This fairly short book collects all of Jung's writings relevant to ufology, principally the 1958 monograph "Flying Saucers," which discusses UFOs in rumor, dreams, and modern art, along with the question of the premodern history of the phenomenon and its "non-psychological" (i.e. objective, material) aspect. An epilogue treats late-breaking ufological literature (in the 1950s): the evangelistic Secret of the Saucers by contactee Orfeo Angelucci, the sf novel The Black Cloud by astronomer Fred Hoyle, and John Wyndham's sf novel The Midwich Cuckoos. Appended to the main text are three short pieces of correspondence "On Flying Saucers," addressed to the periodical Weltwoche, the UPI news agency, and US military ufologist Major Donald Keyhoe. The last two letters are largely concerned to counter what Jung claimed were misrepresentations in the press regarding his credulity towards the empirical reality of flying saucers as material craft from beyond Earth.

Throughout the book, but especially in the section that analyzes seven dreams featuring flying saucers or something of the kind, Jung goes on at length about his own theories in more general terms that are not obviously germane to the topic at hand. In one admitted "digression," he puzzled me by setting up an opposition between the "sex instinct" and the "power instinct," while positing a "religious instinct for wholeness" that could reconcile and transcend them. I found this arrangement theoretically incoherent, although it soon became evident that the "power instinct" was chiefly a rhetorical figure for Nietzsche's interpretation of life, while the "sex instinct" referred to Freud's (35-43).

Although the chapter on "Previous History of the Ufo Phenomenon" discusses instances going back to the sixteenth century and speculates about their presence in antiquity, Jung is especially concerned about the putatively US-centric 20th-century UFO sightings glut as a manifestation of collective mentality during a current crisis. In his opening "Introductory" he points to the precession of the equinox from Pisces to Aquarius or succession of "Platonic month" as the basis or essential context for stresses on the modern worldview (5). In his concluding remarks, he focuses on the Cold War and the polar division of the world system between red (Soviet) and white (US) alchemical complements (111).

> Besançon Alain. С G. Jung, L'homme à la découverte de son âme, Genève.
Id., Un mythe moderne.
Id., Dialectique du Moi et de l'Inconscient.
In: Annales. Economies, sociétés, civilisations. 22ᵉ année, N. 3, 1967. pp. 655-656. … ; (en ligne),
URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/ahess_0395-2649_1967_num_22_3_421561_t1_0655_0000_2

The mass hysteria regarding UFO sightings in the 1950s served as empirical evidence to support Jung's theories of the collective unconscious and archetypal projection. He discusses it in this book. The event was an extraordinary example of how when a powerful archetype is active (the sky-god in this case) it can influence the mass mind even among the most level-headed people. It also shows how archetypes can give rise to spontaneous myth making and gives insight into what gives religious movements, mass hysteria and cults their mental appeal. ( )

Although this book is a little dated it is still a excellent read. For me the Mind does play a very important aspect in this phenomena and the great man gives us some excellent insights into the collective psyche. ( )

I was referred to this book by listening to a podcast from Terence McKenna. Tons of interesting points fill this short book. I knew it was going to be good when in the Introduction Jung writes, "As we know from ancient Egyptian history, they are manifestations of psychic changes which always appear at the end of one Platonic month and at the beginning of another. Apparently they are changes in the constellation of psychic dominants, of the archetypes, or 'gods' as they used to be called, which bring about, or accompany, long-lasting transformations of the collective psyche. This transformation started in the historical era and left its traces first in the passing of the aeon of Taurus into that of Aries, and then of Aries into Pisces, whose beginning coincides with the rise of Christianity. We are now nearing that great change which may be expected when the spring-point enters Aquarius." AS usual, Jung presents deep ideas very simply, making for easy understanding. ( )