Four excellent Jungian resources

In the earliest posts of The Pragmatic Mystic, I defined four terms that I said were essential to my understanding of the inner life (and to my practice of spiritual direction). These were: mysticism, pragmatism, perennialism, and individuation (if you haven’t read those posts, I urge you to go back and give them a look). The last of these four terms — “individuation” — was, you may recall, taken directly from Carl Jung, whose psychological (and, dare I say, metaphysical and philosophical) insights I regard to be invaluable. Too often misunderstood and misrepresented (and, in fact, somewhat feared by those who find his theories too unsettling as regards certain modern dogmas), Jung’s vast body of research is currently being rediscovered, recovered, and reevaluated afresh, not only by psychologists but also by scientists and especially investigators of the nature of consciousness. For those engaged in teaching “inner work,” his influence has long been held in high esteem.

Below, I offer four resources for viewing and listening that will take you deeper into Jungian waters and — I hope — encourage you to keep going.

First, you will find among my Substack recommendations Jason E. Smith’s superb page. It is connected to his podcast, Digital Jung, and I have provided a link directly below to a recent episode of the latter. The fact is, he quotes directly from my book, The Ox-Herder and the Good Shepherd in it, and that in turn has given me yet another excuse — as if I needed one — to plug his podcast. Please give it and all the episodes your attention. You can access the talk by clicking here.

Another podcast that I’ve only recently come across is Chasing Consciousness. It isn’t focused just on Jung, but on consciousness research in general. But Jung is considered a “hero” by the presenter. Again, all the episodes are worth exploring. Below is the most recent, an interview with Bernardo Kastrup — and the subject is the metaphysics of Carl Jung (Kastrup’s book on the subject is definitely one to pick up). Give it a listen, either here on YouTube, or on any other podcast provider.

Program information and time signatures:

What are the implications of Jung’s theories about the Collective Unconscious, Archetypes, Synchronicity and Individuation? What can they suggest about the nature of reality and the anomalies of modern science?

In this episode we have the fascinating topic of the metaphysics implied by Carl Jung’s theories to discuss. Jung is one of the great hero’s of this podcast, we covered the collective unconscious in episode #6 and synchronicity in episode #14 for listeners who want to go into detail about that. And the topic of The Shadow is coming up too, so look out for that. But to understand the metaphysical implications of his theories we need a special guest.

He is philosopher and author Bernardo Kastrup. Bernardo is the executive director of Essentia Foundation and his work has been leading the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism, the notion that reality is essentially mental (he has a PHD in philosophy). As a scientist, Bernardo has worked for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) (he also has a PHD in Computer science!). He has written many academic papers and books, has appeared on many media outlets and writes regularly for the Scientific American.

Today we’ll be mostly speaking about one of his most recent books “Decoding Jung’s Metaphysics, the archetypal semantics of an experiential universe”. But we do take time first to talk about his scientific and philosophical worldview, as it related directly to Jung’s.

00:00 Intro 06:40 Materialism VS the church: The history of Idealism 12:10 Materialism was a weapon against the church 14:20 The dissociative boundary between us and the mind at large 16:40 A field of mind 17:20 Split personality MRI scans are markedly different 21:00 Life is what dissociation looks like 22:20 Neural correlates + interacting across the dissociative boundary 25:50 Anaesthesia: Mistaking unresponsiveness for unconsciousness 29:45 Jung’s Metaphysics 31:20 The unconscious is active and creative, not a passive container 34:50 ‘The light’ of metacognition 38:40 Archetypes are primordial templates of manifestation 39:40 ‘The ego is a little boat floating on a raging ocean of psychic activity that it cannot control’ 43:20 Was Jung an idealist? 46:00 Causality + synchronicity: Wolfgang Pauli and Jung 47:10 Individual quantum events are not causal, so they are governed by synchronicities 48:00 Causality itself is an aggregate effect of microscopic level synchronistic effects 53:40 There is an organising principle underlying nature, that you can’t isolate under laboratory conditions 55:50 Active Imagination: Interacting with the imaginal field 01:01:00 The psyche is an ‘Ousia’: something in and of itself 01:03:00 James Hollis: One of the best Jungian analysts and authors 01:04:40 Bernardo’s midlife crisis - the first and second half of life 01:06:20 Individuation explained 01:09:20 ‘The freedom of the Slave’: The impersonal flow of nature channeled through you 01:11:50 The difference between the individuation in the second part of life and the eastern idea of renunciation, and ‘leaving’ the world 01:20:50 Etiology: spontaneous VS deliberate purpose 01:22:20 Individuation = bringing the unconscious into consciousness 01:24:20 Natures mind may not have cognitive planning abilities, be personal or have awareness 01:26:20 Interpreting quantum phenomena through an idealist, Jungian lens 01:34:20 Physical quantities only exist if you look, if you measure 01:35:20 Entanglement and materialism’s difficulty 01:40:20 The states of the world are not physical but probabilistic states, physical states arise from measurement 01:45:20 The implication of the relativity of time regarding evolution 01:46:20 Space time is not fundamental, it’s a cognitive instrument 01:48:20 Primordial truth beyond space time, is projected into space-time 01:51:50 Evolution is a spatio-temporal projection 01:53:30 Are Psi phenomena and military UAP experiencers manifestations of the unconscious? 02:01:20 Anomalous ‘traffic’ across the dissociative boundary 02:02:20 Whoever is behind UAP phenomena knows something about reality that we don’t 02:03:40 Humility in the face of the unknown about the nature of reality

