Introduction to kundalini yoga pdf

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Kundalini Yoga can be practiced by anyone if it is done gradually and according to the instructions. When you tune in to the opening Mantra, Adi Mantra, described below.

The sound of ONG is created in the inner chambers of the sinuses and upper palate. It is the NG sound that is emphasized. The syllable GU is pronounced as in the word good. The syllable ROO rhymes with the word true. The word DAYV rhymes with save. The AA in A more well-known representation of kundalini is in the caduceus — the symbol used today by modern medicine, with two serpents intertwined around a central staff, with wings at the top. There was nothing extraordinary about her, nothing to suggest other than another patient brought to our admission unit due to an acute psychotic episode.

They come in all the time: four, five, sometimes eight each week-their stories thematically similar- too much crack cocaine, Tools and Tasks. Part One - Aligning with the World Tree. Part Two - Voice user. Part Three - Taking up a Stav. Part Four - Adding Tein. Putting it This manual is meant to accompany and enhance the study of runes, Norse myths and folklore and is All Rights Reserved. Designed by Templatic.

Home Copyright Privacy Contact. Ignatius of Loyola. Edited by Linda Fierz and Toni Wolff. Throughout India gatherings took a pledge that began: We believe that it is the inalienable right of the Indian people, as of any other people, to have freedom and to enjoy the fruits of their toil and have the necessities of life, so that they may have full oppor- tunities of growth.

We believe also that if any government deprives a people of these rights and oppresses them, the people have the further right to alter it or to abolish it. The British Government in India has not only deprived the Indian people of their freedom but has based itself on the exploitation of the masses, and has ruined India economically, politically, culturally, and spiritually. We be- lieve that India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj or complete independence.

At a memorial for his deceased colleague, the sinologist Richard Wilhelm, Jung echoed these dramatic events: If we look to the East: an overwhelming destiny is fulfilling itself. We have conquered the East politically. Do you know what hap- pened, when Rome subjugated the near East politically?

The spirit of the East entered Rome. Mithras became the Roman military god. Would it be unthinkable that the same thing happened today and we would be just as blind as the cultured Romans, who marvelled at the superstitions of the Christians? I know that our unconscious is crammed with Eastern symbolism.

The spirit of the East is really ante portas. Kretschmer and W. Cimbal Leipzig, In the sixties, Jung was adopted as a guru by the new age movement. Not least among the reasons for this was his role in promoting the study, aiding the dissemination, and providing modern psychological elucida- tions of Eastern thought. For journeyers to the East, he was adopted as a forefather. At the same time, these interests of Jung together with their appropriation by the counterculture were seen by many as confirmation of the mystical obscurantism of his psychology.

Newly arrived gurus and yogins vied with psychotherapists over a similar clientele who sought other counsel than was provided by Western philosophy, religion, and medicine. Hence the comparison between the two was not to be unexpected not least by the potential customers. It has left us with the duty—noblesse oblige—of understanding the spirit of the East. Where indicated, for the sake of literalness and accuracy, I have modified the translations from the CW.

Patterson-Black and V. Ren- ning New York, For the depth psychologies sought to liberate themselves from the stulti- fying limitations of Western thought to develop maps of inner experi- ence grounded in the transformative potential of therapeutic practices. Further, the initiatory structure adopted by institutions of psychotherapy brought its social organization into proximity with that of yoga.

Hence an opportunity for a new form of comparative psychology opened up. As early as , in Transformation and Symbols of the Libido, Jung pro- vided psychological interpretations of passages in the Upanishads and the Rig Veda. Keyserling dealt with yoga in his The Travel Diary of a Philosopher, which was a much-acclaimed work.

The further we get, the more closely do we approach the views of the Indians. Psychological research confirms, step by step, the assertions contained. Jung had a set of this journal from to and from to in his library. Reece New York, , — Such characterizations follow a long line of orientalist speculations in which Indian thought was characterized as dreamlike Hegel or as being dominated by imagination Schlegel.

