The Rise of Fundamentalism and Jihad, the Killings in the Name of God

How can we explain the attacks on American Embassies in North Africa? How could this happen after the strong support the United States gave to these people to get rid of their dictators? To understand the problem, we have to resort to psychology.

A study by Martha Stout published in her book The Sociopath Next Door, claims that 4% of the population is sociopath, defined as one that knows what is right or wrong, but feels no remorse for his acts. He may kill his own mother without feeling regrets, if this act advances his plans. But the distribution of the 4% is not homogeneous in society. In politics, in big business and in prisons, the percentage of sociopaths is much higher.

This explains the psychology of the politicians of Al Qaeda and other similar organizations. They are sociopaths or psychologically unbalanced people, and explore persons who fall for their fundamentalist preaching.

Wikipedia defines Fundamentalism as the demand for a strict adherence to specific theological doctrines.

But how to explain the attitude of the ones that carry the bombs. Are all of them sociopaths? I don't think so. They got under the grip of a charismatic leader and they are prepared to deliver their lives to their causes.

This same phenomenon happened in the Western world before. Remember Reverend Jones and the mass suicide in 1978, or the 75 followers of David Koresh 1993, in Waco, Texas. They were in the grips of a charismatic sociopath leader.

Fundamentalism is thriving all over the world, and can be explained by a sense of despair, worthlessness, that dominate many young people. When you do not believe in the traditional churches, when the old gods abandon their temples, you may resort to cynicism or to fundamentalism. You may accept the new gods - money, fame, power - or you may turn to fundamentalism. Fortunately these are not the only options.

I have nothing against the ones that practice a fundamentalist cult, but cannot accept practices that go to the extreme of killing people. That is what Jihad preaches. I cannot believe that truly religious people would condone such policy and I consider the Jihad preachers to be sociopaths, not religious persons.

We are living in an era when some of the pillars that sustained our lives are crumbling. Modern man is desperately seeking a new footing, a new platform were to stand. Paraphrasing Jung, modern man is in search of a soul.

In 1925, Jung visited the Pueblo Indians, in Southwestern United States. This people defined themselves as Children of the Sun. Their myth holds that to keep the sun moving, they had to pray for the Father Sun. Otherwise, in ten years the sun would no longer illuminate the Earth. The Chief Mountain Lake said, with the conviction of one who is saving the world: "The Americans want to destroy our religion. Why don't they leave us quiet? What we do, we do not only for us, but for them too. We do this for everyone."

Do you believe that the sun would no longer rise if the Pueblos stopped praying for it? It matters little, for the survival of the Pueblos, if you believe it or not. What it does matter is that they do believe. Saving the world was the central motivation in their lives, their reason for living. And what a strong motivation this is!

Edward Edinger, a well-known Jungian psychologist and prolific writer, opens his book, "The Creation of Consciousness", saying: "History and anthropology teach us that human society cannot long survive unless its members are psychologically contained in a central living myth, Such myth provides the individual with a reason for being."

Unfortunately, while we search for a new myth to sustain our civilization, we should expect such weird episodes, like Jihad, to continue.

Dream Interpretation - The Cell Phone in Dreams

You only have to develop your intelligence through dream translation based on the unconscious method in order to completely develop your intelligence. The unconscious mind will help you develop all your psychological functions and acquire total consciousness.

This means that you will be able to use all of your brain power, while now you are not using the biggest part of your brain because it belongs to the wild side of your conscience.

I will give you an example by using two sentences from one of my patients' long dream and my translations.

I cannot give you information about the dreamer, even though this information is necessary if you want to completely understand the meaning of a dream. I can only tell you that the dreamer is mentally ill. He is following dream therapy in order to find sound mental health.

Here is a part of his dream:

'I see 2 cell phones at same time with video and music playing. On one I heard a song of Kanye West and second I saw a video clip of a half naked video girl that is lying down.'

Dream Translation:

'I see 2 cell phones at same time with video and music playing.'

The two cell phones represent two different possibilities at your disposal.

The number two is related to the two psychological functions that are working in your conscience. You have four psychological functions:

Thoughts, feelings, sensations, and intuition.

If you like to think, you belong to a psychological type based on thoughts.

If you always makes your decisions based on the way you feel, this means that you belong to a psychological type based on feelings.

If you always care about having material pleasures, you belong to a psychological type based on sensations.

If you believe you can guess the future and understand incomprehensible things about your reality, this means that you belong to a psychological type based on intuition.

