Monomyth

What needs do mythology and religion serve in today's world and in ancient times? Here we discuss the relationship between mythology, religion and science from mythological, religious and philosophical viewpoints.

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Roncooper
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Post by Roncooper »

I think I am coming at this topic from too foreign a perspective. I read the conclusion from your last post and have more questions than when I started.

I think I need to ask simple questions.

Did Jung believe that the collective unconscious was man made?

Did he believe in a transcendent consciousness that was independent of man?

I need to come at this slowly. Little steps for little feet.

Ron

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

Roncooper wrote:Did Jung believe that the collective unconscious was man made?
From Jung's The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Definition, p.42:

"The collective unconscious is a part of the psyche which can be distinguished negatively from a personal unconscious by the fact that it does not, like the latter, owe its existence to personal experience and consequently is not a personal acquisition. While the personal unconscious is made up essentially of contents which at one time have been conscious but which have disappeared from consciousness through having been forgotten or repressed, the contents of the collective unconscious have never been in consciousness, and therefore have never been individually acquired, but owe their existence exclusively to heredity. Whereas the personal unconscious consists for the most part of complexes, the content of the collective unconscious is is made up essentially of archetypes..."


From Edinger's Outline of Analytical Psychology:

"...The contents of the collective unconscious are called archetypes and their particular symbolic manifestations, archetypal images...The concept of the archetype has a close relation to the concept of instinct. An instinct is a pattern of behavior which is inborn and characteristic for a certain species. Instincts are discovered by observing the behavior patterns of individual organisms. The instincts are the unknown motivating dynamisms that determine an animal's behavior on the biological level...An archetype is to the psyche what an instinct is to the body. The existence of archetypes is inferred by the same process as that by which we infer the existence of instincts. Just as instincts common to a species are postulated by observing the uniformities in biological behavior, so archetypes are inferred by observing the uniformities in psychic phenomena. Just as instincts are unknown motivating dynamisms of biological behavior, archetypes are unknown motivating dynamisms of the psyche. Archetypes are the psychic instincts of the human species. Although biological instincts and psychic archetypes have a very close connection, exactly what this connection is we do not know any more than we understand just how the mind and body are connected..."


For basic information regarding the Jungian Structure of the Psyche, go here:
The Collective Unconscious and Self
Consciousness and the Ego
The Personal Unconscious and Complexes

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Did he believe in a transcendent consciousness that was independent of man?
I, anyway, Ron, do not recall ever having read Jung discuss a "transcendent consciousness." He did, however, suggest the existence of a transcendent reality that he called the unus mundus or "one world."



This helps, I hope. :)
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

Roncooper
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Post by Roncooper »

Thank you for the post.

From what I understand, I would take both answers to be yes. I labeled Unus Mundus as transcendent conciousness because I have been studying Hinduism.

It appears that Jung used the concept of syncronicity to point to Unus Mundus. I was surprised that he worked with Pauli on this. Pauli was a first class physicist who was known for being very critical.

I think we have all had experiences of syncronicity. I"ve had a few. You might enjoy this one I find most intriguing.

One day I was sitting on a couch and the image of my oldest sister appeared in my head. My sister and I were not close. We hadn't seen each other in a few years and hadn't even talked in a year or so, and so I was surprised by this image. The Image said, "I have cancer," to which I responded, "Are you going to die?" She then responded," Don't be silly." and the image went away. A few minutes later the phone rang and it was my sister telling me she had cancer.

Ron

jim baird
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Post by jim baird »

While this thread has sort of de-railed I will toss another twig onto the pyre of its phoenix-like rise from the ashes of its former self.

The current issue of The Sun magazine has an interview with a cellular biologist named Rupert Sheldrake. He is loaded with academic cred, yet he is viewed askance by many because he conducts experiments in "paranormal" activity and ESP.

One topic he has "shown" to be "normal" is exactly the phenom Ron Cooper mentions about thinking of someone who then calls on the phone.

Back to the OP and the monomyth, is not the idea of monomyth much like Noam Chomsky's theory of Universal Grammar, the idea that all languages share aspects of structure?

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Post by Cindy B. »

Hey, guys.

I have some comments to make on your last two posts, but my concentration's been lousy for a couple days, so I'll be back to this thread soon and today, I hope.

In the meantime and to keep this thread on track in terms of the monomyth and associated concepts, please feel free to start new discussions on synchronicity and Sheldrake if you'd like. You're welcome to start a new topic on synchronicity in the Jung: Part Three thread, Ron, and Jim, Sheldrake's ideas suit the The Conversations With a Thousand Faces forum.

And Ron, I hope that all's well with your sister.

:)
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

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