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Carl Jung (Biography)
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Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), was a Swiss psychiatrist

and founder of Analytical Psychology. A prolific
author, he contributed to diverse areas such as
psychiatry, psychology, anthropology, literature,
philosophy, religious studies and parapsychology. He
is also widely known for the cultural implications of
his work and its influence on contemporary
spirituality, arts, and popular media. This article
focuses in particular on Jung’s interest in paranormal phenomena.
Contents
1. Brief Biography
2. Early Supernatural Interests
3. Relationship with Freud
1. Disagreements
2. Psychokinetic Incident
4. Psychical Research
1. Influences
5. Preiswerk Mediumship Study
6. View of Mediumship and Spirit Survival
7. Synchronicity
1. Archetypes
2. Wolfgang Pauli
3. Causal Mechanism
4. I-Ching and Astrology
8. UFO Experiences
9. Personal Paranormal Experiences
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/carl-jung 1/24
1. Self-Experimentation
2. Haunting Phenomena
10. Near-Death Experience
11. Literature
12. References
Brief Biography
C
arl Jung was born on July 26, 1875, in Kesswill, a small town in German
Switzerland. His father was a pastor of the Swiss Reformed Church
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Reformed_Church).
In 1900, Jung obtained his medical degree and began working at the Burghölzli Hospital in
Zurich (now the University Hospital of Zurich), an important psychiatric and research
centre run by Eugen Bleuler (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_Bleuler)where new
theories in the nascent fields of psychiatry and psychology were scientifically scrutinized.1
From his work with psychotic patients Jung wrote a book about the psychology of
schizophrenia, which was widely acclaimed by his peers.2
In 1903, Jung married Emma Rauschenbach, whose family wealth relieved him of financial
concerns. In 1905, Jung was employed as lecturer in the medical faculty of the University of
Zurich. He resigned a few years later in order to dedicate himself to research, writing, and
private practice as a psychiatrist.3
In 1907, Jung first met Sigmund Freud (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud),

the beginning of a six-year collaboration that ended in a decisive break (see below).
In 1917, Jung joined the London Society for Psychical Research (/articles/society-psychical-
research).4 In recognition of his contributions to the field, he was also appointed an
honorary member of the American Society for Psychical Research.5
In 1932, Jung was appointed professor at the Federal Polytechnic University of Zurich,
resigning in 1942 because of poor health. Two years later he was appointed chair of medical
psychology at the University of Basel; illness obliged him to resign a year later, but he
remained active until his death in 1961, publishing a large number of books and scientific
papers.6
Early Supernatural Interests
Jung had a positive relationship with his father but considered he lacked genuine religious
faith. Jung himself reported intense religious experiences from childhood. Aged twelve, he
had a vision in which God, sitting on a throne in heaven, defecated on the cathedral in
Basel. He interpreted these images as manifestations of the divinity, one different from that
of his father, who followed the commandments of the Bible and the church without
experiencing a living God.
As a child living in the countryside, Jung frequently heard stories on the paranormal, such
as dreams envisaging the death of certain persons and clocks that stopped at the hour of
death.7 Such stories seemed to him to reveal a more vivid spiritual word than that
described by his father’s teachings.
His mother suffered from emotional disturbances and was frequently hospitalized. She
talked to him about the spirits who visited her at night, sometimes appearing to say things
that did not seem to emerge from her, as if she had become possessed by another more
powerful personality.
Jung observed similar phenomena in himself during his childhood, reporting apparitions
and visions whose authenticity he took for granted. In a similar way to his mother’s
personality alterations, Jung believed he shifted between two different personalities: one a
normal boy, less intelligent than the average but hardworking; the other seeming an old
man from the eighteenth century, distanced from the world and from other people but
close to nature.8
At critical moments, Jung made decisions based on dreams, for instance with regard to
choice of career: when he dreamed he was digging up bones of prehistoric animals he
interpreted it as meaning he should study nature and science.
As a medical student, Jung attended the Zofingia student fraternity which was formed of
Swiss students from several universities. In his lectures to Zofingia members, it is possible
to identify, in a preliminary form, some of the concepts that would later constitute his
Analytical Psychology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_psychology). The content
of these lectures also reveals his deep interest in the study of spiritualist and
parapsychological topics from both a philosophical and a scientific perspective.9
Relationship with Freud

At the Burghölzli, Jung initiated his famous investigations with the method of word
associations. The word association test had already been used in experimental psychology
to investigate things such as mental associations and memory processes; Jung employed it
in a new and original form as a means to identify unconscious complexes. This attracted
Freud’s attention since it provided partial experimental demonstration for his

