February 13, 2008

Evolving a Relationship to Fairy Tales (Part V)



(Werner Zurfluh, Part I)

My research into the more mystical aspects of fairy tales led me to the work of Werner Zurfluh, an intriguing explorer of consciousness. The majority of his previously-published German-language works are available on the internet in html format (unfortunately little of it translated into English, and the translations are of substandard quality). Though he is very well-versed in the literature of mysticism, meditation and eastern philosophy, and despite the fact that his works are heavily annotated, the power of what he says in his writings comes from the fact that it is based on his own inner experiences, and does not rely on anyone else’s authority. A large portion of the text consists of extracts from his journals.


Zurfluh, as a child, was prone to Out of Body Experiences (OBEs), or what is also called astral projections, and he had many of them until he was a young adult. During his student years, he noted that due to the stress of intellectual work these experiences stopped and his internal experience became confined to "conventional" dreams. He resigned himself to the situation and later began occupying himself with Jungian interpretation of his dreams. With time, however, he came to the conclusion that this was the wrong way to go about things.


Zurfluh's main theme, in almost all of his published writing, emphasizes the importance of striving for personal experience of those states of mind called dreams (especially lucid dreams), astral projection, and OBEs. Because of his own background as a biology teacher and due to several years of study at the Carl Jung Institut in Switzerland, he spends a lot of his time arguing against the tenets of mainstream materialistic science and psychology, including depth psychology. He is critical of today's science because of its inability to work with, acknowledge, or even entertain the possibility of anything that cannot be measured with state-of-the-art instruments (in spite of the fact that "science" acknowledges all sorts of things now that could not be measured as recently as a decade ago), and he faults depth psychology for still falling into the Aristotelian trap of analysing and categorizing internal experiences in ways that kills them and makes them empty shells like so many mounted butterflies.


In his works he sites hundreds of pages of dream-, lucid dream- and OBE experiences that show a progression over time (many years, in fact). At first he utilized the standard sort of Jungian analysis on his dreams, and the symbols and sequences yielded exactly the type of results a Jungian analyst would expect. But with time, and by applying the lessons these experiences were teaching him, he began to understand that these "internal" experiences are, to a surprising extent, subject to the "observer effect". When he was expecting content that lent itself to Jungian analysis, that is exactly what he got.

But once he had spent more time simply observing, and putting his efforts into being as aware as possible in whatever state of consciousness he happened to be, the nature of his experiences changed dramatically, and he began to understand that these states are not just subjective (i.e. just going on in your head), nor purely objective (i.e. something you are perceiving which exists outside of you), but a subtle interaction of the two. Fact is, he says, sometimes the things one encounters in these experiences are astral beings. They might be other people journeying in those worlds, or other kinds of beings which have been called spirits, elementals, genies, djinn, demons, angels, fairies and many other things throughout the ages. It's not appropriate to treat these like some aspect of yourself, as many depth psychologists might advise, because then you will not really find out what they wish to communicate to you.

So, rather than torture the symbols of dreams for hidden meanings -- using the logic of the material world to analyze and interpret otherworldly experience -- he determined that it was more important to make every effort possible to maintain the continuity of ego (Kontinuierlichkeit des Ichs) while entering the "realms of the night," as he calls them. One must, as much as possible, maintain an awareness of one's own identity, as well as an awareness of the otherworldly nature of one's state of consciousness when one leaves the ordinary waking state. This seems paradoxical to those who have not had this experience: being "awake" while one is asleep. His techniques encompass both what is known as astral projection, and what dreamworkers refer to as working with hypnagogic imagery.

(Next: Werner Zurfluh on fairy tales)


8 comments:

victoria.lambert said...

"Fact is, he says, sometimes the things one encounters in these experiences are astral beings. They might be other people journeying in those worlds, or other kinds of beings which have been called spirits, elementals, genies, djinn, demons, angels, fairies and many other things throughout the ages."

I told Szilvi about my experience of the "light -person" who talked to me, 2 or 3 days ago (I mean I told her 2-3 days ago, the experience was years ago). It wasn't like a dream, it was different. He told me things (which I cannot remember) but what I can remember, is that I was somewhere else. I can't describe it well , but something like on a different layer. Like there were layers in the air leading up to heaven, and we were on a layer like this, not very high, but higher than the usual place I am, when I dream. The person talked to me and it was "purely good" it made me happy heraing its voice. When I woke up I was smiling, my husband told me. I can't remember a word it said, but I remember all other little details. It was shinig the whole time. Shinig with white light (that makes sense, right?) It was made of love of some kind. It's very strange.

Daniella said...

OFF: Can you help me what fairy tale I can start with with my children (aged 3 to 6; boy/girl), please?

Anonymous said...

"[Modern science's] inability to work with, acknowledge, or even entertain the possibility of anything that cannot be measured with state-of-the-art instruments."

You mean, like...consciousness?

I remember reading an otherwise fairly trashy young adult novel when I was a girl that featured astral projection. I was fascinated, and frustrated that I had never had that kind of experience. However I have had the experience of being able to somewhat "control" my dreams, or of being an observer within the dream. But only the barest bit of lucidity, really.

Theo Huffman said...

Vero: Sounds like you had an important encounter. "Like there were layers in the air leading up to heaven, and we were on a layer like this, not very high, but higher than the usual place I am, when I dream." Wow. An interesting representation of the levels of consciousness. I get the impression you might be naturally psychic. Maybe you should work on developing it.

Daniella: Speaking from a purely Waldorf perspective, they say it's best to start children on stories that involve the "little people"; elves and fairies (manók in Hungarian). In esoteric literature these are called elementals, since they are life forms deriving their substance from the four elements (air, fire, earth and water). Other than that, I can't really recommend specific fairy tales. I recommend you just get a hold of a book (or several) of traditional fairy tales, and start reading them yourself. It's probably better to spare younger children the really scary violent ones. And for the longest time I went for the shorter Grimm's tales, just out of consideration for their short attention spans. For younger children, the braver Waldorf parents make up simple tales involving the aforementioned nature spirits. I've done it, and I have to admit it's a serious challenge to your creativity, and I've even published a couple of short stories in my time! But it's really rewarding. My kids loved my self-created stories (fejből mesék). They'd prefer I tell those all the time. I tell the kids that I can only tell those stories when the "story fairy" has whipered them in my ear. They really believe the story fairy exists!

Anthromama (alias henitsirk): Lucid dreams, astral projection, experiences in other states of consciouness; these are all things to be striven for! They are our birthright as human beings. They are tools in the evolution of consciousness. I highly recommend the dreamwork books of Robert Moss (among others) as practical guides for how one pursues these things.

victoria.lambert said...

"I get the impression you might be naturally psychic. Maybe you should work on developing it.
"

Yeah, that is, if I weren't lazy to do so...
:((

Theo Huffman said...

Well... laziness is a luxury. You either have to take up that work during this lifetime, or the next, or the next... I figure there's no sense in putting off the inevitable. :-O

victoria.lambert said...

I thought so too...well...next week! LOL

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