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..:: Enlightenment
VIII / The Self ::..
By
Alan Schneider
Even as the presumed core of
consciousness in the Jungian classification system, the Self still
remains elusive and mysterious as the most psychologically distant
entity knowable in human experience. This essay will investigate this
presumed source of all being in greater depth and detail than has
perhaps been the case thus far.
Arguably the great strength
of Freud’s system of classification is that it dealt predominantly with
psychological material that, if not directly evident, was at least
strongly enough suggested by indirect inferences that it could be
subsequently analyzed through symbolic content. This analysis was, in
Freud’s case, founded on his theories of sexual repression as the basis
of all mental dysfunction, and his assessment of unconscious mental
symbols followed suit. The obvious physical evidence of sexual
activity – the human population – was so incontrovertible that it formed
a very solid, if still controversial, foundation for the rest of his
work.
In the case of Jung’s
expanded theories of the collective unconscious, this foundation based
on obvious external evidence is not so present, and, in consequence, it
is very easy to adopt the argument of much of psychology and psychiatry
today that Jung’s transpersonal psychology is little more than evidence
of psychosis on his part. Thus, in order to work with the logic of
Jung’s approach, we must at least be initially willing to set aside its
origin in his self-admitted psychosis and consider not what caused
his revelation, but the revelation itself. The fact that the
great bulk of the material Jung produced regarding the archetypes and
archetypal symbols emerged from his essentially broken mind is no more
invalidating than the fact that the evidence of particle physics emerges
from broken atoms fractured in particle accelerators – both types of
evidence are equally valid and important for understanding their
respective areas of scientific investigation. Because Jung
experienced the material described in The Red Book as portions of
his unconscious mind means that they are portions of the unconscious
minds of everyone, something additionally born out by his
extensive work with psychotics and their hallucinations, and augmented
by his studies of social and spiritual symbolism in cultures around the
world, and throughout history. The evidence in support of the
existence and structure of the collective unconscious, if indirect, is
nonetheless very compelling, and this includes the central collective
structure of the Self. But, what is this Self, and what is its
role in consciousness?
The suggestions have been
made in these essays that the Self is the more relatively scientific
term equivalent to God, the Creator, and the Soul, to name a few
analogous concepts applicable to our discussion here. These are all
macrosymbols, having meanings and implications that eclipse
lesser levels of psychological involvement in the Psyche, or total
mind, as it has been called in the Enlightenment Series. To
approach these entities requires the shift of our frame of reference
from the first three Chakras to the next four, leaving the comfortable
security of physicality for the difficult terrain of spiritual
exploration – definitely not an armchair adventure! From Chakra
Four on, we must rely on feeling and intuition to guide us forward as we
attempt to sense the presence of what we cannot directly
apprehend. In the case of the lesser archetypes, this is perhaps not
so difficult, because the images present are more relatively familiar,
if frequently still fantastic, but the going gets progressively more
challenging as we move deeper into the nether regions of the collective
unconscious – the regions where the Soul and the Self dominate human
awareness. Let us begin with the Soul.
The Soul is the initial focus
of the higher mind, and its companion processes of compassion and the
conscience – our so often disregarded moral compasses. The Soul is
perceptually very distant from sensory experience, deliberative thought,
and social information processing – the primary tools of operation on
the physical plane of existence. There appears to be a great chasm
between physicality and spirituality, and there is, because they
exist for very different, although ultimately related,
reasons. The end goal of physicality is reproduction, while
the end goal of spirituality is salvation. Without
reproduction, salvation is irrelevant, and without salvation,
reproduction is pointless – so, they support each other to that extent –
but beyond this, they emphasize two largely incompatible trends in
consciousness, compelling most people to choose one or the other as
primary paths to follow through life. Those who follow physicality
(and the associated lower mind) generally remain focused in the first
three Chakras, while those who follow spirituality and higher mind tend
to focus in the next four.
The Soul is sensed through
inner calm and serenity – the cacophony of external, physical events
frequently disrupts this subtle sensation process – making silence and
solitude useful, if not required, adjuncts for successful Soul
contact. This is absolutely the case with meditation practice when
used as the technique of choice for Soul work, and particularly for
novices, who have not yet developed the one-pointed focus afforded by
extended practice. With time spent, this is not such a stringent
requirement – I used to meditate in the midst of the noon rush at the
main campus of a major university where I was enrolled with no problem –
but initially, quite and calm are needed. Since the Soul permanently
exists in a state of calm and serenity as its native psychological
environment, the more often it is contacted there, the more these
characteristics are developed in the waking consciousness of the
individual, along with the attendant compassion and conscience
previously noted. It is significant to note here that any
sufficiently disturbing internal or external manifestation will
interfere with the “signal” radiating (or emanating, if you wish) from
the Soul, particularly in the first stages of contact, hence a general
psychological and physical “house cleaning” is always a good idea for
effective Soul work, i.e. therapy.
