Towards a 21st Century Model of Psyche: Altered States, Oracles, and Intelligences

In the nearly 50 years since C. G. Jung died, great strides in understanding of whole systems have occurred.  It is now time to apply a holistic/systemic approach to a Jung’s model of the psyche with the aim of contemporizing our views of the unconscious.  In particular, we will look at how ecological formulations offer richer, more complex models of the psyche, revealing a far more interconnected universe than previously imagined.   Examples of intelligences in nature will provide potential ways to explore layers of the unconscious not often taken into consideration. This will be augmented by recent studies on altered states of consciousness which have access to types of knowledge not readily accessible in other ways, with qualities similar to oracles from the ancient world, such as the Pythia at Delphi. More details.

Continuing to develop and explore the themes of intelligences in nature and oracles, we will begin with an imaginal exercise based on the gateway affective experience of wonder. We will then return to exploring and deepening understandings of the intelligences involved, considering them from the perspective of the alchemical notion of the lumen naturae (the lights in nature). Possible links revealed by recent research have begun to reveal new understandings of ancient oracular traditions. Combining these threads, we will seek to appreciate an oracular dimension of nature at the foundation of our vision of the unconscious, and thus a basis for a revision and expansion of our sense of self. More details.

Joseph Cambray, Ph.D., is the President/CEO of Pacifica Graduate Institute; he is Past-President of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP); has served as the U.S. Editor for The Journal of Analytical Psychology; and is on various editorial boards. He was a faculty member at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, Center for Psychoanalytic Studies; and former President of the C.G. Jung Institute of Boston. Dr. Cambray is a Jungian analyst now living in the Santa Barbara area of California. His numerous publications include the book based on his Fay Lectures: Synchronicity: Nature and Psyche in an Interconnected Universe, and an earlier one with Linda Carter, Analytical Psychology: Contemporary Perspectives in Jungian Psychology. He lectures internationally.