The Spirit is shining

At this time, Jung, like many others, was interested in spiritualism and read the literature on the subject—books by Zöllner, Crooks, Carl du Prel, Swedenborg, and Justinus Kerner's classic "The Seeress of Prevorst." At the Zofingia debating society at the University of Basel, he lectured on "The Value of Speculative Research" and "The Limitations of Precise Science," in which he questioned the dominant materialist paradigm, which persists to this day. Jung engaged students in various occult experiments, but when he shared his ideas or lectured them on the need to take them seriously, he encountered opposition. He seems to have had better luck with his dachshund, which, he felt, understood him better and could sense the supernatural presence itself.[2]

Another person who seemed to sense a supernatural presence was his maternal cousin, Helene Preiswerk. In a letter to Rhine describing the shattered knife, Jung refers to Helly—as he used to call her—as "a young woman with mediumistic abilities" whom he met around the time of the incident. He also describes in his "so-called" autobiographical "Memories, Dreams, Reflections" that after the incidents with the table and the knife, he engaged in a series of séances with his loved ones. In reality, however, the séances had been taking place for some time before these two incidents, and their focal point was Helly, whom Jung knew very well and who was in love with him. This is an early indication of his somewhat ambiguous connections with oculturism. Helly would fall into a trance and collapse to the floor, breathing deeply and speaking in the voice of old Samuel Preiswerk—though she never actually heard him. She told the others to pray for her older sister, Bertha, who, she said, had just given birth to a black child. Bertha, who lived in Brazil, already had one child with her mixed-race husband and gave birth to her second child the same day of the séance.[3] Subsequent séances also proved surprising. On the one hand, Samuel Preiswerk and Carl Jung the Elder—Jung's paternal grandfather—who disliked each other, reached an understanding. There was a warning for the other sister, who was also expecting a child she would lose—in August, the child was born prematurely, stillborn.[4]

Helly produced more voices, but the most compelling was a soul named Ivenes, who called herself the real Helena Preiswerk. This figure was far more mature, confident, and intelligent than Helly, whom Jung described as absent-minded and not particularly bright, talented, or educated. It was as if beneath the skin of an ordinary teenager lurked a fuller, more majestic personality, much like Jung's "second self." This was an insight into the psyche that inspired his later theory of "individuation," the process of "becoming who you are." Helly later matured and became a successful seamstress in France, but she died young, at only 30.

Jung, in his treatise "On the Psychology and Pathology of So-Called Occult Phenomena," describes Helly unfavorably as "showing a somewhat rachitic skull formation" and having a "slightly pale face," neglecting to mention that she was his cousin. He also omits her participation in the séances and dates them to 1899-1900, even though they began many years earlier. Gerhard Wehr gently suggests that "the doctoral candidate was, for obvious reasons, afraid to conceal his own role, especially his kinship, and therefore from the outset refrained from any criticism that might cast doubt on the scientific validity of the entire work."[5] In other words, Jung the scientist decided that concealing Jung the occultist's personal involvement in this matter would be good for his career.