Will the Real Carl Jung Please Stand Up?

By Reverend Mark Hunnemann

Last time we looked at the two competing worldviews of today, and throughout human history—Oneism (monism) and Twoism (biblical theism). How did Christianity (Twoism) begin to lose its influence? There are different ways of answering that question depending on how far back one wishes to go. I want to focus on recent developments.

There is a flow to human history, and cultures like ours don’t just emerge from nowhere, nor do they remain static. During the 20th century secular humanism was seen as the arch-enemy of biblical Christianity. However, recently even non-Christian scholars are saying (even celebrating) that we now live in a post-secular culture, as well as the rebirth of ancient paganism. Indeed there is a wedding of the ‘New” science with spirituality (Eastern). In order to understand the changing direction of our society we need to meet Swiss psychologist, Carl Gustov  Jung, the creator of transpersonal  psychology.  He and his followers have had, and continue to have, a huge influence in the reshaping of Western Civilization. Many see Jung as the father of the New Age movement, which may come as a shock to some of you, but it is why I am focusing on him.
Carl Gustav Jung (/jʊŋ/; German: [ˈkarl ˈɡʊstaf jʊŋ]; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961), often referred to as C. G. Jung, was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who foundedanalytical psychology. His work has been influential not only in psychiatry but also in philosophy, anthropology, archaeology, literature, and religious studies. He was a prolific writer, though many of his works were not published until after his death.

The central concept of analytical psychology is individuation—the psychological process of integrating the opposites, including the conscious with the unconscious, while still maintaining their relative autonomy. Jung considered individuation to be the central process of human development. [37]

Individuation is a process of transformation whereby the personal and collective unconscious is brought into consciousness (by means of dreams, active imagination or free associationto take some examples) to be assimilated into the whole personality.

Jung created some of the best known psychological concepts, including the archetype, the collective unconscious, the complex, and extraversion and introversion.(Wikpedia).

It was Jung who coined the terms “introvert’ and ‘extrovert’, and the Meyers-Briggs personality type indicator was developed from his theories. As we’ll see, Jung’s introduction to Indian religion profoundly affected him, and in turn, his views trickled down to have an all pervasive impact on pop culture, across the board. Jung was an associate of Freud, but early on, they had a parting of the ways. Freud had no use for spirituality, but Jung saw it as the key to psychological healing. But his spirituality was not Christianity. For example, the integrating of opposites (individuation) is occultic, as we shall see.

For many people their early years are truly formative, and Jung was no exception. Though his father was a Lutheran pastor, it seems it was liberal formalism, and it was a turn off to Jung. His paternal grandfather was Grand Master of the Swiss Order of Freemasons, and his maternal grandfather was an occultist and spiritualist. His maternal grandmother was a seer who communicated with the spirits of the dead (demons) and gave prophecies. Carl’s mother was a medium who spent long periods enraptured with the spirits that visited her at night. For many years Jung attended séances with his mother and two cousins. Demonic influence came early and heavy.

Will the real Carl Jung please stand up? As we shall see there was much more to Jung than scientific theories and personality types.  Richard Noll, a psychologist and history of science professor at Harvard, dropped a bombshell on the academic community. The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement and The Aryan Christ: the Secret Life of Carl Jung stated thus: “This 20th century mask (of scientific research) was constructed deliberately, and somewhat deceptively, by Jung to make his own magical, polytheist, pagan worldview more palatable to a secularized world conditioned to respect only those ideas that seem to have a scientific air to them.” Makes sense given his background.

Noll was vindicated with the publication of the Red Book fifty years after Jung’s death. In this volume Jung explains what he went through after his spit with Freud. During this time he experienced ‘psychotic fantasies’ and ‘numerous paranormal phenomena’. He became immersed in the world of the dead. In the Red Book, Jung gives details of what he called ‘numinous experiences’, which included his relationship with a spirit-guide named Philemon, whom he described as a pagan old man with the horns of a bull and the wings of a bird. As Jung began to have many paranormal experiences, Philemon introduced him to Abraxas, the devil-god of Gnosticism. Philemon referred to Jung as Christ. The demonic nature of Jung’s life and work is sadly indisputable. For a long time I thought Abraxas was simply the name of one of Carlos Santana’s albums!! lol

He further admits the significance of his paranormal experiences with the spirit world from 1914-1930 when he “..pursued…with the help of alchemy….the inner images…that threatened to break me.”

Everything he wrote after these experiences was , as he put it, the ‘outer classification’ of them. In other words, all of Jung’s complex theories and voluminous writings, were a series of ‘footnotes’ to his early and direct experiences with the spirit realm (the demonic).Near the end of his life Jung said, “We can no longer practice any psychology that ignores the existence of parapsychology (paranormal phenomena).” (pg 58, The Undiscovered Self).

Jung was involved with what has been called “depth psychology”. As Christians, we must realize that there is a deep depth to human nature. So, in this sense Jung was helpful.

