A Public Spiritual Message titled “A Religious Analysis of ‘Jungian Psychology'”, Recorded on October 13th, 2013

From ideas on the collective unconscious to archetypes, from his thoughts on the Animus to synchronicity, Carl Gustav Jung (1875~1961) created a new branch of psychology. He was a giant in the field, and Jung proposed many theories. He went counter to the mainstream forms of psychology that tended to deal with measurable aspects of the mind, such as theories on experimental psychology and ideas found in behavioral psychology. Jungian psychology (or analytical psychology) strongly focused on the mystical side of the psyche, a side not limited to scientific means or approach alone, and it served as one of the factors that halted the materialist paradigm.

On the other hand, from the perspective of religion, which directly accepted the realm of spirit, Jungian psychology, with its insistence on an academic approach to spiritual phenomena, has appeared to complicate matters and has needlessly made them difficult to understand.

What did Jungian psychology try to achieve, what was its purpose, and indeed, what should have been the mission of his psychology? To clarify these questions, Master Ryuho Okawa, the founder of the Happy Science Group, invoked the spirit of Jung. He invited Jung’s spirit to analyze the state of psychology and the true nature of the soul from every direction.

The Mystical World of Jungian Psychology

Carl Jung was a thinker. He built up his own theories, in a way as if to overcome the ideas on depth psychology that he inherited from his mentor, Freud. Jung focused on the existence of the “subconscious” in humans that usually remained hidden. Freud’s ideas inspired him, in particular, on how to cure patients’ mental illness through the removal of an inner cause. However, he was not convinced in the truth of Freud’s “sexual theory” that assumed sexual repression was the root cause for the majority of mental illness. For Jung, sexual repression was merely a factor that existed among many others responsible for mental disorder.

While Freud dismissed religious matters and spirituality, Jung did not, which was another crucial difference between the two doctors. In fact, he and many of his relatives had spiritual predispositions. Jung, who had been accumulating mysterious experiences since he was child, incorporated them into his theories.

According to Jung, a “personal unconscious” existed within the consciousness of people, and below it lived the “collective unconscious”. The personal unconscious, a constellation of psychological complexes and suppressed experiences, influenced the behavior of people even before they had any realization of it.

His approach to the personal unconscious was similar to Freud, but their resultant theories greatly differed. Jung began to describe “archetypes.” Jung claimed that he encountered them while he was exploring the deepest level of the collective unconscious. He said they were universal patterns, which all of humanity shared, that influenced people on both a personal and collective level.

For example, Jung named a feminine behavioral pattern, which resided deep within man’s psyche, “Anima.” When a person brought it into conscious awareness, the anima often appeared as an image or vision of a woman such as found in dream. Such archetypal visions have appeared in the world’s mythologies as well as in its mystical thought.

Jung proposed the “Self” as a holistic image of the mind. He included the unconscious rather than the “Ego” only. This also appeared as an archetype, and people have often seen it as an image of “a wise old man,” or as a “Great Mother.”

According to Jung, when people integrated their conscious and unconscious minds, and their state of awareness overcame the psychological problems that existed at the unconscious level, the “Self” became whole. Jung called the processes “self-realization,” or “individuation,” and he placed great importance there. He thought that the “Self” was tied into the collective unconscious, and his ideas on the “higher self” referred to the whole universe, which included both psyche and matter.

With regard to Master Okawa’s recent spiritual interview, when he asked the spirit of Jung about his past thoughts on Jungian psychology, which he experienced while he was still alive, Master Okawa understood his spirit to express a deep conviction that the real world did not only consist of what people could see with their eyes. Jung’s spirit hinted, “To me, a large mesh appeared to tie together the three-dimensional world on the surface side of the universe and the world of the psyche on the inner side. I used to feel that everything wasn’t randomly connected. I felt it was something similar to the connectivity that people experience nowadays from the internet and mobile phones.”

The spirit of Jung also related how this world seemed as if it were a mandala that God or Buddha created, which made sense because Jungian psychology has presented students with a mystical world, full of various entities, meaningfully interconnected that has included both the material and spiritual worlds.

At a time when materialism was the prevailing philosophy, the achievements of Jungian psychology, which sought to elucidate the mystical world academically, were huge.

A Difficult Relationship With Religion

Even as he recognized the mystical realm, Jung explained it in terms of depth psychology, and he never clarified his views on the actual existence of the spiritual realm. Master Okawa commented on this matter, prior to the spiritual message, “Even though Jung was psychic, he sought to analyze his world scientifically, and it was a tragic mistake in my opinion.”

When the questioner asked the spirit of Jung about his relationship with religion and Jungian psychology, he replied, “In a way, my psychology has been at war with religion.” He continued to speak on how traditional religions suppressed sex, which resulted in the destruction of the individual and society because those inhibited people exhibited abnormal behavior and wreaked havoc on society. “There was a time when it was necessary for religions to lift this type of prohibition. I believe that my psychology helped that movement to gain momentum,” he said.

