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Transcript

Carl Jung: I know that God exists

A remastered and colourised 1959 interview with psychologist Carl Gustav Jung offers several interesting insights, which you can enjoy along with the full transcript.

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Carl Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist and psychologist who was an influential thinker and prolific writer. He was deeply interested in various issues beyond the physicalistic view of reality. One of his close friends and colleagues was Maurice Nicoll (1884–1953) - psychiatrist, Fourth Way teacher and the author of the Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky.

In the interview Jung is asked if he still believes in God. Jung replies that he doesn't need to believe - he knows that God exists.

He goes on to explain that the word belief is a difficult one for him. He does not believe, but must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either he knows something, and if he knows it, he does not have to believe it. He doesn't allow himself to believe something just for the sake of believing it. But if there are sufficient reasons for a certain hypothesis, he will naturally accept these reasons.

He talks about certain clues that he receives during his practice with his patients, which lead him to discover the various elements of the unconscious. He also talks about his work on psychological types, which do not remain the same but change throughout life.

Jung was certain that much more understanding of human nature was needed, because we know so little about man. The only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger, and we are woefully ignorant of it. Man's psyche should be studied because we are the origin of all evil to come.

He emphasises that death cannot be an end, in fact he has argued that death is not an end. Jung also emphasises that there are peculiar faculties of the psyche that aren't entirely confined to space and time. For example, people can have dreams or visions of the future. People can also see round corners and other such things. In his view, only ignorance could deny these facts.

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