The Twilight of Being: Captivity in the Collective Unconscious

1 Corinthians 2:12-16

Pray

This one is going to be a bot strange at least at the beginning.

Bear with me.

Intro Jung

Carl Jung was a Swiss Psychologist who is creditied for developing Analytical Psychology.

This practice of Psychology emphasizes the unconscious.

Jung was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud.

If you know anything about Freud, he was concerned with the unconscious mind.

Freud considered much of human behavior to be directed by the unconscious mind.

Freud suggested that all people have a personal unconscious.

Freud believed behaviors spring from suppressed unconscious influences within the personal mind.

If you take the time to look into Freud, he was perverse in his suggestions that behavior is directed by sexual fulfillment or repression.

He was also very demeaning toward women.

Not sure why he is so revered in the world of psychology.

But Freud is not the focus of the discussion for today.

Jung also studied the unconscious.

But Jung took his thoughts about the unconscious to the extreme.

Jung believed that we are not limited to a personal unconscious, he suggested that we are all part of a greater collective unconscious.

The mind is made up of a vast collective of influences that exists beyond the human mind.

There are a few terms I need to define to help us understand.

Click Collective Unconscious

Collective Unconscious- All knowledge, imagery and experiences of humanity as a whole. The mind is made up of the collective of all human experiences found existing within the unconscious mind.

And this unconscious mind is outside of and beyond us.

It has been since the first person has been.

The awareness we call me or I is only a temporal experience of consciousness.

This temporary experience of consciousness eminates from the greater collective.

Behaviors and thoughts are not originating from my conscious awareness of self.

Our thoughts, behaviors are not necessarily our thoughts.

Our thoughts are influenced by what he calls the collective unconscious.

Remember, Jung is highly regarded within the world of Psychology.

He believes the human mind is heavily influenced by the collective unconscious.

The Collective Unconscious is evidenced in what Jung called Archetypes.

Click Archetypes

Archetypes- “Patterns that represent ancestral wisdom amongst humans.” [1] Influences eminating from the collective unconscious.

[1] Childs Heyl, Julia, “Carl Jung: Biography, Archetypes, Theories, Beliefs,” verywellmind, December 15, 2023, https://www.verywellmind.com/carl-jung-biography-archetypes-theories-beliefs-7556254

The thoughts and behaviors exhibited in consciousness are not necessarily my own.

They are influenced and directed by archetypes within the collective unconscious.

There are many archetypes all vying for influence in awareness.

Click Anima

Anima/Animus- An archetype that serves as a mediator between the unconscious and the conscious. [2]

[2] Jung, C. G., Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978)

Anima is feminine

Animus is masculine.

But they present themselves is the opposite biological gender.

Men have the Anima (feminine) as the unconscious influences.

Women have Animus masculine influence.

Jung believed this is required to find balance within the self.

He though that biology must be counterbalanced with the opposite psychology.

This presents a conflict within self awareness.

Jung was aware of this conflict.

He suggested that the Anima/Animus will vying for control of the consciousness and the awareness of the individual will suppress the unconscious influence.

This is often where psychological conflict originates according to Jung.

To alleviate this conflict the human must embrace the concept of Individuation.

Click Individuation

Individuation- The purposeful integration of the anima/animus with personal awareness. Actively forming a stable personality.

To find peace within the self, the individual must come to terms with the unconsious influences and attempt to intergate them into the conscious personality.

The true self becomes realized in the process of individuation.

When the unconscious and the conscious find balance within the individual.

It is where we can find wholeness.

All of this sounds very New Age.

You are right, Jung was considered the father of New Age thought.

Two more archetypes to discuss.

Click Christ Image

The Christ Image- The embodiment of divinity in the human. The influence pointing the human to goodness or rationality.

Jung denied Jesus as being divine.

He suggested the concept of Jesus is pointing to the internal conflict within the human to seek what is good.

The Christ Image helps us to know that we are connected to a universal goodness or a hidden divinity residing within our unconscious.

And according to Jung, the human psyche must be in balance.

The Christ image alone does not have the capacity to bring the human to individuation.

