Our African Unconscious: The Black Origins of Mysticism and Psychology

Reveals how spirituality and the collective unconscious of all of humanity originated in Africa

- Examines the Oldawan, the Ancient Soul of Africa, and its correlation with what modern psychologists have defined as the collective unconscious

- Draws on archaeology, DNA research, history, and depth psychology to reveal how the biological and spiritual roots of religion and science came out of Africa

- Explores the reflections of our African unconscious in the present confrontation in the Americas, in the work of the Founding Fathers, and in modern psychospirituality

The fossil record confirms that humanity originated in Africa. Yet somehow we have overlooked that Africa is also at the root of all that makes us human--our spirituality, civilization, arts, sciences, philosophy, and our conscious and unconscious minds.

In this extensive look at the unfolding of human history and culture, Edward Bruce Bynum reveals how our collective unconscious is African. Drawing on archaeology, DNA research, depth psychology, and the biological and spiritual roots of religion and science, he demonstrates how all modern human beings, regardless of ethnic or racial categorizations, share a common deeper identity, both psychically and genetically--a primordial African unconscious.

Exploring the beginning of early religions and mysticism in Africa, the author looks at the Egyptian Nubian role in the rise of civilization, the emergence of Kemetic Egypt, and the Oldawan, the Ancient Soul, and its correlation with what modern psychologists have defined as the collective unconscious. Revealing the spiritual and psychological ramifications of our shared African ancestry, the author examines its reflections in the present confrontation in the Americas, in the work of the Founding Fathers, and in modern Black spirituality, which arose from African diaspora religion and philosophy.

By recognizing our shared African unconscious--the matrix that forms the deepest luminous core of human identity--we learn that the differences between one person and another are merely superficial and ultimately there is no real separation between the material and the spiritual.

Author: Edward Bruce Bynum
Publisher: Inner Traditions International
Published: 09/14/2021
Pages: 480
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 1.00d
ISBN13: 9781644113967
ISBN10: 1644113961
BISAC Categories:
- Body, Mind & Spirit | Mysticism
- Psychology | Ethnopsychology
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | American | African American & Black Studies

About the Author
Edward Bruce Bynum, Ph.D., ABPP, is a clinical psychologist and former director of the behavioral medicine program at the University of Massachusetts Health Services. The 2005 recipient of the Abraham H. Maslow Award from the American Psychological Association and the author of several books, including Dark Light Consciousness, he is currently in private practice in Hadley, Massachusetts.