Philosophy Now Forum

An unlikely Jungian-Darwinian afterlife but still a bit of hope

Dr. Sigmund Freud is credited with the claim 'in the unconscious every one of us is convinced of his own immortality'.
AI Overview summarizes: "Dr. Carl Jung did not believe in literal immortality but posited that the human psyche and its experiences live on in a greater consciousness after death, viewing death as a natural and final goal of life rather than an end. He saw evidence for the psyche's timeless and non-extended state in conscious life, suggesting something of the human soul remains after the physical body dies. Jung suggested that at death, the individual gradually detaches from the body, and the ego's experiences continue to evolve in a larger, collective consciousness."
In his study "The Psychology of Life After Death", dr. Ronald K. Siegel summarizes the following: “Jung took the position that the concept of immortality, universally present in the individual's unconscious, plays an important role in 'psychic hygiene'”. So for those who do not believe in any religious form of afterlife the only possibility to achieve this ‘psychic hygiene’, with harmony between conscious and unconscious, remains the belief in a kind of surviving of the consciousness with the respect for the Evolution laws of Charles Darwin.

The first living cell, a great miracle
A fundamental miracle is the very appearance of the first living cell in conditions in which organic substances must have aligned extraordinarily favorably, for the emergence of life.
So why hasn't another miracle of the same magnitude happened?
It is a problem of belief to think about an afterlife based on Evolutionary Law. And some clues might come from the Neolithic Spirals.
Let's say there are one in a thousand billion chances, but on what basis can you say with absolute certainty that some kind of afterlife based on the laws of evolution has not or will never appear?
This essay aims to explore such a tiny possibility but which can offer a shred of hope for those who are seeking a higher meaning of life.
Modern thinkers of the world have glimpsed a possibility of the individual soul's "imprinting" of a great universal consciousness, transcending time.
Nikola Tesla said: "My brain is just a receptor, in the Universe there is a nucleus from which we obtain knowledge, power and inspiration. I have not penetrated the secrets of this nucleus, but I know that it exists". Aldous Huxley emphasized the "collective subconscious" in his book "The Gates of Perception. Heaven and Hell", which he concludes, by the way, with a plea for the survival of individual souls in a "congregation" of all souls. Rupert Sheldrake was a supporter of the idea of ​​a collective subconscious, as well as the famous Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, the parent of the current of analytical psychology based on the subconscious collective. The basic idea is that maintaining an imprint of the individual soul on the horizon of a collective subconscious independent of temporal boundaries would practically ensure a kind of "immortality".
A fundamental question would be how it is possible, strictly under the conditions of Darwin's evolutionism, for a "world beyond" to have emerged.
Here is a possible answer, not necessarily the only or a certain one. Ancient man imagined, intensely desired, practiced multimillennial rituals and above all believed in various forms of heaven. And because of this neurological need, the brain, with its amazing possibilities, may have created at some point the "psychic dough" necessary for the baking of a surviving consciousness, just as the ancestral biological brain designed and made each new organ: eye, nose, ear...

Carl Jung’s synchronicity for ‘significant’ adaptations
Such an idea seems particularly bold, so I appeal, in support of it, to the chapter "Science and the Unconscious" written by Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz for the book "Man and His Symbols", coordinated by Carl Gustav Jung. Thus, we find at page 306: “Physicist Wolfgang Pauli has pointed out that, due to new discoveries, our idea of ​​the evolution of life requires a revision that could take into account an area of ​​interrelation between the unconscious psyche and biological processes. Until recently, it was assumed that the mutation of species occurred randomly and that a selection took place by which the ‘significant’, well-adapted species survived and the others disappeared. But modern evolutionists have pointed out that the selection of such mutations by pure chance would have lasted much longer than the known age of our planet allows. Jung’s concept of ‘synchronicity’ could be helpful here, because it sheds light on some rarer, ‘limit’ phenomena, some exceptional events, in this way, it is therefore possible to explain how ‘significant’ adaptations and mutations occurred in a shorter time than would have been necessary in the case of random mutations (...) It seems, therefore, that such anomalous accidental phenomena occur when there is a need or a vital need, this fact could further explain why a certain species of animal, under great pressure or in urgent need, could produce significant (but acausal) changes in its external material structure".
These would be the neurological premises of the emergence of a possible "afterlife", as a spiral survival of energetic consciousness.

Neolithic spirals symbolizing the immortality
Spirals are found in many Neolithic megaliths such as at Tarxien (Malta), Castelluccio (Sicily), Newgrange (Ireland), Piodao/Chaz D'Egua (Portugal), Pierowall (Scotland), Bardal (Norway), Göbekli Tepe (Turkey), La Zarza-La Zarcita ( Canary Islands) etc. or on the pottery of Neolithic Cucuteni culture - for instance the "Venus of Draguseni" statue.
It is illogical to think that people moved and carved huge blocks of stone just for some random ornaments so that the spirals must have had a close connection with their consciousness. A provocative explanation was offered by researchers D. Lewis-Williams and David Pearce, in their book “Inside the Neolithic mind: consciousness, cosmos and the realm of the gods”.
According to this book the spiral is associated with a stage of altered consciousness that leads to visionary experiences.
There are also other authors who see spirals as a symbol of the passage of souls to immortality. Looking at the ancient megaliths scattered throughout the world, there is a general perception that the carved spirals would have reflected eternity.
It is also remarkable that in regressive hypnosis experiences, when you come to stand in front of the essence of your own consciousness-soul, perceptions of spiral vortexes are frequent.

I believe our dear friend Einstein was also quite enthusiastic about Jung's and Pauli's ideas.

The spirals carved into Neolithic stone monuments are usually interpreted as representing mazes, as they closely parallel similar designs carved into the earth on a much larger scale, sometimes called Troy Towns, which are large enough for people to walk around. There's a famous one at Glastonbury Tor, on the tor itself, and another at the Wrekin in Shropshire, hence the local phrase, "going all round the Wrekin" for taking a long, circuitous route. Others are simply carved into the grass. As for the ones carved on megaliths, they are often part of what are known as cup and ring markings. Since these are usually on a flat surface, it has been theorised that their purpose was to collect liquid for offerings, water, beer, or even blood, which would then drain away around the spiral. Interestingly, the design of the spirals are often very similar to the various labyrinths of Greek myth, which were not mazes as we understand them, since they only had one way you could go, but rather, they were symbolic of the journey through life, going in ever decreasing circles until you reach the centre, then going back out again. While the labyrinth that the minotaur lived in on Crete may have been legendary, there were real ones too, such as one under the pyramid of Amenemhat III in Egypt, or under the mausoleum of the Etruscan king, Lars Porsena. It's thought that the larger spirals, such as at Glastonbury, were communal ritual sites. Glastonbury still is, of course, and I've traversed it myself.