Thoughts Concerning the Collective Unconsciousness

Thoughts Concerning the Collective Unconsciousness
by
E.F.Block IV
June 2020
Introduction
The term "Collective Unconsciousness" was first espoused by Carl Jung in his 1916 essay, "The Structure of the Unconscious". (1) On October 19, 1936, Jung delivered a lecture "The Concept of the Collective Unconscious" in which he stated that - "My thesis then, is as follows: in addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche (even if we tack on the personal unconscious as an appendix), there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited". (1) It is at this point that the author diverges from his concepts as put forth. I must state unequivicably that the Collective Unconsciousness (CU) is not inherited, it is not at all genetically determined! However, it is the capacity to be able to be in tune with the Collective Unconsciousness that is inherited, i.e., is intimately inviolved through normal gene expression that underlies all of human neurophysiology. Whether or not a person develops the ability, learns to be able to tune into and translate what is to be tapped into and made personal sense of is up to that person and the societal influences that color that person's individual consciousness.
Discussion
With all of the current research that continues concerning the evolution of animate life within the Biosphere of the Earth, that of the primate line is fraught with all manner of nonsense due to the continued lack of understanding concerning the role that "Consciousness" plays within the Galactic stage of the Cosmology of our Universe.
Believe the author when that person states that we as human being are less than perfect in our understanding of our personal conscious reality within the whole of what constitutes "humanity". The first question that the author askes is at what point in the evolution of Homo sapiens are are we as primate animals to be known as "human"? Do we include the genus Homo neanderthalensis ? This question is very important since it determines what we that may tune into that may be included into our concepts of just what the CU is and whether this include all animate life or just that of "humans". To a great extent this may be answered by the knowledge that the science of Neurophysiology yields to us in concerning the evolution of the brain and central nervous system of the animate Kingdom as a whole.(2) Is indeed our personal consciousness able to tap into all of the UC of the animal kingdom? Why just limit it to humans?
So the next question that arises is at what point is a person able to bring forth the information that is within the repository of the UC into personal consciousness? It is the opinion of the author, after 70 years of meditative practice, that the dream state of people is a personal glimpse into what each individual person is able recognize and relate to as a conscious entity and bring forth into cosciousness what may be in the repository of the UC. Remembering dreams upon waking is not easy to do as our conscious mind immediately involves itself with the tasks of survival in the daily environment.
Traditionally, there are 2 great avenues of unconscious exploration: meditation and the use of certain poisonous substances that allow for intense introspection. Both involve learning experiences. Both are more easy to progress with a mentor, someone that has gone before and has a wealth of experience to share. The author has utilized both avenues of exploration, hence the writing of this missive. However, the author has had no guide in his explorations. The author brought the meditative experience into this lifetime from the just previous incarnation as a male Saraswati Yogi. (3) In this lifetime, the author has explored the use of hallucinogennic substances. (4)
What has been demonstrated to the author is that there are several dynamic processes involved in both the unconscious and spiritual development of humans. The aspect of cultural bias is huge in description of spiritual affairs. The spirit world make itself open to interaction with conscious entities. This is a constant throughout the evolution of humanity. This interaction is separate from the UC but colors the UC to a very great extent as dreams is but 1 method that the spiritual realm makes itself evident to humans, i.e., Moses and the burning bush! Younger humans are taught by older humans that posess biases. They are programed with the cultural biases of those adults. Consequently, the young are predisposed to view any spiritual interaction subject to thosr preconceived biases. The use of hallucinogenic substances allows 1 to recognize those biases and cast them aside. This is also the real point of meditation, to eliminate the cultural bias of aculturation and get to the pure and unadulturated truth of reality!! Both eliminate the artifice of society and get to the core of real and true humanity.
Thus, the CU is a resonance of all the content of mental, emotional and physical reality of humanity, animate reality that has come before upon the planet Earth and its interaction with the Spirit realm. The spirit realm is teaching us humans via the unconscious dream state and those able to resonate with the UC while conscious.
Conclusions
The CU is a unique repository of all animate reality throughout the span of evolution of humanity. Consciousness/unconsciousness is progressing individually and collectively in a dynamic manner as a critical aspect within the evolution of humanity as a whole!
References
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2614231/
3. http://www.diamondhead.net/meditational.htm
4. http://www.diamondhead.net/oits.htm