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The One Mind: C.G. Jung and the Future of Literary Criticism

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The One Mind: C.G. Jung and the Future of Literary Criticism THE ONE MIND The One Mind: C. G. Jung and the future of literary criticism explores the implications of C. G. Jung’s unus mundus by applying his writings on the metaphysical, the paranormal, and the quantum to literature. As Jung knew, everything is connected because of its participation in universal consciousness, which encompasses all that is, including the collective unconscious. Matthew A. Fike argues that this principle of unity enables an approach in which psychic functioning is both a subject and a means of discovery—psi phenomena evoke the connections among the physical world, the psyche, and the spiritual realm. Applying the tools of Jungian literary criticism in new ways by expanding their scope and methodology, Fike discusses the works of Hawthorne, Milton, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and lesser-known writers in terms of issues from psychology, parapsychology, and physics. Topics include the case for monism over materialism, altered states of consciousness, types of psychic functioning, UFOs, synchronicity, and space-time relativity. The One Mind examines Goodman Brown’s dream, Ad am’s vision in Paradise Lost, the dream sequence in “The Wanderer,” the role of metaphor in Robert A. Monroe’s metaphysical trilogy, Orfeo Angelucci’s work on UFOs, and the stolen boat episode in Wordsworth’s The Prelude. The book concludes with case studies on Robert Jordan and William Blake. Considered together, these readings bring us a signifi cant step closer to a unity of psychology, science, and spirituality. The One Mind illustrates how Jung’s writings contain the seeds of the future of literary criticism. Reaching beyond archetypal criticism and postmodern theoreti- cal approaches to Jung, Fike proposes a new school of Jungian literary criticism based on the unitary world that underpins the collective unconscious. This book will appeal to scholars of C. G. Jung as well as students and readers with an inter- est in psychoanalysis, literature, literary theory, and the history of ideas. Matthew A. Fike is a Professor of English at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where he teaches courses in the human experience, critical thinking, Shakespeare, and Renaissance literature. This page intentionally left blank THE ONE MIND C. G. Jung and the future of literary criticism Matthew A. Fike First published 2014 by Routledge 27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2014 Matthew A. Fike The right of Matthew A. Fike to be identifi ed as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Fike, Matthew. The one mind : C. G. Jung and the future of literary criticism/Matthew A. Fike. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Literature—Psychology. 2. Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875–1961. 3. Psychology and literature. 4. Jungian psychology. I. Title. PN56.P93F55 2014 809’.93353—dc23 2013012664 ISBN: 978-0-415-81974-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-88620-6 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Sufolk FOR KINDNESS This page intentionally left blank Portions of some chapters of The One Mind: C. G. Jung and the Future of Literary Criticism draw from the following previously published materials. • Chapter 1: “We Are One Psyche: A Jungian Approach to Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown,’” Postscript 27, no. 9 (2012): 1−20, www.pachome.org; and “The Literary Matrix of Loren Eiseley’s ‘The Secret of Life,’” The CEA Critic 72, no. 3 (2009): 17−36. • Chapter 2: Review of Thomas Campbell’s My Big TOE: A Trilogy Unifying Philosophy, Physics, and Metaphysics, TMI Focus 31, no. 3−4 (Summer/Fall 2009): 1−14. • Chapter 3: “‘The Wanderer’ and the Psychology of Sailing,” in Reading the Sea: New Essays on Sea Literature, ed. Kevin Alexander Boon (New York: Fort Schuyler, 1999), 77−99. • Chapter 4: “Thinking Metaphysically: The Challenge to Fundamentalism in the Works of Robert A. Monroe,” Peer English: The Journal of New Critical Thinking 3 (2008): 91−104. • Chapter 6: “Light at Midnight and the Art of Synchronicity,” Conversations in the Field 1, no. 7 (2010): 1−8, www.thejungiansociety.org. The editors/publishers of the pieces listed above have provided permission to include and adapt my earlier work as part of this book. In addition, Tor/Forge granted permission to quote from Robert Jordan’s New Spring and The Wheel of Time series, volumes 1−13, in chapter 