Joan: Am I infact all of these characters in my head? The witch, the conjurer, the sourceress, the demon and the wise guiding spirit? Was I my own torturer, slayer and destroyer and my own saviour in the end?

That's a good question. On the one hand, according to you, there were other real people around you but you were convinced that they were "witches, wizards, sourcerers, conjurers, demons". I think that's where we can reliably claim that the projection of an inner state was occurring. However, can we reliably claim that inner mythological world is not real or even that it doesn't exist alongside this one we claim is reality?

I believe this is what Jung would have referred to as the unconscious, a dimension he seems to have accepted as entirely real and valid. Certainly, when he was engaged in a conversation with Philemon or examining Nietzsche's relationship with Zarathustra, he seems to be approaching Philemon and Zarathustra as separate entities. During my own experience I felt I had entered into an entirely different world and was interacting with some very powerful forces. The term I might use to describe those forces would probably be "energies". Maybe Jung would have called them archetypes. Maybe some people would call them spirits.

At the same time, we have to bear in mind our own approach -- if we are approaching the question from an ego-based stance, it's natural to assume there is an "I" and there is an "Other". But if we are approaching from the position of the "Self" ... where are the boundaries between "I" and "Other"? What happens to "Other" if "I" disappears?

Just out of interest spiritual what sort of conceptions do you have about things like ESP, the spirit world and telepathy?

I'm not sure. Whatever I might have believed at one point in time was seriously challenged as a result of that experience and in many ways, I am still formulating my own answers.

Meantime, I think we know if an explanation fits our experience and how well it does or doesn't. Anything that I share in this regard can really only be considered a starting point. If some parts of it fit well enough for you that you'd like to learn more, I suppose that's where you begin seeking out additional information for yourself. Naturally, some people find it doesn't fit them or their experience well at all.

~ Namaste