 | | | | | | | |||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
|  | | |
Copyright 2002 The Imaginal World Mechanisms of active imagination How does active imagination work? Given its singular importance in Jungian therapy, there seems to have been relatively little scientific research on active imagination and its mechanisms. Remarkably, the standard texts on the psychology of consciousness appear to ignore active imagination altogether (e.g., Tart, 1969; Farthing, 1992; Hunt, 1995); among Jungian analysts, Cwik (1995, pp. 142-143) suggests that active imagination involves the induction of a light hypnotic trance. However, there is good reason to believe that active imagination in fact falls into the class of what Green and McCreery call metachoric experiences – that is, experiences in which the normal perceptual environment is entirely replaced by a hallucinatory one, which may on occasion be a convincing replica of the world of normal perception (1994, pp. 55-62). For example, this is an episode of what seems clearly to be metachoric active imagination: He saw the meadow and the road and walked up the hill among the cows, and then he came up to the top and looked down, and there was the meadow again, sloping down, and below was a hedge with a stile. So he walked down and over the stile, and there was a little footpath that ran round a ravine, and a rock, and when he came round that rock, there was a small chapel, with its door standing a little ajar. He thought he would like to enter, and so he pushed the door open and went in, and there upon an altar decorated with pretty stood a wooden figure of the Mother of God. He looked up at her face, and in that exact moment something with pointed ears disappeared behind the altar. He thought, "Well, that's all nonsense," and instantly the whole fantasy was gone (Jung, 1935/1997, ¶ 394, p. 144). Metachoric experiences arguably embrace lucid dreams, false awakenings, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, and waking dreams. And despite Jung's own dislike for eidetic visualization – he considered such "voluntary imagination" to be superficial and trivial (Jung, 1921/1953-1977, p. 428; Casey, 2000, p. 213) – research into the similarities and differences of active imagination, visualization, and lucid dreaming would be of considerable interest. There is certainly nothing superficial or trivial about the complex and difficult visualization practice that lies at the heart of Tibetan Buddhist ritual meditation (see, e.g., Beyer, 1973). To a greater or lesser extent, all three – active imagination, eidetic visualization, and lucid dreaming – are the deliberate induction of a metachoric state; all three, to a greater or lesser extent, exercise control over the content of that state; and all three, to a greater or lesser extent, to borrow a point made by Watkins, constitute "an experience of the imagination undertaken with a certain quality or attitude of awareness," which differentiates them from daydreams, hallucinations, and hynogogic experiences (1976, p. 31; emphasis added). However, work in this area is sparse at best. Hall & Brylowski (1991, cited in LaBerge & Gackenbach, 2000), for example, discuss lucid dreams and active imagination in terms of potential therapeutic benefits, noting that "[b]oth lucid dreaming and active imagination may be used to bypass personal resistances or defenses of rationalization" (p. 35). Bosnak (1988, p. 39, 43-44) and Shafton (1995, pp. 487-491) discuss active imagination as a form of dream re-entry, but do not pursue a comparison of the two states of consciousness. Conceptualizing active imagination as a metachoric experience raises a host of research questions. Anecdotal reports seem to indicate that people performing active imagination tend to recall fewer sleeping dreams (e.g., Jung, 1947/1997, ¶ 403, p. 161), but the evidence is not clear, and certainly tells us nothing of what synergizing or inhibiting relationship there may be between active imagination and lucid dreaming. There are, however, several hypotheses for the mechanisms of such deliberately induced metachoric states. Noll (1985; see discussion in Winkelman, 2000, pp. 85-88) discusses "mental imagery cultivation" – the deliberate development of enhanced mental imagery – as a feature of shamanic training. Shamanic visions, he says, result from disinhibition of the regulation of the visual cortex, resulting in hyperactivity of the visual regions, experienced as ongoing visual panoramas. The skills of the shaman lie in being able to stabilize this internal world and use its images for divination, diagnosis, and healing. Noll suggests that focusing on internal imagery provides an internal experiential focus; and, in a sort of figure-ground cognitive reversal, this enhances internal imaginal reality to the degree that it provides an alternative experience to the external world. Second, the shaman develops increased control over the internal images (Noll, 1985, p. 445). Clearly there is much to be done. References Beyer, S. (1973). The cult of Tara: Magic and ritual in Tibet. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Bosnak, R. (1988). A little course in dreams. Boston, MA: Shambhala. Casey, E. (2000). Imagining: A phenomenological study (2d ed.). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Cwik, G. (1995). Active imagination: Synthesis in analysis. In Stein, M. (Ed.), Jungian analysis (2d ed., pp. 137-169). Chicago, IL: Open Court. Farthing, G. (1992). The psychology of consciousness. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Green, C., & McCreery, C. (1994). Lucid dreaming: The paradox of consciousness during sleep. London, UK: Routledge. Hall, J., & Brylowski, A. (1991). Lucid dreaming and active imagination: Implications for Jungian therapy. Quadrant, 24(1), 35-43. Hunt, H. (1995). On the nature of consciousness: Cognitive, phenomenological, and transpersonal perspectives. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Jung, C. (1953-1977). Psychological types. In Read, H., Fordham, M., & Adler, G. (Eds.). Collected works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 6) (Hull, R., Trans.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1921) Jung, C. (1997). The Tavistock lectures. In Chodorow, J. (Ed.), Jung on active imagination (pp. 143-153). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Excerpt from Jung, C. (1953-1977). The symbolic life. In Read, H., Fordham, M., & Adler, G. (Eds.). Collected works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 18) (Hull, R., Trans.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1935) Jung, C. (1997). On the nature of the psyche. In Chodorow, J. (Ed.), Jung on active imagination (pp. 158-162). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Excerpt from Jung, C. (1953-1977). The structure and dynamics of the psyche. In Read, H., Fordham, M., & Adler, G. (Eds.). Collected works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 8) (Hull, R., Trans.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1947) LaBerge, S., & Gackenbach, J. (2000). Lucid dreaming. In Cardeña, E., Lynn, S., & Krippner, S. (Eds.), Varieties of anomalous experience: Examining the scientific evidence (pp. 151-182). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Noll, R. (1985). Mental imagery cultivation as a cultural phenomenon: The role of visions in shamanism. Current Anthropology, 26, 443-451. Shafton, A. (1995). Dream reader: Contemporary approaches to the understanding of dreams. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Tart, C. (Ed.). (1969). Altered states of consciousness. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books. Watkins, M. (1976). Waking dreams. New York, NY: Harper Colophon. Winkelman, M. (2000). Shamanism: The neural economy of consciousness and healing. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. | |||
Back to the top
      
| |||