psychoanalytic ideas, which hitherto had been based on clinical evidence only. By 1906, the
two had begun to correspond, and a year later Jung went to Vienna to meet Freud. In 1909,
Jung accompanied Freud to the United States to a visit to the Clark University, where both
gave lectures.
Unlike most of Freud’s disciples, Jung had already established an impressive professional
reputation of his own before associating with the psychoanalytic movement. He was the
best known of the early converts to psychoanalysis, and perhaps less suggestible than the
younger ones. Jung was never uncritical, but he tried at first to suppress doubts and
objections. While writing Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (later revised and retitled
as Symbols of Transformation),10 he realized that its publication would certainly harm his
relationship with Freud, as their ideas differed in important ways.
In 1911, Jung became the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Association, at
the insistence of Freud and against the opposition of Viennese members. Tensions began
shortly afterwards, and in 1912 they agreed to end their personal correspondence. In 1914,
Jung resigned. There followed a period of ‘confrontation with the unconscious’, during
which he immersed himself in his dreams and fantasies, using them as material for the
study of the unconscious processes. From this he developed the unique psychological and
psychotherapeutic approach that he called Analytical Psychology.11
Disagreements
Most of Jung’s disagreements with Freud concerned Freud’s theories on the role of
sexuality – in life and in the psychogenesis of mental disorders – and on the psychological
significance of religion. Jung believed that Freud’s emphasis on sexuality ignored
psychological forces of equal or greater importance; he considered that cultural expressions
such as religion and arts should be understood in their own right, not reduced to complex
transformations of sexual energy. For Jung, sexual motives are influential during
adolescence and early adulthood, becoming less relevant in later life, when more existential
concerns are foremost.12
Jung’s understanding of religious beliefs differed from Freud’s in many respects,
particularly in Freud’s tendency to relate them to neurotic, obsessive characteristics, while
Jung emphasized their positive aspects. Jung saw religions as natural ‘psychotherapeutic
systems’13 intended to help us manage the primitive forces of the unconscious, while
directing psychic energy to specific cultural activities. The psychological investigation of
religious symbols, practices and rituals plays a key role in Jung’s theoretical perspective, in
contrast to the more secondary and even pathological role ascribed to such things by Freud.
Jung and Freud also disagreed on the nature and importance of parapsychological (psi)
phenomena. Many of Jung’s psychological theories drew on his investigations of
spiritualism, mediumship, and psi-related experiences. He remained unsure about the
authenticity of some of these phenomena, but was open to their possibility and theorized
about them from a psychological perspective. In contrast, Freud was highly sceptical such
phenomena as pertaining to a ‘black tide of mud… of occultism’14 that psychoanalysts
should resist. Yet Freud maintained a hesitant, ambiguous interest in topics such as
telepathic dreams (see Psychoanalysis and Psi’).
Psychokinetic Incident
Jung describes in his autobiography an incident that occurred during an argument between
the two men regarding the validity of paranormal phenomena: an unexpected loud noise in
Freud’s bookcase. Jung predicted that the noise would happen again, as it did – to Freud’s
consternation. Freud later admitted to Jung that the incident impressed him; he
interpreted it as an indication of Jung’s rebellion against Freud’s ‘paternal dignity’.15
Psychical Research
In a lecture, Jung affirmed that ‘[…] anticipatory dreams, telepathic phenomena, and all
that kind of thing are intuitions. I have seen plenty of them, and I am convinced that they
do exist’.16 However, he was aware of the empirical and theoretical challenges that
characterize the study of paranormal claims and synchronistic phenomena.17 He criticized
the tendency to reduce everything to a transcendental or spiritual explanation, seeing this
as ‘just as negative as materialistic thinking’18 and argued that ‘science cannot afford the
luxury of naivete in these matters’.19
In uences
From his student days Jung was interested in the scientific study of psi phenomena, and
corresponded throughout his life with scientists who shared a similar interest, such as
Théodore Flournoy (/articles/theodore-flournoy), Joseph Banks Rhine (/articles/jb-
rhine)and Wolfgang Pauli. A significant influence was Flournoy’s Des Indes à la Planèt
Mars (1900), a detailed study by the Swiss psychologist of the medium Hélène Smith.
Flournoy supported Jung in his break with Freud, serving him as a ‘paternal friend’. Jung
wrote:
I had the feeling in those years – and especially after the parting of ways with Freud –
that I was still too young to be independent. I still needed support, and above all
someone with whom I could talk openly. This I found in Flournoy, and therefore he
soon represented to me a kind of counterpoise to Freud. With him I could really
discuss all the problems that scientifically occupied me – for example, on
somnambulism, on parapsychology, and the psychology of religion. I had no one else
who shared my interests in these matters.20
Some scholars argue Freud’s influence on Jung’s ideas was smaller than is commonly
believed.21 22 The initial theoretical foundations to Jung’s psychological approach were
mainly provided by French-speaking and Anglo-American authors, and his work is largely
continuous with the subliminal psychology and psychical research carried out in their
countries.
Jung’s dissertation showed the influence of other pioneers in the field of psychology: Pierre
Janet, William James (/articles/william-james) and Frederic Myers (/articles/frederic-wh-
myers). Works on spiritualist and parapsychological topics also influenced his thinking.
They include Justinus Kerner’s study of Friederika Hauffe (the seer of Prevorst), Kant’s
‘Dreams of a Spirit-Seer’, Swedenborg’s descriptions of visions, Flournoy’s work on Hélêne
Smith, and the extensive literature on spiritist phenomena, including reports by the
physicist William Crookes (/articles/william-crookes) and leading parapsychologists such
as JB Rhine (/articles/jb-rhine).23 Such references influenced Jung’s understanding of the
nature of the psyche, including his notion of the mind as divided into complexes
(exemplified by the manifestations of spirits); the personifying tendency of psychological
contents (also observed in dreams and active imagination); and the complex
interrelationship between psyche and physical world (as in synchronicity). Far from being a
mere footnote, his interest in psychical research and parapsychology was a main aspect of
Jung’s work.
To critics who complained of a biased predilection for occultism, Jung affirmed the
importance of an open mind, while respecting accepted scientific and scholarly methods.
He cautioned against ‘the fear of superstition’, which he held responsible for ‘the hasty
suppression of extremely interesting factual reports which are thus lost to science’.24
Preiswerk Mediumship Study
As the dissertation for his medical degree, Jung reported on his psychological
investigations of a fifteen-year-old cousin, Helene Preiswerk (‘S. W.’) who claimed to be a
medium. Jung’s perspective was predominantly pathological, following the mainstream
psychiatry of his time: following careful analysis of her mediumistic experiences, he
diagnosed her as a hysteric in whom complex episodes of alterations in consciousness could
be observed. He considered her predisposition to be hereditary: other family members had
presented experiences such as waking hallucinations; a sister who claimed to be a visionary
had earlier been diagnosed as hysteric.
Jung described Preiswerk as a person of limited interests, average intelligence and
‘deficient’ education.25 She considered herself depressed and unhappy; her parents were
indifferent to her. Her literary knowledge was small, and despite her subsequent
involvement with spiritualist circles, spiritualist books were not easily available, since she
lived in a Protestant family where such interests were not tolerated.
However, he came to recognize some expressions of genius in Preiswerk’s trance
manifestations– of the ‘psychology of the supranormal’,26 a knowledge incompatible with
her age and life experiences. Her experiences with mediumship started as part of a ‘talking-
table’ séance in which she and the other participants apparently identified her as an
‘excellent medium’.27 Jung described some of the mediumistic manifestations he observed
as follows:
At the beginning of August 1899, I witnessed the first attacks of somnambulism.

