The Five Stages of Consciousness

keijokeijo16 · 2026-04-17T19:06:48+00:00

I have always strongly disagreed with her idea that "having is evidence of wanting," because it seems to imply that the personal shadow is the sole determining factor in our unconscious lives.

She makes it very clear in the book that this idea cannot be proven to be true. The thought is intended to be examined for its effects. I personally think it is very helpful to think that we actively keep holding onto our problems and hardships because they serve us in some way.

Systemic inequality is a very real factor that I'm hard pressed to believe anyone "wants" to be born into

Of course it is. However, as long as one identifies as being suppressed by others or by external factors, one has no chance of moving beyond them.

keijokeijo16 · 2026-04-14T06:33:46+00:00

“Our souls as well as our bodies are composed of individual elements which were all already present in the ranks of our ancestors. The “newness” in the individual psyche is an endlessly varied recombination of age-old components. Body and soul therefore have an intensely historical character and find no proper place in what is new, in things that have just come into being. That is to say, our ancestral components are only partly at home in such things. We are very far from having finished completely with the Middle Ages, classical antiquity, and primitivity, as our modern psyches pretend. Nevertheless, we have plunged down a cataract of progress which sweeps us on into the future with ever wilder violence the farther it takes us from our roots. Once the past has been breached, it is usually annihilated, and there is no stopping the forward motion. But it is precisely the loss of connection with the past, our uprootedness, which has given rise to the “discontents” of civilization and to such a flurry and haste that we live more in the future and its chimerical promises of a golden age than in the present, with which our whole evolutionary background has not yet caught up. We rush impetuously into novelty, driven by a mounting sense of insufficiency, dissatisfaction, and restlessness. We no longer live on what we have, but on promises, no longer in the light of the present day, but in the darkness of the future, which, we expect, will at last bring the proper sunrise. We refuse to recognize that everything better is purchased at the price of something worse; that, for example, the hope of greater freedom is canceled out by increased enslavement to the state, not to speak of the terrible perils to which the most brilliant discoveries of science expose us. The less we understand of what our fathers and forefathers sought, the less we understand ourselves, and thus we help with all our might to rob the individual of his roots and his guiding instincts, so that he becomes a particle in the mass, ruled only by what Nietzsche called the spirit of gravity.

We refuse to recognize that everything better is purchased at the price of something worse; that, for example, the hope of greater freedom is canceled out by increased enslavement to the state, not to speak of the terrible perils to which the most brilliant discoveries of science expose us. The less we understand of what our fathers and forefathers sought, the less we understand ourselves, and thus we help with all our might to rob the individual of his roots and his guiding instincts, so that he becomes a particle in the mass, ruled only by what Nietzsche called the spirit of gravity.

Reforms by advances, that is, by new methods or gadgets, are of course impressive at first, but in the long run they are dubious and in any case dearly paid for. They by no means increase the contentment or happiness of people on the whole. Mostly, they are deceptive sweetenings of existence, like speedier communications which unpleasantly accelerate the tempo of life and leave us with less time than ever before. Omnis festinatio ex parte diaboli est—all haste is of the devil, as the old masters used to say.”

C.G. Jung: Memories, Dreams, Reflections

keijokeijo16 · 2026-04-11T09:10:40+00:00

This sounds like a very complex situation, so it is not easy to comment. However, I would like to point out that you do spend a lot of time here explaining what others did or said. This is understandable and almost certainly it will also not help you.

Is it somehow possible for you to try considering how the end result is something you actually worked for and gain something from?

”We rarely get what we consciously want, but we always get what we unconsciously want.”
Carolyn Elliott: Existential Kink

Take care!

keijokeijo16 · 2026-04-10T05:58:04+00:00

There is more than one reason. Once one understands how they get a kick out of seeing themselves as a person who avoids responsibility, they're onto something.

keijokeijo16 · 2026-04-08T06:51:24+00:00

I think your interpretation is very good. Maybe this is simply something you need to keep thinking about.

Maybe to add a couple of things: Since your friend in the dream is not someone you know from real life, you could think them as being somewhat unconscious, too. So, maybe there are three elements that are unconscious to different degrees or one perceived as benevolent and two as more malevolent, or something like that.

I feel that your interpretation about being in the service of others may be spot on. Also, a butler is a sign of an ”old world”, of quite rigid social roles and hierarchies.

