The numinous experience
Routledge eBooks October 9, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9780429449093-2 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that ego-psychology frames mystical experience as the ego entering relationship with a new psychic element, while Jung subsumes it under "numinous experience," which introduces the conscious mind to a non-ego force in the unconscious. Proposes that the Jungian Self, an intimation of essential wholeness, is realized through encountering and understanding this non-ego central object. |
Abstract
The emphasis in ego-psychology on a mystical experience (ME) is for the ego consciousness to enter into a relationship with a new element that has been introduced into the psyche by the experience. For Jung, a ME is subsumed in a larger category of what he calls "numinous experience." The teleology of a numinous experience is that it introduces to the conscious mind the existence of a non-ego force lying in the unconscious. Jung&s;s use of the term is based upon his adoption of "numinosum" from Rudolf Otto&s;s The Idea of the Holy , where Otto&s;s emphasis was on the emergence of a quality other than that which is within existing religious knowledge structures. The construct of the Self is at the core of Jungian psychology as the emergence of the intimation of essential wholeness that lies within the psyche. Its realisation is a process of the introduction and understanding of a non-ego, central object in the unconscious.