Academy of Ideas

It is common to believe that when we die, we cease to exist. Yet some people who have come close to death, or who have been revived following a clinical death, have reported intensely lucid and profound experiences, known as near-death experiences. Near-death experiences, or what are called NDEs, raise the possibility that personal consciousness […] The post The Mystery Science Can’t Explain — Nea...

“In society you will not find health, but in nature. Unless our feet at least stood in the midst of nature, all our faces would be pale and livid.”   Henry David Thoreau, A Natural History of Massachusetts A growing body of research shows that spending time in nature elevates our mood, reduces stress, enhances […] The post The Cure for the Sickness of Modern Society – Henry David Thoreau first app...

“In every walk of life, we assume the expression and appearance of the person we want others to believe we are. Hence, we may say that this world is a world of masks.” François de La Rochefoucauld, The Moral Maxims and Reflections Most people claim that their motives are good and pure, yet their actions […] The post Dark Psychology – The Hidden Motives of Social Life first appeared on Academy of I...

“One third of all the sorrow I must endure is unavoidable. It is the sorrow inherent in the human condition, the price we must pay for being sentient and self-conscious organisms, aspirants to liberation, but subject to the laws of nature and under orders to keep on marching, through irreversible time, through a world wholly […] The post How to Escape a Meaningless Life first appeared on Academy o...

“Know how to appear the fool. The wisest sometimes play this card, and there are times when the greatest knowledge consists in appearing to lack knowledge. You mustn’t be ignorant, just feign ignorance.”  Baltasar Gracian, How to Use Your Enemies While many people openly flaunt possessions such as wealth, status, beauty, and power, when it comes to the greatest human good, […] The post Why You Sho...

Given that man is the physically stronger sex, it may seem preposterous to claim that many men fear women more than women fear men. Yet across cultures and throughout history, women have often been portrayed as the greatest threat to man. In Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, the American linguist and philosopher George Lakoff shows how in many languages there […] The post Why Men Fear Women first...

“We should not forget that every neurosis entails a corresponding amount of demoralization. If a man is neurotic, he has lost confidence in himself. A neurosis is a humiliating defeat and is felt as such by people who are not entirely unconscious of their own psychology.” Carl Jung, Collected Works Volume 17 In the modern […] The post Carl Jung as Therapist – Your Problems Don’t Lie in the Past fi...

When considering how to improve modern day society many people gravitate toward political solutions. Others suggest that we need a sort of revolution of consciousness in which people move to a more enlightened state of being. But there is another path that could lead to social progress that is more practical than either politics or […] The post Why The Western Worldview Limits Human Potential firs...

Some people allege that the politicians, bureaucrats and corporate elite that make up the ruling class are conspiring to enrich themselves, gain more power, and transform society into a totalitarian dystopia. From assassinations to false flags, cognitive warfare to the rigging of elections, engineered pandemics to manufactured economic and social crises, there is little they […] The post What If t...

“[Modern man] is blind to the fact that, with all his rationality and efficiency, he is possessed by powers beyond his control. The gods and demons have not disappeared at all, they have merely got new names.” Carl Jung, Collected Works Volume 18 For millennia, in cultures spanning the globe, men and women believed in […] The post Carl Jung – Are Demons Real? first appeared on Academy of Ideas .

“The self-handicapper reaches out for impediments, exaggerates handicaps, and embraces any factor reducing personal responsibility for mediocrity…”  Steven Berglas and Edward Jones, Drug Choice as a Self-Handicapping Strategy Rather than simply contending with external obstacles to success, many of us actively collaborate in our own defeat. We are our own worst enemies and our inability […] The po...

“Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.” Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind The internet has connected the world, but it has also unleashed a torrent of hostility. The primary source of this hostility is the online hater. Hidden behind a screen and protected by anonymity, these individuals mock and insult creators, podcasters, online personalities, […] The post The Psychology of...

“The difficulties of our psychotherapeutic work teach us to take truth, goodness, and beauty where we find them. They are not always found where we look for them: often they are hidden in the dirt or are in the keeping of the dragon.” Carl Jung, Collected Works Volume 16 We all possess what Carl Jung […] The post Why we Fear our Highest Potential – The Jonah Complex first appeared on Academy of Id...

