gemland.net

 

 

  Strange name? Yes, but it got your attention, didn’t it?

  It is my term for how geology interacts with us, on a personal level — not just the cold, hard facts.

 

 

  Here is how I would define psychogeology:

  (1) That branch of the geosciences that deals with the interplay between the human mind and geology, not in a usual, analytical, medical, or academic sense, but in the way that rocks and other geologic phenomena influence our thoughts and actions.

  (2) The study of mental life and behavior in relation to geological processes.

  (3) The science of motivation by geological phenomena.

  (4) Within the context of the Noosphere, it explores and examines the boundary between rocks and other forms of life.

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  I first thought up this term, psychogeology, in 1971, while still a geology student at the University of Utah. I had just finished reading Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, and his concept of psychohistory intrigued me (and others in the Geology Department, as well). I thought, well, why not psychogeology, too?

  I use the term now to highlight the magic and mysteries of things geological. And for me, there are plenty of those.

  See also our new BLOG at psychoGeology.NET.