The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung

In a dark dormitory room, its cinder block walls illuminated only by a desk lamp purchased a week before the semester began, a naïve mind opens to page 135 of a text for an introductory class in Abnormal Psychology. A face, suppressing a cavernous yawn expressed on not unhandsome features chilled by the night air turns to the page. What has this to do with ‘Me’? What can I gain for my future? Will it help me find a beautiful wife? Raise a family of loving children? Will I ever be a success? Or will I waste the next four years (never to return again) locked in featureless classrooms? What has the question asked by a professor to do with me: “Who am I and what is my place in the Universe?” The page describes a fellow standing on a box in the yard of mental hospital shouting obscenities at a largely distracted almost “catatonic” audience (professor’s word in class today, he witlessly adopted). Now at the beginning of a paragraph there appears the name Carl Jung followed by his birth and death dates. Years later the name and dates will appear as an epiphany before the student again.“He” has entered a “Swann’s Moment” as a disoriented child awakening to experience the gradual synthesis of the “Self “ in its immediate context. Or, he may have entered the eccentric world of Fyodor Dostoyevsky where the people met on the street are more likely to be, “philosophers or psychologists or prophets rather than ‘normal people’ ” who ask, “Do you believe in God?” rather than the more meaningless, “How are you?” as an introduction according to Clifton Fadiman.In his 1997 volume, “Aryan Christ,” Richard Noll, clinical psychologist and lecturer in the history of science at Harvard University effectively summarizes the life work in science and psychology, the scholarship and contributions to world thought accomplished by the considerable intellect of Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). This summary achieved through a review of his earliest experiences as a youth, including references to the Germanic Mythology, Sun Worship, Human Deification, and familiarity with what are referred to by Noll as the Pagan Gods. This review illuminated with Jung’s experiences later as the Zurich Institute with associates, patients, colleagues, expressed in personal communications, letters, publications, diary entries, records of dream analyses of himself and others, exploration of World Mythologies not to exclude Visionary Experiences. Individuals of special significance in the discourse include, Sigmund Freud, Fanny Bowditch, Richard Wagner, Emma Jung, Toni Wolff, Otto Gross, Sabina Spielrein, Edith Rockefeller McCormick, Maude Moltzer, Constance Long and Friedrich Nietzsche to mention only a few - succinctly put, some of the most influential people of his time. Noll makes special reference to Jung’s interest in Polygamy, the Libido as a god-like, creative force, Jung’s attempts to retain his central position in the face of competitors, multiple infatuations with associates and patients, his belief that he attained god-like status through his revelations, Jung’s stone Tower furnished and decorated with an erotic ambiance for special visits. Also included in Noll’s volume are photographs of the principals, evocative, iconographic art of “Fidus” (Hugo Hoppener), and visionary art recorded by Jung’s patients and associates. Seemingly, all of this information allows the reader to develop a personal assessment of Jung’s character and therefore who he was. One analysis (Gregorc, Learning Styles) of Jung suggests he was Abstract Sequential – he thought abstractly and then processed the results in systems. Also, such thinkers enjoy having their thoughts heard, and their charisma to fixate the audience beyond all others present. .Among Jung’s principal contributions to psychology as identified in Noll’s, “Aryan Christ” is that of the “Archetype”. Noll’s references to "archetypes" as conceived by Jung are somewhat critical. Archetypes, encoded in the brain are (supposed to be) images of the ideal male, "animus" and the ideal female, the "anima," among many others, especially relevant here – the Innocent, Sage, Creator, Hero, twelve in total with many variations. These archetypes derived from their presence in world mythologies. Jung became world famous in training specialists who would interpret visions and dreams of men and women as they related to certain of these archetypes – failure in this relationship presumed to cause psychological maladjustment. Of late, critics suggest the archetype idea is largely mythical and the images are actually no more than memories derived from forgotten experiences identified as examples of, "cryptomnesia". Such contentions have suggested that Jung’s ideas “prove nothing.”Despite these criticisms evidences of Jung’s archetypes have found their way as splendid examples in history and art. Exceptional examples of the archetypes or those who envisioned them in their creations include, Alexander, Cleopatra, T.E. Lawrence, Charles Dodgson, Joan of Arc, Vincent van Gogh, Beatrix Potter, Gustav Flaubert, R. Rider Haggard, Virginia Woolf, Ludwig van Beethoven, W.B. Yeats, to name a few.Preeminently in popular fiction, Edgar Rice Burroughs considered by some as the most