Carl Jung and the Shadow – The Mechanics of Your Dark Side

In every story there is a hero in a villain in your story you're both all the bright aspects and all the dark aspects of yourself orchestrate the melody of your song a song that you need to hear first before anyone else but in order to hear it you have to learn to listen to listen not only to what you want but also to what you're afraid of your fears and your darkness are in the dust from you do notice true them face them analyze them internalize them the shadow is always there and will always be but the shadow can look big or it can look small depending on the angle from which the light caresses you what is the size of your shadow Carl Gustav Jung was one of the most important psychologists of the previous century he's also one of my biggest influencers since he's one of the few that have attempted to bridge the notions of psychology and spirituality in an effort to discover ways to transcend the human condition Jung has travelled a lot to India and immerse himself in different spiritual practices his work was constantly evolving and it was this evolution that produced comprehensive analysis of concepts like the ego the shadow the archetypes and the anima and animus especially the shadow has always been intriguing topic among people and with regards to it Jung has stated the shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego personality for no one can become conscious of the shadow with her considerable moral effort to become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real this act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge the use of the word shadow wasn't chosen unintentionally Jung was always good at portraying complex ideas in a syllable visual manner he used mental imagery in order to create anchors with concepts already familiar to human cognition the shadow is dark and elusive it is impossible to catch its size can alter depending on your position in space and these ubiquitous whenever light is present there you go one can form a somewhat basic understanding of the concept without the need to delve into arcane terms another crucial thing to ponder is that the shadow itself due to the darkness that it forms and due to the distance that it creates from a physical body of a person becomes something not so many people are eager to confront and this is one of the major ideas associated with a union shadow although we usually see the shadow as an integral part of our existence most of us are willfully blind to this existence our dark side is concealed or camouflaged in painful attempt to protect an image that fits a narrative that we decide to espouse through social conditioning we come to construct the facade that can keep the substrate of our constructed identity stable so that we can keep feeling safe safety however is ill-defined in that space we inhabit how can one feel safe when there is so much unknown territory out there that cannot any given point in time convulsive foundations of our fragile Constitution the person is as free as a minor louse and if the mind creates barriers between the reality of the person and the reality of the rest of the world delusion and neuroses could take over when you see people operate in a state of enforced ignorance that attempts to preserve a certain status quo then the shadow can only grow bigger and forced ignorance and titles the shadow would take over since the individual is incapable of controlling it because he or she is not even aware of its existence we can control what we don't understand every aspect of one's unconscious identity the cannot metamorphose into conscious judgment will perpetually impede one's progress for its creating a fantastic world that cannot synchronize with the frequencies of the real world in such a landscape the real world or at least whatever we can understand of it becomes an egotistical battleground that leads to collision and madness that is not how our perception should meet the world should be a forum for dialogue and constant experimentation while we strive to define the moral imperatives that could alleviate or suffering everything beyond that should be viewed with skepticism if that seems poignant to some that is clearly because the shadow element hasn't been dealt with effectively this includes animalistic needs primitive instincts sexual desires traumatic experiences and also positive aspects of one's character that may also remain hidden in one Shadow regardless of the idea Socratic nature of one Shadow the process of assimilation has always been universal and it is represented by the following sequence evidently assimilation can't occur if the stages of encounter and merger don't take place first there's certainly a heroic act for the angst entail and the process is immense there's nothing scarier than facing the deepest realms of ourself but there is also nothing more rewarding than that assimilation is a lengthy process that mans mainly psychotherapy but also hours of introspection and concentrate valuation and recalibration of personal behaviors and beliefs our cerebral makeup is quite plastic but its plasticity is predicated upon our ability to sew kiss discipline and tenacity we can just expect the divine force to rescue us from our suffering with our only chance for redemption and catharsis the shadow has a challenging nature therefore the process of assimilation requires one to ask oneself some challenging questions most of you have heard of the story of dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde the infamous phrase is inspired by the book Strange Case of dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde written by this car is all for a Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886 in it he describes the life a man who transforms between two personî dr. Henry Jekyll and mr. Edward Hyde the story was so powerful and it resonated with so many people that entered the vernacular and whenever we encounter characters with an unpredictably dual nature we almost immediately recall the story of dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde most of us can cite events from our lives where our actions and our intent didn't really align we behaved as if we were different people that's a result of a plethora of factors that can affect our behavior and can result in lack of congruence in what we think feel and do social