Carl Jung and the Paranormal, Part 10: The Flood

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.

It was early fall in 1913 and Carl Jung had a definite feeling that something was about to happen. The feeling evolved into a deep sense of oppression that intensified daily.

In October of that year, during a trip he took alone, Jung has an hour-long vision that showed:

A flood covering much of Europe
The flood contained the debris from civilization
There were bodies of drowned people everywhere

At the end of the vision, all of the water turned to blood.

Two weeks later, he had the same vision, only a more vivid version. At the same time, an inner voice told him that what he was seeing was real. Of course, as a psychiatrist, he was constantly analyzing himself through all this but he also wondered if his vision might be precognitive in nature. If his vision was showing him something of the future, all Jung could conclude was that perhaps a revolution was coming to Europe.

No revolution occurred and Jung’s visions subsided until the summer of 1914. At that time, he had a very intense dream that started in April and was repeated twice more in May and June. In this dream, he saw:

Europe frozen over – snow everywhere with lakes, rivers and canals frozen solid
Europe appeared deserted
There was no green anywhere

The third time he had this dream, it ended with the understanding that the cold actual came from outer space.

At the end of July in 1914, Jung was invited to speak to the British Medical Association. The subject? “The Importance of the Unconscious in Psychotherapy.”

On August 1, World War I broke out in Europe and immediately Jung realized what his dreams meant and that they had come from his unconscious. The timing of the topic for his speech to the British Medical Association, he felt, was simply an additional “synchronistic” event that showed how series of paranormal coincidences can lead to an understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

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