Carl Jung on Psychology’s view of Metaphysics and of a Universal Mind.
Psychology accordingly treats all metaphysical claims and assertions as mental phenomena, and regards them as statements about the mind and its structure that derive ultimately from certain unconscious dispositions.
It does not consider them to be absolutely valid or even capable of establishing a metaphysical truth. We have no intellectual means of ascertaining whether this attitude is right or wrong.
We only know that there is no evidence for, and no possibility of proving, the validity of a metaphysical postulate such as “Universal Mind.” If the mind asserts the existence of a Universal Mind, we hold that it is merely making an assertion.
We do not assume that by such an assertion the existence of a Universal Mind has been established.
There is no argument against this reasoning, but no evidence, either, that our conclusion is ultimately right. In other words, it is just as possible that our mind is nothing but a perceptible manifestation of a Universal Mind. Yet we do not know, and we cannot even see, how it would be possible to recognize whether this is so or not.
Psychology therefore holds that the mind cannot establish or assert anything beyond itself. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Answer to Job, Page 476. Paragraph 760.
That religious experiences exist no longer needs proof.
The Undiscovered Self: With Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams
That religious experiences exist no longer needs proof.
But it will always remain doubtful whether what metaphysics and theology call God and the gods is the real ground of these experiences.
The question is idle, actually, and answers itself by reason of the subjectively overwhelming numinosity of the experience.
Anyone who has had it is seized by it and therefore not in a position to indulge in fruitless metaphysical or epistemological speculations.
Absolute certainty brings its own evidence and has no need of anthropomorphic proofs. ~Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self.
To understand metaphysically is impossible; it can only be done psychologically.
Psychology and Religion: West and East (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 11)
To understand metaphysically is impossible; it can only be done psychologically I therefore strip things of their metaphysical wrappings in order to make them objects of psychology.
In this way, I can at least get something comprehensible out of them, and can avail myself of it.
Moreover, I learn psychological conditions and processes which before were veiled in symbols and out of reach of my understanding.
In doing this I am also enabled to follow a path similar to the alleged metaphysical one, and can have similar experiences.
Finally, if there should still lurk something metaphysical that cannot be formulated, it would then have the best opportunity of showing itself.
To be specific in this matter, I can say that my admiration for the great Eastern philosophers is as great and as indubitable as my attitude toward their metaphysics is irreverent.
I suspect them of being symbolical psychologists, to whom no greater wrong could be done than to be taken literally.
If it were really metaphysics that they mean, it would be useless to try to understand them.
But if it is psychology, we can not only understand them, but we can profit greatly by them, for then the so-called “metaphysical” comes within the range of experience.
If I accept the fact that a god is absolute and beyond all human experience, he leaves me cold.
I do not affect him, nor does he affect me.
But if I know, on the other hand, that God is a mighty activity in my soul, at once I must concern myself with him; he can then become even unpleasantly important, and in practical ways too, which sounds horribly banal, like everything appearing in the sphere of reality. ~Carl Jung, The Secret of the Golden Flower.
To understand the Metaphysics is Impossible
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog
