The average human being knows more about outer space than they do about what goes on inside their own head. The ever present inner battle between consciousness and unconsciousness, between Ego and Shadow, entirely escapes most of us.

 

We can talk to anyone, anywhere in the world, through messages bouncing off satellites orbiting the planet, but we still haven’t learned how to listen to ourselves. We NAIL telecommunications. But, basic human psychology? Not so much.

 

So we still have the same old problems that people had back in medieval times. Psychotic rulers who demand absolute obedience–and get it. Appalling poverty, racism and social injustice in the masses, while rich people take shelter behind visible and invisible walls. Religious wars fueled by self-righteous fanatics. Political parties who hate one another and constantly jockey to stay in power, but solve no problems, or create more problems, when they are in power. We still even have plagues, spread by carelessness and ignorance.

 

Heck, we moderns have added whole new categories of UNconsciousness. Wholesale destruction of the environment to such an extent that we’re ruining the climate. Saying the first thing that pops into your mind –which saints, sages and saviors have advised against for thousands of years — to anyone who will log on. (Monkey minds, running amok. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, “Don’t believe everything you think!” and almost cried for joy.) Giant international companies dedicated to making as much money as possible selling things they KNOW are bad for their customers and their planet. (Golden rule? No more, no way, only for schmucks.)

 

For sheer UNconsciousness, we moderns have outdone the medievalists. For an “advanced” species, we are woefully ignorant about what works and what doesn’t.

 

When people ask me what I do, I say, “I try to promote a better understanding of the Human Shadow.”

 

When they ask me why, I quote these guys:

 

“We just might be in time to stop the apocalypse, but it will be touch and go.”

—Konrad Lorenz

“Projection of Shadow material causes most of the misery, injustice and warfare in the world.”

–Robert Bly

“Unleashing the power of the atom has changed everything except our way of thinking. We need an essentially new way of thinking if mankind is to survive.”

—Albert Einstein

 “The task of confronting the brutal, destructive elements of the Shadow has become the inescapable destiny of our species: If we fail, we cannot hope to survive.”

—John A. Sanford 

“Learning to integrate Shadow material is the single most important task facing mankind, as failure to do so will lead to the extinction of the human race.”

—Carl Jung

 

The only thing that will save the human race now is introspection. Really, truthfully examining what goes on inside our heads and taking responsibility for what we find in there. With the same energy and passion that we put into figuring out how to get satellites and spaceships off the ground.