Carl Jung, The Ego, Individuation, and The Higher Self
- olivierbranford
- 2 days ago
- 38 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Carl Gustav Jung wrote in ‘Conversations with C. G. Jung’ that “The ego is the workshop where the Self is made.” Carl Jung was a Swiss scientist, one of the greatest psychiatrists of all time, the father of analytical psychology, a metaphysical philosopher, a deeply psychospiritual BEing, and also a spiritual Master. He set out his stall in his ‘Red Book’, which formed the basis of all his subsequent works, books, and teachings, as reflections on the direct experience of creating it.
Jung described ‘individuation’ as both a psychological process, where the psyche is transformed, and also a spiritual process of union with the divine Self (note the capitalisation of the ‘S’). In other words, individuation is a ‘psychospiritual’ integrative process, to become ‘whole’. It involves dropping the ego (mind), which is the false self - note the small 's', and identifying with the Higher Self, which is the true Self, also known as the Soul. We need a Soul-led world not a Soul-less world.
Jung wrote that "In each of us there is another whom we do not know (the Higher Self). He speaks to us in dreams and tells us how differently he sees us from the way we see ourselves. When, therefore, we find ourselves in a difficult situation to which there is no solution, he can sometimes kindle a light that radically alters our attitude - the very attitude (the ego mind) that led us into the difficult situation."
Your ego is your petrified 7-year-old self who is trying to run your life from a place of fear and pain. In order to heal we have to let go of our ego - the 'little me', the 'King baby', or the “I, me, 'mine'” in your life. The ego is an illusion. The ego is simply self-will run riot: It is self-obsessed and self-destructive. The ego is simply a negative thought pattern from your conscious mind, which is fast asleep.
You don't need to believe in God in order to heal and recover, you just need to stop believing that you are God. Ego is an acronym for 'Edging God Out'. Invite her, him, or them back in. Ego means that there is too much you of you inside you to allow God in. You need to make space inside of you for God to enter. This is the meaning of surrender – to surrender the part of you, the ego, that is getting in your own way and in the way of God or your Higher Power. It states in Luke 1:37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
A wise man once told me that "The only way to win a losing battle is to surrender." Letting go and getting guidance from the Universe doesn’t make us vulnerable: It makes us powerful. That is real power. As Hagberg described there are six levels of Real Personal Power. Ego stops at level three. Hardly the pentouse. The penthouse is your Higher Self, and it even has a helipad so that you can fly!
The space that is created inside of you when you let go of your ego allows your psyche to reidentify with the part of you that is not trying to control the Universe (your Higher Self, also known as your Higher Power). This is a good idea, as you simply cannot win in any battle against the Universe! Your Higher Power is anything that has a higher consciousness than your ego, be that God, Jesus, unconditional love, Nature, the Universe, or anything that you prefer.) It states in John 8:12 that “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
When you choose to be and make all choices from your Higher Power, a place of love, you will become transformed, reborn. It says in the Bible 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
Jung wrote about his role as a psychiatrist that “Thinking within the framework of the special task that is laid upon me: To be a proper psychiatrist, a healer of the Soul.” On psychotherapy, Jung commented that “Therefore our Lord himself is a healer; he is a doctor; he heals the sick and he deals with the troubles of the Soul; and that is exactly what we call psychotherapy.”
Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy, said "When the mind (the ego) is thinking it is talking to itself." When you are letting your conditioned thoughts rule your mind you are in ego-mode. The ego is not the real you! He continued "For a man to conquer himself (his ego) is the first and noblest of all victories." When you are stuck in ego, you are behind enemy lines. Jung, through his writings, shows us the way forward. As Morpheus says to Neo in the iconic film 'The Matrix' “I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it." Individuation invites you in to a totally new realm of infinite possibility. It states in Revelation 3:8-12 that “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.” Sol Luckman wrote that “If we’re indeed, like Neo in ‘The Matrix’, ‘living in a dream world,’ the inevitable questions then become: Can we wake up? If so, how do we wake up? What exactly awaits us if and when we do wake up?”
Robert A. Johnson wrote in ‘Balancing Heaven and Earth: A Memoir of Visions, Dreams, and Realisations’ that “We create Hollywood and Disneyland to carry our projections of greatness. But as a society we are putting ourselves at risk in this process, for a celebrity may not be a true hero. As the great mythologist Joseph Campbell once pointed out, the celebrity lives only for his or her own ego, while the hero acts to redeem society. We have many celebrities but few true heroes these days. Modern Westerners have evolved psychologically to the point where we are placing our gold on living beings rather than dead bones, as was done in medieval times, but it remains to be seen whether we can learn to carry our own gold and find ‘Heaven’ within instead of without.”
