From the editors — here are the views of Carl Jung and fellow psychologists of his circle. The editors of the Psychologist, who are not close to the myths about the Unconscious, these views are not close, and they are given only for information.
In essence, Active Imagination is a dialogue that you have with the various parts of your «I» that live in the unconscious. In a certain sense, it is like a dream, with the only difference being that while experiencing this sensation, you are awake and fully aware of what is happening.
In your imagination, you begin to speak to your images and interact with them. They answer you. You will be surprised to learn that they express points of view that are exactly the opposite of those contained in your conscious mind. They tell you about things that you have not yet been aware of and give you thoughts that your conscious mind has not yet known.
Most people engage in lively conversation during Active Imagination, exchanging opinions with inner figures, trying to reconcile opposing points of view, even seeking advice from unconscious sages. But not all conversations are conducted through words.
Active Imagination helps to better understand that the images that arise in the imagination are actually symbols that represent parts of our self that are deeply seated within us. Like images from dreams, they symbolize the contents of our unconscious. Because these inner beings have “minds of their own,” they say and do things that sometimes shock, often enlighten, and sometimes hurt our egos.
In dreams, events occur exclusively at the level of the unconscious. In the process of Active Imagination, events occur at the level of imagination, which is neither the conscious mind nor the unconscious, but is a «meeting point», a «no man’s land» where the conscious mind and the unconscious meet to create a life event that combines contains elements of both. The two levels of consciousness merge with each other in the field of imagination, like two rivers that flow into each other to create one powerful stream. They complement each other; they begin to work together, and as a result, your complete personality begins to transform itself into oneness. The dialogue of the conscious mind with the unconscious brings into play the highest «divine» function, the «I», which is a synthesis of these two levels of consciousness.
The essence of Active Imagination is your conscious participation in the process of imagination. This type of imagination is called active because the ego actually enters the inner world, walks there, talks, argues, makes friends and makes enemies among the personalities inhabiting this world. You are consciously playing a part in the spectacle of your imagination.
This quality distinguishes Active Imagination from ordinary, passive fantasy. Passive fantasy is waking dreams, you are like in a movie theater, you just sit and watch the stream of fantasy penetrate your brain. Passive fantasy is a process in which you do not consciously participate; you do not think about what is happening, and in relation to what is happening, you do not take an independent, ethical position.
Passive fantasy also presents images from the unconscious. But since we cannot consciously enter it, it is, for the most part, a waste of time and energy. The problems presented by fantasy are not amenable to resolution. In most cases, fantasy appears again and again on the sidelines of our minds until it gets tired of it or until we get tired of it. No evolution takes place because the ego never encounters a fantasy situation and never enters it as an aware, independent force.
A good example of this is the phenomenon of anxiety. Anxiety is a form of passive fantasy. Most of us have something to worry about, and worry all the time. A fantasy arises in our brain in which we see ourselves as victors who have achieved our goal. Then comes the counter-fantasy, the anxiety-fantasy, in which we see ourselves as humiliatingly defeated. As long as we passively sit and let the anxiety-fantasy take over, we will not find any way out, but in the case of Active Imagination, it is possible to penetrate into the anxiety, actively confront it, enter into a dialogue with it, find out who or what is inside. us is in a state of conflict, and do something about it.
Active Imagination is applied correctly, it connects those different parts of you that have conflicted or been separated from each other. It awakens powerful voices within you and leads to the conclusion of peace between the warring egos and the unconscious, to the beginning of cooperation between them.
The main task of this art is to provide a connection between the ego and those parts of the unconscious from which we are usually cut off. When you do Active Imagination, there really is a change in your soul. Active Imagination takes a person on the path leading to integrity, to the realization of the fullness of his «I», and all this is only because a person has learned to communicate with his inner «I».