Carl Gustav Jung wrote “Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” What do we see when we look inside? We discover our connection to the Universe: Our higher power. As Jung put it “In each of us there is another whom we do not know”: Yet.
When my life finally fell apart due to previously undiagnosed mental illness a few years ago I found great solace from despair and comfort in the writings of Carl Jung. His compassion for fellow human beings is unequalled, except perhaps by Dr Gabor Maté. He spoke incontrovertible Truth and proof. He spoke in subtle, Shakespearean soliloquies, of the silent, still voice of spirituality, and of synchronicity. He is one of the most influential scientists and psychiatrists of all time, unravelling the mysteries and miracles of the Universe, like Albert Einstein, through the language of miracles, possibility, and spirituality. History has recorded him as one of the greatest physicians of all time. Why? He opened my eyes to a brave new world of BEing, telling of how every human being has to undergo an inward spiritual, individual, individuating, Universal, yet intimately tailored journey if they are to wake up from the nightmarish pain that we all feel, and which we will do anything to avoid, in order to embrace peace, love, joy, abundance, wisdom, Truth, compassion, and serenity.
I realised that I had included at least one quote from Jung in almost every one of the 65 articles that I have written about this very transformative inward journey. I thought that it was time to honour him and give homage and gratitude for his holistic open-minded wisdom and understanding heart. In his own words “An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” Thank you Gustav, with all my heart. He would be the most likely person that I would want to have dinner with! So, whether you feel like you know him already or not, let’s tuck in. Bon appétit!
Click here for my glossary of transformative terms:
Carl Jung (1875 – 1961) is undoubtedly one of the most important, exciting, and influential figures of the 20th century. Carl Jung was one of the most brilliant psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychotherapists in history, who founded analytical psychology, along with Sigmund Freud. Despite his poor and humble origins, he became the 'Nikola Tesla of psychology', and through his contributions, the entire field was re-imagined: But that was merely his day job. Just like I’m convinced that Einstein and Shakespeare were really spiritual Masters disguised as a scientist and a playwright respectively, Jung too was a spiritual Master, moonlighting as a psychologist. Their inner and outer purposes were aligned, and that was their Real Personal Power and brilliance.
Carl Jung had an insatiable curiosity as a polymath, like Leonardo de Vinci. Similarly, he had a “once in a generation’ effect on revolutionising his own discipline of psychology and has been described as having an unparalleled intellect. My hypothesis, as to why he had such immense Real Personal Power and influence, even greater than that of Sigmund Freud (his mentor and co-founding father of analytical psychology) was that he had a spiritual approach to life, giving him access to what others have called ‘The Secret’ - an internal connection with the infinite creative intelligence of the Universe.
Throughout history, few were brimming with more profound insights and philosophies about God and spirituality as Jung. He wrote in ‘Memories, Dreams, Reflections’ that “The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life. Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite can we avoid fixing our interests upon futilities, and upon all kinds of goals ('imitation love' and external validation, which seem to be the only guiding stars that we are conditioned into by our well-meaning families and by 'civilised' society), which are not of real importance. Thus we demand that the world grant us recognition for qualities which we regard as personal possessions: Our talent or our beauty. The more a man lays stress on false possessions, and the less sensitivity he has for what is essential, the less satisfying is his life. He feels limited because he has limited aims, and the result is envy and jealousy. If we understand and feel that here in this life we already have a link with the infinite, desires and attitudes change.” This quote speaks volumes to the idea that humans have a deep-seated need to connect with something greater than themselves, whether it be God, the Universe, or some other form of a higher power. It suggests that our relationship with the infinite is a fundamental aspect of our existence and shapes the course of our lives.
80% of people in the Western World believe in some sort of spirituality or God (you may call Goddess, the Universe, the Creator, the Source, Creative Intelligence, as you will). But like mental illness, spirituality is spoken about in self-conscious hushed tones, fearing that we can not be authentic for fear of being labelled or rejected. Sadly only 50% of those between 18 and 30 years of age are likely to believe or have any form of spirituality. I believe that this accounts for the soaring rates on mental illness and despair in the young. A 2022 survey of children and young people’s mental health found that 18% of children aged 7-16 had a probable mental disorder in 2022, up from 12% in 2017. The United Nations Declaration states that "Humankind owes to the child the best it has to give."Among those aged 17-19, 10% had a probable mental disorder in 2017, rising to 26% in 2022. To read my article on this click here.
Spirituality is a life-long process of personal discovery. Jung wrote "Thoroughly unprepared, we take the step into the afternoon of life. Worse still, we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and our ideals will serve us as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning, for what was great in the morning will be little at evening and what in the morning was true, at evening will have become a lie.” He continues “The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it.” He added “The time is a critical one, for it marks the beginning of the second half of life, when a metanoia, a mental transformation, not infrequently occurs." Are you ready to let go of, and replace, your ego with your higher power? In other words, are you ready to replace your fears with love? Your lack with abundance? Your search for 'imitation love' with very real unconditional love?
Jung was very humble about his own search for meaning, against the context of a society which seems to overlook meaning altogether, saying "My whole being was seeking for something still unknown which might confer meaning upon the banality of life.”
With typical humility Jung wrote “The true leader is always led.” But led by what? Hustle culture or spirituality?
Jung's concepts have become vital to our understanding of the human psyche and the soul. For me, they are the foundation of resilience. Resilience is not pushing on despite all odds. I have tried that. Trust me, it doesn't work, and it's just a word that institutions hide behind when they don't understand any of these concepts. We are all resilient. Anyone or any institution that believes the contrary is much misguided or in denial for their own convenience as it transfers blame and responsibility. Who are you to judge? You are replaceable and disposable to them, and they are much mistaken in this. Jung wrote “Nobody, as long as he moves among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.” Their time will come.
