Flying Saucers : A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies (Paperback)

~ C. G. Jung (Author), R. F.C. Hull (Translator)

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While Jung is known mainly for his theories on the nature of the unconscious mind, he did have an interest in the paranormal. In this essay, Jung applies his analytical skills to the UFO phenomenon. Rather than assuming that the modern prevalence of UFO sightings are due to extraterrestrial craft, Jung reserves judgment on their origin and connects UFOs with archetypal imagery, concluding that they have become a "living myth." This essay is intriguing in its methodology and implications as to the nature of UFOs and their relation to the human psyche.

Product Description

"In the threatening situation of the world today, when people are beginning to see that everything is at stake, the projection-creating fantasy soars beyond the realm of earthly organizations and powers into the heavens, into interstellar space, where the rulers of human fate, the gods, once had their abode in the planets.... Even people who would never have thought that a religious problem could be a serious matter that concerned them personally are beginning to ask themselves fundamental questions. Under these circumstances it would not be at all surprising if those sections of the community who ask themselves nothing were visited by `visions,' by a widespread myth seriously believed in by some and rejected as absurd by others."--C. G. Jung, in Flying Saucers

Jung's primary concern in Flying Saucers is not with the reality or unreality of UFOs but with their psychic aspect. Rather than speculate about their possible nature and extraterrestrial origin as alleged spacecraft, he asks what it may signify that these phenomena, whether real or imagined, are seen in such numbers just at a time when humankind is menaced as never before in history. The UFOs represent, in Jung's phrase, "a modern myth."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (January 1, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691018227
• ISBN-13: 978-0691018225
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #730,391 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BASIS FOR UFOs PSYCHO-SOCIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION, August 24, 1999

By	[e-mail] - Marco Benoit Carbone ... (italy) - See all my reviews

What Jung did with this book is, fundamentally, setting the honest basis for UFO intereptation from a psychological point of view. That's why the open postulates he gained from this inquiry have generated many controversies and strumentalization among the ufologists' field. UFOs - says Jung - may be psycho-sociological phenomena which come from both the inner symbolic human subconscious AND from our technological era's imaginism. However, those hardly conventionally explainable episode may even - in Jung's own opinion - be a HARD and MATERIAL phenomenon, which may be explained with extraterrestrial visits. From this point of view, the sociological redutionism slips towards a postume status, leaving the question as open as ever. Definitely, the book you should be starting with if you like the subject.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars imaginal symbols of wholeness, June 1, 2000

By	Craig Chalquist, PhD, author of TERRAPSYCHOLO... (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Jung's interpretation of flying saucers as compensatory Self symbols of wholeness required by an era of psychological fragmentation is both brilliant and well-developed in this fine little book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Witches were pests and UFOs were Cold War , December 12, 2008

By	Dalton C. Rocha (Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.) - See all my reviews

Here in Brazil, I read this book, in 1983.Then to believe, in flying saucer was normal.Many TV programs were about this subject.I remeber to watch many TV programs, made by then alive brazilian Flávio Cavalcanti.Dozens of videos, photos,etc. about ufology, in brazilian TV programs.Looking for a source against ufology, I decided to read this book.Then, I was just begining to learn English.I had a dictionary ever in my hand.This was the first book, writen in English I ever read, in my life.And this book is definitive about ufology.Ufology has the same support as demonology in past centuries.

Some centuries ago, many people were "seeing" witches flying in the skies.Then, science wasn't a real thing and the normal average of life was less than 25 years old.A normal smallpox epidemy killed millions of people.And medicine had nothing to explain or to protect persons against smallpox or any other epidemy.Then, the science grew and the witches couldn't fly in the skies.In Cold War(1945-1991), the fear didn't came from inexplainable, but from technology:nuclear weapons.Instead of see witches in the skies, the people began to see flying saucers.Instead of fear from devils, the people began to have fear of ETs.Instead of fear from epidemies, the people had fear of a nuclear war.When science grew, the witches missed from the skies.When Soviet Union became over, flying saucers missed from the skies.The history was repeated:Witches were pests and UFOs were Cold War.

Wel, I couldn't know this at that time, but in 1983, a nuclear war was almost started, because of a defective soviet satelite.This terrible incident wasn't revealed until some years ago, more then ten years after the end of Soviet Union.