* Think about these definitions and tell me your psychological type.

You also have a basic tendency.

If you care more about your own opinion about everything, this means that you are introverted.

If you care more about the opinion of the world about everything, this means that you are extroverted.

* Think about these definitions and tell me if you are introverted or extroverted.

The two cell phones are two different possibilities, depending on which psychological functions will control your behavior. Only two among these four psychological functions are helping you make your decisions in life.

This means that you don't have a global vision of your reality. This is why you make mistakes.

'On one I heard a song of Kanye West'

One possibility is related to your most developed psychological function and this is why you listen to a song. The song in dreams represents happiness.

This psychological function makes you happy because it is your favorite. So, you tend to prefer the possibility offered to you based on your main psychological function, since it is the most developed in your conscience.

For example, if you are a rational type, your favorite psychological function is based on thoughts, so your thoughts make you happy. This is why you listen to a song.

'and second I saw a video clip of a half naked video girl that is lying down.'

The video in dreams represents what will happen to you in the future.

The girl lying down represents a possible perfect match for you. She could be your perfect match.

The second cell phone is another possibility to do something else, based on another psychological function that is half-developed in your conscience, along with your main psychological function. For example, if you are a rational type, your second half-developed psychological function can be based on your intuition or on your sensations, but never on your feelings because feelings and thoughts are the opposite of one another.

In this part of the dream the unconscious mind is showing you that the possibilities you have in life to do this or that depend on the way you criticize these possibilities, based on one or another psychological function.

In other words, if you could use all your psychological functions at the same time, you would probably have a different opinion and make different decisions because you would have a global vision of your reality. Right now you have only a partial vision based on only two psychological functions.

For example:

The first cell phone represents a possibility based on your main psychological function, which is based on thoughts. This psychological function makes you happy because it is your favorite, most developed psychological function. This is why you listen to a song in the first cell phone. The song represents happiness.

The second cell phone represents a possibility based on your second, half-developed psychological function: your sensations.

This is why you see a half-naked girl. Your second psychological function (sensations) makes you care about having sexual pleasure.

Let's suppose that the problem you have to solve in your life is if you'll have a love relationship or not with a certain girl who is showing you that she likes you.

First of all you'll logically think about this problem. You'll think that it will be good for you to have a girlfriend instead of going everywhere alone, this girlfriend will help you become a better student because she is a good student, and she is good-looking and polite. You'll be admired for having such girlfriend. Therefore, you'll conclude that the best solution to this problem is to have a relationship with this girl who is clearly showing you that she likes you.

You will feel glad with yourself because you'll believe that you are a very intelligent guy and this is why you could find the right solution for this problem. You admire your thoughts because reasoning is your favorite psychological function.

Then, you'll remember your sensations, and you'll try to solve this problem also based on your sensations. You'll conclude that this girl's body is attractive and it will be pleasant to have sexual relationships with her.

You'll feel that you definitively solved this problem in a perfect manner after thinking about it logically, and after taking into consideration the fact that it will give you pleasure (and satisfy your sensations).

However, you forgot to pay attention to your intuition. Did you feel that this girl is your perfect match?

No, because you don't pay attention to your intuition. Your intuition is dead in your conscience. It belongs to your anti-conscience, which is your wild conscience that didn't evolve like your human conscience, and generates mental illnesses within your conscience. The wild part of yourself possesses your intuition.

If your intuition was working in your conscience, you would understand that this girl is not the ideal girl for you. You would understand that you don't feel connected to her. You don't feel that she is a part of yourself. Therefore, she is not the ideal woman for you. She won't make you happy.

You also didn't pay attention to your feelings. You forgot the most important of all in a relationship: love. You don't love this girl. You simply like her.

If you'll have a relationship with her, you'll become angry with her because she will have many defects that will be against what you can tolerate based on your psychological type. If you'll insist on having this relationship, you'll become always more angry and sad, and in the end you can even be violent with this girl.

You'll come to the point of hating her. You'll hate her because you'll feel that you are wasting your time with her instead of being happy with the woman you love.

So, your brilliant conclusion based on your thoughts and on your sensations didn't help you find out the entire truth about your reality. You decided to have a relationship with this girl without taking into consideration your feelings and your intuition.

This is what the unconscious mind was showing you. You must learn how to pay attention to everything before being so sure that you really made the right decision in life. The unconscious mind will help you develop the psychological functions that are dead in your conscience and acquire total consciousness.