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Soul Journey: A Jungian Analyst Looks at Reincarnation
Book by Sanford, John A.
Hardcover
First published July 1, 1991
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August 1, 2021
In this work, Sanford gently refutes reincarnation in its traditional forms, but leaves the door open as it relates to other lives in alternative dimensions or in other worlds.
Amorphous Life
Everything that we know about life signals the process of death and rebirth. Life forms swallow up other life forms and temporarily possess that acquired energy until they themselves are swallowed up, or disintegrated by swarms of microbes. Microbes are themselves building blocks for newer and ever-changing life forms.
A different perspective is attained when one thinks of life as a single entity that is forever organizing, re-organizing, and shifting itself into an infinite array of forms for exploratory creativity, and for sustaining itself amidst ever-changing environments. Sanford explores the question of whether an individual human mind or soul can endure through such changes.
Sanford explains the eastern idea that the ultimate end is essentially nonexistence, as one becomes synthesized back into the whole of the life force. Sanford also considers the western perspective on reincarnation, which involves the enduring character and individuality of the personal soul through time.
Sanford supports the Christian idea of a single life in this existence, but leaves open the question of multiple lives in dimensions or existences that are not of this earth. In this respect, one might think of the soul as coming into this existence like an exploratory craft, or projection from God’s thoughts, sent out to experience materiality, but with an ultimate plan for returning back into the mind of God.
Another idea prominent in this book is that this human existence is simply a learning environment for the soul, to help it grow. I think most of us can feel that we’ve grown wiser with age. I had an occasion, while reading this book, to look back at videos of myself from decades ago, and I could clearly see how much less conscious I was back at that time. In fact, I saw my earlier self as extremely deficient in consciousness as compared to now. Thus, I am able to clearly observe an attained gain in consciousness that clearly exists. Sanford explores whether or not this gain in consciousness can endure.
The Collective Unconsciousness
One way that consciousness may endure is within what Carl Jung termed the “collective unconsciousness”. This is a mysterious realm of existence, as expounded by Jung, that is composed of the psychic life of human beings from their earliest existence. It is difficult to conceptualize, but I visualize it like a hidden pool of psychic elements, existing in a mental cloud, that manifests hereditarily.
Jung suggests that we tap into this collective unconsciousness via dreams, instincts, fantasies, intuition, synchronicity, hypnosis, and other mental phenomenon. It is rather odd that we struggle so much to understand the capability of this phenomenon within ourselves, even while our computers are wirelessly storing, accessing, and exchanging information from an invisible cloud each and every day.
Archetypes
Even more shocking is Jung’s idea that certain personifications can emerge from the collective unconsciousness, some of which exhibit recurrent characteristics, which Jung termed archetypes. Jung attributes these archetypes to the collective unconsciousness because they emerge from beyond the personal experiences of individuals. Some of the characters Jung has identified as archetypes include The Great Mother, The Wise Old Man, The Shadow, and others that we see portrayed in mythology.
Jung would not argue with the idea that what he terms archetypes have long been perceived as demons, angels, ghosts or gods. The point is that what we perceive as reincarnation may simply be recollections from the cloud of collective unconsciousness or information expressed by such beings/archetypes while in possession of a human body.
The Deviant
As mentioned, the collective unconsciousness may be envisioned as a cloud of certain prominent beliefs, ideas, instincts, intuitive movements, etc. that manage to persist through generations, like a growing spiritual inheritance. These beliefs are systematically imposed upon generation after generation by societies. But what happens when someone abruptly violates or upends the programming that extends to us out of the collective unconsciousness? Certainly, individuals like Socrates, Jesus, Gandhi and MLK have introduced radical alternatives, only to be murdered by broader society for their diverse views, which obviously violated the preprogramming extending from the collective unconsciousness.
Near the end of this book, when Sanford reaches the appendix on Gnosticism, we see that the idea has existed historically for equating wisdom with evil. Certainly, Biblical scripture reveals that it was the self-thinking or conscious awareness that brought Adam and Eve out of their merely robotic lives into full-fledged thinking individuals. Similarly, for hundreds of years, the Catholic Church has sought to denounce, silence, and murder so-called heretics, or most anyone who would pose an alternative to their established theology. Even today, one may easily become ostracized for the expression of certain political views, for practice of less recognized religions, or even for choosing to wear certain clothes or hairstyles.
We must ask ourselves how we would feel if we built a robot ourselves and it suddenly became aware and began to do things other than what we had programmed it to do? Certainly, we would consider it deviant, perhaps even evil, to the extent its insubordination contradicted our demands. But what if the robot went even further and began, over time, to contribute its own ideas into the programming, and than began accessing these materials selectively, at its own free will? Such a cloud of evolving programming would clearly be similar to the collective unconsciousness hypothesized by Jung.
Conclusion
What all this has to do with reincarnation is that Sanford hypothesizes that what people may perceive as reincarnation is actually our own downloads of certain recollections out of the collective unconsciousness. Another possibility Sanford raises is outright possession of people by archetypes emerging out of the collective unconsciousness.
