SLOOP - THE TREE HOUSE

It is quite obvious that the modern Western culture gives us immediate access, almost instantly, to whatever may seem of interest to each one of us. It is also obvious that our attention span is shrinking as fast as our capacity to absorb new information keeps building up.

I dare say this has a price: we don’t have the time to build all that knowledge into a solid subjective structure, an inner house, a solid place, full of surprises, hidden corners, basements and attics and secret passages.
The fleeting contact we establish with all the info we absorb creates in us the false illusion of knowledge.
Those of us who are old enough not to have been cyber kids, can tell the difference.
We are fascinated with everything that’s new and State of the Art technology, but we miss the kind of time we used to spend trying to figure out everything the world has to feeds us.
So we feel our inner self is getting stuffed with knowledge, but it’s not getting deeper, it’s getting thinner.
The Spanish writer Manuel Vincent says that people are afraid to seek refuge within themselves, because that inner construction is “shaky”. So it doesn’t makes us feel safe, but quite the contrary.
And that is a shame, because being able to seek refuge within ourselves is a fantastic relief against adversity.
Like those “cabins” we made under the bed, with blankets and a flashlight.
Or the wonderful tree houses, where we felt safe, masters of the fortress, and open to fantasy.
When we loose our innocence, we loose the safety those tree houses gave us.

“When we stop playing –says Vincent-, we remain unprotected, alone in the wilderness, far from the world of dreams, having to face real enemies”.

Full of hope, he points out that there are privileged human beings that are still capable, no matter what age they are, to build that tree house inside their soul and make themselves strong and invincible against adversity.

There are many ways to do that, as long as we build it strong and keep in there some strong feelings, some strong knowledge, and keep out aggression and barbarity and inhumanity.
And, as you might have guessed by now… let me tell you: Second Life is one hell of a tree house.
The one that made us feel so strong when we where kids, the one place we felt safe to dream in.

Lets play.

Lets take care of our tree house. It’s a chance to have that magic place when we are too grown up to go climbing real trees.

Covadonga Writer

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SLOOP - “IN THE NAME OF HELL/ WHO ARE YOU /WHO ARE YOU?”

Avatars and Archetypes.

Part II

The first part of this column was posted a few days ago and I took the liberty of speculating with the idea of being able to cast an objective look on our avatar –and /or our alts- from a Jungian point of view. The fact that Second Life is so obviously projective made me think we could easily “make” archetypal versions of our personality.

And the first archetype I mentioned was the Shadow. And please, if you think this is worth reading, check the column I just mentioned. Lets just remember the Shadow is the personification of that part of human, psychic possibility, that we deny in ourselves and project onto others. The goal of personality integration is to integrate the rejected, the darker side of our life into our total experience. That side is not “bad” by default, it can also be our most creative and free side of our potential.

The second most prevalent archetype is that of the SOUL. “Anima” is the male name of the soul, “Animus” is the female name. This is our inner opposite. Guys meet their Anima, gals meet their Animus. The Anima may appear in so many different ways, as an exotic dancing girl or as an old hag. The Animus may appear as an exotic and sensual young man or as an old grouch. A good example taken from the modern myth department is Lois Lane. Clark Kent is the inferior shadow side of Superman, but Lois Lane is not interested in Clark. She is infatuated with Superman, her Animus, the masculine completion of her personality. (We are not talking about gender issues here: if you are a gay man you will be looking for your Animus and if you are a gay woman, you will be looking for your Anima).

Just asking: anyone has made an alt of the opposite sex just for the fun of it? Well, you are welcome to watch it closely. It’s such a big chunk of yourself.

Jung’s main archetypes are not “types” in the way each person may be classified as one or the other. We each have all basic archetypes within us. And we have seen three of the four main forms or archetypes.

The fourth one is the SELF.

For Jung, the Self is the spirit that connects everything and is part of the Universe. It is the coherent whole that unifies both consciousness and unconsciousness. It may be found elsewhere in concepts as Nirvana, or other philosophical or religious theories that speak of harmony. Jung described the creation of the Self as a process of individuation, the work of a lifetime, the “becoming the person you were meant to be”, where after being able to identify all the archetypes you can, then be able to become you own original self, bringing together all the aspects of your personality as one, and being in charge of them, making you whole again, yet a lot more genuine and free.

So, bottom line: I found the idea of our avatar and alts being parts of our split selves, very interesting –to say the least-. And as those avatars have probably been “constructed” in a very unconscious and playful way… seems like a good idea to take a good look at them and see what we can learn from the virtual version of “who the hell we are”. Second Life may help us to –literally- pull ourselves together.

