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Session 5: How Do We Communicate With Our Inner Voice?
Now you have an understanding of WHO it is we are communicating with, WHERE it comes from, HOW it comes and how we can 'hear' it, we now get to the exciting bit - having an in-depth, deep and meaningful conversation with your inner voice!
In this session we will learn about:
- Section A: What Is 'Active Imagination'?
- Section B: An Example of Active Imagination At Work
- Section C: Your Turn - An Exercise: Active Imagination
- Section D: Summing Up. Where To From Here?
If at any time you need help or have any questions regarding this Session, you can email me at Jennymolan@y7mail.com and I will get back to you within 48 hours with an answer to your query. You are not alone!
Right, lets get started...
Session 5 - Section A: What Is 'Active Imagination'?
Active Imagination is a concept developed by the great Swiss psychotherapist and psychiatrist Carl Jung, some time between 1913 and 1916. It is a technique whereby the contents of one's unconscious mind are translated into narrative. It acts as a bridge between the unconscious mind and the conscious mind (or the 'ego').
In other words, it is a two-way line of communication between the soul and the ego. The ego asks, and the soul answers.
As well as being translated into narrative, the contents of one's unconscious can also be translated into images. Therefore, Active Imagination can also be done by automatic writing, or by artistic activities such as dance, music, painting, sculpting, craft etc. (It can also be done by dream interpretation, whereby the images that your unconscious mind gives you in your dreams are translated into meaning. However, this technique involves a dream interpreter that has knowledge of the meaning of the vast array of images that people have in their dreams, and also requires you to have a dream - and remember it!)
Since images are are more difficult (unless you are highly artistic) to interpret than narrative, we will be working with the narrative method for now, as everyone can do this, and you don't have to be an artistic genius to be able to do it!
With Active Imagination, your conscious mind will be engaging in a dialogue with your unconscious mind/trusted source. You can actually talk out loud, hold the dialogue in your head, or write or type the dialogue as it unfolds. I prefer to sit in front of a computer and type the dialogue, as I can type much faster than I can write, my hand tends to get sore if I write too much, and as an added bonus, 'automatic writing' tends to occur, making the process that much smoother, and giving me more trust in what comes out.
Active imagination accesses the personal, and sometimes the collective consciousness.
If you are communicating with your inner voice about:
- Individual events or choices
- Emotions, reactions, feelings, thoughts, beliefs
- Fears, desires, fantasies, plans
- How we filter or interpret the world around us
- Protecting our image
- Keeping safe from danger, being alive and healthy
- Challenges regarding other people
- Internal conflict, morals
- Repressed or ‘dis-owned’ stuff
then you will be tapping into ‘Personal unconscious’.
If you are wanting to know about:
- Big picture things
- Things to do with an entire lifetime eg soul purpose, taking or leaving a job, leaving a marriage
- Things concerned with growth and development
- Things to do with others (giving readings)
then you will be tapping deeper, more into the ‘collective unconscious’.
When you talk to your trusted source, it may help to imagine that they are at the other end of an imaginary telephone. You will ask a question, then let your mind go blank. Take the first thought that pops into your head as their answer. You may feel weird, or silly, or that you might go around in circles or go off on crazy tangents or go loopy or something if you do. But just put aside any judgement, and allow yourself, just for a little while, to be totally 'silly' and 'crazy' and 'loopy'. Your trusted source has only the best intentions for you, and they are looking over you, so you are completely safe.
When you engage in a dialogue with your trusted source:
- Trust what you are given
- Go with your first thought – don’t filter or judge (thoughts of 'no, that’s silly', 'I can’t say that', or 'it's just my mind making it up' etc).
- Beware that the ego will be trying its damndest to ‘keep you safe’ – by running a commentary of the ‘inner skeptic’, so the more you feel yourself pushing a thought or idea out of head, the more you feel yourself filtering or judging what comes out, the more it needs to be validated! Go with it, accept it. It needs to be heard.
- Merely write down the answer you receive. Ask and record, just observe. Don’t get into an argument with your source!
- Allow the space and time for the answer to come. It will come.
- Don't be scared of the blanks, the 'I don't know's'. For it is not until you get to the 'I don't know's' that the magic happens. For everything you know is already in your conscious The real work doesn't happen until the conscious mind no longer knows, and the answer has to come from the unconscious! Give yourself the space for the magic to happen.
- Thank trusted source – even if you think you got nothing, always thank your trusted source for talking with you.