Jung's ideas have had such a major influence on Western spirituality. My own journey, like everyone else's is unique, in that I am a reconstructive cancer surgeon, with a Master’s degree from Trinity College Cambridge in Philosophy and Natural Sciences, I am an academic and clinical super-high achiever, with the resilience of an ox, the drive of a Tesla, who has had a forced ‘Hero’s Journey’, resulting in hundreds of hours of every kind of therapy, coaching, and mentoring, who has read hundreds of books on psychology, spirituality, philosophy, and more, and devoted four years of my life to Truth and Self-realisation, and becoming a Deep Transformative Life Coach (TLC). I had no idea that I was ill, as I was at the top of my 'game', and neither did anyone else, including those who should have known: You can hyper-perform as an overachiever and have high-functioning mental illness but, as Jung wrote "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate." I am truly grateful for this journey as it has corrected my course back to the direction that I was born for. As Jung wrote it is only "Agonising confrontation through opposition that procure consciousness and insight." Thankfully, as he continues, "I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."
Some psychiatrists that I have encountered (in particular one from the GMC), along the path have gleaned knowledge from dusty books, but have had zero wisdom: They have not travelled the road less travelled. As Jung wrote “Where wisdom reigns, there is no conflict between thinking and feeling.” He added “I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.” Those who understand do not judge, and those who judge do not understand.
Jung puts it like this “Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.” Jung states wisely that “The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers." The world is replete with traumatised people traumatising other traumatised people. Jung continues “I have always been impressed by the fact that there are a surprising number of individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and an equal number who do use their minds, but in an amazingly stupid way.” Their sneers for the journey of transformation cover up for the defect that deep down in their own hearts they know that recovery is not possible without a spiritual dimension. Yet as Jung wrote “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” So I bless you, and move on. Jung speaks about this with typical clarity about the confusion that reigns “It is under all circumstances an advantage to be in full possession of one's personality, otherwise the repressed elements will only crop up as a hindrance elsewhere, not just at some unimportant point, but at the very spot where we are most sensitive. If people can be educated to see the shadow-side of their nature clearly, it may be hoped that they will also learn to understand and love their fellow men better. A little less hypocrisy and a little more self-knowledge can only have good results in respect for our neighbour; for we are all too prone to transfer to our fellows the injustice and violence we inflict upon our own natures.” Jung puts it beautifully: “Not the criticism of individual contemporaries will decide the truth or falsity of these discoveries, but future generations. There are things that are not yet true today, perhaps we dare not find them true, but tomorrow they may be. So every man whose fate it is to go his individual way must proceed with hopefulness and watchfulness, ever conscious of his loneliness and its dangers.”
When you walk your own path you must have the strength and support to believe in your Self until it becomes Self-evident. Jung continues "As a matter of fact, we are constantly living on the edge of a volcano, and there is, so far as we know, no way of protecting ourselves from a possible outburst that will destroy everybody within reach. It is certainly a good thing to preach reason and common sense, but what if you have a lunatic asylum for an audience or a crowd in a collective frenzy? There is not much difference between them because the madman and the mob are both moved by impersonal, overwhelming forces.” And yet, as Jung wrote “The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed. It is just these intense conflicts and their conflagration which are needed to produce valuable and lasting results.” He added “My own understanding is the sole treasure I possess, and the greatest. Though infinitely small and fragile in comparison with the powers of darkness, it is still a light, my only light.” In regards to individuals and institutions Jung wrote “It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously, of course - for consciously he is engaged in bewailing and cursing a faithless world that recedes further and further into the distance. Rather, it is an unconscious factor which spins the illusions that veil his world. And what is being spun is a cocoon, which in the end will completely envelop him.” It's just a matter of time.
In 'The Undiscovered Self' Jung wrote "Words like “Society” and “State” are so concretised that they are almost personified. In the opinion of the man in the street, the “State,” far more than any king in history, is the inexhaustible giver of all good; the “State” is invoked, made responsible, grumbled at, and so on and so forth. Society is elevated to the rank of a supreme ethical principle; indeed, it is even credited with positively creative capacities... This formulation will not please the mass man or the collective believer. For the former the policy of the State is the supreme principle of thought and action. Indeed, this was the purpose for which he was enlightened, and accordingly the mass man grants the individual a right to exist only in so far as he is a function of the State. The believer, on the other hand, while admitting that the State has a moral and factual claim on him, confesses to the belief that not only man but the State that rules him is subject to the overlordship of “God,” and that, in case of doubt, the supreme decision will be made by God and not by the State... Happiness and contentment, equability of mind and meaningfulness of life – these can be experienced only by the individual and not by a State, which, on the one hand, is nothing but a convention agreed to by independent individuals, and on the other, continually threatens to paralyse and suppress the individual.”
Jung said that “We are not what happened to us, we are what we wish to become.” This is a principle to live by. I deeply resonate with Jung when he wrote “As a child I felt myself to be alone, and I am still, because I know things and must hint at things which others apparently know nothing of, and for the most part do not want to know.” He continues "People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls.”
As Arthur Schopenhauer, the brilliant German philosopher, wrote "All Truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident." Thank heaven, as Carl Jung wrote, that "The world is changing, and I’m on the transition team. Awaken and shine your light for others to follow. The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are." Now that's a real psychiatrist: The archetypal psychiatrist! Please do pardon the pun as Jung described human archetypes. He did many things including describing the concepts of the shadow, extraverted and the introverted personality types, synchronicity (for which he shared a Nobel Prize), the Divine Feminine and the Divine Masculine, the collective unconscious, denial and projection, which I have written about elsewhere and will not go into again here as this article is about Jung and his turbocharging of modern spirituality. Save to echo Jung “The best political, social, and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the projection of our shadow onto others... It is often tragic to see how blatantly a man bungles his own life and the lives of others yet remains totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in himself, and how he continually feeds it and keeps it going.” Jung's work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, literature, philosophy, and related fields. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular psychometric instrument, was developed from Jung's theories. Jung saw the human psyche as "by nature religious", and made this spirituality the focus of his explorations. Jung is one of the best known contemporary contributors to dream analysis and symbolisation. Though he was a practicing clinician and considered himself to be a scientist, much of his life's work was spent exploring the tangential areas, including Eastern and Western philosophy, as well as the arts.