Their course was usually as follows: S. W. grew very pale, slowly sank to the ground
or into a chair, closed her eyes, became cataleptic, drew several deep breaths, and
began to speak. At this stage she was generally quite relaxed, the eyelid reflexes
remained normal and so did tactile sensibility. She was sensitive to unexpected
touches and easily frightened, especially in the initial stage. She did not react when
called by name. In her somnambulistic dialogues she copied in a remarkably clever
way her dead relatives and acquaintances, with all their foibles, so that she made a
lasting impression even on persons not easily influenced. She could also hit off people
whom she knew only from hearsay, doing it so well that none of the spectators could
deny her at least considerable talent as an actress. […] She flung herself into postures
of prayer and rapture, with staring eyes, and spoke with impassioned and glowing
rhetoric. On these occasions she made exclusive use of literary German, which she
spoke with perfect ease and assurance, in complete contrast to her usual uncertain
and embarrassed manner in the waking state. [...] The ecstasy was generally followed
by a cataleptic stage with flexibilitas cerea, which gradually passed over into the
waking state.28
Preiswerk also reported visions of the spiritual world and a sense of being guided by the
spirits while out of the body. These states tired but did not frighten her; rather, she found
them pleasant.
Mediumship offered her an escape from the difficulties of daily life: ‘This state was in sharp
contrast to her waking existence; in it there was no trace of that unstable and inharmonious
creature, of that brittle nervous temperament which was so characteristic of her usual
behaviour. Speaking with her, you had the impression of speaking with a much older
person’.29 In her trance states, she was calm and serious, a transformation that her
relatives could not understand. Jung wrote: ‘S. W, during the time that I knew her, led a
curiously contradictory life, a real ‘double life’ with two personalities existing side by side or
in succession, each continually striving for mastery’.30
What most impressed Jung was that the medium carried out activities for which she could
give a spiritualist interpretation (similar to that of other spiritualists), but without
knowledge of the literature that she would need to enable this. Among other things, she
learned to perform rituals similar to magnetic passes. She spontaneously developed a
complete mystical system about the forces which regulate the universe. Part of these ideas
Jung found to be the result of cryptomnesia – memories of conversations heard during
trance states. But he also saw parallels between the spontaneous mystical system created by
Preiswerk and ancient systems of mysticism, a finding which later became part of his idea
of a collective unconscious.
Jung drew from several influences to arrive at an explanation: notions of dissociation
(Janet), unconscious compensation (Flournoy), and sexual aetiology (Freud). Having first
classified her experiences in terms of hysteria, following Janet, he described her secondary
personalities, or spirit guides, as hysterical dramatizations of dissociated psychological
processes.
Following Flournoy, he explained her trance states as a continuation of the waking self, but
in the sense of a compensation, in which the trances provided the circumstances for latent
potentials to emerge, such as ideals of virtue and perfection. She seemed to assume, during
trance, a superior personality which did not correspond to her usual characteristics. This
second personality denoted more mature attitudes, as if foreshadowing future
developments, in contrast to her current character. She also experienced during these
states a peace and tranquillity that she could not usually find in her daily life.
Finally, Jung argued in favour of a sexual aetiology for the case, taking as reference the
pioneering theory of Freud:
Our patient's “romances” throw a most significant light on the subjective roots of her
dreams. They swarm with open and secret love-affairs, with illegitimate births and
other sexual innuendoes. [...] But the patient's reincarnation theory, in which she
appears as the ancestral mother of countless thousands, springs, in all of its naive
nakedness, straight from an exuberant fantasy which is so very characteristic of the
puberty period. […] We shall not be wrong if we seek the main cause of this curious
clinical picture in her budding sexuality. […] a dream of sexual wish-fulfilment, which
differs from the dream of a night only in that it is spread over months and years.31
Preiswerk’s trances gradually lost their vitality and spontaneity; she was caught cheating to
convince she was still capable of creating the phenomena. She later abandoned her
mediumistic activity, becoming ‘on the whole quieter, steadier, and more agreeable’.32 (She
died in 1911 aged 30.)
Jung’s work with Preiswerk informed the later development of many of his theories: the
prospective and teleological character of her experiences (individuation); the relative
autonomy of unconscious contents; the similarities observed between their spontaneous
mystical systems and other archaic belief systems (archetypes of the collective
unconscious), and so on.
View of Mediumship and Spirit Survival

