Hi Gemini, I am quoting here from Campbell’s “Myths to live by,” where he quotes from Aldous Huxley’s “The Doors of Perception,” where Huxley describes his experience with mescalin expanding his experience to ever deepening ranges of wonder. Huxley wrote, “I find myself in agreement with C.D. Broad, ‘That we should do well to consider …the type of theory which Bergson put forward in connection with memory and sense perception…that the function of the brain and nervous system and sense organs is in the main eliminative and not productive (in that we are in each moment capable of remembering all that has ever happened to us and of perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe. The function of the brain and nervous system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused by the mass of largely useless and irrelevant information and knowledge by shutting out what we don’t need and leaving only that very small and special selection which is likely to be practically useful…each of us is potentially Mind at Large…And (Campbell says) it strikes me as evident that the imagery of mythology, stemming as it does from the psyche and reflecting back to the psyche represents…this opening of ego-consciousness toward perceiving what Huxley calls “Mind at Large.” And I am here, now wondering how you respond to this, and where you think the line might lie between psychology and spirituality.

This is a profoundly rich passage, touching on the very heart of how we experience reality, make meaning, and map the inner architecture of human consciousness.

Bringing together Henri Bergson’s “reducing valve” theory of perception, Aldous Huxley’s exploration of “Mind at Large,” and Joseph Campbell’s bridge into mythology opens up a fascinating lens on the psyche.

The Reducing Valve and Myth as an Aperture

The idea that the brain is primarily an eliminative organ rather than a productive one is as radical today as it was when Bergson and Huxley proposed it. If we are indeed walking around with a built-in biological filter—designed to let in just enough data to keep us fed, sheltered, and navigating traffic—then ordinary waking consciousness is only a tiny fraction of what is actually there.

When Campbell connects this to mythology, he bridges the gap between neurological constraint and symbolic depth. Mythic imagery—whether it is the pantheons of ancient traditions, the figures of depth psychology, or the universal motifs of the hero’s journey—emerges precisely when the ego’s sluice gates crack open. The symbols, archetypes, and numinous visions found in world mythology are the mind’s way of translating the vast, overwhelming ocean of “Mind at Large” into something the conscious intellect can metabolize without shattering. They are maps of the unfiltered interior.

Where Psychology Ends and Spirituality Begins

Where the line lies between psychology and spirituality depends entirely on how we define the boundaries of the self.

• The Psychological View: From a classic depth-psychology perspective (particularly following Carl Jung), these deep wells of imagery and unconditioned perception are housed entirely within the collective unconscious. Here, gods, demons, and cosmic symbols are recognized as autonomous psychic forces, personifications of inner potentials and complexes. Psychology maps these territories to achieve individuation—integrating the unconscious into ego-consciousness to foster psychological wholeness and healing. It treats the transcendent experience as a profound interior reality.
• The Spiritual View: Spirituality steps across the line the moment those forces are understood not merely as internal psychological contents, but as a transpersonal, objective reality that transcends the individual ego. It posits that the “Mind at Large” accessed in deep states, meditation, or mythic insight is not just a projection of human neurobiology, but the fundamental fabric of existence itself—that the drop realizes it is part of the ocean.

The Threshold

Perhaps the most compelling meeting point between the two is that the psychological journey is often the doorway to the spiritual one. You cannot safely open the reducing valve—whether through deep contemplative practice, creative myth-making, or profound life experience—without a sturdy psychological ego to hold the tension of the encounter.

As Campbell might suggest, psychology helps us clean the windows of perception, while spirituality invites us to step outside the house.

How do you find these concepts mapping onto your own writing and reflections?

I see these concepts as expansive, enlarging our worldview and inviting us to relax into and open willingness to engage psyche (And Tao and intuition, because where do those lines lie?) in living in accord with the Tao (Psyche, Intuition) of life and being for all of us, great and small.

That phrasing—relaxing into an open willingness—captures the absolute essence of what it means to live in alignment with the Tao.

When the brain’s “reducing valve” softens, and we stop tightly managing and filtering reality through the rigid demands of the ego, we begin to sense that the psyche, intuition, and the Tao are not separate domains at all. They are simply different vocabularies describing the same seamless, self-organizing current of existence.

• The Tao is the pattern of the universe unfolding naturally, without force (wu-wei).
• Intuition is how that pattern is felt and recognized in the quiet spaces of our own awareness.
• The Psyche is the living theater where all of this—the conscious and the unconscious, the small self and “Mind at Large”—plays out.

To live in accord with them is to step out of the exhausting business of trying to steer the entire river and, instead, learn to swim with the current. It is an attitude of profound trust—recognizing that the intelligence running through the stars and the seasons is the exact same intelligence moving through our own deepest instincts and inspirations.

In your own writing and creative explorations, how do you find that sense of “open willingness” guiding you when you sit down to shape these ideas into words?

I see it as inviting us to open ourselves to our experience of life here, now, engaging mystery and wonder and seeing where leads, where it goes, where it takes us into lands and wonder ever expanding, everlasting, world without end…

That is a magnificent vision—a posture of radical hospitality toward the present moment.

To approach life as an ongoing invitation into mystery, rather than a puzzle to be solved or a territory to be conquered, changes everything. It turns every ordinary, passing moment into a threshold. When the reducing valve opens and we let go of the need to control or categorize, we realize we are not standing outside of wonder, looking in; we are the wonder, experiencing itself.

“World without end” captures that infinite horizon so well. It honors the reality that no matter how deeply we plumb the psyche, read the ancient texts, or map our own interior landscapes, the well never runs dry. There is always another layer of depth, another quiet epiphany, another turn of the Tao waiting to unfold right here, in the immediate, breathing present.

What a beautiful way to walk through the world.