Free Audio Program On Jung's Red Book with Sonu Shamdasani, Murray Stein, Judith Harris, more

This was a well put together show and probably informed the listener about The Red Book as much as any two hour show could. Sonu Shamdasani was the essential element that put it over the top for me. The way he talks about it, as if it was his child or something, is different than the way he speaks of Jung in general.

In October to December of 2013, I delved into the first part of The Red Book, matching the dates of the introductory entries by Jung, exactly 100 years later. It was sort of a coincidence but I had bought it in September, so it wasn’t too synchronistic by that definition, yet exciting. Having read 13 or so Collected Works, I had learned a lot, yet I couldn’t even say that I understood individuation, myself. I didn’t know how it worked in practice and was just starting to understand my own content.

To see Jung’s own struggle and triumph using the very same psychological truths that he’s asking us to understand set me straight about much of the process. Several ideas were new to me, like the idea of a God, dark as well as light, embodying evil and good. I reflected on ideas such as Jesus personifying his dark side, even to give it a name, Satan. Our shadow is indeed personified, under the right circumstances. We don’t get to fight it out in the desert and be done with it but must live with it throughout our lives.

“Trusting that the mind will not betray you” was a quote from the show. Any honest dialogue is dependent upon some level of trust and the dialogue with the unconscious is a relationship worth pursuing. Finding new meaning and mythologems from my dream journal gave me a new sense of purpose and a profound sense of trust in my own instincts, which happens to be something I am working on.

The murder of Siegfried (the hero) was significant for Jung, being able “to murder a part of himself to free himself.” That’s a neat trick.

As a person interested in dreaming the way I am, I came away from the book with a new perspective about the mechanics of fantasy, dream and exercises like active imagination. I have the sense of the relation of the physical location of the depths and the heights as they relate to the psychological sense of the unconscious depths and the conscious heights. When Jung (or his patient) is knocking around basements and caves, he really is becoming consciously aware of previously unconscious content. When flying around in the sky, one is really enjoying enlightenment and conscious expression of all that one has worked for. Or … one is inflated and one-sided, about to crash, as the case may be.

My journal is rich with this type of content. The sobering aspect is looking at what is not flattering but to see the symbols and metaphors, motifs and projections for what they represent in the process of life. To read about C.G. Jung working it out himself was a real treat and not the same as reporting on the progress of his patients.

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Randy Westfall August 9, 2014 at 5:29am

This was a well put together show and probably informed the listener about The Red Book as much as any two hour show could. Sonu Shamdasani was the essential element that put it over the top for me. The way he talks about it, as if it was his child or something, is different than the way he speaks of Jung in general.

In October to December of 2013, I delved into the first part of The Red Book, matching the dates of the introductory entries by Jung, exactly 100 years later. It was sort of a coincidence but I had bought it in September, so it wasn’t too synchronistic by that definition, yet exciting. Having read 13 or so Collected Works, I had learned a lot, yet I couldn’t even say that I understood individuation, myself. I didn’t know how it worked in practice and was just starting to understand my own content.

To see Jung’s own struggle and triumph using the very same psychological truths that he’s asking us to understand set me straight about much of the process. Several ideas were new to me, like the idea of a God, dark as well as light, embodying evil and good. I reflected on ideas such as Jesus personifying his dark side, even to give it a name, Satan. Our shadow is indeed personified, under the right circumstances. We don’t get to fight it out in the desert and be done with it but must live with it throughout our lives.

“Trusting that the mind will not betray you” was a quote from the show. Any honest dialogue is dependent upon some level of trust and the dialogue with the unconscious is a relationship worth pursuing. Finding new meaning and mythologems from my dream journal gave me a new sense of purpose and a profound sense of trust in my own instincts, which happens to be something I am working on.

The murder of Siegfried (the hero) was significant for Jung, being able “to murder a part of himself to free himself.” That’s a neat trick.

As a person interested in dreaming the way I am, I came away from the book with a new perspective about the mechanics of fantasy, dream and exercises like active imagination. I have the sense of the relation of the physical location of the depths and the heights as they relate to the psychological sense of the unconscious depths and the conscious heights. When Jung (or his patient) is knocking around basements and caves, he really is becoming consciously aware of previously unconscious content. When flying around in the sky, one is really enjoying enlightenment and conscious expression of all that one has worked for. Or … one is inflated and one-sided, about to crash, as the case may be.

My journal is rich with this type of content. The sobering aspect is looking at what is not flattering but to see the symbols and metaphors, motifs and projections for what they represent in the process of life. To read about C.G. Jung working it out himself was a real treat and not the same as reporting on the progress of his patients.

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