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جهان اسطورهشناسی #7
Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies
While Jung is known mainly for his theories on the nature of the unconscious mind, he did have an interest in the paranormal. In this essay, Jung applies his analytical skills to the UFO phenomenon. Rather than assuming that the modern prevalence of UFO sightings are due to extraterrestrial craft, Jung reserves judgment on their origin & connects UFOs with archetypal imagery, concluding that they have become a "living myth." This essay is intriguing in its methodology & implications as to the nature of UFOs & their relation to the human psyche.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
68 people are currently reading
1853 people want to read
About the author
C.G. Jung
1,875 books11.5k followersCarl Gustav Jung (/jʊŋ/; German: [ˈkarl ˈɡʊstaf jʊŋ]), often referred to as C. G. Jung, was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of extraversion and introversion; archetypes, and the collective unconscious. His work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion, philosophy, archeology, anthropology, literature, and related fields. He was a prolific writer, many of whose works were not published until after his death.
The central concept of analytical psychology is individuation—the psychological process of integrating the opposites, including the conscious with the unconscious, while still maintaining their relative autonomy. Jung considered individuation to be the central process of human development.
Jung created some of the best known psychological concepts, including the archetype, the collective unconscious, the complex, and synchronicity. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular psychometric instrument, has been developed from Jung's theory of psychological types.
Though he was a practising clinician and considered himself to be a scientist, much of his life's work was spent exploring tangential areas such as Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, and sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung's interest in philosophy and the occult led many to view him as a mystic, although his ambition was to be seen as a man of science. His influence on popular psychology, the "psychologization of religion", spirituality and the New Age movement has been immense.
The central concept of analytical psychology is individuation—the psychological process of integrating the opposites, including the conscious with the unconscious, while still maintaining their relative autonomy. Jung considered individuation to be the central process of human development.
Jung created some of the best known psychological concepts, including the archetype, the collective unconscious, the complex, and synchronicity. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular psychometric instrument, has been developed from Jung's theory of psychological types.
Though he was a practising clinician and considered himself to be a scientist, much of his life's work was spent exploring tangential areas such as Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, and sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung's interest in philosophy and the occult led many to view him as a mystic, although his ambition was to be seen as a man of science. His influence on popular psychology, the "psychologization of religion", spirituality and the New Age movement has been immense.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
March 28, 2024
(Don’t get fooled, this is a Billy Meier fake-UFO)
“I am puzzled to death about these phenomena…”
Letter of Jung to an American friend, in February 1951.
When* Jung wrote this book [1958], though the sightings reported were already on the “thousands” order, it seems other parallel phenomena weren’t that much reported. I mean, obviously, the abduction phenomenon; or “implants”;…nor, was it so manifest, this societal demand for “disclosure” of government UFO data, as we see today. Jung knew about George Adamski who, besides being an eyewitness, had [claimed] “travelled inside an UFO”.
Nevertheless, Jung was still debating with questions such as “is it rumor or fact” ? Even, considering the whole thing as a “myth” re-enacted, like some biblical sightings. He would approach the “foo fighters” of WWII and scenarios like an “ET invasion”.
(foo fighters)
Yet his main work is regarding the UFO phenomenon from the psychologist point of view. And here he highlighted that some sightings may have a “projection“ basis; that is, some sightings could be a “manifestation of an unconscious background”.
“Jung’s analytical interpretation is that flying saucers are mandalas…The saucer is from another planet (the unconscious), and is inhabited by aliens (other archetypes)"**
Still, as a psychologist, he approaches those dreams involving UFOs. He uses both the alchemical and the psychoanalytical perspective.
Next to the dream analysis, Jung ponders on UFO's in modern paintings as well as in a historical perspective.
I wouldn’t take long on the Jung's commentary on paintings, but I will only retain his expression “beauty of chaos”, which seems to pervade in some of the works approached.
Most interesting to me were his comments on the three gravures above. The first one of August 1566, by Samuel Coccius, implies that some UFO’s were “black”.
The second one depicts sightings which occurred in Nuremberg on the 14th April of 1561, when many people saw “spheres of blood-red, blue and black”; the disks were “ring-shaped”, but the sightings included some “tubes”.
The third gravure shows, clearly, the existence of two worlds; one, the world “we know” and the other one supernatural, it seems, only for those illumined to contemplate: it’s the world of the “celestial spheres”, of the “Ezekiel wheels”.
One gravure not yet included in my review from the codice “Scivias” (12th century) by H. Von Bingen, touches on the nature of the “spheres of fire”, as representing “souls”.
Well, after 10 years of search and study (with no acceptable conclusions) Jung gets to a sort of cul-de-sac; [“if these things are real…”] on one side (1) there’s lack of evidence. On the other side (2) the sightings have a psychic nature, no doubts.
Jung advances: he’s not in conditions to solve the problem.
But, in my view, his attempts to understand the phenomena were just great.
UPDATE
At last, on the next September we shall witness the long awaited Disclosure on the UFO phenomenon. More than 1 million raiding Area 51....Won't we??
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnet...
* Of course, back then, Jung didn't know about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZPDh...
