Devils and enemies as projected unassimilated portions of the self. Jung recognized that humanity has always projected unassimilated portions of its own psychological reality outward, personifying them, using at various times a variety of images that make up the pantheon of gods and goddesses, good spirits and bad. All these “forces” have had a very important part to play in the psychological evolution of our species, as documented in the mythologies that have been handed down to us across the ages. In all cases, however, they stood for those sensed but unknown glimpses of our own reality that we as a species were determined to explore.
The Devil as a “superlative hallucination.” According to transpersonal writer and mystic, Jane Roberts (1981a, 1981b), as long as individuals believe in the objective reality of a Devil, then they will create one that is real enough for them because of the psychic energy given to him by them and others who continue to create him through their belief. Created out of fear and restriction, and formed by one’s guilt and one’s belief in it, such a fake devil has no power or reality to those who do not believe in his existence or give him energy through their belief in him. Beliefs in an objectified devil actually reflects a lack of faith and trust in the power of good, viewing it instead as weak, and the fearful concentration upon what they think of as the power of evil, in which case the power resides in the person and not in the mock devil. A successful encounter with our individual and collective shadows requires that we understand this psychic fact (Zweig & Abrams, 1991).
Because there is good, there must be evil? This is not to say that there is no reality behind the symbols, but merely that when we mistake the symbolic appearance for the reality itself then we inevitably misunderstand its nature. Jung recognized that we are responsible for our actions, whether they are called good or evil. In our choices, we create our own personal reality. The evil that we experience in our lives is not a force in itself but is the result of ignorance and misunderstanding. “The Devil is made in the image of those who imagine him” (Watts, 1963, p. 37)
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The Two Hands of God. To say that because there is “good,” then there must also be “evil” is like saying because the body has a left hand, then it must also have a right hand, without recognizing the inner unity of opposites and the fact that both are portions of the same body. Transpersonal philosopher Alan W. Watts in his fascinating exploration of what he called “the myths of polarity” in his 1963 book The Two Hands of God: The Myths of Polarity describes how explicit two-sided oppositions and ultimate dualisms of light/darkness, life/death, good/evil, self/not-self/ knower/known illustrated in Early Chinese, Indian, Egyptian, Iranian, and Christian stories and myths conceals the implicit unity and union of the One (Watts, 1963). We separate and classify into categories and mental pigeonholes in thought, what is united and undivided in experience and in nature.
The importance of a box for thought is that the inside is different from the outside. But in nature the walls of the box are what the inside and the outside have in common… Experiences and values, which we had believed to be contrary and distinct are, after all, aspects of the same thing. (Watts, 1963, p. 46)
11. The psychology and pathology of so-called “occult” phenomena
“On the psychology and pathology of so-called occult phenomena.” Carl Jung’s 1902 dissertation for his medical degree was titled “On the psychology and pathology of so-called occult phenomena” which emphasized the continuity between the conscious and unconscious levels of the mind – a theme that was to be reflected throughout his life’s work. In his dissertation, Jung discusses how communications between scattered portions of the self represented by various complexes and archetypes that inhabit various regions of the unconscious often appear in such situations as working with Ouija boards, in mediumistic sittings, or the hearing of voices.
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