Encounters with UFOs and Extraterrestrials. Phenomenology of the spirit.

 

Encounters with UFOs and Extraterrestrials. Phenomenology of the spirit.

José Delgado González. Junguian oriented psychotherapist.

 

During the meeting I had in September 2018 with the Jungian therapist Raúl Ortega in Huelva we dealt with a central theme for every Jungian: what we could call the phenomenology of the self. We were talking about encounters with unidentified flying objects and their supposed crew members, that is, with extraterrestrials.

We take as a starting point and reference the experience of a UFO encounter with extraterrestrial beings that a 12-year-old boy had. The person who had this encounter was Juan Perez. At present Juan is approximately 52 years old. But at the age of 12 he had an encounter that produced such a shock that it took about 40 years for his consciousness to assimilate. And that experience transformed his life radically. I told Raul that I had seen a documentary film entitled "Witness of another world" at the Princess Cinemas in Madrid, which dealt precisely with the case of Juan Perez, and that I found it extraordinary.

In this documentary, the director Alan Stivelman goes to the town where the contacted Juan Perez lives, in Argentina, to talk to him about the experience he had and the repercussions it had on his life. The first thing that caught my attention was that Juan, at the age of 52, had not yet assimilated that numinous event. When he talked about what had happened to him 40 years ago, his voice was still trembling and he found it difficult to put into words what he was feeling. He would burst into tears and when asked if he would have preferred not to have had that experience, he would answer with a resounding affirmation. The experience of that extraordinary event transformed his life into that of a hermit who lived alone and far from the world, feeling a terrible heaviness because of that experience, which seemed to have sunk him. Juan, in the documentary, affirmed that, after the UFO encounter, his life had changed profoundly and he had been having premonitory dreams ever since. He felt different and the people around him thought he was a stranger, a fool. However, in the documentary we see how important it is to help a person who has had such an experience to assimilate it and to bring him out of isolation, helping him to understand that there are other people who have also had a similar experience. At the same time, the documentary shows us that it is essential for the person to be integrated into a community that understands the meaning of that extraordinary experience.

This documentary and its extraordinary content helped Raul and me to start a conversation about what we could call the phenomenology of the spirit.

One of the criticisms we made of the conclusion reached by the director of the documentary was that for Alan that experience lived by John could be explained through an inner experience transferred to the outer reality, that is, through a projection. Basically, this is the tonic of most Jungian psychologists, who explain the experience of the numinous through the mechanism of projection of the contents of the collective unconscious. However, Jacques Vallée explained it in a different way, speaking of other worlds or other dimensions, alluding to quantum physics. The latter explanation is, in our opinion, much more in line with the reality of the phenomenon. Although I, in most of my writings, speak of the projection of the contents of the collective unconscious into manifest reality, and thus make an immanent explanation, I am aware, as is Raul, that experiences such as Juan's cannot be explained solely through subjective experiences. The spirit of depth and the archetypes constitutive of that spirit cannot be understood solely from the point of view of a subjective psychology, but allude above all to a dimension or a world that lies beyond the boundaries of the subjective. It is what we could call the Kingdom of God or Plato's world of perfect ideas. And this world is an objective world, a metaphysical reality, which can manifest itself, as indeed it does, in this material reality, but which does not belong to this reality, but transcends it.

In the psyche this metaphysical reality can also manifest itself in the form of dreams, for example. Such dreams belong to a different category than personal dreams. Hence, as we see in the documentary through the wise old man of the Guarani tribe, they are called true dreams, or great dreams. In these dreams the Real manifests itself, that is to say, those spiritual powers that are part of the spirit of the depth as different attributes of God. It happens in a similar way to when a meditation is performed, such as active imagination. However, not in all cases in which an active imagination is performed, the contents of the collective unconscious are summoned. Sometimes, as happens with dreams of a personal nature, the images refer to subjective aspects that have nothing to do with the authentic archetypal images in which the self-manifests itself to man's consciousness. We could express it concisely as follows: in the deepest immanence (the psyche) the absolutely transcendent (it is spirit of the depth) becomes present.

For this reason, in most encounters with UFOs, they have a material dimension and not only a symbolic one. At this point Raul and I were reflecting on the enormous difference between the reality of the spirit and the realm of intellectual abstraction. For many intellectuals, and also for many Jungians, both realities or dimensions tend to be identified. However, for us there is a quantitative and qualitative difference between the realm of intellectual abstraction, where the option of the symbol and the reflection around the symbolic would fit, on the one hand, and the world of the Real understood as the realm of the divine that has a metaphysical character. The latter world can become present in this immanent reality, as happened to John in his UFO experience. Such an experience can perfectly well be understood as an experience of God. Not as a projection of unconscious contents in objective reality, but as a manifestation of the Real in this phenomenal world.

