Taking a different route than what I normally post about, I've recently been having discussions with others about different philosophies and ways to unlock the mind. This post is basically a general outline of what had been discussed and a collection of different perspectives on the topic of Jungian philosophy. Hopefully, if you can make it through the whole thing you, yourself, might be able to use the information to find your self. Also of note is that we are not experts in any of this but found it enjoyable to just open up and take a look at different perspectives.
Jung displays 5 archetypes:
1)
The Persona - This is the perception your physical self gives off. What stereotypes you fall in to, how you adapt to others in the physical world. Ex: When someone asks you what you do, what you believe in, where you're from. Your persona would be your answers; Doctor, Christianity, Texas, etc. Your persona is how you are perceived. You can have several personas’ that can all adapt to different experiences and different roles the individual identifies with. The persona is a compromise between individual and society as to what a man should appear to be. “The Persona is how you express yourself...you express yourself through your belief paradigms. Paradigms are filters in that they limit infinity to the finite. The persona is the 'box' you choose to live in. (TR)”
2)
The Ego - It is the "I," it is your consciousness. It is your beliefs; it is what you let in to it. If you choose to be closed-minded and never explore other's opinions or beliefs your ego will be small and guarded. If you choose to open your ego (mind) and explore other beliefs and opinions your ego's "fence/cage" will grow its boundaries, your ego will grow. Your ego organizes and structures your persona. The ego is also the threshold at which you start to understand your conscious and unconscious understandings.
The collective unconscious is a force that lies within all individuals that has a potential of either creativity or destruction (this seems to be where people can start the philosophical argument over whether human beings are helpful, caring, sharing in nature or if they are a species of hurtful, selfish, deceitful individuals). It is the common bedrock of all human being's psyches. I take this to mean that it is what we would understand as people's morals and ethics. An example would be: If someone had all the power, money, and understanding in the world how would they choose to use their knowledge? This is what the collective unconscious ego is, would they share their wealth, keep it to themselves, only help those they know, etc. Because it is the collective unconscious of everyone it cannot be determined because people have been nurtured in to believing what they do until they decide to start to unlock their personal unconsciousness.
The ego uses the collective unconsciousness to shape your personal consciousness and unconsciousness mind to balance how far it can see in to who you are as a person, what your decisions will be, how your decisions are shaped. The more you unlock the collective unconsciousness of the human psyche the more the laws and functions of your own personal unconsciousness change and shape your personal consciousness of who you are.
Broken down it seems to be a heavier thinking of the nature vs nurture argument. Nature = the collective unconsciousness, nurture = how large your ego's boundaries are, by forgoing what everyone has told you or made you to believe, you enlarge the boundary/fence of your ego out and start to explore your personal and the collective unconsciousness.
In theory, the more you enlarge your fences/boundaries the more you defeat your ego. Defeating it in the sense that you are breaking away from what you have been nurtured and shaped to believe and growing your mind in to finding yourself and your nature.
“A. Inner to Outer - The Self impresses thoughts and Archetypes upon the subconscious Mind which then makes impressions upon the Ego. Only the thoughts/images which fit into the Ego's belief paradigm can pass onto the Persona. If the thoughts being sent from the Self, through the Subconscious, do not match the Ego-beliefs, then they will not pass. If the thoughts do fit into the Ego's beliefs, they will pass through to the Persona to be expressed outwardly.
B. Outer to Inner - If the Persona perceives a thought from the Outside World that does not match up to the Ego's beliefs, it will not be seen as 'useful'...it will be ignored. If someone says something that goes against your religious beliefs, the Ego will keep them from entering the Inner World. If someone says something that you agree with, your Ego will allow for it to pass and it will become a part of your Ego's belief paradigm.
The Ego is complicated...it is a quantum system. It is in control of so many things. That is why you must kill the Ego (restrictive beliefs) before you can start gaining Light/Consciousness. The Ego controls the amount of Light you have...it controls your beliefs, thoughts, emotions and experiences. The Ego has a Mind of its own and if you are not in control of it, then it is running the show. (TR)”
3)
The Shadow - "The shadow is a person (or an animal) of the same sex which you feel negatively against. Furthermore, the shadow is always in contact with other interests, so that it s continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected. The shadow is the thing a person has no wish to be. The shadow can be known as well as unknown. It can gradually transform into a guide. The shadow is in a compensatory relationship with the relative light of the conscious ego. The shadow can be a person of the same sex who exhibits positive qualities, wise, intuitive, authoritative, outspoken, blissful etc- If the individual does not want to acknowledge these qualities in him. The shadow embodies a lack of flexibility in the emotional level, and accordingly a lack of emotional clarity in connection to oneself and others, as the shadow normally is projected. Negatively loaded animals in dreams move the consciousness downwards, to deeper levels, to aggression and fear and depression, and thus they should be handled with care in dream work. The shadow can be known as well as unknown. That is the nature of this archetype, it is the receptacle for all of that which we have for one reason or another disowned."