Holding on to your ego is like holding a hand-grenade with the pin pulled out, or playing Russian roulette: Just watch the 'Deer Hunter' scene about Russian roulette if you want to know what it's like to try to survive life in fear (reacting from ego - the part played by Christopher Walken) rather than from a place of relative serenity (responding from your Higher Self - played by Robert de Niro).
Jung's psychospiritual approach had far greater results than with psychology alone, as I have found in my own experience. The word healing is derived from ‘to make whole.’ How can anyone who doesn’t believe in the Soul be expected to heal it, including all spiritual dis-ease, which forms the basis of many mental health conditions? For example, with regards to treating addiction, which requires a spiritual experience, Jung wrote to Bill Wilson, the founder of the 12 steps, which heavily influenced the latter’s writings of the 'Big Book', that “The only right and legitimate way to such an experience is that it happens to you in reality and it can only happen to you when you walk on a (spiritual) path which leads you to a higher understanding.” Sobriety could be achieved through “A higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism” - through an Enlightenment or conversion experience, that is. It might also occur through “An act of Grace or through a personal and honest contact with friends.” I have met psychiatrists and psychotherapists who have a psychospiritual approach, and it is integral to their ability to heal. In the 'Big Book' it states on page 83, where the 12 step 'Promises' are summarised, that "If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness."
Pythagoras, the ancient Greek philosoph and polymath said that “No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself. No man is free who cannot command himself.” Jung wrote that the “The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the second half is going inward and letting go of it.” The second half of life begins typically with a kind of new birth, which is typically initiated by a major crisis or loss at midlife. The integration of the Shadow belongs to the second half of life. This is a process of becoming conscious of parts of the Self that were not admitted into the persona (the ego) in the first half of life. Late-stage individuation is characterised by an increased sense of the importance of discovering life’s true meaning, our divine purpose, our sacred DNA, our calling, and developing the spiritual aspects of the true Self. A sense of transcendence from the everyday world of achievement, accolades, and social position, that characterise our ubiquitous obsession with external validation, as well as a broader view of life’s meaning, can result in a psychological state of what people have traditionally called ‘wisdom,’ which is far beyond knowledge. Toward the end of life, this development becomes increasingly urgent. Sadly, some people remain asleep, and never awaken, or only do so on their death beds. The number one regret of the dying is they wish that they had the courage to live a life true to themselves, not the life others expected of them. Thomas Moore wrote in ‘A Religion of One's Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World’ that “Jung called this process individuation, becoming an individual, a real person not continually swept away by his passions influenced by his culture. Each person has a unique opus, a Soul work, because each has a particular makeup and history. For Jung the opus was a process of getting to know your Self deeply, not only a psychological process of painful advance in Self-knowledge; but a religious initiation involving spiritual ideals and the search for meaning.”
Masks are deadly. Joseph Campbell wrote “To become - in Jung’s terms - individuated, to live as a released individual, one has to know how and when to put on and to put off the masks of one’s various life roles. ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do,’ and when at home, do not keep on the mask of the role you play in the Senate chamber. But this, finally, is not easy, since some of the masks cut deep. They include judgement and moral values. They include one’s pride, ambition, and achievement. They include one’s infatuations. It is a common thing to be overly impressed by and attached to masks, either some mask of one’s own or the mana-masks of others. The work of individuation, however, demands that one should not be compulsively affected in this way. The aim of individuation requires that one should find and then learn to live out of one’s own centre, in control of one’s for and against. And this cannot be achieved by enacting and responding to any general masquerade of fixed roles.”
During transformation, as it progresses, the emphasis is more on reflection and a deeper type of creativity than has been in operation in the earlier phases. Many of the great works of world literature, such as Dante’s ‘Commedia’, and Jung’s late autobiography, ‘Memories, Dreams, Reflections’ have been the products of this phase of individuation. My writing and my coaching are my creativity, and I truly believe that they are my purpose in life. Going inward is the spiritual journey. The ego is who we think we are: But it is our ‘false self’, our persona, our mask that we want to project to the world. It is inauthentic and fragmented, separated from others. It is our conscious self, yet it is asleep. The ego always tells us lies: Nothing it says is true. Most of us never get past identifying with, and being it, throughout the length of our lives. The language of the ego is fear. The further we progress with individuation, the more the ego screams at us "That is the wrong way!" But this is its biggest lie. The ego wants us dead. In contrast, the Self speaks Truth. Jung wrote that “That centre, that other order of consciousness, which to me is unconscious, would be the Self.” So, our Higher Self is unconscious, and the spiritual path involves waking it up and integrating our psyche. Our journey to awakening our Higher Self represents a move away from external validation to inner approval, integration of our inner child, our Shadow, and our Higher Self. So, the Higher Self is both a discrete entity and the fusion of these three separate parts of the psyche.
