TO ARTEMIS: Web based Dialectical Exploration of The Problem
What is
TO ARTEMIS?
Under Construction
Virtual Midwife
Created By Pierre Grimes Ph.D.
An Introduction
Carved above the entrance to the Temple at Delphi in Greece are the words “Know Thyself.” Simple, direct, and complete. This phrase is both a statement and a profound challenge. Communicated down through the ages, it has not lost any of its mystery or spirit. TO ARTEMIS has been assembled following the spirit and challenge of that command: Know Thyself.
In today’s age we call this process self-discovery and personal growth. These are truly vital goals and eminently worthwhile pursuing. Through this pursuit, confidence, courage, and maturity spring forth naturally.
Recently there has been an explosion of “self help” books and seminars available. What makes TO ARTEMIS different? TO ARTEMIS is based on “doing” and “reflecting” with you as an active participant. This process is more than just reading or listening to tapes, and this difference is very significant. Just reading or just listening will not substantially change anything in your life, just like watching TV is not living life and reading about jogging is not jogging. The process of doing and reflecting is the mechanism for change. Making a commitment, then taking the time and energy to answer these questions, and then reflecting on these answers is the key to understanding and growth. One needs to “do”. To discover yourself and grow personally in a meaningful way YOU must do something. No one can do it for you, but then no one else can take that growth away from you.
One of the clearest and most direct methods to accomplish this task is to focus on your PERSONALLY MEANINGFUL GOAL. This goal can be in any area of your life, i.e. relationships, school, business, athletic, or financial as long as it is personally meaningful to you. It is when we pursue these types of goals that “obstacles get in our way.” We still may achieve these goals but accomplish them in a lesser manner than we would have liked. These obstacles, therefore, are evidence of a problem. It is in this process of pursuing our personal goals (and reflecting on them) that we see ourselves and our problems, and we gain the clearest insight and understanding into ourselves.
But experiencing obstacles and difficulties in life is not, in itself, a sufficient sign of having a problem. Before we can say we have a problem, we must commit ourselves in some way to a personally significant goal and describe the obstacles we experience which block our efforts to achieve that goal. Accordingly, the signs of having a problem must include one or more of the following. Please check which one(s) may apply to you:
• Not striving for one’s most personally meaningful ideals and goals
• Failure to adequately study and prepare to achieve one’s goals
• Setting secondary goals as if they were primary goals
• Making the practical issues the only significant ones
• Letting opportunities go by; sabotaging opportunities for success
• Loss of concentration; inability to resist distractions and tangents
• Accepting, believing, making up excuses and/or convincing others that you are not responsible
• Functioning ideally in crises, either alone or with others, but expressing stress or anxiety before and after such events
TO ARTEMIS' aim is to assist people who are interested in the pursuit of personal growth by resolving these types of problems. Their resolution promotes growth, understanding, achievement, and excellence. To accomplish this, TO ARTEMIS consists of this Introduction, Questions & Answers, Diagrams, and a Journal section. These sections are designed to aid in the process of self discovery by helping you to identify, understand and resolve the problems that interfere with you attaining your personal goals. You may want to skip to a different section and come back to the prior sections or proceed straight through TO ARTEMIS. We have designed TO ARTEMIS to accommodate both styles.
This section will guide you on the journey of self-discovery by bringing you to new levels of insight using both questions and reflections; the questions you answer will bring you to reflect upon yourself in a most thoughtful way.
By participating in this section, you will also come to recognize that you are awakening your understanding to a higher and different level of functioning. It is through this process that you are naturally brought to appreciate the integrity behind words, to see the way they form patterns that shape our experience and mold our understanding.
We have designed and developed over 400 questions in such a way that as you answer these questions in your own words, you will learn about the forces that have shaped and molded your life. It is like being in a dialogue with someone you trust. You are led to probe the nature of the obstacles that have prevented you from achieving and maintaining your cherished goals. By diagramming your problem “scenes” you will learn how to pursue clues from your present and past to arrive at the root causes of your problems and to resolve them. As you reflect on your answers, you will realize that the conclusions you made about yourself, in your youth, are directly responsible for many of your present problems. TO ARTEMIS will help you understand why those conclusions were so believable and what is required to maintain them now, in the present. When you grasp this, you will be released from their effect.
As you proceed through TO ARTEMIS, it is important to try to maintain a spirit of fairness and sincerity in your explorations and avoid any hint of the methods and style of an attorney cross-examining a witness. Further, remember that the purpose of your study is not to assign blame and guilt. Those who contributed to your problem certainly had no idea of what was being learned. Surely, this is obvious, for in all families there are moments of love, much is sacrificed, and all parents dream that their children might be enriched by their successes and spared learning their faults; they take no pleasure in learning just how short-lived their dream was. Therefore, it is better for us to accept the most mature of challenges and bring an end to what has put limits on both our understanding and our vision, and there is no part for blaming to play.
