ABSTRACT
Findings from evolutionary neuroscience suggest that the human brain consists of ancient primary process affective systems and more recently evolved secondary process systems. This duality has been compared to Jung’s concept of an archaic or collective unconscious shared by all humanity and a more recently evolved form of ego consciousness. In this chapter, I explore these concepts in the context of psychedelic neuroscience and a neurophenomenological approach to the mind/body problem. More specifically, researchers in this field have been able to demonstrate that chemically induced alterations to neural architecture correlate with experiences of ‘ego dissolution’ and a phase transition to primary process styles of cognition. This suggests that brain states and the phenomenology of consciousness are two aspects of the same underlying phenomenon. I also explore the work of Goethe and Nietzsche in the context of a discussion of shamanism and ritual transformations of consciousness. I argue that all three thinkers were pioneer explorers of a domain of experience that has for centuries been marginalised by Western philosophy and science. With emerging research in psychedelic neuroscience, this seems to be no longer the case. Consequently, we can now come to appreciate more fully the truly innovative nature of Jung’s theories and his extension of ideas that can be traced back to both Nietzsche and Goethe.
