May, 2001

Jung and Yoga: The Psyche-Body Connection

Judith Harris

Inner City Books, Toronto, 2001, 158 pp.

Judith Harris, a Jungian analyst who is also a yoga practitioner, believes that at this time in our society, it is essential that we begin to pay attention to our bodies. She sees considerable connection between Jungian analysis and yoga, since both attempt to merge upper and lower, feminine and masculine through the union of opposites.

Hatha yoga, the type she practices, aims to develop the body into a strong yet flexible container that is able to hold the immense power of the spirit. “We often think that ecstatic, spiritual states only take place in the mind. As a matter of fact, however, mystical states can have a profound effect on the body, especially on the nervous system.” It is through the body, Harris thinks, that one must first connect to reality before one can ascend to higher states of consciousness.

The sacrum, the large bone at the base of the spine, connects the upper to the lower body. It is the first bone to form in the developing embryo, and the last to be burned in cremation of a body. Harris equates it to the white herb of alchemy, which can raise a mortal to the realm of the immortals. The whiteness of the herb represents the possibility of new life. It has also been considered a holy bone for centuries because it is the resting place of the eternal bone, the fifth lumbar vertabra, Harris notes.

Jung recognized that the back of a person represents the unconscious, since we have no eyes in back. Harris states that the time has come to begin to make what is behind

conscious. “If we look around us for a moment we will find people everywhere with back problems; we live a one- sided life when we neglect the back and the spine. We must undertake the immense task of connecting the dream world to the world of bodily reality…What is meant by neglecting the spine is that it becomes dangerous solely by virtue of the fact that it has been neglected.” This neglect of the spine, which Harris equates with rootlessness, can surface in physical trouble with the back or psychic problems such as fear and anxiety.

In her practice with patients, Harris often combines body work with Jungian analysis and gives several examples of cases where it has helped the patient. One was a young woman who was suffering from a terrible skin disorder and dreamed of becoming a bird. Her desire to be a bird symbolized her lack of rootedness in physical life and lack of connection to the feminine. Through body work and analysis, she was able to overcome her skin disorder and begin to heal her psyche.

Another patient came to Harris already bent over and beginning to suffer from osteoporosis at only thirty-eight. Harris diagnosed her as suffering from a negative animus possession. “She had literally been weighed down by life, the constant pressure to meet the expectations of others.” By working slowly, she was able to start to relax her spine and gain some access to movement and spontaneity.

Although Harris does not herself practice Kundalini yoga, she devotes two chapters of her book to it. She claims that “the path of Kundalini yoga can be a dangerous one,

especially for the Westerner. When one has not received the grounding and security that is essential in early life, the desire to leave life may be very strongly constellated. Many people go around half-alive, not knowing what they want, what they need or what may be destructive for them. Embracing life can be so frightening that the split life of ambivalence is scarcely endured. One fears being caught in earth, in mother, and never being able to free oneself. Nothing feels more scary to one who has never felt the love of secure arms.”

Harris connects Kundalini yoga with its emphasis on chakras with some of the symbols of Kabbalistic Judaism. For instance, the elephant symbol which is so important in Indian culture she connects with the base or root chakra and with the feminine. “As we become the roots which descend into the earth, we come into contact with the feminine,

with the body, which is referred to in the Kabbalah as the Shekhinah, the incarnated divine feminine presence on earth.”

Jung believed that the fire of Kundalini is located just above the sacrum, at the critical fifth lumbar vertebra. Harris says she is inclined to agree with Jung, since that is an area of the body where an immense amount of energy rests, awaiting the birth of consciousness.

For those unfamiliar with yoga, this book will not be easy reading. Harris tries to associate a number of different symbols and concepts from different traditions in ways that are not always clear. However, she provides the reader with much food for thought and further study.

The aspect of the book I found most interesting were the references to the importance of fifth lumbar vertebra, since this is a body part which has caused me problems in the past. I am among those who believe that the cause of much back trouble is psychological rather than purely physical, and I was pleased to have this viewpoint reinforced by Harris’s book. For the many sufferers of back pain, it provides a larger context in which to consider this very common scourge of modern life.

—Margaret Piton