The Quest: Vision in an Age of Crisis. Jungian Psychotherapy

We finish our exploration of Hitler and the 3rd Reich as we open another miniseries: Hubris and Nemesis. The rise and fall Hitler and the Nazis is an outstanding example. We follow in this episode with an examination of David Owen's book on this  theme. We finally consider if hubris, as a form of narcissism, is an archetype, often triggered by early success and frequently found in human character....

What were the social, political, and psychological conditions for the rise of Nazism and the emergence of Adolph Hitler, a misfit, so as to have total control of one of most powerful industrial states in the world and to lead it to destruction? What is it in such a disturbed psyche – a borderline malignant narcissist - that is capable of leading a country, almost a civilization, to the apocalypse?...

The National Socialist movement functioned not only as a political party and military machine but also  as a "dark religion" that sought to possess the German psyche.  Its apocalyptic vision was rooted in the esoteric mysticism. When the promised victory failed, the regime’s narcissistic core pivoted to a final, nihilistic sacrifice. Hitler’s Nero Decree and the ritualistic suicides in the Führerb...

This episode covers the apocalyptic traditions of some of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, Siberia, and also the Celts, including their influence on medieval Christianity and even modern poetry. It finishes with more information on the two comets approaching earth vision this month, the best times for viewing, and some further reflections upon their significance. The view of the comets: Com...

We continue our world tour of the apocalyptic traditions briefly describing those of India, Indigenous Australia, Africa, and Indonesia. We finish the episode mentioning two incoming comets due to arrive within earth vision in April of this year, 2026. We contemplate the creative and destructive powers of these cosmic messengers. 

This episode and the following are a tour of some of the world’s apocalyptic traditions outside of the Judaic, Gnostic, Christian, and Millenarian which have been explored already. This episode includes those of Islam, Norse, Egypt, Aztec, Maya, Inca, China, and Japan. By this means we can appreciate one of the features of the archetype – its widespread occurrence across the world’s civilizations.

The last five chapters of Answer to Job clearly show that Jung believed that the shadow in our psyche and the technological means at our disposal leave us in a most precarious apocalyptic situation .... “For the dark God has slipped the atom bomb and chemical weapons into his [humanity’s] hands and given him the power to empty out the apocalyptic vials of wrath on his fellow creatures.” Jung was b...

The book Answer to Job was the one work Jung said he would never change. In it he “psychoanalyses” Yahweh, challenges the Christian God, insists that God, across our evolution, has been entering into humanity as a unconscious complex of opposites requiring integration through the human psyche. This is the purpose of human consciousness and this book was Jung’s bible. Like the Christian bible it en...

This episode explores the Gnostic worldview, flourishing in the first centuries of the Common Era, which offers one of religious history's most radical apocalyptic visions. It is founded on a profoundly dualistic  understanding of reality: the material cosmos is a prison, and humanity is a tragic hybrid—a divine spark of light trapped in corrupt flesh and matter. The influences of Gnostic thought...

The apocalypse isn't just an ancient myth, but an archetype, a pattern that still shapes our world.  The same emotional and psychological forces that drove medieval peasants to embark on doomed crusades or to whip themselves in public, are the very forces driving political movements today. The archetypal forces that drove these millenarian movements  are very much present in the politics of the We...

The Christian apocalyptic tradition is explored, focusing on the prophecies and warnings of the Gospels and the Book of Revelation. These texts contain a dramatic narrative of cataclysmic events: the end days, the Second Coming, the Rapture, the chosen few, the final judgment, Armageddon, the defeat of Satan, and the reign of Christ’s kingdom. This tradition has provided a reference point for West...

The deepest archetypes are symbolic narratives, like dreams, that reveal the nature of the psyche itself—its origins, for instance, or even its potential ending. The Book of Genesis serves as an example of the former, while this episode explores the latter—the theme of the apocalypse—through various writings in the Jewish tradition, including the Books of Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Isaiah, and En...

