Carl Jung died in 1961, half a century ago. The following quotation was contained in The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, which was copyrighted 1959. I don’t know when the specific paper “A Study in the Process of Individuation” was published, but the original paper from which it was developed goes back at least to 1933.
You think it’s possible he may have something to say to our time?????
Continue reading Jung: “The bettering of a general ill begins with the individual”
My friend Gordon Phinn writes an interesting blog, http://anotherwordofgord.wordpress.com/ and in today’s entry he touches on the issue of reincarnation. If you’ve read either The Sphere and the Hologram or The Cosmic Internet, you’ll know that my views on reincarnation, as shaped by what the guys have been telling me, don’t match the common view. But Gordon has a lot of experience, and you’ll find his views worth considering.
A. I. Allenby visited Carl Jung soon after World War II. This excerpt from his description of his visit is from the book C. G. Jung Speaking, page 158.
Another time Jung reverted to the problem of self-doubt, using a further example by way of illustration. “Our needs and desires are always active,” he said. “Trouble occurs only if they are active in the unconscious, if we do not take them consciously in hand so as to give them a definite form and direction. If we refuse to do this we are dragged along by them to become their victim. Then they are like a sledge rushing downhill snow, with no one at the steering-ropes. You must place yourself firmly at the steering-ropes, not hang on at the back or, worse, be unwilling to take the ride at all — that only lands you in panic. Our unconscious energies give momentum to our journey through life and, if we direct our course, our actions will have strength; we may even sense that God is behind us.”
In 1961, Chilean diplomat and author Miguel Serrano spoke with Carl Jung for the final time, less than five months before Jung’s death. (This is from C.G. Jung Speaking.)
[MS:] I’ve also come to see Hermann Hesse. He believes that the right road is simply one which is in agreement with nature.
[CGJ:] That is also my philosophy. Man should live according to his own nature; he should concentrate on self-knowledge and then live in accordance with the truth about himself. What would you say about a tiger who was a vegetarian? You would say, of course, that he was a bad tiger. Thus everyone must live in accordance with his nature, both individually and collectively.
From an interview with the English journalist Frederick Sands in 1955, published in C.G. Jung Speaking.
“It seems to me we have reached the limit of our evolution — the point from which we can advance no further. Man started from an unconscious state and has ever striven for greater consciousness. The development of consciousness is the burden, the suffering, and the blessing of mankind. Each new discovery leads to greater consciousness, and the path along which we are going is merely an extension of it. This inevitably calls for greater responsibility and enforces a great change in ourselves. We must draw conclusions from what we know and discover, and not take everything for granted.
“Man has come to be man’s worst enemy. It is a clash between man and God, in which man’s Luciferan genius has produced in the H-bomb the power to destroy more effectively than any ancient god could. We must begin to learn about man until every Jekyll can see his Hyde.”
July 2, 2011, makes 50 years since Ernest Hemingway made his escape from the prison his body and life had become. His suicide, which put an end to his physical life, did not put an end to him. Hemingway lives, and not only in the sense that his memory and his brain children — his books and stories — are as alive in us as ever. This is true, but beyond that, he lives! Regardless whether he thought there was such a thing as an immortal life, he is now in the midst of it, and quite happily.
In commemoration of the greatest writer of the 20th century, I thought I’d pass along this that I received from him by means of Intuitive Linked Communication (ILC) a couple of years ago. (As this had to pass through my mind to be expressed, you must not expect it to come out sounding as it would if he had been in the flesh to extensively revise and polish it. Still, nice to have it.) Hemingway, from his new perspective, describes what it was like to write from the imaginal world while firmly within the physical.
People — many people — had sent me links to Jill Bolte Taylor’s talk about her Stroke of Insight, but until I moved to an area with access to high-speed internet, I was unable to see it.
This talk, one of so many life-transforming TED talks, may be found at http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html