Synopsis: While en route to aid with a mining emergency of Quadra Sigma III, the crew of the Enterprise is once again visited by the alien entity who calls himself Q.
The mercurial Q appears in the episode “Hide and Q,” and this time his presence provides a means to show the progression of inflation and deflation in the transcendent function.
In this episode, Q arrives and offers First Officer William T. Riker the powers of the Q. At first, he is hesitant to use it, and does so only to save the lives of the bridge crew. But after Riker felt confined by a promise not to use it to save the life of a young girl badly injured on Quadra Sigma III, he decides that he must accept the power and identifies with the Q. However, when the bridge crew decline the life-altering parting gifts that Riker wants to give them before joining the Q Continuum, he becomes disheartened, disempowered, and gives up immortality and omnipotence to return to his regular self. Except, he will never be quite the same, because he has felt what it was like to have had the power of a god.
This is also what happens in the process of the transcendent function. As I have noted in previous posts, the conscious ego moves between the extremes of inflation, when it identifies with a god-like power from the unconscious, and deflation, when it identifies as being powerless and alone. And this cycle occurs in our lives over and over – if we are aware of it, each time bringing us a little closer to psychic wholeness.
Original post created 17 May 2021
mydailysoultrek 