and wake cycles, libido, appetite and mood. Serotonin has been linked to depression.

Some researchers have found that regular exercise, and the increase in physical fitness that results, alters serotonin levels in the brain and leads to improved mood and feelings of wellbeing. Some research indicates that regular exercise boosts body temperature, which may ease depression by influencing the brain chemicals.

Benefits of exercise

Apart from changes in brain activity, there are other things that may help explain the benefits of exercise:

• The person experiences a boost to their self-esteem because they take an active role in their own recovery.
• Some forms of exercise, such as team sports, are also social events.
• Physical activity burns up stress chemicals, like adrenaline, which promotes a more relaxed state of mind.
• An enjoyable bout of exercise may be distracting enough to break the vicious cycle of pessimistic thinking.

epigenesis

New growth in old, 7/26/12, a photo by altiemae on Flickr.

p. 13

Scientists are finding one of the ways your brain changes itself is by actually changing your genes - or more correctly, by the acting out (or not) of certain genes - in the process of epigenesis.

...

Another layer of information, called the epigenome, is stored in the proteins and chemicals that surround and stick to the DNA. It's a kind of chemical switch that determines which genes are activated (or not): it tells your genes what to do and where and when. 

Researchers have discovered that the epigenome can be affected by many things, from aging and diet to environmental toxins to even what you think and feel. This means that even your experiences can literally change your mind by chemically coating the DNA that controls a function. The coating doesn't alter the underlying genetic code; rather, it alters specific gene expression, shutting down or revving up the production of proteins that affect your mental state.

...

Epigenetics can profoundly affect your health and, it seems, your happiness, changing not only your vulnerability to some diseases such as cancer but also your mental health. Scientists have found, for example, that a mother rat's nurturing, through licking and loving behaviour that boosts the expression of a gene that eases anxiety and stress, bolsters emotional resilience in her newborn pups. They've also found that distressing events can turn off the expression of genes for brain cell growth protein and therby trigger depression, and that epigenetic changes may also underlie the pathology of schizophrenia, suicide, depression, and drug addiction.

...

So it turns out that your brain is a nursery: every day, it seems, new brain cells are born. But it seems that your brain doesn't always keep these newborn neurons. Just like all other babies, they need special care to survive. And it's not pampering: your newborn neurons, scientists are finding, need to be challenged , exercised, and run hard. 

If you don't use those new cells, they will disappear ... unless that brain is challenged to learn something new and, preferably something hard that involves a great deal of effort. And new  is key here as well: just repeating old activities won't support new brain cells.   

The Scientific American Brave New Brain
Judith Horstman
2010
Wiley USA

Brave New Brain

Brain View , a photo by Suranga's Photo Collection - InstagramSriLanka on Flickr.

p.8

The revolutionary findings about your brain's remarkable ability to change itself are barely a decade old.

In the 1990s, scientists rocked the field of neurobiology with the startling news that the mature mammalian brain is capable of sprouting new neurons in the hippocampus and the olefactory bulbs, and that it continues to do so even into old age. This process is called neurogenesis.

Scientists also confirmed what was long suspected: your brain is not hardwired. It can reinvent itself, as it were, by creating new pathways to reroute, readjust, and otherwise change the networking and connections, sometimes even substituting one area for another. 

Your brain also changes to reflect what you learn, do, and think. In fact, your brain is physically rearranging its networks just about every minute of every day. That's neuroplasticity.

Then they discovered that your actions, thoughts, feelings, or environment can change your genes - more specifically, whether certain genes are expressed - altering brain fuction; character traits; and risk of some diseases, from cancer to schizophrenia. That's epigenetics. 

p. 9

They showed how neglect, abuse, and bullying in childhood can stunt brain development, and they gave some credibility to age-old concepts of positive personal transformation through religious experiences, meditation, self-help programs, and even positive thinking and your own will. They also explain how and why talking cures such as psychotherapy and cognitive behaviour therapy can change lives.

The Scientific American Brave New Brain
Judith Horstman
2010
Wiley USA

Emotional Disclosure

'Just as being unaware of one's feelings can lead to illness, knowing and attending to them can have a positive impact on health. In one study, Holocaust survivors spoke for one to two hours about their experiences during World War II. The investigators then measured the extent to which they had talked emotionally about traumatic events (Pennebaker, Barger, & Tiebout, 1989). The more emotion they expressd as they recounted the events, the better their health for over a year later. In another study, patients with painful arthritis spoke into a tape recorder for 15 minutes a day about either stressful or trivial events (Kelley, Lumley, & Leisen, 1997). Those who spoke about stressful events were in better emotional and physical shape three months later, and, the more unpleasant emotion they experienced while discussing stressful events, the less painful their joints were three months later. The moral of the story? No pain, no gain.

