Date | March 26, 2023
Time | 11:15 am - 12:15 pm
Location | Shalom Hall
Speaker | Dr. Doug Tyler, Psychologist and Jungian Analyst 

If you are 40 or over, you have witnessed the emergence of a wave of technology that has no precedence in human history, in terms of its accessibility and power to infiltrate human lives on a moment-to-moment basis.

Yes, there have been other eras of technological development that have had a major impact on the way we live our lives, especially since the turn of the 20th century. The widespread use of telephones, autos, airplanes, radio, television, automation in industry, computers, nuclear power and highly advanced weapons systems have all had an extraordinary impact on the way we communicate and live our lives as individuals and as nations.

But with the onset of the Internet and super-powerful computers in the form of devices that nearly everyone uses, we find ourselves with capabilities that those who lived a mere 25 years ago could scarcely have imagined. Many of these capabilities do make our lives easier and sometimes more interesting, but at what cost?

Carl Jung, a visionary and one of the primary founders of modern depth psychology, wrote this about the acceleration of technology: “The tempo of the development of consciousness through science and technology was too rapid and left the unconscious, which could no longer keep up with it, far behind, therefore forcing it into a defensive position which expresses itself in a universal will to destruction.” Jung presciently wrote this in 1934.

Another way of putting it is that our pervasive and invasive technology is coming at the cost of our spiritual and psychological health and growth. Many of those graduating from high school today have an impaired ability to connect with themselves, their peers and adults in ways that previous generations did not. At any age, when we routinely move at such a fast pace, we have little time to process our day-to-day living and to deepen the relationships in our lives. This also includes the relationship to our own inner life--and when our inner lives are neglected and diminished, so too our outer lives will follow. Must we always march to the numbing drumbeat of technology?

Join us as we welcome Knoxville Jungian Analyst Doug Tyler to our congregation for a special presentation to discuss these and other aspects of technology and how we can better manage our relationship to it. Bring your practical and symbolic questions and comments as we discuss ways to more effectively mitigate the harmful impacts of technology and put ourselves back in the driver’s seat of our lives.

Want to know more? Contact Bruce Elliott.