Space-Time-Spirit Continuum

I have been curious about connections between mental illness and spirituality for many years.  While researching the field of psychological study’s stance on Spirituality, Carl Jung’s name appeared often in my search results.  So I decided to start with Dr. Jung, remembering his name well (along with Sigmund Freud’s, of course) from my survey psych courses in College.  I found a book written by Dr. Murray Stein entitled, “Jung’s Map of the Soul” which summarizes and explains Dr. Jung’s theories.  As it turns out, Jung not only addresses spirituality, but it is the cornerstone of his ultimate theory of psychology.  In addition, Dr. Jung’s numerous works all point to the very conclusion I am investigating in this blog, namely that the physical and spiritual worlds are inextricably woven together and that all the World’s religions arise from the whisperings that well up inside of us from our inborn connection to the psychic world.

Jung conceives of the psyche as the middle point on a continuum with four axes, where all endpoints merge with one another.

On the two horizontal poles shown here are 1) matter experienced by the physical body through survival instincts like eating and reproducing and 2) spirit experienced by the transcendent mind through psychic images called archetypes.  The events in the physical world appear ordered, whereas psychic events, such as our experience of family or other life circumstances, appear chaotic or random.  However, they are in fact linked and together form a more complex ordered reality.  Jung posits that this internal continuum reflects on a smaller scale the same sort of phenomena found by physics and cosmology in the Universe at large.  He suggests that a Spiritual Realm (i.e. God) exists on a continuum (the vertical axes in the graphic) with the realm of the physical world, where both dissolve into pure energy.  The two realms are parallel realities, yet in sync with one another.  Jung’s career culminated in a Theory of Synchronicity, wherein the continuum between the physical world and spirit realm accounts for psychic and telepathic occurrences.

Jung coined the term Individuation to denote the goal of healthy psychological development.  The process of individuation happens in two main phases.  The first stage usually occurs from birth through young adulthood and involves a person’s ego-consciousness adapting to the physical world through the formation of a persona, the personality one shows to others.  During the second phase, which usually begins in mid-life, a person yearns for a connection with the realm of the spirit.  We are all imprinted with an innate archetype Jung referred to as the Self.  This Self or God Archetype is the primary imprinted image and all other archetypes derive from it.  All archetypes originate in the Collective Unconscious and are responsible for the innate ideas we have about important figures (Mother, Father), events (initiation, death), or motifs (creation, apocalypse) experienced in human life.  Jung notes that the essential content of all religions and mythologies are archetypal.   Through his research and work with patients, Jung discovered a Spiritual Realm outside of ego and psyche that reveals itself through the Collective Unconscious in the form of archetypal images which result in revelatory experiences like that of the burning bush and the handing down of the 10 commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai. 

For Jung, the Anima for men and the animus for women is the part of our psyche that bridges the ego-consciousness and the Self.  The Anima/Animus is like fate according to Jung.  We are guided to our fate by images of archetypal powers far beyond our conscious will or knowledge.  When the ego is well connected to the self, a person is in relationship with a transcendent center and as a result, not narcissistically invested in short term gains or near sighted goals.  The formation of the Anima/Animus must be negotiated before one can effectively integrate all components of the psyche, achieving Individuation.  In the West, where we are very attached to the material world, Jung states that the highest stage of individuation one can attain is the joining of the unconscious and the Ego through a symbol (Religious outlet).  The older, eastern cultures have a drastically different world view and are thus capable of higher levels of Integration.  Jung writes that the highest level of Individuation possible in human consciousness is the ultimate goal of Kundalini Yoga.  These practices allow an individual to merge personal consciousness with the infinite consciousness of God or a Spirit of the Universe. 

The nature of Human beings is to create culture.  Culture formation happens through the creation of what Jung called Symbols. Religion is an example of a Symbol.  It is an attempt to translate the unknowable and inexplicable aspects of existence into understandable terms.  Symbols, like Religion are analogues for instinctual goals, like nourishment and sex.  Libidinal or instinctual energy are channelled by symbols into a different direction.  Symbols also arise from the collective unconscious or Spirit end of the Continuum.   A related term used by Jung, Sacrifice, expresses the transformation of instinctual energy into a different Symbolic form.  For example, a soldier goes against his survival instinct to die for his country.  (Patriotism is another strong Jungian Symbol.) The ideas of Symbol and Sacrifice are what caused the decisive rift between Jung and Freud.  Jung was under Freud’s tutelage early in his career, but for Jung, the idea that the biological (primarily sexual) urges are at the heart of all psychological functioning was too reductive and did not capture the whole picture.

Throughout his career, Jung was an avid student of cultures and religions.  He noted many similarities between his theories and ideologies of Ancient Eastern Spiritual practices.  Jung wrote that the Anima/Animus was like Maya, the Indian goddess of Illusion.  The conscious ego inhabits a world that is largely based on its own projections.  We project our unconscious contents onto the World and people around us.  Similarly, he notes that the Self is much like the Atman or the innermost essence of the individual as described in the Hindu Upanishads.

Jung, like many of his patients, experienced a psychological crisis at mid-life.  He used breathing, meditation, play therapy and drawing as a way to reestablish emotional balance.  He unconsciously began drawing images that he later recognized as Mandalas.  Most commonly used by Tibetan Buddhists, Mandalas are an intuitive representation of ordered wholeness, both spiritual and cosmic.  In India they decorate the walls of homes and temples, whereby connecting people to the spiritual realm.  Taking from Taoism, Jung asserts that the ideal level of integration of all parts of the self should be like the symbol of the Yin Yang, where the Persona is the Yin and the Anima is the Yang.  Ideally there should be a free flowing balance between the two.  (Not the rigid dichotomy sometimes incorrectly assumed in the West.)

Jung was above all a Scientist.  Although this article alludes more to his artistic and philosophical sides, he was most dedicated to furthering Psychology as a Scientific Field.  To use Jungian terminology, it is a supreme case of synchronicity that Jung’s career blossomed in 1930’s Switzerland, the exact time and place of major discoveries in the field of quantum physics.  Albert Einstein was a frequent dinner guest of the Jungs while developing his theory of relativity.  As Jung listened to Einstein use math to explain the organization of the Cosmos, it planted the seeds of his own Physical-Spiritual continuum theory.  Jung was impressed that mathematical equations derived within the human psyche could intuit and reflect the ordered wholeness of the universe.  He in turn intuited that the reverse was also possible, namely that embedded images from the psychic world (archetypes) could offer explanations even predictions of life events. 

Jung was a visionary, way ahead of his time.  He posits that an advanced understanding of reality would require acknowledgment and exploration of connections between the physical and psychic worlds.   The transcendent factor – the Self – innate to all humans, is the common thread behind astrology, alchemy, mythology, and theology.  These fields and their variations are all manifestations of the Self as experienced by different people from throughout history and across cultures. (157)

Finally, I did find a good answer to my original query about the connection between Spirituality and mental illness.  According to Jungian psychology, people with clinical depression are those who experience a complete absence of Psychic energy flow from the Spirit realm.  On the other hand, those who suffer from hallucinations or visions, like the deeply insane or psychotic, have not developed an effective filter in the Anima/Animus for images arising in the Self.  They are therefore overwhelmed with signals that they can not interpret and integrate into ego-consciousness.  Jung felt that medications for these disorders were perhaps necessary, but far from ideal, as they can interfere with one’s connection to the Self.  Interestingly, in the East, alternative therapies have long been in use for a variety of maladies, both physical and mental.