This case provided Jung with interesting findings and hypotheses; however, a broader
theoretical understanding of mediumship and spiritualistic beliefs only emerged years
later. In a 1905 lecture at Basel University, Jung defined spiritualism as philosophy of a
dual nature, both religious sect and scientific hypothesis, that ‘touches upon widely
differing areas of life that would seem to have nothing in common.’33 Mediums should be
approached ‘with a minimum of expectations if one does not want to be disappointed’, he
argued; the phenomenon belongs ‘to the domain of the mental and cerebral processes and
is fully explicable in terms of the laws already known to science.’34
In an essay published in 1920 in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,
Jung defined belief in the spirits of the dead as the result of an intuitive apprehension –
and consequent projection in the external environment – of personality aspects not yet
fully developed by the individual, manifesting through dreams and imaginative visions as
discarnate spirits and supernatural beings, thus characterizing an archetypal and universal
function. According to Jung, beliefs about spirits, angels, demons, and other supernatural
entities represent personifications of the dynamic forces of the unconscious seen as
superhuman creatures, much like the gods of antiquity.35
Jung’s theories were significantly influenced by his views on spiritualism and mediumship.
A good example was his hypothesis of the autonomous ideo-affective complexes. Jung
theorized that repressed thoughts and feelings, as well as certain insufficiently explored
latent potentials, could give rise to conglomerates of ideas and affects which he called
‘complexes’. This phenomenon occurs, in Jung’s view, because the ego, our conscious
personality, selects stimuli that best accord to the individual’s interests, repressing those
that do not fit with one’s worldview and sense of identity.
The conscious personality results, therefore, from a unilateral process, that is, from the
selective nature of the ego. The disguised thoughts and feelings form the nuclei on the basis
of which unconscious ideo-affective complexes emerge. The complexes have a certain
autonomy in relation to the ego and invade it, erupting in the form of failed acts,
symptoms, mood swings, dreams and nightmares – phenomena that had already been
studied by Freud.
If these psychological contents are not successfully integrated into consciousness they give
rise to secondary personalities, sometimes opposed to the conscious personality. The more
the significance of these contents is underestimated by the ego, the greater will be their
attempts at invasion and irruption into consciousness.36 This is how Jung explained some
of the phenomena of mediumship, possession, and dissociative identity disorder (formerly
known as multiple personalities).
Jung also emphasized mourning as an important variable for the psychogenesis of belief in
spirits.37 The feelings and emotions associated with the deceased person return to the
unconscious, stimulating the occurrence of dreams, hallucinations and other anomalous
experiences that convince the experiencer that the deceased continues to exist in another
form. The cultural maintenance of the cult of the dead and the ancestors aims precisely to
appease such unconscious forces. Jung favoured a strictly psychological perspective toward
religion, limiting himself to the phenomenological aspects and refraining from a theological
understanding; nonetheless, he believed that, from a pragmatic point of view, religions play
a crucial role in people’s lives and in their ability to deal with death. According to him, the
certainty of an afterlife offers individuals the possibility of a more reasonable and peaceful
life.38
Based on these later theoretical developments, Jung reformulated his interpretation of
Preiswerk’s case, giving mediumship a therapeutic role: spirits, as objectifications of the
unconscious forces acting upon the ego, often favour the development of human
consciousness. In this respect, he saw spiritualism as a historical compensation against the

