This talk was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 4/18/2001. Pittman describes his near death experience when he was a five year old child. He was critically burned over 1/2 of his body and for 3 days was near death. This amazing story was blocked out as an important event in his life when he entered therapy as a 30 year old priest. Seeing he needed therapy himself when he began counseling people who came to his ministry, it was six months into it before he realized it was an important event to tell his psychiatrist. There is so much we don’t want to remember that we repress, project, deny, whatever it takes to not have to experience the pain, the loss, the memories as that is our psyches way of surviving. He tells two more personal stories of life and death and then ends with the meaning he derived from these experiences.

This talk was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 4/7/91. Pittman describes how the holiness in each of us is projected when we meet a highly developed soul such as the Dalai Lama. Resurrection, a new birth is continuous throughout our lives as it is deeply desired in the psyche of everyone. It is infectious to us when we meet someone of this stature and consciousness as we are seeing and feeling our own divinity in his presence. As spiritual beings with a deep unconscious need to express rebirth time and time again.

In part 4 of the series given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. in April of 2004, Pittman describes the nature of the Jungian concept of the Self with a capital “S”. A synonym is God within, Buddha nature, Christ, etc. The Self occupies the center and circumference of our life which includes everything about us, conscious and unconscious including our shadow. Our Ego tends to take up residence in a safe corner with our attachments and ego defenses until we make the conscious effort to surrender to the urges of the Self. The Self will orchestrate accidents, illness, bankruptcy, divorce, etc. to get us to change. It's goal is to beckon us to become our whole self. Establishing our connection to this intrapsychic relationship (which Ed Edinger calls this the ego-Self axis) melds us to a transpersonal goal to become self-validating and true to ourselves. This empowers us in the arena of meaning, authenticity and our deepest truth.

These audios are not the best but the content is so good, I felt it was worth it to publish them. Please share them with whomever you feel would enjoy this very thought provoking series on analytical psychology. — Rebeca Eigen, web master

In part 3 of the series given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. in April of 2004, Pittman is describing the nature of the Jungian concept of complexes, (where we have coalesced energy around a particular archetype), how they are formed and what we can do to in the second half of life to integrate our complexes so that they can serve us instead of us serving them. As Jung said, “We don’t have complexes, they have us.” He elaborates clear descriptions of the two primary archetypes we all have, the Mother and Father complexes. Other complexes clearly give us what he called a body bell. We get a visceral response to something said or done in the environment that causes us a reenactment of our complexes. This gives us an opportunity to become aware of what is driving us in order to integrate them into consciousness. We don’t get rid of them, we integrate them.

In part 2 of the series given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. in April of 2004, Pittman elaborates on the attachments and defenses we all express. He gives detailed examples of suppression, repression and denial along with idealization or illusion (which is also a form of denial) we use to hang on to the romantic delusion of the magic other. To have these defense mechanisms is a natural part of our ego development and encourages us not to shame ourselves for being human. He says as long as we are going two steps forward and one backward, we are still headed toward in the right direction to individuation.

This 4 part series was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. in April of 2004. Pittman begins with a humorous and mind provoking song by Terry Allen that gave him the title for the series. He then goes on to elaborate on the developmental stages of the ego as it leaves the unconscious. By nature we lose soul when we are developing ego so the process involves becoming our own authority and this is a long, slow process that we all embark on. The Self is guiding us all along to let go of the defenses and attachments we developed along the way that keep us from subordinating to the Self and fully embracing our individuation.

This talk was given at Bridget’s Place by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on March 5, 2005. Pittman describes our ego’s evolutionary development starting from childhood to  becoming an adult. Our ability to make choices in the beginning is shaped by our parents, surrogate parents, church, government, society, etc. He emphasizes the struggle everyone faces to become ourselves not what everyone expects of us. This talk given in 2005 is helpful to guide us in our ability to exercise our freedom to choose in the present day when we are pressed to make choices that go contrary to what society expects of us. He describes the importance and spiritual necessity of becoming our own authority.

This Sunday School class was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 6/18/1989. (scratchy in places but very worth hearing anyway).
Pittman describes the biblical story of David and Bathsheba which is about our instinctual human nature and the unconditional love God has for us. This complex story because involves eros, sexuality and forgiveness and has both a subjective and objective truth simultaneously. It reveals the way even when the outer world mores and ethical values would condemn David, that all things worked together for good. {Amen is his last word but the mp3 provided had cut it off.)

