The Origins of Mircea Eliade’s Transconscious and the Vicissitudes of the Religious Faculty

Abstract This article examines the genealogy of concept “transconscious,” a key notion in work Mircea Eliade. It argues that “transconscious” is inheritor long psychological tradition study religion, namely religious faculty. The first section looks at faculty Max Müller and some his German post-Kantian precursors, namely, Friedrich Jacobi Jakob Fries. subsequent sections examine history terms such as “super-conscious,” “supra-conscious,” “trans-conscious” turn-of-the-century philosophy theology period before 1947. I argue there are four intellectual strands go into making Eliade’s namely: (1) psychology mysticism; (2) occultism; (3) interpretations yoga; (4) contemporary theology. final uses debate with C. G. Jung regarding religion mind.