Paul C. Bishop, Ph.D. is Honorary Professorial Research Fellow in the School of Modern Languages & Cultures at the University of Glasgow in Scotland (a World 100 Top University).
Professor Bishop studied at the University of Oxford’s Magdalen College where he was a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Modern Languages and was awarded the prestigious Lady Julia Henry fellowship to study abroad at Harvard University. He returned to Oxford and graduated with a Ph.D. in German Studies with the dissertation “C.G. Jung’s Reception of Friedrich Nietzsche,” later published as the book, The Dionysian Self.
After serving for twelve years as Professor of German at the University of Glasgow, he was named the William Jacks Chair in Modern Languages at the university’s School of Modern Languages & Cultures, where he is currently an Honorary Professorial Research Fellow.
Professor Bishop was the 2010 Zürich Series Lecturer at the International School of Analytical Psychology (known as ISAP) in Zürich where he presented Reading Goethe at Midlife: Ancient Wisdom, German Classicism, and Jung. In 2022, he presented his essay, “The Red Book & Other Searchers for the Soul: The Case of Klages & Jung,” at the Eranos Conference, “Jung’s Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul in the 21st Century,” later published as Volume 5 in the book series by Chiron Publications.
His research is focused on the intellectual background of both psychoanalysis and Jungian psychology and its place in intellectual history. He has contributed chapters and essays to many books including the Anthology of Contemporary Theoretical Classics in Analytical Psychology: The New Ancestors, and the recently published Where is Soul? Psychology in Modernity. He has edited several titles including Jung in Contexts (with a Foreword by Anthony Storr), The Persistence of Myth as Symbolic Form, and A Companion to Goethe’s Faust. He is also the author of over a dozen books including Jung’s Answer to Job, Nietzsche’s The Anti-Christ, and Reading Plato through Jung, which was the subject of our first interview – Episode 131. His most recent book is the first of four planned volumes in his series, Jung & the Epic of Transformation, titled Wolfram von Eschenbach’s “Parzival” & the Grail as Transformation, published last year by Chiron, and it was the subject of our second interview – Episode 135.
I’ve asked Professor Bishop to join me today to discuss a mutual interest of ours: the UFO phenomenon. We decided to tackle Jung’s 1958 essay, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies, included in Volume 10 of his Collected Works, Civilization in Transition, and published in book form.
This video interview was recorded on Monday, April 14, 2025. It’s 01:24:03 long and 96.5 MB. You can listen to it right here in your browser (click the play button in the bar below) or watch the video edition on our YouTube channel.
SHOW NOTES
{ Note from Laura: I realize my eyes look terribly distorted during this (and other) interview(s). Because of a worsening eye condition, for this episode I elected to wear glasses that unfortunately distorted the appearance of my eyes when used with this particular lighting filter. I apologize for the distraction and am in the process of finding a more permanent solution. (Because of the sensitivity surrounding my condition, comments are not welcome.) }
Artwork: “Open Contact” by Ana Bagayan. Etsy | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies Part of the Jung Extracts series from Princeton University Press
Civilization in Transition Volume 10 of the Collected Works of C.G. Jung (includes the essay, “Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies”)
The X-Files US television series available on Amazon Prime Video
Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit
The Red Book: Liber Novus by C.G. Jung
Archives of the Impossible School of Humanities, Rice University, Houston Texas
The UFO and the Impossible 2025 conference of the Archives of the Impossible, Rice University, Apr. 3-5, 2025
How to Think Impossibly by Professor Jeffrey Kripal, Ph.D.
Professor Harald Atmanspacher, Ph.D. Speaking of Jung, Episode 116
Professor Diana Pasulka, Ph.D. Speaking of Jung, Episode Q14
Mike Clelland Speaking of Jung, Episode Q13
Symbols of Transformation Volume 5 of the Collected Works of C.G. Jung
Answer to Job Extract from Volume 11 of the Collected Works of C.G. Jung
UFOs over Washington: The first report of ‘flying saucers’ (Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting) The Spokesman-Review, Jun. 23, 2020
A Pilgrim UFO Sighting Came Long Before Roswell 1639 UFO sighting near Boston, Massachusetts
What are sundogs and how do they form? Space.com
Cleveland UFOlogy Project The world’s oldest operating UFO organization, founded in 1952
Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C.G. Jung and Aniela Jaffé
Jung's Life & Work: Interviews for Memories, Dreams, Reflections with Aniela Jaffé The long-awaited protocols for Memories, Dreams, Reflections is scheduled to be released on Dec. 2, 2025 by Princeton University Press. Edited by Professor Sonu Shamdasani, Ph.D. (Ep. 75). Now available for preorder.
Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program by Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean, The New York Times, Dec. 16, 2017
Bonnybridge: The UFO sighting capital of Scotland BLAZE TV
The C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles’ panel on Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies took place on Jan. 25, 2025 in-person and on Zoom. The four panelists consisted of Jungian analysts Michael Gellert, Marybeth Carter and Katharine Bainbridge, as well as the Institute’s executive director and Jungian analyst-in-training Christophe Le Mouël Ph.D.
