Active Imagination Techniques -- Carl Jung

[personalreality]

Many of us find our way to places like the pulse on a quest for understanding of the Astral Projection experience.  But, if you're at all like me, you didn't really know much about AP besides what you read from people like Monroe, Bruce, Moen, Buhlman, etc.  You may also be like me in that you are interested in these kinds of experiences beyond the "modern interpretation".  What I mean by that is that I am really interested in the phenomena of "the otherworld", which includes, but is not limited to just Astral Projection.  Some people lump all experiences of "the otherworld" as astral projection, which is true in a way.  However, experience of the otherworlds (whatever you call it) exist on an infinite continuum of varying degrees of awareness and varying "locales".  You will encounter many of these experiences in shamanistic (which i use here to mean not only the indigenous tribal shaman, but also most branches of paganism) techniques especially, and usually in the context of self-healing and healing of the community (local and global).  But these experiences aren't limited to the world of mystics alone.  In fact, some of the world's greatest scientists were doing a lot of research into the nature of these other worlds.  From physicists to biologists to psychologists and everything in between.  Even some researchers that conventional academia swears would never be involved in such things, like William James (the father of modern psychology) for example.

Getting Started

Today I want to share a technique for self-healing/actualization that I believe is very close to what we around here call phasing, put forth by Carl Jung.  Jung described this technique as 'Active Imagination' and believed it to be a crucial tool in healing the psyche.  Though Jung didn't really write about this much, he did practice it and many of his students wrote about it.  The following was collected from http://www.bodysoulandspirit.net.  You can find other information from a slightly more "scientific" perspective regarding these types of experiences on that site.  Anyway, lets move on with some basic techniques for active imagination.

Active Imagination is possible when one moves his/her everyday consciousness towards the dream world. "Dream world" is used here to mean nothing more nor less than that realm that we all experience when sleeping, falling into sleep, or coming out of sleep. Since we all know this experience it is used here as short-hand to describe the major tone of Active Imagination practice.The first step towards getting started in Active Imagination requires spending time observing the "dream world" state.

   * Try to observe yourself awakening in the morning (or if you prefer, falling asleep at night). Allow enough time to carefully see how you emerge out of sleep and how it is possible to remain half alert and half asleep. Do this several times over a week. If you have problems with this, try the same process during a nap.

From these observations, we learn that our dreaming involves a state of mind where anything is possible. Dreams are free to follow all sorts of paths and free to generate all sorts of images, feelings, and thoughts. Also notable, is the frequency in which images, feelings, and thoughts are mingled closely together.Our daily way of being typically requires us to be quite focused, goal oriented. Our thoughts and feelings are prescribed around a relatively few major themes. We tend to exclude a great deal in this process and freedom is not a word that can be used to describe this state of mind.

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     Find the means that allows you to move into profound relaxation but with mental clarity remaining. Try body relaxation methods. Try music. Use whatever method most slows down the everyday mind and opens it to whatever happens.
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     Find your own answers to these important questions:What do you need to do to move away from being overly focused on your day's events towards the dream world? What does it feel like to relax deeply? What does it feel like when you blend of the dream world with your quiet, watchful, alertness?
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     Also, try to increase your ability to recall your dreams. Record your dreams and study them not so much to interpret their meaning but to recover the moods that they convey, the images they use, the feelings they bring to the surface. Try to get a fix on the feeling of the dream experience.
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     Later, after you have mastered capturing the tone of the dream world, set aside time to move from your everyday type of consciousness to the dream world. Watch out, you might fall asleep, losing the awareness you need to do Active Imagination. Relax into it, keep alert, pull up your memories of what the dream world feels like. Watch for the emergence of detailed images, feelings, and insights. Work at making these images, feelings, and insights more vivid. This is where the "Active" of Active Imagination comes from. You are required to become engaged in your inner world, bringing yourself to this process in terms of alertness and willingness to learn. Remain alert. You must remember what you see/experience or you will not be doing "Active" Imagination. By necessity, this will keep your sessions short, maybe lasting only ten minutes or fifteen minutes. Make notes afterward, especially on what you have learned on what the experience feels like.


Advanced Techniques

Active Imagination practice is as challenging and robust as any other Soul or Spirit discipline used throughout history and throughout the world. While several disciplines have had far and wide promotion (i.e. prayer in Christianity and meditation in Hinduism/Buddhism), the proponents of Active Imagination have not been so well organized or powerful in conveying their message. Active Imagination has frequently been an "accidental practice" such as in Alchemy when these early chemists had their deeper imaginations activated by their dedication to finding gold in their retorts and chemicals. Many artists (visual and performing) turn to Active Imagination with little awareness of its history or relationship to Soul and Spirit work to get the insights needed for outstanding creations.The following steps are offered to heighten awareness of just what is involved with consciously applied Active Imagination practice and outlines much of the work that is necessary to make this an important discipline.

STEPS TO A DEEPER PRACTICE OF ACTIVE IMAGINATION
1. Pick a time to do quality work. This is very important. So many of us have tried to relegate inner work practice to the time after we get everything else done. All of our obligations to work, to house, family, friends, to bills, are done first. Only then do we sit down to do inner work. By that time we are too tired to do anything. Do not use "junk time," that time left over once everything else is taken care of to do quality inner work. It won't work. This does not mean giving up your day job but it does require awareness of when your energy is appropriately high for this sort of work. Find the means to carve out good time for this important work.

2. Use Pre-Active Imagination work to turn inward and to create the ambiance for Active Imagination.3. When the ambiance is right, introduce a topic to be explored or allow a topic to show itself.