Carl Jung wrote in his 'Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathsutra' “But in reality God is not an opinion. God is a psychological fact that happens to people.” Jung believed that God is not only a theological or philosophical concept but also a psychological reality (even if a century later this has only been adopted by psychiatrists who have wisdom) that plays a significant role in shaping human experience and behaviour. In other words, Jung reminds us that our beliefs about God (or anything else) can have a powerful influence on how we experience reality, how we behave, and how we heal). By deeming the divine as a psychological fact, Jung is pointing to the power our subconscious mind has over our life - reminding us that the experience of the Universe, while subjective, is a real experience that happens to people in their minds. This quote asks us to consider how our spiritual beliefs and practices might directly impact our mental health, perceptions, and overall well-being - while encouraging us to view our spirituality as a complimentary part of our overall psychological and emotional development.
Here is the Truth as I see it…
On spirituality
Over the door at his house in Zurich, Jung had inscribed: ‘Whether summoned or not, God will be present’ (‘Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit’ ). This sums up Jung’s attitude to religion and spirituality, in his life and in his work. They are an ever present and hugely powerful, even if unacknowledged, factor.
Jung said that “God is a mystery, and everything we say about him is symbolic.” The Bible is a metaphor, and so is the discipline of positive psychology. These are all ways of describing an indescribable Truth. Jung is telling us “God” cannot be fully understood or explained in literal terms because he is a transcendent mystery beyond human comprehension. Any words, concepts, or symbols that we could use to explain God, the divine, or the infinite nature of the Universe will never even scratch the surface to capture its Truth. Instead, we can only use symbols and metaphors as an attempt to express our experiences with the divine. This quote reminds us to approach discussions of God and the Universe with humility and openness, recognising that our language and concepts are limited in their ability to capture the fullness of the infinite.
Embarking on a spiritual journey entails stepping into the fire and the labyrinth of Self-discovery, Self-realisation, and expanded consciousness. On this path, the wisdom of the much revered Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung can serve as a beacon of light (or at least, it did for me). Jung inspires introspection and incites transformation. From understanding your unconscious, embracing your authentic Self, and acknowledging your relationship with the infinite to managing addictions, his words of wisdom will provide invaluable insights to guide your spiritual journey. Jung wrote about man's journey inwards that “His retreat into himself is not a final renunciation of the world, but a search for quietude, where alone it is possible for him to make his contribution to the life of the community.”
Jung wrote that there is change afoot “God has fallen out of containment in religion and into human hearts - God is incarnating. Our whole unconscious is in an uproar from the God Who wants to know and to be known.” He continues “Somewhere, right at the bottom of one’s own BEing, one generally does know where one should go and what one should do. But there are times when the clown we call “I” behaves in such a distracting fashion that the inner voice cannot make its presence felt.”
Jung came increasingly to think that the healthiest spiritual aim, that is, the one of most benefit to the individual, is that of individuation – of trying to become more and more fully and truly who we essentially are. This becoming conscious of more and more of our unconscious motivations, fears and longings, is a lifelong process and can be followed along many different paths, two of which are, Jung thought, analytic psychology and religion.
‘Individuation means becoming an “in-dividual,” and, in so far as “individuality” embraces our innermost, last, and incomparable uniqueness, it also implies becoming one’s own Self. We could therefore translate individuation as “coming to Self-hood” or “Self-realisation.”’ We could also translate individuation as becoming un-divided – becoming more and more of our own full Self, having less of it projected or repressed or split off and denied: Integrated and authentic.
To some extent, we all follow the spiritual path of individuation, usually unconsciously, when, as Jung wrote "It means no more than that the acorn becomes an oak, the calf a cow, and the child an adult." But it is the conscious, chosen following of this path which Jung saw as the true spiritual achievement.
Jung experienced many years of doubt and struggle during his early family life, and the loneliness of such total repudiation by his family and cultural tradition, to his knowing that he lived, not ‘in the Christian myth’ but by ‘[his] personal myth "I understood that the Self is the principle and archetype of orientation and meaning." Jung had the realisation that since God and the Self are both unknowable, they could be the same, and one a projection of the other – more often, he refers to God as being a projection of the Self. Hence as Jesus said "The Kingdom of God is within."
Jung understood the relevance of the Christian story in its ever-living symbolic power and Truth. He thought of the life and death of Christ as happening now, always, in a dimension to our ordinary life which we might think of as ‘eternal life’ or ‘the objective psyche’ – a dimension in which time, and the split between our conscious and our unconscious awareness of events, do not exist, "As if a window or a door had been opened upon that which lies beyond space and time". So the self-sacrifice of Jesus in his death (Jesus chose to die) is eternally present in this timeless dimension of our lives, and so is always powerfully available as a symbol with immediate and current relevance – the death of the ego and the resurrection of a new ‘I’ (which no-one recognises at first, as none of the disciples immediately recognised the risen Christ), the death in seeming failure and the resurrection in new hope and a new way of life, the ending of all familiar security and then the coming, after a descent into 'Hell' and despair, of something recognisably the same yet amazingly new and different: Something divine and Heavenly. We have all had such experiences on a smaller or a larger scale, and Jung saw the story of Christ’s death and resurrection as symbolising this common, yet often traumatic, experience. Similarly, every phase of Jesus’ life, and each of the parables, can be understood as symbols of development for our psyche. For Jung, it was the internal life of the psyche, not external events, which are of paramount importance. For Jung, the external forms of religion were one means to follow our true spiritual path, which he saw as individuation, and in this quest all external events can be understood symbolically. Religion, according to Jung, therefore was merely one form of symbolism to shine light on our spiritual path.
