Carl Gustav Jung video – The World Within
The Phuzamoya Dream Centre
Saturday , 25 May 2010
The World Within is a DVD of Jung speaking and includes extracts of his writing and his
artwork from the recently published The Red Book. This was the second viewing of the DVD by
the PDC. It was first screened on 22 November 2009. After this viewing a comprehensive
summary was compiled and is available on www.ianplayer.com under Phuzamoya Dream
Centre. The DVD is well worth seeing several times as it provides rich insights into Jung’s
experience and understanding of the human psyche – the amazing world within that is largely
ignored and remains unexplored by the majority of modern society.
Jung’s primary objective in this DVD is to validate our inner worlds. We live in such an
extraverted society that the material world with all its possessions has become elevated to the
level of being considered reality. Even people aware of the world within tend to be
embarrassed and deprecating when they speak about intuitions, dreams, premonitions,
synchronicity. Despite the growing body of rigorous scientific studies confirming psychic events
and respected research into parapsychology1 invariably we still catch ourselves saying: “It
wasn’t real but a figment of my imagination” as if psychic phenomena are not part of reality; or
“It was only a dream” as if our rich night-time life has less substance than waking experiences.
For Jung, the inner world is not equal but even more substantial than the outer world because
ultimately it is the world within that directs our lives and supports individuals and humankind
through our greatest challenges. After a devastating war, tsunami, earthquake, flood or fire that
destroys everything people possess, it is our inner worlds – our values, hopes, dreams, beliefs
and passions – that see us through. The seemingly solid external world is far more ephemeral
than our inner worlds. When our material, physical world shatters around us, it is the strength,
comfort and solace we find within that proves to be the enduring reality. As a consequence we
are well-advised to give more attention to the world within.
During the discussion after the DVD, Prof. Colin Gardner made the observation that Jung gave
significance to all facets of the psyche as revealed in mythology, including our experiences of
the numinous and the religious. Freud would probably have dismissed Jung's mythological and
numinous concerns as nonsense. For Freud the Greek myths and legends offered convenient
metaphors for his clinical concerns and theories, like naming of the Oedipus complex2, but not
1
Parapsychology involves the study of evidence for psychological phenomena that appears
to contradict or go beyond physical laws. Other terms used interchangeably include
paranormal, parapsychical, psychic phenomenon, and psychical science.
2
Mary Gardner recommends "Where Three Roads Meet" by Sally Vickers, an imagined a
discussion between Freud and the blind Tiresias who questions Freud's interpretation of the
Oedipus story.
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the living entities, the constellations of archetypal energy, that Jung understood them to be.
Jung was more open minded and flexible than Freud, who believed only in what could be
proved (in his view) by rigorous scientific methods.
After the discussion of the DVD, Andrew Paterson shared a dream. He is a businessman
turned wilderness trail guide in the Kruger National Park, who lives in Johannesburg. He has
given permission to share the following dream and its interpretation:
“I am in Hong Kong, visiting a small two-room apartment in a “local Chinese”
part of the city. I find myself in a communal toilet which is overflowing. I am on
my hands and knees trying to wipe up the mess with a cloth but my efforts are
futile and make no difference. I am disgusted by the state of the toilet and by
what I am doing and walk outside. On the street I see about twelve Chinese
men carrying a very long ladder under their arms.”
The following summary is in no way a definite analysis of Andrew’s dream but presents some of
the ideas that arose during the discussion of the dream. Often there are several levels or layers
of meaning attached to a dream and consequently a popular metaphor for dream analysis is
unpeeling an onion. While a dream may have relevance to everyday matters in our lives, one
needs to peel off the outer layers to get to what the dream is saying about the world within.
Although it is difficult for many people to accept, faeces is considered a symbol of our creativity
in the sense that it is something that we produce or create that is uniquely our own. Andrew is a
painter and so it was suggested that the dream had a connection with his creative process that
might be blocked in some way. He could not connect with this association, which does not mean
it is incorrect. Often the conscious mind is not ready or willing to accept what the unconscious
is trying to tell us.