After this reflection on the reality of God and the transcendent world of the Real, Raul brought up the images drawn by one of his patients after having had a UFO contact that he experienced with his father and mother and that he had sensed several hours before it happened, warning his surprised parents. Again, we were reflecting on the world of the Real, and how in his patient it had manifested itself in this material world.

At that moment I remembered a dream I had around the year 2000 in which I had a UFO contact and in which I was able to talk to the extraterrestrial crew members of a circular craft with a technology far superior to the human one. A dream that left me very surprised and touched and that I still remember in detail. That dream can be understood as one of those great dreams or true dreams because of its archetypal character. It expressed in effect the experience with the world of the Real, that is, with the archetype of the self that had manifested itself to me in that dream in one of the most critical moments of my life. Once again, in the deepest immanence of the soul, the absolutely transcendent manifested itself.

As Jung made clear in his writings, not only in those concerning UFOs, but also in many others around the visionary experiences on mandalas, it is not strange that this type of events is occurring on a scale that transcends the boundaries of any specialty. They have become a quasi-popular phenomenon. What we observe in the profession of psychotherapists is that these phenomena of apparitions and visionary experiences of symbols of totality usually occur in extremely critical moments; many times, they compensate, with symbolic images of unity, totality and divinity, psychic processes of extreme instability and inner chaos. Moments in which psychic and physical health are in danger of disintegrating. For this reason, as Jung expressed it at the time, we believe that the extension of the UFO phenomenon among the world population, and the fact that the number of documents on contacted is increasing, represent an indicative sign, and at the same time a necessary compensation, to the deplorable psychic state to which Western civilization has arrived as a consequence of the death of God, of the degradation of the Christ Symbol as a sign of an eclipse of God.

In another article we saw how narcissism has become the apocalyptic plague of the postmodern world. In fact, the involution towards a materialistic and immanent vision is so terrible that we fear an "evolution" from a narcissistic culture, in which we are already living, to a psychopathic culture; and the success of series about teenage vampires and the living dead (zombies) are a good reflection of such a situation. This psychopathic tendency of Western civilization can be understood as the expression of the hypertrophy of the function of extraverted thinking in the spirit of the age, which begins in the age of Enlightenment, continues with Modernity and culminates in post-modernity, with the excessive development of Biotechnology, transhumanist Philosophy and the development of Artificial Intelligence, to give a few examples. Our era has become satanic as a consequence of the Promethean development of reason. It is not surprising, therefore, that the function of sentiment emerges from the darkness of the unconscious, that is, from the shadow, trying to make its way through collective phenomena such as the spread of feminism or communist collectivism.

The individualistic, cold and calculating dominance of scientific thought is compensated from the unconscious through the constellation of the archetype of the goddess. The dominant of the epoch is symbolized by the expired king, by Saturn or the senex, who is defeated and renovated by the puer aeternus.

Therefore, Raul and I do not agree with expressions like "there are other worlds, but they are in this one". ¡No! For us, there are other worlds, yes, but they are not in this one, but they can manifest in this one, although they belong to other planes of reality. We repeat, the authentically real, which is transcendent, can manifest in the immanent plane, but it is not immanent.

Another of the conclusions we reached was that all material reality, that everything immanent, is supported, sustained and depends on the transcendent reality, on what is authentically Real; in short, on what we can call Mystery. When the veil that hides reality is torn, then the truly Real becomes present, which is the Mystery, or what we call in Analytical Psychology, the self.

As we can see in the documentary about the contacted John, the experience with the world of archetypes can provoke in the consciousness of the person two possible effects:

A) a deflation of consciousness, as happened to our contacted Juan.

B) an inflation of the consciousness, as happened, for example, to OSHO and, in general, to a great part of the people who have had some experience with the supernatural.

In the case of the deflation of the consciousness what happens is, as Juan's testimony shows us, that the consciousness feels crushed and devalued before the numinous experience of the Real.

In the case of inflation of consciousness what happens is just the opposite: that the consciousness is inflated and, for a time, the person contacted may believe himself to be a messenger of God. Believing that his destiny is superior to that of the rest of mortals, or more important, and despising or undervaluing the destiny and the path of others. In Christianity, for example, we can see this effect in Jesus himself when he has his first experiences with the Father and, especially, in the moments when he is tempted by the devil in the desert. Joan of Arc also suffered an inflation at certain moments of her life, misinterpreting the visionary experiences she had, something that also happens in moments of inflation (although not only in those moments).

