Quick Overview: Using the nuclear reactor as a metaphor, this piece explores how repressed, unprocessed material — like nuclear waste — doesn't disappear, it just keeps contaminating from below the surface. A rich discussion starter on repression and the long-term cost of avoidance, drawing on Jungian ideas about transformation.

I have a good friend in The Netherlands, Rob, who informed me that Europeans hate Nuclear Reactors, himself included. I was surprised at the vehemence of his reaction, but on reflection, I realize how much about this subject we consistently and habitually repress and don’t think about, much less do anything about it!! For instance, every so often, we are reminded that nuclear reactors in the Ukraine are in danger of imploding due to Russians holding the operators hostage by gunpoint. In addition to the sheer issue of nuclear pollution and the fact that plutonium takes over 250,000 years to decay to safe levels of radioactivity, there are the principles of Alchemy, articulated well by Carl Jung in his Collected Works, that also bring to light a gigantic flaw not only in reactors, but in many of the products we are sold these days and which are increasingly polluting our air, water, earth, and bodies - some for many generations to come.

Violating these alchemical/spiritual principles has become common day occurrences with little or no discussion. Lobbyists work hard to keep these facts from the citizens of nations that believe in informed choices and freedom of information. The United States had to pass a law called THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT because it is obviously not a principle readily in play in contemporary cultures. Even now battles are going on regarding products known as PFAs, among other names, and which have destroyed, and continue to destroy, people’s lives, land, animals and well-being.

In the 1980's, I presented at a conference on Nuclear Power in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My presentation was heavily reliant on Carl Jung's writings on alchemy and the principles therein. One of those is the Vas Hermeticus, the sacred vessel in which the chemical operations take place that produce Gold in the long run - more metaphysical gold, such as the soul, rather than wealth for those who can afford to build factories. In alchemy, if there is waste, if things spill and contaminate, the work is ruined - it comes to a halt and one must start over. One can not just conveniently shed any part of the process one doesn't care for, or smells bad, or is dangerously contaminating. Nuclear Power has this inherent problem: it produces plutonium waste that is dangerous for up to 250,000 years. Government facilities in the US (Hanford, Washington has 56 million gallons) and Russia have attempted to store liquid nuclear waste and tanks have failed or rusted and vast regions of land, especially in the Ural mountains in Russia, are contaminated, not to mention Chernobyl, or Ukranian nuclear plants currently threatened in the war zone!

American manufacturing largely ignores the principles of alchemy. The race to produce chemicals that make life easier (teflon, furniture stain protectors, fire suppressants) often overlook the sludge that is produced in the process. The Love Canal is an example. Even worse, recent revelations that waste sludge sold to farmers for spreading over and fertilizing their fields has resulted in poisoned land and crops unfit for consumption. The company who made many millions selling this product is currently working hard to shed any responsibility for the harm resulting from their agri-business - they want to put responsibility back on the producers of the PFAs. That is a nice idea, but not realistic, and more like passing the buck. I’d say they’re all responsible and they all profited from the transfer of these dangerous chemicals into our food chain and our bodies.

Alchemical principles are also spiritual principles. If the core is contaminated, the soul can be damaged and become dangerous. We are seldom taught these principles, or, if we are, are not taught how they apply to all aspects of life. Just as a human is responsible for their unconscious, we as a human community are responsible for our waste, our dross, the messes we leave behind. The US has hundreds of thousands of abandoned oil wells that are not properly sealed or cleaned up because the owners didn't want the expense of doing so. They took the cash and ran. Farm chemicals contain lethal side effects for animals and insects - our bee and butterfly populations have been endangered. Anyone who spends time in the countryside finds it rare to see a butterfly these days. Honey producers fear for the future of their profession and their bees.

The Simpson's reactor brings all this to mind: the waste products of actual reactors and the waste engendered in any factory process, and the parallel degree to which we lack proper procedures for creating sustainable spirituality in our youth. This was once done by initiation rites. Later we utilized catechisms, not always taken very seriously in my own youthful experience. And who , if anyone, taught us how to manage our core, showed us the control panel visible in the toy, made sure we became proficient. What happens when we have to wear a protective suit or condom in our own psychological/spiritual core because it is so contaminated that it/we are unsafe? What of us who are faithful to a religion on one level and yet pump all manner of errant emotions and needs into our core to bury it, get rid of it, thinking "out of sight, out of mind."

