The Red Book | INFJ Forum

The Red Book

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Korg

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Jul 8, 2009
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I never knew this about Carl Jung: he had what is arguably a psychotic break starting when he was around 40 years old that lasted for several years. As in, hallucinations, visions, speaking to entities named Salome and Philemon, hearing voices, etc. Jung later explained it as some kind of prolonged engagement with his unconscious and others basically said he just lost his shit after him and Sigmund Freud had their falling out.

Either way, the amazing is that he wrote about it the entire team, kept intricate illustrations of his ideas and recorded everything in a book. But it was kept concealed from almost everyone until 2009 when it was finally published (or maybe just some portion of it).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_(Jung)

Is this common knowledge for those that are familiar with his life? Cause I've read a lot about him over the years and had no idea.
 
I heard about it several years ago, and i know next to nothing about him.

Local library had a copy, actually. Stuffs whack.
 
Korg said:
I never knew this about Carl Jung: he had what is arguably a psychotic break starting when he was around 40 years old that lasted for several years. As in, hallucinations, visions, speaking to entities named Salome and Philemon, hearing voices, etc. Jung later explained it as some kind of prolonged engagement with his unconscious and others basically said he just lost his shit after him and Sigmund Freud had their falling out.

Either way, the amazing is that he wrote about it the entire team, kept intricate illustrations of his ideas and recorded everything in a book. But it was kept concealed from almost everyone until 2009 when it was finally published (or maybe just some portion of it).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_(Jung)

Is this common knowledge for those that are familiar with his life? Cause I've read a lot about him over the years and had no idea.
Click to expand...

I just got goosebumps reading this. I also never knew. Now I am intrigued and hope I can get my hands on a copy of this work.
 
I looked at courses in Western Esotericism and C.G. Jung & The Red Book was one of the modules.

So that was pretty much all I knew of it but, yeah, sounds fascinating.
I've heard it's quite expensive but haven't checked recently.

EDIT: Okay, I think it gets pretty pricey when you have the illustrations and calligraphy in there as opposed to just the writings?
 
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I saw the actual Red Book on display at the Asia Society Museum, there were also selected drawing and mandalas. My wife bought me a copy for Christmas, its pretty cool, way oversized in german and translated in english. I have also seen a few presentations on what the book is about thematically.

Jung was the most celebrated Subjective thinker and feeler of the modern age. It is funny how modern Psychiatry eschews his work.
 

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I was just trying to look up something on Jung the other day...his thoughts on extroversion and introversion...when The Red Book popped up in my search. I had never heard of it (and didn't really look at the material) which I thought was weird since I have read some of his stuff. I think I may have to track down a copy. I would have to say that given the time period he wrote, that anything outside the norm would tend to get you labeled "a whack job". Interesting though considering the general inclination that there is a fine line between genius and madness. Who is to say that all great thinkers didn't cross that line more often than not.
 
I knew about it. I do personally believe that in order to truly engage and shed light onto one's unconscious, one has to cross the bridge of "insanity", or some form of psychological turmoil. The book and Jung's "psychotic break" didn't come as a surprise to me. This and his notion of the Collective Unconscious are what initiated my fondness for his work in the first place.

I haven't read it because I don't think I am ready for its content just yet, but one of my friends have studied Jung's work extensively and he often told me that the book is a treasure in terms of how much insight it gives of the human mind through Jung's own experience. My friend almost had his own brush with insanity afterwards, I don't know if its because of the book or because he was predisposed.


Either way, I am eager.
 
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I think that humanity has been engaging with that realm for thousands of years. Its what shamanism is all about. Different states of consciousness have been reached through meditation, music, drugs, dance, chanting and so on

It has allowed people to develop a better relationship with a greater reality, but in the highly regimented and controlled environment that has been created by capitalism it is seen as a threat and is aggressively opposed and policed; this is why imperialism has always stamped on shamainc cultures and replaced them with literal judeo-christianism

The drugs prescribed under the current system are serotonin uptake inhibitors which block the flow of energy between the conscious and unconscious mind

The people who shape the system are consciously aware of all this and everything they do is done for a reason. While they make psychadelics illegal or release bad acid on the public like the CIA did in the 1960's they themselves take consciousness expanding drugs in secret societies

Anyone can join some of these societies and they will encounter these behaviours. The practices of Magickal orders are often geared around preparing the initiate for entering an altered state of consciousness. For example certain meditation and breathing exercises that help the psychonaut keep their shit together as they leave their current reality

Mckenna recommends talking to the magic mushrooms before taking them....saying he wants to learn from them and asking for them to treat him kindly. Whether you think the mushroom is an entity in itself or whather mckenna is actually speaking to part of his own unconscious it is nevertheless a good exercise. Another one is when things start getting too weird is to chant.....this allows a release of energy and engages the mind, keeping it from negative meanderings

The fascinating aspect of jungs work is how symbols from our unconscious can physically manifest into our reality. If a person believes that our reality is just a physical, material realm then this is just pure nonsense. if however a person believes that our reality is not physical at all but really an illusiory holographic reality where the 5 senses send electrical signals to the brain which decodes information in such a way as to create the impression of solidity then there is nothing contradictory about the idea of symbols from the unconscious mind spilling into the 'physical' realm

This is what magicians are really about.

There is a lot of talk about entities in both the psychadelic and occult communities. In religion they are called 'angels and demons' in ufology they are called extraterrestrials or interdimensional beings, in islam they are called the djinn and so on

They are common to all cultures across the globe

If a person wants to explore all this it soon becomes very obvious that the current system is strongly resistant to that; this isn't a coincidence. Every group of people that judeo-christian imperilism has sought to invade and dominate has had at the core of its cultural identity its SPIRITUALITY (shamanism) ie its relationship with the unconscious mind

The judeo-christian system publically portrays this as barbarism but behind closed doors the members of the judeo-christian establishment indulge in qabalistic practices which are about shifting states of consciousness

Qabalism is the operating system behind the western esoteric tradition used to engage with these realms
 
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