Author: J G Johnston

The Power of Social Capital

The Wind That Propels All Boats Cohesive social capital has created personal fortunes and altered the course of history. We may be familiar with the concept of “human capital” — the value of people as productive assets in an organization. People individually bring the value of their training, experience, skills, and expertise. The human capital of the organization is the […]

What Is a “Connection to the Infinite”?

The Decisive Question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? — C. G. Jung When C.G. Jung wrote that a life disconnected from the infinite is wasted, he was expressing a profound perspective on the nature of human existence and the potential for a meaningful life: “The decisive question for man is: Is he […]

There are More Things Dreamt in Heaven and Earth

In the timeless story of Shakespeare’s Hamlet lies a profound and enigmatic statement: There are more things dreamt in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Prince Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5, Hamlet These words, uttered by the melancholic prince, not only reflect the character’s existential reflections but also convey a deeper insight into the […]

What is the Meaning of Life?

This is the age-old question, and truthfully, a question that is likley beyond our pay grade. Still, it feels compelling to ask the question, for as our friend the ancient sage, Socrates, noted, “A life unexamined is not worth living.” Many have taken a stab at meaning, some more significantly than others. Some say that […]

The Parallel Psychologies of Jesus and Jung

At first glance, these two individuals — Jesus and C. G. Jung — may seem worlds and centuries apart. Yet, what they taught is strikingly compatible. The way of a fully individuated life was as much a part of Jesus’ religion as it was of C. G. Jung’s psychology. With his acknowledgment of the divine in human experience, Jung developed […]

Conscious Cells and Purposeful Evolution

The human body, a marvel of complexity and precision, is a composite of trillions of cells working harmoniously together to sustain the life of the whole. These living cells possess what we might call a mechanical consciousness. They may not possess our mode of self-consciousness, but they must have some kind of consciousness, for, astonishingly, each cell […]

One Cell Does It All

The Miracle That Is Us Question: How many cells does it take to create a human brain? Answer: One One cell, in nine short months, creates the brain, and as a bonus, the whole functioning body to go with it. Human development is not just some marvel of a hypothetical “nature,” and not the product of “natural selection” […]

The Relationship of Ego & Shadow in C.G. Jung’s Psychology

Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of analytical psychology, C. G. Jung, made significant contributions to the understanding of the human psyche. Among his many groundbreaking concepts, is the notion of the “ego” and the “shadow.” In Jungian psychology, these two concepts play a pivotal role in the individuation process — the self-realization and psychological wholeness of a […]

Do Ideas Truly “Have Us”?

“People don’t have ideas. Ideas have people.”  — C. G. Jung What is an idea? Even though we speak of ideas easily and often, for the experience of having ideas is common to us all, no one actually knows what an idea is, in and of itself. We experience them, and we tend to claim them as […]

The Creative Inner Life

Only the inner life is truly creative. Tolstoy noted in Anna Karenina, that “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” So it seems with civilization and personal growth. Beneficial growth for civilizations and persons are born from the creative inner life. We go astray as civilizations and as individuals — generate […]