The Higher Self refers to a quality of consciousness transcending our regular self-identity and everyday experiences. As we’ll see, this Higher Self, or just the Self, is understood in contrast to the ego. The Self guides us and brings us home. It is the source of infinite wisdom within each of us. Learning how to access, connect, and live from this Self is the focus of many Eastern traditions and Western integrative psychologies. In Eastern traditions, the ego or small self represents what they call ‘Maya’: This is the illusionary self-identity - the false self. In Buddhism, this false self is considered the cause of one’s suffering. Its existence leads to a never-ending stream of desires and cravings. As the psychologist Abraham Maslow used to say, “Man is a forever wanting animal.” He also wrote that “It looks as if there were a single ultimate goal for mankind, a far goal toward which all persons strive. This is called variously by different authors Self-actualisation, Self-realisation, integration, psychological health, individuation, autonomy, creativity, productivity, but they all agree that this amounts to realising the potentialities of the person.”
The Higher Self is best understood compared to what it’s ‘higher’ than - namely, the ego. The ego is a complex set of identifications, opinions, positions, desires, preferences, and judgements. It’s our perceived self-identity. The ego is synonymous with the self. It is, in fact, our sense of self. This ego is conditioned by its environment and experiences from early childhood onward. Its storyline goes from birth to death. In contrast, the ‘Higher Self’ is not conditioned by the external world. This Self remains steady, complete, and silent in the background. When we fully identify with the ego as the “I am,” this ego construct is in charge. In this context, the Self is mostly inaccessible. The original Self shines forth when this ego identification loosens and recedes into the background.
Eckhart Tolle, the great spiritual teacher, believes that the spiritual path is all about presence, saying that “To spiritually awaken is to allow your ego to die. To only look at the ego, to honestly observe its insanity, is to kill it. The ego cannot survive in your conscious presence.” Tolle says that “The moment you become aware of the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old, conditioned mind-pattern. Ego implies unawareness as it is asleep. Awareness and ego cannot coexist.” He continued that the ego is not only operating at an individual level, but also at an institutional and international level, writing “But the ego is destined to dissolve, and all its ossified structures, whether they be religious or other institutions, corporations, or governments, will disintegrate from within, no matter how deeply entrenched they appear to be. The most rigid structures, the most impervious to change, will collapse first.”
There are many ways to awaken our Higher Self. This may involve: A meditation such as taking the spiritual path and meeting your Higher Self and fusing with it; A meditation integrating the parts of your psyche; Making a daily choice during prayer and meditation as to whether you are going to choose to act from your ego or your Higher Self; Discovering your Higher Self through life’s constant challenges, which allows for, and is a crucible for, spiritual evolution, growth, and transformation (like a Phoenix rising from the ashes); Doing inner spiritual work, which is of paramount importance; Practising acceptance and surrender. Jung was convinced that “We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.” Acceptance is freedom. It's the path to meaning, connection, and growth. Along with surrender, acceptance is crucial to spiritual evolution. It's life on your own terms.
Carl Jung said that the ego is the lowest aspect of ourselves. He wrote that “The acceptance of one’s Self (the Higher Self or the Soul) is the essence of the whole moral problem and the epitome of a whole outlook on life.” He wrote about the ego and its inevitable lack of compassion “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.”
The journey to one’s Higher Self is a painful one and involves waking up, although less painful than remaining asleep, as you inevitably start feeling your buried, suppressed, denied, and repressed emotions. Jung wrote that “The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.” It involves becoming your own ‘hero’ on very own Hero’s journey (as Jospeh Campbell called it), passing through the ‘Dark Night of The Soul’, and facing your fears. Jung wrote that “Considering that the light of Christ is accompanied by the ‘Dark Night of The Soul’ that St. John of the Cross spoke about, and by what the Gnostics of lrenaeus called the umbra Christi, which is identical with the chthonic aspect mentioned above, the life of Christ is identical in us, from the psychological point of view, with the unconscious tendency toward individuation.“ Joseph Campbell wrote, it is in the darkest cave that we find our greatest treasure. That is where God is always found. ‘God’ is simply a short word, or metaphor, for love, the Universe, Nature, energy, the quantum field, or pure consciousness.