In any case, such effects can be considered unavoidable or usual and are, in fact, signs that the person has had an authentic experience with the numinous. However, given that these are secondary effects of the experience with the transcendent, it is very important to work in therapy (and/or self-knowledge) in order to bring the experience on track and assimilate it into the consciousness with a view to the manifestation of the contents of the collective unconscious in the life of the person contacted.

Of course, experiences of this nature, which, although not common, have occurred to certain people throughout human history, as the documentary on John exemplifies, call into question any assertion about psychological work prior to any spiritual experience. To begin with, such an experience happens against the will of the contacted, being in fact summoned by the depth (by the archetype of the self), not by conscious intention and desires. Furthermore, such an experience has extraordinary repercussions in the life of the individual. And finally, such experiences, once assimilated by the consciousness, allow the contacted to know what his or her true vocation is and the community of people to which he or she belongs. This is precisely what I tried to develop in two of my novel essays: At the End of the Tunnel and The Brotherhood of the Initiates.  In the first novel I tell the story of an initiate (contacted) in the present time and, in the second, his inclusion in a heterogeneous community of gnostics.

From a psychological and/or therapeutic point of view, the experience of the numinous is traumatic to say the least and, of course, terrible and ominous (fascinating and tremendous, in Rudolf Otto's terms). However, it is the only experience that, for certain people, is healing. Here we should therefore differentiate between "small psychotherapy" or "false psychotherapy", which deals with the symptoms of mental disorders, and "great psychotherapy" or "true psychotherapy", which consists precisely of the experience that Juan had at the age of 12 and which, 40 years later, his consciousness was able to assimilate, leading him to the manifestation of his true vocation in the heart of a Guarani community.

In the light of all these reflections, it is appropriate to bring up, because of its presence in the film, the archetype of the hermit. When this archetype is constellated in the psyche, it pushes the consciousness to withdraw from the world, for the sake of the development of personality number 2, or the development of the inner man. An example of this can be found in Jung himself when he withdrew to the tower of Bollingen. In fact, once the extraverted journey into the world has been made, the movement is towards the ascetic life.

This reflection leads us to reflect on the importance of people understanding what their authentic vocation is: thus, for example, if the monk is the archetype present in the psyche of a woman, as an image of the animus, she should know that her path will probably lead her along the dry path of the convent, or a substitute for it. This is, of course, an uncommon path in our days, since the erotic experience through the body and marital relations, much more common in the experience of Eros in women, would not be part of the nun's path. Thus, fecundation would not come through the body, through erotic relations with a man, through the experience of motherhood and family life, but through her consecration to the spirit, which from above can fecundate her.

 

Bibliography

Delgado González, J. A. (2004). El retorno al Paraíso Perdido. La renovación de una cultura. Soria: Sotabur.

Delgado González, J. (2017). Relaciones tóxicas. Narcisistas y psicópatas. Publicado en: https://www.academia.edu/32778912/RELACIONES_T%C3%93XICAS_NARCISISTAS_Y_PSIC%C3%93PATAS

Delgado González, J. (2020). COVID-19 y la Crisis de la Civilización Occidental. Publicado en: http://psicologiaespiritualidad.blogspot.com/2020/04/covid-19-y-la-crisis-de-la-civilizacion.html

Delgado González, J. (2020). AVATAR. ¿El nacimiento de un Nuevo Paradigma? Amazon.

Jung, C. G. (2001). Civilización en transición. Madrid: Ed. Trotta. Vol. 13. O.C.

Jung, C. G. (2002). Mysterium Coniunctionis. Madrid: Ed. Trotta. Vol. 14. O.C.

Von Franz, M-L. (1982). C. G. Jung. Su mito en nuestro tiempo. Madrid: Ed. FCE.

JUNGUIAN WORLDVIEW

 

JUNGUIAN WORLDVIEW

José Delgado González. Psychologist and Junguian-oriented therapist.

 

Welcome to Junguian Psychology. Today I am going to talk about the Jungian worldview, that is, the way in which from the Junguian orientation we approach Psychology in particular, and the world in general. At first, I am going to focus on some fundamental guidelines that are part of the Jungian paradigm, that is, how we understand the psyche from a Jungian orientation.

To begin with, the object of study of psychology, as its very name indicates, is the soul or psyche. Therefore, it is not reduced only to the rational or conscious mind, and even less to the biology of the brain. The soul is the realm of emotion and imagination, abandoned and cursed not only by science, but also by the confessions.

One of the fundamental issues that arises in the consultation is the way in which the psyche is approached in the Western model of psychology. Thus, the aim is to transpose to the study of the soul the somatic or biological model, more typical of medicine than of psychology. Thus, the real object of treatment and study of psychology disappears: the psyche or the soul.

