Face Your Dark Side - Carl Jung and the Shadow

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"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."

"Until you make the unconscious conscious it will direct you life and you will call it fate". - Jung

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious." -Carl Jung

"To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light" I absolutely adore this

I faced a terrible dark night of the soul a few months ago brought about by a co worker asking me “are you ok?” Just like that my “mask” fell and years of repressed emotions came flooding out. The following weeks I went through a depression sorting through my deep wounds and pains that I was masking and came out of it enlightened. I no longer identify myself as who I once was, I’ve integrated my shadow and now am trying to learn to live with this new me. One without shame, anxiety, fear, etc,. It’s like cleaning out a room filled with filth and seeing the cleaned room for the first time. You just stand there asking “is that what the carpet looked like?” And wonder what will you do now. It truly is a scary experience…

Nothing, and I mean nothing, has done more to help me progress and redeem my life than the pursuit of befriending that which is shadow in myself. Every time I go deeper, I understand more. Truly a noble journey to love your enemy, the enemy inside you.

I've been addicted to heroin for 11 years, after trying out psilocybin treatment I will be 2 years clean 0:16

One of the few channels that I actively am excited for when a video is released... as the popular saying goes.... When i see an Academy of Ideas video, I press Play!

"Is it not an old truth that a woman loves the weakness of a strong man more than his strength, and the stupidity of a smart man more than his cleverness? Her love wants the whole man." Awww

I have grown to love my shadow, I see some parts of it in others, and it makes me smile. If you listen carefully, to what others tell you, you get to know theirs. Because, they really want to unburden themselves. Peace be unto you.

I used to have nightmares where I was trapped in the house I grew up in, though it was always dark with the curtains drawn. In that house was a ghost - corporeal but wholly invisible, without even a shimmer. One dream I got tired of being afraid, so I began to lash out. After that, whenever I had the dream, I was still trapped in the dark house and still very much afraid, but I was on the hunt. I never really gave the dreams much thought; I figured it was just a feature of my experience in this universe. One day I realized - seeing as how everything in the dream is in my head - that the ghost was a piece of me, though what piece I could not infer, and that the next time I had the dream I would try instead to speak with it. It began avoiding me. In each successive dream, the house got brighter and brighter and slowly began to fill with people - family members mostly. Then the dreams changed. The ghost aspect remained, but I was no longer in the house. In another dream, we were in a gravel parking lot and it was walking towards me, though this time I could see it. It had the form of a man wearing a cloak and it was made of dark blur. It was made of literal shadow. A Jungian construct, certainly, but never was it more obvious what this thing was. From then on, I endeavored to merge with it, thinking if I could do so in a dream, it might result in some real world application or a greater sense of wholeness, but the one time I encountered it since that decision, it screamed at me in a disturbed and demonic voice to leave it alone. Since then, I have left it alone. I am no longer afraid, and I endeavor to be whole, but it cannot be forced. Forceful integration of one's shadow should not be a means to an enlightened end. The head of a coin can never merge with the tail. Obverse and reverse already occupy one body. They are fully integrated and yet separate. Light can be shown on both sides simultaneously, and both sides can be in darkness. From this analogy, it makes more sense to me not to call this aspect of myself a shadow, but merely a flipside. Which is front and which is back? I do not know and honestly no longer think it matters. Just my two cents. Love your work. Peace.

When you get up in the morning, let the world wait. Defy it a little. First learn something to inspire you. Take a few moments to meditate upon it. And then you may plunge ahead into the darkness, full of light with which to illuminate it. ~ Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

Facing one's shadow is a grim yet, invigorating must, to lead one's true Life.

The art, the writings, the tone. Powerful stuff, like it alot man! Keep it up

I’ve noticed when I fast suppressed thoughts, guilt anger, insensitivity arises. I don’t know if this helps with unveiling the shadow self, but with holding myself from pleasure for a period of time, allows me to really see what’s underneath me and what I’ve been avoiding and denying

You make the best videos on YouTube, keep up the tremendous work.

The pairing of images with themes in these videos are sublimely matched.

The glimpses I have had with the shadow on the spiritual path, to connect and truely feel my greatest repressed fears, to embody that existential dread of a meaningless existence with no escape. It is the hardest thing I have ever undertaken in my life… To realise how my mind projects to create the reality I see…

@academyofideas Thank you infinitely, for bringing back into my perception that I am not just acting up but bravely bringing up effort through all failure and epiphany. Even in aspect that it hurts as much as I can bare. Have a week of wholeness, dear catalyst of completeness!