prevalent materialist extremism: mediumistic manifestations were salutary reactions
against the one-sided ego. Preiswerk’s personality alterations, from a disturbed to a serious
and calm personality, could now be seen as attempts by the unconscious to promote her
individuation.39
Individuation designates the process by which we give access to our potentials, while, at the
same time, strengthening our identities and establishing a mature relationship with others.
The goal of individuation is to expand the ego into what Jung calls the self, the psychic
totality, the personality in its wholeness, conscious and unconscious. Jung believed that
religious beliefs and rituals are symbolic representations of some of the main challenges in
the individuation process. These practices and representations also indicate possible
solutions, by providing the circumstances through which individuals might obtain access to
their potentials and direct the psychic energy to specific goals. Preiswerk’s mediumistic
experiences, with all their richness, complexity and maturity, were precisely in the service
of her individuation.
In this later phase of his work, Jung became somewhat less sceptical about the authenticity
of mediumistic communications. He wrote:
After collecting psychological experiences from many people and many countries for
over fifty years I no longer feel as certain as I did in 1919 [regarding the absence of
proof of real spirits]. I doubt whether an exclusively psychological approach can do
justice to the phenomena in question.40
See also below, Personal Paranormal Experiences
Synchronicity
One of Jung’s most relevant contributions to parapsychology refers to the concept of
synchronicity. He was particularly interested in occurrences in which an acausal interaction
is observed between meaningful psychological experiences and outer, physical events. A
well-known example is the scarab episode.
A young woman I was treating had, at a critical moment, a dream in which she was
given a golden scarab. While she was telling me this dream I sat with my back to the
closed window. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, like a gentle tapping. I turned
round and saw a flying insect knocking against the window-pane from outside. I
opened the window and caught the creature in the air as it flew in. It was the nearest
analogy to a golden scarab that one finds in our latitudes, a scarabaeid beetle, the
common rose-chafer (Cetonia aurata), which contrary to its usual habits had
evidently felt an urge to get into a dark room at this particular moment. I must admit
that nothing like it ever happened to me before or since, and that the dream of the
patient has remained unique in my experience.41
Jung developed the concept of synchronicity from a variety of sources: his clinical evidence
and personal experiences, the findings of modern physics, and JB Rhine’s experiments in
extrasensory perception. He defined synchronicity as an ‘acausal connecting principle’
beyond causality and the space-time continuum. It had two characteristics: ‘a) An
unconscious image comes into consciousness either directly (i.e., literally) or indirectly
(symbolized or suggested) in the form of a dream, idea, or premonition, b) An objective
situation coincides with this content.’42 In the scarab incident, the reporting of a dream (a)
involving a golden scarab was almost immediately followed by the unexpected appearance
of a similar insect (b). Each interrelated event has causal determinants, but their
simultaneous occurrence produces a striking coincidence (a synchronicity) with emotional
significance and impact to the individual (or individuals) experiencing it.
Jung accepted that such coincidences could be explained by known psychological,
attributional processes, such as an overestimation of the probability of an event occurring
by chance alone. He did not deny the existence of meaningless chance occurrences. But he
tried to show that in some circumstances there might be significant patterns of meaning,
suggestive of an interrelation between intrapsychic processes and external events. He
argued that a similar notion was already present in alchemy – the unus mundus or one
world, conceived by alchemists as the fundamental nature of reality, without differentiation
between the physical and the psychological – as well as in esoteric traditions, as
exemplified by concepts such as sympathy, harmony or correspondence. Synchronicity was
actually a new definition for an old idea.
Archetypes
Jung attributed the emotional significance or ‘numinosity’ of these coincidences to what he
called ‘archetypes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype#Jungian_archetypes)’:
universal psychological themes, patterns of behaviour and imagination that shape our
behaviours and mental images in certain ways. When an archetype is ‘constellated’ (in
Jungian jargon), our attitudes and psychological processes converge according to a pattern
characteristic of that archetype.
For example, if the archetype of the ‘hero’ is constellated, the individual may feel more
powerful to face life adversities, and his/her fantasies and dreams may evidence a series of
symbolic images typical of the hero motive. To identify the primordial images which usually
represent certain archetypes, Jung compared different symbols, myths and religious
narratives, as well as their collective meanings across cultures. In this way, he was able to
identify an archetype when he analyzed his own dreams or those of his patients. This
comparative method provided him with some clues as to the nature and significance of the
psychological conflict experienced by the individual at a given moment.43
Jung developed many hypotheses to account for the origin and nature of archetypes. For
instance, he suggested that they consist essentially of products of the many experiences of
our ancestors sedimented in a region of the psyche he called the ‘collective unconscious’.
The collective unconscious comprises the psychological heritage of humanity. Every time
we face an important life challenge, an archetype (a collective, transpersonal solution) can
be constellated. It follows that personal conflicts, even the motivation to act in certain ways,
are not exclusively ours, but to a great extent are determined by collective forces within us.
Only in exceptional circumstances, through an arduous process of individuation, may we
achieve a degree of psychological differentiation.
The hypothesis of a synchronicity principle extended the notion of archetype well beyond
the limits of intrapsychic processes. Jung realized that the conflict or situation experienced
by a given person might sometimes be represented by coincidences between physical and
intrapsychic events. The significance of such coincidences rests upon an archetypal
foundation. In relation to the scarab episode, Jung interpreted the scarab as a rebirth
symbol observed in ancient Egyptian descriptions of the Netherworld; the appearance of
the beetle at the critical moment when the patient was describing her dream was the
expression of the constellation of an archetypal image. This seemingly innocuous event
precipitated a transformation in the patient’s resistant and rationalistic attitude to one that
was more open and flexible.
Wolfgang Pauli
Jung postponed the publication of his ideas on synchronicity for many years for fear of
being misinterpreted or ridiculed, but was encouraged by Rhine and the physicist and
Nobel Prize winner Wolfgang Pauli (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Pauli)to
pursue his investigations. Pauli had been Jung’s patient, but their relationship extrapolated
the therapeutic setting and gave rise to a significant scientific and philosophical
collaboration. Pauli resorted to Jung’s psychological approach as the basis for a

philosophical understanding of nature. In 1952, Jung’s final essay on synchronicity was
finally published along with a chapter by Pauli on the influence of archetypal ideas on the
scientific theories of Johannes Kepler.44
Causal Mechanism
Jung denied that synchronicities are directly caused by a conscious or an unconscious
decision on the part of the individual, an idea he considered magical or wishful thinking. In
his view of the scarab episode, there was no causal connection between the appearance of
the beetle and an intention on the part of the patient, whether conscious or unconscious.
This led him to conclude that another, complementary principle to causality must exist.
However, this contradicted the belief of Rhine and other parapsychologists in the
possibility of a causal link between a specific event and the experiencer’s intention. Rhine
recognized Jung’s contribution but was unsure about the relevance of his synchronicity
principle to phenomena such as telepathy and precognition. He remained faithful to the
concept of causality, unable to reconcile the more repetitive findings of his
parapsychological experiments with the kind of occasional remarkable coincidences that
interested Jung. Rhine wrote: ‘Until there is some reason to do otherwise, one will naturally
continue trying to think about psi phenomena in terms of causation (even while we respect
C. G. Jung’s suggestion that in psi operations his hypothesis of synchronicity may supplant
causation)’.45
Parapsychologists have since suggested that Jung and Rhine were talking about different
phenomena: while effects such as telepathy and precognition seem to depend upon
volition, either conscious or unconscious, synchronicities appear to follow the same
pathway theorized by Jung. Nevertheless, they add, the distinction might sometimes be
difficult to establish as the precise nature of these phenomena remains unknown. It is also
possible that parapsychological events may be concomitant with volition and intent without
being caused by them.46
I-Ching and Astrology

