All mystical experience confounds rational understanding. When it occurs, it is overwhelming, inexplicable, and daunting. These experiences take many forms: a vision, a flash of clarity as to the existence of a divine force, a powerful dream of archetypal figures, a feeling of unity of all things, a beneficent experience of peace. Jung calls these “numinous” experiences, preferring not to use the word mystical. For most, these numinous experiences are mere oddities, perhaps frightening, outside the reach of conventional religion and, as they are fleeting, we return to the comfort of our ego structure, no longer interested. Yet, they have a profound role in psychoanalysis. Jung writes “The approach to the numinous is the real therapy and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experiences you are released from the curse of pathology.”
Some commentators have said that he could not have meant that numinous experiences are a substitute for the hard work of psychoanalysis. Yet, the vision of some other force, outside the ego, that can fill our hearts with peace and hope, may indeed be the goal of analysis.
The purpose of this Jung Society workshop is to explore the role of mystical experiences in our lives and in psychoanalysis. There is no single expert on all matters mystical, so the Workshop will; be a collaboration, where participants put away easy answers and open to the mystery of what lies outside what we know. Areas covered in the workshop will include…
1. Jung on God and the Mystic
2. The stages of individuation
3. Numinous experiences
4. Receptivity to the Numinous
The objectives of the workshop are to gain some understanding of the nature of mystical experiences, to explore their function in the individuation process, to examine why some are open and some are not, and to seek to establish some place for these experiences in analysis.
Professor Les Stein is a Jungian Analyst with a private practice in Sydney. He is a graduate of the CG Jung Institute of New York and is a member of the New York Association of Analytical Psychology and the IAAP. He is the author of the Jungian works: Becoming Whole: Jung’s Equation for Realizing God (NY: Helios Press 2015) and The Journey of Adam Kadmon: A Novel (NY: Arcade Pub 2000 and 2010) and various articles in Jungian journals concerned with the role of mysticism in psychoanalysis. He is also Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Sydney and has written extensively on the impact of the city on mental health issues.
Register and Pay For Les's Workshop Here...
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Date: 13th May 2017
Time: 10:00am to 4:00pm
Venue: Level 1 Sydney Mechanics' School
of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney
Cost: Members $120 Non-Members $180 Non-Member
Concession $140
*Psychotherapists and other practitioners can obtain credit for six Professional Development Hours recognised by CAPA, PACFA and ACA for this workshop.
Refund Policy: If the event is cancelled by The Sydney Jung Society, a full refund will be made. If the purchaser cancels within 48 hours of the event, they will be entitled to a 90% refund.