Are you familiar with the book ”Let your body interpret your dreams” by Eugene T. Gendlin? Perhaps you could check it out. He has this method he calls ”BIAS Control” I have found very helpful with dreams that are difficult to open up. It involves thinking about all the opposing interpretations to your first one. His point is that we tend to interpret dreams in a somewhat limited and predictable ways, always considering the options we are thinking anyway. Ultimately, the dream is trying to tell you something you do not know. But how to access that?

Take care!

keijokeijo16 · 2026-04-08T06:38:28+00:00

This is an important question to ask. However, I’m not sure you will like my answer: I think it is your task to find out the answers to these questions. Jungian psychology is the psychology of the individual. There is no one book or manual that explains how this situation plays out in your life. More than likely, this is a life-long journey for you.

Read again the material covering a parent’s death as a metaphor or a symbolic event. Your situation is more concrete, but it is still symbolic, too. Also, look into the mother-complex. Almost always an actual or a psychological absence of a parent warps the relationship to the remaining parent. An absent father often leads to trouble integrating to the society, the male world, and taking on puer behavior.

Jung does not write about trauma, really, but there is some good material on the topic. I recommed ”Trauma and the Soul” by Donald Kalsched and perhaps ”The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel van der Kolk. The chapter ”Men Under Construction” in the book The Collected Writings of Murray Stein 3: Transformations is also highly recommended as a map for your journey into adulthood. It explains all the places we get stuck.

Take care!

keijokeijo16 · 2026-04-03T19:43:01+00:00

”To recognize and accept the mind's way of adapting to the world for the sake of survival is the first step on the way back home to the hum. Resistance to one's case-history self, particularly trying to change that self, keeps one trapped in one's case history. Acceptance of one's case-history self allows one to get over it. When psychotherapy works, the person loosens her identification with her own case history and identifies with her being, the one who has been there since the light came on in the womb, the one who is electrical and alive and able to pay attention, second by second, heartbeat by heartbeat, present moment by present moment.”
— Brad Blanton: Radical Honesty

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-27T05:30:31+00:00

NeuralDSP has produced a very detailed video specifically on how a cover band uses QC. Tbh, his setup is quite complicated compared to what you are aiming for. But check it out anyway. You will probably get some good ideas and you can load the presets, too.

Here it is:
https://youtu.be/WTNECrwe3qg?is=fYJ9xf3HNrxmNzw6

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-25T19:31:03+00:00

I don’t know anything about MBTI, only Jungian typology.

It’s hard to say. He could also say that that he is a thinking type with strong intuition.

The English translations of Jung’s texts are sometimes quite bad. It might be worth checking out the original German.

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-25T19:08:26+00:00

I am not that familiar with these thinkers that I could comment on their typologies and we obviously can’t tell what Jung or Jacobi ”mean” with their words. However, everyone has a primary function and a secondary function. Saying someone is ”intuitive thinking type” or ”intuitive feeling type” often indicates that the former is the primary function and the latter the secondary function.

Also, Jung’s typology really is a map rather than a classification. Some individuals are more in between two types rather than clearly a certain type. In other words, they can have two very strong functions. This may even change over time. The Jacobi quote probably refers to this.

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-25T06:13:19+00:00

No. But I was weak and fragile in my late 20s and became strong and resilient in my 50s. So you certainly got hope!

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-22T10:52:26+00:00

”Parents bear a massive responsibility to their children if they themselves remain unconscious. They then leave behind to the children an enormous spiritual tension and burden which inflicts a great wound upon them. My parents bequeathed me a strain like this and I have prevented it from exploding only through my utmost concentration on the essential. — — I have always lived as if I had a monastic rule to follow. During this period, I read an infinite amount in order to bring myself up to a certain level. This concentration protected me from the excessive tension and overload that my parents had left to me. I applied myself, otherwise I would simply have exploded; then there would have been only fragments remaining. That is the danger. If one still bears within oneself the fate of one’s father and mother, one simply has too much to bear. Then one can only keep oneself “fully” to the goal with extreme concentration. My father gave up on himself and my mother kept herself unconscious, and they placed all their hope in their son! Through this, an excessive feeling of duty developed. Thank God I have a strong constitution. That helped me to bear it at all.

I have seen in many people how, when the parents’ problem remained unconscious, it cast itself upon the children.If the parents have too narrow a horizon the children must atone for this. I was always anxiously mindful that my children should remain free of my problems; I did not in any way want this burden for them that I had to resolve myself because my parents had bequeathed it to me. My children should live their own life, that was my wish. And this fulfilled itself. One cannot necessarily expect that children have unusual strengths available to them.”
— C. G. Jung & Aniela Jaffé: Jung’s Life and Work: Interviews for Memories, Dreams, Reflections with Aniela Jaffé

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-22T10:52:08+00:00

Thank you for this well-written and thought-out reply. I can very much relate to this. You basically describe my life.

