As a reclusive artist nearing 70 years of age and having been an only child who grew up in isolation, I've spent much of my life in solitude, and for as long as I can remember there's been a gentle voice in my head that has had a running conversation, with what I regard as my 'ego' in all matters. This voice has incredible warmth and also has an amazing sense of humor. I've had this internal relationship for so many decades that I don't even stop to question it. I simply describe myself as a "happily self-aware eccentric" and that seems to cover it. 😃 ❤💛💛💚💙💜
Hello dear Reclusive Artist 😂, I love your little story ❤️I’m hearing my own little voice more and more , having suffered from some abandonment myself and the feeling of being “alone”. However, I never really allowed myself to accept that notion and so nowadays, we’re doing pretty good, me and mine !☝🏻😁ps: I’m an unknown artist too !😉
I can't believe we live in an age where I can listen to beautiful conversations such as this one while having my dinner. Truly grateful for all your work.
I spent years attempting to reconnect with my inner child, from whom I was disconnected. Resolving this conflict allowed me to heal myself. The story is too long to share. I'm thinking many of us get disconnected from our true 👍 self. Silly me. I keep my baby picture close at hand. She is now, I, my greatest comfort comes from within. I fought long and hard to bring us together ❤️ again. I will never be alone, again.
Thanks for this I just had to cut off a friend I had for twenty years as he sent me a nasty message saying I was reclusive and an introvert that’s why I wasn’t invited to his birthday - I finally blocked him I’ll keep the present 🎁 I believe it was long over due to end this as he was a narcissist but I tolerated him- he was always saying nasty things to me and others , he even hit a car at my work and didn’t own up to it until we had the video footage and I was really careful to get it all sorted so he didn’t feel bad about it - why did I do that…
So true . people constantly distract themselves instead of investigating the situation. Those who are more insight oriented will sit in the uncomfortable and seek answers.
This was an interesting listen - shortly after I listened to it, I finished Hermann Hesse's "Journey to the East" which I had been working on reading for the past couple weeks, and having listened to this, I felt I understood the novel better. The main character is dealing with loneliness, and with a feverish nostalgia for a brotherhood he once belonged to and which no longer appears to exist. When he reunites with them towards the end of the book, he sees what he has allowed himself to become in his distraction and disconnection from these companions (whose existence appears to be more symbolic than anything) - in particular, the one named Leo, who prays and befriends animals, expressing his connection to spiritual life and instinctual life. He sees himself rebuilt as Leo, seeing what he needs and wants to become through this (possibly inner, possibly outer) other.
Thank you for this very insightful conversation. i become very anxious when I hear conversations about dreaming. If I have one dream in a year its many and its not that I simply don't remember the dreams, I don't dream. Its been 20 years since a very traumatic experience that I don't wish for any parent. I've worked through the trauma in many therapy sessions and now also have a University degree in Psychology. Trauma changes your brain in also a physical (literal) way - I am told. I have in the past been told its because of this "damage" that I don't dream - sounds impossible to me - because dreaming happens in your subconscious not in your brain? I would really love to hear your thoughts on this should you read this message.
Second time listening to this, glad l have. Went into analysis decades ago. It was an 80 mile trip there and 80 miles back. I came across a reference to the inner companion l had forgotten a few days ago. We had made a decision that was fought with uncertainty and l was deeply anxious about the possible outcome. I dreamt, l was standing, alone, on a railway platform waiting for a train. I deeply anxious. As the train pulled in l felt someone behind me. They simply put their hands on my shoulders. I felt their loving support and a tactile presence. ❤
Isn't it the inner companion that those who turn to religion are looking for? They often talk about how God is with them all the time, etc. They don't seem to think about looking within.
I am a lucid dreamer. I never tried to become a lucid dreamer but my dad was a really light sleeper and so am I. I actually have a sleep disorder. I also have chronic pain that is sometimes unbearable. When I become lucid in a dream I can float. I become aware that I am in a lucid dream then allow my dream body (I see myself like I’m watching a movie) to just lie back into the air like a slow trust fall but no one is there. Then I raise my legs too and can just float. Sometimes really, really high into the sky. I feel no pain, super light, relaxed and almost in a bliss like state. It’s like I just float above all the people in the world, job, stresses, pressures of life, etc. It is a much needed break for me as I have anxiety with the pain or sometimes depression. I think my mind figured out a way to take a break to make life more bearable for me. I wouldn’t change it for the world and am so grateful to have this ability. Better than any medicine, therapy or anything else. I wouldn’t put down lucid dreaming because there are many positive things that can come from it.
