The Psychology of UFOs | Carl Jung

A very important and timely video for the days ahead.

Strange sightings have been reported in the sky throughout history. After the Second World War, however, the appearance of UFOs became prominent in culture. Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung studied the UFO phenomenon for more than a decade until his death in 1961.

He wrote a book entitled Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies, where he saw UFOs as a living myth for modern man, stating that we have the golden opportunity of seeing how a legend is formed, and how in a difficult and dark time for humanity a miraculous tale grows up of an attempted intervention by superior or “heavenly” beings. Jung’s field of interest is the human reaction to the phenomena, an effort to understand the complex working of our interior life, as this is revealed through the UFO phenomenon.

UFOs are visionary rumours whose basis is an emotional tension having its cause in a situation of collective distress or danger, or in a vital psychic need – shedding light on the psychic compensation of the collective fear weighing on our hearts. UFOs have become a saviour myth, as we have projected on them a hope, an expectation. They express the symbol of totality represented by the mandala, the archetype of the Self, whose chief role is in uniting apparently irreconcilable opposites and is therefore best suited to compensate the split-mindedness of our age, bringing order and regulation to chaotic states.