In the Bible, in 2 Corinthians 5:17, it states “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” In taking the spiritual path, that is where we become the midwife to the birth of our Selves, our true BEing. If we do not take this journey, our Higher Self is stillborn. As Jesus said “We have to die to be reborn.” Here, Jesus is referring to the death of the ego, as the caterpillar literally dissolves to become a butterfly, and that butterfly is our Higher Self. Jesus said in Luke 17:21 “For, behold, the Kingdom of God is within You.” The “Kingdom of God” not some far away place: It is waiting to be awakened inside of you. It it the divine spark in you. John A. Sanford wrote in 'The Kingdom Within: The Inner Meaning of Jesus' Sayings' that “The Kingdom involves the realisation of our personalities according to the inner plan established within us by God; hence, the unfolding of a Self that predates and transcends the ego.” In Matthew 7:7-8 Jesus said “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” It is through conscious contact with divinity that we walk through the open door and we have a spiritual experience. Jesus reminds us in John 10:30 that “I and the Father are one.” We all have the potential of Christ in each of us. We are great and beautiful BEings. It’s just that we have forgotten who we truly are. Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way and the Truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” In Luke 1:35 it states that “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” In Acts 2:17 it states “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” Jung wrote about Man that “He suffers, so to speak, from the violence done to him by the self. The analogous passion of Christ signifies God's suffering on account of the injustice of the world and the darkness of Man. The human and the divine set up a relationship of complimentarity with compensating effects. Through the Christ-symbol, Man can get to know the real meaning of his suffering: He is on the way to realising his wholeness. As a result of the integration of conscious and unconscious, his ego enters the ‘divine’ realm, where it participates in ‘God's suffering.’ The cause of the suffering is in both cases the same, namely 'incarnation,' which on the human level appears as individuation.”
The fall from Grace in the garden of Eden was a descent into a lower consciousness, the false self, the ego mind. The ego had to be booted unceremoniously out of the garden. This story was never meant to be literal. In fact, to teach it in this way greatly diminishes the spiritual Truth the author originally intended. But when this story is understood correctly, it unlocks the key to helping us live a full, abundant life, which is the way life was intended to be! Getting right to the point, the story of Adam and Eve is about the human mind. More specifically, it is about a mind that has become fractured and is therefore no longer whole. Jesus was crucified at Golgotha, which means 'place of the skull'. In an esoteric sense, this is about the mind, and the battle is between the ears! Liberation and salvation come when we crucify the ego and heal the mind. There is much psychospiritual symbology behind the fall. The felt separation from God is perhaps the conscious emergence of our own separate self in our ego mind and in the world, and this self feels cut off, isolated, independent, apart, divided, incomplete, disconnected from each other, the rest of Nature, the world, and the Universe. This mythological, metaphorical allegory was the birth of duality. In this duality, we cannot perceive the wholeness of who we are. To return to the ‘tree’ of life we need to go beyond all dualistic thought, perhaps through meditation and other spiritual practices, and contemplate the deepest reality of our BEing, of our awareness, of consciousness. In this way, we partake of pure unconditional love, and realise we are pure love, which is the same as energy or consciousness. We recognise that we don’t have a life, we are Life. We find our Higher Power in God’s Spirit. In Enlightenment, we awaken as pure undefiled undivided consciousness, which is the most powerful force in the Universe, and this is God. It is One. In the literal story, God placed only Adam in the Garden. In the beginning, Adam was alone; Eve had not been separated from him. Adam was therefore whole. This is representative of the conscious and subconscious working in perfect unity and harmony, which is also reflected by the paradise (Garden of Eden) in which Adam dwelled. In this state of unity consciousness, Adam was one with God. As the story continues, we learn that God placed Adam in a deep sleep (the realm of forgetfulness and fracture of consciousness) and Eve was created. In this new state of BEing, Adam represents the waking conscious of mankind and Eve represents the subconscious. When the conscious and subconscious are no longer in unity, the state of Paradise (inner joy and peace) can no longer be maintained because the ego will take control. Thus, the fall! And of course, the literal story presents us with this in the form of expulsion from the Garden. As the story goes, Eve is tempted by the serpent or Satan (ego), and because the ego took over the driver’s seat of man’s Soul, Paradise lost becomes man’s reality. This is also spiritual death. And spiritual death equals separation from God. To be whole again, we need to renew our minds in Christ consciousness, like the Apostle Paul tells us. This is the born-again experience. As Paul states in Galatians 2:20, “And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” In Romans 12:2 it states that "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The ego wants to stay alive. That’s its job. The ego fears its own dissolution. In fact, all fear is rooted in ego. Meditation helps to dissolve the ego, and, over time, the conscious and the subconscious began to work in unity. This is what Christ consciousness is. Some call it the ‘super consciousness’. The name doesn’t matter. It’s the outcome that matters. Our Higher Self is where we receive intuition, from Universal consciousness, which is a much higher intelligence than our own. Jung wrote that "That God-image in man was not destroyed by the Fall but was only damaged and corrupted ('deformed'), and can be restored through God's Grace. The scope of the integration is suggested by the descent of Christ's Soul to 'Hell', its work of redemption embracing even the dead. The psychological equivalent of this is the integration of the collective unconscious which forms an essential part of the individuation process."
