Dr. Carl Jung was a Swiss-born psychoanalyst who greatly influenced the study of dreams. The theories of Carl Jung (1875-1961) remain a valuable source of guidance into the world of dreams. Many other theories have been proposed since his time. However, his analysis of the nature and meaning of dreaming still stands as the most insightful writing about dreams of any Western psychologist.
According to Carl Jung’s dream theories, dreams integrate our conscious and unconscious minds. His ideas continue to be held in high regard by psychoanalysts. In contrast to Sigmund Freud’s view that dreams are the hidden expression of repressed wishes, Carl Jung concluded that even our darkest dreams contain imagery that illustrates our internal conflicts and even points to their cure. Dreams are not disguises or deception but books written in a unique mythical language.
Carl Jung described coincidences that were not coincidences
One of Carl Jung’s patients was a young, well-educated woman, but she was a bit paranoid in character and was stubborn about her reliance on logic and reason. One day, she told him she had dreamed of a golden beetle-shaped brooch the night before and wanted him to interpret her dream. While she was talking, there was a rattling sound from the window.
Carl Jung got up, opened the window, and caught a bug. He looked at it, put it in the woman’s hand, and said, “Here’s your golden beetle.” The woman was shocked to see the golden-brown bug in her hand because it was almost identical to the beetle she had seen in her dream. This incredible insect disintegrated the resistance in the woman’s mind and opened her heart, and she was soon cured of her paranoia.
Marie-Louise von Franz was one of Carl Jung’s collaborators. One day, she took a fancy to a blue dress in a store. She bought it and asked the store to pack and send it to her, but she received a black dress three days later. She was pretty upset. At almost the same time, she received a telegram stating that a relative of the family had passed away. She happened to wear that black dress to the funeral. She said she felt it was more than just a coincidence.
Another incident that Franz encountered was even more surprising. She had a patient who was suicidal, and she always worried about her. One day, she was on vacation in the countryside. While chopping wood outside the vacation home, the image of the patient suddenly flashed before her eyes twice, and the second time, the patient’s face had an urgent look. Franz dropped her axe and thought: “Why did this happen? Does she need help? Or should I drive back?”
As soon as that idea came to her, a voice in her heart said: “No, it’s too late.” Sensing something was wrong, she immediately sent a telegram to her with only four words: “Don’t do anything stupid.” The telegram arrived two hours later. The patient had just turned on the gas valve in the kitchen when the doorbell rang.
She went to answer the door and received the telegram. She sobered up immediately when she opened it and saw the four words. She turned around and returned to the kitchen to turn off the gas. The patient did not attempt suicide again and lived a long life.
Haven’t we all experienced such coincidences in our own lives?
How did Carl Jung explain these coincidences? According to him, matter and spirit manifest as a single energy at a deep level. This energy manifests as physical at lower and spiritual at higher frequencies. Sometimes, when the vibration frequency is strong enough, things on the spiritual level will travel to the material level.
On the spiritual level, the concept of time and space in the material world does not apply. Time is eternal there, so it is possible to see scenes in other dimensions at a particular moment and encounter unimaginable coincidences.
Translated by Cecilia
