The Media-Sphere as Dream

The psychological nature of the electronic media environment is a virtual reality that—according to Jungian principles—is dreamlike. Perhaps it can be analyzed with Jung's Analytical Psychology. Science is experiencing a paradigm shift into a reality of mediated illusion, and psychological research on this illusion has become the human imperative. It may be stipulated that physics has abolished matter, conceding that “reality is organized mind stuff.” If cosmos is structured holographically and the brain is structured holonomically, it is probable that “mind stuff” is structured holographically. The Jungian concept of Psyche is a good place to begin researching the Media-sphere as mind stuff. Cognitive sciences are probing the brain and nervous system in search of the template for cognitive organization, and the salient features have already emerged. It appears that both conscious and unconsciousness cognitive dimensions have dramatic form. This dreamlike structure can be employed to analyze the media dream, and to foster coherent psychological states in contextual collectives.

Jungian Reflections on South African Cinema

This chapter explores how, in the aftermath of apartheid, Oliver Hermanus' film Skoonheid (2011) can serve as a healing fiction by inviting an engagement with present and past political and personal conflicts and resisting a type of cultural amnesia. In particular, this chapter draws on Jungian film studies to explore key scenes in Skoonheid that demonstrate the effects of a frustrated individuation process that nonetheless offers possibilities for the viewer to consider ways of healing. To position Skoonheid as healing fiction, the chapter utilises the work of James Hillman, amongst others, to conceptualise notions of healing. The chapter also locates the film against the historical backdrop of an Afrikaans-language cinema that traditionally privileged an inflexible white male subjectivity. In contrast, Skoonheid shows the Afrikaans-speaking white male as inhabiting a space of perceived disempowerment and loss, where the soul should still strive towards meaningful acts within a collective, within a community.

Virtual Psyche in Play and Tending the Collective Unconscious

Knowingly or unknowingly, games manifest archetypal forces from the unconscious. Through play and fantasy, unconscious content of the psyche is able to express its deep longings. Hypnogogic landscapes of videogames provide immersive realms in which players enact psychological dramas. Game designers reside on a unique axis from which their work with the imaginary realm can create profound psychic containers. At this pivotal point in our culture, digital games hold tremendous influence over the creation of new myths, lore, and possibilities. This chapter investigates archetypal psychology concepts of Carl Jung and James Hillman for insight into 21st century realm of virtual play and its relationship to the collective unconscious. It focuses on how games provide a means for bringing individual and cultural unconscious impulses into consciousness through personification, pathologizing and meaning making within virtual play. It aims to introduce an alternative lens to bridge psychological dynamics with the video game design.

Synchronous Physiological Electrical Fields

Humans utilize sensory and motor systems developed genetically, physically and socially for interfacing with our external environment. We use these same systems to interface in our interactions with artificial intelligence. There are other functioning central nervous system (CNS) systems, however, involved in cognitive processing for which the function and environmental interface is less clear. The synchronous physiologic electrical field system utilizes broadcast extracellular electrical fields for a wide variety of CNS functions. The operations of this system are usually non-conscious and most apparent during sleep (especially the conscious states of sleep that include dreaming), and un-focused waking. The electrical fields of this system are altered and affected by both internal and external stimuli. These fields can be monitored and analyzed by artificial intelligence (AI) systems, and independently of human input, AI systems can utilize similar frequency based electrical potentials to convey data, communicate, supply power, and to store memory. From both human and AI perspectives, these systems have the potential to function more fully in human/machine interaction. This chapter reviews our current knowledge as to function, current interactive approaches, and interface potential for these physiological electrical fields.

Exploring Dimensions of the Media Dream

The earth's magnetic fields are carriers of biologically relevant information that connects all living systems. The electromagnetic coupling of the human brain, cardiovascular and nervous systems, and geomagnetic frequencies supports the hypothesis that the mediated reality of electromagnetic bandwidths can be correlated with bio-energetic and geomagnetic frequencies. Understood as bio-energetic functions (Thinking, Feeling, Sensing, & Intuiting), the media-sphere becomes measurable according to principles of coherency (measured as heart-rate variability, HRV) and principles of Jungian dream analysis (compensation and dramatic structure). It has been demonstrated that the rhythmic patterns in beat-to-beat heart rate variability reflect emotional functions, permeate every bodily cell, and play a central role in the generation and transmission of system-wide information via the electromagnetic field. So, the “media dream” becomes susceptible to psychological analysis leading to a better understanding of unconscious cognitive archetypal patterns of contextual collectives.