Seeking a more systematic way to investigate synchronicities, Jung experimented with the
I-Ching (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching), claiming to find a means to produce
meaningful coincidences with regularity, the hexagrams representing possible archetypes.
He also experimented with astrology, although not with the aim of proving it – the cause of
subsequent controversy and misunderstanding – but rather to use its methods and
predictions to demonstrate the synchronicity principle.47 He devised an experiment to
verify whether astrological predictions could be made with statistical significance.48 His
hypothesis was that this would not be the case, since they are not based on probability but
on the principle of meaningful coincidences; this was confirmed.
However, Jung analyzed the statistical distribution to probe the psychological significance
of his results, giving emphasis not to the dataset as a whole but to the more exceptional
findings. He found that the maximum frequencies of marriage horoscopes were observed
for moon conjunct sun, moon conjunct moon, and moon conjunct Ascendant – precisely
the aspects that traditional astrology would expect one to find in marriage horoscopes. He
thought this had nothing to do with an influence of the stars or constellations on human
mind and behaviour, but was rather due to an archetypal constellation of astrological
symbols representative of specific patterns of romantic relationship. The results also
accorded with Jung’s understanding that our conflicts, fantasies, dreams and ways of being
in the world are not fully explained by our personal psychology but are significantly
connected with a larger collective history.49
UFO Experiences
Jung was intrigued by accounts of UFO (unidentified flying object) sightings, which he
viewed as a cultural phenomenon of the 1940s and 1950s, and offered a psychological and a
social explanation.50
Jung considered UFO experiences to be resistant to a definitive rational explanation. He

