Anima — the Dive. A while ago I had a dream. In this…
By: Lets Go Insane Together
Tags: Jung, Psychology, Anime, Analysis, Opinion

A while ago I had a dream. In this dream I wasn’t physically there, instead I was observing from the outside. What I saw was a beautiful, naked girl swimming vertically up out of a dark, muddy lake. When her hand went out of the surface it turned into a white flower. After having this dream I had a strong hunch that this was something universal because nothing in this dream was personal to me. I didn’t know the girl, nor the lake or any other part of the environment, and on top of it I remembered seeing something similar in an anime called Tokyo Ghoul.

The message from this dream was obvious to me right after having it. The girl was personification of anima, bottom of the dark lake was unconscious, surface of the water was consciousness, the flower was the fruit of bringing anima from the unconscious to conscious. To put it more simply the message from unconscious was: “You should put effort into becoming aware of anima and you will be rewarded.”

The underlying message of this dream wasn’t as interesting to me as the impersonal nature of it, which caused me to search for something similar in abstracted work such as analytical psychology or even mythology but the search went in vain. There were few ideas approaching what I experienced but nothing that hit the spot. If I was right and this dream depicted something universal then there should be something like it in mythology, movies, TV-shows, anime or books.

The Dive in Tokyo Ghoul episode 1

Since I remembered seeing something similar to my dream in Tokyo Ghoul, I begun the search there. It didn’t take long, the first episode and the protagonist Kaneki is already experiencing a sort of a dream. In this dream Kaneki’s crush Rize is swimming out of the darkness. Then Rize swims towards Kaneki and the surface (as it can be seen in the picture). When she reaches Kaneki she put’s her hands on his eyes and then removes them, symbolically representing her ability to alter his ability to perceive reality. The theme is similar to my dream — a girl comes out of darkness, she swims towards the light and there is some sort of change in what the individual sees. The similarity to the dream is close but what about the context. Before Kaneki had the dream he was in a state of confusion and crisis (because his girlfriend unexpectedly begun to eat him and then tried to kill him). Fortunately Kaneki survived but the evil and betrayal which he experienced changed him and created an inner conflict, which caused an inability to act and overcome challenges. State of confusion lasted whole season and resolution of the inner conflict was solved only in the last episode of the season where Kaneki had a conversation with anima in a dream like state which led to clarity and the ability to act.

The Dive in the movie King Arthur

One example of something similar to my dream doesn’t indicate a pattern and that’s why I continued my search. The second example I found in a movie called King Arthur. The protagonist — King Arthur was having a crisis because his friends were dying and he as a leader felt responsible and so he decided to throw away the sword which meant that he gave up fighting the tyrant king. Afterwards he was overtaken by a vision in which he was taken under water where there was the lady of the lake coming out of the darkness (picture above). She said: “Let me show you. Let me show you what will happen if you don’t take the sword.” Then Arthur had a vision within a vision in which he saw what will happen if he stops fighting. After the vision he picked up the sword and fought the tyrant. The pattern continues a woman comes from darkness to light and then tries to show something. After the vision the individual is no longer confused and can act.

The Dive in the movie Neon Genesis Evangelion

The third example was in an anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion, which I would characterize as the most psychedelic trip like anime out there. The protagonist — Shinji was floating in space in a parallel universe. After he had given up all hope he had a vision where his mother came out of a bright place. His mother said: “Isn’t this enough. That’s good.” Afterwards Shinji knew what to do and he broke out of the hopeless situation he was in. In order to understand what previous words by anima meant it’s important to show a conversation between Shinji and his inner self shortly before the experience. The inner voice in Shinji said: “If you will not accept that you are able initiating change within yourself, you will be unable to continue.” In the same dream like state: “You have been shutting your eyes and covering your ears making yourself blind and deaf to that which you wish to avoid.” And the last statement by inner self was: ”No one can justify their existence by linking their happiest moments into a kind of rosary, in particular I cannot.” What anima pointed out was that whatever exists now is enough and you don’t need to make a fantasy world for yourself. This example has one distinct difference which is that the woman came out of light instead of darkness. I decided to include this example anyway because the underlying patter is still the same. The protagonist is in a hopeless place and after the vision he ether regains his ability to act or is set on the path to do so. The coming out of the darkness part seams to not be vital.

Lastly me. In the intro I didn’t give context about leading weeks to this dream and I didn’t tell what happened afterwards. Few weeks before I had this dream I got fired which at the time shocked me. Even though it’s not pleasant to get fired most people wouldn’t be in a state where they couldn’t act but I was. I had a plan for the following year which revolved around the job and a possibility of being fired never went trough my head. So what was the issue? Well, it wasn’t just the fact that my plans for the year were destroyed, I also couldn’t plan for the future anymore. People, in my eyes, became untrustworthy and I begun to expect betrayal from everyone. It’s hard to live with people if you have unjustified expectations of betrayal. After few weeks of being lost, I had the dream. I knew it was meaningful but I resisted the message that the dream showed to me because the critical part of me said: “It’s just a silly dream”. What was at the bottom of the rabbit hole in this episode of my life? Well, I had to accept the fact that there are things out of my control and that I need to try despite it.

So, what’s common to all of these stories? The protagonist in all cases is lost, incapable to act due to an inner conflict. Then he has an experience of anima coming to consciousness which is rejuvenating by itself or leads to rejuvenation after some resistance by the individual, which I believe to be more probable case because people tend to treat internal experiences as something trivial or just silly. After accepting something (the exact thing is individual) about life which the individual didn’t want to accept, he becomes able to overcome the challenge which caused the inner conflict. In Kaneki’s case it was understanding that in life you have to value some things more than others. King Arthur had to accept the fact that some fights have to be fought despite casualties. Shinji had to accept life as a whole instead of focusing on few pleasant memories.

In this expression of anima, she appears as a guide. A guide to accepting facts about life which the individual rejects, to great peril to the individual. This is a way in which anima balances masculine tendency towards stiff values and supports a proper perspective towards life.