Karl Gustav Jung - founder of Analytical Psychology
Rumi, Jung and mythological messages from the body-mind
by Sharon G. Mijares, Ph.D.
Do we hear the stories rising from the cellular structures within our bodies? So often we limit consciousness to our cerebral hemispheres and fail to hear the narratives whispering, or perhaps shouting, within the consciousness of our tissues and organs. We have given a lot of attention to the brain and very little to the body. Carl Jung (1969) theorized that a neural substrate could contain a form of archetypal consciousness. The Sufi poet Rumi spoke of the magical power of the breath to awaken our awareness of archetypal presences within the body. In the beginning of his poem, "A Goal Kneels," Rumi shares this insight,
"The inner being of a human being is a jungle.
Sometimes wolves dominate,
sometimes wild hogs.
Be wary when you breathe!
At one moment gentle generous qualities,
like Josephs, pass from one nature to another.
The next moment vicious qualities move in hidden ways;
Wisdom slips for a while into an ox!
A restless, recalcitrant horse suddenly
becomes obedient and smooth-gaited.
A bear begins to dance.
A goal kneels!
Human consciousness goes into a dog,
and that dog becomes a shepherd, or a hunter.
In the Cave of the Seven Sleepers
even the dogs were seekers.
At every moment a new species rises in the chest
now a demon, now an angel, now a wild animal.
There are also those in this amazing jungle
who can absorb you into their own surrender.
If you have to stalk and steal something,
steal from them!"
(Barks, 1990)
The poem suggests that mythological, archetypal narratives are woven into the fabric of the body. Our center of attention is focused from lofty cerebral watchtowers and we fail to hear and feel these narratives and mythological fragments whispering within the neural pathways of our beings. Our breath is held, our sensitivities dimmed and fixated by limited attention. The body is alive with archetypical stories waiting to be acknowledged. Archetypes are psychic structures containing biologically related patterns of behaviors consisting of certain qualities and expressions of being. They are related to the instinctive life forces motivating the world's mythological stories (Mijares, 1997).
The ability to hear and feel the sub-personalities, fragmented self parts and archetypal forces related with life narratives is greatly enhanced by breathing practices. Breath therapies help to release the tension stored in our muscular structures. They have a powerful effect upon the psychophysiology of the breather as they stimulate the neural system. The breather then begins to experience increased energy moving through the blocks and character armoring as neural winds begin to blow.
Eastern and Middle-Eastern spiritual disciplines have utilized the breath as a healing process for over 3,000 years (Joshi, 1977, Mijares, 1991, Mueller, 1962). Only recently have Westerners discovered its ability to awaken spiritual potentials, release repressed memories and related feelings, and to heal stress and trauma. Stanislav Grof, M.D., developed holotropic therapy as a means for accessing non-ordinary states of consciousness (1988). The rebirthing movement centered upon healing birth traumas. Deep breathing brings us to fuller life.
Wilhelm Reich, M.D., the early founder of somatic psychologically specifically used the breath to free state-bound life energy and to invoke emotional release and healing. Reich determined this repressed energy flow to be part of humanity's armor and believed that this repression was passed on from generation to generation. He utilized the ability of the breath to enable the human musculature to relax its binding grip. Reich hypothesized that many, if not all, of our neuroses were evidenced in the inability to breathe deeply in and out in one breath (1948). The term "energy block" manifested from this work. But what is contained within an energy block and why did the Sufi poet and mystic Rumi caution to,"Be wary when you breathe"?
What happens when the breath is focused and begins to move through the neural networks and channels of the body-mind? Neural winds are increased. They stimulate cellular memories, primal, instinctual energies and awaken the body-mind from its unconscious slumber (Thurman, 1994; Washburn, 1994). Memory is inherent within the genes and cellular structures of DNA. This memory contains the stories of our genetic ancestors and those of the collective unconscious. These memories also contain dramas depicting human pathos. They are teeming with narratives of destruction, power and beauty. Repressed feelings, memories, ego-states, sub-personalities and archetypal forces can be hidden in energy blocks.
