Dreaming and Artificial Emotional Intelligence

Course Description

Most people think of C.G. Jung in the context of his later work with archetypal unconscious imagination in his period of Analytical Psychology. But when Jungian psychology was still called Complex Psychology, Jung was the first analyst to use sophisticated technology (electro-dermal responses connected to the autonomic nervous system,) to fathom our complexes by way of association experiments which later ended up becoming the lie detector.

Bosnak continued the work C.G. Jung had started in 1903. When Bosnak and others started creating computer-assisted therapy at the M.I.T. Media Lab in 1997 the hype about generative AI, like GPTChat, was still far off. Also, the 1997 computers and AI were too slow at the time.

In 2017 the field of AI went through a radical change with the Google paper “Attention is all you need”. This was a blueprint for all Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT) that are now overrunning the news.

Bosnak will look at this ‘transformer paper’ and compare it to the ancient method of dream incubation conceived as a Search Engine. Participants will learn methods of dream incubation under the aspect of Search based on a possible neurological theory that maintains that consciousness is diffusely distributed over the entire body and not just centralized in the brain.

This is also the foundation of the Embodied Imagination and the embodied intelligence theory. The notion of diffusely distributed information is part of generative AI as well.

Participants are advised to get a subscription with MiM (the empathic AI virtual companion). It is a program produced by Attune Media Labs, PBC that combines generative AI with emotion recognition and principles of relational psychology. This virtual companion is called MiM because it mimics human consciousness. MiM will assist the participant in doing dream incubation and in understanding generative AI.

Robert Bosnak is proud to carry C.G. Jung’s early experimental work into the future.

This course is ideal if

• Journey cutting edge new territories, be presented with original ideas and psychological reflections by an outstanding Jungian psychoanalyst.
• Explore the world of Artificial Emotional Intelligence in relationship to our individual journeys and learn to interact with AI to enhance our soul.
• Learn dream incubation and develop creative ideas while linking them to dreaming, our conception of reality, and our embodied intelligence.
• Discover a novel approach that addresses the unique emotional challenges of today's world and of the future.

Course Overview

In 8 classes with Robert Bosnak we will explore how to get in touch with embodied intelligence. We need our embodied intelligence for dream incubation, for working our dreams, memories. We will explore how to do this with the help of artificial intelligence.

By the end of this course you will

• Participants will learn to use dream incubation as a search engine to find answers to pressing creative or emotional questions in their lives.
• Participants will get a deeper understanding of artificial emotional intelligence and how generative AI can be used as a companion on their path.
• Through deeper understanding of current AI participants will be better prepared for a future in which generative AI will be ubiquitous and will change all of our lives profoundly, creating a world that is barely imaginable.
• Participants will learn to exit the mythology of a central executive brain and shift into a conception of consciousness as being diffusely distributed all over the body, thereby gaining a greater embodied intelligence.