An Interview with Editors Murray Stein and Thomas Arzt on the _Jung's Red Book for Our Time_ Project
Channel: Carl Jung Depth Psychology Reading Group
Date: 2019-07-29

Edited Version, including OUTTAKES at 1:17:20

References: _Jung's Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul under Postmodern Conditions, Eds. Murray Stein and Thomas Arzt, Chiron Publications, Volume 3.

00:34--Introduction of Dr. Murray Stein

02:00--Introduction of Dr. Thomas Arzt

03:01--Introduction to the Dürkheim Center

04:40--Murray Stein's description of the genesis of the project.

09:30--Introduction to Chiron Publications.

10:39--Thomas's amazement with _The Red Book_, "An ocean without a shore.... People got into a soul searching process at the Dürckheim Center."

12:50--Skip's "Confrontation with the Unconscious" in 1993.

15:30--Caveats about Active Imagination.

21:37--"You're being opened up to a treasure field.... It can transform you."

22:28--"Whoever has the joy or burden of entering his own Individuation process knows that  it can be a pretty rough ride. It takes an immense amount of strength for the encounter with the numinous or meet the Divine Fire." 

23:17--"It's the only thing that will help the individual to live through these chaotic times."

28:30--"Individuation is a process of individual development.... It's a process of psychological and spiritual development."

31:15--Jung is becoming more popular in these postmodern conditions. 

32:10--Reference to BTS and its influence.

33:30--Skip has been working on interactions with theologians.  Skip misspoke: Dr. Jung was not the Father of a Swiss Reformed Pastor, he was the son of one.

35:00--Dialogue between psychology and religion.

38:45--Dr. Jung knew the Bible inside and out.  Reference to _Answer to Job_.

39:30--Dr. Jung was offering psychotherapeutic treatment to Western Culture.

40:15--What Dr. Jung wanted to do was to help Christianity, because he felt it was dying.  Christianity was losing its numinous power to bring people to Church.  

42:20--People need to "look for their inner Church as a countermeasure against the disenchantment of the World.... The World has lost its Soul."

44:57--"Science is about knowledge and religion is about Eros...." But Christians have lost the Meaning. They've moved away from the place where God is.

47:58--"One author in our series was comfortable in both worlds." Reference to the essay by Dr. John Dourley, "Jung, the Nothing and the All": https://youtu.be/3H836IC3Tl0 

49:04--"Strictly Thinking blocks you from other parts of the Self. Rational thinking blocks you from making contact with the gods.... The Ego has to receive the gods."

***51:07--"Show them your Red Book Thomas." Dr. Arzt is working with a book binder who is producing magnificent Red Books just like the one Dr. Jung had, with blank pages. A brief video about it and its process can be found here: 01:17:45 

52:38--The issue of mysticism related to Dr. Jung's work.

54:46--Dr. Arzt says, "I completely follow Peter Kingsley's view on Jung in _Catafalque_."

55:25--"The _I Ching_ is not magic, it is only science that we don't understand," according to Terrence McKenna.

56:00--Dr. Stein, "A mystic is a person who has a direct experience of an archetype or archetypal image. And they either fuse with it or they become very entangled with it."

56:27--"Erich Neumann wrote a wonderful essay called 'Mystical Man'.... Everybody is potentially a mystic."

58:39--"Mystics write in a slightly different way, but then philophers rationalize it and make philosophical principles out of it."

01:05:30--Reference to _Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction_ by Dr. Stein & the fact that it was picked up by BTS in its latest major album.  Stage 5 of Consciousness.

01:07:52--"Reacquiring the religious values in a new way."

01:08:40--"Finding the Living God" as an inner experience. Dr. Stein says, "They're hints of what is beyond."  

01:14:05--"_The Red Book_ cannot be exhausted because of its complexity.... It is a guiding light for our times."

01:15:33--Dr. Stein talks about his appreciation of the work of BTS. "BTS is reaching is reaching huge numbers of people, at least with some terms and concepts that will help the next generation."

01:17:20--OUTTAKES

01:17:45--Video of the production of a new blank Red Book, which will be available for purchase. Dr. Arzt mentioned this during the interview.

You are encouraged to watch the remarkable 3.25 minute documentary by Digital Fusion on the making of the 2009 Folio Edition of Dr. Jung's Red Book: https://youtu.be/nIBQFSwX1UY   

You can support Skip's work with a SuperChat or on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/SkipConover