Everybody gets
stuck in loops from time to time. The rhythms of life on earth foster patterns of
behavior, patterns of thinking, and habitual responses to our environments. Sometimes these
loops spiral us upward towards knowledge, health, and spiritual growth. Sometimes they spiral
downward into confusion, depression, or violence.
Often the habits
of our own thinking cause resonant loops and spirals in our communities and
society as a whole. For example, the cycles of consumer desire for ever bigger houses and
fancier toys cause our towns to expand further and further into the wilderness. Our possibilities
for spiritually enriching leisure in the woods begin to disappear, so we buy more toys to keep
us entertained and fulfilled.
Collectively, I
call these loops and spirals psycles or psychological cycles. The purpose of this
site is to explore ways that we as individuals and communities can re-psycle, turning unhealthy
downward spirals into virtuous circles that support our growth and well-being. This process
involves three basic components:
· Meditations
that help us become aware of our psycles
· Analysis
and selection of nexus points where we can escape our negative psycles and
reinforce positive patterns.
· Collection
of myths, fables, and folk tales that follow these psycles and provide us with images
and heroes that guide us through the process.
Fundamentally,
I see repsycling as a mental technology for organizing processes of
contemplative inner work, psychological and career counseling, and social activism. I do not
profess to be a repsycling master, but I did develop the concept for this site after some
encouraging repsycling of my own. These pages thus contain some of my own psycles and
those I have observed in my communities and ecologies.
My hope is that
you will think about both the content and the process I have proposed, and
contribute to their evolution. I also hope to create community around shared psycles – please
send me your experiences in working through these psycles, any information on organizations
working at the nexus points I describe, and other links you find relevant to this technology.
1. Imagination Lab
