How Ancestral Influence and Archetypes Shape Your Identity and Growth

serene woman meditating in black attire

Who inspired your life—parents, teachers, or cultural heroes? From Carl Jung’s archetypes to ancestral instincts, our subconscious shapes identity, relationships, and personal growth. Are we really self-made or products of influence? Discover how instinct, psychology, and early life examples guide our choices, including love, success, and self-realisation. Embrace your true origins—human nature, heritage, and subconscious wisdom.

Do you ever think about the heroes or legends that helped you shape your thoughts in this life? Do you remember whether your parents were your examples, and which aspects of their lives you praised and still apply in your own life? Which aunts and uncles have given you certain ideas or influenced your life?

Who made your life what it is today?

Was it the teachers at your schools? Were things that happened in your immediate environment, or the rest of the world, that made such an impression on you that they stuck to you forever? Maybe you got your inspiration or examples from music or from the world of sports? We often forget our "heroes" from life—those people who served as examples for our current existence. Or do you have no heroes, and are you "just" yourself? You feel that you have realised yourself completely.

Do you also believe in the "self-made" person?

You had no examples—never posters on your bedroom wall of heroes from music sports; no examples from your family. You have grown by studying hard and reading a lot, so you can safely say with a loud voice and a lot of arrogance that you have made yourself and your career what they are today. Sorry, but I always find it very funny and entertaining when I meet people with this attitude. I believe that everything we do and think about has been invented for centuries by others who lived before us, perhaps in a slightly different form or made of a different material, but it was always there.

Picture: Max Anders

Do you also look like an animal?

Would you like to look like an animal? Are we an animal too? Would we also like to be able to do what animals can do from birth? Many animals can walk almost immediately to their birth. For example, look at foals and calves, or fish that can swim or walk directly. Well, all those animals often don't have to learn to poop or pee on a potty, they can just do their business where they are, but it takes us about a year and a half, right? Animals can communicate "clearly" with each other right away; we must hope that our vade4rs and mothers immediately understand the meaning of our howling and screaming.

Do you ever brag about your unconscious feelings or instincts?

Animals get much more out of the subconscious of their subconscious, from their archetype, or their instinct. On the other hand, we humans think that we just do everything consciously. In the period around nineteen hundreds of our time, that time when psychology emerged from philosophy, the Swiss Psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) already indicated that we were something different from the animals in this respect. Otherwise? Well, we also inherited those instincts and archetypes from our ancestors; they were also our examples, but we also became incompletely aware of them. In my view, we did less with it than the animal world. Many people still don't know, or continue to deny, that they do many things from their subconscious.

Do you ever think about how and where your ancestors lived?

Do you know who your ancestors were and where and how they lived? No? Are you happily married? Based on my study of Jung's writings and those of antiquity, I dare to claim why many marriages fail in the present time. You may know that the balance in the ratio of men to women in a marriage has changed a lot since 1980, no? From that year on, the men were no longer automatically in charge of the house after their marriage. But there is more. Did you know, for example, that the archetypes help determine which partner we work with for the rest of our lives? That "the click" does not arise because we as humans believe in the wealth or appearance of the other, but that our instinct should largely determine that?

Do we choose our life partner based on our instinct or archetype?

Yes, we should choose our partners based on instinct and not on our reproductive drives or for monetary gain. Not as something for our career planning or as a good parent, but listening to our subconscious. I've had many examples in my life: "my mother, Elvis Presley, Mark Knopfler, Evert E., Ries, and many others. I didn't do much myself because I already had a lot in me from the transmission and instincts of my earliest ancestors. My thanks to all are great, and sorry if I sometimes did things unconsciously without thanking you all kindly!

How Einstein, Jung, Freud, and Hawking Shape Our Reality

Explore how Einstein, Jung, and Freud shaped history, and how evolving theories and overlooked figures challenge our understanding of science and reality.

Have you ever woken up with the feeling that things in the world could have turned out differently?

That unsettling sense of missing or having missed something? Perhaps the feeling that something is not quite right somewhere, or that it may have been wrongly documented by those who recorded it? Over time, more details about our shared past continue to emerge. Consider the stories discussed by Yuval Noah Harari in Sapiens, Peter Ackroyd in Reizen door de tijd, or Thomas Hertog, a former student of Stephen Hawking, who is one of the most revered scientists of our era.

Is their version of reality also our reality?

Picture: Steven Hawkins (The Gardian)

You might have read these books as well. It seems increasingly apparent that much has been rewritten in various fields, especially since the year 2000. Think about Albert Einstein, Carl Gustav Jung, and Sigmund Freud. These individuals, I suspect, documented their stories and discoveries as accurately as possible in their time. Yet, even today, they have many followers who might believe that what is written in history books must be the truth simply because it was recorded. It's understandable that early writers might have presented their findings with the best intentions, given the limitations of their research capabilities at the time. For instance, Einstein had a longstanding disagreement with Niels Bohr about the Big Bang and the subsequent development of the universe.

Are there still assumptions in our history?

This question is challenging to answer because who truly has a monopoly on wisdom? Who elaborated on the theories of previous scientists? Were there sufficient truth checks on the ideas adopted from predecessors throughout history? Were these truth checks even feasible in their time? Even someone as prominent as Stephen Hawking had to revise his views after publishing A Brief History of Time, where he initially argued that the universe and life emerged from the Big Bang, suggesting nothing existed before it. Hawking was known for starting from his own intuition, which he sometimes accepted as truth to further develop his theories.

Was the Big Bang truly the beginning of time?

Often, scientists suggest that human complexity implies a creation by a larger being. The name of this being may be secondary to many, but the idea is that the intricate adaptations observed in human development could not have occurred by mere chance or human influence. Applying this notion to the development of Earth, it seems there are still unrecognized coincidences that we, and these scientists, continue to grapple with, adjusting theories to fit these occurrences.

Picture: Carl Gustav Jung & Sigmund Freud (Owlcation)

Are our theories about reality accurate?

Theories often evolve under pressure, which has worked well in the past because much of humanity could not fully grasp them. History books, too, have been influenced by victors and often reflect a biased perspective. Many of these victors were likely guided by more intelligent women of their time whose contributions are less documented. Today, these narratives appear overly favorable and are tailored to fit the victors' perspectives.

Will women emerge as the true victors in our history?

After studying numerous history books, I believe that the history of our planet must have been different from what we currently understand. Consider the impact of all the undocumented women who must have influenced the development of humanity and Earth. Think about the theories modified by scientists to enhance their own stories and how the general public has largely accepted these narratives. Remember that while the world may have been shaped by chance, science is not based on chance but on what is known and understood.