I had a dream with my companion, but I didn’t see him or her. I was laying on my back in a pasture of green grass and he or she was next to me. They informed me of information that eased my heart into bliss and as I became aware, they said “ok, now go.” But I didn’t hear the information consciously. I think about that dream often. Wish I knew what was said.
Truly what I'm looking for and no longer ashamed of trying to "normalize". This inner companion is who I need and may even be an inner child. I know I'm closer to my inner home when embracing Jung.
Only you will find your inner child. At least try to bring her into your emotional realm. I love ❤️ Jung, yet he is unlikely to put you where you need to go.
At this time deep in the pandemic, the question are we companioned is more important than it has ever been. That is collectively, is there something other than the collective ego holding us? Thank you all for your gracious and generous sharing.
Another wonderful episode! This was also an interesting dream scenario. I always look for puns or tricky plays on words, and it occurs to me that the dreamers' "old friend" could be Avoidance personified. People often refer to moderate negative presences as my old friend or similar. It may also simultaneously be his actual old friend with a different psychic opportunity, a movement forward in companionship or back into a more protected but less developed past. But such frequent recurrences would seem to indicate a very present dilemma. Also, I think real world socials would not be good for dreamworld comms! Maybe keave a letter in a secret place only the two dream characters remember? Or arrange to meet again at an old meaningful location?
The part at 10:55 ish , where she speaks about discernment of that inner instinct, vs. what Joseph was speaking about , about how to discern if it is a inner complex bubbling up or a true soulful instinct…..im not sure if it is so easy… to just say listen to the more peaceful bubbling up part.,… nor the part where she speaks about the creative or imaginal world bringing together some form of wholeness when u engage with it…. As a artist i find, the process of engaging with that imaginal world…. Is a lot more complex, and many times its not a peaceful process to engage with that creative and imaginal field… because it is filled with many components that are not just peaceful in nature… does anyone else relate? For example many times… you are pretty much standing in the room with a Minotaur metaphorically speaking and it is terrifying … and not a peaceful process to be engaging with that aspect within….
Feldenkrais and Gurdjieff both had a lot to say about this. Through these I can corroborate that this sense of being connected to the Companion is connected to being in touch with my body/instincts for the first time since childhood. Then it was reflexive and unconscious and expected; later in life it can be deliberate and more intentional and conscious.
So also… I don’t think that the Companion is a complex in the sense that it’s equal to another compulsion - it feels different, like a ground level knowing. And it’s interesting that Vasilia’s doll responds like the body does to material care - a little food, drink, sleep. And it can always be trusted to give the best advice.
In Tibetan Bön tradition there is an exercise, ritual or meditation to invoke the Inner Friend, the wise, loving and loyal part of you, who is in harmony with everyone and all living creatures
The Red Book was written for some years, but then the process of writing, at least in that intensive and picturesque style, has stopped. Why did Jung stop, if this process was so important for him?
The dreamer seems to have not forgiven himself for losing his friend and failing to maintain past relationships because of his inhibitions. This reluctance of his friend to give his phone number or social media details seems telling of the dreamer's inability to forgive himself for past misgivings, and hence, the continued punishment of no contact.
How interesting, in the dream analysis...i have a similar recurring dream where i am tasked to remember my boyfriends phone number and i wake up anxious everytime...i have been trying to find a meaning but it eludes me. Apart from a literal meaning. Any thoughts from a jungian perspective?
The phone number represents ........and the boyfriend represents....... and your anxiety represents......... perhaps it's like Freud once said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". Afterall, most people don't remember even their partners number because they are on mobile phones. I lost a mobile phone and also lost contact with several friends until I could find their numbers and a few I will probably never talk to again because I no longer have their number
I noticed there is not a single mention here, of animus/anima. I understand that the whole issue of gender identity has undergone vast reworking since Jung’s time, so that animus/anima might be an outmoded concept in 2021. I have not listened to all of your podcasts, so I don’t know if you deal with animus/anima in another or more discussion(s). I also must confess that I have not read enough recent Jungian literature to know the state of the discussion about gender, in the Jungian ethos. Having said all that, however, and running the risk that I may be 20+ years behind the Jungian times, (also, that I may have an erroneous understanding of animus/anima), I must say that I am something close to shocked that in a discussion by three Jungians titled ‘the inner companion,’ there is not a single reference to animus and anima, which Jung described pretty precisely as companions on the inner way. Am I missing something?
