A few more ramblings, Joan...
Quote:
Jung's Experience: Every production of the unconscious which Jung experienced after the initial hallucinations would have such a mediating figure in it including the anima herself in the form of Salome. There are also Siegfried, Ka, whom Jung called the "spirit of nature," a "brown-skinned savage," as well as Elija, the "wise old prophet," and Philemon, the "winged sprit," to name a few. Schizophrenic imagery is largely unpopulated by such figures.
Your experience: During this particular pshycotic phase I became convinced that people around me were witches, wizards, sourcerers, conjurers, demons or strange creatures in another dimension.
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I've only encountered one other individual whose experience contained "characters" to the same extent that my own did, nonetheless, some people may find that their "voices" are the equivalent of "characters", with distinct voices having their own characteristics and tone. Your experience also has an aspect of "characters" to it.
Like Jung, I was entirely engaged with an inner landscape during the most intense aspects of that process. (Unlike Jung, I wasn't able to turn it off and on at will -- I had to hang in until the experience had come to its natural conclusion.) But there was also a period of time when like you, I projected those aspects of my self onto the people and environment around me. I was not aware that I was doing so at the time; it took having that experience before I began to understand the role of projection. This is part of the reason I can agree that psychotic states of consciousness can be an attempt at healing and wholeness. (I'm not willing to say this is the case in every instance.)
It would not be enough to say that those "characters" were all me; neither would it be enough to say that they were entirely other. It seems more valid to say that the others serves as a screen that
captured and reflected back key aspects of myself to me. This, I think, is an essential point that applies in your own situation as well.
In my own case, I responded to these "others" as if they were completely independant of me and as a result, I engaged in a relationship with them. It was a dialogue -- not as profound as Jung's, but certainly very meaningful to me. Also, like Jung, I had the benefit of a mediating presence -- the male "character" who served as my constant companion through that experience. Other "characters" were also of great significance and all of them were pieces of my puzzle that had to be fit back together once more. It helped me immensely to discover that each element/character had a place on Jung's model of the entire psyche because that provided a structure. Some people may find that their "voices" can also be placed upon the same.
In the experience you relayed, I would suggest that what may be valuable is to examine your relationship with the woman on the tube because it is the relationship itself that contains the projection. And yes, of course, to also amplify those other symbols that appeared, explore their meanings and attempt to understand what they are trying to "say". Repeat with other experiences/characters/voices as necessary.
All of which is to say that there can be a very great deal going on in fragmented states that we dismiss as meaningless because we fail to see the value or purpose in the experience and have been all too willing to examine it from a purely biochemical orientation.