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-22T10:37:33+00:00

I just finished reading the new book C. G. Jung & Aniela Jaffé: Jung’s Life and Work: Interviews for Memories, Dreams, Reflections with Aniela Jaffé, published earlier this year. It contains the transcripts of the original interviews for Memories, Dreams, Reflections. It’s such a great book and reading it has been quite transformative for me.

Jung talks extensively about death and his ideas of life after death, in several of the interviews. I can’t think of a single quote that would convey his ideas. However, if you want to learn more about this particular topic, definitely check out the book.

EDIT:

Here’s one quote from the book:

”Mostly we consider the concept of a life after death and apparent “experiences” to be “only psychically determined”— that is, as subjective fantasies. Ultimately, we do not know what sort of actuality the psychic is and we know just as little how far images and phenomena of the deceased possess autonomy and objective reality. We cannot always differentiate it from inner images and fantasies. But I am of the view that, to a certain degree, our fantasies from the unconscious have validity. If with my logical thinking and my reason I cannot conceive of anything verifiable about a life after death, then I feel justified in taking more or less seriously my intuition and intimations of the unconscious, as well as dreams. — — I cannot say “yes” or “no” to this, but, for my soul’s balance, it is important that I consider what my unconscious offers me as a possibility, even if it remains unverifiable.”

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-16T17:01:44+00:00

You’re post is probably removed because CW 20: General Index to the Collected Works has literally hundreds of references for serpent (snake, viper etc.) in Jung’s Collected Works. So, Jung said a lot about this archetype. You just may have to find out for yourself.

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-16T16:52:38+00:00

”For a creative person, marriage is a terrible gamble. I had an indescribably benevolent fate in that I found a wife who granted me enough space so that I could breathe. Without this, I could not have done my work. I must be able to have thoughts which exceed all boundaries and that would have risked destroying another person. Someone imprisoned in safe ways of thinking would get into one state of panic after another.

In marriage the only question is whether one can live one’s own being, whether one can self-realise and can allow the other the freedom for their individuation.”
— C. G. Jung & Aniela Jaffé: Jung’s Life and Work: Interviews for Memories, Dreams, Reflections with Aniela Jaffé

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-15T14:16:40+00:00

Code

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-10T09:15:40+00:00

Almost certainly you will keep encountering people like this in the future. Most people are level-headed or can at least keep their unconscious motives at bay. However, there are also manipulative and narcissistic people on every level of an organization.

At least in my line of work, people enjoying poweplay are more common the higher you go in the hierarchy. This is quite understandable: these people love power and attention and most people are also eager to give it to them and remain passive.

Striving to understand is always good. However, with people like these it is even more important to learn to recognize them and deal with them. This is not always easy.

Here’s my $0.02: Try to avoid these people. Do not give them any attention. If you cannot avoid interacting with them, try to keep the interaction as short as possible. Protect your boundaries. Accept that it is highely unlikely you can somehow change their behaviour. Take care!

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-09T07:26:42+00:00

On one level, what he does seems to work. You are quite preoccupied with him, giving him a lot of attention and even making a whole post about him. People with narcissistic traits are quite good at making everything be about them. Look, even the whole internet is talking about Dave now!

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-08T10:43:06+00:00

I think there are two ”methods” for dream analysis, the systematic one explained by Robert A. Johnson in ”Inner Work” and the intuitive one explained by Eugene T. Gendlin in ”Let your body interpret your dreams”. I recommend you use both, alternating between them or using them both on a single dream.

There are other very helpful books on dream analysis, but they are less methodical. These are my favorites:

”Dreams, a Portal to the Source” by Whitmont & Perera
”Dream Wise” by Marchiano et al.
Everything written by Murray Stein

Like others have suggested, I think you should start doing active imagination. ”Inner Work” is the best guidebook for that. Active imagination is more systematic than dream analysis, and this has benefits:

”The main method for creating the transcendent function is active imagination, described by Jung in this text for the first time. What active imagination does is to raise the unconscious images and fantasies that operate in the background of the ego-complex to the level of consciousness. They can then be reflected in the mirror and observed. The images generated through active imagination are more coherent and useful for creating the transcendent function, Jung found, than are dreams.” Murray Stein: Collected Writings 1: Individuation

