Psyphology

Psyphology was invented in 1980 by John Voris of Authentic-Systems, as a result of establishing a dialectic relationship between psychology and philosophy. Psyphology became a third and independent discipline, generating its own principals of human behavior into viable models that has been taught since the early 1990's. 

Psyphology offers a dramatic paradigm shift with regards to the understanding of human behavior through the radical technique of symbolic interpretation. This was made possible through his discovery of the Universal Human Motivation Archetypes. This revolutionary concept has become the closest to "mind reading" available and has been taught to hundreds of people from sales representatives to counselors, consultants and advisors. Psyphology can also enjoy over 30 years of field validation followed by 10 years of supporting academic research and development.

Psyphology

Psyphology: psy·phol·o·gy (pronounced sahy-fol-uh-jee) is a term coined in 1980 by John W. Voris. It is the result of utilizing both Psychology and Philosophy linking the “physical” to “abstract” to generate a third self-validating system. This system explains human motivation and individual purpose that resides beyond personality. Psyphology is the backbone of Authentic Systems.

For centuries philosophers have debated whether reality and truth were based on the physical world of matter (known as materialism), or the abstract world of ideas (known as idealism). One side focused on the human subject as thought and the other focused on the external object as the ultimate source of reality.

For Soren Kierkegaard, (1813-1855) the father of Existentialism, truth could only exist as an individual produced it in action in the relationship between the physical and abstract. He protested against the idealists in believing that reality was in thought only but he also rejected the Western view that humans were robotic objects governed by instinct and brain function. He viewed people as thinking, living beings expressing their existence. The crucial issue for Kierkegaard was: how we become an individual?

Kierkegaard came up with a revolutionary solution bringing the two (objective and subjective) together. Truth he suggested occurs in the expressed relationship between the object and subject as a third component. Rollo May noted in his book “Existence, a New Dimension in Psychology (1960) that the cancer of the Western view of psychology is the object-subject split. According to Kierkegaard, truth lies beyond physical external objects and the individual subject. That is, the meaning for the person of the objective fact depends on how he relates to it: there is no existential truth that can omit this relationship. Truth and reality can only be experienced as a subjective interpretation. Objective reality occurs only through agreement. No truth has reality alone but depends on how the observer relates to it.

Kierkegaard’s second contribution to truth is found in the necessity of commitment or conforming behavior. Truth aligns with reality only upon the action delivered by the subject’s conscious involvement. That is, theoretical questions can only produce hypothetical answers to illusory events. If asked, “What car entices you the most?” And I said, “A Bentley.” This answer reveals nothing of reality. Theoretically, if you could purchase any car you wanted, inferring an illusory event, hypothetically what would it be? If asked,” What car do you own,” we have escaped theory, illusion and hypothetical jargon, and landed where the “rubber meets the road.” What decision did you in fact make. This approach separates Psyphology from both the currently popular Experimental Psychology by exploring the philosophical motivation behind a physically based case study, and Philosophy by applying psychological Archetypes to capture behavior found in Experimental Psychology

While we are motivated by causes too numerous to identify, through reductive methods we find they are accumulated and captured by very manageable Universal Archetypes. These Archetypes encapsulates all cultures, religions and political systems even throughout history.

We use the objects around us as modes through which we need to express and form our identity. If these objects are destroyed, we replace them this with new objects. Objects we collect are on various levels extensions of who we are causing a sense and feeling of attachment real attachment. This is witnessed in the wake of a natural disaster such as the flooding from the storm Katrina. People, who lost all of their possessions, were found crying on their rooftop and in the streets. Tornadoes that destroyed homes and towns leaving total devastation bring great sorrow and distress to its citizens even though no one was severely injured. However in such cases, they are able to find a way to rebuild with new objects and begin to find comfort in being surrounded with objects of similar meaning and finding a new way to express their purpose.

