darvocet21
Bluelighter
- Joined
- May 31, 2021
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One of the major themes in the writings of CG Jung is an often repeated caution that the Unconscious is not to be trifled with, much less directed or controlled. Especially it's dark or Shadow side which has a "kind of autonomy" ...
“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.”
Here he is referring to the shadow of the personal unconscious comprised of one's own traumatic memories, dreams, thoughts & experiences that have been repressed from our conscious mind. It is a dubious suggestion that these can be overcome and integrated quickly and easily.
"Closer examination of the dark characteristics – that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow – reveals that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an obsessive or, better, possessive quality.” (emphasis mine)
One should not tempt demons, since they can weaponize your deepest fears against you. The Individuation Process, emphasized Jung, was the work of a lifetime, requiring courage that is often hard won.
The problem grows infinitely greater in dealing with the Shadow Archetype of the Collective Unconscious, comprised the repressed conscious contents of the sum total of Human Experience. An awful lot of that is composed of experiences that would be emotionally shattering. What most people refer to as bad trips are spiritual maladies (and not even necessarily our own in a biographical sense) and therefore pose serious risks to spiritual well-being. And it's a situation made worse by the ironclad materialism dominating Western psychiatry and science at the present.
"Modern society came into existence during the industrial revolution, when large portions of the population were driven from small towns into big cities in search of work and opportunity – instigating the birth of a mass society. While the development of a mass society generated benefits through the intensification of the division of labor, it also brought perilous problems.
“This new form of existence…produced an individual who was unstable, insecure, and suggestible.” (Jung, The Fight With the Shadow)
The suggestion taking psychedelics now or having done so in the past makes one a better person is not borne out from experience. In my own life I have known at least two people who committed suicide within weeks of a shattering psychedelic experience. Moreover those who do not resort to such desperate acts have little in the way of helping them make sense of the overwhelming sense of life's futility and their powerlessness coupled with the paradoxical feeling of guilt and shame, to which no amount of antipsychotic can address since it hasn't a materialistic basis. They often find themselves emotionally adrift, seeking out metaphysical answers and are easy prey for religious and political cults. And yet they're acting on an instinct which is correct: Modern Life is intolerable, a catch-22, requiring the suppression of much of what is best in one's nature.
“How totally different did the world appear to medieval man! For him the earth was eternally fixed and at rest in the centre of the universe…Men were all children of God under the loving care of the Most High, who prepared them for eternal blessedness; and all knew exactly what they should do and how they should conduct themselves in order to rise from a corruptible world to an incorruptible and joyous existence. Such a life no longer seems real to us, even in our dreams.” (Jung, The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man)
There are no shortcuts in the struggle for self-acceptance and peace of mind apart from miracles. As a deeply faithful yet practical man he both believed in Grace, saw its power to transform lives (as with his most famous patient, Bill W, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous) and yet at the same time believed it insufficient during the course of our lives without work, both inner and outer.
After death was another story, one which was deeply personal to him later in life when he suffered a major heart attack and a classic near-death experience, which he described vividly in his autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections on condition it not be published until after his death.
A deeper examination of this can be found here.
William Blake, Nebuchadnezzar
“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.”
Here he is referring to the shadow of the personal unconscious comprised of one's own traumatic memories, dreams, thoughts & experiences that have been repressed from our conscious mind. It is a dubious suggestion that these can be overcome and integrated quickly and easily.
"Closer examination of the dark characteristics – that is, the inferiorities constituting the shadow – reveals that they have an emotional nature, a kind of autonomy, and accordingly an obsessive or, better, possessive quality.” (emphasis mine)
One should not tempt demons, since they can weaponize your deepest fears against you. The Individuation Process, emphasized Jung, was the work of a lifetime, requiring courage that is often hard won.
The problem grows infinitely greater in dealing with the Shadow Archetype of the Collective Unconscious, comprised the repressed conscious contents of the sum total of Human Experience. An awful lot of that is composed of experiences that would be emotionally shattering. What most people refer to as bad trips are spiritual maladies (and not even necessarily our own in a biographical sense) and therefore pose serious risks to spiritual well-being. And it's a situation made worse by the ironclad materialism dominating Western psychiatry and science at the present.
"Modern society came into existence during the industrial revolution, when large portions of the population were driven from small towns into big cities in search of work and opportunity – instigating the birth of a mass society. While the development of a mass society generated benefits through the intensification of the division of labor, it also brought perilous problems.
“This new form of existence…produced an individual who was unstable, insecure, and suggestible.” (Jung, The Fight With the Shadow)
The suggestion taking psychedelics now or having done so in the past makes one a better person is not borne out from experience. In my own life I have known at least two people who committed suicide within weeks of a shattering psychedelic experience. Moreover those who do not resort to such desperate acts have little in the way of helping them make sense of the overwhelming sense of life's futility and their powerlessness coupled with the paradoxical feeling of guilt and shame, to which no amount of antipsychotic can address since it hasn't a materialistic basis. They often find themselves emotionally adrift, seeking out metaphysical answers and are easy prey for religious and political cults. And yet they're acting on an instinct which is correct: Modern Life is intolerable, a catch-22, requiring the suppression of much of what is best in one's nature.
“How totally different did the world appear to medieval man! For him the earth was eternally fixed and at rest in the centre of the universe…Men were all children of God under the loving care of the Most High, who prepared them for eternal blessedness; and all knew exactly what they should do and how they should conduct themselves in order to rise from a corruptible world to an incorruptible and joyous existence. Such a life no longer seems real to us, even in our dreams.” (Jung, The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man)
There are no shortcuts in the struggle for self-acceptance and peace of mind apart from miracles. As a deeply faithful yet practical man he both believed in Grace, saw its power to transform lives (as with his most famous patient, Bill W, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous) and yet at the same time believed it insufficient during the course of our lives without work, both inner and outer.
After death was another story, one which was deeply personal to him later in life when he suffered a major heart attack and a classic near-death experience, which he described vividly in his autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections on condition it not be published until after his death.
A deeper examination of this can be found here.
William Blake, Nebuchadnezzar
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