The Garden of Eden did not exist. Adam and Eve are not real people. The story is about the danger of wanting the wrong things, of caring about things that do not matter. It is a great story. And terrible theology. All theology is terrible. Theology is a collection of opinions about hearsay. There is factual evidence supporting evolution–“we have found the bones.” But theology requires us to take its pronouncements “on faith.” Why not take something else on faith? Like, for instance, we are born with all we need to find what we need to live a life of integrity, generosity, meaning, purpose, etc.? Why don’t we take that on faith? Many of us do, spontaneously, naturally. Good for us!
Carl Jung, on his own, recognized that he had two personalities, his ego, wanting, liking, desiring, etc., and The Knower within who knew the Way of the Tao, we might say, though Jung never, to my knowledge, used that term, but it would be natural to do so because the Tao, call it what you will, is the source of our knowing what is right in any situation, what is called for, what is required, needed and necessary that is beyond what we want or what we are told we should do. The knower within knows what is called for, what is the right thing to do, and the right time to do it, and the right place to do it, and the right way to do it, and our ego is right to tag along, doing what needs to be done, when where and how it needs to be done.
Those of you who have been with me a while know my story about knowing. When I was a junior in high school I knew I needed a typewriter. I bought a used Remington typewriter when I was a freshman in college. When I was a sophomore in college, I lived at home, and was walking through the living room with the old black and white TV on with a made for TV movie with Robert Wagner playing a private detective. The scene was a swimming pool with a pool table and a 35 mm camera on the table. I saw the camera and fell in love with it instantly. I felt the attraction in a “have to have that” kind of way physically, in the core of my body. And writing and photography have been the core of my life from that era until now. That Which Knows dwells within.
More than one person have told me as they were getting a divorce, “I knew it wasn’t going to work when I married him/her.” We know. And we know that we know, but we do not always listen. Life is learning to listen. And to do what is called for in each situation as it arises, when, where and how it needs to be done.
We can seek out the Knower within and live as their partner in life, and do just fine. Self-induced trance states are perfect for communing with the Knower within. Prayer is a good way of observing what we have to say to the Knower within, and a good way of listening to the Knower within. Self-induced trance states can be writing as I am doing now. I’m taking dictation right now. I’m not making any of this up. I’m merely writing it down. The Knower within is doing the dictating. Painting, playing the piano, long-distance running, or just running, anything where it is just you and the thing you are doing, puts you in a trance-like state of receptivity where you are not directing the action only being aware of it. All indigenous peoples have ways of inducing trance states and communing with the Knower within. It is a Thing worldwide throughout time. Without theology, though a ton of theology is based on the experience with the knower within.
The psychological mechanism of Projection is all we need to turn our experience with the Knower within into a religion based on God this and God that. We are making it all up and transferring it, projecting it, onto “God.” Whatever. We are at the bottom quite capable of living a life without theology finding our way along the way of Tao to doing what is called for, where, when and how it is called for, as we have done as a species throughout time from the earliest moments of the species to here, now. By knowing what we know and doing what is called for here, now. No?
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 