The following BBC video is an insight into Carl Jung in his own words. If any avowed atheists are reading this right now, you might want to sit down. Because Jung doesn’t just state whether or not he believes, he goes much further than that. If you go to the video to the 8:01 mark you will see where Jung is asked the big question:
BBC Interviewer: "Did you believe in God?
Jung: “Oh yes."
BBC Interviewer:"Do you now believe in God?"
Jung: "Now... Difficult to answer: I know. I don’t need to believe…I know.”
Carl Gustav Jung 'Face to face' in his own words (BBC 1959). John Freeman and his team filmed the interview at Jung's house at Küsnacht (near Zurich, Switzerland) in march 1959, it was broadcast in Great Britain on October 22, 1959. This film has undoubtedly brought Jung to more people than any other piece of journalism and any of Jung's own writings. Freeman was deputy editor at the "New Statesman" at the time of the interview. They formed a friendship, that continued until Jung's death.
Did you see the gleam in Jung’s eye as he answered the question "Do you now believe in God?" If you watch closely, you might have detected just the slightest hint of a grin on his face as he held his pipe aloft in his left hand and delivered the monumental response. The viewer gets the impression that Jung was enjoying himself as he dropped that metaphysical bomb reply on the unsuspecting BBC interviewer. But what’s clear from the video is that Jung didn’t just claim to believe. He didn’t just espouse some blurry notion of the existence of a higher power. He also didn’t take the safe way out by placing his chips on the agnostic side of the ledger. He barely skips a beat and then flat out says "I know". Of course, we all wonder - that’s a universal aspect of being human - but knowing is next level. Knowing is another thing altogether. You have to admire not only Jung’s willingness to answer the question, but the lack of equivocation he brings to the question, a directness that seems in short supply among the intellectual luminaries of today or of any age.
The conviction of “I am what I AM” was a sudden coming to consciousness for him which felt like coming out of a mist.
As it says above the entrance of the Temple of Apollo (the God of Truth) at Delphi "Know Thyself". Or as William Shakespeare, another spiritual Master, wrote “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” As Jung wrote "Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes." Your heart knows the Truth.
Jung continues “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.”
We need to know who we truly are. That involves a completely unique and tailored journey for each of us. Jung wrote “The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.” He added that “Every individual needs revolution, inner division, overthrow of the existing order, and renewal, but not by forcing them upon his neighbours under the hypocritical cloak of Christian love or the sense of social responsibility or any of the other beautiful euphemisms for unconscious urges to personal power.”
Carl Jung 'How to find your soul' with After Skool
This is not an easy journey, which is why so few of us do it. As Jung wrote "To find out what is truly individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed; and suddenly we realise how uncommonly difficult the discovery of individuality is.”
As each fork on the path that is our life we make the decision as to whether to follow our ego or our higher Self. The ego is s liar and full of certainty. Jung wrote “The sure path can only lead to death.” The higher path of the higher power requires Faith and we do not need to know what the future holds, knowing that "All is well."
Jung wrote “In the last analysis, the essential thing is the life of individual. This alone makes history, here alone do the great transformations take place, and the whole future, the whole history of the world, ultimately springs as a gigantic summation from these hidden sources in individuals.”
Nothing is either good or bad
Jung wrote “The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.” According to the Universe, nothing is either right or wrong: It is only our small ego minds that think otherwise.
I love this deep wisdom of Jung's, that “Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in the world as an event.”
As human beings we all make mistakes, and we all fail at times. What matters, is not what happens, it's what we do next. Jung wrote “Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of Truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not. ”
We are all insane. This is the human condition right now. But it is the world that is broken, toxic, and dysfunctional, not us. Our way of being is simply a coping mechanism for a shitty world. As Jung wrote “Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.” He continued “Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering” And yet, as Jung wrote, “In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.” As Friedrich Nietzsche wrote "One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."
Jung wrote “About a third of my cases are suffering from no clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and emptiness of their lives. This can be defined as the general neurosis of our times.” Has this proportion increased? Is our world getting worse? He continues emphatically “The majority of my patients consisted not of believers but of those who had lost their Faith.” We are born whole, loved, lovable, and worthy, revelling in the beauty, wonder, bliss, and awe of existence. Where did we lose our Faith and spirituality along the way? The answer is simple: If we cannot trust in our parents and society to have our best interests at heart, then how can we trust in an unseen Universal Intelligence? How can we trust in ourselves? The answer is that we need someone else to have compassion for us: To believe in us; to see and hear our highest Self, until we can see it for ourselves.
In his brilliant book 'The Psychogenesis of Mental Disease' Jung wrote in his chapter on "The Content of the Psychoses” that “If we feel our way into the human secrets of the sick person, the madness also reveals its system, and we recognise in the mental illness merely an exceptional reaction to emotional problems which are not strange to us."
In his paradigm-changing book 'Modern Man in Search of a Soul', that some psychiatrists seem not to have studied or understood, Jung wrote “I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given their followers, and none of them has really been healed who did not regain his religious outlook.” He continues in the same book “But what will he do when he sees only too clearly why his patient is ill; when he sees that it arises from his having no love, but only sexuality; no faith, because he is afraid to grope in the dark; no hope, because he is disillusioned by the world and by life; and no understanding, because he has failed to read the meaning of his own existence?”
Jung wrote that“The psychopathology of the masses is rooted in the psychology of the individual.” The only way to save the world is to work on our selves.
If you fail to heed the call to awakening, the Universe will punch you in the face “Whenever we give up, leave behind, and forget too much, there is always the danger that the things we have neglected will return with added force.”