As we said above, the soul expresses itself in the realm of emotions and images. It is a world of images that flows like the flowing of the waters, or is reflected in the mirror of a fountain whose water returns to the place from which it came. We psychologists observe it in dreams, in the imagination and in creative activity (and, of course, in everything that the patient refers to). The psyche is, in truth, an image of the world. Consciousness can see the world from within when it observes the soul. Hence, all the conflicts that occur in the world are also occurring in the psyche of the individuals who participate in the world. The war in Ukraine is not only between Russia and Ukraine, as other countries are involved and, in the end, two paradigms or ways of seeing the world.

The Russian-Ukrainian war is also taking place in the psyche of those of us who live in these turbulent times. Today it is still ignored that each individual, each person, is a brick in the structure of geopolitical organizations and, therefore, participates in their conflicts. While it is true that people know that, as individuals, they are unimportant and consider themselves victims of uncontrollable powers (the Puebla group, the great magnates, the Euro-deputies, etc.), it is no less true that every individual carries a dangerous shadow and a terrible adversary who is implicated in the sinister machinations of the political monster called government. It is an inherent part of politics to always see evil in others, just as people have the tendency, almost impossible to uproot, to offload everything they do not know about themselves by attributing it to someone else. This tendency causes a separating and alienating effect among the members of society, while the withdrawal of mutual projections encourages understanding and the rapprochement of positions. But for this to happen, self-criticism is essential, since one cannot order the other to become aware of his or her projections.

For he will not recognize them as his own in the same way that he does not recognize them as his own. The only way to recognize prejudice and illusion is to start from a general psychological knowledge that allows us to doubt the belief in the accuracy of the things we suppose in order to compare them with objective facts. It is curious that "self-criticism" is on the lips of communist ideologies. However, this "self-criticism" is always subordinated to the reason of state, that is, to its own reason and not to truth and justice in the treatment of people among themselves. Communist massification is not interested in mutual understanding, nor in the relations between people, but rather in the mental isolation of people. The less connected the individuals are, the more the state organization gains in solidity, and vice versa, the more cohesive the individuals are, the less important the state will be.

On the other hand, modern psychiatry seems to suffer not only from a lack of knowledge of the object of study of psychology, that is, the psyche or the soul, but also, it would seem that it suffers from a lamentable lack of a true psychopathology. The gods are no longer on Olympus, nor do we observe them in the activity of nature. However, we see them at work in psychic ailments, creating pandemics that are enhanced by the mass media and social networks. The pandemics that have spread throughout the world like a malignant tumor are all those ideologies of a mass character, which strip the individual of individual freedom and of the necessary responsibility to take charge of his own life project.

The prevailing model in the current manual of mental disorders (DSM-V) is descriptive, comes from a nineteenth-century paradigm, although the publication of the first manual took place in the mid-twentieth century, and is composed of a set of features that in practice is often impossible to apply to specific cases.

In fact, seen in detail, any person is likely to present several traits or diagnostic criteria without suffering from any disorder or, also, there are overlaps that give rise to comorbidities. Psychology is not reduced to human ethology, as behavioral orientation claims. We repeat: psychology is the scientific study of the psyche. In any case, psychology encompasses the study of behavior and of the rational mind (cognitive as it is called in the academy), but it is not exhausted with it. For the unconscious dimension, in which emotion and image take precedence, is the true object of study of psychology. It is precisely the repression or abandonment of the imagination, which characterizes Western civilization and which began with the Enlightenment, that is the causative factor of all current psychopathology.

It is at least amusing, if not distressing, that the psychopathological model of psychiatry is presented as atheoretical. This is certainly inconceivable, and what happens is that the paradigm of psychiatry loses all its scientific character. For, as we have been pointing out, its theoretical premises are quite evident.

Cognitive psychology, which is derived from a positive psychology by an American author, Martin Seligman, aims to reduce the psychic to the mental. Thus, the object of study of psychology, the soul, is confined solely to the realm of consciousness. As if this were not enough, the aim of this approach is to present a model for achieving happiness. Happiness, of course, would consist of being socially successful. We should all learn from those who have succeeded. Thus, the happiest people should be the most successful. Let us all become influencers, let us all participate in operation triumph, let us all become "gurus" of spirituality or let us all become rich and famous and, with that, according to positive psychology, we will surely be happy and eat partridge.

The great problem of modern psychology and psychotherapy lies, on the other hand, in the lack of scientific certainty about the importance of the moral attitude in the treatment and cure of psychic disorders. It is fundamental what the patient does with the psychic contents that provoke his suffering and discomfort. That he integrates them into his consciousness and takes responsibility for them is vital, not only for his cure, but also for the maturation process that the Jungian psychological treatment promotes and favors.