They are being politically correct I think by bypassing the gender terminology. Maybe inner conpanion” as a looser term is helpful in bringing less sexual expectation to the phenomenon
I've never thought much about the current gender syndrome. You've given me a clue. I do believe that Jung is correct about his theory of being inclusive of our opposite, be it Animas or Anima. In fact, I've incorporated my Animus. Your comments have made me wonder if the same principle Jung has brought to attention is being acted out in today's youth. In actuality, psychology, Jung especially is not well accepted in cultures. If he were, all these inner divisions could be worked out in therapy and not via body transformation. Certainly, there will be regrets since eventually it will not likely end well for some. How many more decades will it take before psychology will be accepted more than Christianity? I left my Lutheran upbringing in my 20s - once I admitted to self that my prayers were not being answered. It's a cop out to believe that everything😮 is God's will. ❤😢
You can hear us explore anima & animus in this episode th-cam.com/video/dH68TNlgGSg/w-d-xo.html It's just not possible to say everything in each podcast.
Why are all of the examples of hero and companion (Sherlock and Holmes etc,) male. I’m having difficulty thinking of a female duo, although there are plenty of heroines with male companions.
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As a reclusive artist nearing 70 years of age and having been an only child who grew up in isolation, I've spent much of my life in solitude, and for as long as I can remember there's been a gentle voice in my head that has had a running conversation, with what I regard as my 'ego' in all matters. This voice has incredible warmth and also has an amazing sense of humor. I've had this internal relationship for so many decades that I don't even stop to question it. I simply describe myself as a "happily self-aware eccentric" and that seems to cover it. 😃 ❤💛💛💚💙💜
❤
Hello dear Reclusive Artist 😂, I love your little story ❤️I’m hearing my own little voice more and more , having suffered from some abandonment myself and the feeling of being “alone”. However, I never really allowed myself to accept that notion and so nowadays, we’re doing pretty good, me and mine !☝🏻😁ps: I’m an unknown artist too !😉
That was the first thing I thought! That inner voice that is always having a conversation between "me" and "I."
❤🧡💛💚💙💜
I can't believe we live in an age where I can listen to beautiful conversations such as this one while having my dinner. Truly grateful for all your work.
Well said. Agreed.
I wish I had outer companions to have conversations like this with, but the still small voice is audible.
It's like listening to NPR but with content I actually enjoy.
I spent years attempting to reconnect with my inner child, from whom I was disconnected. Resolving this conflict allowed me to heal myself. The story is too long to share. I'm thinking many of us get disconnected from our true 👍 self.
Silly me. I keep my baby picture close at hand. She is now, I, my greatest comfort comes from within.
I fought long and hard to bring us together ❤️ again. I will never be alone, again.
Beautiful ❤
Thanks for this I just had to cut off a friend I had for twenty years as he sent me a nasty message saying I was reclusive and an introvert that’s why I wasn’t invited to his birthday - I finally blocked him I’ll keep the present 🎁 I believe it was long over due to end this as he was a narcissist but I tolerated him- he was always saying nasty things to me and others , he even hit a car at my work and didn’t own up to it until we had the video footage and I was really careful to get it all sorted so he didn’t feel bad about it - why did I do that…
So true . people constantly distract themselves instead of investigating the situation. Those who are more insight oriented will sit in the uncomfortable and seek answers.
Thank you Joseph for sharing such beautiful technique from your active practice with clients...
This was an interesting listen - shortly after I listened to it, I finished Hermann Hesse's "Journey to the East" which I had been working on reading for the past couple weeks, and having listened to this, I felt I understood the novel better. The main character is dealing with loneliness, and with a feverish nostalgia for a brotherhood he once belonged to and which no longer appears to exist. When he reunites with them towards the end of the book, he sees what he has allowed himself to become in his distraction and disconnection from these companions (whose existence appears to be more symbolic than anything) - in particular, the one named Leo, who prays and befriends animals, expressing his connection to spiritual life and instinctual life. He sees himself rebuilt as Leo, seeing what he needs and wants to become through this (possibly inner, possibly outer) other.