Jung wrote "We are so full of apprehensions, fears, that we don't know exactly to what it points... A great change of our psychological attitude is imminent, that is certain... Because we need more understanding of human nature because... The only real danger that exists is man himself... And we know nothing of man - his psyche should be studied because we are the origin of all coming evil.”
The question is never "Why the behaviour?" But instead "Why the pain?" Jung wrote “Neurosis is the natural by-product of pain avoidance.”
In summary of this section Jung wrote “Neurosis is the suffering of a soul which has not discovered its meaning.”
Waking up
Jung wrote “There's no coming to consciousness without pain.” He continues “As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.” He goes further “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
The key to peace and change is...
Jung wrote simply “We cannot change anything unless we accept it.” Acceptance brings peace, and is the first step in change.
Carl Jung
On love
Jung wrote “Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.”
He continued “I am no longer alone with myself, and I can only artificially recall the scary and beautiful feeling of solitude. This is the shadow side of the fortune of love.”
On emotion
Jung wrote “There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.” If we are to evolve, we must stop running from pain, embrace it, and let it go. If we want to feel joy, we must also open our hearts to pain. This is the essence of being alive.
Jung wrote “Find out what a person fears most and that is where he will develop next.” I have found this to be so true.
Jung continues “We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of Truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy.” The other half of Truth comes to us through our emotions. Jung wrote “There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion.”
Never react, always lean away, meditate, then respond if required: Action may also involve not responding at all. Jung writes “How difficult it is to reach anything approaching a moderate and relatively calm point of view in the midst of one's emotions.” Just think road rage or inebriated arguments over Christmas lunch. You kn ow what I mean.
On philosophy
With regards to philosophy, Jung wrote that “The serious problems in life... are never fully solved. If ever they should appear to be so it is a sure sign that something has been lost. The meaning and purpose of a problem seem to lie not in its solution but in our working at it incessantly.”
On man's search for meaning
Jung wrote “The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.”
If you ignore the clarion call, it may be fatal. Jung wrote “If the demand for self-knowledge is willed by fate and is refused, this negative attitude may end in real death. The demand would not have come to this person had he still been able to strike out on some promising by-path. But he is caught in a blind alley from which only self-knowledge can extricate him. If he refuses this then no other way is left open to him. Usually he is not conscious of his situation, either, and the more unconscious he is the more he is at the mercy of unforeseen dangers: He cannot get out of the way of a car quickly enough, in climbing a mountain he misses his foothold somewhere, out skiing he thinks he can negotiate a tricky slope, and in an illness he suddenly loses the courage to live. The unconscious has a thousand ways of snuffing out a meaningless existence with surprising swiftness.”
I have just lost a dear friend this weekend who kept running instead of answering the call. Please do take heed. Be open, honest, and vulnerable with your Self and others and share your fears. It will save your life.
On creativity
Creativity is soul-work. It's how our higher power meets itself front on. Jung wrote "Without this playing with fantasy, no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.” Jung added “Creative power is mightier than its possessor.” Creativity is how, outside of meditation, one connects with power greater than ourselves, and draws it in.
Jung wrote “The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”
Jung describes creativity as an assignment “Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. To perform this difficult office it is sometimes necessary for him to sacrifice happiness and everything that makes life worth living for the ordinary human being.”
He continued "Without this playing with fantasy, no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.” Jung wrote that “The creative mind plays with the object it loves.” Creativity brings you to your Self and to presence.
I have written that external validation or 'imitation love' is our modern-day poisoned chalice. Jung wrote “I have frequently seen people become neurotic when they content themselves with inadequate or wrong answers to the questions of life. They seek position, marriage, reputation, outward success of money, and remain unhappy and neurotic even when they have attained what they were seeking. Such people are usually confined within too narrow a spiritual horizon. Their life has not sufficient content, sufficient meaning. If they are enabled to develop into more spacious personalities, the neurosis generally disappears.” Amen.
On human connection
Relationships are crucibles of transformation. Jung wrote “For two personalities to meet is like mixing two chemical substances: if there is any combination at all, both are transformed.”
On the awe of Nature
Jung wrote “I am looking forward enormously to getting back to the sea again, where the overstimulated psyche can recover in the presence of that infinite peace and spaciousness.”
Life lives in the unseen. As Jung wrote “Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above ground lasts only a single summer. Then it withers away—an ephemeral apparition. When we think of the unending growth and decay of life and civilizations, we cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity. Yet I have never lost a sense of something that lives and endures underneath the eternal flux. What we see is the blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains.”
Jung famously wrote “I could not say I believe. I know! I have had the experience of being gripped by something that is stronger than myself, something that people call God.” You can't 'go' somewhere if you are already there. Feel the alert stillness within you.
On acceptance
Jung wrote “The acceptance of oneself is the essence of the whole moral problem and the epitome of a whole outlook on life. That I feed the hungry, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ - all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto Christ. But what if I should discover that the least among them all, the poorest of all the beggars, the most impudent of all the offenders, the very enemy himself - that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness - that I myself am the enemy who must be loved -- what then? As a rule, the Christian's attitude is then reversed; there is no longer any question of love or long-suffering; we say to the brother within us "Raca," and condemn and rage against ourselves. We hide it from the world; we refuse to admit ever having met this least among the lowly in ourselves.”
On child psychology
Jung wrote “If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.” He continues “Every human life contains a potential, if that potential is not fulfilled, then that life was wasted.”
The United Nations Declaration states that "Humankind owes to the child the best it has to give."
Jung continues “Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.”
We need to stop forcing young people from choosing attachment over their basic desire to be themselves: Who they truly are. Our parents love us to death. Even if they love us, it is often conditionally. That, in and of itself, is trauma. Parents cultivate our masks, as they had to do the same. They forget that real love is to nurture and accept who we were born to be. We were meant to be authentic and whole, not an adapted persona. That is the great tragedy of our times. It's ironic that parents claim to love us but they impose on us what they think is best for us in their spiritually dis-eased minds.
