Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Although Jung has never explicitly addressed the question of life after death before, he attempts to offer his insight into the subject in this chapter. He maintains that he cannot offer a clear answer as to whether the psychic self continues after death, but he believes that images offer a window into the afterlife: “Even now I can do no more than tell stories—’mythologize’” (299). The critical rationalism that became popular during the Enlightenment separates people from their personal mythologies. Jung is critical of the idea that everything is inherently knowable. Because psychology has revealed the vast nature of the unconscious, Jung is hesitant to assert that he knows definitive truth about the afterlife. However, he believes that the unconscious and hidden part of the psyche is the key to making meaning.

Jung recalls a few memories of death, including the loss of a friend’s son in a drowning accident. After this death and others, individuals experienced seeing the ghosts of the deceased, leading Jung to believe that there is still much to learn about the hidden experience of death. Some critics suggest that belief in afterlife is a fantasy to help cope with the reality of a limited existence.