Researchers have been tracking down some of the precise mechanisms through which emotional disclosure affects health (Pennebaker, 1997a, 1997b; Pennebaker & Seagal, 1999). Writing about stressful or unpleasant events has been shown to increase the functioning of specific cells in the immune system (the system of cells in the body that fights off disease). Disclosure also decreases autonomic reactivity that keeps the body on red alert and takes its toll over time.

Perhaps most importantly, disclosure permits a change in cognitive functioning that allows the person to rework the traumatic experience in thought and memory. People who benefit from disclosure tend to begin with disorganised, disjointed narratives about the event, suggesting emotional disruption of their thinking. After writing, their narratives become more coherent. The more complex and coherent people's narratives after disclosing traumatic events, the more their health improves (Suedfeld & Pennebaker, 1997).'

p. 398

Drew Westen, Lorelle Burton, Robin Kowalski  2006

Psychology

Wiley, Australia

'In Search of Stones'

Sorginetxe.undefined, a photo by Roberto Cacho on Flickr.

p. 88

'Labouring under the illusion that it was my responsibility to make Lily happy in life, her depressions were almost daily reminders of my failure.

Entering psychotherapy with genuine intent is always an act of considerable courage.

The most painful thing for me back then was that she couldn’t talk about her depressions. Her feelings were too overwhelming for her to talk, too overwhelming for her even to be able to think.

Psychotherapy has its detractors, and not without reason. Some psychotherapists are good, some mediocre, some poor, and some even harmful. Sometimes psychotherapy is attempted when the chances of success in the best hands are less than one in a hundred. Occasionally patients enter therapy with spurious motives.

Substantial psychotherapy is successful  … only when it becomes a way of life.

As psychotherapy becomes a way of life, one becomes a contemplative: a person who focuses at least as much upon her inner world as upon the outer one. Daydreams, night dreams, thoughts and feelings, insights, intuitions, and understandings all assume ever-increasing importance.

It is not that external realities – other people, social problems, dirty dishes, and deadlines – are neglected; it is that more time is spent in comprehending them. Contemplatives become more thoughtful. Yes, they need to withdraw from the world to a certain extent. They need, in comparison to others, much solitude. As a consequence, they may in some sense do less, but that which they do, they do thoughtfully, and in the long run they may end up actually accomplishing more.'

Scott M. Peck, 1995, In Search of Stones

Simon & Schuster, London

The Collective Neurosis

...courage..., a photo by SheilaTostes on Flickr.


'Every age has its own collective neurosis, and every age needs its own psychotherapy to cope with it. The existential vacuum which is the mass neurosis of the present time can be described as a private and personal form of nihilism; for nihilism can be defined as the contention that being has no meaning. As for psychotherapy, however, it will never be able to cope with this state of affairs on a mass scale if it does not keep itself free from the impact and influence of the contemporary trends of a nihilistic philosophy; otherwise it represents a symptom  of the mass neurosis rather than its possible cure. Psychotherapy would not only reflect a nihilistic philosophy but also, even though unwillingly and unwittingly, transmit to the patient what is actually a caricature rather than a true picture of man.

First of all, there is a danger inherent in the teaching of man's "nothingbutness," the theory that man is nothing but the result of biological, psychological and sociological conditions, or the product of heredity and environment. Such a view of man makes a neurotic believe what he is prone to believe anyway, namely, that he is the pawn and victim of outer influences or inner circumstances by a psychotherapy which denies that man is free.

To be sure, a human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions. As I once put it: "As a professor in two fields, neurology and psychiatry, I am fully aware of the extent to which man is subject to biological, psychological and sociological conditions. But in addition to being a professor in two fields I am a survivor of four camps - concentration camps, that is - and as such I also bear witness to the unexpected extent to which man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions conceivable.'

from Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl   

First published in German in 1946.

https://www.viktorfrankl.org

Sacrament of the Present Moment

Shinkyo (Sacred Bridge), Nikko, Japan, a photo by Paul Mannix on Flickr.

'Some Catholics have a concept I much admire: the Sacrament of the Present Moment. It suggests that every moment of our lives is sacred, and that we should make of each moment a sacrament. Were we to do this we would think of the entire world as diffused with holiness. Wherever we might be would be a holy place for us, and we would see the holy, even sainthood, in everyone we encounter.'

from In Search of Stones, p. 71
by M. Scott Peck
1995 Simon & Schuster, London.

