Carl Jung stands in a unique position between science and mysticism. His psychiatric career rivals Freud’s in influence, but with a mythic mysticism that was anathema to Freud’s nineteenth-century positivistic aspirations. Jung’s work with the deep unconscious revealed patterns of thinking and feeling that are reflected in myth and symbols for all ages of humankind’s existence. Carl Jung asserted that our unconscious contains a universal interconnection between all human beings past and present. Our unconscious contains the accumulated wisdom of the ages in the form of archetypal images and memories.

Jung developed his understanding of humankind’s collective unconscious from exploring the deep unconscious through dreams and mystic experiences in himself and his patients. In the autobiographical Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Jung relates his own connection to deep Archetypal consciousness through relaying dreams and mystic experiences in his life. Memories, Dreams, Reflections, is the most accessible way to learn about the nature of the deep unconscious, according to Jung.

Jung also documented his personal mystic journeys. Throughout his life, Jung would retreat into solitude and engage in trance like reflection upon his unconscious. These documented journeys are so esoteric and profound that they were not allowed to be published until 2009, nearly fifty years after his death. The Red Book (Philemon), by Carl Jung, is a journal of his descent into a personal dialogue with the deep Archetypal unconscious. Written by Jung over the course of many years, it is his narration of his mythic journey and includes his elaborate drawings of the images encountered in his psyche. The Red Book challenges us to reconsider the nature of madness and understanding; because of this ambiguity, Jung chose not to allow it to be published until after his death. He was certain that if The Red Book were published before his other research had become generally accepted, he would not have been able to maintain any credibility as a psychiatrist. In The Red Book, we see Jung in contact with madness and mysticism, revealing the fundamental Gnostic principles that underlie all of Jung’s thinking.