Essay: Psychology and the Big Bang

Psychology and The Big Bang

You are probably wondering why it is necessary to talk about Psychology when exploring the hard science discovery of the Big Bang? As humans we aren’t always satisfied with just plain facts. There is something going on within us that makes us want to know what the facts mean. That’s the focus of Cosmology and Psychology. The specific goal of Psychology is to examine what is going on within human beings. The answers that psychologists discover tell us about ourselves - who we are, how we operate, where we are going, how we might live more effectively and completely.

The illustrious American novelist and poet, James Agee, wrote about his life as a child on a farm in Tennessee. Later James wrote: “how successfully disguised to myself I was as a child.” He sadly lamented that no one ever told him who he really was. Like James Agee and his family there are many people who don’t know much about Psychology and consequently much about themselves.

Carl Jung, the brilliant psychiatrist/psychologist that we mentioned before, did more research, experimentation, and publishing on the human psyche than any other scholar in history. Please remember that psychologists are bona fide scientists. They have to provide evidence and proof for what they claim. So Jung’s conclusions are not just pious piffle. When he talked or wrote for his colleagues he used scientific language because most of the scientists of his day believed that religious or spiritual language was piffle. When he communicated with ordinary folks in letters and friendly conversation Jung used language they were familiar with. It was not a problem for him to use traditional words to describe the psyche as the Divine Guest within. To keep things on a high level here’s a scientific definition of the psyche: “The psyche refers to the forces in an individual that influence thought, behavior and personality.”

In Jung’s model the psyche has two major components or forces – The Ego and the Self. The Ego is like the executive of our conscious mind. It does our willing, choosing, remembering and suffering. The Ego is concerned primarily with its own defense and the fulfillment of its own ambitions. In the first half of life the Ego is concerned with biological and social needs. Also, in those early years the Ego does not perceive what the Self is and when it does begin to glimpse the Self it experiences the Self as an enemy.

The major component of the psyche, the Self, is a unity and a totality of all that makes us who we are – both our conscious part (what we know about ourselves) and our unconscious part (what we don’t know about ourselves or what we don’t want to know because we have denied or repressed it.) So the Self is only a potentiality until the Ego in midlife moves toward a living link with the Self. This is the time in life when people are moved to be concerned about their psychological and spiritual needs, and this is not an easy transitional task for the Ego.

The Ego’s concern is its own ambition. Unfortunately, because of a lack of understanding of the make-up of the psyche and psychic energy, Ego tripping is running rampant in our culture – like public speakers demanding a $100,000 fee for an hour presentation, or athletes being paid $275 million to play a simple game, or CEOs living in 25,000 square feet homes and demanding million dollar salaries. Traditional wisdom teaches that the Ego at this time in life must learn to defer to the Self and say with the Nazarene, “not my will but yours be done”.

The Self, in traditional language, is the Divine Guest within, the conscience that propels us through life. The Self is not going to go to sleep when we Ego trip. It will utilize every possibility and opportunity to get the Ego’s attention and try to work out a partnership so that the Ego can become with the Self all that it can be, which is in Jung’s words, “an unique, individuated expression of the progressive incarnation of the deity.” By the way, that’s the answer that James Agee was looking for from his family. Has anyone mentioned anything like that to you?

Another important question - what are the means or procedures that the Self utilizes to get the Ego’s attention? Common means are dreams, active imagination, meditation, synchronicities, mandalas, and symptoms. The basic means is the dream. It’s a scientific fact that everyone dreams as is evidenced by REMs – rapid eye movement when we sleep. There are analysts who say that dreaming is more important for our well being than sleeping. Dreaming is the language of the Self and repose is the best time for the Self to get our attention. Dream language is basic, symbolic and very old. If you can do crossword puzzles you can do dream work.

The cardinal rule for understanding dreams is to never take a symbol literally. Symbols point to something broader and deeper that is going on in your inner life. Every image in the dream is about you. Every dream is tailor-made for you alone and only you can understand what it is saying. It might take a lot of work sometimes but you do have the built-in ability and privilege to communicate individually and directly with the Self. A nightmare is a message that you have been diligently ignoring. Jung states that if you don’t pay attention to your dreams you’ll get the message in the street as fate. Another variation of this is what is called symptomatology. If you don’t know and work at what really matters to you, then that will become the matter with you.

If you want to know more about the psyche and dreams go to the library or bookstore and check out the works of Carl G. Jung and/or Robert A Johnson. Johnson is easier to read. Jeremy Taylor is very good on dreams.

1. How do you know that you have a psyche?
2. How does Jung’s model of the psyche sit with you?
3. Are you brave enough to tell others, your children, who they really are?
4. What are you doing with your dreams?
5. What are synchronicities and what can you learn from them?

Send comments to kellerbook [ at ] insightbb . com return to main menu