Thank you for this very insightful conversation. i become very anxious when I hear conversations about dreaming. If I have one dream in a year its many and its not that I simply don't remember the dreams, I don't dream. Its been 20 years since a very traumatic experience that I don't wish for any parent. I've worked through the trauma in many therapy sessions and now also have a University degree in Psychology. Trauma changes your brain in also a physical (literal) way - I am told. I have in the past been told its because of this "damage" that I don't dream - sounds impossible to me - because dreaming happens in your subconscious not in your brain? I would really love to hear your thoughts on this should you read this message.
Fantastic episode. Thanks so much for these videos, I'm learning so much from them.
Second time listening to this, glad l have. Went into analysis decades ago. It was an 80 mile trip there and 80 miles back. I came across a reference to the inner companion l had forgotten a few days ago.
We had made a decision that was fought with uncertainty and l was deeply anxious about the possible outcome. I dreamt, l was standing, alone, on a railway platform waiting for a train. I deeply anxious. As the train pulled in l felt someone behind me. They simply put their hands on my shoulders. I felt their loving support and a tactile presence.
❤
Thank You !
Joseph you are likely an initiate (or are very well and widely read). Love that exercise involving the heart/heart center.
Isn't it the inner companion that those who turn to religion are looking for? They often talk about how God is with them all the time, etc. They don't seem to think about looking within.
What a wonderful dream!
This episode touched me so deeply
I am a lucid dreamer. I never tried to become a lucid dreamer but my dad was a really light sleeper and so am I. I actually have a sleep disorder. I also have chronic pain that is sometimes unbearable. When I become lucid in a dream I can float. I become aware that I am in a lucid dream then allow my dream body (I see myself like I’m watching a movie) to just lie back into the air like a slow trust fall but no one is there. Then I raise my legs too and can just float. Sometimes really, really high into the sky. I feel no pain, super light, relaxed and almost in a bliss like state. It’s like I just float above all the people in the world, job, stresses, pressures of life, etc. It is a much needed break for me as I have anxiety with the pain or sometimes depression. I think my mind figured out a way to take a break to make life more bearable for me. I wouldn’t change it for the world and am so grateful to have this ability. Better than any medicine, therapy or anything else. I wouldn’t put down lucid dreaming because there are many positive things that can come from it.
I had a dream with my companion, but I didn’t see him or her. I was laying on my back in a pasture of green grass and he or she was next to me. They informed me of information that eased my heart into bliss and as I became aware, they said “ok, now go.” But I didn’t hear the information consciously. I think about that dream often. Wish I knew what was said.
Truly what I'm looking for and no longer ashamed of trying to "normalize". This inner companion is who I need and may even be an inner child. I know I'm closer to my inner home when embracing Jung.
Only you will find your inner child. At least try to bring her into your emotional realm. I love ❤️ Jung, yet he is unlikely to put you where you need to go.
At this time deep in the pandemic, the question are we companioned is more important than it has ever been. That is collectively, is there something other than the collective ego holding us? Thank you all for your gracious and generous sharing.
I love this podcast, love from Chile!
Another wonderful episode! This was also an interesting dream scenario. I always look for puns or tricky plays on words, and it occurs to me that the dreamers' "old friend" could be Avoidance personified. People often refer to moderate negative presences as my old friend or similar. It may also simultaneously be his actual old friend with a different psychic opportunity, a movement forward in companionship or back into a more protected but less developed past. But such frequent recurrences would seem to indicate a very present dilemma. Also, I think real world socials would not be good for dreamworld comms! Maybe keave a letter in a secret place only the two dream characters remember? Or arrange to meet again at an old meaningful location?
I love being alone! I have my animals so technically I'm not alone.
Pan as in companion means more than bread, it means, "the all", as in Pantheism. Panic has this root, meaning, too much all at once.
Beautiful episode!
The part at 10:55 ish , where she speaks about discernment of that inner instinct, vs. what Joseph was speaking about , about how to discern if it is a inner complex bubbling up or a true soulful instinct…..im not sure if it is so easy… to just say listen to the more peaceful bubbling up part.,… nor the part where she speaks about the creative or imaginal world bringing together some form of wholeness when u engage with it…. As a artist i find, the process of engaging with that imaginal world…. Is a lot more complex, and many times its not a peaceful process to engage with that creative and imaginal field… because it is filled with many components that are not just peaceful in nature… does anyone else relate? For example many times… you are pretty much standing in the room with a Minotaur metaphorically speaking and it is terrifying … and not a peaceful process to be engaging with that aspect within….