Expressions of recipro- cal admiration between Jung and his colleagues were frequent. It appears to me, however, as one must emphasize, that it is merely an analogy which is involved, since nowadays far too many Europeans are in- clined to carry Eastern ideas and methods over unexamined into our occidental mentality.

This happens, in my opinion, neither to our advantage nor to the advantage of those ideas. For what has emerged from the Eastern spirit is based upon the peculiar history of that mentality, which is most fundamentally different from ours.

Yoga partakes of two notions generally held in common in Indian phi- losophy and religion—reincarnation, and the quest for emancipation from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The word yoga serves, in gen- eral, to designate any ascetic technique and any method of meditation.

To characterize the latter, it is useful to consider several general features of the tantric movement. Tantrism was a religious and philosophical movement that became popular from the fourth century onward and influenced Indian philoso- phy, mysticism, ethics, art, and literature.

It rejected the prevalent caste system and represented a transvaluation of values. In tantrism there was a celebration of the body, which was seen as the microcosm of the universe. We also recognize a sort of reli- ETH. Dasgupta lectured to the Psychological Club in May. Jung specified his psychological understanding of tantric yoga as follows: Indian philosophy is namely the interpretation given to the precise condition of the non-ego, which affects our personal psychology, however independent from us it remains.

It sees the aim of human development as bringing about an approach to and connection be- tween the specific nature of the non-ego and the conscious ego. Tantra yoga then gives a representation of the condition and the developmental phases of this impersonality, as it itself in its own way produces the light of a higher suprapersonal consciousness. Jung, 5— Narendra Nath Bhattacharyya stated that the cakras are best understood through seeing their different components as constituted by a process of historical layering: From a historical point of view it may be suggested that the padmas or cakras were originally conceived of in terms of human anatomy for the purpose of physiological study.

At a subsequent stage, in conformity with the tantric idea that the human body is the micro- cosm of the universe, worldly objects such as the sun, moon, moun- tains, rivers, etc.

Each cakra was again thought to represent the gross and the subtle elements. These cakras came to be conceived of as the seat of the male and female principles, symbolized by the male and female organs.

The presiding deities of the cakras were origi- nally tantric goddesses. The theory of letters, of the alphabet symbolising different tattvas was also grafted, and in this way we by Olga von Koenig-Fachsenfeld Stuttgart, , 66—67; my translation. On the relation of this lecture to the lecture of the same title in the appendix to this volume, see xxxiv.

It is the Universal Power as it is connected with the finite body-mind. This leads to a far-reaching transformation of the personality.

But since it was my purpose to learn what was going on within myself, I would do them only until I had calmed myself and could take up again the work with the unconscious.

It is not known what specific practices Jung utilized. Jung said that under periods of great stress the one thing which was useful was to lie down flat on a couch or a bed and just lie quietly there and breathe quietly with the sense that.

He argued that knowledge of such symbolism enabled much that would otherwise be seen as the meaningless by-products of a disease process to be understood as mean- ingful symbolic processes, and explicated the often peculiar physical localizations of symptoms. Woodroffe was born in He studied at Oxford and became a barrister. He was an advocate at the Calcutta high court and a fellow and Tagore law professor at the University of Calcutta.

From —22, he was on the standing council for the Government of India and Puisne judge of the high court of Calcutta. He was knighted in , and returned to become a reader in Indian law at Oxford from to He died in From Who Was Who, — [London, ], No evidence has emerged that he had any direct contact with Jung. Chapple and J.

Lawson Princeton, , London, , x. Jung had a copy of this book in his library. Meier, The Psychology of Jung, vol. Roscoe Boston, , chap. In he was invited by the British Government to take part in the twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations at the University of Calcutta the fol- lowing year.

