{"id":18236,"date":"2022-12-13T15:59:50","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T14:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=18236"},"modified":"2026-01-17T17:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T16:36:21","slug":"symbols-of-the-supernormal-part-i-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/symbols-of-the-supernormal-part-i-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Symbols of the Supernormal,\u00a0 Part I-III"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\"Intuition<\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

By Roberto Assagioli<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong> , Conference of Dr. Roberto Assagioli in 1957, from the Assagioli Archive Florence. Translated by Jan Kuniholm and Francesco Viglienghi. Original Title: <\/span><\/span><\/span>Simboli del Supernormale I-III<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/em><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

[…] I will say something more about language. Now, fortunately, we have realized the difficulties of language, and a whole semantic science has developed, as well as the science of communication, which takes this matter into account. And that is what I am going to do today. In the title of this talk we speak of the supernormal, so we must understand the meaning of this word. But in order to be able to talk about the <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>supernormal<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> , we must first agree on what is meant by normal. This is very controversial.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What is normal?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Generally, the average man is considered normal, obedient to the social standards of the environment in which he lives: in other words, the “conformist”. Well, this normality is something very insufficient, very unsatisfactory. Above all, it has the serious defect of being a static and exclusive conception. The standard of <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>normalit\u00e0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> , ie of conformism \u2014 of \u201cnormality\u201d, as they say in America, of being \u201cadjusted\u201d \u2014 of being settled, in tune with the environment, is in fact synonymous with mediocrity. It excludes, and more or less condemns, all that is outside the norm with a more or less explicit assumption that it is\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>ab<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> -normal or subnormal, while ignoring the fact that many so-called apparent anomalies are actually signs, attempts or even sensations of a supernormality.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In other times this fact was more recognized, and the cult of superior beings was the norm. The geniuses, the sages, the saints, the heroes and the initiates were recognized as the vanguards, the representatives of true humanity, the great promise of what every human being could become. This is indicated in Jesus’ great affirmation, “be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect,” and “greater things than I have done, you will also do.” These Great Beings, far from despising common humanity, have tried to arouse and awaken in it the urge and the yearning to transcend its normality or mediocrity, and to develop the possibilities latent in it; among which \u2014 I tell you now \u2014 there are also a range of parapsychological faculties and powers.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Here, too, we must remember something that has already been said many times \u2014 namely, that parapsychological faculties are not in themselves an absolute sign of superiority. So much so that they can be found at every evolutionary level, and two Sundays ago Prof. Istomin pointed out the existence of parapsychological faculties even in primitive people, as well as in those who turn their faculties to evil and evil purposes.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

As a heartening sign, there is fortunately a reaction among the best thinkers and scholars against this petty and short-sighted exclusivism of so-called normality. And I will mention two very authoritative and decisive voices. One is of the scientist Jung, a well-known psychologist and psychiatrist: “To be ‘normal’ is a splendid ideal for the unsuccessful, for all those who have not yet found an adaptation. But for people who have far more ability than the average, for whom it was never hard to gain successes and to accomplish their share of the world’s work \u2014 for them restriction to the normal signifies the bed of Procrustes, unbearable boredom, infernal sterility and hopelessness”. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>[1]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> And another scholar, Prof. Cattegno, professor of mathematics at the University of London, and also a psychologist, has gone even further: he in fact considers the average ordinary man as a being actually pre-human, and reserves the word “Man”, with a capital M, only for those who have transcended the ordinary or common stage, and who are precisely, compared to this, supernormal.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n