According to Jung’s spirit, the purpose of psychology was to “undo religious suppression.” He claimed that modern psychology provided an alternative for helping people who could not easily place their beliefs in a modern-day religion due to the dominance of the materialist paradigm. He commented that psychology could never become obsolete.

However, during the spiritual message, even as the spirit of Jung argued in favor of psychology, he also admitted his lack of confidence with concern to the positive significance of psychology, “I often wondered how exactly to apply psychology.” Regarding his impression of his own brand of psychology, the spirit of Jung looked at his old self and admitted that in that age of scientific dominance he had tried to place the psyche or the spiritual realm somehow into the world of science because he felt that they were left out. It unfortunately only added to the confusion for him and his followers.

In fact, the work of guardian, guiding, and possessing spirits, angels, gods, and other such spiritual entities could have easily provided an explanation for the various phenomena that Jungian psychology called “archetypes”. In addition, he described the idea of “synchronicity,” which provided meaning for so-called “random coincidences” that might not have really been coincidences. At that time, Jung should have noted the possibility of influences from the spiritual world.

Jungian psychology might have emerged out of the necessity, as it lessened religion suppression while at the same time opposed materialism. However, on the negative side, it replaced the reality of the existence of the gods and the spiritual world with technical language, which only complicated things, and it didn’t provide for salvation. Moreover, it has remained complacent regarding its explanations of the terms of depth psychology. Perhaps people, who should have looked toward religion, shunned away from it as a result of his influence. A sense of shame could be felt in the words of the spirit of Jung when he commented, “I believed there were problems that could not be cured if people did not rely on faith, the grace of God, and angels.”

Interpreting Jungian Thought From a Religious Perspective

It still holds true that the mystical inquiries of Jungian psychology, or the analysis of deep psychology, is a precious asset. Although counselors sometimes label his school of psychology as occult, when compared with other mainstream, materialist thinkers, there are groups of psychologists that are interested in developing Jungian thought, which is actually exhibiting a current influence over a wide area of modern culture such as mythology, religion, and folklore studies as well as occult research. In such ways, Jungian psychology continues to be a powerful counter force against scientific materialism that would like people to believe only matter exists.

Happy Science has clearly explained the structure of the human mind, soul, and the spiritual world. The teachings of Happy Science could help clarify many points for Jungian psychologists. It could even be possible for Happy Science members to offer a reinterpretation of the rich content of Jungian psychology in an easy-to-understand, modern way.

For example, Master Okawa has taught that the human soul is actually comprised of six people that have been grouped together as “soul siblings,” which incarnate in turn on the earthly plane. Even when a person has been born as man, there could be a strong possibility of an influence from the soul of a woman from among soul siblings. Jungian psychologists refer to the phenomena as “Anima”. On the other hand, in cases where a woman has male soul siblings, they use the term “Animus.”

Indeed, during the interview, the spirit of Jung revealed how his own theories related to the teachings of Happy Science, “I’ve heard of the way that you refer to soul siblings, it was similar to my Animus and Anima theories.”

Happy Science has also easily explained Jung’s “Shadow,” which was another archetype that created dark influences in a person’s psyche based on the work of a possessing, evil spirit or a rogue guardian. In addition, the role of “higher self” could effortlessly be identified as guidance from the gods and angels. In such ways, if Jung, who was a psychic, had read and straightforwardly understood his own experiences and ideas from a religious perspective, then Jungian psychology could have proven to be a valuable treasure trove. Although he fell short of the mark, Jung’s clinical cases certainly contributed to an understanding of the mystical nature of the human psyche.

The Truth About Jung’s Soul

In the second half of the spiritual message, in an effort to uncover the secrets of Jung’s soul, a questioner asked the spirit of Jung about his past lives. It was a real surprise when he mentioned the name of a large, towering figure in the history of Japanese Buddhism. You are welcome to hear the spiritual message at a Happy Science center to find out who he was.

Going back even further, he revealed that he had previously incarnated as a teacher in the Yogacara school of India, although he did not specify a name. Yogacaras, who developed subtle theories of the mind, certainly shared some similarities with Jung in their pursuits. In any case, it seemed that the spirit of Jung was strongly attracted to mandalas and Eastern thought because he talked about his activities in those areas.

Jung’s soul said that he was concerned with “how to increase faith in the sun on Earth and Vairocana”. He spoke a little on his incarnations in the West, and that his soul apparently had very important responsibilities, which concerned the history of all of humanity.

Jung left behind his life’s work, and from the perspective of Happy Science, there does exist a high possibility to gain new knowledge in the terms of expanding his interpretations on depth psychology, which might allow new schools of psychology to flourish.

The spirit of Jung also spoke on the below points. They were insightful and full of valuable information for religion and psychology.

• Jung’s judgment of his mentor, Freud.
• How psychological treatments and religious healing were related.
• Where psychologists have been going after death.
• How he thought about homosexuality.
• His Ideas on Maslow’s psychology of success.
• On the strife between Christianity and Islam.
• About “guidance” for Master Okawa from Jung.
• About Jung’s incarnation in the West.

For more details, please visit a Happy Science facility. This spiritual message is available to the general public at centers all over the world.