Books

Individuation EvolutionIndividuation and the Evolution of Consciousness: At the Turning Point and Jung’s Challenge

By David T. Johnston, Ph.D.

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Jung’s individuation process is founded on the fact that everything living dreams of Individuation. His path involves a specific concentration of a natural phenomenon of nature, which speeds up the process. This grounding in nature is a significant factor that distinguishes his spirituality and psychology from other spiritual and psychological disciplines and methods.

The one major exception is the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, which is why I use them both as my most significant hermeneutic references, and the former for insight into the evolution of consciousness. Jung’s path involves the incarnation of the Divine through individuals that potentially leads to far-reaching transformation of both individuals and culture. This reflects his important challenge to Western and world culture at this critical turning point in human history.

Prophets in our MidstProphets in Our Midst

Jung, Tolkien, Gebser, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
By David T. Johnston, Ph.D.

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This book begins with a chapter about Sri Aurobindo and the prophetic nature of his opus magnum, Savitri, using references from Carl Jung. I then examine Jung’s creation myth, using comparative material form Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. I end with a note on heart-Self centered transformation and one involving spiritual transfiguration. I follow with a discussion on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien from the perspective of the mythical psyche, using comparative material from Jung. I subsequently discuss Jung’s take on contemporary religion, Gnosticism and alchemy, along with his encounter with the East.

Jung emphasizes the compensatory needs of the Western psyche with prophetic declarations on the psychological and spiritual transformations required for the new aeon. I subsequently examine Jean Gebser’s study on the evolution of consciousness, and the demand today to develop an integral structure of consciousness, referring to both Jung, and Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Jung’s Global Vision:

Western Psyche Eastern Mind, With References to Sri Aurobindo, Integral Yoga, The Mother
By David T. Johnston, Ph.D.

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Sri Aurobindo and the Mother from India were contemporaries of Carl Gustav Jung. Their Integral Yoga can be characterized as based on the former’s observation that All Life is Yoga, just as Jung’s individuation process is founded on the fact that Everything Living Dreams of Individuation. In each case, the path involves a specific concentration of a natural phenomenon, which speeds up the process.

This firm establishment in nature is a significant factor in distinguishing their spirituality and psychology and from other disciplines and methods. Both ways involve the incarnation of the Divine through individuals that leads to far-reaching transformation of both the individual and culture. In Jung’s Global Vision: Western Psyche Eastern Mind, Dr. Johnston outlines the striking similarities as well as differences between the path of individuation as outlined and lived by C.G. Jung, and the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

David T. Johnston is a practicing psychologist living in Victoria, BC, Canada. He resided in Pondicherry (now Puducherry), India from 1970 to 1973, where he was introduced to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He lived there during Sri Aurobindo’s centenary in 1972. He subsequently studied at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland in 1975, the year of Jung’s centenary. On several occasions, for extensive periods of time, he has visited Auroville, a township near Puducherry dedicated to the Mother’s vision.

He received his Ph.D., phil. in Clinical Psychology at the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria, California in 1996.

Dr. Johnston is also an artist, where his art is a meditative means for him to enhance a living relationship between consciousness and the unconscious.