Activating Your Imagination 2

Last week, I began exploring Active Imagination drawing on the work of Robert Johnson in his book, Inner Work.  Active Imagination is a way of dialoging with energies that are in the unconscious part of our psyches.  It is often used with those people who populate our dreams.  However, it can also be used for other energies that impact our conscious life by personifying complex energies such as fear, worry and anxiety.

In the book, Johnson outlines a four-step approach to using Active Imagination:

1.       Invite the unconscious

2.       Dialogue and experience

3.       Add the ethical element of values

4.       Make it concrete with physical ritual

Johnson also includes a preliminary step before beginning the four-step approach. He recommends deciding on the mode of recording the dialogue when you engage the energy.  This can be pen and paper or computer.  However, he stresses that it is important to record the dialogue in a physical way in order to make it real.    This is similar to recording your dream in a written form in a dream journal.  Johnson also notes that there can be other ways to record your dream such as using art or dancing.  It is also important to have a physical setting which is conducive to this enterprise similar to having an area which can be used in meditation i.e., an area where you won’t be disturbed.  In effect, you need a room of your own to draw on the work by another author.  I will give a brief summary of each step.

1.       The Invitation

In this step, you invite the inhabitants of your unconscious to come into your conscious awareness.  Johnson notes that the object of this is into to control the energy but to engage in a conversation with it and allow the energy to respond as in any conversation.  It is important to allow the energy to take on a personal form.  IF this does not happen spontaneously, you can ask it to do this.

 

2.       The Dialogue

A Johnson describes it, the dialogue is, “mostly a matter giving yourself over to the imagination and letting it flow.”  At this point you record the dialogue as it happens as well as anything else that the figure does.

 

3.       The Values

Now that the image in engaged and in dialogue, it is important to ensure that you do not allow it to rule the roost, so to speak.  The figure may want you to express what it represents and live out its impulses in ways that go against your basic values and even be against the law and customs of our culture.  Your ego is an equal participant in the process and should not believe that the unconscious energy is necessarily superior in knowledge of wisdom.

 

4.       The Ritual

The Ritual step applies to dream work as well as Active Imagination.  To quote Johnson, “whenever you do any form of inner work and bring it to an insight or resolution, you should do something to make it concrete.”  This does not mean that it should be acted out - see step three.  It does mean doing a physical action i.e., ritual which will integrate it into you practical life.

As I noted, this is a brief summary of the process to use in Active Imagination.  For more information, I would refer you to the book or to someone who has experience in this practice.  It may not be for you as no one method is for everyone.  However, it is definitely worth exploring and it may be a blessing on your journey.

Activating Your Imagination

I have been rereading Inner Work by Robert Johnson.  This is one of the classics on how to engage with the energies from the unconscious realm which enter your consciousness through dreams and visions as well as drives and compulsions that can seem to be beyond our control at times.   Johnson is a Jungian i.e., he uses the concepts and approaches developed by Carl Jung to engage and relate to these images, thoughts, feelings and emotions which have a greater influence on our behaviour than we are often aware of.

The book Is divided into two parts.  The first gives a good introduction in working with material that is found in our dreams.  The second part explores the use of Active Imagination which introduces a process to engage consciously in active dialogue with images from the unconscious.  These can be people who appear in your dream as well as impulses and other energy which can be encouraged to take on personalities of their own.  This probably sounds a bit woo woo to someone who is new to this type of work but I hope I can make it make sense if you stay with me.

First, let me explain why we want to do this kind of work.  The goal of the work is to bring the conscious and unconscious parts of ourselves into balance so that we can become more fully the people we are intended to be.  I put this in terms of becoming the people God created us to be but if you are not comfortable with that language you might think of it as being able to reach more of your potential.  First, we have to realize that our lives are influenced to a greater or lesser extent by energy from the unconscious part of ourselves which we have no direct control over.  That energy is, in effect, autonomous and often beyond our conscious control, and even awareness.  As an example, you might think of a time when your reaction to meeting someone was all out of proportion to the encounter.  That could take the form of love at first sight at one extreme or instant hate or disdain at the other.  This is a sure sign that the energies from the unconscious are at work.

Johnson proposes that two important ways you can engage with these energies is through the dreams which come to you while asleep, and through what is called Active Imagination which is a conscious dialogue with personification of the energy either in dreams or inviting the energy which are impacting on your conscious life to take on a personality.  For instance, Johnson uses the example of worry.  He notes that worry is a form of passive fantasy.  Most people have things that they worry about and worry can consume our waking lives at times.  Johnson proposes that in Active Imagination it is possible to confront the worry and enter into dialogue with it and in this way find out what the worry energy will tell us about itself.  It is understandable that people might be skeptical about dialoguing with what might be considered yourself.  However, if you enter into the process the unconscious energy that is taking the form of worry will give you new information about the source of that worry. 

To be honest, I have not engaged in Active Imagination to a great extent.  I tend to work with my dreams and unconscious material in other ways.  However, in my experience it can be very effective.  I think I probably need to engage in Active Imagination to explore why I don’t do it more.  I have had the general idea that Active Imagination was to be used primary with people that occur in dreams.  I have not retained the information that it can be used for energy that manifests in forms such as worry.  When I think of the extent to which people experience significant worry and anxiety which keep them awake in the witching hours of the night, I believe that this can be a significant help. 

I would encourage you to read the book or find other sources that might help you engage with the unconscious energy in your life.  I intend to explore this subject further next week.  It can be a blessing on your journey.