Back again in the 80’s or so, I debated NSP (Northern States Power) in a stage at a local college - me against their experts/mouthpieces. I had also written a paper about nuclear power and the names of nuclear substances and the implications that created. (Americium - the nuclear substance that used to be in the majority of home smoke detectors is the most dangerous of all nuclear substances. And on the back of the detector it simply directed the user to “dispose of it safely!”) They didn’t take my concerns about waste seriously, I remember that clearly. Their focus was on providing energy, not worrying about the long-term effects or consequences. In their eyes I was a young fool inadequately informed - a nuisance!

Carl Jung basically taught that what we expel, bury, suppress, will eventually come back to life and have a volition of its own, and likely a value system contrary to our own. The same is true of chemical waste that gets into our drinking water and the food chain. Or the tiny plastic pellets that are reported to be everywhere on earth now, including inside our bodies and even inside the bodies of newborns.

Ignorance is an interesting word: it comes from the root word "ignore." What we ignore creates our ignorance. Our ignorance can be our undoing. We do not hear; we do not speak; we do not see..

We need to learn to manage our cores lest they explode, melt down, become a China Syndrome. Real people in the real world such as corporate leaders and such, need to admit their responsibilities in polluting our biospheres. I have included a link to a 8/31/24 New York Times article on PFAs in city waste sludge that has been sold to farms as fertilizer and is being discovered to be dangerously polluting, maiming and killing farm livestock and again entering our food chain. Many groups involved in the process of creating and distributing this sludge deny any malfeasance or responsibility for the final outcomes. The "not sees."

This toy represents spiritual principles and what happens when they are ignored, when those principles are violated, and the enormous consequences that can result. You can see the chaos in the window on the toy that shows what's happening inside the reactor gone wild! That's why the Simpsons TV show is so wonderful - the Simpsons and their friends flounder into all kinds of important things with humor and distractions, leaving behind a clear residue of meaning!!

Check out the link below from the NYTimes. Also, watch the movie DARK WATERS for a clear exposition on earlier discoveries about PFAs where there was accountability established after great effort, but no true follow-through on the problem, allowing it to fester and expand for many more years, culminating now in the NYTimes article - re-emerging into our cultural consciousness.

Spirituality is a painful process as we come to terns with our unintended consequences, and our intended actions that created unintended consequences that we often refused to see, hear or speak about, like the 3 monkeys!! We have that toy available as well!

This toy also comes with a tray of donuts: what better way to soothe one's anxieties and fears in the midst of chaos!!

For therapists, knowing the control board, how to manage the core, how to maintain containment until the process is complete, are all crucial. Too often therapy does not involve core-level change and insurance companies aren't interested in paying for it either. Flip that house - dress it up - make it look new again! Personally, when violence has been involved, I want to see core-level change, and for that, responsivity is a necessity, unless you're satisfied with a trained seal!!

By the way, I just took down an old smoke alarm a couple months ago and noticed it was one of those with Americium in it - a radioactive substance more dangerous and powerful than Plotumium in my understanding. On the back it says to dispose of properly! How does one do that? How does one feel about having this in one’s house. It reminds me of the nuclear executive who, to prove Plutohium was harmless back in the day, took some home and sprinkled it on his children’s breakfast cereal. And I’m sure no harm was seen as typically that stuff, in small quantities, is not an instant disaster. That’s why they wear badges that record your exposure when you work in a nuclear facility. Once you reach the maximum level for a year, you have to go home and can’t work again until the next year cycle begins. Little notes about nuclear substances in our lives and the absurdity of it at times!!

**Notes to work on: Aboriginals and the black rocks - they knew the danger! Also, transference and counter-transference - becoming safe for others and not harboring death wishes in your core.

Something’s Poisoning America’s Land. Farmers Fear ‘Forever’ Chemicals. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/31/climate/pfas-fertilizer-sludge-farm.html

See my article from the Nuclear Power conference in New Mexico, also included on this web site!