This Halloween week, when the veil between worlds grows thin, Jungian analyst ROBERT SHEAVLY joins us to discuss ways in which we experience the dead communicating with the living.
In times of grief, it is common to be briefly reunited with the person we have lost in the form of deeply comforting dreams, visions or visitations. Jung himself was visited in such a dream by his deceased wife, Emma. He dreamed that Emma was in the south of France, continuing her research on the Holy Grail, and Jung felt comforted.
People have also sought seances and mediums to contact the dead, and Jung had a lifelong interest in these phenomena. Family members, including a teenage cousin, were deeply involved in this work. Jung was fascinated by his cousin’s ability to transform into another personality with knowledge a young woman could not have acquired. These experiences were Jung’s first encounter with what we now call the paranormal. This remained a lifelong interest and would later give rise to his theory of the collective unconscious, the deep wellspring of psychic experience shared by all humankind.
“It would seem to be more in accord with the collective psyche of humanity to regard death as the fulfillment of life’s meaning and as its goal in the truest sense, instead of a meaningless cessation.” (C.G. Jung).
For Jungians, the appearance of the deceased loved one is not only a psychological metaphor; the possibility that such contact may be more than a reassuring fantasy is admitted into consideration. Jung’s work offers us ways to relate to mysterious phenomena that neither ask us to abandon critical thinking nor limit our understanding to rationality alone.
In this wide-ranging conversation, we also discuss Jung’s Seven Sermons of the Dead, quantum physics, dreams that predict death, and the visitations from the dead that many people experience at the end of life. We consider, too, AI’s promise of technologically reuniting us with lost loved ones.
Here’s the dream we analyze
I was walking down an alleyway. My dog was with me. One of my sons was with me and I think maybe my daughter, but that’s more of a feeling. I was walking ahead a bit and saw a tall privacy fence on a slightly elevated plot of land with no visibility inside. Then there was a horse with us. We weren’t freaking out about that, even though it wasn’t our horse. The horse was smallish but not a pony and was calm and just walking along. When I got to the corner I saw steps up to the fenced area and a door. I opened it and inside were two women, a dog, and what at first looked like a dog’s front body on a cow’s back body, but after looking I realized it was just a cow. I called back to my son not to come up there because I wasn’t sure how our dog would act. I didn’t seem to be thinking about the horse. The ladies didn’t know about the horse and thought the dog would be fine. They were friendly and encouraged me let the dogs play together. The women, who seemed to be a couple because they were very affectionate to each other, came to the door and talked. Then the horse came behind me and poked its head in over my shoulder, and they seemed of course a bit frightened and were wary of the horse coming in.
Our Guest – Robert Sheavly
Robert Sheavly, LICSW, DCSW is a Jungian Analyst located in Washington, D.C., a senior training analyst with the Philadelphia Jung Institute and the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts (I-RSJA) and the Director of the Central Washington Psychotherapy Associates. He is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and holds a diploma in Analytical Psychology from the I-RSJA. Bob is Treasurer of the Philadelphia Association and the Jungian Analysts and of the Jungian Analysts of Washington Association (JAWA) and the former Director of Training for the Philadelphia Jung Institute. He is a former church organist and an avid choral singer performing regularly with the National Symphony Orchestra. He is also the author of Ensouling AIDS: The Archetypal Dimension of the LGBT Choral Experience.
Resources discussed in this episode
- Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley, Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying.
- Caitlin Gibson, “A Young Mother Couldn’t Accept She Was Dying, Until Her Grandpa Appeared to Her”, The Washington Post, June 19, 2026.
- James Hillman and Sonu Shamdasani, Lament of the Dead: Psychology After Jung’s Red Book
- Homer, The Odyssey.
- Carl Jung & Aniela Jaffé, Memories, Dreams, Reflections.
- Carl Jung, Seven Sermons to the Dead.
- Alessandra Lemma, Psychotechnical Becomings: Psychoanalysis, Identity, Desire, and Mourning in the Age of AI and Digital Mediation.
- Ami Ronnberg & Kathleen Martin (eds), The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images
- “Deathbed dreams: What end-of-life visions can teach us about life” – an interview with Dr. Christopher Kerr in The Irish Examiner, including links to his interviews with the patient mentioned in this episode, Sierra, and others.
Related episodes
If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might also like:
- Jung’s Paranormal Encounters: Why did strange events follow him?
- Death: A Jungian Perspective
- The Psychology of Magic: A Jungian Exploration
- Angels, Dreams, and Premonitions: How to Use Inner Messages Without Losing Yourself
Kosmos Colloquium 2026
Join Lisa in Switzerland this December 17-21 for the first Annual Kosmos Colloquium. Lisa will speak on “The Water of Life: Cultivating Our Connection with the Eternal”. Kosmos have generously offered This Jungian Life listeners a 15% discount – just mention that you are a podcast listener when you apply to join. Bookings here.
