Participation mystique

Every entrance into an archetypal fields leads to an 'abaissement du niveau mental,' a diminution of consciousness, an intensification of the phenomena that may be described as participation mystique, in which the boundaries between subject and object available to consciousness are blurred and the unitary reality takes the place of the normal reality posited by our consciousness.

Source - Erich Neumann, The Child: Structure and Dynamics of the Nascent Personality (Karnac Books 1988), p. 48.

As soon as the dialogue between two people touches on something fundamental, essential, and numinous, and a certain rapport is felt, it gives rise to a phenomenon which Lévy-Bruhl fittingly called 'participation mystique.' It is an unconscious identity in which two individual psychic spheres interpenetrate to such a degree that it is impossible to say what belongs to whom.

Source - C.G. Jung, A Psychological View of Conscience. CW 10: Civilization in Transition, par. 852.

Probably the reason that certain persons come particularly close to you is that they are carriers of a symbolic truth, for whoever gets at your psychology can do so only on the basis of participation mystique. Otherwise the other person would not have a handle on your soul.

Source - C.G. Jung, Dream Analysis: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928-1930 by C.G. Jung (Princeton University Press 1984). Lecture III: 21 November 1928, p. 31.

Art: Rebecca Léveillé-Guay