Demons and obsession

There will be people who will never see following explanation reasonable, but hopefully there may be few who find it more valid according to their own experiences – but more likely there will be unfortunately large quantities of people who will just stick with their beliefs, based on explanations given by religious authorities. Of course some people will stick on those explanations even they may have had personal experiences; after all, we are considering something akin to symbolic archetypes of human mind, and when seeing is believing, and explanations given according these observations may be so convincing, the more mundane explanation may be overlooked.

But we cannot let the preceding notions deflate our attempt to approach this matter from perhaps more logical and earthly viewpoint, as it may be more accurate in describing what we are in fact experiencing when it comes to demons, demonic possessions and so forth. Demons in a sense are real, but misunderstood. As human thoughts are based on ideas and language which are symbolic and during the aeons of development of human psyche, the abstract ideas have taken concrete forms. Humans are actually capable of seeing ideas, as C.G. Jung observed:

Among primitives, for instance, the imago, the psychic reverberation of the sense-perception, is so strong and so sensuously coloured that when it is reproduced as a spontaneous memory-image it sometimes even has the quality of an hallucination. Thus when the memory-image of his dead mother suddenly reappears to a primitive, it is as if it were her ghost that he sees and hears.

The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, part 6: Psychological Types.

In same manner the images of demons, which are indoctrinated into human thinking throughout its religious history, may take visual forms amongst some people. Then what those apparitions commonly called ‘demons’ may be?

There is strong indication that they are suppressed contents of unconsciousness. Demon encounters as such are more common with religious and spiritual people than with mundane people. However, when it comes to so called ‘personality disorders’, the underlying psychological and –physiological ‘mechanics’ may be same between mundane and spiritual people, only their appearance is different. Also, the method of helping them should be chosen accordingly. ‘Exorcism’ may be a substantial remedy for spiritual people, whereas psychoactive drugs and/or psychotherapy and –analysis may be better for mundane people.

Demons have everything to do with one’s cultural education and upraising. Those brought up in non-religious environment are far less likely to experience demonic encounters, possessions and so on compared to those of religious environment. Of course there are and will be exceptions, but the rule of thumb is such. The contents of unconsciousness manifests them in distinct ways between the two – while non-religious person may experience ‘personal disorders’ and ‘neurotic behaviour’ religious people experience more likely ‘demonical obsession’ and ‘diabolical temptations’.

Hence it is no surprising, that when one is ‘at the twilight zone’ of sleep and wakefulness, the experience of ‘evil presence’ may take place. It may or may not continue in following dream. The dreams are interaction between the conscious and unconscious attitudes, and symbolic archetypes often manifests in dreams. Obviously enough, one may have these experiences in stressful times, or when ones conscious attitude (for example religious or spiritual pureness) conflicts with unconscious drives (carnal needs and so on).

So when keeping in mind that “seeing is believing’ and such events may take place in one’s sphere of experiences, it is not a great surprise that there are constantly rumours of demons, shadow men and so on circulating about. The quantities of these experiences tend to increase during the troubled times: The more one’s personal feelings conflict with the cultural values, the more there is conflict between conscious and unconscious attitudes. Hence it may be healthy in psychological sense to keep up with individuality and make every effort available to hold on one’s inner integrity. The more you split between your consciousness, the more uneasy your life become.

-v

I am a psychologist. And I agree to some extent with Jung on the matter, but Jungian psychology is very fluid and he grew as a psychologist throughout his life. He even experienced demons and poltergeists.

Borrowing the method of visualization[ii] or "active imagination" from ancient occultism, Jung dialogued with figures that appeared in his fantasies. He called them "archetypes"[iii] [meaning: first or original type] and assumed that they were parts of what he theorized was a personal or racial unconscious mind that had an independent existence and needed "integration" with his conscious mind. In earlier periods though, people would have called such phenomena demons. In fact, Jung even used the term daemon for them at times. One such "archetype" was an old "wise man" who called himself Philemon and who became Jung's "wise guide" and teacher.

The Bible calls this spiritism[iv] and demon contact.

The high point of this demon contact was an invasion of screaming, doorbell-ringing poltergeists into his house (observed by his family and servants) that only stopped when Jung compulsively wrote a treatise called The Seven Sermons to the Dead. (This is very similar to what spiritualists call automatic writing.[v]) The resultant document was a Gnostic[vi] heresy that blasphemed the God of the Bible and exalted Abraxas, a Gnostic "god" embodying both good and evil in one.[vii],[viii]

Jung tried to promote occultism under the banner of science.

www.crossroad.to...

reply to post by DrJay1975


Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

While it is true that Jung (according to him) experienced these phenomena first handedly, it doesn't necessarily diminish his credibility as a researcher. Somehow I cannot see that people millions after millions lie (while some may do so) about these experiences and what Jung tried to do, was to explain them by empirical method.

I by myself also has some empirical experience about voices and peculiar dreams. Umm, not the way by going or being mad necessarily, but I've made some 'psychological' testing with the theory of subconsciousness. According to those experiments, I am more aligned into the rational explanation that these phenomena were caused by subconscious, than to the religious explanation of demons and spirits.

Besides of my own experiences, I've read a lot of Jung, but also other psychological literature, and I also have some education on psychology. As per reading some of the link you posted, I cannot see Jung as 'shaman', but rather as a unprejudiced researcher of unconscious. Of course, he was amongst the few first in producing scientific approach regarding the matter. His theories as his experience on the field seems quite credible in a way.

Sure, he had his alignments, but none of us are completely objective. Something peculiar lies in human mind that we cannot quite explain in terms of objective science alone -- or maybe we can, once we have researched it enough. But to date, 'religious' type experiences are still somewhat in dark, and I don't think that science should outrule them merely as 'garbage'. They are genuine experiences, and hence they should be observed rather than dismissed.

-v

Very interesting perspective guys and another very valid point when you take the amount of people that are infected with???? and everyones so called Demons are decided by what faith you are.A scary tought indeed that if true the amount of times the wrong solution has being given,so the wrong soulultion has being preformed and people have died.
Exellent thread buddy ,wish i could throw a few more stars