A Strange Fire: an exploration of psycho‐spiritual development aided by Jungian analysis and Vedanta

Abstract

This paper explores the process of psychological and spiritual development through a series of active imaginations arising from the author's 'psycho-spiritual quest', a process of transformation in which the individual progressively frees themselves from the ego's identifications and may be afforded a vision of the 'self as consciousness', as described by Vedanta. The author describes how this quest was facilitated by the disciplines of Transcendental Meditation, Jungian analysis and Vedanta, and how these three disciplines can work together to foster psycho-spiritual development. The paper aims to de-mystify the actual experiences that can accompany these practices. The records of these active imaginations, tracing some key stages in this process, are then presented, with a commentary by Marcus West, linking them to Jung's concepts of ego and Self and recent understandings of consciousness and ego development. There is a discussion of Jung's conceptualizations of the ego and the Self and his rejection of the Vedantic understanding of the Self as consciousness. These views are then explored and a reconciliation is suggested through the understanding of the process of disidentification where the difference between Jung's view of the Self and that of Vedanta is understood to be due to the extent of disidentification from the contents of consciousness.

Sitting through the emptiness

“…Sagar, with West (2016) presented an excellent example of integrating primary consciousness through Transcendental Meditation, Jungian analysis, and Vedantic understandings to engage the void in the Self. There is a transcendent moment of Sagar’s acceptance of the Void, as West’s commentary explains: ‘What he finds there, to his surprise is the sacred, the numinous, the awesomeness of the self’ (Sagar & West 2016, p. 629). This detached state is obtained by asking one’s self who/what is this conscious awareness?…”

A response to George Bright

“…If Bright wishes to insist that a particular kind of engagement with the material is essential to the process, so be it; ultimately whether the text is taken to be a piece of active imagination, a meditation or simply 'the text', is of little import. It is for these reasons that we suggested that the process is ‘akin to … active imagination’ (Sagar & West , p. 628). That said, there are clearly long passages in the Red Book where Jung is simply noting the fantasies that emerge 'in a natural manner'.…”