Increased Intelligence and Sleepwalking

by John R. SedivycloseAuthor: John R. Sedivy Name: John R. Sedivy
Email: john@capecodbranding.com
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A fascinating aspect of supernatural experiences documented by Carl Jung is his book “Psychology and the Occult” is that of increased intelligence that could occur when someone enters a trance-like state. Here is one such example when Jung describes his experience witnessing such a state with a young girl, roughly 15 1/2 years of age:

“The intellectual exaltation which many somnambulists display during ecstasy, though rather uncommon, is a well-observed fact, and I am inclined to regard the mystical system devised by our patient as just such an example of heightened unconscious performance that transcends her normal intelligence.”

To provide clarification, the term somnambulists refers to individuals who experience a sleep-like state characterized by normal activities that generally take place when an individual is awake – likely the most commonly known is sleepwalking. Second, the term ecstasy is meant to refer to a trance-like state where an individual loses themselves in an experience, so much so that they become unaware of their surroundings.

The author continues his description of his experience with this particular patient – noting the increased intelligence experienced and how it is unlikely given the individual’s age, that they picked up said knowledge from academic studies or life experience. This particular example describes a complex diagram that this patient had drawn for him, the complexity of which, according to the author’s opinion, was outside the normal intelligence of a person their age:

“This exhausts my knowledge of the sources used by the patient. Where the root idea came from she was unable to say. Naturally I waded through the occult literature so far as it pertained to this subject, and discovered a wealth of parallels with our gnostic system, dating from different centuries, but scattered about in all kinds of works, most of them quite inaccessible to the patient. Moreover, at their tender age, and in her surroundings, the possibility of any such study must be ruled out of account. A brief survey of the system in the light of the patient’s own explanations will show how much intelligence was expended on its construction. How high the intellectual achievements is to be rated must remain a matter of taste. At all events considering the youth and mentality of the patient, it must be regarded as something quite out of the ordinary.”

Granted an assessment of an individual’s intelligence at a given age is subjective and open to interpretation – as the author notes in the preceding paragraph. However, given Carl Jung’s level of intelligence and academic background and level of experience, he would appear, in my opinion to be a pretty good assessor of an individual’s intelligence.

In this real or a hoax? As with the levitation experience explained in my article “Witnessing Levitation” only the author and accompanying witnesses can say for sure. However, Carl Jung documents a pretty interesting case in his book, which if for nothing else, makes for a fun tale!

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding

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