Robert A. Johnson was born in
Portland, Oregon, in 1921. In 1933,
at the age of eleven, he had a mystical
experience that informed the rest of
his life. After attending the University of Oregon and Stanford University, he went to Ojai, California, in
1945 to study with Indian spiritual
teacher J. Krishnamurti. Two years later, he entered
into Jungian analysis with Fritz Kunkel, eventually
enrolling in the C. G. Jung Institute in Zürich, Switzerland. In the early 1950s he established an analytical
practice in Los Angeles with Helen Luke, and after
nearly a decade, closed his practice to enter a Benedictine monastery in Michigan, where he stayed for
four years.
In 1967, Robert Johnson returned to California
to resume his life as a therapist and to lecture at St.
Paul’s Church in San Diego, working closely with
John Sanford. In 1974, a collection of his lectures
was published by a small press in Pennsylvania, and
He: Understanding Masculine Psychology became a
bestseller after Harper & Row acquired the rights.
His gift for weaving together depth psychology,
mythology, and dream work, presenting Jung’s theories with simplicity and grace, continues to touch
people worldwide. Robert Johnson’s books have
sold more than 2.5 million copies.
From 1973 to 1993, he journeyed annually to India, feeling deeply at home there. From 1981 to 2002,
he frequently led workshops in the southeastern U.S.
and Canada organized by Journey Into Wholeness.
Today Robert Johnson lives in San Diego, enjoying
the fruit of his many friendships. His life’s journey is
explored in depth in his memoir, Balancing Heaven
and Earth.