8. This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi In-text citations xii Introduction 1 1 A traditional approach to Hawthorne and the problem of materialism in Eiseley 19 2 Primordial consciousness: Transcendental monism in Milton’s Paradise Lost 35 3 Altered states: “The Wanderer” and the psychology of sailing 51 4 Out-of-body experience: Metaphor in Monroe’s metaphysical trilogy 68 5 UFOs: Dr. Jung versus Dr. Greer and the case of Orfeo M. Angelucci 81 6 Synchronicity: Wordsworth’s stolen boat episode in The Prelude 109 7 Remote viewing and channeling: The sonnets of Shakespeare and “Shakespeare” 122 8 Amplifi cation and quaternity in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series 143 ix CONTENTS 9 “Sublime allegory”: Ways of seeing in Blake’s Milton 184 Conclusion 216 Bibliography 225 Index 237 x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank the Jungian Society for Scholarly Studies for many opportunities to present my work and Winthrop University for fi nancial support that enabled me to travel to the JSSS and other conferences. I deeply appreciate the support of my family members, Francis Fike and Deborah Brower; the encouragement of my department chair, Gregg Hecimovich; and the guidance of Peter Schakel. Great thanks also go to the staff of the Dacus Library at Winthrop University, especially Bob Gorman and Nancy White. Finally, I am grateful to Kirsten Buchanan, my editorial consultant at Routledge, who worked with me throughout the publication process. xi IN-TEXT CITATIONS References to The Collected Works of C. G. Jung are to volume and paragraph/ page numbers. For example, a reference to paragraph 460 on page 272 of volume 6 appears as follows: (CW 6, 460/272). The abbreviation E refers to David V. Erdman’s The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, rev. ed. (1982); MDR to Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Refl ections; and OED to The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Shakespeare quotations are taken from David Bevington’s The Complete Works of Shakespeare, 4th ed. Citations to all of these works and to the primary literary text(s) under consideration in a given chapter appear parenthetically. xii INTRODUCTION In Religio Medici Sir Thomas Browne writes: We carry with us the wonders we seek without us: there is all Africa and her prodigies in us; we are that bold and adventurous piece of nature, which he that studies wisely learns in a compendium what others labor at in a divided piece and endless volume. According to Laurens van der Post, who shared the quotation with C. G. Jung, the Browne quotation elicited the following reaction: “He was deeply moved, wrote it down, and exclaimed, ‘That was and is just it!’”Although “just it” refers to the theory of the collective unconscious, Browne’s statement can also mean that each human being participates in an even greater fi eld of consciousness, an idea that is present in Jung’s works but that has received little attention. Following Erwin Schrödinger, I call it the One Mind.1 There is only One Mind in the universe, and its implications for literary criticism are my subject. In particular, this book proposes a “metaphysical criticism” partly based on the overarching unity of time, space, matter, and thought. (Here “metaphysical” refers to “that [which] is above or goes beyond the laws of nature; belonging to an operation or agency which is more than or other than physical or natural; supernatural.”)2 More broadly, the study considers phenomena that arise from or relate to connections via the One Mind, the unifying energy that fl ows through all things, including nonphysical realms. Jung’s works provide a reference point; however, he did not espouse a position that is tailor-made for every subject considered here, largely because he did not see himself as a metaphysician, as his statements in two footnotes reveal.3 There are people who, oddly enough, think it a weakness in me that I refrain from metaphysical judgments. A scientist’s conscience does not permit him to assert things he cannot prove or at least show to be probable. No assertion has ever yet brought anything corresponding to it into existence. “What he says, is” is a prerogative exclusive to God. (CW 9ii, 304/195, n. 32) 1 INTRODUCTION Yet Jung is undeniably a scientist who likes to think in conventional ways about unconventional subjects—for example, by applying his theory of the collective unconscious to altered states—which leads him into the borderland between science and metaphysics, where he receives criticism from both camps.
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