Finally, I cannot fail to point out the philosophical reductionism that prevails in modern psychiatry. It is reflected in the attempt to reduce everything psychic to a neuronal functioning, so that the object of study of psychology, the soul, disappears or vanishes in the treatment.

It is not surprising that official psychiatry advocates the prescription of psychotropic drugs, all derived from analgesics, with the aim of eradicating or reducing the patient's pain or suffering. Of course, much progress has been made in research on psychotropic drugs and they can be of great help to certain patients. But it tends to become the first choice of treatment in the healthcare system.  This diminishes or eliminates what is fundamental in any psychotherapeutic treatment: the responsibility of the conscious self to take charge of the contents that provoke its suffering. In other words, the patient must take responsibility for his or her emotional life.

This is precisely where the patient's maturity lies and not, as official psychology maintains, in the best adaptation to social reality. One can be psychically an adolescent and be perfectly adapted to the public sphere. On the other hand, the individuation or realization of the patient's depth requires that the person be true to himself, to the voice that comes from the spirit that dwells in his deepest immanence (the psyche).

Unfortunately, modern psychology, as part of the spirit of this time, misunderstands the meaning of the term self, which Jungians use to refer to the experience of the sacred or numinous, to the core of the psyche, expressly differentiating it from the ego as the center of consciousness.

This lack of understanding, this manifest confusion between the personal and transpersonal dimensions is expressed in the foolish equating of diligent attention to depth with a kind of "spiritual narcissism". This is tantamount to identifying individualism with individuation. Of course, this unconscious identity tends to occur when a sufficient differentiation between the two dimensions has not been achieved: one does not have the remotest idea of the deep dimensions of the psyche, that is, of what we Jungian psychologists call the collective unconscious.

It is believed that, with the very unfortunate term of Spiritual Narcissism, something singular or novel has been discovered, when in reality it is a very frequent phenomenon, which can be traced in the history of humanity, and which in Jungian psychology we call inflation of the consciousness or, also, "possession" by the effect of an archetype. The ancient Greeks called it heroic hybris.

Inflation of consciousness or hybris occurs when the ego is affected by the action of an archetype. For a certain period of time, the ego identifies itself with the contents constellated or activated by the field of action of an archetype. Examples of inflation due to the effect of the archetype of the social mask or person are the order of the day in politicians, being especially evident in presidents of the government, in ministers and in all those persons who exercise functions in positions of work with certain power; they are also frequent in general directors of large corporations, in doctors, psychiatrists, professors, etc.

When inflation is due to the action of the archetype of the self (or the mana personality) then the ego may feel that it has superior knowledge, or that it is spiritually superior to other human beings: an unconscious identity between the ego and the self is produced. This is, in fact, the initial state or starting point in any individuation process. However, the opposite phenomenon can occur, called deflation of consciousness, as I have already developed in the article Phenomenology of Spirit. Individuation consists in the progressive assimilation and differentiation of the contents of the collective unconscious, that is, the archetypes, by the consciousness.

Another example of inflation is found in the identification between the contents of a dogma and the ego. In this case, inflationary behavior is expressed in an unconscious identity with orthodoxy and is especially noticeable in more or less fanatical attitudes. The history of religions is replete with examples of this type and inflation is responsible for the creation of orthodox positions that confront heterodox ones. In this case there is an identification with the ideas of Truth, Beauty and Goodness and, therefore, the shadow is cast on the heterodox positions, and vice versa. The "possessed" person feels morally superior to the rest of mortals. Both in official Christianity and in the Gnostic movements we find the inflationary phenomenon of the "possession" of the consciousness by the numinous effect of an archetype.

At present, we Jungian psychologists are observing the expansion of the effects of the "possession" of consciousness by the action of an archetype, the archetype of the Goddess, in the extension of feminist ideology. The mass consciousness (not to mention the null self-consciousness of its members) is practically non-existent and the effect of the archetype makes itself felt in the form of a psychic pandemic (ideology) that spreads and potentiates thanks to the mass media and social networks. When this happens, what we Jungian psychologists observe is a terrible disturbance that the unconscious provokes in the collective consciousness of an epoch. The masses are swept along by archetypal powers in a movement that precipitates an enantiodromic reaction whose consequences are as yet unforeseeable.

In the face of the advance of ideologies the only possible antidote is the strengthening of the individual, that is, the man whose consciousness maintains a relationship with his own depth. Such a man can answer affirmatively to the question about the immediate religious experience, about the relationship that his consciousness maintains with the depth, that is, with the Mystery, at the same time Fascinating and Tremendous, whose certainty protects him from dissolution in a mass ideology.

