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As we humans destroy the rain forests, damage the ozone
shield, change the climate, annihilate thousands of our fellow species,
increase our own population, and deplete the fuel, topsoil and water
that we need for our own survival, many people fear that sooner or
later we shall face a global catastrophe.
On one hand, the
notion of Apocalypse is interpreted by some religious groups as a
predetermined grand finale of life on earth, and – by those of various
fundamentalist persuasions – as the imminent prophesy of a
not-too-distant Day of Doom. On the other hand, consideration of the
planet's rapidly tilting population/resource ratio has led other
observers to forecast a twenty-first century of ecological disasters
and terminal resource wars between the rich industrialised
high-consumption societies of the Northern Hemisphere and the rapidly
growing but impoverished populations of the South.
The grim scenario of hungry millions massing at the North/South border
has apparently been taken seriously by certain government futurists,
intelligence agencies, military planners, corporate strategists,
economic forecasters, racial supremacists, and millions of ordinary
taxpayers who seem quite happy to support very large defence budgets to
prepare for the final showdown between the global haves and the
have-nots.
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Between these two paranoid
extremes, however, common sense also suggests that some sort of
systemic ecosocial disaster could indeed befall the Earth within our
lifetime or that of our children. But the problem about this idea that
the world will end in chaos, is that it can easily become a
self-fulfilling prophecy. If global catastrophe is inevitable, why
bother trying to save the Earth? Or put another way, if the human
species will simply not adapt to the realities of our planetary
environment, can there be any salvation from the horror that might
await us at the end of history?
The image of Apocalypse has roots which go back through science,
religion and mythology to the archaic depths of the collective
unconscious. Beneath the surface of the psyche, it haunts many of our
underlying assumptions, expectations and beliefs about the nature of
the world we live in. It casts a shadow which may seem trivial at the
individual level, but which looms large on the time-horizon of the
future when taken as a whole.
Because we now stand poised at the threshold of the global age, we are
living through one of those germinal moments of history – such as the
foundation of the city of Rome, or the "discovery" of North America by
Christopher Columbus – when the political, economic, and ecological
conditions for many centuries to come are being determined by whatever
changes are made – or not made – in the behaviour of those of us who
are alive today. Now that the Cold War and its threat of nuclear
Armageddon appear to lie behind us, the archetypal image of Apocalypse
has taken on renewed force as we continue our systematic destruction of
the biosphere upon which the survival of our species depends. So what
is the origin of this image, and what does it mean?
Apocalypse can be interpreted literally – as a historical prediction of
the end of the world. It can also be understood as a mythological
metaphor – a symbol of the death and rebirth of the ego in the process
of personal transformation.
More than mere symbol, however, Apocalypse can also be an experience.
This may be induced through a variety of cultural, religious and
psychotherapeutic means. Among indigenous people, it has been
traditionally evoked in sacred ritual contexts by the ingestion of
psychoactive plant substances associated with the ancient healing
practise of shamanism. More significantly, it may also happen
spontaneously, taking over one's psyche when one least expects it.
Scientific research has recently shed new light in this regard on a
psychological phenomenon whose meaning has disappeared – or was made to
disappear – from common knowledge with the advent of cities in Western
civilisation over the past two thousand years. Targeted by the Roman
Empire, declared taboo by Christianity during the Inquisition,
dismissed by science in the Renaissance, rooted out by colonialism in
the New World, and demoted to outlaw status by Freudian psychoanalysis,
the hallucinatory experience of Apocalypse may lie dormant beneath the
surface of consciousness, but it is not forever gone. Like the swallow
to Capistrano in springtime, it returns in due season according to a
rhythm of its inner nature.
I am referring to the widespread spontaneous onset of a non-ordinary
state of consciousness commonly called "mental breakdown," and known to
psychiatrists as the "acute schizophrenic break syndrome." According to
the World Health Organisation, this phenomenon strikes from 58 to 116
million people around the world today. (1)
In the USA, as many as five and a quarter million people are deemed to
be affected. Contrary to popular misunderstanding, the term
"schizophrenia" does not refer to the multiple personality syndrome;
the Greek etymology of the word actually means "broken soul" or "broken
heart." (2)
And despite mainstream psychoanalysis, authoritarian religions,
repressive societies, and a pharmaceutical-medical industry which still
misinterpret the condition as mental breakdown, a growing body of
scientific evidence indicates that the natural function of this
visionary episode is one of personal healing, artistic inspiration, and
social renewal. (3) Carl Jung referred to it as a condition when the dream becomes real
– hence the title of this book. Few people are aware that the
"schizophrenic break" – when not artificially blocked by medical
intervention – is a temporary phenomenon. The acute visionary phase
naturally lasts for about forty days, after which the psyche gradually
returns to a normal state of consciousness. The interesting thing is
that the visionary content of the acute phase centres around the
destruction and reintegration of the ego, symbolised not only by
powerful hallucinations of personal death and rebirth, but also by an overwhelming subjective experience of Apocalypse and the end of time.
Jung's trailblazing approach to schizophrenia as healing process has
since been brought to fruition by a growing number of mythologists,
anthropologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, artists, and visionaries
whose investigations into non-ordinary states of consciousness make it
quite clear that there is a kind of inner Apocalypse which some human beings may sometimes have to undergo in order resolve the crises which naturally occur along the path of life.
Since the human species is now approaching a global crisis, the time
has come to face this psychological counterpart to the end of the
world, the Apocalypse within. This text attempts to show why, if it is
our serious intention to develop a sustainable form of civilisation
before it is too late, we shall need to restore the visionary
experience to its proper – indeed sacred – place in our private and
public life.
This text begins with a recollection of visionary states from the
archaic shamanic strata of European mythology, and a brief historical
account of their violent suppression at the hands of the Christian
church. The second part consists of an interview with the Californian
psychiatrist John Weir Perry, MD, who describes the success of his
Jungian approach to contemporary "schizophrenic" individuals. (This
interview is also available in Finnish.)
The final part is a personal account of a visionary experience I once
had in Ireland, which I have found of inspirational value in my own
work as an artist.
Allowing ourselves to experience the inner
Apocalypse may be the best medicine to prevent an external one.
Remember, the Chinese ideogram for "crisis" is a combination of the
signs for danger and opportunity.
Leading thinkers in all the relevant fields now agree that humankind
does have the opportunity to develop a global civilisation that can be
economically healthy, ecologically sustainable, and fun to live in. But
we are also threatened with the danger of global ecological and social
catastrophe. We must surely face this crisis with all the means at our
disposal, including the new scientific understanding of the psyche and
of the process of human perception. This may empower us to deal with
the underlying cause of the impending crisis, rather than to merely
attack the symptoms as they come up in a piecemeal way. The principal
intention of this text is to draw attention to the pattern that
connects the global crisis with our own way of seeing it.
– Michael O'Callaghan, New York, November 1992
CONTINUE
WHEN THE DREAM BECOMES REAL
GLOBAL VISION HOMEPAGE
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