Carl Jung
From Planet-flipside UFO Wiki
Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875, Kesswil – June 6, 1961, Küsnacht) was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology.
Jung's unique approach to psychology has been influential in countercultural movements in Europe, the United States and elsewhere since the 1960s. He emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, world religion and philosophy. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician, much of his life's work was spent exploring other realms, including Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts. His most notable ideas include the concept of archetypes, the collective unconscious and synchronicity.
[edit] Jung and UFOs
Carl Jung theorized that UFOs might have a primarily spiritual and psychological basis. In his 1959 book "Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen In The Sky", he pointed out that the round shape of most saucers corresponds to a mandala, a type of archetypal shape seen in religious images. Thus the saucers might reflect a projection of the internal desires of viewers to see them. However, he did not out rightly label them a delusion or hallucination; it was more in the nature of a shared spiritual experience.
However, Jung seemed conflicted as to possible origins. At other times he asserted that he wasn't concerned with possible psychological origins and at least some UFOs were physically real, based primarily on indirect physical evidence such as photographs and radar contact in addition to visual sightings. He also considered the extraterrestrial hypothesis to be viable. One such quote from Jung in 1958 from Associated Press had him stating, "A purely psychological explanation is ruled out... If the extraterrestrial origin of these phenomena should be confirmed, this would prove the existence of an intelligent interplanetary relationship... That the construction of these machines proves a scientific technique immensely superior to ours cannot be disputed." [1][2]