Bibliography

Delgado González, J. (2004). El retorno al Paraíso Perdido. La renovación de una cultura. Soria. Editorial Sotabur. 

Delgado González, J. (2020). Cómo integrar tu sombra. Madrid. Ed. El hacedor de lluvia.

Jung, C. G. (2011). Aion. Contribuciones al simbolismo del sí mismo. Madrid. Ed. Trotta Vol.9/2.

Jung, C. G. (2002) Mysterium Coniunctionis. Madrid. Ed. Trotta. Vol. 14.

 

PONENCIA SOBRE EL PROCESO DE INDIVIDUACIÓN

El próximo sábado 13 de enero de 2024 participo con una ponencia sobre "El proceso de individuación" en ESPACIO RONDA en Madrid. Será a las 20:30. Os dejo toda la información en el siguiente cartel. 

WHO WAS CARL GUSTAV JUNG AND WHAT IS HIS LEGACY?

WHO WAS CARL GUSTAV JUNG AND WHAT IS HIS LEGACY?

José Delgado González. Psychologist and therapist of Jungian orientation.

Three plates from the red book

The topic I am going to discuss today is involved in some controversy within the Jungian community. However, I consider it fundamental to bring it to this blog dedicated to Jungian Psychology. The topic is related to the revolt provoked by the book Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity, published in 2018, by the British philosopher PETER KINGSLEY. KINGSLEY is the author of six books and numerous articles in the area of ancient philosophy, including (Ancient Philosophy, Mysteries and Magic), (In the Dark Places of Knowledge) and (Reality), in addition to the one that concerns us, Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity. PETER KINGSLEY's work deals in depth with the philosophical work and historical context of two great pre-Socratic philosophers: Parmenides and Empedocles. KINGSLEY has introduced to the Jungian community an issue that is especially important to every Jungian, namely the fact that Carl Gustav Jung, in addition to being a renowned psychiatrist, was an initiate into the mysteries of nature.

Of course this matter, that is, that Jung was an initiate into the mysteries of nature or, to put it in Jungian language, an initiate into the depths of the psyche, was already addressed by me a few years earlier, when I wrote the novel AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL. A story about the awakening of the soul, whose third edition is precisely entitled INITIATION. The death rattle of patriarchy. In fact, you can see the video of the presentation of the novel, which was kindly made by the painter and Jungian writer Javier de Prada, and in which we openly expressed that the novel AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL is the narration of an INITIATION to the mysteries of nature, as well as that Jung was an initiate, besides being a scientist. I leave the link to that presentation below in case you want to view it. However, it has not been until PETER KINGSLEY published the 2018 book CATAFALQUE that the Jungian community has taken this fundamental issue seriously. In fact, the vast majority of trainings of Jungian psychologists seem to forget what is nuclear in the Jungian work and, therefore, in the Jungian-oriented psychotherapeutic approach: the INITIATION. And this has become absolutely evident since the publication of Carl Gustav Jung's LIBER NOVUS or RED BOOK in 2009. This book, for those of you who don't know, is the Swiss psychiatrist's most intimate work. In fact, it is the tangible proof of his INITIATION into the mysteries of nature, of his descent into the underworld (that is, into the unconscious) and of his personal encounter with the spiritual powers or archetypes of the collective unconscious. 

Having made this introduction, I wanted to talk to you about a research topic in which I have been immersed for years and which is closely related to Jungian Psychology and its way of approaching the psyche. Until now I have not wanted to talk about this subject in public because it is controversial. But the publication of KINSLEY's book, as well as the interview that the renowned Jungian analyst Murray Stein, author of the book The map of the soul according to Jung, did with him (I leave you a link to the interview) have encouraged me to express my opinion in public. What I want to talk about is the dichotomy between personality number 1, that which is turned towards the world and related to what Jung calls in his theoretical work social mask or person, and personality number 2, which is that which is turned towards the depth of man. This dichotomy is present in Jung, as well as in every person who is immersed in a process of individuation. When a descent into the unconscious is made, the principles that govern the world (the Reality behind reality) are experientially discovered and personality number 2 develops. This personality is in contact with an undercurrent that runs through the history of mankind and draws the "initiate" away from the values of the age (JUNG calls this current the spirit of the depth).

Thus, the more the initiate advances in individuation, the more his consciousness moves away from the values of the epoch and the closer he comes to universal values: the initiate discovers his spiritual filiation, a filiation that connects him, as if it were a brotherhood, with the great initiates of every epoch. 