**Hall, C.S., & Nordby, V. J. A Primer in Jungian Psychology. NY: Signet, 1973.
June 15, 2011
The space program was enormously important to the generation growing up in the late fifties through the early seventies. I can remember sputnik, Laika, the push for more science education, Yuri Gagarin interrupting all television programming, watching Echo from the Michigan beach at night, Shepherd, Grissom, Glenn, Titov, Cooper, the Gemini accident...and with all of this the popular culture of science fiction pulps and novels, of The Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits on television.
Dad got me a simple reflector telescope when I was about ten. I was quite the "artist" then, drawing mostly planes, imaginary airport designs and spacecraft, watching those airplanes coming in and out of O'Hare, right over our house, knowing their makes and models by heart. He took me to the inauguration of Northwestern's observatory where I saw J. Allen Hynek, head of their astronomy department. I was going to be a scientist, an astrophysicist! I'd go to the adult section of the library, spending the weekends in their reading room because they wouldn't let an elementary school student check out their books, reading astronomy and physics texts (I even tried Einstein after I'd started learning "the New Math" in fifth grade--hours of sedulously trying to interpret equations and formulae), studying a book about xenobiology, discovering the shelves on "unidentified flying objects" in the "science"(!) section of the library.
I probably read every book the Park Ridge Library had on U.F.O.s--including George Adamski who seemed crazy even before I read another volume refuting him--and, at home, began to take the telescope out at night to look for them.
No such luck. I probably wasn't "individuated" enough as Jung would say.
Yes. Jung was in the science section too--at least his U.F.O. book was. I'd never heard of the guy, but the prefatory material discussed Freud and everybody thought they knew something about Freud, even kids. The book was a bit beyond me, using terminology not seen before in the other science books. It was also frustrating. Jung did allow for a material substratum, for actual events behind the U.F.O. reports, but he hardly wrote about that, the fun and sort of scary stuff, at all. His concern was all about "projection of archetypal psychic contents from the collective unconscious" with the U.F.O.s representing the human aspiration for "wholeness" as represented in wierd things like mandalas, Indian sand paintings and supposed space visitors.
I didn't return to Jung for years, not until college. By then I'd read the Blue Book files at the closing of the Air Force project in 1969 and dropped the U.F.O. thing. I'd also given up, sort of, on science after a disastrous A.P. Chemistry class. I'd even given up, sort of, on science fiction--well, not during breaks maybe. Now it was girls, my moral and social failings, the various crises of the world and of our culture--you know, psychology. By the end of the sophomore year it was Jung and Freud and Jaspers and Fromm and on and on as I tried to make up for lost time and fix the wreck I'd become. And Jung, who was so well educated as to intimidate me, took me back, eventually, to altered states of conscious--you know, psychedelics, alternative realities, epistemological sophistication and, well, U.F.O.s.
Dad got me a simple reflector telescope when I was about ten. I was quite the "artist" then, drawing mostly planes, imaginary airport designs and spacecraft, watching those airplanes coming in and out of O'Hare, right over our house, knowing their makes and models by heart. He took me to the inauguration of Northwestern's observatory where I saw J. Allen Hynek, head of their astronomy department. I was going to be a scientist, an astrophysicist! I'd go to the adult section of the library, spending the weekends in their reading room because they wouldn't let an elementary school student check out their books, reading astronomy and physics texts (I even tried Einstein after I'd started learning "the New Math" in fifth grade--hours of sedulously trying to interpret equations and formulae), studying a book about xenobiology, discovering the shelves on "unidentified flying objects" in the "science"(!) section of the library.
I probably read every book the Park Ridge Library had on U.F.O.s--including George Adamski who seemed crazy even before I read another volume refuting him--and, at home, began to take the telescope out at night to look for them.
No such luck. I probably wasn't "individuated" enough as Jung would say.
Yes. Jung was in the science section too--at least his U.F.O. book was. I'd never heard of the guy, but the prefatory material discussed Freud and everybody thought they knew something about Freud, even kids. The book was a bit beyond me, using terminology not seen before in the other science books. It was also frustrating. Jung did allow for a material substratum, for actual events behind the U.F.O. reports, but he hardly wrote about that, the fun and sort of scary stuff, at all. His concern was all about "projection of archetypal psychic contents from the collective unconscious" with the U.F.O.s representing the human aspiration for "wholeness" as represented in wierd things like mandalas, Indian sand paintings and supposed space visitors.
I didn't return to Jung for years, not until college. By then I'd read the Blue Book files at the closing of the Air Force project in 1969 and dropped the U.F.O. thing. I'd also given up, sort of, on science after a disastrous A.P. Chemistry class. I'd even given up, sort of, on science fiction--well, not during breaks maybe. Now it was girls, my moral and social failings, the various crises of the world and of our culture--you know, psychology. By the end of the sophomore year it was Jung and Freud and Jaspers and Fromm and on and on as I tried to make up for lost time and fix the wreck I'd become. And Jung, who was so well educated as to intimidate me, took me back, eventually, to altered states of conscious--you know, psychedelics, alternative realities, epistemological sophistication and, well, U.F.O.s.