Jung took the opportunity to travel in India for three months, during which time he received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Allahabad, Benares, and Calcutta. Lower Lake, Calif. Jung vom Juni bis 1. Juli [Berlin, ]. Jung was awarded D. Concurrently in Calcutta Jung began to have a series of dreams in which the colour red was stressed. Jung and I had to take him to the English hospital at Calcutta.

A more lasting effect of this impression of the destructiveness of Kali was the emotional foundation it gave him for the conviction that evil was not a nega- tive thing but a positive thing.

The influence of that experi- ence in India, to my mind, was very great on Jung in his later years. I can, however, say something about what it means for the West. Our lack of direction borders on psychic anarchy. Therefore any religious or philosophical practice amounts to a psychological discipline, and therefore a method of psychic hygiene.

Charles Gustave Jung in absentia by this University at a special Convocation held on 7th January, Jung could not be present at the convocation owing to indisposition. Jung frequently related anecdotes of his experiences there in his seminars and letters. He subsequently maintained correspondences with many of the individuals he met there. Such introversions lead to characteristic inner pro- cesses of personality changes.

In the course of several thousand years these introversions became gradually organized as methods, and along widely differing ways. This perspective legitimized the liberties that he took with the former in the seminar that follows. Jung saw the inner processes to which yoga gave rise as universal, and the particular methods employed to achieve them as culturally specific. These forms of yoga with their rich symbolism afford me invaluable com- parative material for the interpretation of the collective unconscious.

The more we study yoga, the more we realize how far it is from us; a European can only imitate it and what he acquires by this is of no real interest. It has a bad effect upon him, sooner or later he gets afraid and sometimes it even leads him over the edge of madness. How- ever, such cautions are frequently found in the works of writers on yoga contemporary to Jung both in the East and in the West. Thus Dasgupta wrote: If anyone wishes methodically to pursue a course which may lead him ultimately to the goal aimed at by yoga, he must devote his entire life to it under the strict practical guidance of an advanced teacher.

The present work can in no sense be considered as a prac- tical guide for such purposes. The philosophical, psychological, cosmological, ethical, and religious doctrines. Another point of view seems to us far more fertile—to study, as attentively as possible, the results obtained by such means of exploring the psyche.

It has not been proved, even of the most harmless exercises,. Moreover, physiologically we are all Christians, whether our consciousness recognizes this or not. Thus every doctrine which continues in the Christian spirit has a better chance of taking hold of our innermost being than the profoundest doctrine of foreign origin. He had a Protestant theological education and was sent in by the Basel Mission to India. Like Richard Wilhelm, Hauer was more im- pressed by the spirituality he met than by that which he brought with him.

New York, I went to India as a missionary in the ordinary sense, but I came back from India a missionary in a different sense. I learned that we have only the right to state, to testify to what is in us, and not expect others to be converted to our point of view, much less to try to convert them. This included a spell at the University of Oxford.

In he became a professor of Indian studies and com- parative religion and published widely on these topics. Hauer commenced by stating: I know possibly enough about it to recognize that yoga, seen as a whole, is a striking parallel to Western psychotherapy although fundamental differences lie there but—this I noticed soon—I lack the detailed knowledge and, above all, the crucial experiment to compare the individual parts of yoga with the different orientations of Western psychotherapy with its special methods.

Hauer presented himself as an Indologist seeking psychotherapists with whom he could have a dialogue concerning the similarities and differences between yoga and psychotherapy. It was Jung who took up the invitation.

Opinions concerning Hauer vary considerably among scholars. Zim- mer recalled: My personal contact with Jung started in At that time, another Indic scholar, most unreliable as a scholar and as a character as well, but endowed with a demoniac, erratic vitality made up of primitive resistances and ambitions, drew the attention of doctor-psychiatrist- psychologists to the subject of yoga. Hauer had a seminary [sic] on Kundaliniyoga at Zuerich, and I introduced myself at this forum with a lecture on the types of yoga in Indian tradition, in the spring of The central theme of all his works is man as a religious being, and Hauer himself was a sincere god-seeker and mystic.

