Exploring the City of the Mind, Part I
What if you could navigate your psychological landscape as easily as your hometown? Discover how altering the architecture of your inner world can transform your entire life experience.
This is the first of a three-part series. Links to part two and three.
Exploring the City of the Mind1
When I was in my mid-teens, living in Miami, I remember riding shotgun with my best friend—who had just gotten his driver's license—through the familiar streets of our neighborhood. During one of those rides, a thought struck me, and I turned to him and asked, 'Do you ever think about how this grid, the very layout of our city, shapes the way we think and defines who we are?' He shrugged, maybe a bit dismissive, but the idea had taken root in my mind.
By that age, I had already called several different cities home, each nestled in a distinct corner of the world—from the vibrant streets of Accra to the bustling avenues of Tehran, the wintry depths of Moscow, with its wide boulevards, historical architecture, and vast public squares, to the lively beaches and joyous energy of Rio de Janeiro. Each place had its unique architecture, culture, music, food, and lifestyle that left a mark on me. It wasn't just about the change in scenery; each city reshaped my thoughts and perceptions in profound ways.
This realization has stayed with me: our environments deeply influence our mental landscapes, and I have come to know that this influence is not a one-way street. Just as the cities we live in mold us, our inner worlds help sculpt the external environments around us. The outer reality we experience is a projection of our inner world.
This interplay between the inner and outer world is what I want to explore with you today.
Let’s dive in deeper and walk together on a journey through the landscape of the mind.
In our daily lives, we navigate terrains of emotion, desire, and duty, often without recognizing how these are carved out by the internal worlds we have built. Our mental landscapes are shaped by deep-seated beliefs, patterns of thought, and subconscious archetypes, influencing our interactions with the world around us. I invite you to view these internal landscapes as a city, with its walls, buildings, gardens, pathways, and more, each element reflecting different aspects of our psychological makeup.2
Now, as we stand at the gates of this metaphorical internal city, let's consider: How often do we wander its streets unaware of its architecture? Are we merely inhabitants, or are we also architects, actively designing the space within which we live our lives?
Strolling along these inner streets, we might discover not just more about ourselves but also how we can reshape our inner landscape to enhance our journey through life.3
A Stroll Through the City of the Mind4
Imagine your mind as a vast, intricate metropolis where every building, street, and shadowed alley represents a facet of your psyche. This 'Architectural / City Planning Schema' serves as a metaphor to explore how our internal world is constructed and organized. Just like a city planner must understand the flow of traffic, the necessity of different zones, and the importance of public spaces, we too can benefit from understanding the layout and structure of our mental landscapes.
This schema allows us to visualize and navigate the various components of our psyche—identifying which parts of our city need renovation, which are flourishing, and which might be neglected or underdeveloped:
Walls (Protectors and Barriers): In our mental city, walls serve both to protect us and to set boundaries that can sometimes restrict. These walls can be thought of as the limits we place around our emotional well-being or the barriers we erect against harmful influences. However, just like the walls of a city, they can also isolate us from new experiences and opportunities. Reflecting on why we built these walls and considering if they still serve us or need modification is key to personal growth and freedom. How permanent are these walls and fences, and how easily can we move them or break them down? When and where do we need to build new ones?
Buildings (Core Beliefs and Identity Structures): Buildings in our mental landscape represent core beliefs and the identity structures that arise from them. These are the foundations upon which we build our lives—our values, our norms, and our self-concept. Over time, these buildings may need renovation or remodeling as we grow and our perspectives change. Examining these structures closely reveals how they support our daily decisions and interactions, and whether they facilitate a life that truly reflects who we are. Take, for example, the evolution of airport terminals at Madrid’s Barajas airport. The original terminals, products of 1970s design principles, starkly contrast with the modern marvel that is Terminal 4. This latest terminal reflects the advanced thinking and design philosophies of modern and even post-modern architects, providing a visible, tangible example of how our external creations mirror the development within our collective internal world. Architecture and cities do more than merely mirror our current internal realities; they embody our individual and collective choices and aspirations about where and how we want to live. The design evolution seen in modern airports is not merely incidental; it is a deliberate manifestation of our evolving consciousness, directly influenced by our expanding design principles.