   If it feels right to introduce a topic, try:

           * an image or feeling from a very recent dream
           * an image from a very recent time during your day world
           * a mood from your day world
           * a powerful image/feeling from other sources (i.e. the Tarot, art, film, literature)

   If it feels right to allow a topic to come up, try:

             o to trust the process
             o to allow for more depth so that an important topic can up (avoid the "chit-chat" that we so often face when not going far enough)

4. Once a topic has been agreed upon, stay with it. Try to stick to the central image. This doesn't mean that it can't change, it will. Try to let the topic's full drama unfold rather than expecting/seeking a cascade of images/feelings.5. Get into the image (physically, emotionally, intellectually, and intuitively)6. Remember. It is too easy to let everything just pass your eyes without reflection, but remember that one of the primary aims of this practice is to learn. To learn requires remembering. To remember requires not a passive approach to what one is experiencing but a very active one. This is the main reason this practice is called Active Imagination. To remember you will need to:

       * Take notes
       * Tell someone else what you are experiencing so that they can record the action
       * Or, make the session last no longer than your ability to remember the inner events. This can mean that the session (once you are warmed up with Pre-Active Imagination) will only be five minutes long. That's fine, no harm is done with short sessions.

7. Dialogue with inner figures. If you can meet or call forward inner figures, do so. Become come engage in realistic dialogue; personification is one of the most powerful and important aspects of Active Imagination. Trust the process and listen and learn.8. Wind down. Sessions do not need to be very long. Ten to fifteen minutes can provide a tremendous amount of material. Develop a simple process of inner and outward steps that communicates to your psyche that you are now leaving this process. Some peple prefer to use an inner image such as walking down a path towards their home to make this transition.9. Emerge and do any needed additional recording of your experience.10. Settle back into your everyday world.11. Do Post Session Work

   

   Do Research As Needed

       Frequently a special image or motif will come up demanding exploration after you leave Active Imagination. Do what research you can and you want to do either on-line, at a university library or through the help of a Jungian Society. One note: for this type of work, most research only requires a light exploration of the topic. For instance, if a goddess figure appears, look at goddess images, get some sense of how historic and wide spread these images are, and find one or two that attract you. Also get a general idea of what these goddesses represent. Note that it is not necessary, and frequently a hindrance, to go into too much detail. Going into detail tends to turn a poetic inner experience into a head trip. Nothing against head trips, but if heavy intellectual analysis is used too early, before one has mastered accessing the unconscious, it will be an obstacle, pulling you away from the work you need to do. Once a reasonable level of mastery is achieved, then deeper research will not only not interfere with Active Imagination, it will serve to deepen it. However, in the beginning, try to keep to the gut level nature of what you experience. This will keep you motivated and connected to the ambiance created by Active Imagination.

   Do Something With It

       Many Active Imagination practitioners and teachers recommend doing something with you experiences. Writing, journaling, sculpting, painting, and dancing are just some of the means of taking an experience and bringing it into this world by giving it form. Giving it form will give it a greater place in your life and will further activate the unconscious.

   Keep To Your Promises

       If one is going deep enough in Active Imagination one encounters inner figures (either from a dream, spontaneously, or from an exterior image such as a Tarot card). Inevitably, a promise is made (or should be made) to these personifications of unconscious processes. This promise tends to be around some attribute of the inner figure and some attribute you hold or wish to hold. Robert Johnson in his fine book on Active Imagination, Inner Work, tells of a woman who cuts a deal with her inner artist. If she makes room in her busy life for a greater connection to beauty and art, the inner figure will not pester her through bad dreams and compulsions. Her life takes on a new vitality and sense of meaning, but Johnson warns, she must keep to this promise or this gift will be lost. When you make such deals, keep to your promises. This will increase your ability to hold meaningful dialogues with sometimes reluctant inner figures.

   Keep Quiet and Be Humble

       While you may now have a new understanding, an understanding that is well beyond your friends and family, don't be arrogant. Treat whatever you have received as a delicate gift. If you hold it just right you can possess it and learn more from it, but if you are not careful, this gift can become beat up and distorted. You don't have all of the answers---you just have another piece of a very large, complex, and when it gets down to it,---a very mysterious, puzzle.

   Change/Enlarge/Grow

       You have been presented with insights about life and these insights must be applied to open your perspective on the inner and outer world. Insights gained in Active Imagination tend to expand one's view by showing a new side to an issue. They weaken our old certainties, making room for new understandings and receptiveness. Active Imagination is synthesis and we need to carry this synthesis forward in our choices, our expectations, our demands.

12. Start Again


Further information can be found at http://www.bodysoulandspirit.net/hypnagogia/index.shtml

[Xanth]

Great stuff!

I'm gonna sticky this for future readers and for current discussion.

[ChopstickFox]

When I was very young I would pretty much do this every night and I wonder if anyone else did as well. My favorite would be to take whatever movie I saw that day and immerse myself into the storyline. It was my hope that if I imagined things in enough detail that they would transfer over into my dreams. My biggest goal was to go right into a dream because of it, but I don't remember having luck. I would continue into the storyline until I lost memory of when I stopped and fell asleep. Oh my little self would be so proud of me

I still engage in an active imagination when falling asleep a lot of the time. It's fun! Especially if I just saw a good movie or read a good book. Or when I'm writing my own book!

[Bedeekin]

I will transcribe the method JUNG himself gives in The Red Book... of which I have. It makes for interesting reading. It's basically phasing/OOBE/LD.

[ChopstickFox]

What I find funny is that I had been doing the above since I was little. An obe never came of it, but it's still funny looking back xD

[Xanth]

What I find funny is that I had been doing the above since I was little. An obe never came of it, but it's still funny looking back xD

There really aren't any "new" techniques... just techniques that people have always been doing, or slight variations on them.
Everything has always already been done.  lol

The most you can do is discover something "for yourself". 

[drake]

Believe me these techniques are very effective.