Join this week's "Depth Discussion" about Jung's "2,000,000-year-old" man revealed in our dreams — July 18, 2013 - DIALOGUE

john pasco July 22, 2013 at 6:18am

it's preferable not to reconcile, but to change the world [end the age of exploitation] to allow full development of each

Bonnie Bright > john pasco July 22, 2013 at 2:31pm

Fascinating comments here. Thanks, guys--(And, interesting that so far it's all males who have responded! Wonder why...)

Personally I have always been interested by this concept of Jung's two-million-year-old man. Jungian Anthony Stevens' book, The Two Million-Year-Old Self, is a great read on the topic. I recently spent some time pondering how I feel it relates to our environmental crisis.

Stevens refers to Jung's idea of a two-million-year-old self, speculating that each of us carries within us the remnants of a time when nature, not human ego-consciousness, was in charge. Jung depicts this ancient aspect of our being as a kind of evolved intelligence of humankind; a fountainhead of age-old archaic wisdom that has carried over since the earliest manifestations of life as an evolutionary heritage. Jung mused,

Aren't we the carriers of the entire history of mankind? . . . When a man is fifty years old, only one part of his being has existed for half a century. The other part which also lives in his psyche, may be millions of years old ... Contemporary man is but the latest ripe fruit on the tree of the human race. None of us knows what we know. (in McGuire & Hull, 1977a, pp. 57-58)

If we are aware and can tap into that deep inner wisdom, we would have a very different relationship with our planet, and a very distinct sense of home that could help us navigate to to a far more meaningful future...

Ed Koffenberger July 20, 2013 at 6:04am

Decided to look up "reconcile." Earliest meaning - to make friends again. Extended meaning - consistent or compatible. Decided to not go further into etymology but found these two meanings instructive, preferring the first over the extended meaning. "Friends" does not essentially, experientially mean consistency or compatibility (except in this terms definition of being able to live with - okay, I looked). The 2 million year-old-man can live with and even be friends with but, I believe, will never be consistent with the modern world. I believe this old man is the essential corrective to the collective consciousness we call the modern world. Reconciliation is possible like a couple who keeps changing who leads in a dance. Neither becomes the other nor could, and there is a struggle as to who leads and who follows to the changing tunes of life.

@David

As to the tripartite brain, its easy to imagine that each brain holds memories of its own with aspects of shared incidences being held, in part, by each "brain" in its version of memory. Might explain the oddity of some dreams as each aspect of the unconscious attempts to speak its piece through dreaming, the highest level of brainwork being mostly at rest from its work of defining and redefining experience. I tend to locate our old man more in the first two brains that evolved.

Richard Lamb July 20, 2013 at 5:42am

I experienced a dream c.6 months ago which returns to me, as images and flashes of insight in my daily living. It's a deeply archetypal dream, and feels relevant to this discussion of our "2,000,000 year-old selves". A team of dark-clad soldiers, 12 in number, were being led by an white-haired old man...wiry and strong with piercingly bright blue eyes. I was team member #13. I was choosing to avoid dead-of-night training exercises with them. The Old Man was p*ssed with me and said there'd be consequences to my refusal to nuckle under. Suffice it to say I experienced significantly troubled relations in collective contexts, e.g. professional relationships going South as I continued to behave like a lone wolf. I took to Active Imagination sessions to engage my 'team mates', and my outside life took an upturn, and continues to do so. Another source of wisdom which brought much awareness and healing was applying evolutionary/archetypal astrology during this period.

Bonnie Bright > Richard Lamb July 23, 2013 at 12:24am

Richard: this is such a powerful dream! It also reminds me of some strong imagery from a breathwork experience I had of joining a parade of soldiers and being infused with passion and strength, all providing the capacity to tap into ancient earth energies and shar the healing capacities with others...... This ancient instinct within us is so alive and vital, and so wanting to be endorsed, I think! Anyone else have dreams that seem to tap into these ancient Instincts...?

Ed Koffenberger July 19, 2013 at 12:51pm

How do we reconcile the 2......with the modern world....?

Of course, the assumption is that such a human is generally benevolent, a holder of needed wisdom. Yet to face such wisdom head on seems beyond our ego's ability and often runs up against our well crafted personas, ergo dreams. The closest liminal space I can think of is the arts, where often the unconscious intuition meets the conscious awareness. We have jettisoned the function of religion in this area so the arts carry the weight.

Aleksandar Malecic July 19, 2013 at 5:28am

This is a tough one. It reminds of the Zen koan (copied and pasted from Wikipedia): "When you're not thinking of anything good and anything bad, at that moment, what is your original face?" There is a thin line between being susceptible to that ancient guy within and being susceptible to delusions (or perhaps misunderstanding of that ancient guy's intents). On the other hand, is that ancient guy, with his ancient mindset and ancient problems in life, really capable to deal with modern problems, with something that no other living species known to us has ever dealt with? Should we trust him?

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