On perception
Jung wrote “It all depends on how we look at things, and not on how things are in themselves. The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.”
On science
Jung wrote “I deliberately and consciously give preference to a dramatic, mythological way of thinking and speaking, because this is not only more expressive but also more exact than an abstract scientific terminology, which is wont to toy with the notion that its theoretic formulations may one fine day be resolved into algebraic equations.”
Jung wrote “I have never since entirely freed myself of the impression that this life is a segment of existence which is enacted in a three-dimensional boxlike Universe especially set up for it.”
Jung wrote “If you think along the lines of Nature then you think properly." One would have thought that science does this, but in all my higher degrees I was taught much knowledge, but never any wisdom. Wisdom only comes from a personal journey into Nature via one's soul.
We are not so sophisticated as we think. Jung wrote “Our mania for rational explanations obviously has its roots in our fear of metaphysics (a branch of philosophy), for the two were always hostile brothers. Hence, anything unexpected that approaches us from the dark realm is regarded either as coming from outside and, therefore, as real, or else as a hallucination and, therefore, not true. The idea that anything could be real or true which does not come from outside has hardly begun to dawn on contemporary man.”
In his book 'The Undiscovered Self' Jung wrote “The statistical method shows the facts in the light of the ideal average but does not give us a picture of their empirical reality. While reflecting an indisputable aspect of reality, it can falsify the actual truth in a most misleading way. This is particularly true of theories which are based on statistics. The distinctive thing about real facts, however, is their individuality. Not to put too fine a point on it, once could say that the real picture consists of nothing but exceptions to the rule, and that, in consequence, absolute reality has predominantly the character of irregularity... Scientific education is based in the main on statistical truths and abstract knowledge and therefore imparts an unrealistic, rational picture of the world, in which the individual, as a merely marginal phenomenon, plays no role. The individual, however, as an irrational datum, is the true and authentic carrier of reality, the concrete man as opposed to the unreal ideal or “normal” man to whom the scientific statements refer... Apart from the agglomeration of huge masses in which the individual disappears anyway, one of the chief factors responsible for psychological mass-mindedness is scientific rationalism, which robs the individual of his foundations and his dignity. As a social unit he has lost his individuality and become a mere abstract number in the bureau of statistics. He can only play the role of an interchangeable unit of infinitesimal importance. Looked at rationally and from outside, that is exactly what he is, and from this point of view it seems positively absurd to go on talking about the value or meaning of the individual.”
Carl Jung and Wolfgang Pauli
Studying at the University of Zurich in Switzerland it would have been hard not to hear about Carl Jung's theory of personality and individuation. Jung knew many famous personalities such as Sigmund Freud, Hermann Hesse and Wolfgang Pauli. Jung, who had collaborated with Freud, broke off the relationship, because of his views differed on how to interpret the meaning of dreams. Many years later Jung would collaborate with the physicist Wolfgang Pauli in search of a unified theory of the psyche's aspects of personality, mind and body. Together they came up with the well known theory of synchronicity. Synchronicity was used to describe circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection. In contemporary research, synchronicity experiences refer to one's subjective experience whereby coincidences between events in one's mind and the outside world may be causally unrelated to each other yet have some other unknown connection. Jung held that this was a healthy, even necessary, function of the human mind that can become harmful within psychosis. Jung developed the theory of synchronicity as a hypothetical non-causal principle serving as the intersubjective or philosophically objective connection between these seemingly meaningful coincidences. After first coining the term in the late 1920s or early 30s, Jung further developed the concept in collaboration with physicist and Nobel laureate Wolfgang Pauli through long correspondences and in their eventual 1952 work 'The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche', which comprises one paper from each of the two thinkers. Their work together culminated in what is now called the Pauli–Jung conjecture. During his career, Jung furnished several different definitions of synchronicity, defining it as "a hypothetical factor equal in rank to causality as a principle of explanation", "an acausal connecting principle", "acausal parallelism", and as the "meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved".[ In Pauli's words, synchronicities were "corrections to chance fluctuations by meaningful and purposeful coincidences of causally unconnected events", though he had also proposed to move the concept away from coincidence towards instead a "correspondence", "connection", or "constellation" of discrete factors. Jung and Pauli's view was that, just as causal connections can provide a meaningful understanding of the psyche and the world, so too may acausal connections. A 2016 study found that two thirds of therapists surveyed agreed that synchronicity experiences could be useful for therapy.
On yoga
Jung wrote “When you succeed in awakening the Kundalini, so that it starts to move out of its mere potentiality, you necessarily start a world which is totally different from our world. It is the world of eternity.” In Hinduism, Kundalini is a form of feminine energy that is said to be coiled at the base of the spine. The word Kundalini comes from the Sanskrit word meaning "coiled snake." This energy can then be awakened through yoga, mantras, asanas, and meditation.
The 'Red Book'
The ‘Red Book’ that Jung wrote, by hand, was kept in his family vault, not to be published until decades after his death, although a few people were allowed to read it in the meantime. Listen to a podcast about this on Spotify.
The ‘Red Book’ chronicled his nervous breakdown and a near psychotic episode. He let himself plummet into his internal fantasies and documented this as an exercise.
He entered a liminal state (between worlds) - a state of the 'Dark Night of the Soul', while waiting for the Phoenix to rise from the ashes. He let himself see visions and the crumbling of civilisation. He also saw rivers of blood.
Jung spent 16 years working on the 'Red Book', which he completed between 1914 and 1930. He wrote in the leather-bound manuscript entirely by hand, filling its pages with his careful formal Gothic calligraphy. Along with this intricate writing, Jung also included his own highly detailed illuminated illustrations. He had foreseen the First World War.