The modern West is in decline. Economic stagnation, rising tax burdens, moral disorientation, political corruption, bloated bureaucracies, and soaring levels of poverty, drug addiction and homelessness, all point to a faltering civilization. While many agree that the West is faltering, explanations as to why vary; some blame the collapse of religion and the loss of […] The post Why Weak People Cre...

“Many are born; few live. Men without personality are innumerable and vegetate molded by their environment, like melted wax.” José Ingenieros, The Mediocre Man In the early-20th century, the Argentinian philosopher, physician, and essayist José Ingenieros wrote a book titled The Mediocre Man. In it he explores what distinguishes the mediocre masses from those who […] The post Escape Mediocrity – H...

“…the fairy tale is the great mother of the novel, and has even more universal validity than the most-avidly read novel of your time. And you know that what has been on everyone’s lips for millennia, though repeated endlessly, still comes nearest to the ultimate human truth.”  Carl Jung, Red Book Many people think of fairy tales […] The post The Psychology of Fairy Tales first appeared on Academy...

“And then comes the knowing that in me there is space for a second, large, and timeless life.” Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God According to Carl Jung the second half of life cannot be lived in the same manner as the first. “Whoever carries over into the afternoon the […] The post Carl Jung – How Life Changes After 40 first appeared on Academy of Ideas .

“This is an exceedingly dangerous time and we are confronted with a problem which has never been known in the conscious history of man… This is not a light but a darkness; the powers of darkness are coming up…”   Carl Jung, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra According to Carl Jung, the primary forces which shape history are not […] The post Is Modern Man Possessed by the Terrible Mother Archetype? first appe...

“We can see nothing today that wants to grow greater, we suspect that things will continue to go down, down, to become…more comfortable, more mediocre, more indifferent.” Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality In the late 19th century, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche observed that Western civilization was in a state of decline; it […] The post How to Make the West Great Again...

“This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.”      T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men Throughout Western history, the idea of civilizational collapse has been bound up with visions of apocalyptic catastrophe caused by invasions, plagues, war, or natural disasters. But today, the greater danger may be a dark age of […] The post Is This How the West Ends? first appeared on Academy of Idea...

“We have technology, convenience, security, and a measure of prosperity, but where is the beauty? Where is the beauty that we know we cannot really live without?”    John-Mark Miravalle, Beauty: What it is and Why it Matters In 2009 the late English philosopher Roger Scruton warned that “Beauty is vanishing from our world”, and that […] The post Why the Lack of Beauty is Destroying Society first a...

Marie-Louise von Franz was a Swiss psychologist who closely collaborated with Carl Jung from 1933 until his death in 1961. One of von Franz’s primary topics of interest was fairy tales. For like myths, fairy tales contains timeless wisdom that teaches us about the human condition. Jung believed that so much wisdom was contained in […] The post Carl Jung and The Most Important Rule of Life first ap...

“Will men be able to give up toying with the idea of another war? It is now a question of existence or nonexistence. . .For the danger that threatens us now is of such dimensions as to make this last European catastrophe [i.e., World War II] seem like a curtain-raiser.” Carl Jung, Epilogue to “Essays […] The post The Psychology of War – Are We Doomed to Destroy Ourselves? first appeared on Academy...

“And the word “courage” should be reserved to characterize the man or woman who leaves the infantile sanctuary of the mass mind.” Sam Keen, Fire in the Belly In the privacy of our minds many of us disagree with the ideologies, political agendas, and government mandates of our day, yet in public we comply. We […] The post Why are People so Obedient? – Compliance and Conformity first appeared on Aca...

“News is to the mind what sugar is to the body: appetising, easily digestible and extremely damaging.”    Rolf Dobelli, Stop Reading the News Most people think that consuming the news makes one an informed citizen who is equipped to form intelligent opinions on social and political issues. In this video, drawing from the Swiss author […] The post Why the News Promotes Ignorance and Mental Illness...