Mana is a word derived from anthropology,
being Melanesian in origin; it pertains to the extraordinary and compelling
supernatural power which emanates from certain individuals,
objects, actions and events as well as from inhabitants of the SPIRIT
world. The modern equivalent is ‘charisma’. Mana suggests the presence
of an all-pervading vital force, a primal source of growth or
magical healing that can be likened to a primitive concept of psychic
ENERGY. Mana can attract or repel, wreak destruction or heal, confronting
the EGO with a supra ordinate force. It should not be confused
with numinosity which pertains only to the divine presence (see
NUMINOSUM). This is the quasi-divine power which adheres to the
magician, mediator, priest, doctor, trickster, saint or holy fool – to
anyone who partakes of the spirit world sufficiently to conduct or
radiate its energy (see MAGIC).
Since Jung’s death, studies of transitional states confirm that during
liminal periods or borderline states a person such as an initiate,
novice, patient or analysand is particularly susceptible to attraction
by so-called mana personalities. The effect of such images, real or
projected, is that they give the individual a feeling of direction toward
a realisable heightening of CONSCIOUSNESS. The extraordinary mana
personality, Don Juan, portrayed by Carlos Castaneda is an example.
Because one is convinced that such a figure has attained a higher
state of consciousness, the possibility of achieving it is established
and, consequently, one has confidence that he himself can make the
transition in their company.
Unfortunately, scientific analysis of the transference relationship
between ANALYST AND PATIENT has lost touch with the efficacy of
such images. As transitional personages, they are of immense value,
since the projection of power is essential at that time; its integration
comes later when the ego is able to wrest that power from them and
claim it on behalf of the individual and his own purposes. At a still
later stage when ANIMA AND ANIMUS have been divested of their own
semi-magical attraction and force, the analysand has a second confrontation
with mana personalities, but this time they are projected
inward and usually take the form of spiritual presences of the per-

son’s own sex – personifications of God the Father or the GREAT
MOTHER, WISE OLD MAN or WISE OLD WOMAN, as the case may be (see
ENERGY; MAGIC). (Jung enjoyed a life-long relationship with such a
figure whom he painted and with whom he dialogued repeatedly:
Philemon.) Mana adheres to ‘the desired mid-point of the personality’,
Jung writes, ‘that ineffable something betwixt the OPPOSITES, or
else which unites them, or the result of conflict, or the product of
energic tension: the coming to birth of personality, a profound individual
step forward, the next stage’ (CW 7, para. 382).
Mana personalities appear whenever the ego is consciously confronted
with the SELF. To see them as mere father or mother IMAGOS
is to reduce them to ‘no more than’ or ‘nothing but’, according to
Jung. The mana personality as an ideal and incorruptible image is
essential to the process of INITIATION after which one has a renewed
sense of individuality. The danger inherent in transitional periods is
that one identifies with the mana figures, however, and there is a
consequent INFLATION (see IDENTIFICATION; IDENTITY).