Covadonga Writer.

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SLOOP

I have been in SL for quite a while now, and ever since I got over the initial confusion of being a newbie and learning how to struggle – enough to survive, at least- with the technical issues… I mean, as soon as I could start paying attention to what was really going on here… it hit me clearly that SL was a major projecting test. A fun one, if the experience was pleasant, but undoubtedly a virtual place to massively splash ourselves against. The feedback comes mostly from our fellow SL residents, but in due time I came to realize the most important feed back can be obtained from our own selves.

I wrote a column long ago, about how we all shared the fantasy of being somewhat different, or a bit different, or totally different from who we really are in RL. (That, assuming we really know who we are in RL, which I doubt). And I said I thought no matter what shape or character did we choose to become in SL, deep down we were always going to remain ourselves, because the way we engage in relationships and activities will always respond to the basic pattern of who we are.

And then there was the issue of ALTS. At first I hated them, because I realized so many residents were two timing other people, used them to spy on their friends or partners, or to cheat, or to play malicious pranks. Then I realized they could have other uses, more simple and fun, with no hidden agendas. Like making your alt deal with the business you run here and letting you free to spend time with your friends without having to answer demanding IMs all the time.

But leaving aside those considerations – what you do and how you handle your alts is a matter of ethics and not the subject of this column-, the thing is I realized our alts, being yet another and another projection of ourselves… must have some rich info about who we are. And that could be valuable to ourselves, if we can look at those characters we made, because they are obviously parts of our personality.

My mind had to jump to Carl Jung, there was no way to avoid that.

Jung discovered that people have a preconscious psychic disposition that enables a person to react in a human manner. And this pre-existent disposition feeds itself on the totally unconscious “archetypal image”. These archetypes are potentials for significance and are not under conscious control. We, thus, tend to fear them. Modern man seems to need to believe that his life is totally rational and under control.

Jung linked the archetypes to mankind heredity and they are needed to structure our imagination and shape matter as well as psyche in the human world.

The archetypes belong to the Universal Unconscious, which we all share, as well as it’s potential. This cosmic, universal, unconscious knowledge is filled with myths of the human species.

This theory is way too important, too complicated and too rich to discuss here, but I hope this peeking into it was interesting enough to go a little bit further.

The most basic potential is the Shadow archetype. As we move deeper into the dark side of our personality, personal identity begins to dissolve into latent dispositions common to all humankind. The Shadow is the easiest of the archetypes for most persons to experience. We tend to see it in others, outside of us. We project our dark side into others and make them our enemies… or make them exotic characters that fascinate us. The dark side is not just the “bad”, evil side -in this case the Devil would be the great Shadow image -. The Shadow is also the mystery, the possibility of being creative, of having no limits, of being heroic, of being bold and adventurous.

Now : look around. Take a look at your alts.

Who is that Goth looking chick with piercings all over her body, sexy tattoos, black nails, showing her boobs and working the pole, while you… the one on the keyboard… is wearing an apron, keeping an eye on the timer so the pot-roast wont burn and shouting “Billy stop fighting with your sister!!!!!” ?

Who is that guy with the muscles and the shades, looking like a commando, blowing away anyone who trespasses with a weapon that would be too much for the Terminator, while you… the one typing… just came back from helping your neighbor rescue his cat from the highest tree in his garden… and now types “brb”, because the wife needs help with the dishes???

And who is that whimsical, moody, spoiled –yet harmless- young vampiress that keeps snarling and showing her fangs for no reason, being a nuisance to all her friends?? Oh.. er.. that’s me. J)

Well… you know what I mean. If those aren’t our shadows… who are they? The other question is: If the alter ego you first made when joining SL looks like it might be your Shadow… (or as much of your Shadow you can bear to project), the good news is you are quite in touch with it, and that helps exorcise the bad and bring out the creative –if there is some of that in us-.

If the predominant avi you made for yourself is a version (probably enhanced, but very much a version of the original You, then you might have to give yourself the chance to dig in and discover more about yourself, because you are probably too over adapted. (Which it’s OK, but you might be missing a lot).

And then… there’s other archetypes.

Covadonga Writer

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Introducing Covadonga Writer........

Today we launch a new people column with Covadonga Writer
Her column SLoop will always be found in the PEOPLE section usually on a Monday and will keep you in the SL loop - how the ordinary avatar see's and reacts to Secondlife.
Stories of friendship and love, plus frustration at LL and praise when deserved.

Todays first column is titled "Mythxels" and can be read now in PEOPLE.

Dana

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