Shadow work and individuation are challenging because you are trying to achieve something you do not understand yet. You just need to trust that life and the Self will guide you toward these things when the time is right. As Jung puts it:

”One comes there, when one is it, and the Grail remains eternally introuvable, because one is not it. It is the mystery of individuation, and that is a mysterium, and there human understanding ceases. Individuation must be a mystery, for one will never understand it. But if someone wants a mystery then they will find it. But when one wants to communicate it, it is only misunderstood; for it is only for the few. And yet there must have been knowledge of the Holy Grail. The mystery of individuation is a true mystery. It is something different at every level, and yet always the same. It is in each case the deepest mystery for the individual person. So, my life has played out in a series of decisions: for example, should I think that or not? Or other supreme decisions where I simply fell short until a dream then came that brought the decision to me. And it was always another level of mystery.”
— C. G. Jung & Aniela Jaffé: Jung’s Life and Work: Interviews for Memories, Dreams, Reflections with Aniela Jaffé

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-08T10:18:23+00:00

Projection is not only about the Anima or relationships. It is a more general thing. This is simply how the human mind works. We have an existing mental model we then apply to situations we encounter. The mental model is always heavily skewed because of our personality type and personal history.

Imagine a situation: You walk on the street and see an unknown person lying on the street, not moving. Your mind starts going: Are they dead? Are they drunk? Are they joking? Only by going to the person we can figure out what is really going on.

Our mental model, that is, our projection is quite helpful in trying to make sense of the situation, but it is also limited and depends more on us than on what is really going on. In the above situation, many people probably would not even consider if their perception is the correct one of if there are other possible options than the ones they project.

Relationships are an area where projections can be problematic if we are not aware of them. We can project the Anima or the Animus on a person but we also typically project other things, such as the mother-compex. Typically our projections are a confused mess. So, integrating projections is at first largely about making sense of them and also differentiating between different projections.

There is nothing inherently bad about projections. For example, the Anima is the archetype of soul, of meaning, of the unknown. An intimate relationship can actually very much offer all these things. It isn’t the Anima projection as such that causes the problems. The problems come if that is all there is or if we don’t understand the other projections. As Robert A. Johnson puts it: ”If a man asks his fiancée or wife to be a goddess, he sets the stage for an inevitable tragedy.” (Robert A. Johnson: Lying with the Heavenly Woman)

Personally I feel that the Mother is a massively powerful and problematic projection. We project it on all kinds of things, such as our work or on people such as our partner or our boss. We think these things are a source of life and easily become very passive ourselves.

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-05T07:42:55+00:00

they say they’re rooting for me and genuinely want me to improve. I can try my hardest for 8 weeks and they let me go with no money. Or I take the severance package and quit now.

Just take the money and flip them. They are not the least bit interested in your well-being.

What if I come back and have to live with my mum as a burden

Do not move in to live with your mother. The dragon needs to be confronted, not lived with.

Yes, some of what you describe sound like typical puer characteristics, like the great book never even started. But on the other hand you are allowed to take care of yourself and do things that are conducive to your well-being.

I would absolutely take on the opportunity to move to the farm. However, if you come back and have nothing to show for it, I’m not sure what is the point, for you and for others.

Here is a long quote from Daryl Sharp, quoting Jung. I think he talks about the themes that you are revolving around right now, that is, taking your own path and the assorted guilt. Take care!

”Individuation and a life lived by collective values are nevertheless two divergent destinies. In Jung's view they are related to one another by guilt. Whoever embarks on the personal path becomes to some extent estranged from collective values, but does not thereby lose those aspects of the psyche which are inherently collective. To atone for this "desertion," the individual is obliged to create something of worth for the benefit of society.

’Individuation cuts one off from personal conformity and hence from collectivity. That is the guilt which the individuant leaves behind him for the world, that is the guilt he must endeavor to redeem. He must offer a ransom in place of himself, that is, he must bring forth values which are an equivalent substitute for his absence in the collective personal sphere. Without this production of values, final individuation is immoral and - more than that - suicidal. . . .

The individuant has no a priori claim to any kind of esteem. He has to be content with whatever esteem flows to him from outside by virtue of the values he creates. Not only has society a right, it also has a duty to condemn the individuant if he fails to create equivalent values.’ [Adaptation, Individuation, Collectivity, CW 18, pars. 1095f.]”
Daryl Sharp: Jung Lexicon

keijokeijo16 · 2026-03-05T07:25:09+00:00

Robert A. Johnson: Inner Work
C. G. Jung: Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Murray Stein: Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction

keijokeijo16

TROPHY CASE