The level you reach will depend on how sincerely you take on the task of self analysis as well as how much tension you can endure as you proceed through this exploration.
The Journal
Record your thoughts and ideas while going through TO ARTEMIS. It is likely that you will be having spontaneous reflections, thoughts, and insights during this exploration and you’ll want to preserve them for later reflection. If later you recall other areas of your life where you have experienced your problem, please note them in the Journal and include them in your analysis. By dealing with them in a similar fashion, you will build a resource to reflect upon later.
Reflections
This undertaking has the potential of absorbing your deepest interests, and since it has this distinction of being a profound challenge as well, we have included a Reflections section that we think will assist you in this endeavor. These reflections invite you to consider and reflect upon the fundamental issues that lie behind your problems while providing the larger context in which to understand your own personal experiences.
You will find that as you answer the questions and reflect on the Reflections, you will be able to understand the forces that have contributed to what you have become. As you move back and forth in the dialogue between the questions and answers and then turn to the Reflections you will find they will help you clarify themes that have caused trouble in your life.
It is likely then that you will have some anxious moments and worries as you proceed through this journey, and to make your passage more meaningful we invite you to take sufficient time to reflect upon and ponder the themes that emerge from your exploration of the reflections.
As you continue to use TO ARTEMIS and come to see the way the reflections guide your understanding, you will come to grasp the nature and the function of this level of belief (problems) that we call the pathologos.
Briefly stated, TO ARTEMIS is a philosophical exploration, not a psychological one, because the root causes of man’s problems are found in the acceptance of certain beliefs about the self and the nature of our reality-rather than in some complex of emotional causes. To more fully understand what this means, the implications of TO ARTEMIS, its methodology, and its rich history, we have included a "Suggested Reading" section for your review. This section explores the roots of this methodology back to the age of Plato and then compares and contrasts it to psychology and psychotherapy.
It is important to note, however, that TO ARTEMIS is not behavior modification or “reprogramming.” You won’t be asked to recite “I am a good person” over and over again. It is not a test and it won’t score or interpret your answers. It is not interactive, but you won’t be given answers either. What TO ARTEMIS will enable you to see is your problems and their impact on your life and how they have stunted your growth. This will empower you to pull them out by the roots. TO ARTEMIS does have the power to surface the very roots of these types of problems and in doing so enables you to become part of a profound process. It will promote healthy self growth. Through the process of a dialogue, you will be asked many questions which will raise certain subjects to reflect on. Some of these questions will provoke you. Some will make you so curious about yourself that you will get into a profound kind of reflecting that brings you to your answers.
People who have completed TO ARTEMIS say that they have a tremendous feeling of relief-like the weight of the world has been lifted off their shoulders. They say that they realize they are rational and that the anger they carry is dissipated. They say that they experience a pleasant euphoria and a feeling of ease.
Noting Withdrawal
Please don’t be in a “rush” to complete TO ARTEMIS. Please take your time and reflect on the insights and understandings you will achieve from this exploration. Take the time to breathe. It took 40 years to perfect this methodology so relax and enjoy the journey. If for any reason you should decide to withdraw from your search, TO ARTEMIS will remain as something to return to at a later date. And if it does happen that you resume the challenge, it will certainly be significant to be aware of the factors that caused your withdrawal and return.
Congratulations
for accepting this challenge! It is no frivolous game you are undertaking but one that is as difficult as it is rewarding. So make the commitment, understand yourself, and grow. Read the FAQ page and begin TO ARTEMIS
May we preserve these philosophical beauties, and exhibit them to others. May this web site expand their elegance by the enlivening rays of the philosophic fire; and by the powerful breath of genius, scatter abroad in this virtual world these latent but copious seeds.
If some sparks of this celestial fire shall animate the reader, consider yourself as well rewarded for this laborious undertaking. Ancient philosophy has been, for centuries, the only study to break the shackles of ignorance; and in which one finds an inexhaustible treasure of intellectual wealth, and a perpetual fountain of wisdom and delight.
Presuming that such a pursuit bestows the highest benefit, I, Webmistress, desire no other reward than the wealth of wisdom, and Reason as my constant Guide. If successful, may I see the praise of the liberal; and if not, I expect no defense for failure, other than the decision of the candid, and discerning few, thus the opportunity to learn, and purgation by philosophic fire.