This is everything you have ever witnessed consciously or unconsciously. Think of your shadow as a large waste dump where there's nothing but piles and piles of trash. There's a saying that goes "one mans trash is another mans gold." Even though it may be ones gold one will still have to dig through the trash to find it. This is the same with the shadow, one can find positive attributes buried below the trash, but because one would have to sift through so many negative qualities it can become an overwhelming task and if the person is not mentally strong enough it can lead them in to a deep and dark state of depression where they only become surrounded by the negative feelings.
An example of this would be someone who grows up in a strict conservative household and whose parents have continuously pushed them to do things the parents feel right. Such as, the person might've had aspirations to become an artist or a teacher but the parents didn't feel as though that was good enough so they pushed them to a business degree to become a cutthroat CEO because that is what their "society" is more accepting of. This person could find the characteristics of a creative, helpful, teacher in their shadow that has been buried, because they have been pushed so far in another direction. The danger of finding this information would transcend from searching within to find out that that person had never truly followed their path and it was paved by others, something that some people might have a hard time coming to realization with, therefore leading them down a road of depression, fear, or aggression to those figures.
“The Shadow is nothing more than a measuring post. It tells you everything you do not want to be or classified as. You must compare this to everything you desire to be. It is duality and balance. The Shadow is the dark end of the spectrum and your goal is to balance it out. In a way, it is a 2-way exchange. Both you and the Shadow have to be willing to change. You have to accept aspects of the Shadow and integrate them, and the Shadow has to do the same thing. Once you balance the Shadow, you defeat the Shadow. The Shadow is a teacher in that it is a measuring post...it allows for you to see where your beliefs are unbalanced. (TR)”
4)
The Anima/Animus - "The Anima is the female souls image of a man, the Animus the male soul image of a woman. That is the simplest definition, and one which many struggle with, since Jung seems quite absolute in defining a person's soul image as gender opposite." The anima/animus is if you were to look in to the mirror and saw the opposite sex looking back at you revealing exactly what you are looking for in sex and in life. "is a androgynous figure that is a metaphorical representations of your Self. You want to understand yourself as a balanced unit, at every level. You are getting a taste of what your True Nature is like.(TR)" It's almost like that Wedding Crashers quote "True love is your souls recognition of itself in another." As a male or as a female you have to unshield your masculinity or femininity to an Androgynous state to find the middle of two polar opposites, creating a magnet in the middle where you can reveal the main direction for the total libido or life-energy of oneself. It could be considered a personal mind journey in the same sense of physically finding the person of opposite sex through the journey of life. We spend our physical lives looking for the opposite sex to marry, and procreate with. This can be synonymous with our mind trying to find itself as well. When you find it, you know you have found the one, especially when you can look at it from an outside perspective by blocking out your emotions and ego to see that you have truly found it without looking through a clouded veil of blinders.
“The Shadow and Animus help you determine what being 'whole' looks like. The Anima shows you feminine Energies (Sacred Feminine) that you have been missing. You must now take these Energies and balance them against the Shadow. The Shadow helps you balance the Energies of your sex and the Animus helps you balance the Energies of the opposite sex. Your Higher Self is Androgynous and you are trying to match it in this way. This doesn't mean you become bi-sexual...it means you learn how to express feminine emotions in a balanced way. Alpha = male, Omega = female. You have to realize that your True Nature is not male/female. You're not trying to change your Outside World, you are trying to make your Inner World match that of your Higher Self. Your Higher Self is the one who impress the Shadow and Animus archetypes into the subconscious for you to meet. Your HS knows where are going and what kind of balance you need.
Think of it this way...you used to be whole and you are trying to put back the pieces exactly like they were before you 'fell'. (TR)”
5)
The Self - "The Self is simply the centre and the totality of the entire psyche. It is the archetype which contains all the other archetypes and around which they orbit. It's something of a paradox, and extremely difficult for the conscious ego to accept." "The self is individualized Spirit, whose essential nature is ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss. The self or soul is mans inner fountainhead of love, wisdom, peace, courage, compassion, and all other divine qualities. Only when this midpoint, the Self, has been found and integrated, can one speak about a well-rounded man. For only then has he solved the problem of his relation to the two realms, which make up every mans life, the outward and the inner reality. Both ethically and intellectually, this is an extremely difficult task, which can be successfully performed only by the fortunate few, those elected and favored by grace."