This was a thrillingly interesting parallel to the process of individuation, but, as always happens when a perfected Indian philosophy is placed before a European audi- ence, we all got terribly out of ourselves and confused.

We were used to the unconscious taking us into this process very gradually, every dream revealing a little more of the process, but the East has been working at such meditation techniques for many centuries and has therefore collected far more symbols than we were able to di- gest. Moreover, the East is too far above everyday reality for us, aim- ing at Nirvana instead of at our present, three-dimensional life. Feuerstein and J. Miller London, , 6.

This ac- count has been uncritically followed by subsequent commentators. As the second largely reduplicates this, it has not been included in this volume. Borelli, J. Jordens, and J. Hauer in regard to a seminar which he would hold for us in Zurich also for a week. He suggests the second half of March and as the theme, yoga practices, I think. Would you be there too? Again and again I have the strong impression that for psychotherapy on the whole the way lies in the direction at which you are pointing.

The Prapanchasvratantram was vol. Schmitz died later that year and hence was unable to attend. See CW, vol. Jung, the researcher of a new way for mankind. Neither contains mar- ginal annotations. I hope that the book will be printed at the latest by the time I give my seminar in Zu- rich. With regard to my seminar I would like to express once more the wish that it could, if possible, take place between April 15 and April 30, since I can hand over from the office of dean of the faculty of Philosophy until then.

But if this is not the case, we will have to arrange it for the autumn. It would be very nice if it could be arranged. Interest in it is very lively here. I would be very grateful, if you could soon inform me as to which date would be convenient for you. For us the beginning of October would be most suit- able. Beginning in October would be good for me. The Psycho- logical Club is prepared in this case to take charge of the organisa- tion and above all to put the hall at your disposition free of charge.

Our lecture hall accommodates 60 seats. In the meeting it was gen- erally felt that it would be desirable that the fees would not exceed Fr. It was equally emphasized that a course exceed- ing a duration of one week 6 lectures would not be desirable. According to instructions, I would like to ask you to give us your opinion with regards to this proposition, so that the Club has a definitive basis for the organisation of the seminar.

With regard to any English lectures, to be held in parallel with the German ones, I could not yet tell you anything definite. The Ameri- can economic crisis, you must know, has made itself felt here in that the number of visitors has been very considerably reduced. For all that, it would not be impossible for me to gather an English audi- ence for you.

However, I would advise you, not in the least to save time and effort, to provide the English only with an hour of lectur- ing at a time. In the German seminar I will assist you with the psy- chological side.

During the summer Jung wrote to Hauer: The rumour about your seminar is already creating a stir. Zimmer, in Heidelberg, has asked me if he could come. Since I know him personally, I have agreed. However, Spiegelberg of Hellerau, has also asked me and has used your name as a reference. Other infor- mation that I have about Dr. Spiegelberg does not sound enthusias- tic, hence I would like to ask you if you are keen on this Spiegelberg, who seems to be an intellectual Jew.

I have to admit that I am a bit in two minds and that I am fearing for the quality of the atmo- sphere. However, I want to leave the decision entirely to you since you seem to know Spiegelberg.

In Jung had presented a German seminar on 6—11 October and similarly in he presented a German seminar on 5—10 October. Consequently, Reichstein who won the Nobel prize for chemistry went directly to Jung, who gave him permission to attend.

Hauer had painted enlarged copies of the illustrations of the cakras from The Serpent Power, which were used for the lectures.

The latter were shortened versions of the former. Hauer, 11 January , ETH. But not often. The danger to people who deal with the cakras from without is that they remain in the region of these psychic processes.

I find that I do not reach the inner meaning if I do not look at them in my own way, from my own point of view. See 15— I think this seminar is still the last word that has ever been said about the deeper psychological meanings of yoga practice. Overall it was for me inspiring as anticipated. In his seminars Jung attempted to lead the participants to an understanding of Kunda- lini yoga on the basis of their own inner experience, namely, the process of individuation.

