Decoding the Mind

Warming up to Jung


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I first heard about Carl Jung back in 2017 from Jordan Peterson’s lectures on YouTube. At the time JP was at the center of controversy, I was spending all my free time annihilating his content, and it seems there were many doing the same. When I first heard JP speak I couldn’t understand him. His speech significantly differed from anything I had encountered before and I was mesmerized. Looking back, the feeling was this: when I normally hear people talk, their words strike true partially. But when JP spoke, I became aware that my entire being was resonating with his words. They felt deeply true, not like the here’s my unoriginal, half-ass opinion about X controversial thing going on right now kind of “true”.

It took me several frustrating months to begin understanding what JP was going on about. My initial reaction to him was this is too much, I can’t handle it, so I put him on hold. I glimpsed truth that I wasn’t ready for, but desperately needed, so I kept coming back. Slowly, over a period of months (and years if I’m being honest), I started to understand his words, but more importantly the spirit animating the words.

Seeing as JP thought so highly of Jung, I decided to approach Jung. The same kind of thing happened as with JP, but way more intensely. Again I had the feeling that Jung, like JP, was onto something BIG and I had to know. But I could not understand a word he wrote. Not because he used terminology I couldn’t understand, but because he spoke more truth than I could handle. Like an inside joke that I wasn’t privy to.

That was 5 years ago, and between then and today, I tried reading Jung’s work again a few more times. A year ago I managed to get through a few chapters of Jung on Active Imagination, but the process was hysterical: I would read a paragraph, realize he spoke truth, get overwhelmed with the intensity of the meaning and put the book down to write for an hour. He asked and answered questions that ran so close to the ones I had been working on, that it felt wrong to continue reading before trying to answer them myself.

Aside: Recently I had an intense experience on 3 grams of mushrooms ;) which helped me deal with paradoxes in a new way (more on that in a future essay, perhaps?)

Anyways this is already getting boring. Bla bla bla TLDR I started reading The Earth Has a Soul: C.G. Jung on Nature, Technology and Modern Life and I can now handle his writing. I read slowly and write a lot, but he is no longer this mythical character with an impossible grasp on… everything. He certainly was one of a kind, and the fruits of his work are only beginning to show. But I’m convinced there is nothing unattainable about his or anyone else’s knowledge and wisdom.

Another aside: Jung described himself as repulsive to those who exist solely as a persona. They are allergic to him because he is incapable of speaking anything but the truth, which they can’t tolerate. You might criticize him for thinking so highly of himself. But if you were incapable of lying, and don’t lie, how else would you describe yourself?

I’m not one for quotes but this one has been on my mind for months: “The strength of a person's spirit would then be measured by how much 'truth' he could tolerate, or more precisely, to what extent he needs to have it diluted, disguised, sweetened, muted, falsified.” - Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.

Coming across the writing of someone who speaks more truth than we can handle can be infuriating, but there’s no reason to push ourselves beyond what we’re capable of handling. If it’s important, we’ll be drawn to it again when we’re ready. Sitting with that feeling can open up horizons previously unseen. And the thrill of having new landscapes to explore makes life worth living to those… blessed? Or should I say cursed? with an insatiable curiosity (high Openness to Experience).

A crocodile, according to my 10-year-old sister (who is already a much better artist)

For nearly 2 years now I’ve been obsessed with shape. I used to paint but didn’t (and still don’t) really get colour. So I shifted my focus to form instead. Over time I’ve learned to differentiate between ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ curves. This drawing is filled with natural curvature which makes it very satisfying to me.

Oh, let’s try something. Comment on Substack what you see in the drawing!

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Decoding the MindBy S.U.

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