Persona Supplementary #1: So... what is the collective unconscious, and why should I care? (spoilers for Persona 1-5) · 5:44pm May 3rd, 2019
Alright, so the first blog I want to do on this subject is the main concept of Persona as a whole. Seriously, only one Youtuber has actually really taken the time to discuss what this is in correlation to the series, which is really odd because quite literally NOTHING in the game series is possible without this aspect. This is like talking about Dragon Ball Z and leaving out an explanation on chi, or explaining Naruto and completely ignoring the idea of chakra beyond "it makes stuff happen!"
Wow... it makes stuff happen. Shocker...
But back to Persona, I'm of course talking about the Collective Unconscious, or for those who have played the games: the psychedelic place where teenagers burst into flames because of emotion only to eventually shoot God in the face with the power of Satan and it actually be a good thing.
I'm serious by the way. That happens. And it's as cool as it sounds.
So, what is the Collective Unconscious? Well, it started out as a concept first conceived by this man right here, Carl G, Jung.
Get used to seeing this name, by the way. This game kind of has a fetish for his work.
So, Jung found in his therapy sessions that a lot of the psychotic ramblings of his patients echoed various deities and concepts found in cultures he read about in his spare time. He also noticed that a lot of mythological legends seemed to have some significant similarities between one another, despite these cultures being vastly different and probably never coming into contact with one another. Keep in mind, this was long before the internet was a thing, so when you listen to some say something really crazy like how they were face to face with a blue four armed man only to THEN read about the Hindu God Shiva you start to realize that something is up.
Carl Jung proposed the idea of a collective consciousness that exists deep within the psyche of every living being in existence. This acts as a set of archetypes and rules that are impersonal and the same for every person, but everyone draws from them. This explains the idea of things like family dynamics, mothers, fathers, heroes, aging, the concepts of God and the afterlife, etc, etc. Here we would also find the subconscious instruction manual on how to be human. So like how babies know to swallow when taking in their mother's breast milk, or how to breathe, all of that would be within the collective unconsciousness.
I'll explain Archetypes in another blog later, because that's actually another subject in and of itself.
So as to what this Collective Unconscious is, Jung actually is back and forth as to how he explains it. On some occasions he describes it as a collective soul that we're all sort of splintered off from and thus always a part of (although this does shed some interesting light on Alzheimer Disease... shudders). In other works however, he describes it as something we acquired through evolution, and are a system of rules and subconscious concepts that are the same for every living being and thus is added to and expanded upon constantly, but never actually changing in either case.
The Persona series seems to use a combination of both explanations into one, since on one hand it's an actual place you can go to (explanation 1) but also the P3 Club Book which only aired in Japan but is still canon (
really ATLUS?) the Collective Unconscious is explained I believe to be a collection of concepts made by human psyches coming together.
So... okay. That's what it is in a nutshell. But how do the games explore this exactly. Erm... well um... as one of my favorite youtubers Nenilein perfectly explained... insanity.
BALLS TO THE WALL INSANITY!!!!!!!
Alright, so take everything that Carl said about how the Collective Unconscious not changing?
Yeah, forget that.
In Persona, this place is changing ALL THE TIME. Any change within culture, a brand new idea, even a single person dying creates a change within the Collective Unconscious. So remember in Persona 6: REM where Twilight described things like the Midnight Channel, the Dark Hour, the Metaverse, and now we have the Phase? Yeah, all of those are different layers or interpretations of the Collective Unconscious used within the series to show the state of humanity in a certain area or certain point in history.
For example, in Persona 4 we get the Midnight Channel and the TV World that forms it, which seem to be removed from the rest of the Collective and limited only to Inaba. This is because Inaba is a very rural area that in of itself is removed from Japan, with the people relying on TV as their means of connecting to the world around them. Also, a major theme in Persona 4 is not believing everything you see on the TV and the dangers of not wanting to face the reality around you, essentially living in a fog of ignorance and being perfectly fine with it. This plays out in how the Midnight Channel shows an interpretation of how a Person is perceived by Inaba as a whole, and also the intense fog that overtakes the small town every rainy night and later on becomes PERMANENTLY PRESENT IN THE TOWN.
Oh, another thing that's important is that in a few Persona games, a big deal is made that the Collective Unconscious is home to the honest to God, real life afterlife. Yeah, that one. The place where you go when you die.
See, when a person dies in Persona, their souls enter a sort of limbo state, where they're picked up by Gods or deities of death and guided to a place known as the Sea of Souls, which has appeared in I believe Persona 2, both Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, Persona 3's The Answer references it I believe, and some of the Persona 4 spin offs talk about it. I know that Persona Q definitely touches on it, for those curious, and it's also where the final "battle" in Persona 4: Dancing All Night takes place.
This concept is actually something very important to Persona 6: REM as well. For those who haven't realized it yet, going off of this logic, what happened to Starlight is actually really strange. See, when her Mother died, she more than likely got picked up by a God of Death of some sort and sent to the Sea of Souls. This should have happened to Starlight Glimmer when she committed suicide in the prologue. Instead, she ended up in the one place that is ALWAYS in the Persona games.
That being the Velvet Room.
Yes, this place ALSO exists within the Collective Unconscious, as Igor explains in all of the games it exists "between dream and reality, mind and matter", but most people don't end up here unless their destinies are going to impact the world and Collective Unconscious in a massive way. So for Starlight to end up here when she took her own life is very unusual. At best, she'd run into someone like the Grim Reaper (not the ACTUAL Reaper in Persona, that thing is different), or at worst... her soul would be added to THIS THING:
I'll go into what that is in a later blog post and why that would be the worst possible fate EVER. Just know, nothing is worst than it in the Persona Universe. Nothing.