This, applied to psychiatry and psychology, is a tremendous dilemma: individuation is a matter of very few, as was authentic alchemy or astrology, and, in general, hermeticism. Jungian psychology claims to be the heir of that alchemical-hermetic tradition, and in fact it is, but then it ceases to be a scientific discipline (because it transcends all science) to become the continuator of a millenary spiritual tradition of gnostic character.

Jung tried to put on the mask of a psychiatrist and bring to the collective consciousness (science) his descent into hell (his initiation). However, that is something that had to do with his lionized personality number 1, as a psychiatrist of recognized prestige, which brought him not a few problems. To begin with, he misled or disoriented many seekers, who thought (I very early on too) that this initiation experience could be extended and that it was practically universal (at least in potential). Later, it met with tremendous criticism from true initiates, such as René Guenon, for example. Who, obviously, did not share his messianic zeal.

Thus, Jungian psychology, and its heir and continuation, transpersonal psychology, is in my opinion a modern and/or postmodern version of a gnostic-hermetic tradition. And, as alchemy and hermeticism were in their time, a matter that only concerns a few. Jung's attempt to universalize that experience was a failure, both during Jung's lifetime and after his death, and all Jungian analyst trainings are centered on personality number 1, so that the really important part of the Jungian legacy, which is initiation, the descent into the unconscious and the relationship of consciousness with the spirit of the deep is completely sidelined. Because that experience is precisely summoned by the depth and is not guaranteed by any academic training, nor by any accreditation. Jung himself favored in his theoretical work this confusion by emphasizing so much the number 1 personality, that of a recognized psychiatrist, very much in line with his leonine personality, with that eagerness to obtain prestige in the field of the scientific community. But the truth is that, if we stick to the publications of the Liber Novus or Red Book and the Black Books, we have no other choice but to surrender to the evidence: JUNG was an INITIATE. That said, the importance of the INITIATION lies in the realization of the totality of the INITIATE, that is to say, of the individuand. To be Jungian is not, therefore, the fundamental thing, but only to carry out the process of individuation by being faithful to the voice of the depth.

¿QUIÉN FUE CARL GUSTAV JUNG Y CUÁL ES SU LEGADO?

 

¿QUIÉN FUE CARL GUSTAV JUNG Y CUÁL ES SU LEGADO?

 José Delgado González. Psicólogo y terapeuta de orientación junguiana

Tres láminas del libro rojo.

El tema que voy a tratar hoy está envuelto en cierta polémica dentro de la comunidad junguiana. Sin embargo, considero que es fundamental traerlo a este blog dedicado a la Psicología Junguiana. El tema está relacionado con la revuelta que ha provocado el libro Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity, publicado en el año 2018, del filósofo británico PETER KINGSLEY. KINGSLEY es autor de seis libros y numerosos artículos en el área de la filosofía antigua, entre los que cabe destacar  (Filosofía antigua, misterios y magia),  (En los oscuros lugares del saber) y  (Realidad), además del que nos concierne, Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity. La obra de PETER KINGSLEY trata en profundidad la labor filosófica y el contexto histórico de dos grandes filósofos presocráticos: Parménides y Empédocles. KINGSLEY ha introducido en la comunidad junguiana un asunto que resulta especialmente importante para todo junguiano, como es el hecho de que Carl Gustav Jung, además de ser un psiquiatra reconocido, fue un iniciado en los misterios de la naturaleza.

Por supuesto que este asunto, esto es, que Jung era un iniciado en los misterios de la naturaleza o, para decirlo en lenguaje junguiano, un iniciado en la profundidad de la psique, ya fue abordado por mí unos años antes, cuando escribí la novela AL FINAL DEL TÚNEL. Una historia sobre el despertar del alma, cuya tercera edición lleva por título precisamente INICIACIÓN. El estertor del patriarcado. De hecho, pueden ver el vídeo de la presentación de la novela, que tuvo la amabilidad de hacer el pintor y escritor junguiano Javier de Prada, y en la que expresamos abiertamente que la novela AL FINAL DEL TÚNEL es la narración de una INICIACIÓN a los misterios de la naturaleza, así como que Jung fue un iniciado, además de ser un científico. Les dejo el enlace a dicha presentación más abajo por si la quieren visualizar. Sin embargo, no ha sido hasta que PETER KINGSLEY ha publicado en el año 2018 el libro CATAFALQUE que la comunidad junguiana se ha tomado en serio este tema fundamental. De hecho, la inmensa mayoría de las formaciones de psicólogos junguianos parece olvidar lo que es nuclear en la obra junguiana y, por lo tanto, en el abordaje psicoterapéutico de orientación junguiana: la INICIACIÓN. Y esto se ha hecho absolutamente evidente desde la publicación del LIBER NOVUS o LIBRO ROJO de Carl Gustav Jung en el año 2009. Este libro, para aquellos que no lo sepáis, es la obra más íntima del psiquiatra suizo. De hecho, es la prueba tangible de su INICIACIÓN a los misterios de la naturaleza, de su descenso a los infiernos (o sea, a lo inconsciente) y de su encuentro personal con las potencias espirituales o arquetipos de lo inconsciente colectivo.

