Spirits, Ghosts, and Mediumship:

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.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Encounters with spirits are inherently numinous since they fill us with awe and a sense of connecting with something greater or other. The term spirits can refer to a wide variety of typically unseen beings including deities, spirit animals, nature spirits, and deceased persons. Jung thought that spirits were autonomous complexes separate from the ego, writing “Spirits, therefore, viewed from the psychological angle, are unconscious autonomous complexes which appear as projections because they have no direct association with the ego” (Jung, 1969, p. 309). The idea of spirits appearing as projections is often problematic for many spiritual practitioners because it can lead one to assume that spirits are imagined and therefore not real. For these spiritual practitioners spirits are very real and exist in the world alongside people.