In order to dissect the immeasurable elements of a religious tradition without any prior knowledge one must strive to find at least a single tangible thread to hold on to. As a born and breed Roman Catholic delving into Islamic mysticism can be a daunting task that is easy to drown in. A single thread that can link and anchor a novice to Islam is the depth psychologist Carl Jung.
While studying depth psychology a handful of terms reoccur that can be related to Islamic mysticism. Individuation is an ongoing aspiration of the psyche that is defined as the achievement of self-actualization through a process of integrating the conscious and the unconscious. Similarly, transcendent function is a therapeutic term that is achieved when the conscious and the unconscious unify. From a Sufi perspective these two terms have similar themes to Islamic mysticism.
Sufism is an element of mystical Islamic belief. The practice in which followers seek to find the veracity of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. In order to enable the experience of divine love a variety of mystical paths and rituals are followed that are designed to help fathom the nature of humanity and of God.
Dr. Marvin Spiegelman, author of Sufism Islam and Jungian Psychology opens his book with an excerpt from Jung’s 1920s book Memories and then continues to articulate the relationship between depth psychology and Islam. Spiegelman writes,
Jung’s religious attitude, despite his natal Christianity, was directed toward the psyche. So focussed, he reached out—or better said, he reached in—toward other religions since they draw their symbolism from those deep strata of the soul which speak to common experiences of the divine and which Jung discovered in his work with his own dreams and those of patients. (Spiegelman, 74)
Individuation and transcendent function are the two laced strings that make this metaphorical thread of commonality between depth psychology and Islamic mysticism. Dr. Spiegelman discloses that Jung is only an honorary Islamic scholar but is still a force to be reckoned with. Spiegelman writes,
It is important to note that although no Islamic scholar has involved himself with Jungian psychology the way those of the other faiths have…Jung was sufficiently well thought of in Moslem circles to have been given an honorary doctorate at the Islamic university in Allahab, along with Hindu and scientific recognition from other universities, when he was in India. (Spiegelman, 78)
Despite the minimalistic ties, Islamic scholars such as Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan and Don Weiner take the thread and sew a blanket as wide as the sea.
Pir Vilayat is the successor of Hazrat Pir-o-Mushid Inayat Khan of the lineage of the Chisti Order, Ajmer, India, the first Sufi master to introduce Sufism to the West in 1910 (Spiegelman, 180). He is the author of Towards the One and the novel A Message in Our Time. Pir Vilayat cuts right to the chase in his chapter C.G. Jung & Sufism, he writes, “Foremost, both Jung and the Sufis seek access to no-man’s lands beyond the middle range compass of the psyche where a sense of meaningfulness is attained that defies our common-place thinking yet may prove decisive in one’s self image.” (Spiegelman, 97) Nurturing a holistic view of the psyche is a commonality that both Jung and the Sufis share. They allude to a reduced simplistic view that includes the wider dimensions of one’s being in one’s self-image, and extends to one’s world view. Sufis express that the human experience is to find the fulfillment of divine purpose. Essentially to find individuation. The journey of discovering one's place in the objective universe.
Carl Jung and the Sufis, these comic potentials which defy our minds manifest to the psyche in the form of symbols which furnish clues to the unfathomable and inexhaustible archetypes of the software of the human psyche. However the Sufis have more distinction. They reveal themselves in the features of the countenance inside the subtle body. Pir Vilayat articulates this as he writes,
For Shihabuddin Suhrawardhi there is a way of looking upon the earth: rather than perceiving it through the senses, one contemplates a precognitive image inherent in one’s soul. The scene on the earth triggers off this image which lays latent in one. One’s mind belongs to the sphere of Hyrkala, the sphere where creative imagination moulds the archetypes of those forms which are eventually projected as objects or bodies of planets or galaxies.(Spiegelman, 118)
Archetypes, according to Jung, ascribe to a collective dimension of the individual, instead of following the model of the holographic paradigm, the Sufis call attention to the divine celestial dimension of the person as unique for each person.
The summate this string, the ultimate goal of individuation is enable wholity in a human being. The conscious and the unconscious unify in order for said human to become a valid member of human society. For the Sufi, the ultimate goal is to live a guided life as close to divinity as possible. The aspiration is to follow a guided path from within that leads to the Infinite and find the way to be able to catch the Divine Hint and act accordingly.
Transcendent function is interwoven with individuation. Don Weiner, scholar an author of The Transcendent Function And Psychotherapy—Sufi Perspective focuses on the string of transcendent function. Weiner writes,
Therapy is a process of overcoming the separation between the conscious and the unconscious, and as a result arriving at a new attitude. Dreams, spontaneous fantasies, and directed fantasies are a very important source of materials to bring about the transcendent function. From the Sufi vantage point, spiritual growth results from awakening from a limited, individual perspective to discover the richness of all the levels of one’s being. Techniques are incorporated to unfold in four directions of consciousness: the cosmic dimension, turning within, the transcendental dimension, and awakening in life.
Parallels between Islamic mysticism and transcendent function strengthen when considering examples such as the Buddhist sattipatana and jhanas meditations that are also very beneficial when working with depressed patients. Psychology and spirituality can unify and bring mental and spiritual peace to an individual.
The original Sufi were predominantly people who chose a pious of Islam and who vehemently believed that a direct and personal experience of God could be achieved through deep meditation. Sufi mysticism endeavoured to create a personal experience of the divine through mysticism and ascetic disciplines. Therapeutic depth psychology seeks to bring to calm and unify the mind to give the individual peace. Two different methods that lead to a similar end. This single thread that anchors Islamic mysticism to depth psychology cements more than two concepts together but essentially two worlds.