The archetype of the Self is Jung's answer to the crisis of civilization in our age. In a world grappling with the relativism and indeterminacy of post-modernism, where grand narratives have collapsed and meaning seems fluid, with a host of other modern philosophical ailments that breed anxiety and nihilism, the Self offers an inner, inherent source of meaning and direction. It suggests that beyon...

The earliest archetypal images with an implicit mythological narrative are presented: The Venus of Laussel – the earliest great mother archetype with an age of around 24,000 years; and the Fallen Shaman in the Paleolithic Cave of Lascaux at 16,000 years ago. The former is feminine-coded (nurture, nature, reproduction, love) and the latter is male-coded (gnosis or higher knowledge obtained through...

An account of a healing séance ceremony from a Siberian tribe opens the episode. Evidence of the shamans on the cave walls is given especially for the French caves of Lascaux, Trois Fréres, Gabillou, and Chauvet. The images in the “shaft” at the end of the Lascaux cave are highly enigmatic but a mythological interpretation is hinted at as it is one of the earliest archetypal representations of hum...

The Upper Paleolithic, that is the period  dated from around 50-11 thousand years ago, reflects a period of cultural, behavioral and technological change that distinguishes modern humans from earlier homo species. Four examples of the earliest archetypal images, beliefs, and practices are given and for which we have hard evidence taking us back many tens of thousands years deep into the last ice a...

This episode explores: The first archetypal images of humanity for which we have evidence. The areas of the world where this evidence is found: South Africa, Indonesia, India, Australia, the Americas, Siberia. We leave the famous cave paintings of France and Spain until next episode. The dates of the cave painting and rock art that have survived and recently been discovered. These stretch back int...

The ten archetypes underlying the book "Archetypes at Work" have an astrological basis in the ten heavenly bodies (including sun and moon) in our solar system - each with their archetypal nature and their influence upon human character and destiny ... "the planets are around us and in us". Dr Laurence Hillman explains how at birth a unique blueprint forms the basis of human character and this is l...

Join Alan Mulhern as he interviews Richard Olivier, founder of Olivier Mythodrama and co-author with Laurence Hillman of Archetypes at Work (2019). Exploring how archetypes—rooted in mythology and Shakespearean drama—can revolutionize leadership, organizational culture, and personal growth. Key highlights include: The Power of Shakespearean Drama: Uncover how mythological and archetypal elements i...

This is the final episode of this miniseries  on Transhumanism and Artificial Intelligence. Many authors, filmakers and the like point to the great dangers of  Artifical Intelligence - to no avail. Warnings of great danger are no deterrence for the advance of technology. Fascinated by wealth and infatuated with power, we complete the Faustian bargain that was struck at the beginning of Business Ci...

The archetypal roots of Transhumanism are explored. The Book of Genesis presents this in symbolic and mythical form: humans are caught in a dilemma between staying in the garden of unconsciousness or making a bid for freedom from nature and the unconscious though the awakening of self awareness and pursuit of knowledge. In doing this we become aware of death and are destined to attempt to overcome...

We examine  a very recent international report on AI safety. In the face of possibly the most powerful, disruptive, and existentially threatening technological revolution in our history. Regulation is notably absent. We stumble into the unknown.    

This episode considers the speed, extent, and dangers of the AI technological revolution. The dreams of radical transhumanism depend on this transformation. I  use 2 sources, both highly recommended reading: 1.  Megathreats  (2022)  by Nouriel Roubini  especially ch8. 2. The Coming Wave  (2023 ) by Mustafa Suleyman. The episode ends with a warning dream of mine about AI … An expedition of Western...

I review the history of the relationship of technology and human consciousness and explore the implications of the division of the brain into a right and left hemisphere.  AI is not only going to take over most  jobs in the economy, it will take over our consciousness and we are surrendering it willingly. At root, having been convinced of the idea we have no soul and that we are simply code, we ar...

Transhumanism believes in a transition of Homo sapiens into a trans-human and even post-biological state made possible by accelerating technological progress, for example Artificial General Intelligence.  The recent emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) not only push the boundaries of AI but may also play their part in the Transhumanist enterprise. In reply to the question what are the dangers...