Spiritual Entities (Guiding Forces): Spiritual entities within our internal cityscape act as lighthouses, streetlamps, or guiding stars, illuminating our paths and providing direction. Whether these are religious beliefs, deeply held values, or personal mantras, they help navigate the often-tumultuous waters of life. We may encounter these guiding forces externally through art or internally through dreams and visions. Their presence offers comfort during dark times and inspiration to reach higher ground. When we perceive these entities in the world around us, they are not just external projections; they are manifestations of our internal archetypes, actively guiding us on our journey.
Emotional Landscapes (Climate and Weather): The emotional climate of our city can vary from the sunny, open fields of joy to the stormy, rugged terrains of distress. Just like weather affects the daily life of a city, our emotional state influences our productivity, our interactions, and our well-being. Recognizing and managing our emotional climate is crucial for maintaining harmony and resilience. Have you ever noticed a correlation between the external weather and your internal state? While it may seem coincidental, phenomena like synchronicity suggest that our inner experiences might resonate with or even influence our perception of the external environment. This raises intriguing questions about the interplay between our emotions and the world around us—are we simply more attuned to certain weather patterns when they match our mood, or could there be a deeper, perhaps unconscious, connection at play?
Gardens (Growth and Change): Gardens represent the more personal, cultivated areas of our mental landscape. Here, we plant seeds of new ideas, nurture personal growth, and prune habits that no longer serve us. These gardens require regular care to thrive, reflecting our commitment to personal development and continuous learning. When you visit a park for a leisurely stroll or recreation, aren't you also giving your consciousness a space to revel in freedom, fun, and relaxation?
Roads and Pathways (Decision Pathways): Roads and pathways in our mental city symbolize the decision-making routes we follow. Some roads are well-trodden, leading to familiar places—perhaps too familiar. Others are less traveled, offering new experiences and insights. Conscious navigation and sometimes choosing different paths can lead to significant discoveries about ourselves and the world. Occasionally, we find ourselves on collective transportation—buses and trains following predetermined tracks with set stops, representing societal norms and expectations that guide much of our journey. Reflecting on the modes of transportation in my dreams often reveals insightful patterns; whether I'm riding a bicycle, motorcycle, car, or aboard a bus or train, each mode interestingly corresponds to different levels of autonomy and the extent of self-determination in my life.
Public Squares (Social Interaction Spaces): Public squares are the social hubs of our city, places where ideas and energies converge. These spaces are shaped by and shape our social interactions, reflecting the personas we present to the world. Nurturing healthy social spaces in our mental landscape is essential for building supportive networks and enriching community ties. Consider who enters your field of perception, whether in waking life or dreams, and reflect on how you present yourself to them. How does your persona shift based on the context and situation?
Ruins (Past Traumas or Failures): Every city has its ruins, reminders of past battles, failures, or lost eras. In our minds, these ruins can be painful memories or traumas that still cast shadows over present landscapes. Confronting these ruins, understanding them, and learning from them can help us rebuild stronger structures in their place.
Shadow Districts (Repressed and Unacknowledged Aspects): In the mental cityscape, shadow districts represent areas that are less frequented or acknowledged by the city's inhabitants. These might include narrow alleys, underground tunnels, or derelict buildings that house repressed emotions like anger or fear, and unexpressed potentials such as creativity or vulnerability. These districts are often obscured by fog or cast in shadows, making them difficult to navigate. However, exploring these areas can be crucial for personal growth and integration, as they hold key insights into our fears, desires, and untapped strengths.
Battlegrounds (Conflict and War): Certain zones within the city might periodically become battlegrounds, where conflicts—internal or external—are fought. These areas might emerge in response to personal conflicts or societal issues, reflecting collective struggles. While often destructive, these battlegrounds are also areas of intense energy and transformation. Recognizing and understanding the conflicts played out here can lead to resolution and healing.
Monuments of Resilience (Overcome Challenges and Triumphs): In contrast to the ruins, which represent past traumas, monuments in the city are erected to commemorate victories over personal challenges or to honor repressed aspects that have been successfully integrated. These monuments serve as reminders of resilience and growth. They inspire and motivate the city's inhabitants, reminding them of their capacity to overcome adversity and embrace their full potential.
Gardens of Reconciliation (Healing and Integration): These special gardens are dedicated to the cultivation of understanding and healing, particularly focusing on aspects of the golden shadow. They are lush, vibrant areas where one can engage with creativity, vulnerability, and love in a safe and nurturing environment. Gardens of Reconciliation are therapeutic spaces where individuals can learn to accept and express parts of themselves that were previously hidden or undervalued.
