Science Forums 2

[HydrogenBond]

Thanks for the link. I watched it. It brought me back to my studies of collective symbolism many years ago. What I had learned back then was there are common themes to almost all mythology. The details may be different but the gist is the same. Jung formulated his theory of the collective unconscious from the similarity in symbolism and myth even in cultures that had no contact with one another. The collective unconscious generated the myths and could then be used to affect the collective unconscious in the group. I modernize this calling it personality software that is part of the operating system of the brain.

Mythology shows how this software interacts or should interact to upgrade the operating system for that time in history. Myths linger as long as this update version has some use.

For example; Little Red Riding Hood. She personifies the archetype of relationship in a man. She is a sweet girl so this means a good hearted young man. She is bringing food to her sick grandma. Her grandma represents a feedforward affect connected to the anticipated state of the young man's heart affecting its future state. In other words, if one is angry as a young person this can stick and make the man an angry old man. Grandma is sick because something is changing his good heart and the brain is time projecting this future state.

The big bad wolf is software just below the shadow due to the animal symbolism. He is not a good animal which shows his connection to the shadow. He dresses up like grandma to eat LRRH. If you ever wondered why he didn't eat grandma while he had a chance, it is because the future was not yet defined. It depended on the choices that would soon be made. If he ate LRRH, grandma would be next. The wolf in grandma clothes symbolizes a modified animal urge that is generating emotion. An example is if you are really hungry anything tastes good. If you are not hungry the emotion changes for many of the same things. The instinct can create an irrational amplification of feeling that is not in line with reasonable emotion. The affect is two different object relationships. This is the lure that the young heart is about to face that could disillusion him for the rest of their life.

But luckily for LRRH, there is a woodman nearby who hears her cries for help. He is the archetype of meaning which sort of makes sense of its all. It could be common sense that preserves the present and helps to set the future. Grandma gets well and they live happily ever after.

To a child it is a fun story. But it was also a line of programming this is inserted into the operating system. To the mind of the past, the affect was sort of a like a Window's Update which would be run on all the brain computers in the culture.