influential writer of the 20th Century, had an intuitive "feel" for Jungian Archetypes, and developed them so vividly as to be instantly recognizable when awakened from the subconscious of the mesmerized reader. The superbly envisioned, mythical world of Pellucidar (based on Symzonia, the creation of John Symmes) is a glorious, "Glimpse of Elysium." Here, Abner Perry, the civilized Adventurer accompanied by the Explorer, David Innes comes to Pellucidar and attempts to meld the extant native society with the benefits of industrialism. They encounter Heroes, Sages, Innocents, Tricksters and, Dian the Jewel - the exquisite, expression of the Anima Archetype, so perfectly drawn as to be instantly recognizable as the "heart's desire" of a young male, experiencing the wanderlust to escape the restrictions of formalized, repetitive society.An illustrative quote assembled from passages in “At the Earth’s Core” imagines “Dian the Jewel of Pellucidar – “Light reflected from the curve of each brown limb sang of symmetry as she walked.” Dian and David are the perfect Jungian contra-biological union, who when so joined form the ideal hermaphroditic whole. Tarzan and Jane are identified in an even more perfect union. The mystic, Alfred Lord Tennyson declaims Aphrodite in his poem, “Oenone” - “Golden Aphrodite fresh as foam new-bathed in Paphian Wells. With rosy slender fingers backward drew from her warm brows and bosom her deep hair ambrosial, golden round her lucid throat and shoulder: from the violets her light foot shone rosy-white, and o'er her rounded form between the shadows of the vine-bunches floated the glowing sunlights, as she moved.” Abundant, ecstatic praise before Aphrodite receives the Golden Apple of the Sun, inscribed with “To the Most Fair.” Both Yeats and Burroughs plumbed their minds to the depths, and using higher order thinking of meta-representation availed the reader of Jung’s archetypes. Needless to say they were probably ignorant of Jung’s work.A second possible evidence of the archetype hypothesis to be advanced in this review is based on evolutionary theory establishing not only physical but also psychological phenomena follow a developmental sequence from learning to inheritance. In brief summary, this hypothesis in presented here – the reader must be reminded that the defense calls into question some of the most unquestioned of human experiences.Beautiful colors, “seen” so undeniably by humans are "illusions," in that the actual experiences are streams of "photons" of specific wavelengths. The observer cannot "see photons" in their actual quantum states – “colors” are illusions manufactured by the sense organs and brain. Colors contribute to human survival on the identification of foods, mates and seeing in the light passing through a forest canopy."Hot" and "cold" are similar illusions - whereas, the reality is “unseen” kinetic energy and the direction of its transduction interpreted by the sense organs and brain.What developmental sequence resulted in these illusions? The developmental hypothesis “Psychological Epigenesis” includes three steps: ” First, the illusion is consciously learned from an initial experience. Second, on repeated experience the illusion is produced directly from the subconscious. Third, particularly adaptive experiences become incorporated into the genetics of a species by mutation and natural selection among other contributing factors – in short, the illusion develops from the morphogenesis of a brain capable of generating the illusions as passed from one generation to the next. This explanation is based on recent thought on Darwinian Evolution with allusions to a kind of reverse Lamarckism.From this defense follows that “beauty” is another illusion manufactured by the brain based on the match with the unseen mathematical facial symmetry of Fibonacci triangles and other mathematical regularities (guiding positions of the lips and correspondence with the shape of the eyes, nose and other parts of the physiognomy). Movie stars are very close approximations of the ideal, mathematical face, and therefore, the match explains their "beauty." Beauty is an illusion in the same sense as other sensations. The "interpretation" of the mathematical regularities is “beauty:” the same the world over. Human genetics guides the morphogenesis and metabolism of a brain capable of creating this illusion. Genetic variations might contribute to varying capacities in individuals to experience beauty. Archetypes, including the "beautiful face" in the form of the animus and anima are present from conception - rather than remembered from forgotten experiences as suggested in cryptomnesia. (If anything, certain photographs are chosen since they represent the human biases toward mathematical regularity.)Research has demonstrated “cuteness” is related to beauty in the proportions of the face of that infant whose characteristics release nurturing behaviors in parents. Beauty seems related to signs of health and efficacy in reproductive success. As in most evolutionary strategies archetypes do not work perfectly but “well enough.” Beauty and cuteness need not be limited to the face but extended to other bodily proportions. Other archetypes are thought to follow the same sequence since “communication” is most