Soul work is generally
identified with the Fourth Chakra – the Heart Center – and the beginning
of all genuinely spiritual attainment in the total mind. Here, the
foundation of all the subsequent efforts to follow is laid down for the
Aspirant to higher mind to follow, through work with the next Chakras in
the sequence. The Buddha observed that, if one diligently performs the
work of the Soul and the Heart, filling them with selfless love,
compassion, and moral awareness through meditation, austerity, and
selfless service to others, then success has been achieved in the
spiritual quest, regardless of whatever additional work is done in the
higher mind to attain higher consciousness. This is
fundamentally correct in my personal experience – the Heart and Soul
taken as a unit are both the starting point and the ultimate destination
of spiritual development. In many ways the Chakras to follow represent
areas of technical functionality that augment the primary Soul work of
the Heart Center – the chanting and instruction of Chakra Five, and
Spiritual Insight of Chakra Six, and even the direct spiritual communion
with the Logos of Chakra Seven all serve to support the Soul as the
primary psychological entity present in Chakra Four – and the one
closest to our physical, sensory perception while incarnate. Yes, we
can, if our spiritual Karma permits, ascend to any or all of the higher
Chakras, and remain there (again Karma permitting), but of what use is
this to our suffering brother and sisters, still entrapped in the
physical toil of Newtonian perception? Clearly, at least from this
perspective, the Soul is the spiritual object of Creation, and the
Heart Chakra is its incarnate home.
What, then, is the nature of
the Self, apart from that of the Soul just outlined? While Jung
cataloged much information regarding the symbolism of the lesser
archetypes, he had relatively little to say about the Self, and this may
be related to his personal spiritual issues as much as anything else.
Like many psychiatrists of his day – the first days of psychiatry
and psychology – he was uncomfortable with spiritual designators for
psychological phenomena, viewing them as unscientific and misleading.
He made exception to a certain extent in The Psychology of Kundalini
Yoga, but this was a qualified exception, in that he himself did not
believe in the existence or efficacy of the Sixth and Seventh Chakras,
largely because he had never experienced them in his personal
psychology. As a man of science, he could not make the Leap of Faith
required to work effectively beyond the chanting and instruction of
Chakra Five, and there he stopped, doubting the Intuition of Chakra Six,
and, most importantly, the Logoic Presence of Chakra Seven.
This brings us to a salient
point – is irrationality necessary for enhanced spiritual perception in
the higher mind? Clearly, when Jung felt the “Calling” of Chakras Six
and Seven, he concluded that he was “threatened with a psychosis” and
withdrew permanently from psychiatric practice in consequence. It is
one thing to experience the calming, centering effect of chanting, and
the satisfaction of teaching and lecturing about concrete information,
however esoteric, and quite another to experience visual and auditory
hallucinations within the higher mind, particularly messianic ones! In
order to understand Jung’s reticent attitude here, we must examine
science itself, and the psychological need within the total mind that it
fulfills.
In Jung’s case, we have a man
who was conditioned to the requirement that life be stable, predictable,
and sensible by his parents, particularly his minister father. Yes,
there is a “God”, but no, we do not see or interact with Him –
apart from prayer, which is a one way solicitation – taking His
existence and influence in human affairs on unsubstantiated Faith
alone. And, yes, there is a Soul, but this is also something that is
still substantially undetectable in the human mind and awareness,
although more immediately “present” than God, whom we must wait until
death to meet, if even then. Yes, there was a Christ, and yes He was
the Son of God, but, no, He is no longer physically present among
humans, and cannot be literally interacted with any more than God.
This was the literalism of Jung’s upbringing, and it was further
enhanced by his German genetic background – a rock is a rock is a rock –
and not the quality of “rockness” – the man was Karmically
destined to become what he did, in fact, become – an evidence based,
scientific, rational empiricist! The fact that he chose to work in
psychiatry was probably determined by the fact that it was a brand new
medical field that promised to generate a substantial income over
the rest of his life – more practical, rational decisions in evidence.
What this boils down to is this: certain people have a need for
security in living that is fulfilled by science and the
scientific method, and very little else, and Jung was just such a
person. How ironic that he found his way into the very profession that
would confront his essential character so drastically!
The need for irrational
investigation of phenomena can be responded to far more effectively
by people who are fundamentally secure in their upbringing and
subsequently less rigidly structured in their consciousness – those
raised by loving, compassionate parents in relatively less structured,
less disciplinary home environments. These people tend to become
artists, not scientists, and can accept the cognitive dissonance
associated with the less-than-rational without so much psychological
conflict and discomfort. For such individuals, the phenomena of
psychic experience, including psychological Ascension into Chakras Six
and Seven, is much more cognitively acceptable – their tolerance of
conditions lacking evidential support is much better than that of the
scientist, who has no such tolerance at all. Alas, we ultimately live
in an existence where – modern science and all of its achievements
notwithstanding – it is the mysteries that still bound human
experience, not the certainties. And Love, the Soul, the Self,
extrasensory perception, and even compassion are all examples of such
mysterious, impenetrable processes that exist beyond scientific
measurement and quantification.