So, what is individuation? Carl Jung's three main stages of individuation involve confronting the Shadow, the Anima/Animus, and realising the Self. The Shadow represents integrating repressed aspects of oneself, while the Anima/Animus signifies encountering the inner feminine or masculine to achieve balance. The Self stage involves achieving a unified and complete sense of Self through integration of these separate parts of the psyche, becoming an indivisible ‘whole’ version of one's Self. Individuation is a process of accomplishing of the individual wholeness experienced as a psychological completeness. Individuation is a process that unfolds in stages of psychological development. Jung saw individuation as the process of Self-realisation: The discovery and experience of meaning and purpose in life. Individuation can be defined as the achievement of Self-actualisation through a process of integrating the conscious (the asleep ego mind) and the unconscious (the Higher Self, waiting to be awakened). Individuation, the central concept of Jung's psychology, is the foundational image and aspiration of Jungian psychoanalysis – and life. Individuation in the process of becoming what you were destined to be when you were born. It is a shift from ego-centredness to becoming one’s own Self.
It is our duty to individuate. In fact, the only true 'sin' is not to. Neale Donald Walsch, the author of the brilliant trilogy 'The Conversations With God: An Uncommon Dialogue', which is in my 'Suggested Reading' list, wrote that “Our ‘job,’ our intention as spiritual BEings in a body, is to express our true nature - to fully know ourselves as expressions and individuations of the Divine.” As Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual BEings having a human experience." Oscar Wilde wrote in ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ that “The aim of life is Self-development. To realise one’s nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one’s Self.”
The Higher Self is a remembrance, a return to the real you before your parents, teachers, and society got to you, conditioning you to believe that you needed external validation in order to ‘fit in’, be loved and loveable, be worthy, be approved of (this compromises our authenticity, which Gabor Maté writes about), and to be a ‘success,’ as defined by external measures. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 “But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Jesus said in Mark 8:36 “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own Soul?” The spiritual path is an inner one, involving looking within. The conditioning literally created your ego. From that point on, the conditioning continues as one develops what the Taoists call the ‘acquired mind’. All of these things - and many others - form attachments within the mind. Collectively, they construct a self-identity that codifies the ego. Virtually all of the attributes of the acquired mind relate to what Maslow called basic human needs. In his 'Pyramid of Human Needs' he called the highest level of human need Self-actualisation. The acquired mind runs the show, ruling, and ruining our lives, until we wake up our Higher Self, so that it can take over. While the ego rules, one’s Higher Self remains silent and hidden within one’s psyche.
A large component of our acquired mind that forms our sense of self is a consequence of childhood trauma. Trauma essentially translates to emotions that get stored in our bodies. This emotional trauma causes numerous splits within our psyche that get reinforced over time. Jung wrote that “Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.” This suggests that our parents’ expectations of us are rooted in their own sense of unworthiness, acquired from the same sources mentioned above. Geverson Ampolini wrote that “The disconcerting observation of psychology: In order for children, figuratively speaking, to live fully, parents need to vanish.” I believe that expectations, which are derived from the ego, can amount to childhood trauma, although this is rarely thought of as a cause of trauma. Jung wrote in ‘The Red Book’ “My Soul, where are you? Do you hear me? I speak; I call you - are you there? I have returned; I am here again. I have shaken the dust of all the lands from my feet, and I have come to you, I am with you. After long years of long wandering, I have come to you again. I had to accept that what I had previously called my Soul was not at all my Soul, but a dead system (the ego) that I had contrived.” Jung wrote in 'The Red Book’ “But I had to recognise and accept that my Soul is a child and that my God in my Soul is a child. We reach the God through the Self.” The ego must be dropped as we evolve throughout life, unless we want our lives to end in disaster: Jung wrote in ‘The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche; The Stages of Life ‘ that “Whoever carries over into the afternoon the law of the morning, or the natural aim, must pay for it with damage to his Soul, just as surely as a growing youth who tries to carry over his childish egoism into adult life must pay for this mistake with social failure.”