Jung maintained that the experiences described in the 'Red Book' were the foundations of the distinctive theories of his analytical psychology, saying, “All my works, all my creative activity, has come from those initial fantasies and dreams which began in 1912.
Despite being considered as the origin of Jung's main oeuvre, it was probably never intended for conventional publication and the material was not published nor made otherwise accessible for study until 2009.
Biographers and critics have disagreed whether these years in Jung's life should be seen as "a creative illness", a period of introspection, or a near-psychotic breakdown. He would enter a meditative state. Then write whatever was channelled through him.
Jung himself stated that: "To the superficial observer, it will appear like madness". Jung referred to his imaginative or visionary venture during these years as "my most difficult experiment".
This experiment involved a voluntary confrontation with the unconscious through wilful engagement of what Jung later termed "mythopoetic imagination".
He described it as a “Descent into Hell in the future.” In his introduction to Liber Novus, Shamdasani explains: From December 1913 onward, he carried on in the same procedure: deliberately evoking a fantasy in a waking state, and then entering into it as into a drama. These fantasies may be understood as a type of dramatised thinking in pictorial form.... In retrospect, he recalled that his scientific question was to see what took place when he switched off his overactive mind. The example of dreams indicated the existence of background activity, and he wanted to give this a possibility of emerging, just as one does when taking (drugs such as) mescaline.
Jung initially recorded his "visions", or "fantasies", or "imaginations.” Jung made it a rule never to let a figure or figures that he encountered in these visions leave until they had told him why they had appeared to him.
After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Jung perceived that his visionary experiences were not only of personal relevance, but were entwined with a nodal historical moment.
He wanted to let his thinking take its course and to leave him stunned. In 1915 Jung began transcribing his draft text into the illuminated calligraphic volume that would subsequently become known as the 'Red Book'. He wanted to allow “Divine astonishment.” He was dropping out of analytical thought and into connection with his own soul. It is like watching a mind pass through an 'Existential Crisis' but also captures the creative writing process perfectly. There is a fine line between madness and genius. The ‘Red Book’ captures this. It is certainly more than a journal. It flows and has the characteristics and the spirit of a dramatic literary prosaic visionary work. There is nothing that it can be compared to. It is rooted in ancient traditions. Yet it is a new document. There are passages related to breathing life into and bringing “The dead to life” as instructed by his soul. We breathe life into old ways by making them new again. Or perhaps this related to a psychological rebirth. I really identify with this. I can now see that my own suicide attempts were a cry from my soul to become reborn psychologically and to free myself from the pain of my dysfunctional childhood: Through a deep descent into one’s unconscious. A way of visiting an Oracle. Through a meditative state. In this state, in ancient Greece, one could commune with the divine. Pythia was the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo (the God of Truth) at Delphi, the location of the entrance stone carved with the simple words “Know Thyself”, which I have written about. She specifically served as its Oracle and was known as the 'Oracle of Delphi'. This is what I refer to as ‘intuition.’ It is not an overstatement to say that the woman acting in the given role of Pythia at any one time was the most powerful person in Greece, giving advice to emperors that they would follow. This was the case for centuries after 400 BC. This was the mental place that Jung was able to access, but it is available to all through meditation.
The still, small voice
We have two ways of BEing: Ego (fear; our false self) or higher Self (higher power, love). The ego is a liar and shouts in a loud brash voice to us. The Universe speaks quietly to us during meditation, as the voice of our intuition, with a still, small voice. Intuition is the capacity to see the whole of something. As Jung wrote “Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune.”
Truth speaks to us through our intuition. Jung wrote that “Intuition does not denote something contrary to reason, but something outside of the province of reason.” He added that “Intuition (is) perception via the unconscious.”
He continued "The less we understand of what our [forebears] sought, the less we understand ourselves, and thus we help with all our might to rob the individual of his roots and his guiding instincts, so that he becomes a particle in the mass, ruled only by what Nietzsche called the 'spirit of gravity.'"
He added "Where you have to work as a pioneer, you must be able to put some trust in your intuition and follow your feeling even at the risk of going wrong.”
Jung wrote “Observance of customs and laws can very easily be a cloak for a lie so subtle that our fellow human beings are unable to detect it. It may help us to escape all criticism, we may even be able to deceive ourselves in the belief of our obvious righteousness. But deep down, below the surface of the average man's conscience, he hears a voice whispering, 'There is something not right,' no matter how much his rightness is supported by public opinion or by the moral code.”
Love your fate: Amor Fati. Jung wrote “To make what fate intends for me my own intention.” Jung continued “The more one sees of human fate and the more one examines its secret springs of action, the more one is impressed by the strength of unconscious motives and by the limitations of free choice”
Integrity
Jung wrote “Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one’s being, but by integration of the contraries.” This involves integrating our inner child, our higher Self, and our shadow at all times, until they melt back into one. It is in this way that our fractured psyche is healed. He continues, that we must integrate our shadow “How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole.”
Carl Jung and the Shadow: 'Integrating the Hidden Power of Your Dark Side'
Carl Jung: 'The Shadow and the Dangers of Psychological Projection'
Authenticity
As children we sacrifice our authenticity for attachment. Jung wrote “Anyone who attempts to do both, to adjust to his group and at the same time pursue his individual goal, becomes neurotic.” Your only goal, as Nietzsche would agree is to: Be who you are. Take off your mask: No-one loves the fake you.
Jung wrote “The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.” He added “I don't aspire to be a good man. I aspire to be a whole man.”
Jung wrote “One could say, with a little exaggeration, that the persona is that which in reality one is not, but which oneself as well as others think one is.” That is, the mask, or the ego: The ego is who you think you are: Whereas the soul is who you really are. This is why, as Jung wrote “Only what is really oneself has the power to heal.”
On intergenerational trauma
Jung wrote "Every Mother contains her daughter in herself and every daughter her mother and every mother extends backwards into her mother and forwards into her daughter.”
