CG JUNG - Countryside Anarchist

INTRODUCTION
views” and “only accepted what he himself said.” Reichstein described
Jung’s seminars as “very impressive” and noted that there was a “possibility
for open discussion.” 92 Speigelberg recalled that Jung asked “many
questions from the Indologists about Indian yoga practices . . . and
about the interrelation of that Indian system and Western psychology as
a whole. I think this seminar is still the last word that has ever been said
about the deeper psychological meanings of yoga practice.” 93 News of
the lectures spread far. Shortly afterward, Hans Trüb wrote to Martin
Buber that “I would like to speak to you of Hauer’s seminar. Overall it
was for me inspiring as anticipated. The ‘purusa’-atman was for me a
complete new revelation—above all, the very foreign way (Kundalini
yoga) to it for us.” 94
Hauer’s method seemed to have influenced Jung’s. In his seminars
Jung attempted to lead the participants to an understanding of Kundalini
yoga on the basis of their own inner experience, namely, the process
of individuation. Consequently the account of Kundalini yoga with
which they were presented was triply filtered—first through Woodroffe’s
translations and commentaries, then through Hauer’s, and finally
through Jung’s. Not surprisingly, the three were often at variance, both
in their terminology and in their understanding of the processes involved.
Hence a good deal of the questions from the floor queried these
differences.
It is important to note that for those who attended Jung’s seminars,
they were not simply a course in hermeneutics but engendered particular
experiences. Thus Reichstein recalled having dreams that depicted
the movement of the Kundalini serpent during and after the seminars,
and that “at least a few” others had similar experiences. 95
PSYCHOLOGY AND YOGA: PROBLEMS OF
COMPARISON AND COLLABORATION
Shortly after his lectures, Hauer wrote to Jung: “The week in Zurich has
provided me with much stimulation and perhaps I may entertain the
hope that the threads of our co-operation have been tightened a little as
92 Reichstein, interview with the editor.
93 Frederic Spiegelberg interview, Jung Oral History Archive, Countway Library of Medicine,
Harvard Medical School, Boston, 1–2.
94 Hans Trüb to Martin Buber, 27 November 1932, Buber Archive, Hebrew University of
Jerusalem; my translation.
95 Reichstein, interview with the editor.
xl