Carl Jung on UFOs

C G Jung was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. At heart a curious man, he never shied away from strange subjects like dream symbolism and paranormal phenomena. It’s no surprise, then, that UFOs caught Jung’s attention. 

Jung thought of UFOs as psychic phenomena more than as physical objects. Whether or not UFOs existed for real was secondary to their psychological import. For Jung, UFOs were placeholders for collective mental distress that couldn’t express itself otherwise.

In Flying Saucers (1959) Jung writes that the psychological undercurrents expressing themselves as UFO sightings must be global. UFOs have been spotted around the world, and what’s fueling these visions must be universal too. 

UFOs as release from Atom bomb anxieties. After WWII, the possibility of mutual destruction loomed large in people’s imagination. With the destruction of Earth becoming a technological possibility, people started fantasizing of other habitable planets & aliens who may live there.

UFOs as the third option. In the Cold War 1950s, people lived in a tense bipolar world. The unconscious mind was thirsting for a third way. UFOs popped up as proof that somewhere out there was an alternative - that there was life beyond the limiting lose-lose geopolitics of Earth

UFOs as antidote to overpopulation anxieties. Jung wonders to what degree UFOs might be escape fantasies for residents of an overpopulated world. Perhaps what the UFOs mean is “the earth is growing too small for us, and that humanity would like to escape from its prison.”

UFOs as consolation for a Godless world. Nietzsche, one of Jung’s big influences, proclaimed God’s death and said this will existentially disorient people. If God’s no longer above us, perhaps other beings are? And perhaps UFOs are proof we might have a relationship with them?

UFOs as mandalas. UFOs are spherical, spotless, and often glow. This reminds Jung of mandalas - ancient symbols of totality and order. For Jung, a fragmented and disorderly world’s psyche naturally projects mandalas into the sky, and they appear to some people as UFOs.

Why UFOs? Because, Jung writes, “anything that looks technological goes down without difficulty with modern man.” The unconscious mind cleverly expresses an ancient archetype of wholeness and deliverance - the mandala - as a tech object to sidestep our rationalistic filters.

Bottom line: In the debate over UFOs’ existence, their psychological significance gets lost. Whether they exist or not, it's instructive to look at UFOs as projections of our collective unconscious. Perhaps the UFOs are symbolic carriers of psychic messages we need to heed.