June 1, 2020
"If the round shining objects that appear in the sky be regarded as visions, we can hardly avoid interpreting them as archetypal images. They would then be involuntary, automatic projections based on instinct, and as little as any other psychic manifestations or symptoms can they be dismissed as meaningless and merely fortuitous." (16-17)Written near the end of his life, in 1958, Flying Saucers provides an account of a subject in which Jung had become increasingly interested: UFOs. Flying saucers were very much alive in the public imagination of the fifties, and Jung analyses the sightings of UFOs psychologically, by conceiving of them as 'visionary rumors' that people are led to unconsciously project in the sky, as a mythological archetypes (gods no longer believed to be living there, we began to picture saucers in the sky). He links this psychic projection to the collective unconscious, a diffuse fear and apprehension characteristic of the times (17-18):
"The present world situation is calculated as never before to arouse expectations of a redeeming, supernatural event. If these expectations have not dared to show themselves very clearly, this is simply because no one is deeply rooted enough in the tradition of earlier centuries to consider an intervention from heaven as a matter of course. We have indeed strayed far from the metaphysical certainties of the Middle Ages, but not so far that our historical and psychological background is empty of all metaphysical hope."
May 17, 2013
I hadn't realised Jung had written a book about UFOs. So with some curiosity I got this from the library. (Apparently I'm the first person to have checked it out since 2001.)
Anyway, it was quite interesting. Jung was apparently quite willing to accept that the UFO phenomena was real, and that either large portions of society were experiencing mass hallucinations (that sometimes gave radar signal returns) or the planet is experiencing a phenomena that we do not understand.
And most of the book is given over to analysing the symbology of UFOs in dreams, and putting the case that most UFO encounters fall into certain psychological patterns. (Even at the most basic - round UFOs feminine, cigar shaped UFOs, masculine. The mandala, the circle of god, etc, etc.) And that somehow these subconscious patterns are being projected into the world.
(He references parapsychology a lot, leading me to believe Jung believed in parapsychology?)
His basic idea is that the phenomena we experience today as UFOs from other planets is the same phenomena that has been around humanity forever, just it's framed as aliens today whereas in the past it was framed as visitations from Angels or Gods or whatnot.
Which is pretty convincing as theories about UFOs go.
By gosh though, Jung didn't half hate communists. And stupid people. And his writing is... well perhaps it was the translation. But excessively obtuse, is how I'd probably describe it. Anyway, glad I read it.
Anyway, it was quite interesting. Jung was apparently quite willing to accept that the UFO phenomena was real, and that either large portions of society were experiencing mass hallucinations (that sometimes gave radar signal returns) or the planet is experiencing a phenomena that we do not understand.
And most of the book is given over to analysing the symbology of UFOs in dreams, and putting the case that most UFO encounters fall into certain psychological patterns. (Even at the most basic - round UFOs feminine, cigar shaped UFOs, masculine. The mandala, the circle of god, etc, etc.) And that somehow these subconscious patterns are being projected into the world.
(He references parapsychology a lot, leading me to believe Jung believed in parapsychology?)
His basic idea is that the phenomena we experience today as UFOs from other planets is the same phenomena that has been around humanity forever, just it's framed as aliens today whereas in the past it was framed as visitations from Angels or Gods or whatnot.
Which is pretty convincing as theories about UFOs go.
By gosh though, Jung didn't half hate communists. And stupid people. And his writing is... well perhaps it was the translation. But excessively obtuse, is how I'd probably describe it. Anyway, glad I read it.
December 6, 2021
"The plurality of UFOs, then, is a projection of a number of psychic images of wholeness which appear in the sky because on the one hand they represent archetypes charged with energy and on the other hand are not recognized as psychic factors. The reason for this is that our present-day consciousness possesses no conceptual categories by means of which it could apprehend the nature of psychic totality. It is still in an archaic state, so to speak, where apperceptions of this kind do not occur, and accordingly the relevant contents cannot be recognized as psychic factors. Moreover, it is so trained that it must think of such images not as forms inherent in the psyche but as existing somewhere in extra-psychic, metaphysical space, or else as historical facts. When, therefore, the archetype receives from the conditions of the time and from the general psychic situation an additional charge of energy, it cannot, for the reasons I have described, be integrated directly into consciousness, but is forced to manifest itself indirectly in the form of spontaneous projections. The projected image then appears as an ostensibly physical fact independent of the individual psyche and its nature. In other words, the rounded wholeness of the mandala becomes a
space ship controlled by an intelligent being."
UFOs as an image of wholeness and unity projected onto the skies by an anxious humanity that does not know how to resolve its own divisions.
space ship controlled by an intelligent being."
UFOs as an image of wholeness and unity projected onto the skies by an anxious humanity that does not know how to resolve its own divisions.
April 9, 2025
This book was first published in 1958 and the chapters cover UFOs as rumours, UFOs in dreams, UFOs in modern painting, UFOs in history, and perhaps most telling of all UFOs considered in a non-psychological light.
CG Jung was a self-confessed sceptic regarding UFOs, but was intrigued by their psychic aspect. The simultaneous visual and radar sightings are satisfactory proof of their reality so Jung investigates the hypotheses of the weightlessness of UFOs and of their possible psychic nature.