Jung was a pioneer in researching the value of these psychological constituents motivating consciousness. He believed there were both personal and collective (universal) attributes within the psyche (Jacobe, 1959). Jung described what he called the "collective unconscious" and said that it is motivated by instinctive primordial, universal mythological presences. He called these unconscious motivating forces, "archetypes." Archetypes exist preconsciously. They are psychic structures containing biologically related patterns of behaviors consisting of certain qualities and expressions of being. They are related to the instinctive life forces motivating the world's mythological stories.
Jung also acknowledged the superiority of "affect" as being the bridge to integration and healing of dissociative disorders. He noted that "a purely intellectual insight is not enough, because one knows only the words and not the substance of the thing from inside" (in Jacobi, p. 14). In other words, insight and cognitive perception on their own are inadequate healers, as affect and body are intimately related. We never experience an emotion without an accompanying sensation.
In his article Jungian views of the body-mind relationship, (1974), Michael Fordham elaborates on psychoanalytical concerns on the relationship of psyche and soma. Even though Jung never provided evidence to affirm this, he believed that "some kinds of psychic energy are more related to the body than others, and even to different parts of the body" (Fordham, 1974, p. 169). For an example, Fordham relates Leopold Stein's assertion that
defenses against what is not-self [introjects] are essential to health...the self carries out defense systems on a much more basic level...structures designed to receive and implement messages directed towards the preservation of the identity of self...The structures are archetypes...genes, enzymes, catalysts or pheromones...the archetypes are analogous to antibodies; an element of disorderly function in the messages is found within the self and the DNA itself (Stein, 1967, in Fordham, 1974, p. 174).
This intuitive gleaning actually preceded the scientific findings being presented by psychoneuro-immunologists and the discovery of the presence of messenger molecules, the neurotransmitters.
Do unconscious entities such as archetypal energies, sub-personalities introjects and ego-states have a specific brain location or are they manifesting through the cells, molecules and neural pathways of the body-mind (Mijares, 1995, 1997)? Is it possible that the body holds the memory of individual and collective neglect and abuse? Memory is inherent within the DNA, genes and cellular structure of the body-mind. The body's memory becomes activated as neural winds and consciousness stream through the neural networks. The traumatized psychic elements residing in cellular blocks and non?integrating neural circuits within the body emerge in the night to give voice to their experiences through the vehicles of our dreams, fantasies and regressions.
Jungian analyst Robert Stein, discusses a client who is experiencing a "regressive infantile seizure." The client is somatically gripped by this archetypal force despite his intelligence and mature awareness. In his contemplation, Stein comes to his conclusion that "if we lift the veil of our rational analytical bias, we may catch a glimpse of the offended deity who has become incarnate in the pain and anger of the psycho-somatic process." Stein then asks, "What transgression has caused the painful agony of this greater power to overwhelm him? What offerings or what sacrifice must he make so that harmony, order and wholeness can be re-established?" (1976, p. 74)
Stein explains that his client was caught up in performance-oriented social and mental activities, denying the needs of feelings and body. Until he submits and allows this balance, opposing powers will continue their war within his body-mind. This neglect manifests in individual somatic complaints, mental disturbances and illness. Culturally it manifests in substance abuse, violence and depression. These symptoms are manifestations from the neglected self.
Jung found himself experiencing intense psychic assaults as he entered unconscious realms and the onslaught began, but he stuck by his unswerving conviction that he was following a calling. He instinctively knew he had a task to fulfill. During this period Jung used yogic exercises to help subdue the intensity of emotional flooding. In this journey he personally experienced the powerful forces of the anima, animus, divine child, warriors, demons and sages that are an inherent part of humanity's consciousness. These powerful forces are also easily accessed in dissociative states. As Jung utilized the inherent power of Eastern yogic exercises based upon breath and physical movement he was further invoking the unconscious realms within the body.
