From February 7th through 18th, a group of soul seekers will travel in India to experience the land of Mahatma Gandhi through Jungian lens of Analytical Psychology. This experience is sponsored by the New York Jung Foundation. For the next several days, the faculty member of the group, Jungian Analyst Ashok Bedi and a Depth Psychotherapist Dr. Robert J. Jakala will compose a daily blog of their reflections about the experience. Other group participants have been invited to contribute to the blog and may join us from time to time. We are glad to share our experiences and reflections. Enjoy!

 

 

 

By B.J.Jakala

India alerts all the senses the moment you step onto her soil. Her city life still allows the coexistence of animal, vegetable, mineral, mechanical, and technical in her city streets.

Photo of a street in Ahmedabad.

The question is: How do I engage the experiences of sound, sight, smell, taste, touch, thought, and feeling? How much do I take in? How much do I give of myself?

What is the right mixture of India and me? What is bold and what is subtle?

Today is about establishing the proper container to hold/witness all that I am and all that India offers.

 Photo of a perfume shop merchant mixing personal scents.

BJ Jakala, PhD is a participant in this year’s Journey to the Land of Gandhi through the Jungians Lens led by Dr. Bedi.

Reflections by Ashok Bedi:

In India, the mundane and the sacred coexist in seamless harmony. Everything coexists: the light and the shadow. Carl Jung observed during his visit to India. He felt that while in the West, we live in the head, in India, it is the Whole person that lives. The light and the shadow coexist in harmony. Perhaps the presence of the good transmutes the dark side of our nature.

How we establish a Conniunctio with the world around us is always an alchemical process. Sometimes there is more of us and less of the world. At other times it is more of the world and less of us. However, what is of us is also the part of the collective and what is out there is a projection of “IT” that has not yet been integrated into our consciousness. When the world and I are in continuum, we are at harmony within and without.

Ahmadabad, India February 6th, 2014.

Join us often to share in our experiences and images as we engage the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi’s India with our Jungian peers.

NAMASTE

Ashok Bedi is a Diplomat Jungian psychoanalyst and a board certified psychiatrist. He is a member of the Royal College of psychiatrists of Great Britain, a Diplomat in Psychological Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of England, and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

He has been a Psychiatrist in Milwaukee since 1976 and now practices Adult Psychotherapy and Jungian Psychoanalysis (www.tulawellnessllc.com).  He is a Honorary Psychiatrist at the Aurora Psychiatric Hospital and the Aurora Health Care Network. He has been a psychiatric consultant to several agencies in Metro Milwaukee. Presently he is the consultant for the Sexual Assault treatment center at the Aurora Sinai Samaritan Hospital, Dewey Center at the Aurora Psychiatric Hospital for treatment of Addictions and the Pastoral Counseling Services of Greater Milwaukee.

Trained in India, Great Britain and the US, he is interested in the emerging frontiers of Spirituality and Healing and the synapses of the Mind, Body, Soul and Spirit. He is author of several books including- Crossing the Healing Zone: From Illness to Wellness, Nicholas Hayes Inc. 2013, Path to the Soul, Weiser Books, 2000, Awaken the Slumbering Goddess: The Latent Code of the Hindu Goddess Archetypes, Booksurge Publishers, 2007, and the coauthor of Retire Your Family Karma, Nicholas-Hays, Inc. 2003, These and his other upcoming presentations can be previewed at his website www.pathtothesoul.com

 He is the liaison person for the International Association of the Analytical Psychologists for developing Jungian training programs in India (www.iaap.org). He travels annually to India to teach, train the consult with the Jungian Centers that he led in establishing at several cities in India including Ahmedabad, Mumbai & Bangalore. He leads the annual “A Jungian Encounter with the Soul of India” study group to India under the auspices of the New York Jung Foundation.

He is the Co-Founder of the USA India Jung Foundation (www.uijf.org). The USA India Jung Foundation promotes educational and clinical activities in India and USA based on the principals of Carl Jung’s analytical psychology and Eastern spiritual and healing wisdom and traditions. It fosters clinical, medical, and educational exchange between professionals of the United States and India. These activities include educational activities directed both to professional and lay organizations in both countries to promote mental health education and prevention activities based on principals of analytical psychology and Eastern Spirituality. To support this  A 501(c)(3) Foundation and its charitable activities, kindly make your tax deductible contribution via the website: www.uijf.org