The observed speeds and angles of turn are such that no earthly being could survive them any more than they could the enormous heat generated by friction. This indicates the anti-gravitational nature of the UFOs, that they can somehow counteract the g-Forces applied in such speedy changes of direction - although this does pre-suppose there's a living entity inside. That UFOs are something psychic that is equipped with certain physical properties seems even more unlikely, that something psychic could appear by itself high in the air at a great distance from any human mediums surpasses our comprehension.
The third hypothesis or possibility is that UFOs are real material phenomena of an unknown nature, presumably coming from outer space with no connection with the earth or its inhabitants.
CG Jung was a self-confessed sceptic regarding UFOs, but was intrigued by their psychic aspect. The simultaneous visual and radar sightings are satisfactory proof of their reality so Jung investigates the hypotheses of the weightlessness of UFOs and of their possible psychic nature.
The observed speeds and angles of turn are such that no earthly being could survive them any more than they could the enormous heat generated by friction. This indicates the anti-gravitational nature of the UFOs, that they can somehow counteract the g-Forces applied in such speedy changes of direction - although this does pre-suppose there's a living entity inside. That UFOs are something psychic that is equipped with certain physical properties seems even more unlikely, that something psychic could appear by itself high in the air at a great distance from any human mediums surpasses our comprehension.
The third hypothesis or possibility is that UFOs are real material phenomena of an unknown nature, presumably coming from outer space with no connection with the earth or its inhabitants.
September 18, 2024
But do they exist or not?
July 10, 2020
bir klişeye uymayıp ilk kez kitabı kapağına göre değerlendirip satın aldım ve okumak için raftan çıkarana kadar da arka kapak metnine bakmadım. Sembollerin ve mitlerin efendisi Jung'un gökte görülen cisimler derken güneş, ay, yıldız ve gezegenlerden bahsettiğini düşünmüştüm, hatta kapak fotosu da bu inancımı kuvvetlendirmiş olabilir. Meğer Jung burada ufolardan bahsediyormuş. pek ilgimi çekmeyen bir konuyu jung'un kuramının anahatlarıyla okumak değişik olsa da bayıldığımı söyleyemem. Ama uzay, ufo, uzaylılar gerçekten var mı mevzularına meraklı bilim kurgucular için farklı bir bakış açısı sunabilir.
April 6, 2019
Understanding fully that this might sound ironic, granted that I've just given 5 stars to Zohar: The Book of Splendor: Basic Readings from the Kabbalah, I have to say that Jung is a bit too mystical for my taste.
He aims to explain the phenomena of UFO sightings (also dreams about UFOs and artwork involving it) claiming that it stems from our unconscious and it's a manifestation of the same tendency that made people see mystical visions, just 'updated' to modern world.
I found that his deeper explanations of these phenomena are not as outrageous as to be amusing, but not something I could subscribe to, not being an adept of Jungian psychoanalysis.
For example, why the shape of a lens in many of those sightings? The circle, Jung claims, is found in many mythologies (in my opinion, not very surprising, since it's a very basic shape, not being too difficult to draw), where it represents this and that (cherrypicking the examples somehow), and it expresses the subconscious need for individuation and psychic unity, because in the modern world we are just another brick in the wall, and this and that.
His writing is clear, and it was entertaining to see how he picks on Freud while explaining one of the dreams (seeing that in a dream of one patient the UFO takes a shape of the cigar some of us might be drawn to the sexual interpretation, but it's very reductive and the real explanation is much more spiritual...). If you like Jungian psychoanalysis, it's probably an interesting book to add to your reading list, but if you aren't particularly drawn to it, I would suggest skipping it (maybe starting from some other one?).
He aims to explain the phenomena of UFO sightings (also dreams about UFOs and artwork involving it) claiming that it stems from our unconscious and it's a manifestation of the same tendency that made people see mystical visions, just 'updated' to modern world.
I found that his deeper explanations of these phenomena are not as outrageous as to be amusing, but not something I could subscribe to, not being an adept of Jungian psychoanalysis.
For example, why the shape of a lens in many of those sightings? The circle, Jung claims, is found in many mythologies (in my opinion, not very surprising, since it's a very basic shape, not being too difficult to draw), where it represents this and that (cherrypicking the examples somehow), and it expresses the subconscious need for individuation and psychic unity, because in the modern world we are just another brick in the wall, and this and that.
His writing is clear, and it was entertaining to see how he picks on Freud while explaining one of the dreams (seeing that in a dream of one patient the UFO takes a shape of the cigar some of us might be drawn to the sexual interpretation, but it's very reductive and the real explanation is much more spiritual...). If you like Jungian psychoanalysis, it's probably an interesting book to add to your reading list, but if you aren't particularly drawn to it, I would suggest skipping it (maybe starting from some other one?).
September 23, 2024
A classic. Remarkably still not outdated at all.