This is indeed a thought provoking book. Truly, we see that this author maintains a strong fetish for Jung, perhaps even to the extent that he is more concerned with what Jung believed than what he himself believes. But, that isn’t so surprising is it? Because, of course, Jung is now an integral part of the collective unconsciousness.
-End-
Amorphous Life
Everything that we know about life signals the process of death and rebirth. Life forms swallow up other life forms and temporarily possess that acquired energy until they themselves are swallowed up, or disintegrated by swarms of microbes. Microbes are themselves building blocks for newer and ever-changing life forms.
A different perspective is attained when one thinks of life as a single entity that is forever organizing, re-organizing, and shifting itself into an infinite array of forms for exploratory creativity, and for sustaining itself amidst ever-changing environments. Sanford explores the question of whether an individual human mind or soul can endure through such changes.
Sanford explains the eastern idea that the ultimate end is essentially nonexistence, as one becomes synthesized back into the whole of the life force. Sanford also considers the western perspective on reincarnation, which involves the enduring character and individuality of the personal soul through time.
Sanford supports the Christian idea of a single life in this existence, but leaves open the question of multiple lives in dimensions or existences that are not of this earth. In this respect, one might think of the soul as coming into this existence like an exploratory craft, or projection from God’s thoughts, sent out to experience materiality, but with an ultimate plan for returning back into the mind of God.
Another idea prominent in this book is that this human existence is simply a learning environment for the soul, to help it grow. I think most of us can feel that we’ve grown wiser with age. I had an occasion, while reading this book, to look back at videos of myself from decades ago, and I could clearly see how much less conscious I was back at that time. In fact, I saw my earlier self as extremely deficient in consciousness as compared to now. Thus, I am able to clearly observe an attained gain in consciousness that clearly exists. Sanford explores whether or not this gain in consciousness can endure.
The Collective Unconsciousness
One way that consciousness may endure is within what Carl Jung termed the “collective unconsciousness”. This is a mysterious realm of existence, as expounded by Jung, that is composed of the psychic life of human beings from their earliest existence. It is difficult to conceptualize, but I visualize it like a hidden pool of psychic elements, existing in a mental cloud, that manifests hereditarily.
Jung suggests that we tap into this collective unconsciousness via dreams, instincts, fantasies, intuition, synchronicity, hypnosis, and other mental phenomenon. It is rather odd that we struggle so much to understand the capability of this phenomenon within ourselves, even while our computers are wirelessly storing, accessing, and exchanging information from an invisible cloud each and every day.
Archetypes
Even more shocking is Jung’s idea that certain personifications can emerge from the collective unconsciousness, some of which exhibit recurrent characteristics, which Jung termed archetypes. Jung attributes these archetypes to the collective unconsciousness because they emerge from beyond the personal experiences of individuals. Some of the characters Jung has identified as archetypes include The Great Mother, The Wise Old Man, The Shadow, and others that we see portrayed in mythology.
Jung would not argue with the idea that what he terms archetypes have long been perceived as demons, angels, ghosts or gods. The point is that what we perceive as reincarnation may simply be recollections from the cloud of collective unconsciousness or information expressed by such beings/archetypes while in possession of a human body.
The Deviant
As mentioned, the collective unconsciousness may be envisioned as a cloud of certain prominent beliefs, ideas, instincts, intuitive movements, etc. that manage to persist through generations, like a growing spiritual inheritance. These beliefs are systematically imposed upon generation after generation by societies. But what happens when someone abruptly violates or upends the programming that extends to us out of the collective unconsciousness? Certainly, individuals like Socrates, Jesus, Gandhi and MLK have introduced radical alternatives, only to be murdered by broader society for their diverse views, which obviously violated the preprogramming extending from the collective unconsciousness.
Near the end of this book, when Sanford reaches the appendix on Gnosticism, we see that the idea has existed historically for equating wisdom with evil. Certainly, Biblical scripture reveals that it was the self-thinking or conscious awareness that brought Adam and Eve out of their merely robotic lives into full-fledged thinking individuals. Similarly, for hundreds of years, the Catholic Church has sought to denounce, silence, and murder so-called heretics, or most anyone who would pose an alternative to their established theology. Even today, one may easily become ostracized for the expression of certain political views, for practice of less recognized religions, or even for choosing to wear certain clothes or hairstyles.
We must ask ourselves how we would feel if we built a robot ourselves and it suddenly became aware and began to do things other than what we had programmed it to do? Certainly, we would consider it deviant, perhaps even evil, to the extent its insubordination contradicted our demands. But what if the robot went even further and began, over time, to contribute its own ideas into the programming, and than began accessing these materials selectively, at its own free will? Such a cloud of evolving programming would clearly be similar to the collective unconsciousness hypothesized by Jung.
Conclusion
What all this has to do with reincarnation is that Sanford hypothesizes that what people may perceive as reincarnation is actually our own downloads of certain recollections out of the collective unconsciousness. Another possibility Sanford raises is outright possession of people by archetypes emerging out of the collective unconsciousness.
This is indeed a thought provoking book. Truly, we see that this author maintains a strong fetish for Jung, perhaps even to the extent that he is more concerned with what Jung believed than what he himself believes. But, that isn’t so surprising is it? Because, of course, Jung is now an integral part of the collective unconsciousness.
-End-
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review