Before embarking on autogenic meditation, the trainee must learn to keep himself in a state of autogenic immersion for a long time — an hour or more. During such «passive concentration» various visual phenomena («shadows», «simple forms», color spots, etc.) arise. Further training consists in learning to induce and maintain «passive concentration» in the presence of annoying interference — bright lights, noise, sounding radio, etc.
- First exercise
Fixation of spontaneously arising color representations.
- Second exercise
Calling certain color representations, «seeing» a given color.
- Third exercise
Visualization of specific objects.
- Fourth exercise
Focusing on the visual representation of abstract concepts such as «justice», «happiness», «truth», etc.
During the execution of this exercise, a stream of strictly individual representations arises. For example, «freedom» is associated with a white horse galloping across the prairie. Specific visual images associated with abstract concepts help, according to Schultz, to reveal the subconscious.
- Fifth exercise
The concentration of «passive attention» on arbitrarily evoked, emotionally significant situations. During the exercise, the trainee often «sees» himself in the center of an imaginary situation.
- Sixth exercise
Calling up images of other people. First, one should learn to evoke images of «neutral» faces, then — emotionally colored images of people pleasant and unpleasant to the patient. Schultz notes that in these cases, the images of people appear somewhat caricatured, caricatured. Gradually, such images become more and more “calm”, “dispassionate”, caricature features and elements of emotional hyperbolization soften. This serves as an indicator of the onset of «autogenic neutralization».
- Seventh exercise
The author called it «the answer of the unconscious.» The trainee asks himself: “What do I want?”, “Who am I?”, “What is my problem? etc. In response, he subconsciously responds with a stream of images that help him see himself “from the outside” in various, including disturbing, situations. This is how catharsis, self-purification is achieved, and “autogenic neutralization” occurs, that is, a cure. Analyzing the description of the meditative exercises according to Schultz, it is easy to see that they are reduced to a series of techniques of a kind of “autopsychoanalysis”.