In the 1950s, a popular Swiss biweekly magazine, Der Schweizerische Beobachter (The Swiss Observer), published a series of articles on prophetic dreams, meaningful coincidences, premonitions and the manifestation of spirits. The magazine’s editor closed the articles with an open request for readers to send in reports of similar experiences for publication. The response was surprising; the magazine received around 1.200 letters, containing approximately 1.500 reports of events that could be classified as parapsychic, more recently also called psi or anomalous experiences. This rich material was made available to eminent Swiss scholar and psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung. He, in turn, entrusted it to Aniela Jaffé, one of his most dedicated collaborators, and requested that she write a book on the subject. Thus it was that the work Apparitions and Precognition, later re-edited under the title An Archetypal Approach to Death, Dreams and Ghosts.

  Jaffé (1957/1963, p. 6) states: “I express my special gratitude to the writers. It was their frankness that made the investigation possible. Among them are representatives of all social classes”. She further adds that the most intriguing stories came from common men and women, who did not cloud their reports with critiques or personal interpretations, offering her the clear account of their extraordinary experiences.

  On the evaluation of the collection of reports, Jung (1957/ 1976, § 785) adds: “Naturally enough our scientific age wants to know whether such things are “true”, without taking into account what the nature of any such proof would have to be and how it could be furnished. For this purpose the events in question must be looked at squarely and soberly (…) asking the fundamental question: what is the real reason why the same old stories are experienced and repeated over and over again, without losing any of their prestige? On the contrary, they return with their youthful vitality constantly renewed, fresh as on the first day.”

  Stories about the manifestation of spirits and perceptions beyond our ordinary senses are more frequently experienced than is commonly assumed (Cardeña, Lynn & Kripnner, 2013). In spite of the silence or the disapproval from certain so-called enlightened individuals and communities, these occurrences have not decreased in intensity over time. For centuries, several scholars, particularly in the medical field, have taken an interest on studies in psi phenomena, and these events have contributed to the establishing of modern dynamic psychiatry and psychology (Ellenberger, 1970). According to Cardeña (2018, p. 663), “The evidence for psi is comparable to that for established phenomena in psychology and other disciplines, although there is no consensual understanding of them.”

  The analytical approach, before any factual verification, considers these events as psychic realities, which significantly impact those who experience them. “The reports leave no doubts about this; moreover, in most cases their authenticity is confirmed by independent parallel stories (Jung, 1957/ 1976, § 788). In Jaffé’s book, the reports were grouped together in sets that share similar features, which demonstrates these individuals, having had no contact with each other, came across analogous experiential patterns, which in analytic psychology is called archetypal experiences, collective patterns of an emotional and numinous basis.

  For Corbett (2019), many of us have a personal sense of the sacred, even despite our alienation within traditional religions. The psi or transcendent experience may occur within a religious context, but is not restricted to it. The transcendent experience is innate in man; however, an understanding of its impact on life, as well as the workings of its awakening and development, require study.

  In order to understand individuals’ spiritual experiences and follow in the footsteps of Jaffé’s work, we seek to collect the reports of significant experiences of people in the United States of America and in Brazil. These would comprise cases in which there is and involvement of elements of extra-sensorial perception (ESP): telepathy (direct mind-to-mind communication), clairvoyance (anomalous knowledge of distant events), precognition (knowledge of the future), psychokinesis (action of the mind upon matter) and mediumship (reports of alleged contact with disincarnated consciences, or spiritual beings), among others - of which the development or conclusion led the subject to reflections or somehow helped their personal growth.

  We shall therefore rely upon the community’s collaboration to provide us with this important material. Calls for these reports shall be made over the internet, through the setting up of a website. Participants will be informed that discretion and anonymity shall be preserved, with all disclosing of information following ethical and scientific criteria, and thus authorized through free and enlightened consent on the part of the participants.

  Thereupon, we seek to continue the impactful work of Jung and his collaborators in an intriguing and not yet fully understood field of inquiry.