Now, to wrap this up, allow me to explain how this relates to the Phase, because trust me, there's a relation.
Question, has anyone ever heard of Astral Projection? Not the kind you see in anime, but the real deal? Well, for those who don't know, Astral Projection is the means of leaving one's physical body behind temporarily to explore around. There have been countless studies done that prove this is an actual thing people can do, and it's something anyone can learn. I myself have invested interest in it. There's also Lucid Dreaming, which is what the girls in P6:REM do to fight Shadows. Naturally I'm embellishing it a bit because shounen anime, but this is something that's possible too. It's where you realize that you're dreaming and can then control the dream. My Mom does this almost regularly, and has an entire world she visits in her dreams. This does mean that yes, you are Astral Projecting every night when you go to bed. Your dreams, whether you remember them or not, are your Astral Experiences, and you do dream every night.
Yes, even you.
Well, recent studies have shown that these two things along with Near Death Experiences are all part of the same concept called "The Phase". Yes, I'm using something that's actually discussed in the world. Here in the Phase, you'll find things like other realms of reality, can travel to other planets, hell, somewhere out there you might ACTUALLY find a portal of Equestria 
. I'm serious too, anything is possible in the Phase.
There you can also find a place called the Akashic Records, which is essentially exactly what it is in Persona 6: REM. A collection of people's life records, and a place where one can gain knowledge of ANYTHING. I think I've only ever seen that place second hand a few times, but I'm describing it in Persona 6: REM as how I've perceived it. Understand though, that everything there is naturally subjective, so not everyone will interpret what they see there the same way. Hell, someone might actually see that place as a giant computer room.
This idea is where the Phase that Starlight and her friends go into comes from. It's a form of magically induced Astral Projection. Like I said, I embellished a bit here and there because anime. As such, while there are Shadow like beings in the Astral Realm/Phase, they can't actually kill you or keep you from reentering your body. Also, I highly doubt you can actually die in the Phase in reality. However, people in reality have a silver cord that connects them to their bodies when entering the Phase, which is your life line in a sense. It can't be cut until your natural death, but if you notice in Persona 6: REM, I left that detail out, again to add a certain sense of tension to entering the Phase.
So there you have it. A lengthy look into the studies of Carl Jung, the Collective Unconscious, how it pertains to Persona, and how you're probably all doing God knows what when you fall to sleep. I'll come back with either another chapter of Persona 6: REM or another blog to explain the next major concept I want to go over, so until then...
Pleasant dreams~
Sounds like Jojo's. Everything that happened, is effectively because Part 1's villain is an asshole and kicked the protagonist's dog. And then burned the dog to death. Because Dio Brando is a textbook case of Needs To Fucking Die.
5052999
It does seem like Persona uses some Jojo references as well. Either that, or Jojo took cues from Persona, because even I have to admit that at first glance, Personas and Stands do seem very similar. But as I'll explain in a later blog, they're actually completely different once you understand the whole idea.
5053005
Pretty sure Jojo's predates Persona by a fair amount. Part 1's manga at least.
5053007
While true, Stands weren't brought in until Stardust Crusade if I recall, and I don't know when that came out to be honest.
5053011
First chapter came out in 89 and went on til 92.
5052999
5053005
Yeah, and I believe Persona was, in part, inspired by JoJo, references in Persona 5 and such aside. Nice to see someone going in depth
Good start. Lots of great info here that is definitely worth looking over a few times.
Yeah, it was awesome! Best Christmas Eve ever! I never thought I’d see the day where Satan shot an evil god in the face to save the world.
oh nice but their is a quote by the same guy saying personas are your mask facing other wordly matters and shadows are basically the oppressed part of human subconscious that forms into those globs (P3 and p4). but their's something i like about the series because of the themes like you said P4 the midnight channel and tv world is one bridge to the subconscious of humanity, while in P3 is different and weird theirs no other world or app thing it was an extra hour when supernatural stuff happens. but never the less all 3 later persona games handle a theme P3 theme is death and sorrow losing a love one, P4 about finding the truth and face it head on accepting your true self, P5 rebel against the current society and facing it head on. these games got me to think on those subjects more than you should. sorry about the rambling and most likely most of it doesn't make since.
5053040
The Dark Hour is odd, because in a way it kind of is a separate world. That was a case where the Collective Unconscious and the Real World melded together in a way that it NEVER should. Seriously, once you understand everything going on in that game, you soon realize that Persona 3's situation was TERRIBLE, and hopefully nothing like that will ever happen again.
5053046
true but than theirs P5 hold up and recruiting shadows and why they look like personas than the diferent ways to unlock a persona all of it has the same concept extreme stress but thats it in persona 3 you summon it by shooting yourself ehich is weird but makes sense the will to live the evoker making a gun sound high stress but in P4 they crush cards that resembles their arcana but in P5 and the most gruesome you rip/take off your mask. and another point in p4 they face their own shadows but not in p3 or p5 p3 i can understand but why not p5? but when they awaken the eyes looks like their shadow eyes what does that mean it's weird.
5053051
I'll cover what that is when I talk about Personas and Shadows in a future blog post, because there is a reason for that.
5053074
cool i can't wait eeeeek~