The objects we surround ourselves with reflect our physical changes through life and at the same time manifest our abstract inner and unchanging selves. Carl Jung said objects evoke meaning. We daily think through objects and bond with those that best reflect who we are and want to be. They also remind us of the past and provoke imaginings of our future. Psyphology brings Western and Eastern views together creating a third unified approach, where empiricism is shown to have a symbiotic relationship with our abstract human condition found through the act of choosing. Psyphology studies these acts of choosing and places them into clusters of meaning, revealing the true motivation of anyone.

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Difference Between Emotions and Feelings

JULY 3, 2009 BY JOHN VORIS 168 COMMENTS

Emotions and feelings are often spoken of as being one and the same, and it’s easy to get them mixed up and confused. Although related, there is a difference between emotions and feelings, and they both serve us in their own unique way.

So, why should you be concerned with the difference between emotions and feelings anyway? Because the way you behave in this world, is the end result of your feelings and emotions. Learning the difference can provide you with a better understanding of not only yourself,  but of the people around you.

What are Emotions?

According to both Carl Jung and Social Anthropologist Abner Cohen, objects draw and invoke emotions. This is a natural phenomenon, and is essential for human survival. When you encounter an unknown, you may have a range of sensations such as: curiosity or fear. When you give that unknown a name, it becomes a significant symbol of meaning.

It is through this process that emotions become attached to every object in the universe. When some object is given a name, it not only becomes a “thing”, it also becomes something of “meaning”. On a daily basis these emotions can be as subtle as: “like”, “dislike” or “ambivalence” (even a state of ambivalence is nevertheless a state of meaning). Therefore, to put it simply:Nothing, is ever meaningless.

Emotions deliver the abstract, metaphysical idea or message: “The external world (beyond your body) matters”. Art is a solid example of this. A work of art represents the artist’s own emotional perspective of life. What the artist values in life, and the choices they made are the results of his or her likes/dislikes and the emotions attached to them.

Your sense of life is an emotional form, in which your world experience finds value, your reason for existence and defines your relationship with other things that exists. Emotions are an abstract, metaphysical state of mind; they are essential impressions of the world, and your relationship with it. Emotions establish your attitude toward reality, and provides your drive for all of life’s pleasures.

Additionally, these emotions are connected to your biological systems, and are designed to alert you of danger, or to draw you to something pleasurable. If you did not possess emotions, you would carelessly walk right up to a lion in the Savanna wilderness. If starving, you would not have the motivation needed to climb a tree, and pick it’s fruit to eat.

Protection of Body Identity Through Emotion.

To illustrate this principle, let’s use the encounter with a lion in the Savanna wilderness.

1. Awareness. You must first be aware of an object’s presence. Your awareness of the lion is an emotional eliciting stimulus.
2. Body Change. These changes are in the form of innate body signals. In this example it is fight or flight. Adrenaline begins coursing throughout the bloodstream, your muscles are ready for action. Your heart rate and breathing also increases.
3. Interpretation. You must interpret the correct reaction in order to preserve your identity. Based upon all the available information in your surroundings, as well as any previous learned knowledge or skill, will you take flight, or will you stay and fight?
4. Action. Now you execute your decision.

Change of Context, Change of Emotion.

Imagine the same scenario except now, you are in the zoo, and there are bars between you and the lion. Your sensations may range anywhere from curiosity, to appreciation or admiration over the beauty of the animal. More than likely, fear would not be present. Your new awareness now includes the bars, which provide the emotional idea of separation, and protection.

Protection of Mind Identity Through Emotion.

To illustrate, imagine that you found a love letter in your spouses coat from a co-worker in the office.

1. Awareness. You become aware that a life altering situation exists by reading the content of the letter. Your awareness of a “love letter” to your spouse is an emotional eliciting stimulus.
2. Body Change. You feel your body react. Adrenaline begins coursing throughout your bloodstream, your muscles tense up for action. Your heart rate and breathing drastically increase. You begin to perspire, and feel sick to your stomach.
3. Interpretation. You must interpret the correct reaction in order to preserve your identity. You begin to process the situation cognitively, drawing on all of your knowledge that applies to the moment. You become angry due to the betrayal. Based upon your personal beliefs, life goals, and the degree of importance of the betrayal, you make a decision on how to confront the situation.
4. Action. Now you execute your decision.

