DREAM TELEPATHY: Is it real?
This Jungian Life
Jung took dream telepathy seriously and struggled to understand the underlying principles that made them possible. Archetypal activation increased their frequency. The unified field that links us all to the collective unconscious might act like a bridge between individuals. We decided to conduct our own experiment. Joseph focused on a secret image at specific times, and a large group of volunteer dreamers tried to identify it. Here’s what happened! LOOK & GROW If you’ve been struggling in the dark, trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy...
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SHADOWLAND: Self-Harm Cults – The Story of Sarah
This Jungian Life
*Content warning: contains references to sexual abuse, animal cruelty, self-harm, and cult exploitation* This is Shadowland, a new podcast experience from This Jungian Life that explores the lives of people who work and take refuge in the hidden places of our culture. We hope our work will bring insight, compassion, and understanding to the darker side of human experience. In that spirit, we meet Sarah, a mother whose daughter was rescued from the self-harm cult called "764." This dangerous group has been identified by the FBI, who continue to prosecute their leaders. Despite those efforts,...
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The Symbolism of Travel Inner and Outer
This Jungian Life
Travel speaks to something far deeper in us than simply going from one place to another; it’s a powerful metaphor for inner change. In our dreams or daydreams, the drive to “hit the road” or venture overseas often signals Psyche’s desire for growth and transformation. Instead of just showing us new sights, these journeys hint at unexplored parts of ourselves—regions of the unconscious that hold insight, energy, or aspects of our own personality we’ve yet to embrace. When you find yourself repeatedly dreaming about traveling or caught up in fantasies of far-off adventures, it...
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FACING REJECTION
This Jungian Life
Facing Rejection forces us to confront what we fear losing—belonging, recognition, identity. Rejection alters how we see ourselves, engage with others, and interpret the world. It shapes unconscious complexes, creates projections, and influences attachment. It appears in myths where exiled figures return transformed, in dreams where locked doors symbolize what we refuse to see, and in defenses against further pain. Healing from rejection requires engaging with its effects, not avoiding them. Some of us externalize rejection, which becomes resentment, further isolating us. Others...
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The Archetypal Brain: Jung from an Evolutionary Perspective
This Jungian Life
With Deb and Joe out this week, Lisa speaks with Gary Clark, a visiting research fellow at the University of Adelaide, about his book Carl Jung and the Evolutionary Sciences. The discussion delves into the influence of indigenous cultures on understanding consciousness, the role of anthropology in Jung's work, and the implications of evolutionary development on human psychology. Humanity's ancient rituals underscore the importance of integrating the primordial emotional brain with the newer neocortex. Reconnecting to these practices in a contemporary setting can help facilitate...
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Changing the Foundation of Personality: the Secret Power of Attitudes
This Jungian Life
Revolutionize Your Nights – Join Dream School and Master Your Dreams! Transformation isn’t about muscling through change—it’s about loosening the grip on rigid perspectives so energy can move. Resist, and the unconscious will find a way forward anyway—through symptoms, dreams, and compulsions that shake up the illusion of control. Neurosis is just a traffic jam in the psyche—energy stuck where it no longer belongs. Real change isn’t an intellectual hack; it’s a shift in how we hold and release energy. The unconscious doesn’t hand out easy answers; it reveals what’s...
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What Remains When All Is Taken: Standing in the LA Wildfires
This Jungian Life
Unlock the Hidden Power of Your Dreams – Join Dream School Today! Fire strips everything away, leaving only what truly matters. In the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires, homes have become ash, familiar streets are unrecognizable, and life feels uncertain. But fire is not just destructive—it is also transformational. Pamela Power, a Los Angeles Jungian analyst and author, joins us in exploring the psychic tensions that arise from this experience. Fire erases yet reveals. It devastates yet clears space for renewal. Loss forces us to let go yet also asks: What endures? Though grief pulls us...
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Feet, Fashion, and Freedom: Shoes as Symbols of Identity
This Jungian Life
Shoes as Symbols connect identity, culture, and creative adaptation. Shoes reflect our movement through life and mark pivotal transitions, helping us hold the tension between vulnerability and agency. They appear in myths and stories as agents of change, signaling the emergence of a new attitude and facilitating its embodiment. The simple act of wearing shoes bridges the physical and psychological, grounding us while enabling exploration. Shoes communicate individual and collective identity, shaping and revealing roles in society. Tales, like Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes and...
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Analyzing Our Childhood Dreams
This Jungian Life
What do our earliest dreams reveal about the hidden forces shaping our lives? Childhood dreams offer unmediated access to the collective unconscious, revealing symbols that shape lifelong development. These dreams often dramatize psyche's early encounters with polarities, fostering individuation through the integration of opposites. Nightmares and numinous imagery invite engagement with shadow and the sacred, acting as catalysts for growth and transformation. By revisiting childhood dreams through active imagination, individuals unlock their latent meanings. These dreams serve as both...
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The Psychology of Meaning: Keys to Authentic Living
This Jungian Life
What gives life meaning and guides us through times of emptiness and uncertainty? The Psychology of Meaning: Keys to Authentic Living explores the processes of self-discovery, purpose, and transformation. Along with James Hollis, Ph.D., we examine how meaning shapes our lives through symbolic living, midlife transitions, dreams, and navigating despair. You’ll gain insights into aligning your inner and outer worlds, reclaiming your lost connections, and making choices that reflect your core values. Join us and wrestle with questions about purpose, fulfillment, and the human journey. Prepare...
info_outlineThe dictionary defines authority as the power to “influence or command thought, opinion or behavior.” Authority’s Latin roots are master, leader, author—thus it lives next to its tough cousin, power. Families, organizations, and governing bodies influence and command us, whether slightly or mightily. Authority has legitimacy, from a traffic officer’s directives to a mentor’s wisdom.
An authority may reward desired behavior or provide expert advice. We can rebel against authority, be coerced into compliance, or fall into identification with a leader. Ultimately, we must claim our own authority in determining values and making decisions. Jung says, “Life calls us forth to independence, and anyone who does not heed this call because of childish laziness or timidity is threatened with neurosis. And once this has broken out, it becomes an increasingly valid reason for running away from life and remaining forever in the morally poisonous atmosphere of infancy.”
Dream
There is a viral outbreak. I'm in a car pulling out into the street. I see a lot of police cars parked to monitor traffic. I'm pulled over by the police and taken to a medical facility for testing. The police officer gets tested first by a shot in the arm and then I'm taken downstairs for a "cheaper, less reliable test for the virus." This seems stupid and vindictive.
My perspective shifts to a news flash vignette showing how amidst the pandemic, young men have regressed into grotesque testicular forms who engage in tribal rituals of dysfunctional, impractical sex, chanting "me to me" or "us to us" like in the sex scene in the film Requiem for a Dream. Very dark and disturbing. The global birth rate is plummeting. From elsewhere on the planet a "pure as the driven snow" baby girl is born and mankind is redeemed.
References:
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind (Amazon).