Read
June 13, 2020I skimmed this more than read it, so I'm not giving a star rating. I often don't understand Jung. His writing is highly mystical and I don't think I have the right background to get what he is saying a lot of the time, however, there were some real moments of brilliance in this book as well, which made it worth reading for me, for example, this discussion on religion:
The dominating idea of a mediator and god who became man, after having thrust the old polytheistic beliefs into the background, is now in its turn on the point of evaporating. Untold millions of so-called Christians have lost their belief in a real and living mediator, while the believers endeavor to make their belief credible to primitive people, when it would be so much more fruitful to bestow these much needed efforts on the white man. But it is always so much easier and more affecting to talk and act down to people instead of up to them.
January 2, 2022
Es imposible condensar en un comentario la variada y específica información sobre la hipótesis psicológica sobre los Ufo. Es sencillamente la expresión de que para quién lee, se entera del devenir del mundo. Excelente.
November 12, 2023
Jung's UFO book is admirable for its honesty. He is wholly willing to accept the possibility of the physicality of UFOs, while refraining from committing to affirming their physicality, due to paucity of evidence available to him at the time. The book therefore consists almost entirely of speculations about how the UFO phenomena could be psychic projections- though he doesn't argue that they are indeed such. His primary point is that they seem similar to mandalas, and could represent the wholeness of the Self to the individuals to which they manifest, compensating for the common grappling with the soul fracturing trials of these trying times (mechanized war, new technology, death of God etc). The dreams section seemed relevant, but the analysis of abstract painting was pretty superfluous.
December 1, 2022
- If you're familiar with Jung you already know what he is going to say about ufos, it kind of felt like he just wanted to share more of his dream interpretations.
-What this book does extremely well is critique many of the issues that cause the symptoms of modern man: unconsciousness, rationalism, religion with no understanding, conformity, herd mentality
-What this book does extremely well is critique many of the issues that cause the symptoms of modern man: unconsciousness, rationalism, religion with no understanding, conformity, herd mentality
October 22, 2024
This was an interesting read, as Jung interprets dreams and the UFO phenomena from a psychological lens. He also points out a number of other works that seem worth looking into
October 17, 2008
I think this is the one I read of his, given to me by a friend.
Jung had a strong interest in the UFO phenomenon, and carried out a thorough scientific study on many eye witnesses.
He chose only eye witnesses who's credibility he considered to be very high, pilots, police officers, military, radar personnel and scientists.
What was most interesting was that his writing seemed to hint at his bias toward belief. Because of his high profile in the psychology field, he couldn't bring himself to validate the existence of UFOs publicly.
But he did say that there were only one of two possible explanations.
Either large portions of our society that would otherwise be considered intelligent and mentally stable, were experiencing mass hallucinations...
Or we were actually being visited by aliens.
Either way, the implications were astounding.
In his private life, his friends claimed that this research made him a believer, and that it was an obsession of his until his death.
The book is as interesting for what it implies, as it is for the research that went into it.
Jung had a strong interest in the UFO phenomenon, and carried out a thorough scientific study on many eye witnesses.
He chose only eye witnesses who's credibility he considered to be very high, pilots, police officers, military, radar personnel and scientists.
What was most interesting was that his writing seemed to hint at his bias toward belief. Because of his high profile in the psychology field, he couldn't bring himself to validate the existence of UFOs publicly.
But he did say that there were only one of two possible explanations.
Either large portions of our society that would otherwise be considered intelligent and mentally stable, were experiencing mass hallucinations...
Or we were actually being visited by aliens.
Either way, the implications were astounding.
In his private life, his friends claimed that this research made him a believer, and that it was an obsession of his until his death.
The book is as interesting for what it implies, as it is for the research that went into it.
October 10, 2021
It pains me to give this only two stars given that it is a supposedly foundational text, but it commits the sin of being dull and meandering. Have you ever been in a social situation you cannot escape where someone wants to keep telling you their weird dreams that aren't particularly weird? Has someone then self-seriously analyzed these weird dreams for an hour each as though every image was Deeply Profound? That is the longest chapter in this book. Not about flying saucers or mythology, just a couple of people's odd dreams in detail. These people did not see flying saucers. They do not necessarily believe in flying saucers. They just had dreams that were flying saucer-adjacent. Then he takes the same tack for maybe-flying saucers in art as though they were Deeply Profound and demonstrative of actual flying saucers (hint: fourteenth-century paintings are not photographs) rather than just artistic flourishes.
There is some worthwhile content in here, maybe a long article about the actual thesis of the book, but it is mired in aimless digressions.
I'm glad this is foundational because enough better works have been built upon it so that you may consider this book safely buried.
There is some worthwhile content in here, maybe a long article about the actual thesis of the book, but it is mired in aimless digressions.
I'm glad this is foundational because enough better works have been built upon it so that you may consider this book safely buried.
August 21, 2011
Read this book in a single sitting, which wasn't very difficult as it's quite short book. Even so, I could not put it down and found the concepts within it fascinating. This was written, partially in answer to Donald Keyhoe's saucer claims and Jung puts forth a very convincing argument of us wanting to believe in UFOs, a fact strenghthened by the fact that sightings were more prevelant in the age of the X Files etc.
October 27, 2019
Difícilmente me podría haber decepcionado más. Es una pena que una mente interesante como la de Jung se viese infectada por las ridículas ideas del megalómano de Freud. Y de su prepotencia, dicho de paso, acusando de ignorantes a otros autores por desconocer "la realidad del inconsciente". Lástima que no haya vivido lo suficiente para ver sus ideas clarividentes totalmente desmontadas por la ciencia actual.
December 28, 2017
In my opinion this is the first book one should look to when starting a serious study of the UFO phenomena. It's the precursor and sets the stage for the great thinkers that come later in UFOlogy: John Keel, Jacques Vallee, Nick Redfern, George Knapp, Ted Holiday, and Patrick Harpur.
I only gave 4 stars because of the brevity of the book...
I only gave 4 stars because of the brevity of the book...
September 24, 2007
The chapters about saucers in art were especially interesting.
June 24, 2017
Zwischen Menschenwelt und Überwelt steht als große Mittlerin die Zahl.
July 12, 2019
Meio chato, mas não consigo dar menos de 5 estrelas pra algo que o Jung escreveu. E os últimos parágrafos são incríveis.
January 11, 2024
Com a maior curiosidade li as impressões de Jung a respeito do fenômeno OVNI/UFO. Ainda bem que deu tempo para o assunto desses objetos aparecer ainda em vida de Jung, de maneira que podemos ler o que ele pensava a respeito e ver de que maneira ele pode contribuir para o tema controvertido.
Bem, no início do livro, Jung se mantém cauteloso quanto a questionar a realidade física dos óvnis. Sabe que este não é o seu terreno e por isso avisa que pretende se concentrar apenas naquilo que o fenômeno eventualmente possui de psíquico. Conforme a leitura progride e Jung vai analisando diversos sonhos que pessoas tiveram com óvnis, passando depois para pinturas, tem-se quase a impressão de que ele está jogando uma pá de cal em cima dessa história de os extraterrestres serem a explicação para o fenômeno.
De fato, em tudo ele encontra referências psíquicas que explicam adequadamente todos os tipos de aparições relacionadas a óvnis. Ele mostra o quanto o nosso próprio inconsciente age na formação de mitos que, em nossa realidade tecnológica, expressam-se na forma de espaçonaves.
Entretanto, quando o leitor já acha que todo o fenômeno pode ter sua materialidade descartada, ao menos em uma interpretação de Jung, e encontrar a sua razão de ser em insuspeitadas motivações do nosso próprio cérebro, capaz de criar imagens simbólicas no céu, vem o próprio Jung e confessa a sua perplexidade diante de manifestações físicas desses objetos voadores não identificados.
Jung acha bem possível, e até provável, que uma pessoa projete no céu imagens do seu inconsciente, acha também possível que as imagens sejam compartilhadas com outra pessoa, mas não pode admitir que semelhantes aparições surjam em radares.
Essa materialidade lhe parece impossível, ainda que ele não desconheça certas habilidades parapsicológicas que seriam capazes, em tese, até de materializar coisas, mas sempre próximas a algum médium, jamais projetadas no próprio céu.
Por outro lado, como os óvnis costumam não obedecer ao que entendemos como gravidade, pois os seus movimentos geralmente não a respeitam, Jung não sabe o que pensar e, até mesmo, acha infrutífero especular sobre o que está por trás dos casos mais misteriosos de aparições.
O resultado disso é que, embora tenha demonstrado o quanto pode haver de psiquismo no fenômeno, a hipótese extraterrestre sai até fortalecida do embate com Jung.
A aplicação da psicologia do inconsciente na avaliação de relatos ufológicos se mostra um meio dos mais úteis para afastar algumas credulidades que se disseminam enormemente por toda a Ufologia, só que ela não dá conta de explicar todos os fenômenos de aparições.
É interessante que, embora sustente a possibilidade de que as pessoas projetem suas aparições no céu, Jung se restringiu a analisar apenas sonhos e pinturas, e não relatos de quem viu ou alega ter visto diretamente, quando acordado, um objeto voador não identificado.
Esses sonhos e pinturas, é natural, revelam muito daquilo que pode estar em jogo no momento em que uma pessoa acredita ter visto diretamente um óvni, mas não significa que reflitam exatamente essa experiência.
Por outro lado, Jung apresenta uma interessante resposta a um argumento muito comum na Ufologia, que é o de destacar a posição ou os atributos de quem faz o relato como se isso fosse uma prova da veracidade da sua experiência. Assim, são destacados os pilotos e militares que avistaram óvnis, ou outras pessoas que eram reconhecidamente bem racionais e que, portanto, não teriam motivo para criar uma fantasia.
Jung rebate o primeiro argumento falando sobre a “solidão aérea” e o quanto ela se torna propícia para que, pelo inconsciente dos pilotos, sejam projetadas imagens na imensidão ao seu redor. Em relação ao segundo, ele lembra que são precisamente as pessoas que se destacam pela racionalidade aquelas cujos inconscientes mais precisam se “esforçar” para manifestar uma realidade psíquica.
Em outras palavras, quanto mais for racional uma pessoa, maior a tendência de ter tais “visões”.
São comentários dos mais interessantes e me parece que a maior parte Ufologia atual já comprou totalmente a hipótese extraterrestre e aceita com complacência relatos que, claramente, dizem respeito à psicologia do “contatado”. Convém que a vida psíquica seja um fator considerado para a validação de um relato, se a Ufologia quer ser reconhecida como ciência.
Bem, no início do livro, Jung se mantém cauteloso quanto a questionar a realidade física dos óvnis. Sabe que este não é o seu terreno e por isso avisa que pretende se concentrar apenas naquilo que o fenômeno eventualmente possui de psíquico. Conforme a leitura progride e Jung vai analisando diversos sonhos que pessoas tiveram com óvnis, passando depois para pinturas, tem-se quase a impressão de que ele está jogando uma pá de cal em cima dessa história de os extraterrestres serem a explicação para o fenômeno.
De fato, em tudo ele encontra referências psíquicas que explicam adequadamente todos os tipos de aparições relacionadas a óvnis. Ele mostra o quanto o nosso próprio inconsciente age na formação de mitos que, em nossa realidade tecnológica, expressam-se na forma de espaçonaves.
Entretanto, quando o leitor já acha que todo o fenômeno pode ter sua materialidade descartada, ao menos em uma interpretação de Jung, e encontrar a sua razão de ser em insuspeitadas motivações do nosso próprio cérebro, capaz de criar imagens simbólicas no céu, vem o próprio Jung e confessa a sua perplexidade diante de manifestações físicas desses objetos voadores não identificados.
Jung acha bem possível, e até provável, que uma pessoa projete no céu imagens do seu inconsciente, acha também possível que as imagens sejam compartilhadas com outra pessoa, mas não pode admitir que semelhantes aparições surjam em radares.
Essa materialidade lhe parece impossível, ainda que ele não desconheça certas habilidades parapsicológicas que seriam capazes, em tese, até de materializar coisas, mas sempre próximas a algum médium, jamais projetadas no próprio céu.
Por outro lado, como os óvnis costumam não obedecer ao que entendemos como gravidade, pois os seus movimentos geralmente não a respeitam, Jung não sabe o que pensar e, até mesmo, acha infrutífero especular sobre o que está por trás dos casos mais misteriosos de aparições.
O resultado disso é que, embora tenha demonstrado o quanto pode haver de psiquismo no fenômeno, a hipótese extraterrestre sai até fortalecida do embate com Jung.
A aplicação da psicologia do inconsciente na avaliação de relatos ufológicos se mostra um meio dos mais úteis para afastar algumas credulidades que se disseminam enormemente por toda a Ufologia, só que ela não dá conta de explicar todos os fenômenos de aparições.
É interessante que, embora sustente a possibilidade de que as pessoas projetem suas aparições no céu, Jung se restringiu a analisar apenas sonhos e pinturas, e não relatos de quem viu ou alega ter visto diretamente, quando acordado, um objeto voador não identificado.
Esses sonhos e pinturas, é natural, revelam muito daquilo que pode estar em jogo no momento em que uma pessoa acredita ter visto diretamente um óvni, mas não significa que reflitam exatamente essa experiência.
Por outro lado, Jung apresenta uma interessante resposta a um argumento muito comum na Ufologia, que é o de destacar a posição ou os atributos de quem faz o relato como se isso fosse uma prova da veracidade da sua experiência. Assim, são destacados os pilotos e militares que avistaram óvnis, ou outras pessoas que eram reconhecidamente bem racionais e que, portanto, não teriam motivo para criar uma fantasia.
Jung rebate o primeiro argumento falando sobre a “solidão aérea” e o quanto ela se torna propícia para que, pelo inconsciente dos pilotos, sejam projetadas imagens na imensidão ao seu redor. Em relação ao segundo, ele lembra que são precisamente as pessoas que se destacam pela racionalidade aquelas cujos inconscientes mais precisam se “esforçar” para manifestar uma realidade psíquica.
Em outras palavras, quanto mais for racional uma pessoa, maior a tendência de ter tais “visões”.
São comentários dos mais interessantes e me parece que a maior parte Ufologia atual já comprou totalmente a hipótese extraterrestre e aceita com complacência relatos que, claramente, dizem respeito à psicologia do “contatado”. Convém que a vida psíquica seja um fator considerado para a validação de um relato, se a Ufologia quer ser reconhecida como ciência.
August 28, 2024
A genuinely fascinating exploration of the psychological meaning of UFOs. Jung investigates dreams, artworks, and real-world eyewitness accounts to understand what these phenomena mean for mankind. He wisely points out that even when objects are verified by radar or photography, what the psychologist is interested in is not the sighting per se but what is being projected onto the experience by the subject.
He is not interested in the UFOs true nature; what he studies is how the unconscious relates to them, which is an endlessly fascinating topic. A particularly interesting argument he makes relates to how our present collective condition "provides the most favourable basis for a projection, that is, for a manifestation of the unconscious background" onto the UFO phenomena. In times of collective spiritual alienation fantasies arise about a "redeeming, supernatural event", an external force that brings about a great change and elevates mankind to a higher level of consciousness, returning to it the missing piece of its soul, so to speak. (This reminds me of how the early Christians eagerly awaited the return of the messiah and the coming of the end times during the disintegration of the Roman Empire.) As Jung explains: "It is characteristic of our time that the archetype, in contrast to its previous manifestations, should now take the form of an object, a technological construction, in order to avoid the odiousness of mythological personification." This seems to me a persuasive explanation for our ceaseless collective fantasizing obsession with the subject for the past 100 years.
He is not interested in the UFOs true nature; what he studies is how the unconscious relates to them, which is an endlessly fascinating topic. A particularly interesting argument he makes relates to how our present collective condition "provides the most favourable basis for a projection, that is, for a manifestation of the unconscious background" onto the UFO phenomena. In times of collective spiritual alienation fantasies arise about a "redeeming, supernatural event", an external force that brings about a great change and elevates mankind to a higher level of consciousness, returning to it the missing piece of its soul, so to speak. (This reminds me of how the early Christians eagerly awaited the return of the messiah and the coming of the end times during the disintegration of the Roman Empire.) As Jung explains: "It is characteristic of our time that the archetype, in contrast to its previous manifestations, should now take the form of an object, a technological construction, in order to avoid the odiousness of mythological personification." This seems to me a persuasive explanation for our ceaseless collective fantasizing obsession with the subject for the past 100 years.
July 19, 2019
This was another curiosity I spied one day on a library shelf. I've always been meaning to read up on Jung and a short book featuring his views on UFO phenomena seemed a suitably eccentric initial approach.
Nevertheless I'm afraid to say this 145 page book seemed padded out. While I agreed with his foremost insistence that UFOs are 'visionary rumours' that inspire an uncanny belief reminiscent of religion and mythology; I'm afraid I got lost in Jung's tangents.
Some of these referred to his broader work, which it now occurs to me would have been a better starting point, but others were analyses of dreams and art that went on for pages longer than I felt was strictly necessary. Then again I did appreciate Jung for criticising his contemporary Freud for his oversexed theories, and for giving credence to the idea that all religions have more in common than they're willing to admit at a time where he would have faced overwhelming opposition for saying as much.
From mandala symbolism to eyes in the sky, there is so much more to flying saucer sightings than one might think. I recommend this book to budding ufologists and Jungians.
Nevertheless I'm afraid to say this 145 page book seemed padded out. While I agreed with his foremost insistence that UFOs are 'visionary rumours' that inspire an uncanny belief reminiscent of religion and mythology; I'm afraid I got lost in Jung's tangents.
Some of these referred to his broader work, which it now occurs to me would have been a better starting point, but others were analyses of dreams and art that went on for pages longer than I felt was strictly necessary. Then again I did appreciate Jung for criticising his contemporary Freud for his oversexed theories, and for giving credence to the idea that all religions have more in common than they're willing to admit at a time where he would have faced overwhelming opposition for saying as much.
From mandala symbolism to eyes in the sky, there is so much more to flying saucer sightings than one might think. I recommend this book to budding ufologists and Jungians.
August 13, 2022
An intriguing idea to examine a cultural phenomenon that unfortunately got away from the author and proved to be a pain in the neck. Much of his modern myth is well researched, including visions from artists and authors who are mostly responding to the contemporary issue of the proliferation of atomic weapons. The ambiguity of not providing an answer to what people are actually seeing, however, opens Jung up to the careless reporting of a pre-Internet mass media, that just wanted a quirky headline as proof that the still-respected psychologist advises people to wear tinfoil hats and believe in the wildest world-ending fantasies. His eloquent letters in the last section, “On Flying Saucers”, teem with the frustration of an alien abduction victim who, try as much as one might, will never convince another that what might have happened did.
October 26, 2023
Having not seen a UFO himself he sure has a lot to say about it. Its seems to me this is a need for a phycologist to understand the phenomenon of UFO's in the sky. Lots of it was Jung talk, lingo of suppressions, and repressions that sometimes give a blimp on radar systems? hmm..? The absolute need to know the unknown or understand it is heavily present in this writing. Sometimes things are stranger then they appear, and sometimes the explanations are stranger than the situation. Over all it was a well written analysis of this global phenomenon.
I wonder what not seeing a UFO could mean, does that represent a super large repression of desires? just a thought, and joke...
I wonder what not seeing a UFO could mean, does that represent a super large repression of desires? just a thought, and joke...
April 21, 2023
The idea of examining the phenomenon of UFO sightings (in the mind or an observed unexplained phenomenon?) is interesting. E.g. they are common among airline pilots, to the extent of altering flight paths. But do pilots see them more because they are in the right place to observe strange things like bad lightning, or because staring out at the sky for hours on end produces visions?
Unfortunately Jung spends most of the book analyzing people's dreams about flying saucers, which is just not worth reading.
Unfortunately Jung spends most of the book analyzing people's dreams about flying saucers, which is just not worth reading.
February 22, 2021
I can't believe people waste their time with this guy. Some admittedly interesting ideas in the final chapter, otherwise you're dealing with assertions of the FACTS of parapsychology, astrology, telekinesis, and psychic materialisation, along with the author's incessant anti-Marxist interjections. I lost count of the number of times he interpreted a general cultural anxiety to the threat of collectivism.
Just read 'Passport to Magonia', at least it's fun!
Just read 'Passport to Magonia', at least it's fun!
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