Not surprisingly, the three were often at variance, both in their terminology and in their understanding of the processes in- volved. Hence a good deal of the questions from the floor queried these differences. Like the latter, the German Faith Movement is an eruption from the biological and spiritual depths of the German nation. The project never ma- terialized. Hauer, K. Heim, and K. Scott-Craig and R. Davies London, , 29— In his diary for 11 March, Hauer noted that the subject of his lecture that day was the spiritual and religious background of the political situation in Germany cited in Dierks, Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, —, This presumably was the lecture that Meier is referring to.

Did the West itself not also have in its mysticism a way to the inner, that was of better use to it than yoga? Why were the developing depth psychology and psycho- therapy not enough for it? Did we actually need a new impulse from the East? These problems stem from the lectures and study seminars in C. There has been a great deal of literature comparing yoga and psychotherapy. The tantric meaning is usually erotic, but it is difficult to decide whether the reference is to a concrete act or to a sexual symbolism.

On the problems posed by intentional language, see Bharati, The Tantric Tradition, — One may add that their attainment is not exactly common in India.

But it is not at all the ac- tual East we are dealing with but the fact of the collective unconscious, which is omnipresent. This is borne out by an interchange shortly after the Kundalini sem- inars in the resumption of the seminar on visions: Mrs. Sawyer: But in the cakras we always had the Kundalini separate. Jung: Quite, and in this case they are apparently not separate, but that makes no difference. We must never forget that the Kundal- ini system is a specific Indian production, and we have to deal here with Western material; so we are probably wise to assume this is for us the real stuff, and not Indian material which has been differenti- ated and made abstract since thousands of years.

For an appreciation, see F. Vetter, 25 January , Jung: Letters, vol. By contrast, the clinical picture is that the Kundalini energy travels up the legs and the back to the top of the head, then down the face, through the throat, to a terminal point in the abdominal area. At base, the symbolism of the cakras enabled Jung to develop an archetypal regional topography of the psyche and to provide a narration of the process of individuation in terms of the imaginal transit between these regions.

In his major works on Western religious traditions subsequent to his en- counter with Kundalini yoga Jung presented his psychological interpre- tations of alchemy and Christianity. Jung, in his commentary on the book [The Secret of the Golden Flower], entirely preoccupied with his own theories about the un- conscious, despite the unambiguous nature of the statements in the work, finds in it only material for the corroboration of his own ideas, and nothing beyond that.

The same thing happened in a seminar held by him on Kundalini, of which a written summary is available in the Jung Institute. None of the scholars present, as evident from the views expressed by them, displayed the least knowledge about the real significance of the ancient document they were discussing at the time.

It is rather a historically conditioned and geographically confined di- mension, which represents only a part of mankind. Paranjpe, D. Ho, and R. Rieber New York, , 79— Jung: Ladies and gentlemen, we have just had a seminar about tan- tric yoga,1 and as there are always misunderstandings in the wake of such an event, I am devoting some time to the discussion and elucidation of any questions that you may have. Even those who were not there will be interested, I suppose, because I have spoken of the cakras before.

So it is not irrelevant that we discuss this subject now; it fits in well with what we have done here. As a matter of fact, our former seminar has led us up to the psychology of tantric yoga, what I have hitherto called mandala psychology. I shall take first this question by Mrs. One ring was smaller and was encircled by the larger ring. Within the small ring lay a male child as though in the womb.

When it has built up the individuality, how would hatred be torn out by the roots? It is what one would describe in Western philosophical terms as an urge or instinct of individuation. The instinct of individuation is found everywhere in life, for there is no life on earth that is not individual. Each form of life is manifested in a differentiated being naturally, otherwise life could not exist. An innate urge of life is to produce an individual as complete as possible.

For in- stance, a bird with all its feathers and colors and the size that belongs to that particular species. So the entelechia, the urge of realization, naturally pushes man to be himself.

