Exploring the Benefits of Reading Why We Make Bad Choices.
Exploring the Benefits of Reading Why We Make Bad Choices allowed me to explore an alternative view by applying symbolic themes from the biblical narrative of Genesis 1-3 that can symbolically influence our thinking and behaviours, either negatively or positively. How you may think symbols and ancient scriptures can affect us.
Well, I am going to tell you. In psychology, a school of thought called analytical psychology was developed by Dr Carl Jung around 1912. A renowned psychiatrist and transpersonal theorist who introduced the concept of “collective unconscious to represent a form of the unconscious (that part of the mind containing memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware) common to mankind as a whole and originating in the inherited structure of the brain.”[1]
Here we are talking about anything universal to man, meaning no matter where you live, race or culture, you are naturally familiar or know of symbols, concepts, or ideas such as the cross, God, the serpent, yin and yang, 12 signs of the zodiac, dragon, the devil, the four elements (water, air, fire and earth). These examples and so many others become familiar to us because, over centuries, people have repeatedly practised, written and spoken about them; therefore, we tend to inherit the meaning of these symbols and scriptures, for example.
If what Jung says is true about the collective unconscious, which I believe many others also do, then we inherit the ancient past in some way we are likely to be bound by historical eras. The question you may ask how does this affect you? The collective unconscious is full of opposites that show up in literature, ancient rituals, folklore, biblical scriptures and symbols like good and evil, day and night, good and bad, yin and yang, masculine and feminine, the serpent and the Ouroboros, and the sun and the moon. The qualities of each of the opposites probably influence our thinking and behaviour patterns on a collective level. So when we talk about the qualities of the sun and moon, these descriptions are common to all of us.
A further example is that we may inherit traits associated with either good or bad that are known collectively, like trustworthiness as a positive quality and dishonesty as a bad trait. Another example is extrovert traits like having a fiery nature associated with the sun, and nurturing qualities are linked to the feminine nature and the moon. I hope you can see where I am going with this.
We have symbols like the religious cross that has existed for centuries, and depending on the era, the serpent was seen as a positive symbol of a creative life force. In contrast, the serpent represents the devil in Christian and Judaism scriptures. These examples are worth mentioning because they illustrate how the collective unconscious can influence our thinking and behaviour.
I applied the Genesis creation story in the book, Why We Make Bad Choices: The God’s Labyrinth of Good and Evil Encountering the Self to highlight some of the verses of Genesis 1-3 that can relate to modern-day human suffering: digital communication, social media, addiction and unhealthy thinking and behaviour patterns. You may or may not ask, how can ancient scriptures relate to how we perceive ourselves today?
The book demonstrates and provides examples to understand how the meanings of the characters and symbols of Genesis 1-3 influence our psyche, therefore YOU. But why do I want to know how the verses affect you, if at all? To know yourself is to know that you are endowed with vast collective memories and impulses from the ancient world. Therefore, for your awareness, we are influenced by the content of the collective unconscious to work towards abundance or unfortunately towards lack and beguiling like the serpent in Genesis 3:5 who entices Eve to eat the forbidden fruit “….ye shall be as gods.” To be a god breeds self-centeredness that embraces “me, myself and I” rather than sharing, giving fruitfully, and unaware if you demonstrate the latter, you may receive abundance in various ways.
We must first become aware of our false selves and adversities and not fall prey to the personal suffering that life gives us on a silver platter contributing to forming a false self. If that is the case, how can we work with gaining abundance that is our birthright or believe our dreams, goals, or aspirations can become a reality if we live in a world where we feed our false sense of self? It is fundamental to be conscious of those qualities that shape the false self; otherwise, how can we know who we are and connect with our authentic self to receive abundance in all its entirety?
If the collective focus on the negative aspects of the collective unconscious, then we are among the destructive gods, symbols and scriptures, rituals and folklore. If we connect with the beauty of the collective unconscious and work through our personal unconscious in some therapy setting, then I think you are on your way towards self-integration. But of course, the primary factor will be dealing with the personal unconscious first, but also give some thought to the collective unconscious where history repeats itself as the concept describes as intergenerational transmission such as addiction, psychopathology, poverty, abuse, abandonment, neglect, rejection, violence, racism; breaking the cycle starts with YOU.
Another example is the merism of good and evil; both are separate but one entity similar to the yin and yang symbol stemming from ancient times that are part of humanity. Although it is up to you which side of the coin you feed that potentially experiences can become part of the personal unconscious mind.
