"If I am not conjoined through the uniting of the Below [understood as the unconscious] and the Above [understood as ego-consciousness], I break down into three parts: [1] the serpent, and in that or some other animal form I roam, living nature daimonically, arousing fear and longing. [2] The human soul, living forever within you. [3] The celestial soul, as such dwelling with the Gods, far from you and unknown to you, appearing in the form of a bird. Each of these three parts then is independent" (page 370 in the over-sized edition; page 577 in the READER'S EDITION).
Whatever these three independent parts may symbolize, the clear import of the last sentence reminds us of the possibility of and indeed the promise of what the "conjoin[ing] through uniting of the Below and the Above" mentioned in the first sentence of the quoted passage.
Now, did Jung himself experience the "conjoin[ing] through uniting of the Below and the Above" during the decades of his proverbial mid-life crisis? I think that he eventually did indeed.
However, I do not think that everybody who might desire to experience the "conjoin[ing] through uniting of the Below and the Above" should undertake to self-induce hallucinations as Jung did -- not even if they have a Toni Wolff to talk with about their hallucinations.
JUNG'S PATIENT CHRISTIANA MORGAN
I know, I know, Jung encouraged certain patients to self-induce hallucinations, using him as their therapist to discuss their experiences. Evidently, his patients who experimented with self-inducing hallucinations did not suffer any irreversible damage as a result of their experimenting with this potentially dangerous practice. Good for those people for whom this potentially dangerous practice works without resulting in a psychotic episode -- or worse. Nevertheless, I would not encourage anybody today to do this, not even with a therapist handy to talk with as they self-induce hallucinations. On the one hand, I cannot imagine how people could be screened to use this potentially dangerous practice. On the other hand, I cannot see how it could be possible to predict which people would be as lucky as Jung was in working through and processing the material generated through the use of this potentially dangerous practice. As I have indicated above, it took Jung himself years to work through the material from his encounter with the unconscious. I will style his overall experience as an example of the optimal experience of using this potentially dangerous practice.
But I would not style Christiana Morgan's overall experience of using this potentially dangerous practice as another example of the optimal experience. As a patient of Jung's, she engaged in self-inducing hallucinations. At the time, she was quite adept at generating self-induced hallucinations. Under Jung's guidance, she talked with him afterward about the material she encountered. Under his guidance, she also used her training as an artist to paint pictures of some of the imagery she had encountered, and she discussed the imagery with Jung. Perhaps we could liken her paintings to Jung's paintings in the over-sized edition of THE RED BOOK.
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