Numbers as Archetypes, Pauli, Jung, and the Geometry of Meaning

In this epidose, we explore the hidden bridge between psyche and matter through the extraordinary meeting of analytical psychology and quantum physics. At its center is the unlikely dialogue between Carl Jung and a Nobel Prize–winning physicist whose inner life, dreams, and obsessions revealed that the unconscious does not stop at the edges of the mind. Drawing on Marie-Louise von Franz’s work, we explore how numbers are not merely quantities but living patterns that structure both inner experience and physical reality. The deeper argument is a cultural one: modern life has privileged measurement over meaning, calculation over consciousness. What is being asked for here is not a rejection of science, but an integration--where individuation, symbolic awareness, and psychological depth become essential for living in a world that has forgotten how to see meaning.

Note: Just as we were discussing the Pauli effect [lab equipment of all kinds would stop working whenever Pauli was in the room], my power went off, the Internet crashed and kicked us both out of the recording. We were able to resume but had a good laugh about "Pauli being in the room."

 

Books Discussed

Conversations with Marie-Louise von Franz (Inner City Books)

Number and Time by Marie-Louise von Franz

137: Jung, Pauli, and the Pursuit of a Scientific Obsession by Arthur I. Miller

Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 13

The Jung-Pauli Conjecture and Its Impact Today (anthology)

Valley of Diamonds, J. Gary Sparks