Hello, and Welcome
…
My name is Joe Shirley, and I am here to share with you my reports from a scientific expedition into an uncharted territory of inner, subjective experience. This is not the ordinary exploration of thoughts, emotions, memories and the like. Instead, this is an expedition into what I have come to understand as a field dimension of consciousness that underlies the ordinary phenomena with which we are most familiar.
Introducing the Possibility for a New Science of Subjective Experience
My primary innovation is the development of a method by which we gain the ability to observe this field dimension, with reliability and precision, with descriptors that can be easily shared among diverse people. This ability to observe also conveniently gives us the ability to interact directly with these fields, changing them at will. The combined capacity for both precise observation and intentional manipulation opens a new door to a true science of subjective experience.
In pursuing this science over the past 30 years, I have discovered that this field dimension is the foundation upon which our ordinary consciousness is constructed. It is the DNA to the lineage of our minds, the molecular structure to the chemistry of our inner selves, the gravity that keeps our ordinary consciousness in steady orbit (or not). This field dimension organizes itself into an elegant modular structure that gives rise to all conscious experience. This structure is the “topology” in the name of the new science I am proposing: psychotopology.
In the Science section of this publication, I will be giving you all the tools and maps I have constructed. I invite you to conduct your own expeditions to confirm or revise my discoveries. And most importantly, if you are called in this direction, or if this is in alignment with your existing vocation, I invite you to become part of the community I will be establishing around this work. Let us further strengthen and extend these investigations together. Psychotopology will not be a legitimate science until there is a community of rigorous practitioners, and the opportunity here is for you to become one of the early pioneers.
Helping Ourselves…
When we learn to work directly with the topology of our selves, we gain unprecedented freedom and agency in navigating and transforming the architecture of our being. For example, in applying psychotopology to managing common mental health issues like anxiety or depression, diagnostic labels fade to the background as we directly enter the real territory of our inner stress and reconfigure our recurrent patterns of suffering into beautiful structures of thriving.
In the Practice section of this publication, I will teach you how to do this. Over a series of many posts in the coming months, I will introduce the practice of psychotopology fieldwork. Engage the practices, and you will learn how to work with these fields within yourself, along with how to apply these skills to supporting others in doing so.
But I must also warn you there will be challenges. Entering this new territory will change your experience of yourself, and your current ideas and identities may find it difficult to sustain themselves. In addition, you will discover that your interior is far more vast than you are likely to have been taught, and that it may very well carry a great deal of embedded pain, perhaps more than you can imagine. Here be dragons.
This is the consequence of living in a culture that overrides our inborn, interior wisdom in favor of externalizable rational reasoning, rules and principles. If you succeed in digging deep enough to find unexpected darkness you didn’t know was there, it means you are using the tools I have given you well. These are the same tools with which you will be able to transform this pain within yourself. But facing all of this does require a willingness to tolerate massive discomfort from time to time as you work through it all. If you are up for that, the rewards can be extremely satisfying.
…And One Another
The opportunities and risks in doing this inner work represent another strong reason for you to become part of the psychotopology community. Overall, our focus will be first and foremost on practice. It is much easier to engage this practice with the support of a facilitator, enabling you to fully commit to the exploration of your inner territory while your guide manages the structure and documentation of your inquiry.
Through practice, we will support one another in freeing ourselves from cultural and experiential limitations. This will enable us to engage more confidently and effectively in collaboration on larger questions of the science and its many possible applications.
I believe that what I have discovered has the potential to change a lot of things for the better about how we collectively think about and interact with ourselves and one another. If we join together in this effort, I believe we may be able to make a crucial difference in how we humans are inhabiting our humanity, opening up the possibility of thriving for the entire planet. This is the project to which I have devoted my life, and I look forward to sharing its gifts and responsibilities with you over the coming years.
~ December 30, 2024
What’s Coming
Articles on the science of psychotopology
Articles on the practice of psychotopology fieldwork
Reflections on my discoveries and their implications
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I am so looking forward to this journey of inquiry and exploration with you. Let’s do this thing!
