Much of our 21st-century life can be spent in a dissociative state if the higher Self gets buried under the flood of present-day addictive distractions. The doors of perception that could uncover the Self by awakening our ordinary senses with extrasensory insight are veiled in numbness. Then, inevitably, life presents us with a shock that tears open the dissociative veil. In our talk we will look at how this shock can be the opportunity to awaken us to the necessity of withdrawing from these addictions. Accepting the sacrifice, often crucifying to the body, can transfigure the life force within us and awaken our atrophied neural pathways and the numinous healing power of extrasensory perception.
In The Red Book (“Scrutinies”), Jung intentionally went beyond the veil; his soul spoke to him: “… [T]he Gods need a human mediator and rescuer … I gave you a frightening dream so that your face would turn to the Gods. I let their torment reach you so that you would remember the suffering Gods.” This passage mirrors the apocalyptic moment of the rebel Jesus’s death in the Bible: darkness covered the Earth, the sun’s light was extinguished, the temple’s curtain was torn in two. This last act symbolized the end of the old religious order, opening unmediated human access to the earthly inner sanctum of God and the Ark of the Covenant. According to legend, as Jesus bled out on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea held up the Grail cup to catch the sacred blood. The symbols of the Cross, the Grail, and the Ark have inspired the hero’s journey for centuries.
Wars, accidents, losses, surgery, the 9/11 attack, dreams, psychedelics, dark retreats, vision quests, and so forth, can create shocks that tear open the veil and catapult our consciousness out of body or bring near-death experiences. Synchronicity increases. Intuition is amplified into precognition, empathy and love to telepathy. Dreams become lucid, seances bring messages from the dead.
In a modern Grail quest, the sacred cup may be filled with human blood, perhaps mixed in with a bit of corporate silicon to alchemize the elixir. Just a sip could inoculate us as we begin our journey with the higher Self. By intentionally exploring these phenomena, we may become more responsive to inevitable life challenges instead of being triggered into fearful inflammatory reactions.
