the “correct” interpretation. The alternative that this approach offers actually confirms some ideas about the therapeutic process first outlined by C. G. Jung. According to Jung, it is impossible to derive an effective psychotherapeutic technique from a purely intellectual understanding of the psyche. Jung realized in his later years that the psyche is not a product of the brain and is not contained in the skull. He started seeing it as the creative and generative principle of the cosmos (anima mundi) that permeates all of existence; the individual psyche of each of us is teased out of this unfathomable cosmic matrix. The boundaries between the anima mundi and the individual psyche are not absolute; they are permeable and can be transcended in holotropic states. The intellect is a partial function of the psyche that can help us orient ourselves in everyday situations; however, in and of itself, the intellect cannot fathom the deepest mysteries of existence and comprehend and manipulate the psyche. Victor Hugo says it beautifully in Les Misérables: “There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the heavens; that is the interior of the soul.” Jung realized that the psyche is a profound mystery and approached it with great respect. He saw it as infinitely creative and knew that it was not possible to describe it by a set of formulas that can then be used to correct the psychological processes of the clients. He suggested an alternative strategy for therapy, one that differed significantly from approaches based on intellectual constructs and external interventions. What a psychotherapist can do, according to Jung, is create a supportive environment in which psychospiritual transformation can occur. This container can be compared to the hermetic vessel that makes alchemical processes possible. The next step is to offer a method that mediates contact between the conscious ego and a higher aspect of the client, the Self. One of Jung’s tools for this purpose was “active imagination”, involving continuation of a dream on the analyst’s couch and its analysis in statu nascendi (von Franz 1997), rather than retrospective analysis of the dream from memory. This was different from Freud’s interpretation of dreams from memories, sometimes months or even years old. In Jung’s own words, ”[a]ctive imagination is a process of consciously dialoguing with our unconscious for the production of those contents of the unconscious which lie, as it were, immediately below the threshold of consciousness and, when intensified, are the most likely to erupt spontaneously into the conscious mind.” (Jung 1981) In this kind of work, healing is not the result of brilliant insights and interpretations of the therapist; rather, the therapeutic process is guided from within the client’s psyche. The communication between the ego and the Self occurs primarily by means of symbolic language. In Jung’s understanding, the Self is the central archetype in the collective unconscious and its function is to lead the individual toward order, organization, and wholeness. Jung referred to this movement toward highest unity as the “individuation process”. The use of holotropic states for therapy and self-exploration essentially confirms 24 (22) Stanislav Grof
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzgxMzI=