Spirits, Ghosts, and Mediumship:
Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies June 6, 2024 Jessica Fink
Spirits—including deities, spirit animals, nature spirits, and deceased persons—are inherently numinous, filling people with awe and a sense of connection to something greater. Carl Jung viewed spirits psychologically as unconscious autonomous complexes that appear as projections because they lack direct association with the ego. This projection-based understanding often troubles spiritual practitioners, who take spirits to be real entities coexisting in the world, not mere imaginings. The text presents Jung's psychological perspective alongside the counterview of spiritual practitioners for whom spirits are genuinely real.