How much of our consciousness is shared?

In this episode we have the fascinating job of trying to get to get to grips with Jung’s concept of the Collective unconscious. I’ve always loved Jung and I think his ideas can offer a brilliant framework in which to maximise our mental health, to use life’s challenges to harvest meaningful lessons, and just to navigate the subjective experience of being alive. But this is a science podcast, so we do want to get clear on what is just a useful idea and what is a scientifically proven reality. Jung was very shy to speak about scientifically unprovable ideas because he was a rigorous academic, but as his career progressed he was encouraged more and more to elaborate on the tools he was using with his patients; and as we’ll discuss today he felt there was a huge value in acknowledging the active role of what lies outside of the sphere of testable knowledge, rather than just dismissing it as non-existent.

So I am extremely happy to have Jungian analyst Dr Monika Wikman with us to help locate the threshold between these two very different fields of knowledge and to explain in detail the collective unconscious. Monika is the author of ‘Alchemy and the Rebirth of consciousness’ and received her PHD in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology and then deepened her knowledge of Jungian Analysis at the Jung-Von Franz Center for Depth psychology in Zurich. She is an expert on topics including the anima mundi and environmental issues of our time, archetypal phenomena surrounding death, dreams, active imagination, and alchemy. Her work with the dying culminated in a research project called ‘Dreams of the Dying’ at UC San Diego Medical Center, which is the foundation of her most recent book, Alchemy of Life, Death and the Wedding Veil.

What we discuss in this Episode:

Part 1

12:20 The humility of the ego to identify suffering that creates an opening for us to grow: Dissent, the renewal of consciousness

14:30 What is the Collective Unconscious?

19:00 How can motif’s from ancient myths appear in the minds of those who’ve never learned about these myths?

20:00 The healing function of connecting with this archetypal strata of consciousness

29:00 The importance of dreams to scientific discovery

40:00 Monika’s ‘2 weeks to live to cancer free overnight’ experience

50:00 Ego consciousness making a bridge to the symbolic field of the collective unconscious

Part 2

1:03:00 How do we use knowledge of the collective unconscious in therapy? 

1:11:20 Chaos as a catalyst forcibly setting off a chain reaction of transformation

1:15:00 The Implicate and Explicate order, David Bohm and the big question about where does all this information reside

1:27:30 ‘Exploring Holotropic Breathing’ 

1:35:00 Peak experiences, psychedelics and the dangers of getting hooked on transformation

References:

‘Pregnant Darkness; alchemy and the rebirth of consciousness’ Monika Wikman 

‘Exploring Holotropic Breathing’ Monika Wikman

Monika’s presentation ‘Refining you inner bullshit detector’ 

Monikawikman.weebly.com

‘On dream and death’ by Marie- Louise Von Franz 

‘The order disorder paradox’ by Nathan Schwarz

Stan Grof’s Holotropic Breathing and Grof Transpersonal Psychology training