TWO IMPORTANT 'KINDS' OF KNOWLEDGE..November 25, 2023

Some thoughts: Established world religions have served the internal, psychological/spiritual needs of humankind( recall we're told all persons are created in an image of God) from the historical rise of human consciousness out of unconsciousness. 

At the heart of these legitimate symbolic religions, including the original Christ religions, is the psychological/spiritual truth, " The Kingdom of God is in you." That is that 'God things' are primarily descriptions of spiritual, not material reality.

An unfortunate thing is in the past 400 years the Christ religion has been interpreted literally, that is materialistically, not as first an internal spiritual reality. This has happened primarily in an effort to make the ancient religious statements of our culture logically compatible with the ever-growing materialistically true statements of science. 

This misguided effort to make important religious statements such as the 'virgin birth of God' , 'baptism into Christ', "walking on water", a one-time physical 'second coming of Christ' and so many more be material/literal statements effectively closes the door of the human logical mind. This prevents these spiritual realities from being received as spiritual/psychological knowledge of the heart. The statements then lose their transforming power for human heart/soul development. And we wonder 'Why is religion not fulfilling its purpose to make life more compassionate and peaceful on earth?' 

Christians now find  themselves forced to be 'believers' in what they conscientiously 'know' are materially nonsense statements and doctrines. This results in a breaking of true conscience (of the human experience of being honest with onesself) rather than having a natural genuine trust from internally directed spiritual statements; statements and symbols which naturally fit human inner needs effectively and potentially personality transforming. 

This kind of psychological explanation imo is a spiritual internal path and process by which one may actually become spiritually 'religious' and experience such 'real' inner undeniable effects as 'amazing grace', 'eternal salvation',  'joy unspeakable', 'trust in life', 'peace that passes understanding', patience, love, eternal hope etc. etc.

JUNG: MODERN PERSONS, TRULY LOST FROM THEMSELVES... November 24, 2023

 C.G. Jung here described his concern for the mind of modern people nearly a 100 years ago. He was a strong scientist but not a 'scientific materialist.' That is he saw evidence that humans'  personal experience is more than only material, more than only what comes to us through the five physical senses. 

Our Western inherited hard-won amazing science, Jung would insist, does not yield the full truth about the human condition when joined with an unwarranted assumption. That assumption being that all important truth for humans comes only through the human capacity to reason logically from what can be observed through our five physical material senses.

Our American culture's worldview is still primarily 'scientific materialism' whether a person yet sees this about onesself or not. Jung here mourns that we have literally lost touch with the part of ourself that is not material. Our inner depths or soul nature has no culturally sanctioned ways to express and practice itself in the intellectual atmosphere of only materialism. 

Religions, in spite of their flaws, with their rich storehouse of mythological narratives for many ages provided an expression of the inner life for most people. Unfortunately, today even most religions have succumbed to materialism (matter is the only reality that matters)and offer modern people little real help in finding soul, one's true inner life. 

Jung's work and writing are about pointing ways back to the human inner depths where matter and spirit are equally important and valued. Body and spirit, thinking and intuition, inner and outer worlds, physical fact and imagination/dreams, so much still separated in our culture, are in Jung encouraged toward union. And a person stands to find a genuine personal path toward wholeness. This rather than continuously seeking material achievement or some of the many materialistic versions of personal progress. 

As a result the ancient honor given to night and daytime dreams, imagination and human intuition are not respected as also essential processes in the human search for more complete and much needed truth and life guidance. 

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