vision

An irruption of an unconscious content which intrudes upon
the field of consciousness in the form of an impressive personal
experience portrayed in visual and pictorial terms. This happens
when one is in the waking state and excepting for rare instances
is accompanied by an ABAISSEMENT DU NIVEAU MENTAL. As a general
rule, visions are born of extreme personal alienation. They are compelling
and have an uncanny force of persuasion. It is because
mystical visions have so powerfully recalled to persons what they
felt to be their own true natures that they have been so indelibly
impressed.
Though visions are not themselves evidence of mental disturbance,
some visions are pathological and occur in PSYCHOSIS. Jung’s early
work with schizophrenic patients alerted him to mythological motifs
(i.e. of the Sun God) that were commonly repeated in reported
visions (see MYTH; SCHIZOPHRENIA). He later identified these motifs
as archetypal fragments belonging to the collective UNCONSCIOUS.
Once such contents break through into consciousness, the question
arises as to how the individual will respond.
There is no special merit in the seeing of visions; their value depends
upon the attitude that the recipient takes toward them. When
a primordial idea presents itself in visionary terms, the task of the
individual is to translate the spontaneous and symbolic picture or
dramatic sequence into an individual statement. Otherwise, the vision
is no more than a natural phenomenon against which he is powerless
to defend himself. The danger is then that the weak EGO will be
subject to INFLATION.
Visions may be grotesque or transcendentally beautiful. Some are

of such a nature as to suggest the designs of a super-conscious power.
However, as lung points out, it is impossible to imagine such a
consciousness without an identity. Since the existence of such a
super-conscious identity is not provable other than a subjective way,
no further psychological statement can be made on the subject. Here
psychology ends and some sort of belief in SPIRIT takes over (see
GOD-IMAGE; NUMINOSUM; RELIGION).