ABSTRACT

To Carl Gustav Jung parapsychology was not merely the subject for scientific research, theory, and experiment. His life was rich in personal experiences with spontaneous, acausal, or—to use the common term—paranormal phenomena. He seemed to be endowed with an unusual ‘permeability’ to events in the ‘background’ of the psyche. But that alone does not explain the extent of his experiences; his sensitivity to manifestations of the unconscious was supplemented by constant observation and study of nature, of objects, and of people. Given his close attention to the worlds of the psyche and of external reality, it is not surprising that he observed meaningful connections between the two, connections that would have been overlooked by a less sharp observer. Prophetic dreams and precognitions were no rarity in Jung's life. But whenever they occurred he noted them with surprise—one is tempted to say, with the awe due to the miraculous.