Customer Reviews

Jung and Shamanism in Dialogue: Retrieving the Soul/Retrieving the Sacred (Jung & Spirituality)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book serves as a good introduction to Jungian psychology as it pertains to shamanism and direct religious experience of the sacred. It also explores how shamanism may be useful in healing dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality).

My primary interest is in visionary experiences and waking dreams. I've mainly tried to explore the subject in terms of poetic reverie or inspiration but modern poetry does not value inspiration and poets do not write about their reveries anymore. Shamanism appears to be the main subculture that is actively interested in visionary experiences. Most urban shamans discover the subject through their use of and interest in psychedelics which can be defended on religious grounds as the sacraments of shamanism.

The book could have done a better job of making the connection between ayahuasca visions and the collective unconscious but it placed little emphasis on entheogens. Instead it focused on trance states, possession and exorcism, soul loss and retrieval, archetypes, and the sacred. The author assumes that the shaman is the master of many psychological states and conditions and considers modern health professionals to be magicians by virtue of their valuable knowledge and skill as healers. I don't object to this emphasis because I do believe a genuine shaman should have a talent for exploring the unknown dimensions of the mind. Urban shamans have become snobbish drug abusers who are reluctant to acknowledge natural talent and insist that psychedelics are the only means to shamanic journeying. There is ample evidence that this attitude is a tragic mistake because psychedelics give you too little control over the experience. The author makes some excellent points on the need to be in full control:

pg 27, "Even shamans who use hallucinogenic substances for the purpose of evoking ecstatic states, typically use low enough doses so as to maintain control of their trance depth."