Discussion meetup – Alice in Wonderland

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Alice in Wonderland

Buddhist Psycho Meeting
Wednesday May 13
12:30-3:00pm

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Overview:

Psychologists, Buddhists and meditators (and anyone else interested) are invited to join the Alice in Wonderland discussion.

• 12:30-3:00pm at ‘Apartments’ Meditation Studio, Ekkamai
• There is no charge and no need to book.

‘Buddhist Psychos’ was started by the late Dr Holly Dugan, a clinical psychologist, for discussions on Buddhism, psychology, and any other thing we felt like. This is a totally informal group, and we do not profess to be experts!

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The Topic:

Continuing the tradition for artful cappuccino discussions relating to Buddhism and Psychology (or any other topic we fancy) all ‘Buddhist Psychos’ are invited to meet, and trade ideas on the all time classic book Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Caroll was ‘famed for his works of nonesense‘ – but was it all just silliness? Many of the experiences related actually make a lot of sense to a meditator. Or were they experiences from opium? 

“Carroll’s books are a sort of compendium of the types of spiritual experiences you may get and the mechanisms that Lewis Carroll knew to obtain them, as well as being a sort of glossary of symbolism.” 

Carroll the mystic? link here         

• For instance, if you know how to stop still in present moment, you will be able to relate to the trip down the rabbit hole – that feeling of crashing through time, but with a melancholy stillness where you can pick things up and examine them as empty (the jars on the way down the hole).
• Or if you have even been mindful while laughing – you notice the humour fading long before the smile goes. This is the Cheshire Cat in actual experience.

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  Where is your head?

• Have you ever taken careful note of your actual visual experience? Your head is missing!! So you know where the “off with his head” line comes from.
• Feeling giant or feeling tiny? Both experiences in meditation that arise from time to time. In fact you can get so tiny that you wind up “going out altogether, like a candle”
  (it can also be a symptom of ‘migrane with aura’, which Caroll suffered)

The book is packed full of insights, meditative experiences and wisdom – all bound in a narrative of silliness. Wonderful indeed! No wonder it has endured for so long.

“All seems to point to the existence of a natural force, …, by which brain can act on brain.  I think we are close on the day when this shall be classed among the known natural forces, and its lands tabulated, and when the scientific sceptics –  who always shut their eyes till the last moment to any evidence that seems to point beyond materialism –  will have to accept it as a proved fact in nature”.

Lewis Carroll

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Homework:

Don’t rely on your faded childhood memory! Download and read the book! You can get it at the highly recommended Many Books website, free of charge here. (It’s a great resource for open source books)

(We will not be discussing the sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass – we’ll save that one for another time.)

There is lots of background to the book on Wikipedia here.

You may even find some interesting background notes, such as Carroll’s belief (and experience of?) shared consciousness, which we also meet with in Alice.

If you find any interesting links or information, post it up in the comments below.

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‘APARTMENTS’ Meditation Centre

The center is a 4 minute walk from Ekkamai BTS Station.

Enter Ekkamai (Sukhumvit Soi 63). Turn left into the second soi (lane). Bourbon street restaurant is on the corner. We’re the third building on the right, in the ‘APARTMENTS‘ building. Go up to the top floor. See the excellent map – it is very precise!