InPresence 0160: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity – Reflections on Peter Kingsley’s Catafalque

Summary

Psychologist Jeffrey Mishlove reflects on Peter Kingsley's two-volume book Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity, which argues that Jung was not merely a scientist but a prophet akin to Jesus, Muhammad, and Mani. Kingsley claims Jung deliberately hid the mystical, religious nature of his work behind scientific language, and that orthodox Jungians do him a disservice by denying it. Mishlove explores Kingsley's warning that Western civilization is doomed for losing touch with the source of consciousness, and shares a personal moment of insight about self-initiation.

Key takeaways

• 1Peter Kingsley's book Catafalque: Carl Jung and the End of Humanity is a two-volume work, the second volume consisting entirely of footnotes, priced around $75
• 2Kingsley claims Jung privately told Freud that psychoanalysis was a religion of great significance but would only succeed if that was hidden
• 3Kingsley compares Jung to Mani, founder of Manichaeism, who was also a painter, and likens Jung's Red Book to Mani's illustrated revelations
• 4Kingsley links Jung's work to pre-Socratic philosophers Parmenides and Empedocles, whose fragments he describes as shamanic incantations, and blames Plato for cutting humanity off from the ancient gods
• 5Mishlove recalls Jungian James Hillman bluntly telling him in the 1970s that there was nothing mystical or psychic in Jung's work
• 6Mishlove claims APA president Nicholas Cummings once declared that psychology's job was to eradicate conventional religion

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

One of the issues that Peter Kingsley harps on over and over again is the idea that Jung, like all of us, has two different personalities. In the case of Jung, one personality was a scientist and throughout his career he kept maintaining he is a scientist, he is a scientist, he is a scientist, and not a mystic, not a prophet, not a person of revelation at all, but a scientist. Of course, the other part of Jung is that he's a deep student of esoteric culture. I hope those of you who are watching this video now, if you haven't already, take a look at the interview recently released with Gary Lachman on the esoteric dimensions of Carl Jung's psychology. You'll see that he was a deep student of alchemy, hermeticism, Gnosticism, the I Ching, synchronicity, alchemy. It goes on and on and on, but Peter Kingsley takes it much, much further. Keep watching to learn more. New Thinking Allowed is presented by the California Institute for Human Science, a fully accredited university offering distant learning graduate degrees that focus on mind, body, and spirit. The topics that we cover here, we are particularly excited to announce new degrees emphasizing parapsychology and the paranormal. Visit their website at cihs.edu. The New Thinking Allowed magazine issue 10 on UFOs and UAP is now ready for free download and you can also order beautiful printed copies. Go to newthinkingallowed.org. Book 4 in the New Thinking Allowed dialogue series is Charles T. Tartt, Seventy Years of Exploring Consciousness and Parapsychology, now available on Amazon. Thinking Allowed. Conversations on the leading edge of knowledge and discovery with psychologist Jeffrey Mishlove. Hello, I'm Jeffrey Mishlove. ...

Excerpt from New Thinking Allowed, Sep 23, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.