UR-image
by
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This is a book of possible futures and it began with a dream—a dream as a possible future! In this dream three pioneers of depth psychology appear, each representing a different comprehension of the nature of image, a question that has a long and venerable history. I begin to wonder if I could write a book about them and their ideas. As I do so, the German word, “Ur”, starts to repeat itself to me, running through my mind, as I sleep. I become enthusiastic about writing a story of these three men in relation to image, a simple story that brings out the difference in their understanding of image. I also am looking around for some electronic leads that will help some wires connect to my speaker system so that I can be heard better. I woke up with “Ur” resounding in me. I started looking around for some “electronic leads”. I went to a search engine and typed in “Ur” and found that the word means “original”, “primitive” (meaning primary or basic). This awakened a memory and, according to the methodology of participation, I did not ignore but included it as the “next step”. Years ago I had written an essay, out of another participatory moment with a possible future, in which I stumbled onto what I then called the form of forms which gives rise to all phenomenal forms. This discovery came out of my hands which moulded clay while my mind was in a breakdown. This memory startled me as it seemed I had been, in retrospect, talking about an Ur-image, as I named it in the moment of recall—an Ur-image, the original image that had to be non-phenomenal and which gives rise to all images. I had the title of my book. Then, another surprise! The same search turned up another result. A kindle book had been recently published. It was Stephen King’s short story for Kindle, about Kindle, and it was called Ur. I quickly downloaded it and read it. It was a book dedicated to the notion of alternative universes and the possibility of their intersecting with our Present. I realized that the idea of alternative universes is a spatial conception having the same weird logic as the temporal conception of possible futures. Another memory then came “out of left field”. A famous author once said (I cannot remember who), “Write what you know.” And so, I began to write.
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About the Book
This is the story of four young friends whose routines are disrupted one day by an intrusion of four possible futures into their Present, thus shaping their lives over time, and finally becoming their actual future, but in ways that none of them could have predicted.
The making of this book reflects a similar process in the author. A possible future, in the shape of a dream, intersected with the author's Present, and his life began to alter in quite unexpected ways, as the dream slowly manifested into what became, finally, his actual future, the record of which is this story!
Thus the author of MANIFESTING POSSIBLE FUTURES: a new genre of literature future explores an art form which reflects the psychological process by which it comes into being in the first place.
About the Author
John C. Woodcock holds a doctorate in Consciousness Studies (1999). His thesis articulates the process and outcome of a spiritual ordeal that lasted twenty years. At first it seemed to John that he was undergoing a purely personal psychological crisis but over time, with assistance from his various mentors, he discovered that he was also participating in the historical process of a transformation of the soul as reflected in the enormous changes occurring in our culture, often referred to as apocalyptic. During this difficult period of John’s life, he wrote two books: Living in Uncertainty and Making of a Man. Both books have been expanded into second editions (2012). Over time John began to comprehend how our modern reality, seemingly so bereft of soul, is indeed itself a manifestation of soul. Soul and world were found to be a unity of differences. This discovery opened up the possibility of discerning soul movement from within present external reality, comprising hints of possible futures. John’s next three books, The Coming Guest, The Imperative, and Hearing Voices, explore this idea more fully by describing the initiatory process and outcome of one individual’s becoming a vehicle for the expression of the unknown future, through the medium of his or her art. John’s latest books, Manifesting Possible Futures, and Overcoming Solidity, establish a firm theoretical ground for the claim that the soul is urging us towards the development of new inner capacities that together he calls the augur-artist mind—the mind that can discern and artistically render hints of possible futures. In this new book John gives a more refined definition of the genre of literature that can adequately express/describe a new reality that is forming in the unconscious—one that overcomes the oppositions that characterize the Cartesian reality principle, and as well, demonstrates the genre. John currently lives with his wife Anita in Sydney, where he teaches, writes, and consults with others concerning their soul life. He is also a practicing Jungian therapist. He may be contacted at jwoodcock@lighthousedownunder.com.