The previous seminar in this series discussed the positive ontological status (i.e. the reality) of hallucinations and visionary states in Jungian psychology, alongside the hermeneutical methods developed to interpret and existentially engage with such content erupting from the unconscious in psychotic, psychedelic and mystical states alike. The present seminar will aim to engage more deeply with the philosophical position of metaphysical idealism, an ontology that takes Consciousness as the sole constituent of reality. To this end, the tradition of Western idealism as represented in the work of Schopenhauer and Kastrup’s ‘Analytical Idealism’ will be introduced and explored. Ultimately, this foundational understanding of idealism will be used to defend the claim, in opposition to the majority of current Jungian scholars, that Jung himself was fully committed to idealism in both his philosophical and psychological writing.
Having established idealism as the cornerstone of Jungian psychology, we will turn to an analysis of the lived idealism of the Sufi mystic Ibn Arabi, aligned with that of Rumi, in order to engage with the direct ‘existential’ implications of idealist philosophy. To this end, Ibn Arabi’s notion of the Mundus Imaginalis, or ‘world of imagination’, will be explored in terms of its mirroring relationship to the technique of active imagination as discovered by Jung in his Red Book experiences.
“You fall, and I want to fall with you, whoever you are. The spirit of the depths opened my eyes, and I caught a glimpse of the inner things, the world of my soul, the many-formed and changing. ~ Jung in the Red Book
