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particular, we retain those genetic combinations that result in instinctual behavior in the "lower" animals. In humans, however, because we can conceptualize to a degree not available to other animals, we tend to ask "Why?" when confronted with the urge to behave in an unexplained manner, when we are driven by our instincts.
Jung postulates that humans sublimate their instincts that are clearly discernible in animals. This sublimation assumes a form he calls archetypal figures. Because we all generate similar archetypes, the human groups we form inevitably merge these figures into legends that underpin every human society. Jung discovered that everywhere on Earth, every society - no matter whether primitive or advanced - has created similar legends all containing exactly the same archetypes. Furthermore, he postulated that if you remove one set of archetypes, the affected society will substitute another, so that each instinct remains represented by the same figure, although in different garb.
For example, Jung analyzed the structure of the Russian Orthodox Church in Imperial Russia, and identified a list of archetypes. He then analyzed the structure of the Communist Party as it existed in Soviet Russia, after it had displaced the Russian Orthodox Church. The archetypes matched, point for point. And these compared closely with the archetypes he identified in Indian Vedantic literature, old Chinese Confucianism, Japanese Buddhism, ancient Greek mythology, and even the theistic beliefs of Australian Aboriginals. Stripped of their details and the bells and whistles of sophistication, they were all the same. No matter where Jung looked, and no matter how different beliefs, legends, and myths appeared on the surface, underneath all were identical.
This was heavy stuff for a young man!
Essentially everything in which I believed had been swept aside in one fell swoop, if Wylie and Jung were correct.
I had learned to think clearly, to analyze differences with formal logic, to apply appropriate BS filters - basically, I arrived at this point at the tender age of 20, possessing the necessary tools to reach a meaningful conclusion for my personal life.
I went to work, and I kept my nose to the grindstone for a solid week. I skipped classes, missed meals, slept little. I reread the Bible from cover to cover (for the tenth time), but this time I read it with a skeptical eye, keeping Wylie and Jung firmly in mind.
I reexamined everything I had learned about modern science, about
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