Your Unconscious Holds the Key for Growth

Carl Jung's esoteric 'active imagination' in 3 steps (💾 + asset)

“The years, of which I have spoken to you, when I pursued the inner images, were the most important time of my life.

Everything else is to be derived from this”

— C.G. Jung, ‘The Red Book,’ p. 4

Man with Lance Riding through the Snow (1880) Adolf Schreyer

Following his break with Freud in 1913, Carl Jung entered crisis.

He’d achieved worldly success: prestige as a scientist – but this was all falling apart. When faced with the apparent meaningless of life, we can either:

1) Accept fate

or

2) Search harder

As one of Jung’s prominent proteges, Marie-Louise von Franz, pointed out: “a depression is a blessing.” Without it, we’d be swept away by the currents of our lives and never even think to look inwards or objectively at ourselves. It’s a calling to something greater. A surrendering of something less for something more.

But it’s not easy.

Jung entered a kind of psychosis (a disconnect from reality).

Having worked as a psychiatrist with schizophrenic patients, he knew the signs. But he’d developed an unconventional theory: psychosis (or any mental disorder where someone becomes delusional) is the result of the unconscious invading and overwhelming the conscious mind.

Like today with antidepressants, you can use pharmacology or ‘bandaid’ methods.

As helpful as they might be, they don’t offer a final solution.

But Jung believed, by engaging with the unconscious contents, you could uncover their meanings and warnings – incorporating them into our lives to gain better psychological maturity and security. The unconscious is calling for change. If you don’t listen, it will make you listen.

Neurosis, depression, general mediocrity and sadness all can be remedied.

Dream analysis is a great day-to-day practice (see GUIDE).

But when the unconscious has been neglected or really has something to say that isn’t being conveyed and interpreted properly in dreams, active imagination is your best bet.

(A technique Jung developed in his crisis to survive the flood of the unconscious”

If dreams are the unconscious talking to us, active imagination is us talking back.

Here’s how to use active imagination in 3 steps… (see end for summary and asset 💾)

Step #1: Prep

Active imagination is simply engaging with imagination.

We might envision a location and a person, or they might come to us. You can pick up a dream where it left off, or let the imagination take you where it wants. You’ll be surprised at the autonomy of it. We then talk to the entities.

They offer their bit, we say ours.

Like meditation, active imagination should be done in calm solitude.

Find a place and time you won’t be disturbed. Also like meditation, you want to enter a clear state through breathing. Let go off anything not at hand, and concentrate on what you want to achieve. Focus.

You will record the conversations in whatever way is most comfortable.

• Pen and paper

• Laptop (my go to)

• Some people even paint

Stick to the first 2 (get creative later).

Identify what you want to achieve before you start.

[WARNING] Renowned Jungian analyst Robert A. Johnson told us in his book Inner Work that we should have someone we can contact if we the unconscious contents overwhelm us. They should know what active imagination is, and be reliable and capable at bringing you back down to earth.

If you’re prone to dissociation or in anyway unstable, contact a qualified Jungian psychologist or read Johnson’s Inner Work before proceeding.

This is very serious work.

Step #2: Conducting Active Imagination

You should be sitting quietly and calmly in private with means to record at hand.