Forging the Upward Thread: Why Do We Create Religions?
This Jungian Life Podcast
Joseph Lee, Deborah Stewart, Lisa Marchiano
4.8 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2025
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!
The religious function is part of who we are — as natural as needing food or love. It’s the inner drive that pushes us to find meaning, to touch something larger than ourselves. Jung saw that if we don’t tend it, it doesn’t go away; it twists itself into addictions, compulsions, or a kind of soul-sickness. Religion, in the deepest sense, isn’t about belief systems.
It’s about real encounters with the Self — the larger reality inside us that humbles, heals, and reshapes us. Dreams, symbols, and moments of awe are how Psyche keeps that connection alive. Without them, the energies meant for growth get stuck or spill out in destructive ways. In this episode, you’ll learn how to stay open and reimagine ways the sacred can speak to you.
Read along with our dream interpretation HERE.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this Jungian life. |
| 0:04.2 | Three good friends and Jungian analysts, Lisa Marchiano, Deborah Stewart, and Joseph Lee, |
| 0:09.7 | invite you to join them for an intimate and honest conversation that brings a psychological perspective to important issues of the day. |
| 0:19.4 | I'm Lisa Marchiano, and I'm a Jungian analyst in Philadelphia. I'm Joseph Lee, |
| 0:24.9 | and I'm a Jungian analyst in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I'm Deborah Stewart, a Jungian analyst, |
| 0:31.1 | and Cape Cod. |
| 0:49.7 | Thank you. Today we're going to talk about a topic that was selected by our supporter community on Patreon. |
| 0:55.5 | We're going to be talking about what Jung called the religious function of the psyche. |
| 0:58.0 | And it's a big topic. |
| 1:00.1 | It's one I've wanted to talk about for a while. |
| 1:02.9 | So I was really excited that our patrons picked it. |
| 1:08.2 | If you would like to help us pick future topics, check out our Patreon. |
| 1:14.6 | You can go to our website, click on the podcast tab, and you'll see that there is a link there to our Patreon for just a, you know, a handful of dollars a month. You can support us. |
| 1:22.2 | And also you'll get some nice benefits like bonus material and, of course, the ability to help us pick future topics. |
| 1:30.9 | So what did Jung mean by the religious function of the psyche? This was an important idea to him. |
| 1:37.3 | And maybe I'll just start Joseph by pointing out that Young believed that we had a religious |
| 1:42.1 | instinct and that the religious instinct was every bit |
| 1:46.8 | as strong as the other instincts for like food and creativity and sexual activity. |
| 1:54.2 | Yes, it was the last of the instincts that he added in his canon of ideas. |
| 2:00.6 | And he was questioning, you know, is... that he added in his canon of ideas. |
| 2:06.6 | And he was questioning, you know, is the drive to religion, |
| 2:07.8 | is it an instinct? |
... |
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