Stan Marlan, PhD — The Dark Tremendum: Psychedelics & the Numinous

ZOOM online lecture: Saturday, February 21, 2026, 7:30 PM - 9:45 PM EST

This event will be recorded. If your schedule does not allow you to attend the lecture, you can still reserve a ticket and a recording will be emailed out to you to watch at your convenience within 60 days of the lecture. Access to the recording cannot be extended past 60 days for any reason. No refunds will be given if you are unable to watch the recording within 60 days.

Cost: members: $15; non-members: $40; students $15
CEUs: $25 (APC, LPC, LMSW, LCSW, AMFT, LMFT)

Register here: https://jungatlanta.com/event-calendar/#!event/2026/2/21/stan-marlan-phd-8212-the-dark-tremendum-psychedelics-and-the-opening-of-the-numinous

Description:
The presentation is a reflection on the experience of how psychedelics can open the door to profound darkness and numinosity — fear — and awe in the face of a tremendum. The experience requires both a descent and decentering, a going under that results in a defeat for the ego and a revisioning of the Self. It links the experience of ego death and rebirth, darkness and illumination, horror and ecstasy, a sacred chaos and volcanic numinosity.

One major theme is the question of how to engage with numinous experiences: can they be psychologically integrated into a rational process of individuation or does the archetypal force itself transform the soul and the complexity of psychic reality?

My reflections are in part based on my early experiences at Millbrook with Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and Ralph Metzner, and my lifelong struggle with an understanding of the process. My talk includes a reflection on Jung’s The Red Book, and extracts from a number of my own publications that struggle with this question.

Stanton Marlan is an archetypally-oriented Jungian analyst and clinical psychologist who has a long-time passion for alchemical and dream studies. He worked closely with James Hillman, first as his analysand and later as a colleague and friend. Dr. Marlan holds two PhD’s from Duquesne University, one in Clinical Psychology and the other in Philosophy. He is a training and supervising analyst with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, President of the Pittsburgh Society of Jungian Analysts, and past President of the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis. He is an adjunct Professor of Psychology of Duquesne University and a Clinical Supervisor at Duquesne’s Psychology Clinic.

Dr. Marlan has lectured widely at Jungian and Archetypal conferences in the United States and abroad and has taught at the C.G.Jung Institute Zurich, as well as at other Jungian institutes and universities. He has edited a number of books including Salt and the Alchemical Soul, and is the author of several books including The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness, and C.G. Jung and the Alchemical Imagination: Passages into the Mystery of Psyche and Soul, which was awarded Best Theoretical Book in Psychoanalysis 2021 by the American Board and Academy of Psychoanalysis. He has a private practice in Pittsburgh.