In order to reconnect with your Higher Self, you need to slow down and give up the hustle. The more you can slow down, the easier it is to connect with your Inner Self. The ego loves drama, which is why most people are addicted to stories, novels, the news, boxsets, and films. Drama leads to problems and internal tensions. In real life, drama translates to an endless stream of thoughts and continuous emotions. When we watch drama on the screen or in real life, the ego can take a moment’s reprieve from its personal drama. It can live vicariously through the protagonist on the screen. The more you can hold to your centre, the less the ego’s drive for drama hooks you. The ego is not only responsible for drama, being the cause of all human conflict, but it is also associated with a lack of meaning in one’s life. Jung wrote that “Only a life lived in a certain spirit is worth living. It is a remarkable fact that a life lived entirely from the ego is dull not only for the person himself but for all concerned." Michael Sugrue wrote that “Guilt is the uncomfortable certainty that we are not what we could have been.”
Jung wrote that “Conscious and unconscious are not necessarily in opposition to one another, but complement one another to form a totality, which is the Self.” He continued “Ideas can have nothing to do with the empirical ego but are concerned with a ‘divine nature’ quite distinct from it, and hence, psychologically speaking, with a consciousness-transcending content issuing from the realm of the unconscious.” On the Higher Self, Jung wrote that “It is a figure comparable to Hiranyagarbha, Purusha, Atman, and the mystic Buddha. For this reason, I have elected to call it the ‘Self,’ by which I understand a psychic totality and at the same time a centre, neither of which coincides with the ego but includes it, just as a larger circle encloses a smaller one.” He wrote in ‘Memories, Dreams, and Reflections’ that “The Self is not only the centre but also the whole circumference which embraces both conscious and unconscious; it is the centre of this totality, just as the ego is the centre of consciousness.” Another way he describes the relationship between the Self and the divine is that "Through uniting with the Self we reach God. Not that the Self is God, although we reach the God through the Self." Carl Jung knew God. He was a spiritual Master who understood God differently to most scientists and philosophers, which is why when Jung in his 1959 BBC interview with John Freedman made the statement “I don’t need to believe [in God]; I know”, he was met with a vitriol not previously seen in psychological circles, despite his wisdom and brilliance. Jung later explained “My statement was not meant to deny the existence of a transcendent reality. I merely wished to emphasise that my understanding of psychological phenomena is based on empirical evidence and observation rather than mere belief.” 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 spirituality and the divine in his life and in his work. They were an ever present and hugely powerful 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 about life. Jung is telling us that 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. Jung wrote in ‘Nietzsche’s Zarathustra’ that “God has never been made. He has always been. Then slowly, with the increase of consciousness, when people discovered that they could make different ideas about the deity, they came to the conclusion that it was nothing but an idea, and they quite forgot the real phenomenon that is behind all the ideas.”
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, analytical psychology and spirituality.
So, 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: Being 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 understood the relevance of the Christian story in its ever-living symbolic power and Truth. He thought of the life and death of Jesus 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. It is no wonder then, that spirituality, the Hero's Journey, and Higher Power are consistently in my top 10 most read articles.
So how can someone know God? Jung in his career analysed over 80,000 dreams from his patients. Through this material, he noticed similar motifs, symbols, and patterns as seen in world religions, mythology, folklore, and literature. Symbols such as God, Christ, the Soul, the divine, the sun, the moon, the ocean, the stars, the hero, etc. It was from these similarities that Jung posited that within each human mind, there must be a single source of all ideas, symbols, and patterns of behaviour. He called this psychic system the ‘collective unconscious’.
From this system, Jung thought he could explain many phenomena such as the experience of the numinous (having a strong religious or spiritual quality; indicating or suggesting the presence of a divinity), the captivation of certain religious and mythological texts, and what the goal and meaning of our lives should be. Jung believed, for instance, that many religious ideas, such as the ‘Soul’, ‘evil’, ‘transcendence’, ‘Heaven and Hell’, and ‘God’, could be understand from this psycholospiritual framework. For instance, 'Heaven' would be a psychological state of harmony, wholeness and fulfilment (the domain of the Higher Self and love); whereas 'Hell' would be a fracture of our psyches, a spiritual alienation and existential crisis (the domain of the ego and fear).
The transcendent would be moving beyond the narrow confines of the ego to the realm of the unconscious, a connection with the deeper parts of our own minds. Evil would be a projection of the Jungian Shadow, an unwillingness to understand our own dark impulses and instead lash out at others. These concepts, insomuch as they refer to religious ideas, viewed in this way are symbols for a psychological reality. A way for us to gain access to deeper parts of ourselves. This is individuation, a bridging together of conscious and unconscious elements of the psyche. Through his exploration of psychology, Jung came to understand God as the central archetype of the collective unconscious. God was not a literal deity that provided a set of moral codes and laws, but was a psychological reality, a symbol of the transcendent aspects of the human experience. The God archetype is the ultimate source of meaning and purpose in one’s life. Jung referred to this central symbol as the ‘Self’, a representation of the totality of the psyche.
