ABSTRACT
Symbols are a fundamental part of the existence, and they have their origin in the neurobiology – in other words, they are not arbitrary creations of whimsy or poetic conceits, but originate from deep-rooted, innate predispositions as they interact richly with the environment. In the meantime, discussion of symbols and their meanings went by the wayside when it came to empirical research and was relegated to the depth psychology schools. This chapter examines how symbols carry the weight of the gods in the human heart, and are very real and potent forces acting on people. It proposes a model for understanding dream, fantasy, and religious symbols in terms of the brain physiology. The Jungian analyst David Rosen and his colleagues have produced empirical evidence that supports the existence of a collective unconscious – in this case, evidence for an underlying universal mechanism of symbol construction.