essential to human survival in groups.What Jung identified as “archetypes” are indeed these genetically inherited guiding propensities of the human mind gleaned from their repeated appearance in world mythologies clarified by analytic thought, facts accessed from visual records of dreams, visions and their contents. Jung considered himself at least initially as a “scientist.” He communicated with Wolfgang Pauli for many years on the subject of “synchronicity.” Scientists as a group, rarely expose the origins of their insights in other than cold logic as Jung did. Friedrich Kekule resolved the ring structure of benzene based on a dream of a serpent holding its tail in its jaws. This admission was reserved for informal conversation. Jung applied all higher level thinking in the meta-representation of archetypes. Consider the following quote derived from the thought of a mystical poet, Edgar Allan Poe: “All we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”The most surprising of all the human illusions is the “Self” - no uninitiated person would call into question its existence. What are the illusions behind the, “Self”? Among others, “The Self is unchanging and continuous.” “The Self integrates all experiences.” “The Self is the agent of thought.” “The “Self” is a unifier of all else.” In short, the Self is, “Me”. All of these experiences are illusions as demonstrated by simple experimentation. However, they are cherished illusions, disturbances of such are by no means to be desired since normal functioning is disturbed in their absence.In short, “archetypes” are similar illusions, yet their presence is difficult to deny, and when incorporated successfully into everyday experience contribute to a pleasurable human existence including what Jung suggested as a “human deification”. The stored electrochemical propensities in the brain are transduced into images in the visual centers and serve as the basis of behavioral selections of extant objective correlatives. Archetypes, regardless of their limitations - humans are “fond” of them and unknowingly use them spontaneously to explain events and personalities in daily life. Conversely, these subliminal urgings can cause behaviors contrary to logic and rational self-interest. They are part of being human.In summary, read Richard Noll’s fascinating, well research and thought-out volume, “Aryan Christ” not to be influenced by tone or bias, but as a fine stimulus to individual thought and to what degree Jung has discovered principles leading to human success in in Nature. Jung’s depth of research and imaginative thought are undeniable. If it existed, his smugness of superiority alluded to by Noll is understandable and more acceptable over the sense of “humility” advocated by other thinkers lacking Jung’s accomplishments. Many thinkers report their “philosophy” as an inventory of personal thought, and probably begin to believe their thoughts are true and come directly from the Universe for the benefit of humanity – a kind of Messianic Impulse.One of Jung’s students, Constance Long developed an infatuation with Jung, and later her unrequited affections caused her to become involved with the mystic, P.D. Ouspensky. Her feelings for Jung are expressed in a personal poem, quoted in part here to illustrate another Jung’s Abstract Sequential qualities – he was an “Outsider” (in the Colin Wilson or Dostoyevsky sense) and more concerned with the “what” rather than the “who” in human relationships. However, this property apparently did not interfere with his performance of sexual mechanics: “He does not really seem to care Although he creaks and groans like doors He feeds on a different kind of dole Which comes from his superior soul. For mine “a little thing” it is And little things have little pain -”Do Jung’s treatments of dreams, mythology, imagination, and creativity describe some of the grander accomplishments of human evolution? Careful study of “Aryan Christ” will contribute significantly to answering any remaining questions. One must not fail to admire the scholarship of Richard Noll in creating the work under consideration, including the character sketches of famed people of the time, even though certain biases might have crept in to show Carl Jung in a somewhat unfavorable light. Followers who abandoned Jung and causing his reputation to suffer, later to recover, are discussed prominently. Not discussed is the success of pharmacology in the treatment of mental illness, or that Freud has lost much of his following. Of course, pharmacology alters the mechanisms of the brain, but other environmental factors cannot be denied. Jung displayed an almost limitless imagination surviving in acolytes to this day. For what it is worth the book is fascinating in spite of being too short. “We are all melodies played by the atoms and molecules composing the material body.”Even if some of the facts and thoughts in this review are wide of the mark, they might at least have value since they have stimulated wonder in humans over thousands of years. As an apotheosis, to identify the fellow mentioned at the outset of the review he could be Jung’s, “Puer aeternus,” suffering from remaining too long in the “Paradise of Childhood”- an archetypal realm of modern educational jargon.Your Old Buddy,Whizbang!!