They urge the organ- ism to burst into activity, to feel, to think, to want. As the basic emotional and motivational factors they lie at the root of all misery. Thus the normal human situation can be char- acterized as the product of a cognitive error. These are the compulsive mechanisms which lie at the base of the human being. Of course, it is not a totality; it is only a part, perhaps, and your true individuality is still behind the screen—yet what is manifested on the surface is surely a unit.

One is not necessarily con- scious of the totality, and perhaps other people see more clearly who you are than you do yourself. So individuality is always. It is everywhere. Ev- erything that has life is individual—a dog, a plant, everything living—but of course it is far from being conscious of its individuality. A dog has probably an exceedingly limited idea of himself as compared with the sum total of his individuality.

As most people, no matter how much they think of themselves, are egos, yet at the same time they are individuals, almost as if they were individuated. For they are in a way individuated from the very beginning of their lives, yet they are not conscious of it.

Individuation only takes place when you are conscious of it, but individu- ality is always there from the beginning of your existence. Jung: Hatred is the thing that divides, the force which discrimi- nates. It is so when two people fall in love; they are at first almost identi- cal. There is a great deal of participation mystique, so they need hatred in order to separate themselves. After a while the whole thing turns into a wild hatred; they get resistances against one another in order to force each other off—otherwise they remain in a common unconsciousness which they simply cannot stand.

One sees that also in analysis. In the case of an exaggerated transference, after a while there are corresponding resistances. This too is a certain hatred. The old Greek put phobos, fear, instead of hatred. They said that the firstborn thing was either Eros or phobos; some say Eros and others phobos, according to their temperaments.

There are optimists who say the real thing is love, and pessimists who say the real thing is phobos. Phobos sepa- rates more than hatred, because fear causes one to run away, to remove oneself from the place of danger. I gave it up naturally. So for us the Greek formulation phobos is perhaps better than hatred as the principle of separation. There has been, and is still, more participation mystique in India than in Greece, and the West has cer- tainly a more discriminating mind than the East.

Therefore, as our civili- zation largely depends upon the Greek genius, with us it would be fear and not hatred. Crowley: Yet in the cakras apparently the most important gesture is that of dispelling fear. Jung: Yes, but the gods are always carrying weapons also, and weap- ons are not an expression of any particular love.

Jung: Entzweiung means separation. Now the rest of the question? Bailward: I mean, would the yogi consider the state of hatred a necessary condition in building up individuality? Jung: Yes, he cannot help considering it so, for the whole yoga pro- cess, whether classical or Kundalini yoga, naturally has a tendency to make the individual one, even as the god is one, like brahman, an exist- ing nonexisting oneness.

I must confess that there the mist begins for me—I do not risk myself there. But if we go a step higher, we suddenly understand that this foolish kind of hatred, all these personal resistances, are merely external aspects of very important and profound things.

To quote a practical case: when a person complains that he is always on bad terms with his wife or the people whom he loves, and that there are terrible scenes or resistances between them, you will see when you analyze this person that he has an attack of hatred. He has been living in participation mystique with those he loves. He has spread himself over other people until he has become identical with them, which is a viola- tion of the principle of individuality.

Then they have resistances natu- rally, in order to keep themselves apart. You love somebody, you identify with them, and of course you prevail against the objects of your love and repress them by your very self-evident identity.

You handle them as if they were yourself, and naturally there will be resistances. It is a violation of the individuality of those people, and it is a sin against your own individuality. Those resistances are a most useful and important instinct: you have resistances, scenes, and disap- pointments so that you may become finally conscious of yourself, and then hatred is no more.

If a person thoroughly understands this, he will agree and not worry. In other words, he knows when he loves that soon he will hate. Therefore he will laugh when he is going uphill and weep when he is going down- hill, like Till Eulenspiegel.