In his text World religions: From ancient history to the present (1971) Geoffrey Parrinder describes how ancient Greek mythologies referenced a splitting between male and female, mind and body. The myths described the marriage of Sky and Earth. Their union safeguarded fertility. Next the cosmologies described the forcing apart of Sky and Earth. They were no longer united in sexual union. Parrinder notes that this was the beginning of rationalization. Attention was to be withdrawn into the cerebral watchtower and for the most part the soul nature dropped into the unconscious body-mind. Jung was working to heal this split.
Eastern spiritual traditions use the breath to reunite mind and body. Mythological narratives are often initiated by breathing practices. Cells begin to quiver, muscles quake and messenger molecules travel through the neural circuitry of the body. The breathwork stimulates the body's innate intelligence as messenger molecules activate nodal points in the neural information system of body consciousness. The egoic self in its cerebral control tower is forced into acknowledging its limitations and recognizes there is more to consciousness than itself. The first indications of a deep narrative structure can manifest in a dream intimating that neglected self?parts and archetypal forces are hidden in cellular blocks,> darkened shadows and power centers within the fibers of the body (Mijares, 1995). This begins what Joseph Campbell (1949) referred to as "the call," the individual awakens to the hero's journey.
We have developed a strong cognitive sense of self as a survival skill. This ego-state can reason out, understand or rationalize almost any person or circumstance. Many people have traumatic experiences in their younger years. When the young ego is unable to cope or handle the intense emotions, it disappears as another egoic personality is created. In other words younger ego-state(s) split off and are contained, isolated in their own cellular space. Soul retrieval, a term often used in shamanic healing, is about recapturing the isolated memory and its dynamic expression and feeling. During the awakening of the body-mind, the cerebral and feeling selves become cognizant of each other. But soon another stage in the heroic journey emerges as "the obstacle" surfaces. This experience is spoken of as a dragon at the gate or similar metaphors. Soul retrieval is challenged by an archetypal, wrathful force at the gate to the hiding place of the treasure.
These strange manifestations are familiar expressions of healing and emergence processes recognized by spiritual teachers of Eastern and Sufi orientations and also by depth psychotherapists using trance processes. For examples, Psychologist, author and international lecturer Stephen Gilligan writes about the break between the egoic cognitive self in the head and the archetypal, feeling self(ves) in the body in his book, Courage to love: A Self-Relations approach to psychotherapy (1997). His Self-Relations psychotherapy is focused upon healing the split in the relational field (between head and body). Sufi teacher, author and international lecturer Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz recommends Middle-Eastern breath and mantric sound practices to enhance awareness of the depths of the self(ves) in the belly (1995). In Sufism the subconscious self(ves) is called the nafs. This sacred knowledge manifests in both Middle-Eastern and Eastern teachings.
In one of his lectures on Tibetan Buddhism titled "The descent to heaven," Joseph Campbell illustrated Tibetan teachings on enlightenment, including blissful and wrathful deities within body consciousness. As noted earlier Carl Jung theorized that a neural substrate could contain a form of archetypal consciousness (1969). The body is alive with sub-personalities and archetypal powers.
It appears that "soul retrieval" is a process of embodiment, a work of healing the immense split between the cognitive egoic self in the head and the beings manifesting in the body. In guided trance and breath therapy, a somatic sensation is often found to be associated with a very young child making sounds to him/herself. This child self is alone in a memory world of its own, hiding in non-integrating neural circuits within the body. Her (or his) story and images are unavailable to higher cerebral processes; they are locked in the limbic system of the body-mind. Perhaps muscular locks in the neck keep these hidden stories from flowing into the amygdala, the processor of emotional memory. The dragon at the gate between the body mind and the cerebral self quickly responds to block the event. This experience equates to what is called soul retrieval work. Shamans go on magical journeys to hidden places in other realms to retrieve child parts...
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