Carl Jung and the Paranormal, Part 9: The Scarab Beetle

This post is one of a 12-part series on the paranormal experiences of Carl Jung, founder of Analytic Psychology.

For the initial posting that began this series, click here.

One of Jung’s patients was a young woman, very educated and intelligent, who seemed to feel she knew more than anyone else, including her therapist. This proved problematic, obviously, because Jung couldn’t get through to her even after multiple sessions. Finally, he realized that the woman would never listen to him or solve her problems unless something highly unusual shook her world enough to dislodge her sense of superiority. What that might be, he had no idea.

During their next session together in Jung’s office, he sat opposite the woman with his back to a window. As usual, she rattled on, this time about a dream she had the night before. She told Jung that in the dream someone gave her a gold scarab.

While the woman was speaking, Jung kept hearing something hitting the window behind him. The sound continued even after the woman stopped talking, so Jung turned around to look.  What he saw was a large bug. It kept bumping the window as if trying to get in.

Jung thought it strange enough that he got up, walked to window and opened it. Somehow he caught the bug and then recognized it as a type of scarab beetle. Realizing he might have something unusual enough to truly grab the woman’s attention, he brought her the beetle and said, “Here is your scarab (from her dream).”

After that event, as Jung predicted, the woman became an excellent patient and worked on her problems. In his writing, Jung uses this story a perfect example of how synchronistic events can emerge from the paranormal world and impact peoples’ lives.

For other postings about Carl Jung’s supernatural journeys, go to the blog category titled, “Paranormal and Carl Jung.”