Instructor: Bob Piller

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Nothing is static.  What’s next for students of Jung as they apply Jungian concepts of image, archetypes, individuation, collective unconscious, personal unconscious, shadow, and soul to the experience of their lives? Here we consider the echoes of Jung in the structures of consciousness and emerging arational-integral consciousness of Jean Gebser, a contemporary and friend of Jung’s, and scholar of the evolution of consciousness.

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In this course, we will explore the intensification of consciousness that flows from Gebser’s philosophical work.  The course will introduce Gebser’s contributions and genius as viewed through his magnum opus, The Ever-Present Origin, and consider how Gebser synchronizes, diverts, and at times takes new paths from Jung in exploring consciousness.  We will explore Gebser’s understanding of time, especially time-freedom, and consider counterparts in Jung’s view of participation mystique and the phenomenon of synchronicity.

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To better comprehend the possibilities of Gebserian thought, weekly exercises will allow direct experience of the images and presence of Gebser’s structures of consciousness and understanding of time.

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Prerequisites:  Before the first session, participants should have read:

Memories, Dreams, Reflections, a partial autobiographical book by Carl Jung and his associate, Aniela Jaffé, and Seeing Through the World: Jean Gebser and Integral Consciousness, by Jeremy Johnson

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Readings:  Readings during the course will be limited to online articles and a few handouts.

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Supplementary Reading:  The Ever-Present Origin, Jean Gebser, [Part One, 1949. Part Two, 1953. English Translation by Noel Barstad with Algis Mikunas, 1985] Ohio University Press

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Learning Objectives:  On completion of this class, you will be able to:

1. Grasp consciousness through a lens that visualizes and internalizes Gebser’s integral consciousness.

2. Identify the difference and similarities between Gebser’s inclusive understanding of consciousness and Jung’s concept of an ego consciousness distinguished from a personal and collective unconscious.

3. Use Gebser’s structures of consciousness as a tool set for intensification of your own consciousness.

4. Describe the ways that time can be appreciated, and the way that linear time inhibits consciousness.

5. Summarize how the Jungian resolution of opposites and Gebserian consciousness inform our ethics, responsibilities, and morality.