There must be its opposite.

As above so below.

Click Shadow

The Shadow- The dark half of the human totality. It is the opposite of the Christ Image.

What is disturbing with this though is that Jung believed that we must integrate both.

He thought evil is a shadow of good.

If there is divinity in the human there must also be the absolute opposite.

And as the human becomes the self, both must be integrated equally into the personality.

This is part of the process of individuation that we just talked about a moment ago.

The individual must come to recognize the evil intentions of their thoughts.

They must then seek ways to integrate them into the self.

This brings the person to a place of completeness because the conflict of opposites is resolved.

In essence, the individual must embrace the most vile aspects of their character and come to terms with it.

From the Christian perspective, the shadow is the sin nature.

The sin nature is not something that we must seek to integrate into our behaviors.

Sin must be overcome through the authority of Jesus in our lives.

We are to be delivered form the influence fo sin rather than seeking ways to accomadate sin.

From the perspective of Jung, we are held captive in the collective.

Click #1

According to Jung, the human struggles with the unconscious archetypal influences attempting to dominate and control thoughts and behavior.

Last time we talked about Sartre.

It is from his philosophy that we get the argument, I can be whoever I want to be, and no one can tell me otherwise.

We are a blank slate that creates the self according to personal desires.

Jung gives us the other end of the argument.

From the influences of his thought we get the argument, I am who I am because I ws born this way.

I cannot change because this is how I am.

You can see these arguments influencing the choices of people in our world.

Now on to something that makes sense.

1 Corinthians 2:12–16 NIV

What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

This text is vital for us to know who and what we are as children of God.

We are not given a spirit that is defined by this world.

Click #2 and #3

2. We are not defined by the strange suggestions given by the frail, limited and confused thoughts of mankind.

3. We are defined by God.

We are given a spirit by God through faith.

The Holy Spirit helps us understand truly who we are and how we have come to be.

Loved, precious children of God who longs to be in fellowship with us.

Click #4

4. Jesus loves us so much that He rescues us from the torment of sin through the shedding of His own blood.

We are not subject to sin.

We are not slaves to the sin nature.

We do not need to devise ways to compromise with the sinful influences of this world.

We have the power through the Holy Spirit to reject such influences.

To be delivered and transformed from the sin that afflicts us.

To find the true self does not require us to come to terms with unconscious influences.

Click #5

5. Finding our true self is realized when we find Jesus.

It is in Christ that we are reminded of who we truly are.

Paul says that the things of the Spirit are foolishness to those who reject the truth of God.

It is foolishness because they choose to listen to the foolish words of men rather than the truth of God.

We have access to the God of ALL Truth.

We do not need to be fools.

In faith we are given the mind of Christ.

What this means is that we can seek out the council of the Lord to help us discern truth.

We can seek out the authority of God to help us reject the influence of sin.

And we can trust in Jesus to be our Good Shepherd.

We are not lost to an unknown wolrd of unconscious influences.

We can know truth.

We can know who we are because we are His.

AMEN!

In conclusion go through Philippians

Philippians 4:4–9 NASB95

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul says rejoice.

Rejoice because we have a God who loves us and hears our prayers.

We have a God who will fill us with His peace.

A peace that surpasses all understanding.

A peace that can fill us with hope even in the most dire times of our lives.

We are to guard our hearts and minds through the power of Jesus.

Guard ourselves against the strange deceptions of the enemy.

Click #6

6. Philippians 4:4-9- Do not allow your mind to be dragged away by the foolishness of this world.

Rather, and this is what I want to emphasize.

Rather focus on what is true.

Focus on what is honorable.

What is right.

Focus on what is pure.

Lovely.

Whatever is good and excellent.

Focus on those things that are worthy of praise.

Dwell on THESE things.

Dwell on the things that you have learned form the Word of God.

Put these things into practice.

Click #7 and #8

7. Apply the truth of the Word of God to your lives.

8. Live out your faith everyday.

And the peace of God will be with us.

Benediction: Philippians 4:8-9

Philippians 4:8–9 NASB95

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.