To be misunderstood by contemporaries is very often the fate of a great man or woman. Great ideas, like great works of art, music or literature reflect a sensitivity and depth of understanding which can provide answers to problems not even envisaged by a 'majority' whose view is often obscured by asking only obvious questions requiring conventional answers.
Carl Gustav Jung, a man well in advance, of his time, and often conveniently ignored was aware of the need for a 'New Humanity' as a way forward which would prevent increasing social instability due to widening divisions within society:
"One set of people identifies itself with the superior man and cannot descend, and the other set identifies itself with the inferior man and wants to get to the top. Such problems are never solved by legislation or by tricks. They are solved only by a general change of attitude. And the change does not begin with propaganda and mass meetings, or with violence. It begins with a change in individuals. It will continue as a transformation of their personal likes and dislikes, or their outlook on life and of their values, and only the accumulation of these individual changes will produce a collective solution." 1
Each individual must integrate the lower and higher aspects of themselves in a new, whole self — a natural synthesis of feeling which transcends ideological, artificial polarisations of the spirit. Jung describes such a transformation as the development of a 'breath body' - "the birth of Pneumatic Man". 2
With mutual spiritual guidance and shared experience, especially through art, music and literature, as well as further development of science-based techniques such as biofeedback, EEC and MRI scanning, the necessary renaissance can be realised. Self-realisation could become available to all those searching for meaning in emotionally sterile, decultured and unnatural lives — the real price paid for accepting the values of a materialistic society, however opulent.
The freedom to lead lives of self-fulfilment rather than self-gratification would be assured if self-realisation were to occur to gradually increasing numbers of people, particularly in positions of power and influence. Such a transition would depend also on the universal encouragement of traditional liberal values, emphasising individuality and tolerance.