Jung didn’t focus on the metaphysics, that is, attempting to explain the nature and origin of the supernatural. Instead, he focused on people’s experiences, that which we can account for. He took the approach of phenomenology (an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience). Jung saw organised religions such as Christianity Judaism, Buddhism as representations of the same phenomena – a reconnection with the inner world of the psyche. Religion stems from the Latin root ‘religare’, which means to re-bind or re-connect with some transcendental reality. And central to all of it is the archetype of the ‘Self’, the God image, the ultimate achievement of a mind turned inward. When someone claims to have seen a spirit, or felt the presence of God, the Jungians would consider this a manifestation of the archetype breaking into consciousness. It is a symbol of an encounter with something greater than oneself. This naturally produces the feeling of awe and rapture.
Archetypal (religious) experiences can feel earth-shattering in their significance. They can represent a monumental transformation in the individual’s mind. Religious and spiritual practices can allow for a greater connection with the unconscious forces, and as such regulate this mechanism. The main takeaway is that Jung viewed religious phenomena, symbols, and experience as a psychological reality. Through spirituality, one can have a relationship with the unconscious, which is synonymous with the divine, or God.
But organised religion can be outdated for many modern people, who are taken by rationality, Enlightenment, and scientific revolution. And as such, many find they are spiritually and morally deprived, which can manifest as psychological pain and existential suffering. Again, Jung, however, said he knew God. This means he knew of a force beyond the understanding and limitations of his ego (conscious mind), and that this force would eternally steer the course of his life, for better or worse. Jung wrote that “I did not say in the broadcast, ‘There is a God’, I said ‘I do not need to believe in God; I know’. Which does not mean: I do know a certain God (Zeus, Jahwe, Allah, the Trinitarian God, etc.) but rather: I do know that I am obviously confronted with a factor unknown in itself, which I call ‘God’.” Know God, know peace; no God, no peace.
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.”
So, what did God mean for Jung? Well, he can answer that question himself: “I remember Him, I evoke Him, whenever I use His name overcome by anger or by fear, whenever I involuntarily say: ‘Oh God’. That happens when I meet somebody or something stronger than myself. It is an apt name given to all overpowering emotions in my own psychical system subduing my conscious will and usurping control over myself. This is the name by which I designate all things which cross my wilful path violently and recklessly, all things which upset my subjective views, plans, and intentions and change the course of my life for better or worse.”
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.
There is a fundamental difference between knowing something intellectually and experiencing it directly. In spiritual practice, realisation arises not from thinking or believing but from resting in the seat of consciousness and ceasing to be distracted by thoughts, emotions, and ego. The ultimate path to Enlightenment involves letting go of identification with the personal self and returning to the direct, experiential awareness of one's divine nature. God-realisation is not a belief, it is a lived experience of merging back into the ocean of Universal consciousness.
Science can't answer the question of whether or not there is a God. In science, nothing can be proven, only disproven: It's called the 'null hypothesis' and is the basis of all scientific experiments. Consciousness can only be experienced: It cannot be intellectualised. Thoughts prevent you from experiencing consciousness. You are distracted by your thoughts. This is why science will never answer the deep existential questions as it by definition has to use the ego mind, which is distracted by thoughts. The ego cannot experience consciousness, as if it tried to, it would instantly dissolve, leaving only awareness and the Higher Self. Truth is a feeling. There is no certainty in the realms of spirituality. This is why we need Faith. Faith is our strength. Without Faith, we would question everything. And that would be weakness. Why are some scientists intent on keeping us in our lower state - the ego? We have faith in flying. Even though most of us don't understand how aeroplanes work. If we didn't have faith in flying, everyone would have panic attacks getting on a plane. Eighty percent of American scientists believe in some kind of spirituality according to recent polls.
Individuation is the key to accessing intuition. Trauma is one sure way to experience individuation. It causes us to drop our ego overnight. This was described by the psychologist Dr Steve Taylor, in his book 'Extraordinary Awakenings: When Trauma Leads to Transformation', which is in my 'Suggested Reading' list. The ego makes us feel afraid, aggressively angry, hateful, resentful, and seeks drama and conflict. Our Higher Self feels only love, peace, joy, abundance, and compassion.