saw them essentially as an expression of the archetypal constellation of the Self (or psychic
totality). In its unconscious and instinctive function, this archetype aspires to totality and
individuation, overcoming the dissociation caused by anxiety of nuclear catastrophe arising
from the Cold War. In his interpretation, ‘flying saucer’ sightings pointed to a symbolic
awareness of the conflict through images that in their circular forms and dynamism
represent the psyche’s search for growth and individuation.
Jung came to define the UFO experience as a spontaneous product of archaic personality
formations that become conscious in the form of visions and narratives, sometimes even
abductions and apparitional experiences. Such experiences are usually moulded by cultural
representations, beliefs and expectations consistent with a given historical moment –
which in turn represent collective transformations of the psyche. There is a strong
homology, in the Jungian perspective, between individual and social transformation, an
approach he defined as symbolic-historical.
Personal Paranormal Experiences
Jung’s autobiography has given rise to confusion between his psychological theories, which
were predominantly based on his clinical practice and scientific investigations, and his
personal experiments with the paranormal. As a scientist and phenomenologist he knew
the latter might provide ideas and inspiration for further investigation, but could never
stand as sole evidence for paranormal processes – a distinction that is frequently
overlooked, leading to unnecessary controversy. For example, the chapter in Memories,
Dreams, and Reflections (https://www.amazon.com/Memories-Dreams-Reflections-C-
Jung/dp/0679723951/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543931324&sr=8-
1&keywords=Memories%2C+Dreams%2C+and+Reflections) on Jung’s speculations on life
after death should be understood as such, and not as part of his psychological theories.51
They constitute the personal testimony of an open-minded thinker, and are not the result of
his scientific investigations.
In this sense, Jung established an important distinction between psychology and
metaphysical speculation. Following a Kantian philosophical perspective, he denied that
psychology could theorize about a metaphysical or spiritual realm: if such a parallel world
exists it is beyond psychological inquiry. For Jung, our psyche is the fundamental reality.
We can only refer to an external or material world through the information received and
processed in our brains. If someone says that he/she had an experience with God, then this
experience should be accepted as it is reported, since there is no way to definitively discard
or prove such a possibility. More important than its veracity or authenticity is its
psychological significance. However, Jung was open to the existence of real paranormal
processes supported by evidence.
Self-Experimentation
This said, episodes in Jung’s life illustrate his personal interest in the paranormal. In the
winter of 1913, he embarked on a process of self-experimentation, giving free rein to his
fantasies and carefully registering his experiences. He later called this technique ‘active
imagination’, a process through which imagination is liberated and the individual actively
interacts with his/her imaginative productions. As he started to pay close attention to his
inner psychological processes, autonomous fantasy figures started to emerge, with which he
interacted and conversed as though they really existed. The most important was a figure
called Philemon whom Jung considered as a guide or spiritual teacher. These figures
emerged in dreams or during active imagination exercises. He painted each one carefully in
order to objectify it, and immersed himself in his imagination processes.52
In 1916, Jung wrote a booklet entitled Seven Sermons to the Dead (Septem Sermones ad
Mortuos), distributed privately among his friends and made available to the public only in
his autobiography. It is a compilation of sermons directed to the dead, who ‘came back
from Jerusalem, where they found not what they sought’.53 The narrator, Basilides of
Alexandria, teaches them about things such as the nature of God and the universe. In these
sermons, it is possible to identify, in a metaphorical language, many of Jung’s theories and
psychological concepts.
Some take these episodes to show Jung’s certainty of postmortem survival. However, in
Jung’s perspective the images of the unconscious have a reality of their own, they are
essentially alive –a conclusion based not on belief but on his own experience. ‘Philemon
represented a force which was not myself. In my fantasies I held conversations with him,
and he said things which I had not consciously thought. For I observed clearly that it was he
who spoke, not I’.54 Jung found that active imagination was the most appropriate way to
give these figures a ‘voice’ and learn whatever they could offer. Following Flournoy’s notion
of subconscious creativity, Jung argued that the images we see in dreams and in active
imagination are not produced by the conscious personality but emerge from the
unconscious. In psychological terms, ‘the unconscious corresponds to the mythic land of
the dead, the land of the ancestors’.55
Haunting Phenomena
In accordance with his phenomenological approach Jung did not exclude the presence of
paranormal processes, although his language is ambiguous and hesitant in this regard. At
the time he felt compelled to write the Seven Sermons, strange occurrences were reported
by him and other family members.
There was an ominous atmosphere all around me. I had the strange feeling that the
air was filled with ghostly entities. Then it was as if my house began to be haunted.
My eldest daughter saw a white figure passing through the room. My second
daughter, independently of her elder sister, related that twice in the night her blanket
had been snatched away; and that same night my nine-year-old son had an anxiety
dream. […] Then it began to flow out of me, and in the course of three evenings, the
thing was written. As soon as I took up the pen, the whole ghostly assemblage
evaporated. The room quieted and the atmosphere cleared. The haunting was over.56
Near-Death Experience
In 1944, Jung had a near-death experience following a heart attack. He wrote of
experiencing deliriums and visions ‘which must have begun when I hung on the edge of
death and was being given oxygen and camphor injections’57. He described how he was
lifted into space and saw the Earth from a distance of a thousand miles – ‘the most glorious
thing I had ever seen’. The experience left him deeply depressed: ‘… a good three weeks
were still to pass before I could truly make up my mind to live again’.58 During this
experience he correctly foresaw the imminent death of the hospital doctor who attended
him in the hospital. As is widely reported in such cases, the episode impressed him
considerably and caused him to reflect on future life decisions.
Everton de Oliveira Maraldi and Maria de Fátima Fernandes
Literature
Donati, M. (2004). Beyond synchronicity: the worldview of Carl Gustav Jung and Wolfgang
Pauli. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 49: 707-728.
Jung, C. G. (1897). Some thoughts on psychology. In: The Zofingia Lectures
(Supplementary volume A of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Bollingen Series XX, pp.
21-48). Translated by Jan Van Heurck, with an introduction by Marie-Louise Von Franz.
Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1983.
Jung, C. G. (1902). On the psychology and pathology of so-called occult phenomena. In:
Psychology and the Occult, Routledge Classics. London: Routledge, 2008.
Jung, C. G. (1905). On spiritualistic phenomena. In: Psychology and the Occult, Routledge
Classics (pp. 107-127). London: Routledge, 2008.
Jung, C. G. (1907). The Psychology of Dementia Praecox. In: Psychogenesis of Mental
Disease (Volume 3 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Bollingen Series XX). Translated
by R. F. C. Hull. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982.
Jung, C. G. (1920). The psychological foundations of belief in spirits. In: Psychology and
the Occult, Routledge Classics (pp.128-149). London: Routledge, 2008.
Jung, C. G. (1921). Psychological types (Volume 6 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung,
Bollingen Series XX). Translated by R. F. C. Hull. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1976.
Jung, C. G. (1935). The Tavistock Lectures. In: The Symbolic Life: Miscellaneous Writings
(Volume 18 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Bollingen Series XX, pp. 5-184).
Translated by R. F. C. Hull. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976.
Jung, C. G. (1948). Psychology and Spiritualism. In: Psychology and the Occult, Routledge
Classics (pp. 164-170). London: Routledge, 2008.
Jung, C. G. (1952). Synchronicity: An acausal connecting principle (Volume 8 of the

Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Bollingen Series XX). Translated by R. F. C. Hull. Princeton,
New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2010.
Jung, C. G. (1954). Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious (Volume 9, part 1 of the
Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Bollingen Series XX). Translated by R. F. C. Hull. Princeton,
New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1977.
Jung, C. G. (1958). Flying Saucers: A modern myth of things seen in the skies (Volumes 10
and 18 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Bollingen Series XX). Translated by R. F. C.
Hull. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1978.
Jung, C. G. (1961). Théodore Flournoy (translated by Sonu Shamdasani). In: T. Flournoy.
From India to the Planet Mars: A case of multiple personality with imaginary languages
(pp. IX-X). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994.
Jung, C. G. (1967). Symbols of Transformation: An analysis of the preclude to a case of
schizophrenia (Volume 5 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Bollingen Series XX).
Translated by R. F. C. Hull. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976.
Jung, C. G. (2009). The Red Book: Liber Novus. Ed. By Sonu Shamdasani, translated by M.
Kyburz, J. Peck and S. Shamdasani. New York: W. W. Norton.
Jung, C. G., & Jaffé, A. (1963). Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Translated from the
German by Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Random House, 1989.
Kallivayalil, R. A. (2016). The Burgholzli Hospital: Its history and legacy. Indian Journal of
Psychiatry, 58: 226-228.
Lindorff, D. (1995). Psyche, matter and synchronicity: a collaboration between C. G. Jung
and Wolfgang Pauli. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 40: 571-586.
Mansfield, V., Rhine-Feather, S., & Hall, J. (1998). The Rhine-Jung letters: distinguishing
parapsychological from synchronistic events. The Journal of Parapsychology, 62: 3-25.
McGuire, W. (1974). The Freud/Jung Letters: The correspondence between Sigmund
Freud and C. G. Jung (Bollingen Series XCIV). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton
University Press.
Nagy, M. (1991). Philosophical Issues in the Psychology of C. G. Jung. New York: State
University of New York Press.
Rhine, J. B. (1953). New World of the Mind. New York: William Sloane.
Shamdasani, S. (1998). From Geneva to Zurich: Jung and French Switzerland. Journal of
Analytical Psychology, 43: 115-126.
Shamdasani, S. (2000). Misunderstanding Jung: The afterlife of legends. Journal of