When Andrew was asked questions about China it was clear he has a very low opinion of the
Chinese with their poor environmental record and their rampant economic growth regardless of
the consequences. As a wilderness trail guide, Andrew is acutely aware of the devastation
caused by our modern lifestyles. In this sense he is trying to clean up the communal mess to
which we are all contributing. The greed of the West fuels China’s overproduction/overcreativity and is justifiably worthy of feelings of disgust. The task is clearly too big for Andrew to
attempt on his own.
Although Andrew had some knowledge and understanding of Chinese philosophy and astrology
(Andrew was born in the Chinese year of the dragon) he was unaware of Jung’s interest in the I
Ching and the incorporation of ancient Chinese wisdom into Jung’s theories and writing.
Andrew has no sense in his dealings with modern-day Chinese of their connection with their
ancient past and its wisdom. He sees the Chinese as irresponsible and destructive. There
might be some significance in Andrew considering what parts of himself or ways in which he
might also be irresponsible and destructive.
Concerning the two rooms, this appears to indicate a split, an inner conflict that requires
unification. During the previous discussion about the DVD Andrew commented on seeing a
female symbol as part of the figure of Telesphorus Jung carved in the wrongly sent cornerstone.
These two rooms might symbolize these male and female opposites that need to become
integrated in order to become individuated and whole. In Jung's "Seminar on Dream Analysis"
he refers to Telesphoros as "the one that brings completion, perfection, or initiation". He was "a
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special god of doctors", the "spiritus familiaris" of Aesculapius, and was always found on the
monuments of Aesculapius, as his guardian.
The two rooms could also symbolize two dimensional thinking – “me versus them”; “we versus
the enemy”; “the forces of evil versus the forces of good” – that Andrew mentioned. This is
often the way he perceives situations and he tends to operate in terms of black and white, with
no shades of grey. To some extent he sees this way of thinking as arising from attitudes that
were inculcated in young men who, like him, were conscripted to fight in Angola.
The twelve Chinese workmen carrying a ladder seem to suggest that in order for Andrew to
achieve his elevated objectives he will need the support and stability that comes from working
with the ordinary, grounded aspects of himself, represented by those workmen with both feet on
the ground. In some texts the number twelve3 is considered to be the ancient number of
completion as it signals the end of childhood and the beginning stages of adulthood. It is also
used to symbolize God’s perfect government.
The dream is also an invitation to Andrew to reflect on how his negative judgment of what he
considers the "Chinese way of life”, reflected in cheap and nasty consumerism, is creating an
inner disturbance that is unbalancing his psyche. To attain an inner peace and balance, we
need to focus within rather than looking for the culprits in the external world. Working on our
inner condition to bring peace and balance within will impact on those around us, and this in turn
will bring peace and balance to the earth. The microcosm becomes reflected in the macrocosm,
and vice versa. Andrew’s "ladder" or "bridge" to a higher level of consciousness is thus being
carried away by his frustrations.
A vitally important part of dream work is to respond to whatever it is in or about the dream that
carries meaning, energy and emotion and to work with this in a way that allows for healthy
integration of disparate elements into one’s psyche as part of the process of moving towards
wholeness and individuation.
3
Twelve is a number of perfection - 4x3 – with 4 representing four elements, four cardinal
points, four corners of the earth; and 3 representing three levels of the universe, three
aspects of any god, i.e. the multiplication of the number of the Earth with the number of the
Heavens. Twelve is significant in ancient man’s life because there were twelve tribes in
Israel, twelve disciples followed Jesus, there are twelve astrological signs in the zodiac,
there are twelve months in the year, and our modern clock is divided into two groups of
twelve hours. Additionally, the ancient numbering and measuring systems are based on this
number, as evidenced by terms such as a dozen (12), a gross (12 times 12), a shilling (12
pence) and a foot (12 inches).
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