The Shadow Effect

The unconscious isn’t about me. It’s about us. When a person has unconscious impulses and drives, they come from the entire history of humankind. Each of us, according to Jung, is linked to a “collective unconscious,” as he called it. The notion that you and I created our separate, isolated selves is an illusion. We tapped into the vast reservoir of all human aspirations, drives, and myths. This shared unconscious is also where the shadow lives.

Because we don’t know how we created the self that we cling to so desperately, the self can surprise and amaze us.

After any major trauma to body or mind, it takes time for the fragile ego-personality to recover

Any crisis that attacks our sense of well-being also attacks our sense of self.

We all have a self, and we go to great lengths to defend its right to exist. But our creation is fragile

Infants lack a self and spend the first three years creating it

Once you become a single self with needs, beliefs, impulses, drives, wishes, dreams, and fears, suddenly the world makes sense. “I, me, and mine” exists for one purpose, to give you a personal stake in the world.

Human beings are the only creatures who can create a self. In fact, we must create one, because the self gives us a point of view, a unique focus on the world.

Consciousness sees itself. That is its most basic function, but, as we will discover, from this simple function a new self and eventually a new world can be born.

The shadow loses its power when consciousness stops being divided. When you are no longer split, there’s nothing to see but one self in all directions.