Jung did not deny the validity of observable facts, physical matter, laws of mechanics, or past events. It was not that Jung denied the validity or significance of natural phenomena or facts that are objectively observable, the existence and substantiality of matter, the laws of physics and chemistry, the influence of past events, or the value of analyzing a whole into its basic components and elements. He did not. What he did deny was that reality was: limited to natural phenomena or facts that were objectively observable (positivism), sufficiently explained in physical terms by the existence or nature of matter (materialism), mechanically determined and capable of explanation by the laws of physics and chemistry alone (mechanism), determined by past events alone (determinism), and fully explained in terms of its simplest parts (reductionism). Jung did not deny that interior, subjective, nonmaterial psychic realities had exterior, objective, material biological correlates. What he did deny was the claim that there are no interior realities, only exterior ones; that all interior psychic states were nothing but neurobiological processes; that the psyche had no existence independent of the brain, and that “the brain makes the psyche.”
4. The existence of a collective or transpersonal unconscious.
Jung asserted that our personalities are shaped and influenced not only by personal experiences but also by the cumulative experiences of our species that were laid down with the genetic patterns that reflected the psychic evolutionary history of our species. Just as the physical evolution of our species is reflected in our physiological structure, so too was the psychological evolution of our species reflected in our psychological structure. Jung stressed the interdependence of individual minds and the availability of superior inner knowledge via an unconscious mind that was shared by all members of the human race, making telepathy possible between individuals located distances apart in space and time. Each of our personal experiences, however minute or seemingly insignificant, becomes part of the knowledge of the species. We all contribute to this body of species knowledge and can likewise draw upon that fund of collective wisdom.
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5. Espoused the cause of parapsychological research
Jung openly espoused the cause parapsychological research. C. G. Jung developed the paranormal theory of synchronicity as an alternative explanation to random change to account for the occurrence of meaningful coincidences. He was also strongly convinced of the reality of spatial (clairvoyance) and temporal (precognitive) telepathic phenomena.
Anyone who has the least knowledge of parapsychological material, which already exists and has been thoroughly verified will know that so-called telepathic phenomena are undeniable facts. An objective and critical survey of the available data would establish that perception occurs as if in part there were no space, in part no time… This possible transcendence of space-time, for which it seems to me there is a good deal of evidence, is of such incalculable import that it should spur the spirit of research to the greatest effort. Our present development of consciousness is, however, so backward that in general we still lack the scientific and intellectual equipment for adequately evaluating the facts of telepathy so far as they have bearing on the nature of the psyche. I have referred to this group of phenomena merely to point out that the psyche’s attachment to the brain, i.e., its space-time limitation, is no longer as self-evident and incontrovertible as we have hitherto been led to believe… Out of respect for the psychological fact that ‘telepathic’ perceptions occur, anyone should draw the conclusion that the psyche, in its deepest reaches, participates in a form of existence beyond space and time, and thus partakes of what is inadequately and symbolically described as ‘eternity.’ (Jung, 1960, pp. 412-414)
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