For beyond those dynamic forces of the subtle kind. CW, vol. It is our idea to be one, to have absolutely clear situations in life. But it is all im- possible—it is all too one-sided, and we are not one-sided.

The term libido, or energy, is a good example of a tattva. It is not a substance but an ab- straction. Energy is not to be observed in nature; it does not exist. What exists in nature is natural force, like a waterfall, or a light, or a fire, or a chemical process. There we apply the term energy, but energy in itself does not exist, despite the fact that you can buy it at the electrical works.

But that is merely a metaphorical energy. Energy proper is an abstrac- tion of a physical force, a certain amount of intensity. You see the Eastern mind is concretistic—when it arrives at a conclusion or builds up an abstraction, the latter is already a substance; it is almost visible or audible—one can almost touch it.

Whereas with us this process is rather spurious, as when a concept like energy becomes fairly well known, so that any workman speaks of it. Then naturally people assume that this energy must be something one can put into a bottle—one can buy it and sell it, so it must be something tangible.

There that concretistic quality of the Eastern mind comes in with us. For in reality energy is not substantial: it is a conformity of things, say, or the intensity of various physical or material processes. The first collection of his jests and practical jokes was published in In one story Till Eulenspiegel, unlike his companions, rejoices when walking uphill in anticipation of the coming descent.

Jung: Letters, vol. If we think we are now talking freely, if we experience it as that in our consciousness. The concept of energy is a very suitable example, but there are of course other ideas of the sort, such as the principles of gravity, or the idea of an atom, or of electrons—these are the equivalents of tattvas. In psychology, as I say, it would be libido, which is also a concept.

We are unable to concretize these things. That is an entirely philosophical teaching, which for us has only a certain validity inasmuch as we believe in the migration of souls, reincarnation, or any pre-existing conditions. For the mind in a child is by no means tabula rasa. The unconscious mind is full of a rich world of archetypal images. But the archetypal images are really the nearest thing we can see.

For it cannot be perceived by intellect only; it is a peculiar kind of being connected with things. Jung: You are quite right, but the psychological aspect of things implies also a philosophy about them. But in Plato we can still see concretizations: he says that all things are derivatives, or incomplete imitations of the eidola that are conserved in a sort of heavenly storehouse, in which are the models of every existing thing.

So all the forms of our empirical world would derive from these eidola. But for us, the Platonic ideas, which Plato understood to be really existing, are psychological concepts, or even mere illusions or assump- tions. If the primitive mind thinks a thing, it is. A dream, for instance, is to them as real as this chair. They must be very careful not to think certain things, as the thought easily might be- come reality.

We are still like that—we say a mouthful, and at the same time we touch wood. Jung: Yes, as would also his use of the term noumenon. The nou- menon is the idea, the spiritual essence of a thing.

You see, Kant was already a very critical man, and in his Critique of Pure Reason12 he says that the thing in itself, das Ding an sich, is a purely negative borderline con- cept, which does not guarantee that such a thing exists at all. He simply makes such a concept to express the fact that behind the world of phe- nomena, there is something about which we can say nothing. Yet in his psychological lectures he spoke of a plurality of noumena—that there are many things in themselves—which is a contradiction of his Critique of Pure Reason.

Crowley: Is that not really an archetype? Jung: Yes, the eidos in Plato is of course the archetype. The term archetype comes from St. Augustine, who used it in that Platonic sense. He was in that respect a neoplatonist, like so many other philosophers in those days. But with them it was not a psychological concept; the ideas were concretized—that means hypostatized, which is a very good word.

You see, hypostasis is not a hypothesis. A hypothesis is an assumption I make, an idea I have formed, in order to attempt an explanation of facts. But I know all the time that I have only assumed it, and that my idea still needs proof. There is no English term, as far as I am aware, with exactly that sense. It might be an assumption, or it could also have an unfavorable nuance of insinuation. Now, hypostasis means that there is something below which is substan- tial, upon which something else rests.

Dell: From what root does hypostasis come?