Quote Originally Posted by rmcnew
Jung did indeed make quotations to something to the effect that the transcendent function occurs somewhere around middleage, but he did not remember that he necessarily indicated that it had to happen at middleage. Plus, I founf the quoatation last night again were Jung said specifically the the transcendent function is a function like the other functions and specifically calls it a fifth function. I wanted to scan the page in the book, but I forgot to bring it with me again so I might have to do that tommorow.
Jung associated the transcendental functions with archetypes. He said there were four: the shadow, the soul, the syzygy, the messiah child, and the self.

What's particularly interesting regarding Jung, is that he talked about living as an extrovert in his youth, then as a young adult shutting himself off from the world and drawing deep within himself, effectively introverting. This suggests he was an extrovert who experienced an introverted transcendental function. Jung describes early life behavior as "infantile", and adulthood as a state of semi-maturity due to the acceptance of a part of oneself. (the personal shadow) Then much later, at mid-life, comes the union of oneself with the soul, the syzygy.

I can only speak for my own experience, but I see the transcendental function as a way to influence subconscious content. For example, by activating my personal knowledge function "in place of" my base, I can influence what I experience as personal knowledge.

I've talked to adults who have learned to withdraw and "take stock of their situation" as they got older, including, recently, a professor of psychology. He believed that people naturally become more introverted as they get older; he was surprised when I told him I was experiencing the reverse.

The personal knowledge function is very aggressive and stubborn: it knows no objective truth and desires only the acceptance of its own subjectively-experienced truths. It makes sense that one would desire to avoid letting it interfere with the processing of the base. I only use my transcendental function when I feel that I am being surrounded by something... this is usually due to other adults making use of their transcendental function and clustering towards personal knowledge-driven ideological ends. When I invoke personal knowledge, the world I knew in my childhood vanishes, and is replaced by a sort of spiritual war of opposites in which everyone seems to take a side.... There are liberals, and conservatives, and people "in the middle" who seem to have a split of their own between a syzygy of traditionalism with aristocracy versus a sort of mixture of positive reform and anarchy....

People tend not to talk about these sort of things openly because it creates a tension... in particular opposing personal knowledge ideologies don't seem able to understand each other directly.... (that's in my experience) Like shining two lights out of phase with each other... a patch of darkness in the midst of the beams....

ESFps never talk about this stuff; ESFjs notice it but keep it to themselves. INTjs use it for political advantage.... (that's why they're called "idiosyncratic"...)

One problem with this experience is that 1) you're faced with an inherently tragic reality of only being able to do so much, barely fending for yourself against a whole host of hostile people and always finding yourself on the brink of an all-out bloodfest it seems between "your side" and "their side", and 2) you don't know exactly how people's roles fit into the larger picture of objective progress. The sides are supposed to work together, and effect a kind of "providence" that keeps human progress humming along. (or at the least from going backward) Perhaps if you could receive suggestive "5th function" content as regards your role you could better understand where you and others fit in the larger scheme of things.

Maybe Expat, who is older, could shed some light on the experience of 5th function as role.