Serotonin

Matalascañas (Huelva), a photo by sky_hlv on Flickr.

p. 165

'Then someone stands up and says the alarming and predictable thing: "Well, if van Gogh had medication, we wouldn't have all those masterpieces, would we?"
     
I can't help but reply, "I think we'd have a lot more of them."
    
Which, I guess, is a way of saying that a little serotonin reuptake inhibitor seems to have saved my life. It became clear, in those dire days of dragging myself to the library, that I couldn't get out of the slump by myself. And truly I don't care if this is the placebo effect at work or not, the moment when suddenly I feel a change: I'm standing at an intersection on Eighth Avenue, waiting for the WALK sign, and I feel a shiver up my spine, and the sudden impulse to hold my head up, to stand up straight - how long has it been? and something within me looks around at the world and says, "Oh, right, here I am."'

Mark Doty, Dog Years, 2008

Jonathan Cape, London.
http://www.markdoty.org/

Mark Doty - 'Dog Years'

000412B, a photo by Lateral Support on Flickr.

p. 154

'Despair is, in a way, an appropriate response to the world; how else to face the corrosive power of time, how else to accommodate the brevity and frailty of the self?

Life without an element of despair in it would seem an empty enterprise, a shallow little song-and-dance on the surface of experience. Despair has about it a bracing sense of actuality. Emily Dickinson says, darkly:
  
   I like a look of Agony,
   Because I know it's true -

   ...

But despair and depression, of course, are not the same thing. 

Depression is nearly always the consequence of despair, a despair one cannot feel one's way through in order to emerge from the other side, a despair that will not be moved. 

Sometimes such pain - perhaps especially when it has been known for a long time, and all one's resources are used up, depleted - takes hold in the self; it becomes the climate in which we operate, a daily weather. 

Depression - simply the state of being exhausted by despair? - takes up residence in the desk drawer, the pile of shoes at the bottom of the closet, last night's unwashed dishes tumbled in the sink. 

Despair is sharp, definite, forceful; it is a respose to experience. 

Depression accumulates, pools, sighs, settles in; it is the absence of a response. It does not makes things move. Consider our tropes for it: a cloud, a shadow, a weight. It lingers, broods, sits heavily; it replaces the sharpness of grief (which no one can bear to feel for very long) with the muffling emptiness of fog.'

Mark Doty 

Walled garden

Walled garden, a photo by recursion_see_recursion on Flickr.


Upstream

It’s not like you would think

sadness

it’s like a walled garden, on the wrong side

and when for no apparent reason

a salmon leaps in your waters

against the swift flowing tide

of the dark river

you jump

at the unexpected

possibility

of feeling.

So that’s what it’s like

not something

but absence

and when your daughter visits

she feels like a stranger

you can’t care enough

for long enough

and everything flops around you

and you parody yourself.

Then on the radio

an artist is talking about her work

in her studio

her brush strokes upon your skin

your eyes press in upon her studio window

and you know, that every small effort

will count.

  

by Cheryl Howard 

© 2013

first published in Studio, #129, 2013 

Overcoming addiction

"Meth Doesn't Live Here" House: side view, a photo by maveric2003 on Flickr.

'Dr Michael Palmer, a physician who began writing tightly plotted thrillers at his kitchen table in 1978 to escape the inner chaos of alcohol and drug addiction, in the process finding a worldwide audience (and sobriety)  ... has died in New York. He was 71.'

'Palmer began writing during what he described as the nadir of his life ... Psychiatric help, and the support of fellow physicians in recovery, got him past the worst of it ... Writing suspense thrillers, and working out the internal logic of their intricate plots, became a kind of long-term therapy before it became his profession.'

by Paul Vitello, New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/books/michael-palmer-tormented-doctor-who-became-top-author-dies-at-71.html?_r=0 

Money mania

by David Wilson
Money, The Age, 20 November, 2013

'Excessive desire for money robs people of their humanity, according to the famously frugal Pope ...

Addiction to money is widespread, according to personal finance expert Jim Miller. Sufferers rashly prioritise money over options they value more: time with family, exploring their true passions, even having a family, Miller says. Spurred by the belief that money fixes all worries, in their acquisitive zeal they "stomp on their passions and values", he says ... 

Psychologist and business ethics expert Robert Giacalone classes it as a strain of materialism: excessive love of income and possessions. According to Giacalone, a materialist view is linked with two traits: an inclination to use others for personal gain and a thirst for obtaining status symbols. 

The obsession achieves nothing, Giacalone says, adding that material values are linked to afflictions ranging from anxiety and depression to headaches.'