As you can see from the diversity of viewpoints expressed both here and in reviews of Noll's "The Jung Cult", this is a highly controversial history of Jung's work with an emphasis on aspects that Noll claims have been suppressed. When I was debating whether or not to buy this book, I found one seemingly scholarly review that called it "bad history" and, just now wondering whether I should say what I am about to write, I did further searches and found several other, seemingly reasonable reviews which take Noll to task for bad scholarship. So, as one should always, I will try to remain open to the possibility that I have been misled. But the diary extracts, letters, and other source material from which Noll's conclusions are drawn are carefully footnoted and mostly gleaned from libraries where anyone could easily show deception if that were the case. So, for the moment, Noll has convinced me that there is a dark side (both in the Jungian and conventional sense) to Jung.I came to this book with a very high regard for Jung and seeing him as a guardian of truth in standing up to Freud's dogmatic insistence on the sexual basis of all neuroses. I still regard Jung as brilliant and having made extremely important contributions to humanity, but I now see a more balanced picture. Freud may have been too focused on sexuality, but apparently so was Jung, although in a much more personal way. Noll provides a convincing picture of Jung as being secretly dogmatic that a form of free love is essential to psychological health. Jung's sexual relationships with patients and coworkers, and his advice to patients to have extramarital affairs seem incontrovertible based on the evidence presented here.I suspect that much of the criticism of Noll is based on his evidence that Jung was heavily into an Aryan world viewpoint, which immediately conjures up Nazi stereotypes in our minds. Noll repeatedly tries to counteract that understandable tendency, saying for example (last paragraph of the Introduction) "But the most troublesome part of this story comes from asking you, the reader, to do the morally impossible: to imagine a world - fin-de-siecle German Kultur - in which the words "Hitler" and "Nazi" and "Holocaust" do not exist."Along these lines, it helps to remember that many intelligent, respectable, well-meaning Americans (e.g., Lindberg, Joseph Kennedy Sr.) were early Nazi supporters, just as many were early Communist supporters. The horrendous evils perpetrated in the names of Aryanism and Communism were not present in their early philosophies. It also helps to remember that anti-Semitism and racism in general were the cultural norm througout the world until well into the 1960's or 1970's. It was almost impossible NOT to be prejudiced in Jung's time. (A related book that touches on psychoanalysis and anti-Semitism and that I highly recommend is Bakan's "Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition.")Another problem concerns Noll's evidence that Jung disparaged Christianity and secretly reverted to (as well as secretly proselytized for) an ancient, pagan, Aryan religion. Such a move will be seen through a highly distorting filter if viewed in the context of today's Christianity. Again, it is hard, but important, to view Jung's choices in terms of the dogmatic Swiss-German Christianity of the late nineteenth century.As with most movements that believe they have the secret to saving the world, many Jungians idealize their prophet and make him into a kind of god. In contrast, the picture that emerges from "Aryan Christ" is of a brilliant man -- but a man not a god and therefore with all the attendant human frailties. The danger is in forgetting Jung's humanity.

I read Aryan Christ because, I spent years talking to Jungian analysts and writing down dreams. I never got anything useful from the analysis. Reminds me of Woody Allen's character in his movie 'Sleeper'. He'd been frozen for 300 years and when he's revived he says, 'If I'd been seeing my analyst all this time, I might have been cured by now.' Well, I'm not going to keep trying. I heard one nonsense story too many from a Jungian and gave up. This book explained how Jung became popular and how he became influential.Richard Noll found quite a bit of evidence that Jung felt safe in adding to his purported knowledge by just making something up that sounded good. Noll doesn't mention that Jung, gave lectures and wrote about the 'psychology' of kundalini yoga and various other Eastern Asian meditation traditions. Did Jung have experience with yoga or meditation of the type he wrote about? No. Its like Alan Watts or OSHO (Bhagwan Rajneesh) talking about Zen. They don't have much experience with it but, they read about it and talked to people about it and they're smart so, they can write books explaining it all. Useless books.Noll makes it clear Jung was given to not being honest. This is not Noll being mean, there is documented evidence that Jung was lying to people. He, like Freud would change his story in substantial ways on any number of things regarding his patients, his practice and things he'd said and done.Mostly, this book helped me by telling me Carl Jung's material was nonsense. There is nothing to get from Jungian Analytic Psychology. Or, any of his work. Not even personality types. Update: I recently took an another MBTI personality test. Voilá, I am no longer an INTJ, I'm an ESFP! Well, maybe I've changed that much...

Another excellent survey of Jung - but, thank goodness, not another hagiography, Jung did not spring out of the blue but from the same historico-social complex that gave rise to the terrible ideologies of the last century.

Riveting, unputdownable, and TRUE I feel only too well !!!