The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1932

Jung’s seminar on Kundalini Yoga, presented to the Psychology Club is a milestone in the psychological understanding of Eastern thought & the symbolic transformations of inner experience. With sensitivity towards a new generation’s interest in alternative religion & psychological exploration, Sonu Shamdasani has brought together the lectures & discussions from this seminar. In this volume, he recreates the fascination with which many intellectuals of pre-war Europe regarded Eastern spirituality as they discovered more & more of its resources, from yoga to tantric texts. In particular, Shamdasani guides his audience towards an appreciation of the questions that stirred the minds of Jung & his group: What is the relation between Eastern schools of liberation & Western psychotherapy? What connection is there between esoteric religious traditions & spontaneous individual experience? What light to the symbols of Kundalini Yoga shed on conditions diagnosed as psychotic? In his introduction, Shamdasani reconstructs the seminar through new documentation. He explains why Jung thought that the comprehension of Eastern thought was essential if Western psychology were to develop. Depicting the ways in which Jung’s work has such a decisive influence on the alternate religious movements, Shamdasani highlights the continued psychological relevance of these writings. In addition, this volume offers newly translated material from Jung’s German language seminars, a seminar by the indologist Wilhelm Hauer presented in conjunction with Jung’s, illustrations of the cakras & Sir John Woodroffe’s classic translation of the tantric Sat-Cakra-Nirupana text
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