Songlines of the Soul

Veronica Goodchild is a Professor of Jungian Psychotherapy and Imaginal Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute. The title of this book comes from the ancient Aboriginal concept of 'songlines' defined as 'pathways to another world reached through dreamtime and visionary insight, and encounters with the unknown realm of experience.' She draws on a vast range of literature as well as her own extensive experiences of dreams, synchronicities and even a UFO encounter. Her basic contention is that we are individually and collectively emerging into a new worldview where the distinction between spirit and matter, inner and outer will be overcome as we realise how each reflects the other.

Like many contemporary writers, she sees our time as one of suffering and strife, but also with huge potential for change and transformation, which she regards as essential for our common future. The new understanding is that we live in a conscious and interconnected universe in which we are all co-creators, which in turn implies that we can be participants in the unfolding of a new reality, enabling the invisible to become visible and manifest. The author aims to remind us of who we really are at a deeper level so that we can 'become the midwives for this evolution in the eros consciousness' and achieve the necessary course correction in western culture.

The book is divided into four parts: an introduction to the subtle body and subtle worlds, synchronicity as a doorway to the deep mysteries of the psyche, UFOs and crop circles as a new emerging myth, and mystical cities and healing sanctuaries. Modern science insists on a material interpretation of the universe, thus denying the existence of subtle realms or dismissing them as illusions or hallucinations. Veronica takes a very different view, referring to the possibility of tuning in to other octaves of experience and the work of Henry Corbin on imaginal worlds (mundus imaginalis or the Other world) beyond empirical perception. This opens up an altogether deeper vision and understanding of reality as we begin to realise 'how we are each the expression of the cosmic mind coming to know itself.' There are interesting parallels here with the unus mundus of the alchemists – the psychophysical background unitary world. Entry into other worlds is a common feature of the death-rebirth pattern of initiation, which gives the initiate first-hand experience of the subtle. Jung's own NDE in 1944 was an important initiation marking a new phase of his work, and Veronica also discusses his Ravenna vision of 1913 and his alchemical vision of a green-gold Christ. These were not taken seriously by his contemporaries, stuck as they were in a materialistic outlook. This is also why Jung is excluded from contemporary psychology undergraduate courses that would threaten the paradigm and challenge lecturers to undergo a personal process of transformation and individuation.

Synchronicity draws our attention to the nature of consciousness and the relationship between inner and outer, which Veronica links up with alchemy. She discusses some of Jung's own experiences and identifies four essential features, including meaningful acausal connection, direct experience of another world, openness to thoughts we did not know about, and transformative power. She explains a significant experience of her own, commenting that synchronicity is movements of epiphany where another dimension impinges on the present, reminding us of what many traditional cultures were aware of all the time. At the very least, synchronicity shows that we all participate in one mind.

The third part discusses UFOs and crop circles, commenting on their relationship where one might regard crop circles as material manifestations of UFOs, and UFOs as psychospiritual manifestations of crop circles, both 'heralding a new age where spirit and matter are one.' Veronica draws on the experiences of Steven Greer and others, arguing that these encounters are part of a transition to this new age where nonhuman intelligence will also be acknowledged. She also sees crop circles as a sign of an emerging shift in consciousness, analysing the symbolism of some of the best-known and most complex examples. Here one is on shakier ground, as it is unclear to me, at least, how one distinguishes between the genuine article and man-made equivalents. Some of the rectangular shapes seem intuitively less convincing, while others are known to have appeared in a short space of time with such complexity and precision as to make them impossible to hoax.

The last part moves into the even more esoteric territory of mystical cities, including Shambhala, Avalon and Grail Castles characterised by extraordinary beauty and luminosity. Some of these are experienced in the NDEs, and may exhibit the phenomenon of missing time. Here again there is an element of death and rebirth, of expansion and freedom suggesting a world of light behind and beyond the physical. All this represents what Veronica calls 'direct experience of another world while living in this one.' It is a shift from the psychology of images to one of encounters and 'a consciousness that extends self interest and awareness to one of compassion for others, for nature, and a commitment of care for the liberation of all beings.' This is a higher differentiation of consciousness beyond conflicting opposites where 'cosmic wholeness and self-actualisation go hand-in-hand.' It is the Age of Aquarius heralding the recovery of the divine self through a deeper gnosis that also brings about a profound healing also found on ancient sites in Greece with their practice of incubation. As in the work of her friend Anne Baring, this is soul work more strongly identified with the feminine, but we are all a part of it. Veronica's book gives a new context for a great variety of numinous and transcendent experiences and helps define a transformed understanding of life and its journey.