The self is your mind in it's entirety, it's what the other four archetypes orbit. It is the sun to our earth and planets. "When you think of the 'Self', think of the total package...the Mind, body and Spirit. You exist here in 3D but you have a Higher Self in 5D that helps to guide you and is in charge of removing your veil when you are ready for more. The Higher Self is the Christ that speaks to you and it is the one who creates your Mind-Body-Spirit-Complex. The Biblical Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost - are the 3 aspects of you in your Inner World...the goal is turn 3 into 1. I see the Son as the Me (M/B/S-complex). I see the Father as the Universal Mind (collective subconscious). I see the Holy Ghost as the Higher Self. The goal is for the MBS-Complex to wake up, and then start getting in touch with the Universal Mind, which is when your Higher Self starts working with you. Once it starts working with you, then you can become to turn 3 into One...become whole again. (TR)"
You can think of the self being different points of view. Your ego being locked inside your head with your thoughts. Now, Imagine with your mind that your imaginative mind flew out of your brain and held a camera over yourself. You are recording your actions and watching them at the same time. You see how your facial expressions are being shown to everyone else, what you physically look like to everyone else. You are able to watch and see yourself balanced, almost as if you are able to critique yourself and analyze your actions, just as a sportscaster would critique and analyze a football game. This would be comparable to finding your higher self, with this you can see what you are doing now and even move about to see how to plan the future.
Going back to the ego, the more you erase your ego, and allow more information to open your fences and boundaries the more information your higher self has to help plan outside of you. It would be like, while driving you could see a mile down the road that there was a wreck so you take the next exit. It increases your intuitive decision making, the less ego you have, the more balanced information you present yourself with the better you can see and plan your future.
“Your Ego can only process linear data. Your Self can process quantum data. Your Ego can only lead you left or right. Your Self can lead you anywhere but it will always lead you to where you need to get. If you cannot communicate with the Self, you are walking your own path. Your have to match your human Free Will with the Divine Will of your Self. It is a game of matching up and balancing. (TR)”
Archetypes and the Individuation Process "Jung described the individuation process as moving towards a hypothetical goal, to be a Self."
"A healthy person wanting to go in depth with exploration and utilising her qualities" "In its broad outlines the individuation process is inherent in man and follows regular patterns. It falls into two main, independent parts, characterised by contrasting and complementary qualities. These parts are the first and second halves of life. The task of the first part is initiation into outward reality. Through consolidation of the ego, differentiation of the main function and of the dominant attitude type, and development of an appropriate persona, it aims at the adaptation of the individual to the demands of his environment. The task of the second half is a so-called initiation into the inner reality, a deeper self-knowledge and knowledge of humanity, a yearning back to the traits of ones nature that have hitherto remained unconscious or become so. By raising these traits to consciousness the individual achieves an inward and outward bond with the world and the cosmic order." - Jolande Jacoby: CG Jung
An example would be you are born in to a house with many rooms, all of the rooms have different answers, but there are no lights on in the house. You start life in a large dark room and throughout life you hit the walls of the room until eventually you find the light switch and that one room illuminates. You start to see there is more out there, you see there are many more rooms so you have to continuously keep moving forward turning on lights as you go.
Individuation and Alchemy Alchemy basically was an early reference of chemically turning base metals in to gold. Alchemy to Jung is the individuation process. It is taking your inner unconscious/subconscious thoughts and turning them in to conscious reality. The more "base metal" (unconscious/subconscious) you can turn in to "gold" (conscious reality) the richer more balanced your self will become. Some might say it is what Christians would commonly describe as "being born again in Christ" they are starting to unshield their veils and see the light. An article TR provided on how Jungian Philosophy corresponds with the Bible: http://rakkav.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/the-bible-jung-and-human-nature/
Alchemy is something that can be used in every aspect of Life. It is basically a paradigm that helps you take the unseen and make it seen. You can use Alchemy at all 3 levels of your being. You can use it to gain more Light internally or you can use it to understand chemistry. Tesla was an alchemist...he took his thoughts (subconscious) and turned them into physical products. In this sense, Tesla is 1 in trillion. Can you imagine designing an 180 foot Tesla Tower and build it yourself only using your Mind for blueprints? That is fucking nuts. It is hard for me to imagine what Tesla's imagination was like I will read the article you posted once I get done writing this. You should check out this dude: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell . I consider him to be a Tesla/Jefferson/Jung type...one of the few Minds who brought a lot of darkness into the Light. He was the master at comparative religion and mythology. The wikipedia article will give you some background and I will try to find some good articles on him. (TR)”
Transformative Learning "Is a term used in educational theory to describe a process which leads the learner to re-evaluate past beliefs and experiences which had previously been understood within assumptions derived from others."
As an example think of the scene in "You, Me, and Dupree" where Dupree talks to the classroom of kids about finding their pods, some people find them immediately, some people it takes a while. Transformative learning is when an unexplainable feeling hits you and just makes you re-evaluate everything. It's not saying that everything you believe in is not right, or that it is false, but it is saying "hey, buddy, why don't you just take a second look at this and tell me how you got to this point?" It's a questioning of the mind. A seed that is being planted that could grow the key to unlocking the ego. It's the process of transformative learning.