If we follow the Chakra
system analogy, then the Self is most probably associated with Chakra
Seven at the highest level of spiritual manifestation attainable to
human perception. This is the level of the Logoic Plane in the old
Mystery Schools, and, although it is of great teleological interest, I
am inclined to accept Jung’s position that, past the personal and
acculturated symbols associated with the archetypes – even regarding the
very fundamental archetypes such as the Shadow – little can be known
with great definition or certainly. The relatively complete
lack of cognitive “focus” needed through meditation and related
spiritual practices to contact these rarefied levels of perception does
not allow mental clarity beyond the most tenuous limits – we can travel
there only by relinquishing all of the personal psychological “baggage”
that we have come to know as ourselves, flowing along in a stream
of pure perception without conception. This is
where the Self is to be found, and it is no wonder that so few among us
find it. In all probability, it cannot even be clearly distinguished
from the Soul, and Hindu literature, by way of an example here,
frequently does not distinguish between the Jivatman (personal
Soul), the Atman (collective Soul), the Godhead (Divine Trinity), and
Brahman (the Unitary Essence of God), lumping them all together under
the title of “Atman”. Buddhist literature is even less specific,
simply referring to “Blue Sky” consciousness, or Nirvana, as the
experience of the Divine Aspect being, and Satori as the meditative
attainment of that aspect. Yes, there is something present at
the absolute core of the total mind, driving it into existence, and,
yes, this state of being can be experienced through alternative
consciousness techniques, but, no, it is not subject to any form of
rational, scientific classification thereafter, remaining a mystery.
This is why Jung would
continence no more than the term “Self” with reference to this
phenomenon, because no more can be said about it in intelligent
discourse. Now, certainly the Freudian libido is, in all probability,
an aspect of the Self acting as a psychological force in the total mind,
and the Chakras describe the perceptual pathways and way-stations that
the libido can take as it progresses through the total mind, and The
Balance refers to those predictable, if temporary, stages of equilibrium
that can be attained by the libido as it acts within and on
consciousness, but little more can be stated with certainty. We cannot
even be certain of the directionality of the libido’s activity. Does
it move up through the Chakras, or down through the unconscious mind?
Does it move out into the further regions of the total mind, or
in, to the depths of the subconscious, seeking the Self from
which it originated? Where is that Self? Is it anywhere in
particular, or everywhere in general? Where do we go when we manage
to perceive it – within or beyond the mind and body? The wonder of
these things is that the Sphere of the Psyche diagram was ever even
developed at all in the face of these most inscrutable questions, but
developed it was, and stands as the single best, most scientific
depiction of the total mind available to this day.
And is the Relativity “Event
Wave” universe of Einstein coexistent with the Newtonian universe we
literally experience? It all boils down to our observational
perspective – if we focus intently on a phenomenon, we collapse it into
a particle – a Newtonian quantum of perception. If we simply flow
along with the phenomenon in the stream of perception, it retains
its original nature as a Relativity wave, and both are valid
modes of experience useful in their respective realms of
investigation. However, science tells us that Einstein’s universe is
the more fundamental of the two, and I believe this, based on my own
personal observations of life – we live in a continuum of Event Waves
the we observe (through the influence of the ego) into quanta of
experience that we then assemble into an illusion of a three dimensional
existence, because this is all that our senses can accomplish at this
stage of our evolutionary development. Those of us who have somehow
intuitively sensed the vastness of the cosmos beyond this illusion, and
learned how to look beyond the limitations of the lower mind by
accessing the observational techniques of the higher mind, have done as
much as can be done to live in the fullness of the real universe – the
total mind emanating from the Self. I believe that this total mind
is the Relativity Event Matrix, and is an orderly, sentient
condition – the Unified Field Theory that Einstein was developing at the
time of his death – and an additional confirmation of Jung’s Theory of
the Collective Unconscious as well.
All that remains to be done is collect more experimental verification of
the existence and action of Events in the Unified Field, and we will
know the Jungian Self thereby. As this is being written, these
experiments are under way at the CERN LHC complex outside of Geneva,
Switzerland, in terms of the search for the existence of the Higgs Boson
– the so-called “God Particle” that gives all others their
characteristic of mass, i.e. physical existence in the Newtonian
universe. And an enormous leak emerging from the sea floor of the Gulf
of Mexico is continuing to belch forth hundreds of thousands of gallons
of crude oil a day into that sea, largely unchecked at this time, in the
most unprecedented ecological disaster of history – a man-made disaster
caused by pure greed and carelessness on an oil drilling rig, nothing
more. It would appear that the final race deciding human destiny is
on. Perhaps we are not meant to know our God in this
universe...
- With Love, Alan -
(Copyright 2010, by Alan Schneider)
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