conditioning latent desires mental fatigue and many more reasons can come to mind the truth however is that our ability to fight them is within our control there are times in my life where I feel that I will go crazy to you to over analysis of certain happenstance is my paradigm I'm not sure how to deal with specific scenarios and more often than not I tend to question the reality of those scenarios my perception might be prone to certain biases and prejudices and cloud my judgment so I tend to question the basis of every claim that I make despite how awkward this process might seem it is a process that can yield tremendous benefits in one's journey to assimilate the shadow your shadow due to its dark nature is constantly forming a cloud over your judgment this cloud can never disappear but it can certainly update through meticulous introspection and cultivation of wisdom by some strange technological and philosophical osmosis we can create a universal moral framework that can we accept it by every soul on this planet this might sound ambitious but trust me it's not humans have always found ways to coexist and respect each other because the notion of coexistence is central to our survival our revolution has created countless iterations of our species but our bedrock is more or less the same what does not allow us to behave constantly in a respectful and mutually beneficial way is the shadow when the shadow takes over any discussion for a universal moral framework cannot find fruitful ground we negotiate and debate and exchange verbal tantrums in an attempt to defend our point of view in our position in the dominance hierarchy of society some people do that in a more ethical way and in order to defend goodness but most just keep perpetuating banal attitudes and approaches and it is this banality in trivialities existence that needs to be dealt with in order to identify what is morally good actually it is the combination of that and the ability to showcase common sense in the face of trivial matters with common sense the discovery of a solution to most of our problems could be accelerated dramatically life might be in amalgamation of complex instances but our cognitive apparatus is more than capable of making sense of them all it takes is to offer clarity to our judgement and common sense is the imperative in that respect especially when it comes to orienting ourselves towards what is morally good dr. jordan peterson likes to promulgate that life is struggle and that unless you don't voluntarily accept this as a fact struggle will keep manifesting itself in every facet of your existence life is suffering right indisputable what do you do about that you you voluntarily accept it and then strive to overcome the suffering that's a consequence of that I like this idea a lot because it reminds me how important clarity is when it comes to the betterment of our living conditions in order to ameliorate them something you need to understand its mechanics may be something isn't working well because a part that comprises the hole is actually malfunctioning when we break down the hole in parts and fastidiously examine these parts we can discover details about systems that are usually obscure then we can go back to the system itself and look at how what we discovered can improve the performance of the system as a whole the bottom-up approach is always more effective and usually more meritocratic thus empowering the parts to work synergistically for a common cause clarity manifests itself that way when you allow the park to discover its nuances and all its capabilities you end up with a reinforced version of it that can offer more to the whole humans operate like that and the dawn of the internet made that idea more vivid we experience a collective awakening that can perhaps lead to a collective enlightenment information becomes widely accessible and we can improve our error correcting mechanisms just by asking and gathering as many views as possible that right here is the essence of clarity and its only obstacle is the shadow a person who clings to outdated and ill-defined views will only reinforce the shadow and stagnate in a swamp of confusion incessant knowledge seeking is the name of the game a game we should all prepare to play I want to conclude this video essay with a passage from the red book probably Carl Jung's most important work be silent and listen have you recognized your madness and do you admit it have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner you want it to accept everything so except madness to let the light of your madness shine until it will suddenly Donnell you madness is not to be despised and not to be feared but instead you should give it life if you want to find paths you should also not spurn madness since it makes up such a great part of your nature be glad that you can recognize it for you will thus avoid becoming its victim madness is a special form of the spirit and and clinks to all teachings and philosophies but even more to a daily life since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical man strives to work reason only so that he can make rules for himself life itself has no rules there is its mystery and it's unknown law what you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life there is not much to say after you read those words only that there is so much madness in life but there is also so much truth in madness hi everyone the creation of this video allowed me to express myself in a way that illuminates the struggles of my inner world and I truly believe that most of you could resonate with my views asking yourself questions like how often do I question the nature of my reality or how do I orient myself towards what is morally good or how do I offer a clarity to every facet of my existence it's definitely a strenuous act but also a rewarding one as a huge thank you for making it to the end of this video and for supporting my work I would like to create my first giveaway I will send a copy of the red book Young's most celebrated work to one of you all you need to do is follow me on instagram subscribe to this channel and get notifications and message me on instagram confirming that you did all that i will randomly pick the winner in a week from now and i will contact you in your Instagram account so stay tuned again thanks for watching see you in the next video [Music] you