Change of Context, Change of Emotion.

Now, imagine that you discover that the letter was in fact given to your spouse by a distraught co-worker, who found it in their spouses coat. Your interpretation of the meaning of the letter has now changed. Anger gives way to relief.

Your sense of identity is physical but at the same time mental. Both of the above example illustrate how emotions serve as a trigger to ensure survival of self, but it is the second example that illustrates a far more important point.

You have a sense of mental identity in the form of unchanging beliefs that you identify with. It is this cluster of ideas that are essential in order to preserve your sense of “self”. It is the: “who you are” in the world that you must protect at all costs.

As a spouse living in a particular culture and economic environment, you must preserve the dignity of self as defined by that culture. Dignity comes in the form of an Authentic state of wholeness, with all its frailties and inadequacies. Regardless of the errors you make in life, you must maintain a sense of a single self.

Finally, emotions are intense but temporary. To have them be any other way would be far too stressful on your body! The constant stress would eventually lead to some very serious physical, and mental ailments.

What are Feelings?

As the objects in your world induce emotions within you, they are collected in the subconscious and begin to accumulate. This is especially so when similar events are repeatedly experienced. Ultimately they form a  final emotional conclusion about life, how to live it, and more importantly, how to survive physically and mentally in a world of chaos. When this happens a feeling is born. In this way, emotions serve as a sort of, “Feelings Factory”.

Once feelings are established, they often feed back into your emotions to produce the appropriate result to insure survivability.

Imagine you observe your child approaching an electrical outlet with a paperclip in hand. Yoursustained feeling of love for your child, will generate the temporary emotion of fear, and you quickly act by yelling “No!” and swatting your child’s hand away from the outlet. Perhaps your child responds with surprise and anger, and defiantly attempts to insert the paperclip into the outlet again. Your sustained feeling of love for your child, may generate the temporary emotion of angerbecause your child is expressing stubbornness, and disrespect to your attempts at preserving his or her life.

Here is another example. Imagine that a professional snake handler offers you an opportunity to hold a snake. You may project the “Joy”, of touching the snake, because you really want the experience and the sensations that go along with it. However, you have difficulty moving past the”Fear”, of potentially getting bit. Your solution? To approach the situation with great caution. Caution is a sustainable feeling that is the balance point between two temporary, emotional potentialities. Namely, that of “Fear”, and “Joy”.

Feelings are products of emotions. But unlike short term, intense emotions, feelings are: low-key, stable and sustained over time.

The Differences of Emotions and Feelings in a Nutshell:

Feelings:	Emotions:
Feelings tell us “how to live.”	Emotions tell us what we “like” and “dislike.”
Feelings state:”There is a right and wrong wayto be.“	Emotions state:”There are good and badactions.”
Feelings state:“your emotions matter.”	Emotions state:”The external world matters.”
Feelings establish our long term attitudetoward reality.	Emotions establish our initial attitude toward reality.
Feelings alert us to anticipated dangers and prepares us for action.	Emotion alert us to immediate dangers and prepares us for action
Feelings ensure long-term survival of self. (body and mind.)	Emotions ensure immediate survival of self. (body and mind.)
Feelings are Low-key but Sustainable.	Emotions are Intense but Temporary.
Happiness: is a feeling.	Joy: is an emotion.
Worry: is a feeling.	Fear: is an emotion.
Contentment: is a feeling.	Enthusiasm: is an emotion.
Bitterness: is a feeling.	Anger: is an emotion.
Love: is a feeling.	Lust: is an emotion.
Depression: is a feeling.	Sadness: is an emotion.

What Does This All Mean For You Personally?

The difference between emotions and feelings is crucial to your personal growth. If you are dissatisfied in your life, know that there is really nothing wrong with you, and there is nothing to fix. Rather, there is only something to discover about yourself. The practice of Psyphology: psy·phol·o·gy (pronounced sahy-fol-uh-jee) is one of the few methodologies that makes a distinction between emotions and feelings and it can aid you in that discovery. The uniqueness of your feelings can provide you with a new understanding, that can lead to many positive changes for you.