Numinosum (Jung)

This state is described by Jung as imposing itself on the subject independent of his will. It is mysterious, enigmatic and impressive, defying explanation. There is confrontation with tremendous and compelling force implying meaning both fateful and attracting. One can open one's self to it but cannot conquer it.

Encounter with the numinosum is seen as an aspect of all religious experience. Jung considered that previously unconscious contents break through ego constraints and overwhelm the conscious personality in a similar way to invasions by the unconscious in pathological situations, but that nonetheless the experience is not normally pathological. The experience is held not necessarily to be proof of the existence of God and is compared to the [peak experience]

of humanistic psychology.

The numinous is an expression also used by Rudolf Otto to describe an encounter with the objective "wholly other" outside the self. The mysterium tremendum is compared with the feeling associated with ancient churches and with solemn rites. The feeling of awe combines dread and horror with attraction and the invitation to surrender. The experience is one of absolute of absolute dependence. This is not necessarily an encounter with God - some quote it as the same experience as is felt walking alone in the dark through a wood or invoked in horror films. Others would say that the numinous experienced as encounter with God was totally different to the dread just described, the fear being of a different quality.