The Shaping of a World Religion: Carl Jung and The Land of the Dead

By Cynthia Chung

“It is well said, in every sense, that a man’s religion is the chief fact with regard to him. A man’s, or a nation of men’s. By religion I do not mean here the church-creed which he professes, the articles of faith which he will sign and, in words or otherwise, assert; not this wholly, in many cases not this at all. We see men of all kinds of professed creeds attain to almost all degrees of worth or worthlessness under each or any of them. This is not what I call religion, this profession and assertion; which is often only a profession and an assertion from the outworks of the man, from the mere argumentative region of him, if even so deep as that.

But the thing a man does practically believe (and this is often enough without asserting it even to himself, much less to others); the thing a man does practically lay to heart, and know for certain, concerning his vital relations to this mysterious Universe, and his duty and destiny there, that is in all cases the primary thing for him, and creatively determines all the rest. This is his religion; or, it may be, his mere skepticism and no-religion; the manner it is in which he feels himself to be spiritually related to the Unseen World or No-world; and I say, if you tell me what that is, you tell me to a very great extent what the man is, what the things he will do is.”

– Thomas Carlyle’s “Our Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History” (1841)

This is the fifth instalment to the series “The Shaping of a World Religion: From Jesuits, Freemasons, & Anthropologists to MK Ultra and the Counter-Culture Movement.” For the previous instalments see Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.

In the previous section of this series we focused on the Ghost Dance Religion, a religion that had been adopted in some form by the majority of Native American tribes within a short period during the late 1880s. The core belief of the Ghost Dance Religion was the prophecy of a millennial New Dawn and a Messiah that referred to himself as Christ returned.

In this prophecy of a New Dawn it was foretold that the salvation of the Native American people was to occur in just a few years. Those that made themselves “pure” by removing all contact with the white man’s tools and wares would make themselves worthy of living in this new golden age. This New Dawn would be brought about by a cataclysmic event, by flood, earthquake or fire. In this cataclysmic event all would die, but those worthy would be reborn in this New Age and live forever. Most of the white people would perish from the cataclysmic event since they were bad, whereas, the dead Native Americans from the past would return again to live with their loved ones never to age and never to grow sick.

There is a great deal of evidence to showcase that the Mormons played a central role in bringing about this prophecy and religion amongst the Native American tribes (see Part II of this series), however, they were not the only group involved as is discussed in this series.

As with many other Native American dances, like the rain dance, the Ghost Dance was thought to bring about that very thing, the Dead. For those who were lucky enough to temporarily leave their bodies during the Ghost Dance, they could visit the Land of the Dead and speak to their loved ones that had crossed over. It was believed that this new ability to talk with the Dead was another sign that the New Dawn was near and that the longer and more frequently one danced the Ghost Dance the quicker the New Dawn would emerge and wipe out all sorrow and woe, all starvation and disease, and all the corruption and oppression of the white man.

The Smithsonian Institute and more specifically the Bureau of Ethnology’s role in “studying” this strange phenomenon that had suddenly appeared amongst the Native Americans, rather inexplicably since just the sheer distance such a prophecy would take to travel across the continent did not make sense in the rapidity at which it spread, was also discussed.

John Wesley Powell, who was the head of the Bureau of Ethnology and thus largely also the head of the Smithsonian Institute, was also discussed and his emphasis on “studying” the creation myths of the Native Americans and obsession with psychological reports on the indigenous people. A great deal of liberty was taken in interpreting these reports to fit a narrative Powell wished to see backed by “science”, which would come to be known as the “science” of anthropology, to which even the Smithsonian’s account of its own history attests to.[1]

A great deal of controversy arose at the end of Powell’s career as head of the Bureau when it came to light (after the Massacre at Wounded Knee), that much of the research that had been conducted under the Bureau had been left unpublished. In other words, many of the studies on the creation myths along with the Bureau’s analysis on this, as well as the psychological reports of the indigenous people Powell was so fond of were kept private from not just the public eye, but most eyes working at the Bureau.

Powell had a select entourage in which he shared much more than he did with the rest of the Bureau, which again is corroborated by the Smithsonian Institute itself.[2] One of these men was Franz Boas, effectively the new leader of the Anthropology movement in the 20^th Century and the man who originated the term “cultural relativism.” The relevance of this will be discussed in later instalments.

Again, as admitted by the Smithsonian’s own official historical biography,[3] Powell and most others working at the Bureau, regarded the Native American people as an ethnicity and culture whose fate was to soon go extinct. Thus, Powell was conducting the “study” of the Native American people with this in mind, to “collect” and “document” as much as possible for it would not be long before the “Red man” would no longer be, however, one should ask themselves what was the purpose of this scramble to document as much as possible before the expected extinction of the “Red man” under Powell’s purview. The reader should be aware that the Bureau of Ethnology worked closely with the American government, including most notably the War Department.

Bureau employee (though outside of Powell’s circle and rather disliked by the man) James Mooney had worked on a colossal report on the events that led up to the Massacre at Wounded Knee and had provided a great deal of devastating evidence to showcase that the Sioux outbreaks had been largely instigated and provoked by agents who oversaw these Indian Reservations as well as government policies that had knowingly created conditions of mass famine and conditions of desperate economic hardship. In addition, just weeks before the events at Wounded Knee, all staff of the Indian Reservations had been replaced by men who had next to no experience. The increased desperation the Native American people were pressed up against with the addition of “overseers” who had no experience running Indian Reservations turned the situation into a powder keg that was just waiting to be lit. The Ghost Dance was that igniter.

There is a relevance to this story and what would later shape the counter-culture movement which is the purpose of this series to recount.

Before we continue the story of the anthropology movement of the 20^th century and the creation of MK Ultra and the counter-culture movement, it is important that we discuss Carl Jung’s relevance in all of this, which might seem at first counter-intuitive. However, the reader should keep in mind that the Jungian revolution in psychology had also been largely a cultural revolution and was at the core of the ideology of the counter-culture movement.

It is also relevant to discuss Carl Jung since he too would draw much of his insights from his own travels to the Land of the Dead.

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