Jung's Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung wrote about symbols in the subconscious mind "...that are not individual but collective in their nature and origin." In early humans "...as instinctive concepts welled up in the mind of man, his conscious mind could no doubt integrate them." It was Jung's contention that modern man had lost the ability to properly assimilate messages from his subconscious mind, hence mankind's dilemma. But clearly Jung saw the collective unconscious as being within us. He was not proposing a transcendental universal consciousness.

Quote from Man and His Symbols, Carl Jung, (c) 1964 Aldus London.