Alan Stern, Ph.D. Principle investigator for NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and beyond
Jim Madden, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy, Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas
Goethe & Jung on the Stages of Life with Prof. Paul Bishop, presented by the Scientific & Medical Network – Apr. 30, 2025 from 7-8:30 p.m. BST (British Summer Time)
Chiron Publications Paul Bishop Archives
BY PROFESSOR BISHOP
In chronological order.
(All links are for Amazon US. If you prefer to shop at Amazon Germany or Amazon UK, please use those links.)
The Dionysian Self: C.G. Jung’s Reception of Friedrich Nietzsche (Walter de Gruyter, 1995) Here is a link to the book on the publisher’s website.
Jung in Contexts: A Reader (Routledge, 1999) “Thomas Mann and C.G. Jung,” and “C.G. Jung and Nietzsche: Dionysos and Analytical Psychology”
Synchronicity & Intellectual Intuition in Kant, Swedenborg, & Jung (Edwin Mellen Press, 2000)
Jung’s Answer to Job: A Commentary (Routledge, 2002)
A Companion to Goethe’s Faust: Parts I & II (Camden House, 2006) “Reading Faust Today”
Analytical Psychology & German Classical Aesthetics: Goethe, Schiller, & Jung – Vol. 1: The Development of the Personality (Routledge, 2007)
Analytical Psychology & German Classical Aesthetics: Goethe, Schiller, & Jung – Vol. 2: The Constellation of the Self (Routledge, 2008)
The Persistence of Myth as Symbolic Form: Cultural Studies & the Symbolic Proceedings of an International Conference Held by the Centre for Intercultural Studies at the University of Glasgow, Vol. 3, 16-18 September 2005 (Maney, 2008) “The Politics of Myth: Cassirer, Bachofen, and Sorel”
The Archaic: The Past in the Present (Routledge, 2011) “Introduction: A Brief History of the Archaic” and “The Archaic: Timeliness and Timelessness”
A Companion to Friedrich Nietzsche: Life & Works (Camden House, 2012) “Ecce Homo” and “Dithyrambs of Dionysos”
Critical Lives: Carl Jung (Reaktion Books, 2014)
On the Blissful Islands with Nietzsche & Jung: In the Shadow of the Superman (Routledge, 2016)
Jung’s Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul Under Postmodern Conditions, Vol. 1 (Chiron Publications, 2017) “In a World That Has Gone Mad, Is What We Really Need…a Red Book? Plato, Goethe, Schelling, Nietzsche and Jung”
The Ecstatic & the Archaic: An Analytical Psychological Inquiry (Routledge, 2018) “I must get out (of myself) more often? Jung, Klages, and the ecstatic-archaic”
German Political Thought & the Discourse of Platonism: Finding the Way out of the Cave (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)
Narratives of Individuation (Routledge, 2019) “Telling Stories: Jung’s Red Book as an Exercise in Narrative”
Ludwig Klages & the Philosophy of Life: A Vitalist Toolkit (Routledge, 2019)
Reading Goethe at Midlife: Ancient Wisdom, German Classicism, & Jung Zürich Lecture Series, Vol. 3 (Chiron Publications, 2020)
Nietzsche’s The Anti-Christ: A Critical Introduction & Guide (Edinburgh University Press, 2021)
Anthology of Contemporary Theoretical Classics in Analytical Psychology: The New Ancestors (Routledge, 2022) “Seeing With the Eyes of the Spirit”
The Descent of the Soul & the Archaic: Katábasis & Depth Psychology (Routledge, 2022) “Is the only way up?” and “Katábasis in reverse: Heraclitus, the archaic, and the abyss”
Jung’s Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul in the 21st Century – An Eranos Symposium, Vol. 5 (Chiron Publications, 2022) “The Red Book and Other Searchers for the Soul: The Case of Klages and Jung”
Reading Plato through Jung: Why must the Third become the Fourth? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)
Discourses of Philology & Theology in Nietzsche: From the “Untimelies” to The Anti-Christ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)
Individuation Psychology: Essays in Honor of Murray Stein (Chiron Publications, 2023) “In the Still World of the Heart (In des Herzens stille Welt): Reflections on Goethe and Individuation Psychology”
Jung & the Epic of Transformation, Vol. 1: Wolfram von Eschenbach’s “Parzival” & the Grail as Transformation (Chiron Publications, 2024)
Confronting Death (Chiron Publications, 2024) “I Don’t Permit the Winter: Death and Life in Goethe and Jung”
Where is Soul? Psychology in Modernity (Dusk Owl Books, 2025) “Where is Soul? A ‘Spiritual Problem’ for Jung’s Time and our Own?”
ADDITIONAL LINKS
Ana Bagayan Art Painting: Open Contact, 2017
Immigrant: A Traveler’s Guide by Sabina Espinet
After the Flying Saucers Came by Greg Eghigian, Ph.D., Professor of History & Bioethics at Penn State University (Oxford University Press, 2024)
UFOs & Alien Contact in the Shadow of Deception 2023 Archives of the Impossible conference plenary lecture by Professor Greg Eghigian, Ph.D.