Recent Programs

September

Friday Evening Lecture
Becoming Whole as a Spiritual Necessity:
A Jungian Guide for Renewing the Mystic Vision

In his last great book, Mysterium Coniunctionis, Jung points out that it is the mystic vision that takes us out of religious decay. The mystics carry the Soul force of religion. They bear the mystery that can return creativity to religion and transform it into a spiritual quest emanating from the ground of our being.

When the Soul force is lost, religious institutions rigidify, become fear-based, and leave many of us feeling wounded and alienated. Jung’s emphasis on the spiritual life as a journey toward wholeness heals these wounds, supports and guides personal spiritual development, and offers a new vision for institutional as well as individual renewal.

Jung’s process of becoming whole—the individuation process—becomes a spiritual necessity when we recognize its dynamic, creative emphasis on transformation. Dr. Harris will explain how we are challenged individually to renew the Soul force in our lives and how Jungian psychology offers us a modern path to renew this vision.


Saturday Workshop
Renewing the Mystic Vision Workshop

We will explore some of the most important exercises in the mystical journey and ask how in each stage of spiritual development Jungian psychology brings them into a focus that can change our lives.

Each of us will be invited to respond personally to a series of questions that mark the path of individuation and mysticism and to discuss them in small groups. c We must learn that thinking about ourselves in a profound way is not only not selfish but is the discipline that makes us vessels for the expression of divine creativity.

For help in this process, we will look into the lives and stories of the mystics. The highest form of unity impels us to become fierce participants in life, following in the footsteps of people who have progressed far enough in their development of consciousness to realize their egos must be transformed from a position of “I want” to “I serve” the highest values of the Divine within themselves.

Please bring a pencil and paper to write your reflections on the discussion topics. We will conclude by exploring how we can live our lives as authentically as the mystics lived theirs. 

Bud Harris, Ph.D. is a Zurich trained Jungian analyst practicing in Asheville, N.C. Formerly a businessman, he now has over thirty years experience as a psychotherapist, psychologist, and Jungian analyst. Dr. Harris has lectured widely, written numerous articles, and authored five books. His latest is The Fire and the Rose: The Wedding of Spirituality and Sexuality. 

October

Friday Evening Lecture
Jung and Contemporary Mystical Spirituality

There appears to be a growing cultural consensus regarding the nature of a meaningful spiritual journey. Points of agreement include:

Jung’s thinking foreshadowed these themes and others that contemporary culture now begins to appreciate. The lecture will examine these themes with the following emphases:

Saturday Workshop
Mystical Spirituality Workshop

Although discussions will be welcome, the workshop will emphasize experience. Through the use of active imagination, dreamwork, and some exercises derived from Mindfulness Meditation, participants will be assisted toward direct personal experience of the aspects of the psyche described in the lecture.

Those who would like to continue the work and discussion with Dean Schlecht can return at 1:00 p.m. after a lunch break. The afternoon workshop will last until 4:00 p.m., and donations will be accepted for our presenter.

Dean Schlecht, M.Div. is a former Catholic priest and the manager of a 24-bed crisis respite facility in Eugene, Oregon for very poor and homeless persons undergoing psychiatric crises. He also has a small private practice offering psychotherapy and spiritual direction. Before moving to Eugene in 1999, he was an LMFT with practices in Oklahoma City and Irving, Texas. He served as President of the Oklahoma City C.G. Jung Study Group from 1983 through 1988 and has offered numerous workshops and retreats.

November

Friday Evening Lecture: Dreams Through the Ages

Are sleeptime dreams supernatural happenings, psychological events, or brain functions having their way with us?

Long ago, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Hebrews, Christians, and Muslims most often dealt with sleeptime dreams as visits upon humans from divine or demonic sources. Later, Sigmund Freud declared dreams to be “the royal road to the unconscious.” Carl Jung broadened, deepened and greatly enriched Freud’s view of the unconscious. And now scientific methodology, including brain imaging, brings new ideas about dreams and the dreaming process.

These different approaches to dreams raise questions. Which one provides the best clues about dreams: the religious view, depth psychology, or science? Can these perspectives be reconciled? What unique understanding does each approach bring to a practical conversation about dealing with our dreams?

Such questions and plausible answers will be the topic on Friday evening, paving the way for the Saturday workshop where we will not simply talk about dreams, but relate to them.

Saturday Workshop
Embracing the Dream

Please bring a current dream to the workshop so you can fully participate in techniques to lessen cultural and psychological obstacles and resistances that hinder intimacy with our dreams, perhaps keeping us strangers to ourselves.

Dr. Hammond is on the Board of Directors of the Jung Society. For many years she has taught and continues to teach a psychology course on dreams and Jungian psychology at Brookhaven College in Dallas.