Realizada esta introducción, quería hablarles de un tema de investigación en el que llevo años inmerso y que está muy relacionado con la Psicología Junguiana y su modo de abordar la psique. Hasta ahora no he querido hablar sobre este asunto en público porque resulta polémico. Pero la publicación del libro de KINGSLEY, así como la entrevista que le hizo el reconocido analista junguiano Murray Stein, autor del libro El mapa del alma según Jung, (os dejo en enlace a la entrevista en la descripción del vídeo) han provocado que me anime a expresar en público mi parecer. De lo que quiero hablar es de la dicotomía entre la personalidad número 1, aquella volcada hacia el mundo y relacionada con lo que Jung denomina en su obra teórica máscara social o persona, y la personalidad número 2, que es aquella volcada hacia la profundidad del hombre. Una dicotomía que se presenta tanto en Jung, como en toda persona que esté inmersa en un proceso de individuación. Cuando se realiza un descenso a lo inconsciente se descubren experiencialmente los principios que gobiernan el mundo (la Realidad detrás de la realidad) y se desarrolla la personalidad número 2. Esta personalidad está en contacto con una corriente subterránea que atraviesa la historia de la humanidad y le aleja al "iniciado" de los valores de la época (JUNG denomina a esta corriente con el nombre de espíritu de la profundidad). 

Así, cuanto más avanza el iniciado en la individuación más se aleja su consciencia de los valores de la época y más se aproxima a los valores universales: el iniciado descubre su filiación espiritual, una filiación que lo conecta, como si de una hermandad se tratara, con los grandes iniciados de toda época. 

Esto, aplicado a la psiquiatría y a la psicología, supone un tremendo dilema: la individuación es un asunto de muy pocos, como lo fue la alquimia auténtica o la astrología, y, en general, el hermetismo. La psicología junguiana pretende ser la heredera de esa tradición alquímico-hermética, y de hecho lo es, pero entonces deja de ser una disciplina científica (porque trasciende toda ciencia) para convertirse en la continuadora de una tradición espiritual milenaria de carácter gnóstico.

 Jung trató de ponerse la máscara de psiquiatra y llevar a la consciencia colectiva (la ciencia) su descenso a los infiernos (su iniciación). Sin embargo, eso es algo que tenía que ver con su personalidad leonina número 1, como psiquiatra de reconocido prestigio, lo que le acarreó no pocos problemas. Para empezar, despistó o desorientó a muchos buscadores, que pensaron (yo muy al principio también) que esa experiencia de iniciación podía extenderse y que era prácticamente universal (al menos en potencia). Después, se encontró con críticas tremendas por auténticos iniciados, como René Guenon, por ejemplo. Quienes, obviamente, no compartían su afán mesiánico.

De modo que, la psicología junguiana, y su heredera y continuadora la psicología transpersonal, es a mi entender una versión moderna y/o postmoderna de una tradición gnóstico-hermética. Y, como lo fue en su momento la alquimia y el hermetismo, un asunto que solo concierne a unos pocos. El intento de Jung de universalizar esa experiencia fue un fracaso, tanto en vida de Jung, como tras su muerte, y todas las formaciones de analistas junguianos están centrados en la personalidad número 1, de manera que lo realmente importante del legado junguiano, que es la iniciación, el descenso a lo inconsciente y la relación de la consciencia con el espíritu de la profundidad queda completamente al margen. Porque esa experiencia es precisamente convocada por la profundidad y no está garantizada por ninguna formación académica, ni por acreditación alguna. El mismo Jung favoreció en su obra teórica esta confusión al enfatizar tanto la personalidad número 1, la de psiquiatra reconocido, muy en la línea de su personalidad leonina, con ese afán de obtener prestigio en el ámbito de la comunidad científica. Pero lo cierto es que, si nos atenemos a las publicaciones del Liber Novus o Libro Rojo y de los Libros Negros no nos queda otro remedio que rendirnos ante la evidencia: JUNG fue un INICIADO. Dicho esto, la importancia de la INICIACIÓN radica en la realización de la totalidad del INICIADO, es decir, del individuando. Ser junguiano no es, por lo tanto, lo fundamental, sino únicamente realizar el proceso de individuación siendo fiel a la voz de la profundidad.