Vision Quest

One source for consideration in the quest to develop media that are truly educational and therapeutic is to examine activities that rely on a high and prolonged sense of physical and psychological coherence. The concept of sense of coherence can be broadly defined as a view of life that allows people “to consider their external and internal resources, to identify and mobilize them, to promote effective coping by finding solutions, and to resolve tension in a health-promoting manner” (Mayer and Thiel, 2014, p.1), and is related to Jung's transcendent function—the removal of the separation between the conscious and unconscious mind (as cited in Campbell, p. 273). Paradoxically, enough, such an examination might profitably be directed toward activities such as extreme sports that, on their surface, appear to be primarily physical in nature.

Breaking the Frame of Digital, Dream, and Waking Realities

Just as our dreaming reality is constructed, our waking reality may also be constructed. While our waking reality influences our lives the most, other constructed realities also have impact. Yet, never before has such a large part of the population been so widely affected by another constructed reality beyond dreaming; specifically, our technologically constructed digital reality through video game play. One potential consequence of video game play is breaking the illusion or ‘frame' of our dreams as reality through various dream experiences. Many of the world's wisdom traditions believe that waking reality is an illusion, and now this idea is supported by modern digital physics. While being aware of the illusory nature of waking reality is difficult, it may be easier to break the framework of perception or ‘wake up' to the true nature of reality in alternative realities, such as digital and dreaming. This chapter will review the evidence collected in the video game and dream laboratory to explore how video game play is breaking the frame within dreaming realities.

The Group Hero

The Group Hero is an emerging archetype of the Hero story that differs from lone hero stories in five specific ways. These are: 1) Heroism is about participation in the larger cause, 2) Heroism is team based, 3) Each team member is different and everyone's contributions are important, 4) The cause takes precedence over personality conflicts, and 5) Leadership is dynamic and team based. Using mass media examples of movies, comic books, and MMO games, this chapter explores each of these themes and how they differ from the presentation of heroism in more traditional lone hero stories. The Group Hero archetype template is then applied to the problem of school bullying, and the chapter ends by challenging digital storytellers of all kinds to apply the Group Hero archetype in new and creative ways to effect positive social changes.

The Dream Analog

Increasingly, human perceptions of reality are based on virtual illusions. This altered reality called the metaverse is dreamlike. If reality, the metaverse, and dreams are virtual illusions, the metaverse and dreams are real. This suggests that virtual realities may be analyzed according to Carl Jung's compensational dynamics of dream analysis. The objective of such analysis would be discovery of contextual (target group) meaning in unconscious dimensions. Such discovery could lead to the use of mediated biofeedback to engineer Earth-sustainable media content in order to promote coherent frequencies on correlated electro-magnetic scales. This chapter will emphasize the authenticity of research on the collective unconscious as projected into the metaverse. Based on fundamental correlations in structure, function, and purpose of dreams as defined by Carl Jung, drama-based video games can be understood as a genre that may serve as an unprecedented, interactive dream analog for purposes of cognitive research.

The Collective Unconscious as Culprit

This chapter shows the attempt to use narrative projections of the unconscious in video games (and film) for transgressing into a virtual world. It demonstrates the conceptual development from C.G. Jung's theories via Joseph Campbell and Hollywood's screenwriters to Video Game mythologies. It shows that a visual approach by game artists often leads to stereotypical implementation of archetypes and archeplot in video games that illustrates a lack of reflection and flexibility of mind and creativity. It further shows that a conscious implementation of individual patterns and archetypes as seen in Adventure Games and recent Indie Games may obtain narrative depth for a game and contribute to exploring the collective unconscious in new media. Gaming is rapidly changing and aims towards the ideal of a Holodeck. New Virtual Reality experiments and gadgets prepare the ground for new ways to engage in imagined (conscious and unconscious) realities. The chapter concludes with an example of an attempt to build a virtual dream world with the project Birdly (2014) and Oculus Rift.