Unconscious Processes and Spiritual Idea-Symbols and Archetypes

Preface: This is a rough and ultra-brief sketch of an idea building on Jung’s

concept that there is in the human unconscious genetically acquired
“predispositions” – motivations and scripts - which play a pivotal role in shaping
human consciousness and thought. Throughout the cultures and mythologies of
the world there are deities of knowledge - and truth - so it would seem to
necessarily follow that in the human unconscious there would need to be some
unconscious idea-symbols - or archetypes of intricate links between spirit,
meaning, and truth.
The reasoning behind this approach is that, while it is true "spirit" as
scientists envision it is not measurable. As Brian Josephson pointed out scientists
obsess totally over the idea of spirituality as "Supernatural Being" As David on
academia stated ""Spirit" refers to some kind of disembodied personhood!" First,
there are plenty of types of spirituality - the spirituality of civic activists such as
Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Tolstoy and others who had very profound spiritual
beliefs which were as source of inspiration and powerful drive at work in their lives.
You can actually trace idealism back through the Old Testament Prophets like
Isaiah, Amos, Hosea, Jeremiah and others - all who advocated ideals like justice and
compassion. In fact the righteousness of Abraham who Questioned God about the
rights and wrongs of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah.
However, genetic studies reveal that traits of religiosity are inherited. As
one psychologist pointed out infant children have an innate far of snakes then
spiritual symbolism would necessarily be inherited along with some traits of
religiosity. My argument that would be especially true when it comes to the
historical connection in mythologies between spirit and meaning-truth-knowledge.
And this Approach which focuses on unconscious processes of spiritual symbolism
renders the question of whether transcendental or supernatural spirit are "real"
completely and utterly irrelevant.
A Different Approach: Unconscious Processes and Spiritual Idea-Symbols
 In mythologies, prevalent throughout the world not surprisingly, nearly all
include a deity or often many deities responsible for giving humanity truth
(meaning), knowledge, often in the form of knowledge about trades - including
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Africa, Armenia, Mongol-Turkic, Chinese, Greek and Roman,
Celtic, Hindu, as well as many others For instance, the ancient Sumerian god, Enki,
whose name was commonly translated as the “Lord of the Earth” is the Sumerian
god of knowledge as well as water, mischief, crafts, and creation. At the beginning
Enki was the city God of Eridi, but later spread throughout Sumer and even later
transformed into the god Ea in Akkadian and Babylonian mythology.
In Greek mythology, the gods and goddesses Apollo, Athena, Coeus, Metis,
as well as Hecate, goddess of magic, crossroads, and safe passage after death all
had responsibilities to transmit knowledge and truth. Apollo was the Greek god of
knowledge, music, education, youth, and divination. At the Oracle of Delphi, it was
the god Apollo who was worshiped. Even in Australian Aborigine mythology, the
god Jar'Edo Wedo is the god of earthly knowledge as well as physical might.
The Genetics of Spiritual and Religious Beliefs: Tim Spector, in the article,
What Twins Reveal About The Science Of Faith (Popular Science, August 8, 2013)
states, “They [the researchers] estimated the heritability of spirituality to be
around 40 to 50 percent, which is quite high considering how tricky it is to measure.
Other U.S. studies using even more detailed questions in larger numbers have
found similar or even stronger genetic influences. These studies demonstrate our
variable but innate inherited sense of spirituality, which affects how we perceive
the world, ourselves and the universe. This is independent of our formal religious
beliefs and practices and, strangely, largely independent of family influence.”
Complementing this is the research of Koenig et al. (2005) who report that the
contribution of genes to variation in religiosity (called heritability) increases from
12% to 44% and the contribution of shared (family) effects decreases from 56% to
18% between adolescence and adulthood.” The bottom line is that substantial
evidence reveals that some traits of religiosity are inherited. Brain Josephson, a
Nobel prize winning physicist in the article, Religion in Genes, states “I speculate
that religious practices have in part a genetic basis involving genes linked to
potential goodness." (Nature, Vol 362, April 15, 1993)
 Carl Jung, of course, developed the concept of a Collective Unconscious,
which emphasized the existence of unconscious genetically acquired
“predispositions” largely being idea-symbols often referred to archetypes which
supplied much of the motivations and scripts for human life and behavior. As John
Bargh, an Unconscious Researcher emphasizes there is a consensus among
researchers across disciplines including cognitive psychology, behavioral
psychology, and neuroscience that the Unconscious is the work horse of the human
mind, and furthermore there is a great deal that goes on in the unconscious of
which the conscious has no awareness. Neuroscience has revealed that there are
innate motivations and programming when it comes to morality, so unconscious
predispositions would seem a solid concept. As a psychologist noted, science has
shown that infants have an innate fear of snakes. In light of tens of thousands of
years of spiritual and religious beliefs, it would seem an inescapable conclusion that
a fair number of unconscious processes associated or connected with unconscious
idea-symbols must exist in the unconscious of the human mind.
So, when Christ highlighted “Spirit and Truth” (John 4:23-24) as
fundamental to religious and spiritual beliefs, as well as his observation that “Spirit
is Truth” (John 5:6) and when Christ framed the Holy Spirit in terms of "guidance"
in Luke, he was not speaking of a teaching so much as he was explaining and
expressing a very fundamental reality of human consciousness. The reality – both
psychological and spiritual that “spirit” is intimately connected with meaning and
truth is, when you step back and look at it a universal dynamic process of human
consciousness. The unconscious processes involved in processing meaning and
truth would seem very likely to intimately interconnected with the idea symbols of
spirit, creation, and creativity – that would consist of what neuroscientist might
describe a neural substrate.
Fruitfulness
Brian D Josephson, in the article Religion in Genes, states that “With
religion, focusing on the factuality or otherwise of religious belief similarly misses
the point: the significant questions in this context relate to the functions and
fruitfulness of religious beliefs.” Nature, Vol 362, April 15, 1993 Josephson goes on
to say that “Dawkins criticizes religion on the grounds of apparent conflicts
between religious beliefs and scientifically established facts.” In a nutshell,
scientists - and many Christians as well in my view - are fixated on the
transcendental characteristic of spiritual and religious beliefs.

A Quick proof of the God Fixation would be that in all the Psychology of
Religion books I have read, not one had any decent treatment of the Teachings of
Religions such as Compassion which is avital principle and tenet in every major
religion. Of course, then there are the teachings of righteousness, justice, and
truth! In the five Psychology of Religion, none even had a decent treatment of
compassion. One book had 6 or 7 unrelated references to compassion - yet had an
equal number of references to Freud - who as John Bargh pointed out has
demonized all the unconscious needs, drives, and motivations.

In a discussion with a Lutheran pastor, the pastor reeled of an impressive

number of "miracles" which he argued "proved" God. Assuming those miracles
indeed were actually well documented and could be used as scientific evidence,
the question remains, "How is it that miracles prove God? Is that what God is? - the
God of miracles? Assuming, again, that miracles do actually prove God, the
question is, "Exactly what is it you have proved?" That is, The concept of God, in
and of itself does not justify the existence of a religion. It is interesting that
Josephson used the term "fruitfulness" - which is what Christ says time and time
again - to judge something or somebody by its fruitfulness. Furthermore, in John
Christ states unequivocally "God is spirit."