These are some of the main components of cities, and of internal and external environments. We could get more granular by adding more specific elements, each with their own archetypal meanings, like bridges, underground tube stations, and of course our own homes, and so on. In addition to collective archetypal meanings, each of these will have more specific individual archetypal significance, particularly our own living and working spaces.
Thank you for reading — this series continues in part two.
Note: Existential Meta-Psychology, the subject of this blog post, combines existentialism, phenomenology, and Jungian psychology into a holistic view of human consciousness and reality. Existential meta-psychology explores the dynamic interplay between our inner experiences and external realities, illustrating how deeply our subconscious constructions affect our day-to-day lives.5
Foreword to this series on ‘Existential Meta-Psychology’
Welcome to a journey that traverses the realms of philosophy, reality, and consciousness. Before we delve into the thread of ideas that form the basis of this series, I’d like to share a bit of context and a gentle disclaimer: the discussions here are part of a broader thought experiment. They are born from deep intellectual and experiential explorations, meant to provoke thought rather than dictate truths.
My philosophical voyage has been profoundly shaped by my engagement with nondualism, a perspective that transcends the conventional dualities of existence and non-existence, mind and matter. This journey has shifted my worldview from materialism—the belief that physical matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all phenomena, including mental phenomena and consciousness, are results of material interactions—to idealism. Idealism is a philosophy that asserts reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial.
This series is an invitation to open your mind, question deeply, and perhaps see the world anew. It is a thought experiment, one where ideas are the playground and our minds the laboratory. Let’s explore these landscapes together, with curiosity and openness.
Intriguingly, the cities we inhabit and the cityscapes within our minds reflect each other in profound ways, suggesting a symbiotic relationship that transcends mere metaphor. The architecture of our cities—its design, its chaos, its order—mirrors the complex architecture of our internal landscapes. As we have shaped our external environments through urban planning, architecture, and technology, these environments have, in turn, shaped us, influencing our thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. This interplay forms a continuous loop, where it becomes challenging to discern whether our mental landscape influences our external world more, or vice versa. Over time, this dynamic interaction creates a co-evolution of our internal and external worlds. Just as a city evolves through its phases of growth, decline, and regeneration, our minds too adapt and transform in response to external pressures and internal reflections. Recognizing this parallel allows us to understand that by consciously shaping one, we can effect change in the other, thereby harnessing a powerful mechanism for personal and societal transformation.
These philosophical and psychological perspectives describe the mutuality and correspondence between our inner world and outer environment:
Philosophical Idealism: Philosophers like George Berkeley asserted that the material world is dependent on the perceptions of those who perceive it. In this view, reality is shaped by our perceptions, thoughts, and consciousness.
Jungian Psychology: Carl Jung's concept of synchronicity and the collective unconscious also suggests a world where internal and external realities are interconnected. Jung proposed that there are meaningful coincidences that occur, which reflect this deep connection between the psyche and the external world.
Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness: More recent theories in quantum mechanics and the study of consciousness also suggest that the observer plays a significant role in shaping the reality they observe, which hints at a boundary-blurring relationship between the internal states of consciousness and the external physical world.
Spiritual and Mystical Traditions: Many spiritual and mystical traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and mystical branches of Christianity and Islam, teach that the external world is a reflection of an internal spiritual reality. These traditions often discuss the hermetic principles of mentalism and correspondence, "As within, so without," suggesting that personal inner work can manifest in external reality.
The schemas act as blueprints, illustrating the seamless relationship and correspondence between our internal world and external environments. I refer to this concept as 'existential meta-psychology.' This term defines the exploration of the dynamic interplay between our inner experiences and external realities, highlighting how our subconscious constructions profoundly influence our day-to-day lives. Importantly, while the map is not the terrain, in existential meta-psychology, we recognize that our consciousness does not merely navigate the symbolic map of our thoughts and beliefs but simultaneously traverses the actual terrain of our lived experiences. This dual navigation underscores the profound impact of our internal landscapes on our interaction with the world around us.
Literature for Further Exploration:
“Re-Visioning Psychology” by James Hillman delves into the imaginative and mythical aspects of psychology.
“Integral Psychology” by Ken Wilber provides a comprehensive map of human consciousness incorporating psychological, spiritual, and philosophical insights.
“Being and Time” by Martin Heidegger explores concepts of being that deepen your understanding of how internal realities influence external ones.