While in graduate school in the 1970's, one of the required courses was about understanding different personality theories. My instructor chose to skip the chapter on analytical psychology founded by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Thinking this was odd it set me on a path to know more about him. Fortunately, Houston started the C. G. Jung Educational Center in 1958, so here was a source near me to explore, which I did for many years. Some of the central psychological concepts of analytical psychology are the following:

Individuation - the lifelong process of differentiation of the self out of each person's conscious and unconscious elements, which Jung believed to be the main task of human development.

Synchronicity -- where two unrelated events take on deeper meaning. (I wrote about this recently and will rerun the article after this one).

Archetypal phenomena - examples: the lover, the hero, the sage.

The psychological complex - example: a mother complex resulting from under- or over-mothering as a child.

Understanding extraversion and introversion.

The collective unconscious. This last one I will write about here.

Analytical psychology turned out to be of great interest to me. I used Jung's teachings along with others to understand myself. Transpersonal psychology is one such teaching with cornerstones of wholeness, spirituality, and human potential. There is great overlap between analytical psychology and transpersonal psychology that support self-exploration and self-inquiry. I have learned self-awareness builds on itself over time and is never ending. The concept I want to discuss here is the collective unconscious which has impacted my spiritual journey.

For many years I read about or took courses mentioning the collective unconscious. However, not much percolated in my understanding of the concept. Today it fits into my spiritual understanding, that is we humans are one entity at the nonphysical level of consciousness. Yes, physically we are each an individual. It is not obvious that the human family is one being. Many people in fact have a lot of fear about trusting other humans, and rightly so with a history of some humans hurting, abusing, controlling, and killing others for their own advantage. In the movie, ET, it is not just ET who wanted to phone home to get out of here when violent, controlling, humans did not have his best interest at heart. The negative aspects of certain people throughout history have created much suspicion of others. This has slowed our spiritual maturity as a species and caused a lot of pain and suffering.

There are a lot of aware people today all over the world who support moving beyond extreme mistrust and fear of other people and are participating in something new on the planet. They may not be noticed, but they are here. You may be in this group of people who care for the good of all, who live from a place of expanded awareness, open mindedness, and open heartedness, and have an intuitive guidance system growing within. These mature people are a healthy collective group within the human family.

The vision includes such things as moving beyond poverty, living with freedom and personal sovereignty, and not living in fear to mention a few things. This group of individuals has learned to heal many of their emotional wounds and faulty thinking patterns to live in a balanced way. These people are learning to live with an open heart even when in contact with non-loving people because they know unconditional love is the most powerful force on the planet. When they are guided to act, they do.

If you are curious about how to become a part of this powerful growing force, begin going within on a regular basis and set an intention to understand how you fit into this group of people. Ask your spiritual self or soul to guide you, to open you up to something bigger and show you what your next step is. This will require moving beyond the intellect and learning to trust your intuition or inner guidance system. It is helpful to find a mentor or coach who lives in this expanded way. Meditate, pray, set intentions, study yourself paying particular attention to your thoughts and beliefs. Doors will open when you ask. Following are a few concepts to consider.

If we understood how important we are to the well-being of the Greater Whole, we would:

value ourselves, understanding that self-love and acceptance create a solid foundation from which to create our lives. Furthermore, when I care about me, I want to take care of myself on all levels, physically, emotionally, socially, mentally. I then care about you and support you to do the same. When I value understanding myself, I automatically want to understand you. As more people practice this, the more supportive, compassionate, and helpful the collective becomes, eventually bypassing malicious thoughts, intentions, and immature behaviors in self or others. The collective result is to move our reality to a peaceful, free, kind, and loving world.

2. appreciate our individuality. We each are unique, one of a kind, with special interests and  talents. We are an individual spark of consciousness from Source. We would see it as a special privilege to have this physical experience living in a body where we can experience, create, see, touch, think, feel, etc. We would take responsibility for ourselves, learning consequences of our choices both positive and negative. We would be interested in learning from unwise choices and mistakes to grow in wisdom. Over time we would learn to make wise choices to create that which is uniquely important for us.

3. live with gratitude, which is one of the main ingredients to being an aware creator of this vision. We would appreciate the freedom of choice we have each day, to manifest our desires, how we want to relate to others, how to develop our interests and talents to name a few things we create. Our day would be valued. Our life would be valued. Your life would be valued. We would create for the highest good of ourselves and everyone else. Knowing we are important to the greater whole would motivate us to manifest wisely.

 

If the above points are foreign to you, consider slowing down to learn more about yourself and learn about creating sound self-esteem, fulfilling relationships, and living with deeper meaning and purpose. There are 9 free e-books on my website addressing these issues.

Take a moment to pause here. Write your vision for your future even if it seems impossible at this moment. Visions move you in a direction. Over time you will understand how living your vision fits into the greater plan of aware people changing the world for the better. Following is an example I wrote to myself a few years back.

My Vision: To live my truth, be of service to others by using my talents of teaching, writing, coaching, and artistic expression, enjoy my family, have fun.

I am an expression of Source, ever expanding and awakening. I live from the center of my Being, learning to be present in each moment. I enjoy my life as I continue to grow more conscious and authentic by accepting all my experiences and feelings, meeting the ups and downs of life. I continually let go of beliefs, habits, attitudes, conditions, and illusions that no longer serve me. I notice when boredom, judging, fear, and doubt move in; I feel all these feelings, realizing these are part of the privilege of being human.

I am gentle with myself as I take risks to move beyond my current limits. I listen to what I genuinely want to explore and experience and keep clarifying as the twists and turns of life take me in new directions. I know I am the creator of my day and that I am co-creating with like-minded others for the highest good of all. I live with the awareness that I am co-creating with Source.

I am grateful to have a life partner and companion. I love my family and my family loves me. My family brings me great joy and I am grateful for everyone. I accept each as an individual on their own path and support each to grow and evolve and awaken on their own timetable.

I love to help others grow in awareness. I align with my true Self as I continually move forward, listening to my inner wisdom and knowing to actualize my purposes easily and effortlessly. I maintain my joyful, creative, meditative lifestyle, and at the same time am of service to others. I know the perfect people are coming forward to help me unfold and move in new directions as I step forward to help others. I am thankful for interesting and important assignments from Spirit.

It brings me great joy to share my creative works -- art and writings with others. I enjoy being a positive mirror to inspire each who crosses my path. I am grateful for my life and the fullness I experience. I love being me.

In summary, may some seed thoughts be planted in the garden of your mind for consideration to join in partnership with others creating a better world for all who choose it. Ponder what has been presented. Water and fertilize the ideas you want to grow within you. Blessings.