In the video below, you will find three hours of interview footage with Jung himself. The sound has been “cleaned up” and it’s best taken a bit at a time.

Time signatures:

0:00 Persona Archetype 7:00 Ego (consciousness) 7:35 The Self Archetype 11:15 Explains Archetypes 16:14 Continues with the Self Archetype - Total Personality (Conscious+Unconscious) 17:15 Extroversion - Introversion 23:30 Psyche of Man, The Greatest Danger 29:30 Explains Intuition 38:20 Difference Intuitive Extrovert - Intuitive Introvert 53:20 Concept of Synchronicity 57:50 Consciousness 1:03:00 Motivation of a Person (Jung Psychic Energy vs Freud Libido). 1:08:32 Two Views of Motivation: History vs Present 1:12:14 Possession by the Unconscious. Analysis of Dreams 1:18:30 The Personal Unconscious & Collective Unconscious 1:31:22 Introduction Theory of Personality. We are not born Tabula Rasa 1:39:10 Process of Individuation 1:39:50 Carl Jung with Albert Einstein 1:44:30 Mandala Archetype. Wholeness, Total Personality (Self) 1:49:35 Association Test 1:56:00 Psycho-somatic medicine. Psychic Factors (Tuberculosis, Cancer, Arthritis...) 2:11:50 Schizophrenia, Hysteria, Psychopathy 2:17:55 Carl Jung's Book Symbols of Transformation and schism with Freud 2:23:26 Study of Humanities. Is it Important to understand the individual? 2:28:15 Jung's Psychology of Opposites/Archetypal experiences

Finally, here is a powerful 10-hour series of interviews with Marie-Louise von Franz, Jung’s long-time friend and colleague, which is in effect a course on the subject of dream analysis. It is hosted by Marion Woodman, and I would recommend skipping Woodman’s commentaries whenever they pop up. I found them unnecessary (although, you might give them a try and make your own judgment).

Time signatures and description:

0:00 Intro 1:08 Descent into Dreamland 26:46 Charting the Unconscious 53:12 The Structure of Dreams 1:19:10 The Living Symbol 1:47:07 The Ladder to Heaven 2:11:24 The Forgotten Language 2:37:13 Epilogue – Marion on the Living Symbol 3:06:05 Introduction 3:07:01 Our Shadow Knows 3:33:13 The Devouring Mother 4:01:02 Slaying the Dragon 4:23:30 Looking Through the Moon 4:48:08 The Inner Bride 5:14:02 Epilogue – Marion on men: the feminine in men 5:26:54 Introduction 5:28:23 Hell Has No Mirrors 5:54:16 The Hanged Man 6:17:59 The Tyrant 6:42:31 Flying Through Roofs 7:07:11 The Inner Guide 7:36:10 Epilogue – Marion on women: the masculine in women 7:53:02 Introduction 7:54:12 Liberation of the Heart 8:36:55 Dreams of a Lifetime 9:04:07 The Maker of Dreams 9:30:27 Epilogue – Marion on Relationships 9:43:41 Biographies (Jung, von Franz, Fraser Boa, Marion Woodman)

About this video: Dr. phil. Marie-Louise von Franz, arguably Carl Jung's most accomplished student and collaborator, discusses the core concepts of dream interpretation in the framework of analytical psychology: common dream motifs, typical differences between men's and women's dreams, their unique challenges regarding individuation, and the role of dreams in mythology and religion around the world.

Dr. von Franz' encyclopaedic knowledge and profound insight into human nature, rounded off by her refined sense of humour all make these interviews a legendary pleasure to watch. It is without a doubt the most comprehensive and intriguing documentary on the topic you'll ever watch.