Mind Meld 93 | Shadow Work with Dr. Michael Daine

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Dr. Michael Daine is a licensed Psychologist, former Assistant Director at the C.G. Jung Institute of Houston and a radio host. His philosophy and practice is a synthesis of myth, mysticism and modern medicine.

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For our ancestors, mythological and existential context was well-defined and limited. It was comprised of oral or written tales from their immediate culture.

Now, things are different. Now, the flow of information never ceases. Our mythological context (if you can call it that) stems from stories that are old, contemporary, foreign, domestic, obscure, widely known, believed and disputed.

On one hand, this incredible volume of stories and myth affords us that many more opportunities to identify what really speaks to us, what we really find meaningful. On the other, the constant informational deluge lulls us into numbness. It can even cause us to outright dismiss myth as mere fairytales or exotic, bygone frivolities.

Rejecting myth completely, though, is a modern tragedy if you ask me. Subjective mythological symbol systems and archetypal stories are sewn into our psyches. Whether we like it or not, we need these stories. They’re highly relevant maps of our inner worlds, if we can learn to interpret them as such.

This is where the necessity of a guide comes in. In classic times, these guides were the shaman, the guru or the psychopomp. Someone with a unique subjectivity-hacking skillset, someone with the ability to guide you into the depths of your subconscious ocean, the realm from which myth and meaning is born.

In our times though, many of us aren’t looking for shamans or gurus. We require expertise that fits within our postmodern context, guidance that takes contemporary factors into account that some traditions just can’t. In other words, we require humans like Dr. Michael Daine. Dr. Daine and other depth psychologists of his ilk apply a synthesis of myth, mysticism and modern medicine. A razor-sharp toolset that cuts right into the the psychic artery of who you truly are.

Musings in this mind meld –

• Tattoo advice from the collective unconscious

• exploring the Iching

• There is no ending. Everything is constantly in flux, even your “ideal self”

• Unproductive neurotic suffering versus true, productive suffering

• The underworld and the inner-journey

• Why you have to have a map of your interior life and why you must construct your own myths

• Embracing and rejecting archetypes and how they relate to behaviors and addiction

• Why divination is an important map to the psyche

• How alchemical archetypes relate to the psyche and personal growth

• Powerful dreams, self development and what they mean

• The controversy of lucid dreaming in depth psychology

• Why Carl Jung was against the use of psychedelics in self-work

• Active imagination- what it is and how it’s used to delve into the mind

• If consciousness is a massive dark cave, the ego holds the flashlight