Is there a Collective Unconscious ?

[Troglodyte74]

Originally Posted by ocpaul20

Hmm, we dont seem to be hearing from the religious folk on this one. I wonder why? Could it be that they dont want to consider anything which is not explained by or cannot be explained with reference to their belief system?

I was going to put this in therecent ghosts / Heaven/ God thread but I decided it needed a thread of its own. However, the religious folk over there are not biting on this discussion here.

It doesn't look like you heard from any religious folk. I am indeed religious (Christian) folk, as you can see from my posts on the Religion & Spirituality forum. However, I am also a member or former member of the (British) Society for Psychical Research, American Society for Psychical Research, Mutual UFO Network, American Association for Electronic Voice Phenomena, International Association for Near Death Studies, and other similar organizations.

I don't see any disconnect between religious belief and the paranormal/anomalous. For one thing, I have simply had too many paranormal experiences to ignore. All in all, I feel that my paranormal experiences and studies have greatly enhanced the depth of my religious beliefs. You cannot get to God before you get past the materialistic paradigm, and serious study of the paranormal certainly helps do that.

I am after The Truth, of as close to it as I can get in this lifetime. If a solid body of evidence requires me to revise my religious beliefs, so be it.

When I read the OP, I was going to make the point that I now see has been made. The term "collective unconscious" can cover a lot of territory, from Jungian psychology to Edgar Cayce and the Akashic Records and beyond. One explanation for the best mediums (Mrs. Piper, Eileen Garrett) is that they were tapping into the collective unconscious through "Super PSI" rather than contacting the dead. Super PSI really isn't an explanation at all - just a last-ditch attempt by those whose paradigm can't handle contact with the dead to explain away the best evidence.

Really extensive studies have not led me to conclude that anything like the Akashic Records is a reality. I believe consciousness is more mysterious than that. I tend to believe either that what we experience as consciousness is God or is the fundamental "stuff" of which the universe is constructed. Before I even saw this thread, just this morning I posted the following on the Philosophy forum:

Way back in the 1930's, astrophysicist Sir James Jeans wrote: "I incline to the idealistic theory that consciousness is fundamental, and that the material universe is derivative from consciousness, not consciousness from the material universe ... In general the universe seems to me to be nearer to a great thought than to a great machine. It may well be, it seems to me, that each individual consciousness ought to be compared to a brain-cell in a universal mind."

Quantum physics and modern consciousness studies have made the subject more complex that anything Jeans probably had in mind, but I basically think he was on the right track and I don't see any inconsistency with my religious beliefs.

[LegitBusiness]

quoting Katiethegreat's post #27:

The unconscious belongs to the world of feminine darkness,intuition,and all the other yin principles,it does not belong to the masculine yang world of light and logic, we don't need to understand it through mathematics and reason but through signs,symbols,dreams and the language of the unconscious.

I would say that women are adept with the unconscious mind beyond a man's natural reach.

[ocpaul20]

Originally Posted by Troglodyte74

All in all, I feel that my paranormal experiences and studies have greatly enhanced the depth of my religious beliefs. You cannot get to God before you get past the materialistic paradigm, and serious study of the paranormal certainly helps do that.

Thank you for stepping forward. I too do not see any disconnect between a belief in God and the paranormal phenomena. However, I do see a difficulty in belonging to a particular orthodox religion which believes in a saviour figure, a Heaven/Hell, and a personalised God. God I can accept is another 'word' or label for the consciousness which is all around us and which makes up our reality.

The Truth is difficult to pin down and is only as good as our current understanding of how the Universe works. Anything based on our beliefs as humans is bound to be far away and light-years from the real Truth, whatever that is. Personally, I think there are levels of Truth, rather like an onion has skins.

The Akashic Records are perfectly possible if everything is energy and nothing gets destroyed because the past, present and future is all here now. If time is an illusion which we have designed into our reality, then it means that everything is accessible to a being who is able to see our reality from outside of it. That way they can experience or perceive anything which is or will ever be. I believe they dont have to be "God" to do this.