Then we come to the Universe's primary source, God, Allah, Jar or Yahweh; which is known and experienced in the collective unconscious and, of course, is experienced in other ways. The first bible, Genesis, describes how God created the Universe and man. God has shown itself from the beginning of time and continues throughout the millennium that He seems to naturally come into existence in our lives in some form or another despite being a believer or not - He is present in the collective unconscious that is likely to suggest God is in YOU and not outside of you!
From a Jungian perspective, God is an archetype when discussing the collective unconscious.
“Jung asserts that since GodGod is an archetype we are forced to think of God as relative. Thus, God is as dependent upon man as man is upon God. Third, the essential aspect of the concept of God is "wholeness" or "completeness." Therefore, He is both good and evil, darkness as well as light.”[2]
If we consider that God is embedded in the oldest part of the psyche, the collective unconscious, then can we say He is real and exists in an ethereal sense? That’s why religions and spiritual practices are prominent and significant in people’s lives. If that is the case, the characters and symbols of Genesis 1-3 are also part and play a role in our collective unconscious, therefore Why We Make Bad Choices: The God’s Labyrinth of Good and Evil Encountering the Self demonstrates a theoretical unique view of underlying reasons why we make bad choices. The book provides an alternative perspective, and it’s up to the reader to utilise the information.
Why We Make Bad Choices offers an interdisciplinary account of psychological concepts and transpersonal and religious topics to illustrate how a biblical narrative can be applied to modern-day difficulties, as I have mentioned.
Confronting your dark or evil side, I say evil because, in this context refers to how we can treat ourselves in terms of self-loathing, self-hared, self-harming, depression, anxiety, addiction, psychopathology, and harmful personality traits are all blocks to minimise or prevent you from connecting to your authentic self. Integrating your authentic self makes you more likely to connect with the law of attraction principles since the unconscious blocks have dissolved or are healing.
In my opinion, this makes sense since you are working with the unconscious, and if you think you are going to achieve or work with the law of attraction without working on yourself effectively, you are wasting your time. However, if you focus on working on particular projects or goals, you may achieve your passions and become a reality. But, are your passions your life purpose or reflect your soul’s desire for you? Then this is something to consider, and maybe why, as yet, things have not worked out, and doors continue to close – your role in life has not been discovered.
For example, if you successfully do well in your chosen sport, you have incurred an injury that prevents you from playing your sport. You either fall into the abyss of why me or use the experience to challenge yourself in altering your perception of what you can learn from this and what strengths you can gain or build. This may well encourage you to reconnect with your spiritual side to learn a different way of life, or you may well find there is another path for you that your soul initially constructed, and the only way to find out is to cause a significant event that forces you to stop and listen.
Her self-deprecating mind enslaves the character Eve in the book, pleading to be heard crying out for help and blaming God for her suffering. While staring at her mirror, she is suddenly transported into a parallel universe of Genesis 1-3 to discover the merism of good and evil in her and humanity. In the realm of Genesis, her collective unconscious mind, she meets and converses with her soul to learn about herself.
The connection with her soul explores her deepest darkest self and discovers that God resides in her. Along her travels, she encounters the Tree of Life, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the serpent, the verses of the image of God, the forbidden fruit and the abolishment from the garden of Eden. These symbols and verses from Genesis 1-3 reflect her past and present experiences to facilitate self-healing to open the possibility of connecting with the inner power of God where man desires to be God. Replacing God with yourself effectively invites the false ego to reign or potentially become dependent on an external life force.
Being God dependant, that is to say, connecting with your power INSIDE OF YOU, invites your soul and spirit to work alongside you to manage the adversities you will be or are facing and find healthier solutions to your problems and challenges. The outcome can be more than you could ever imagine. I was determined to enrol on a PhD course. Unfortunately, this would be challenging for one reason or another. Years later, I was offered a place for a PhD; how wonderful and so happy that finally, a dream came true.
Six months later, While on the course, I realised that this was no longer viable or needed in my life; as you know, life progresses so do you. Then I thought, I will use what I haven’t from the course to support my ideas for a book rather than carrying out a research project. I found doing a PhD was restricting my creative energy because of following guidelines and protocols – the studying was hindering rather than supporting my journey. So you see, I took the risk and left, not knowing what would happen, and I still don’t, but I know I have written a book with pure determination, hard work, motivation and tapping into my inner wisdom – God got me where I am today, writing a blog. This is unexpected!!
“I would like to have everything that is good, genuine and beautiful!”
W.A. Mozart
[1] https://www.britannica.com/science/collective-unconscious [2] @misc{https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/34473, title = {The concept of God in the analytical psychology of Carl Gustav Jung}, author ={Brooks,, Henry, Curtis}, year = {1964}, URL{https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/34473}, publisher = {OpenBU}}accessd 5th August 2023