Analytical Psychology, 45: 459-472.
Society for Psychical Research. (1917). Meetings of the Council. Journal of the Society for
Psychical Research, 18: 11-13.
Taylor, E. (1998). Jung before Freud, not Freud before Jung: The reception of Jung’s work
in American psychoanalytic circles between 1904 and 1909. Journal of Analytical
Psychology, 43: 97-114.
Wehr, G. (1987). Jung: A Biography. Boston/Shaftesbury, Dorset: Shambhala.
References
1. Kallivayalil, 2016
2. Jung, 1907
3. Wehr, 1987
4. Society for Psychical Research, 1917
5. McGuire, 1974, p. 96
6. Wehr, 1987
7. Jung & Jaffé, 1963
8. Jung & Jaffé, 1963
9. Jung, 1897; Nagy, 1991
10. Jung, 1967
11. Wehr, 1987
12. Jung, 1935
13. Jung, 1935, p. 162
14. Jung & Jaffé, 1963, p. 150
15. Jung & Jaffé, 1963, p. 361
16. Jung, 1935, p. 15
17. Jung, 1952
18. Jung, 1921, p. 497
19. Jung, 1949, p. 147
20. Jung, 1961, p. ix
21. Taylor, 1998
22. Shamdasani, 1998, 2000
23. Jung, 1952
24. Jung, 1920, p. 147
25. Jung, 1902, p. 23
26. Jung, 1902, p. 6
27. Jung, 1902, p. 24

28. Jung, 1902, p. 24-25
29. Jung, 1902, p. 30-31
30. Jung, 1902, p. 31
31. Jung, 1902, p. 84
32. Jung, 1902, p. 53
33. Jung, 1905, p. 108
34. Jung, 1905, p. 119
35. Jung, 1920
36. Jung, 1935
37. Jung, 1920
38. Jung & Jaffé, 1963.
39. Jung, 1948
40. Jung, 1948, p. 318
41. Jung, 1952, p. 22
42. Jung, 1952, p. 31
43. Jung, 1954
44. Donati, 2004
45. Rhine, 1953, p. 82
46. Mansfield, Rhine-Feather & Hall, 1998, p. 16
47. Jung & Jaffé, 1963.
48. Jung, 1952
49. Lindorff, 1995
50. Jung, 1958
51. Jung & Jaffé, 1963.
52. Jung, 2009
53. Jung & Jaffé, 1963, p. 378
54. Jung & Jaffé, 1963, p. 183
55. Jung & Jaffé, 1963, p. 191
56. Jung & Jaffé, 1963, p. 190-191
57. Jung & Jaffé, 1963, p. 289
58. Jung & Jaffé, 1963, p. 292
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Carl Jung (Biography)

Chapter · December 2018

Everton De Oliveira Maraldi

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Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), was a Swiss psychiatrist

In 1907, Jung first met Sigmund Freud (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud),

Early Supernatural Interests

Relationship with Freud

Freud’s attention since it provided partial experimental demonstration for his

Preiswerk Mediumship Study

At the beginning of August 1899, I witnessed the first attacks of somnambulism.

View of Mediumship and Spirit Survival

consciousness. In this respect, he saw spiritualism as a historical compensation against the

See also below, Personal Paranormal Experiences

collaboration. Pauli resorted to Jung’s psychological approach as the basis for a

I-Ching and Astrology

Jung considered UFO experiences to be resistant to a definitive rational explanation. He

Personal Paranormal Experiences

Jung, C. G. (1952). Synchronicity: An acausal connecting principle (Volume 8 of the

Shamdasani, S. (2000). Misunderstanding Jung: The afterlife of legends. Journal of

27. Jung, 1902, p. 24

Authors: Everton de Oliveira Maraldi (/user/401) and Maria de Fátima Fernandes

Sigmund Freud Helene Preiswerk

Théodore Flournoy JB Rhine

PSI HEALING (/CATEGORY/PSI-HEALING)

POSSESSION & PAST LIVES (/CATEGORY/POSSESSION-PAST-LIVES)

OUT-OF-BODY & NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES (/CATEGORY/OUT-BODY-NEAR-DEATH-EXPERIENCES)

MEDIUMS & PSYCHICS (/CATEGORY/MEDIUMS-PSYCHICS)

HAUNTINGS & APPARITIONS (/CATEGORY/HAUNTINGS-APPARITIONS)

04/01/2019 Carl Jung | Psi Encyclopedia

SCIENTISTS & RESEARCHERS (/CATEGORY/SCIENTISTS-RESEARCHERS)

GENERAL PSI TOPICS (/CATEGORY/GENERAL-PSI-TOPICS)

OTHER PHENOMENA (/CATEGORY/OTHER-PHENOMENA)

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Visit the Society for Psychical Research (http://www.spr.ac.uk/)

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