The trickster god archetype in this political season.

originally posted by: Wang Tang

originally posted by: AceWombat04

That's the intriguing thing about archetypes. Although in theory shared, ostensibly universal, and therefore to some extent fixed, they are also very amorphous in terms of their facets. So while the trickster might be right on the money potentially, Loki might not be as congruently American a manifestation as the cowboy.

And even within that, there are different possible facets one could look at. Do we refer to the self-reliant outdoorsman and ranch hand in the literal sense? Or the more iconic, pop culture, swaggering gunslinger Hollywood has given us? For one, the emotional - and thus psychic - timbre would seem to me to be oneness with nature coupled with hope for progress, and an independent, strong capacity for survival and bounty. Whereas the other, at least to me, seems to carry a greater emphasis on the pageantry of shootouts, vengeance, and some degree of artifice given the fictionalized portrayal vs the reality.

With Trump being a New York businessman, it's safe to say he is not literally a manifestation of the outdoor ranch hand cowboy archetype. However, it's fascinating to note that his popularity seems to be highest among these outdoors ranch hand types. It seems the Hollywood swaggering gunslinger cowboy and the cool ranch hand cowboy have somehow merged into a single American cowboy archetype. Watching his debates, it was impossible for me to ignore his similarity to a Hollywood gunslinger cowboy, firing zingers at nearby candidates with no regard for his own safety, and seemingly invincible to the attacks made on him. As you said, he has also demonstrated in his campaign "an independent, strong capacity for survival and bounty."

I agree with the cowboy archetype, but in my mind it's a lot more like Roland the Gunslinger from Stephen King's Dark Tower series of books. Not that Donald is remotely like Roland of Gilead, but the archetype fits.

The definition of "quantum" insists that each individual is a quantum computer! Quantum as a discrete unit - each of us are an indivisible unit of consciousness.

originally posted by: Riffrafter

1 - The Observer effect

If observation itself, rooted in the conscious person, can effect results, then this holds magnificent implications regarding the power of the mind. This also outweighs all material-reductionist viewpoints if mind itself holds such power.

2 - Heisenberg's uncertainty principle

I have experienced this law myself and I think it applies to our conscious lives as well as on the quantum level. Beware of possessing things - this reduces the malleability of the probabilistic waveform of your life and makes your experience more concrete and less open to possibility. I have examples but it is too much for this post.

3 - Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment

Another testament to a mind-based reality rather than a material-based reality. IF the conscious observer is responsible for the collapse of probabilistic waveform, then that means matter is naught without consciousness! Therefore, how could matter have given rise to consciousness as proposed by material-reductionist theories such as evolution?

4 - Collapsing states of probability into what becomes your reality. Closely related to the others above.

Yes. I have had so many "scientists" tell me that the above are more like fancy riddles than fact... Yet when I ask them to point to the evidence of such, they cannot. The conclusions of quantum experiment are unbelievably amazing, especially because they render all material-based theories of origins as obsolete.

Our minds share the traits of these observations on the quantum level, it is imperative that we all start thinking from a deeper perspective of mind rather than the material-reductionist trap. From here we can see the enemy is a mindset of hatred and fear that is preventing the culmination of an ideal humanity

^ Interesting discussions above. Sorry I was distracted by everything else (and health) for a bit.

I think it's safe to say, if anything was a repudiation of the expected and the "business as usual" - if anything was a manifestation of the trickster archetype having awoken from its slumber in our collective psyches, replete with all its defiance of expectation and prediction - last night's election result was it! Regardless of whether one thinks it's a good or a bad thing. Personally, I remain hopeful. For the moment. Clearly some sort of massive change is what our collective consciousness was crying out for imo.

The trickster - if you believe in the concept - generally portends massive changes. Often they are beneficial. Other times (some would say most, but I don't necessarily believe that - a lot of great good has come from massive and unexpected change) chaos results.

I hope the most beneficial kind of change has been chosen, and will thus reserve judgment and not make assumptions one way or the other.

Peace.