THE EXIST-O-GRAM

The existo-o-gram provides a roadmap of fundamental existential concerns that we all have. These anxieties or concerns are often referred to as 'the human condition', and are felt as an underlying current, just beneath the surface, that effect our every thought and decisions in life. They effect us all.

Click on one of the boxes to the right. In the space that you are reading this message, you will see new text that explains the box that you clicked. It is best to start from the bottom and move up the chain. Each chain is color coded. Boxes of like color relate to the same chain, eminating from the three basic existential concerns, isolation, meaning, and freedom.

The root of the chart is 'non-being', i.e., 'death' (however we feel the word 'death' is misunderstood, and doesn't capture the fact we came from non-being into being, and will return to non-being.) As you move up the chain, each box provides more specific detailed information. The bottom of the chart is akin to the sub-conscious, and progresses upward to consciousness. The right brain is the conduit from non-being to the sub-conscious. The higher up the tree, the more the left-brain becomes involved in shaping our reality, what it is we do within time.

We are born into time, effectively without our permission, and must then make choices as to what we will do 'in life' with the time we have available. We have not been given any instruction manual to do so, nor any real guidance other than our own instincts and intuition.

Underlying all of this is the understanding that our time on earth will end, that eventually we will rejoin the realm of non-being. These forces are at play in every moment of our life. The exist-o-gram helps us to identify. think about, and deal with these feelings.
background image: Bill Viola, The Veiling, 1995.