This talk has two parts by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on October 20 and 27th, 1996. In part two, Pittman recites two poems, one by William Butler Yeats and another one by William Blake. Then tells us what the poems mean to him. He describes the sacred task we each have to become conscious in order to evolve the creator. As Jesus said, “One discovers one’s life by giving it up.” Ultimately the entire Cosmos benefits by our becoming authentically ourselves. In his profound way, he has another view of the human being’s role in the 2nd coming.

This talk has two parts by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on October 20 and 27th, 1996. In part one Pittman explores six basic reasons we all fear change. He is speaking from the standpoint of developmental psychology and part two will be based on theology. Pittman explains the process of how our developing ego and its attachments to outer world people and rewards will be taken from us by the Self (the center and circumference of the soul) if we derive our identity and meaning from anything or anyone outside of us. He says the ultimate fear behind all fears of change is non being or death. This fundamental anxiety is in every human being and becoming reconciled with our own death is the ultimate meaning of the Christian myth. 

This Sunday School class was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 3/27/1987. The American extroverted and materialistic way of our culture would much rather avoid the reality of death. We value old things but we don’t value older human beings. Life and death are very real and at the same time there is something immortal in us that transcends time and space. He talks about another kind of death we humans struggle with which is giving up our expectations that others live the way we want them to. He then describes two childhood experiences with death that led him ultimately to his calling to fully live his life for something greater than himself.

This Sunday School class was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 3/14/1987. Speaking on the trinity in a way you have never heard, this talk is both intriguing and thought provoking. Speaking first on family systems, the self I am, the self you see in me and the way the spirit transcends both as the third. He then tells two stories that personalize what he is conveying — three persons who are one and the same in the trinitarian experience.

This Sunday School class was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 12/13/1987. Pittman continues from the previous talk that something has to die so that something new can be born.  He describes the role of John the Baptist who came before Jesus and he also tells some stories from his youth that explain the anticipation and apprehensiveness he felt as a boy about the responsibility to let Christ be born in him. 

This Sunday School class was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 11/28/1987. Pittman tells the bible story preceding the birth of Christ that symbolizes something dying so that something new can be born. Life doesn’t allow us to stay in the same place although we know there will be excruciating pain to break the boundaries and birth the new story in us, the story that is begging to be born. Can you bare it? Can you go forward even if you are afraid of what it’s going to cost you to do so? Happy New Year!

This Sunday School class was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 11–22-1987. If an angel came to you today, what would it look like? Angels as messengers come in many ways and as a storyteller, Pittman invites us to see the many forms an angel can arrive and he doesn't believe they look like white statues with wings, halos and gowns. Do we want to be entertained by the story of how the angel came to Mary to tell her of the coming Messiah or will we let the story become our own personal story as Christ is born in all of us.

This talk was given by Rev. J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on October 20, 2002 at The Women’s Institute. We’ve all heard the saying that what we don’t know can’t hurt us, but the truth is our unconscious behavior, attitudes and drives that motivate us can hurt us. Jung called these invisible archetypal effects in us complexes. They are our psychic energy. When we are willing to become responsible for our many selves, our unconscious helps us nightly through our dreams to see into the invisible world within us. In the book, The Undiscovered Self, Jung spoke about the moral responsibility we each have to become conscious.

Pittman McGehee, D.D. speaks at the Paths to Healing Conference at Christ Church Cathedral in Houston, Texas on 1/27/01. He describes the relationship between body and soul as bodies ensouled. Speaking of St. Augustine who embraced the Manichean philosophy, and how our culture which is very Augustinian, (puritanical), believes that instinctuality is bad. St. Augustine believed in original sin and that somehow we should transcend our bodies (matter), unconsciously hating matter (denotes his mother complex). As spiritual beings trying to become human, nature is our Mother and our five senses are the way we experience the holy. This is not a great recording (due to age of cassette) but it’s a great talk so I am posting it anyway. Enjoy

In Part 2, McGehee continues answering questions from the audience.

In this talk given in San Antonio on May 15, 1998 at the C.G. Jung Center of San Antonio, Pittman McGehee, D.D. describes a new way of looking at darkness as containing a place for transformation as becoming conscious is not an easy thing to do. The Self is using our mistakes, failures and suffering as opportunities for our increased consciousness and urging us towards wholeness. This teleological world view recognizes the power in our suffering is just our process and something we need to enter into rather than avoid.  

This Sunday School class was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on April 9, 1989. McGehee describes two of the post resurrection appearances to show what happened before that are pivotal to the way Jesus comes to us in our everyday quotidian life. Usually when we hear the story of the appearance to Saint Paul on the road to Damascus, we don’t get the details of what came before that are important to the conversion of Saint Paul. There is the wisdom in Judaism given by his teacher, Gamaliel to Saint Paul to help us understand why Paul went through what he did and why God chose him to represent Christ to us.