Jung's emphasis on the Self as a centre of wholeness and integration aligns with the concept of the Higher Self. The Self, for Jung, is more than just an ego or personality; it's a deeper, more inclusive entity that encompasses the entire psyche, including both conscious and unconscious aspects. It's the point where the individual psyche becomes fully integrated and connected to a larger, Universal consciousness. While he didn't use ‘Soul’ in the same way as some religious or spiritual traditions, Jung often talked about the importance of finding a Soul or a spiritual dimension in one's life. For example, in his book, ‘Modern Man in Search of a Soul,’ he explored the search for meaning and purpose. He also believed that the psyche's creative and spiritual aspects were essential for wholeness and individuation. In essence, Jung's work offers a psychospiritual framework for understanding the spiritual journey of self-discovery, with the Self-serving as a key concept in that process. And for this to originate from one of the greatest scientists, psychiatrists, analytical psychologists, and philosophers of all time is truly significant. His writings suggest that realising the Self involves integrating the conscious and unconscious aspects of the psyche, ultimately leading to a deeper sense of meaning and connection to something larger than oneself, which could be interpreted as a connection to the Higher Self or the Soul. In ‘The Red Book’, Jung wrote that “Who knows the way to the eternally fruitful climes of the Soul? You seek the way through mere appearances; you study books and give ear to all kinds of opinion. What good is all that? There is only one way and that is your way. You seek the path. I warn you away from my own. It can also be the wrong way for you. May each go his own way.” The spiritual path is thus a tailor-made journey within, in conjunction with one’s Higher Power. He continued that “Every man has a quiet place in his Soul, where everything is Self-evident and easily explainable, a place to which he likes to retire from the confusing possibilities of life, because there everything is simple and clear, with a manifest and limited purpose.” This is your ‘centre’, or as Michael Singer, the spiritual teacher, called it in his brilliant book ‘Living Untethered’ (which is in my 'Suggested Reading' list), the ‘seat of Self’. In The Red Book, Jung further wrote that “He whose desire turns away from outer things, reaches the place of the Soul. My friends, it is wise to nourish the Soul, otherwise you will breed dragons and devils in your heart.” There are no dragons or monsters at your centre – the place of ‘witness consciousness.’
Challenges and suffering are crucibles for evolution, growth and transformation. Jung wrote that “Every psychic advance of man arises from the suffering of the Soul.” He continued “Be grateful for your difficulties and challenges, for they hold blessings. In fact, Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health personal growth, individuation and Self-actualisation.” Michael Brant DeMaria wrote that “It is precisely when our lives have become unmanageable and tragic that the ego can finally be knocked out of the controlling centre of our psyche.” Jung famously wrote that “There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Souls. One does not become Enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. They will practice Indian yoga and all its exercises, observe a strict regimen of diet, learn theosophy by heart, or mechanically repeat mystic text from the literature of the whole world – all because they cannot get on with themselves and have not slightest Faith that anything useful could ever come out of their own Souls. Thus, the Soul has been turned into a Nazareth; gradually from which nothing good can come. Therefore, let us fetch it from the four corners of the Earth – the more far-fetched and bizarre it is the better.” The ego is covered by a mask, a veil. Jung wrote that “It is a most painful procedure to tear off those veils, but each step forward in psychological development means just that, the tearing off of a new veil. We are like onions with many skins, and we have to peel ourselves again and again in order to get at the real core.” He continued that “The experience of the Self is always a defeat for the ego.”
James Hollis wrote that “The act of consciousness is central; otherwise we are overrun by the complexes. The hero in each of us is required to answer the call of individuation. We must turn away from the cacaphony of the outer world to hear the inner voice. When we can dare to live its promptings, then we achieve personhood. We may become strangers to those who thought they knew us, but at least we are no longer strangers to ourselves. The goal of individuation is wholeness, as much as we can accomplish, not the triumph of the ego.”
The human condition is that we have a hole in our Soul. David Sinclair wrote in ‘The War of the Mind’ “How do you fill the hole? Only by becoming whole, which means becoming fully individuated, which means fully integrating all the contents of the unconscious, both personal and collective.”
June Singer wrote that “In the end a person must lose that which is most precious, that to which one's whole life has been devoted. The treasure is consciousness; it is the ego's final sacrifice to the Self. This sacrifice must be offered before the ultimate moment when the individual merges with the unconscious and stands before God.”
The ego comes from the conscious and yet is asleep: The ego means sleepwalking through life. The Soul comes from our subconscious and must be awakened. Jung wrote that “If man does not reverence and submit to the unconscious, which created his consciousness, he loses his Soul, that is, he loses his connection with Soul and unconscious.” Jung wrote that “God the Father became the Son and His own Soul, the Word that became flesh. Each son of God must awaken this new reality in himself.”
Namaste.
Olly
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