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Dr. Kim Hermanson

Facilitating Creative Breakthroughs

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consciousness

an ode to Jacob Needleman

November 28, 2023

The brilliant philosopher Jacob Needleman passed away one year ago today.

Needleman is the one who famously said, “We’re built to serve something greater than ourselves.”

In a letter to the president of the Fetzer Institute, Needleman wrote something else that has continued to inspire me throughout my career:

“I believe that the group is the art form of the future…In our present culture the main need is for a form that can enable human beings to share their perceptions…and through that sharing, to become a conduit for the appearance of spiritual intelligence.”

I love that.

And in an interview with The Sun Magazine (writer D. Patrick Miller at Fearless Books), Needleman spoke of his experiences with D.T. Suzuki in ‘stopping the mind.’:

MILLER: Suzuki was inducing in you the same experience that a Zen koan is meant to induce: stopping the mind.

NEEDLEMAN: Yes, because to stop the mind within such a context is to touch someone’s being, to touch his or her yearning, the essential need in the person for a relationship to something higher.

MILLER: So when Suzuki threw you back on the experience of your own being, you found yourself wordless.

NEEDLEMAN: Yes. At the point of encountering your own being, you either have to remain silent or start singing. If you’re going to talk about “being” in any meaningful way, you may have to use special language, perhaps mythic language. Myth, in this context, is not falsehood. It’s the language of the heart and mind together, and it surpasses our ordinary way of expressing ourselves. Nature often speaks to us in mythic language. We tend to paper over nature with scientific language and think we’ve fully described it, but to look at nature only in that way is to muzzle it.

NEEDLEMAN: Suzuki was not going to give me an intellectual answer; he meant to put me in a questioning state so that I could experience something about the self — what it isn’t, what it could be, and so on. As Kierkegaard said, direct communication between people is not real communication. Real communication is indirect: it allows one to experience something rather than intellectually understand it.

Bless his brilliant work.

my new article in Spirituality + Health magazine

August 17, 2023

“Most of us typically associate metaphor with the flowery language that poets use or with things that are made up: ‘That’s just a metaphor.’ In other words, we typically treat metaphors as outside of ourselves, when in fact they are the deep, sensory, intuitive language of the feeling center of our brain. To say that metaphor is “the sea we swim in” is not so much a metaphor as an observation of reality.

When we’re confused, uncertain, or going through change, we draw on metaphor to help us understand what’s happening: “I’m in over my head.” “That job feels too small for me.” “I’m on a new path now.” “He’s putting pressure on me.”

Metaphor is both an image AND a feeling. When someone says, “I’m on fire with my work right now,” we can imagine an image of fire, but we can also feel fire. We can feel what this person is experiencing.

When someone says they’re under pressure, that something is too small, that they’re on cloud nine, or that they’re depressed, we can feel what they’re saying. We understand their experience in a way that’s more than just cognitive. Thus, metaphor is a language that’s both compassionate and intimate.

Metaphor is also directly connected to our intuition and higher knowing. We may leave a conversation with someone and feel “lit up” or “down.” We might walk into a building and notice that it feels “heavy” or “light.” A project may feel “stuck” or “flowing.” That’s REAL energy…. it’s real intelligence from the Deep Creative.

article link in Spirituality + Health magazine: https://www.spiritualityhealth.com/its-not-just-a-metaphor

After I finished my Ph.D., I moved to the wilderness of northwest Montana

June 27, 2023

After I finished my Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, I tried very hard to do what I was ‘supposed’ to do—interview for an academic teaching position at some sort of prestigious university. But I couldn’t do it. Instead, I moved to the wilderness of northwest Montana. Here’s what happened instead:

  1. I developed self-reliance. In the city, my go-to response was to get the nearest person to help. But here in this remote area, there were no neighbors to be called when emergencies happened.
  2. I developed a wide skill set. In rural and remote areas, by necessity, you become a generalist. I did things I never would have done had I remained in the city.
  3. I developed openness.  In the city, I held staunch beliefs about issues such as the need for gun control. Living in the country, I developed a deeper and more fleshed-out understanding of diverse views
  4. I developed leadership skills. In the city, civic organizations can feel large and intimidating. In a rural setting, everyone pitches in.
  5. I developed passion for different things.
  6. I discovered the freedom of identity.

Check out my full story on Tiny Buddha: “Our Creative Genius Shows Us Possibilities the Rational Mind Can’t See” : 

https://tinybuddha.com/blog/feeling-stuck-and-unhappy-your-rational-mind-doesnt-have-all-the-answers/

Certain metaphors for change are present in all cultures.

June 20, 2023

There are certain metaphors for change and transformation that occur over and over again in the world’s literature. 

They are:

  • Transitioning from caterpillar to butterfly
  • Awakening from the dream of reality
  • Uncovering the veils of illusion
  • Moving from captivity to liberation
  • Purification by inner fire
  • Going from darkness to light
  • Moving from fragmentation into wholeness
  • Journeying toward a vision
  • Returning to the source
  • Dying and being reborn
  • Unfolding the tree of our life

My article on universal metaphors for change:

https://www.kimhermanson.com/2017/10/22/11-universal-metaphors-for-change-that-are-present-in-all-cultures/

The way of the artist and the way of the mystic are very much alike, except the mystic does not have a craft

June 6, 2023

Joseph Campbell said, “The way of the artist and the way of the mystic are very much alike, except the mystic does not have a craft.”

Creativity is not just a personal tool for our projects. It’s an alignment with a higher intelligence.

The creative process allows us to have a conversation with Something greater than ourselves. It puts us in touch with transcendent wisdom.  Artists engage in a process that lets them touch something that’s alive.  🌱

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