And Goethe wrote of the mind:-
“Was ist unendlichkeit?
Wie kannst du dich so qualen?
Geh’ in dich selbst.
Entbehrst du drin Unendlichkeit in Sein und Sinn
So ist dir nicht zu helfen.
What is infinity?
How canst thou so torture thyself?
Look within:
If there thou lack’st infinity in being and thought,
No help for thee”.
However merely to descend into the unconscious is a very dangerous thing to do, as anyone who reads about Jung’s attempt to do just that between 1914 and 1919 should appreciate. Besides the depths of the unconscious are probably places where you get further and further from everyday reality. So it is not the single mind you need to investigate; it is the interaction between two minds. And one starting point is the tradition of the German General Staff that a marriage of minds is necessary for the effective and efficient conduct of War; and we should ask, in our imitation of Christ, whether this marriage of minds can be reproduced in the civilian world as well? My opinion, which I expressed in my “Reconciliation with Science and War”, is that the world of interpenetrating minds is unbelievably more complicated than the world of relationships, and that there are probably worlds beyond worlds beyond this; for instance in the experiences Jesus must have had before he led his disciples up the mountain for the transfiguration. But one step at a time; and my experience largely ends with the world of relationships. So the world to explore is the world of interpenetrating minds. With luck, it should become relatively clear what is possible, and what is fantasy.
In order to help keep this distinction clear, may I recapitulate some facets of my Theory of Consciousness, which I believe to be true, but which may of course be mistaken. Their relevance is to distinguish between beliefs which are real, because they are fortified by experience, and intelligent speculations which may well be pure undiluted fantasy. I believe every attitude of mind is induced by a certain nervous tension in the body, which incorporates certain unspoken and usually unconscious assumptions in the mind, which in turn form the bedrock of that attitude of mind.