Well said.
Feldenkrais and Gurdjieff both had a lot to say about this. Through these I can corroborate that this sense of being connected to the Companion is connected to being in touch with my body/instincts for the first time since childhood. Then it was reflexive and unconscious and expected; later in life it can be deliberate and more intentional and conscious.
So also… I don’t think that the Companion is a complex in the sense that it’s equal to another compulsion - it feels different, like a ground level knowing. And it’s interesting that Vasilia’s doll responds like the body does to material care - a little food, drink, sleep. And it can always be trusted to give the best advice.
Please keep up this podcast! I would love to donate. I don't want you to stop or cut back from a lack of donations.
29:30 joseph’s incredible point here is really deep and important.
16:58 the story of Vasilisa's doll
20:59 service
22:00 service
23:00 introjection
24:20 tending
25:00 object relations
26:05 introjection
In Tibetan Bön tradition there is an exercise, ritual or meditation to invoke the Inner Friend, the wise, loving and loyal part of you, who is in harmony with everyone and all living creatures
43:40 technique for companionship with Self.
The Red Book was written for some years, but then the process of writing, at least in that intensive and picturesque style, has stopped. Why did Jung stop, if this process was so important for him?
A list like captain kirk and spock and frodo and sam bur women? Make that list....
The dreamer seems to have not forgiven himself for losing his friend and failing to maintain past relationships because of his inhibitions. This reluctance of his friend to give his phone number or social media details seems telling of the dreamer's inability to forgive himself for past misgivings, and hence, the continued punishment of no contact.
Perhaps it is a repeating dream of attempting to know himself; yet, he continuously lacks courage.
How interesting, in the dream analysis...i have a similar recurring dream where i am tasked to remember my boyfriends phone number and i wake up anxious everytime...i have been trying to find a meaning but it eludes me.
Apart from a literal meaning. Any thoughts from a jungian perspective?
The phone number represents ........and the boyfriend represents....... and your anxiety represents......... perhaps it's like Freud once said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". Afterall, most people don't remember even their partners number because they are on mobile phones. I lost a mobile phone and also lost contact with several friends until I could find their numbers and a few I will probably never talk to again because I no longer have their number
what's the epic she talks about in the minute? @9:40
It may sound gross, but you can't make love to your inner companion, in anyway not in a satisfactory way.
I noticed there is not a single mention here, of animus/anima.
I understand that the whole issue of gender identity has undergone vast reworking since Jung’s time, so that animus/anima might be an outmoded concept in 2021. I have not listened to all of your podcasts, so I don’t know if you deal with animus/anima in another or more discussion(s). I also must confess that I have not read enough recent Jungian literature to know the state of the discussion about gender, in the Jungian ethos.
Having said all that, however, and running the risk that I may be 20+ years behind the Jungian times, (also, that I may have an erroneous understanding of animus/anima), I must say that I am something close to shocked that in a discussion by three Jungians titled ‘the inner companion,’ there is not a single reference to animus and anima, which Jung described pretty precisely as companions on the inner way. Am I missing something?
They are being politically correct I think by bypassing the gender terminology. Maybe inner conpanion” as a looser term is helpful in bringing less sexual expectation to the phenomenon
I've never thought much about the current gender syndrome. You've given me a clue. I do believe that Jung is correct about his theory of being inclusive of our opposite, be it Animas or Anima. In fact, I've incorporated my Animus.
Your comments have made me wonder if the same principle Jung has brought to attention is being acted out in today's youth. In actuality, psychology, Jung especially is not well accepted in cultures. If he were, all these inner divisions could be worked out in therapy and not via body transformation. Certainly, there will be regrets since eventually it will not likely end well for some. How many more decades will it take before psychology will be accepted more than Christianity?
I left my Lutheran upbringing in my 20s - once I admitted to self that my prayers were not being answered. It's a cop out to believe that everything😮 is God's will. ❤😢
You can hear us explore anima & animus in this episode th-cam.com/video/dH68TNlgGSg/w-d-xo.html It's just not possible to say everything in each podcast.
@@kirstinstrand6292 There might even be something outside of that box you're in too
Why are all of the examples of hero and companion (Sherlock and Holmes etc,) male. I’m having difficulty thinking of a female duo, although there are plenty of heroines with male companions.