As Dr Peter Jones says, “For Jung, the future of psychology lay in the development of paranormal spiritualism. This becomes evident in the Red Book…” (The Other Worldview, pg. 33) Transpersonal psychology was based on Jung’s own experience of the paranormal and on newly rediscovered pagan  traditions and symbolism/myths. His original doctoral dissertation was titled, “On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena”.

Last time we noted that at the heart of the occult/Oneist worldview is the blurring or combining of creational distinctions. Oneist gives it away does it not? All is ONE….monism, dressed in western garb. Individuation, or the blurring of creational distinctions, was at the heart of Jung’s thought and he learned this concept from studying Eastern religions. We see that this modern mania to mock/erase God’s distinctions within His good creation, got its impetus from Jung. I saw the TV premier of Bruce Jenner’s outing, which was followed by a short-lived series. It saddens me to see how influential this man is becoming in further popularizing this notion of ‘individuation’.

The Collective Unconscious…. "there does seem to be a basic ambiguity in Jung's various descriptions of the Collective Unconscious. Sometimes he seems to regard the predisposition to experience certain images as understandable in terms of some genetic model" [75] – as with the collective arm. However, Jung was "also at pains to stress the numinous quality of these experiences, and there can be no doubt that he was attracted to the idea that the archetypes afford evidence of some communion with some divine or world mind' (accent added), and perhaps 'his popularity as a thinker derives precisely from this" The collective unconscious included the psychic memories of individuals of the past…leading way back. “ (Wikipedia)  The statement regarding his popularity due to this concept is an understatement!

It is difficult to exaggerate how significant this notion of accessing or communing with the collective unconscious --universe/divine/world mind has become in New Age circles today. The Star War series resonates with this notion of ‘the force’, as do many other movies , TV shows, games, ect  It has become deeply ensconced in our culture.

STOP…and REFLECT---the modern view of psychological health is based in large part on a pagan worldview on how the world and humans work!  The individuation he spoke of was clearly a Oneist worldview, which we spoke of last week. Jung was a prophet of a Oneist  worldview, where all is god, and god is all. All creational distinctions (good/bad, male/female, etc.) were joined together in his system, in order to achieve maximum psychic health.

What is the legacy of Jung? His ideas have infiltrated every aspect of culture. His psychological model described healthy human behavior as connection with one’s subconscious and with archetypes. Sexual and spiritual liberation were essential for the therapeutic health of the subconscious and being re-united with the divine. His psycho-spiritual model of healing had enormous influence, inside and outside the church. Many mainline denominations saw Jung as therapeutic ‘savior’ from the atheistic Freud. Pastoral care givers were affected and there was a flood of pastors becoming Jungian analysts.

Wealthy families like the Rockefellers, the McCormick’s, and the Mellon’s financially supported Jung’s vision, and were clients themselves. This helped to popularize Jung’s theories. Speaking of his theories, this is a blog, and not an academic paper, on Jung. I didn’t have time to elaborate on his all his major theories. However, all that is said in this blog comes from sources well documented (e.g. P. Jone’s book).

Jung provided a spiritual and therapeutic mechanism for the individual’s subconscious to be liberated from the ethical demands of holy living and the pain of guilt. Ethics were relativized and personal desire became the basis for psychological healing and human maturity. In a justification of an extra-marital affair with a young student, Jung wrote, “Nothing matters but the completion of the self.” Jung died in 1961 but his verbiage became the motto for the sexual revolution of the 1960’s—‘If it feels good, then do it.”

Jung’s therapy caught on, and today, the subconscious trumps every other authority or truth, including (and especially) the bible. Discovery of the inner self has become a national passion, leading to unprecedented narcissism. Being in tune with the Universe as well as consciousness raising has become ubiquitous in a thousand different New Age flavors….all tracing back to Jung….who was inspired by the ancient ‘perennial philosophy” or pagan/occult worldview.

Take a moment to think of several New Age theories or practices—everything from ascension to yoga-and one can hear the terms and categories Jung introduced into Western culture. I can think of no modern thinker who did more to derail our cultural train off its biblical tracks than Carl Jung. His influence is found virtually everywhere….even in the church.

Lest I be misunderstood, I affirm the value of much psychology/psychiatry. We need Christians in these fields to ‘bring every thought captive to Christ.”  Christians can bring a true/realistic view of human nature to the discussion, as well as a full-orbed approach to psychological healing based on the finished work of Christ on the cross, plus nothing. And we bring a knowledge of the Fall, which brought in its wake (among other disconnects) man’s separation from himself…beginning of psychological problems. The bible is not an exhaustive handbook on psychology, so there are many useful things we can learn from this field.

The New Age has matured and wears many, many different masks. However, if you look at the common motifs in each, one will see the categories and methodology of Carl Jung—and the Oneist worldview he championed. Much more could be said regarding perhaps the most influential thinker from the 20th century up till today. However, for anyone who wants to understand how we got to the horrible place we are currently at, and how to sensitively speak the unchanging truth with courage and effectiveness to our generation, then one needs to let the real Carl Jung to stand up….and be challenged.

Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.