Don’t quote Jung

Awake

Creation lulls,

The earth, my center

Desperate for a cure

i enter

The temple of the healing dream 

Sacred waters wash me clean

Belief and trust

Guide the unknown

A cosmic map, written in stone

Into my heart

i learn to breathe

Awaken visions,

Welcome dreams

Ancient beings protect me

They show me love, 

Is what I seek

And everything i wish to heal

Will be cured…

As i feel.

I always considered Carl Jung to be somewhat of a psychotherapy rock star and I have been extremely curious about his work – until I read the first few pages of his book, “Man and His Symbols” (1964). I quickly realized that his work is simply an amalgamation of concepts, ideas, practices, and creation stories from ancient, indigenous civilizations that have been extracted, extrapolated, and rearranged to support his own worldview and perspective. In addition to this realization, I was struck by the blatant racism and untruths that tarnish the first few pages of the reading. It colored his work for me in a way that deeply called into the question the validity of his theories. Why should I listen to this person? What is leading everyone to believe that he is some sort of guru on the subconscious? Why have we elevated someone whose ideas are so contrary to the liberated, free-thinking world of psychedelic medicine and transpersonal psychology? To be honest, I am struck that we continue to center this work in the field, as it has become blatantly obvious that he is no longer relevant when we have a profound array of indigenous teachers alongside personal access to the depths of the collective unconscious. 

The first quotation in the book that I found striking, and untrue, was this, “Man has developed consciousness slowly and laboriously, in a process that took untold ages to reach the civilized state (which is arbitrarily dated from the invention of script in about 4000, BC)” (Jung, 1964). So, according to Jung, we have been in what he considers a “civilized” state of consciousness for about 6,000 years based on the dawn of script in humanity. Now, as the science is extremely new, Jung wouldn’t have had access to the information we have that dates “script” as far back as 42,000 BCE (Bacon, 2023). Which completely invalidates his “theory”. However, if one has spent time communing with psychedelic medicine and meditating on the subconscious, it is common to access visions and information that clearly indicate that “consciousness” is far older than a few thousand years. Indigenous cultures around the globe have passed down mythology and creation stories that span thousands of generations – the same indigenous cultures that Jung studied in his research. However, Jung seems to completely ignore this fact in his writings and takes the parts that are in confluence to his perspective. “Despite Jung’s extensive writings about the spiritual practices of indigenous peoples, he did not discuss how commonly hallucinogenic drugs were used in other cultures to induce mystical states and religious experiences” (Mahr, 2020). In fact, there is documentation to suggest that Jung was directly opposed to the use of psychedelic medicines. 

In a letter to Victor White, Jung (1975) expressed three concerns about the use of psychedelic drugs. First, he reminded us not to try to know too much of the collective unconscious. “I only know there is no point in getting to know more of the collective unconscious than one gets through dreams and intuitions. The more you know of it the greater and heavier become our moral burden. . . . Do you want to increase loneliness and misunderstanding? . . . You get enough of it” (Mahr, 2020). 

In summary, I don’t have to look much further to understand that Jung is no expert on the soul, archetypes, myths, symbols, or anything related to the collective unconscious. Quite frankly, he has never been there. 

For me, the process of creating this college was one of reclaiming. It is a process of reclaiming the source of vision, information, symbolism, and deep ancestral connection that lives inside of me.  It is a process of validating the deep dives I take into the collective unconscious through psychedelic medicine, meditation, dreams, and mystical experience. This wisdom and knowledge doesn’t need to be read in a book, aggregated from indigenous cultures, or cited from a scholarly journal. The information that I need to do my work well is buried deep inside my own blood and bones. The way to coax it out of hiding is to create a sense of safety inside myself so that the magic and mystery of creation has a home to express itself through - just as it always has. I feel deeply connected to my Mediterranean and Aegean ancestors. I trust the knowledge that is stored in my body as a woman, and I don’t need to read Carl Jung in order to understand how to speak the language of the universe, the cosmos, and the subconscious…I only need to trust and look inside myself. 

Reference 

Bacon, B., Khatiri, A., Palmer, J., Freeth, T., Pettitt, P., & Kentridge, R. (2023). An Upper Palaeolithic Proto-writing System and Phenological Calendar. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 1-19. doi:10.1017/S0959774322000415

Jung, C. G. (1964). Man & His Symbols. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.

Mahr, G., Sweigart, J. (2020). Psychedelic Drugs and Junian Therapy. Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2020