It is up to every one of us to break the cycle of inheritance of intergenerational trauma.
Truth
Jung wrote “Sensation tell us a thing is. Thinking tell us what it is this thing is. Feeling tells us what this thing is to us.” Wisdom and Truth are feelings, not knowledge: This is where we get it all so wrong.
With your mind you create your world. Jung wrote “It is my mind, with its store of images, that gives the world colour and sound; and that supremely real and rational certainty which I can "experience" is, in its most simple form, an exceedingly complicated structure of mental images. Thus there is, in a certain sense, nothing that is directly experienced except the mind itself. Everything is mediated through the mind, translated, filtered, allegorised, twisted, even falsified by it. We are enveloped in a cloud of changing and endlessly shifting images.”
He continued “I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.” Will you?
Life is experiential
Jung wrote “Faith, hope, love, and insight are the highest achievements of human effort. They are found-given-by experience.”
Find your voice and speak Truth to 'power'
Get in touch with your emotions. It's essential that you feel them, so that you can let them go. Express them to others: This is how you surrender them. Tell your Truth: A Jung wrote “The reason for evil in the world is that people are not able to tell their stories.”
The art of seeing through clouded perceptions
“With a truly tragic delusion,” Carl Jung noted, “These theologians fail to see that it is not a matter of proving the existence of the light, but of blind people who do not know that their eyes could see. It is high time we realised that it is pointless to praise the light and preach it if nobody can see it. It is much more needful to teach people the art of seeing.”
He continued “It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.”
On surrendering one's ego
Jung wrote “Midlife is the time to let go of an overdominant ego and to contemplate the deeper significance of human existence.”
You never rise above being human. This is the case for everyone. Even Jesus. The resurrection was a metaphor. Yet it never feels enough to simply BE until we take our own 'Hero’s Journey.’ It is only through this journey that we reap the rewards an treasures of who we are BEing, gaining Real Personal Power, infinite possibility, and true wisdom, like Carl Jung. He showed us how to BE, through the transformative power of the inward journey.
On consciousness
Jung wrote that “Man's task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious.”
Jung wrote that “In studying the history of the human mind one is impressed again and again by the fact that the growth of the mind is the widening of the range of consciousness, and that each step forward has been a most painful and laborious achievement. One could almost say that nothing is more hateful to man than to give up even a particle of his unconsciousness. Ask those who have tried to introduce a new idea!”
Jung wrote that “The greatest and most important problems of life are all in a certain sense insoluble…. They can never be solved, but only outgrown…. This ‘outgrowing’, as I formerly called it, on further experience was seen to consist in a new level of consciousness. Some higher or wider interest arose on the person’s horizon, and through this widening of view, the insoluble problem lost its urgency. It was not solved logically in its own terms, but faded out when confronted with a new and stronger life-tendency.”
Jung wrote “There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become Enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
On BEing
Jung wrote “A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them. As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
Jung wrote “Not your thinking, but your being, is distinctiveness. Therefore not after difference, ye think it, must ye strive; but after YOUR OWN BEING. At bottom, therefore, there is only one striving, namely, the striving after your own BEing.”
An inner exploration is a prerequisite for staying alive: Jung wrote “Our heart glows, and secret unrest gnaws at the root of our BEing. Dealing with the unconscious has become a question of life for us.”
Jung wrote “Space flights are merely an escape, a fleeing away from oneself, because it is easier to go to Mars or to the moon than it is to penetrate one's own BEing.” It is no surprise that physics is always looking to the stars, for there is the power of the Universe: Jung wrote “Heaven has become for us the cosmic space of the physicists... But 'the heart glows,' and a secret unrest gnaws at the roots of our BEing.”
Jung wrote on the soul “I am an orphan, alone: nevertheless I am found everywhere. I am one, but opposed to myself. I am youth and old man at one and the same time. I have known neither father nor mother, because I have had to be fetched out of the deep like a fish, or fell like a white stone from heaven. In woods and mountains I roam, but I am hidden in the innermost soul of man. I am mortal for everyone, yet I am not touched by the cycle of aeons.”
How do you know how to be? The answer is meditation: You will hear the voice of your intuition. Jung put it like this: “Explore daily the will of God.” Thine will be done. Jung wrote “Freedom of will is the ability to do gladly that which I must do.”
Jung wrote “As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere BEing.”
You are a rock. You are unconquerable. You are the Universe itself. Jung wrote “Resistance to the organised mass can be effected only by the man who is as well organised in his individuality (your spirituality) as the mass itself.”
Of course, I will leave the final word to Carl Jung: “I am not what happens to me. I choose who I become.”
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“Transformative life coaching uniquely creates and holds the space for you to see your self afresh, with clarity, and step into new ways of BEing, which will transform how you perceive and intuitively create your world. My work is to guide you to raise your own conscious awareness to the level that you want to achieve.” Olly Alexander Branford
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I am very pleased to meet you. Thank you for reading this far. I very much look forward to connecting with the highest version of you, to seeing your highest possibility, and to our conversations. Please do contact me via my website for a free connection call and a free experience of coaching.
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Olly Alexander Branford MBBS, MA(Cantab), PhD
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I have a Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences from Trinity College, Cambridge; a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Trinity College, Cambridge; a PhD Doctorate in Scientific Research from University College London (UCL); a Medical Degree (MD/MBBS) from The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London and have been a doctor and reconstructive trauma and cancer surgeon in London for 20 years. I have published over 50 peer reviewed scientific journal articles, have been an associate editor and frequent scientific faculty member, and am the author of several scientific books. I have been awarded my Diploma in Transformative Life Coaching in London, which has International Coaching Federation (ICF) Accreditation, as well as the UK Association for Coaching (AC), and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). I have been on my own transformative journey full time for four years and I am ready to be your guide to you finding out who you really are and how the world works.