Therapeutic Use of Imagination
Before speaking about the therapeutic use of imagination, it is important to define what imagination is. First of all, imagination is the property of the mind. Imagination is part of our human inheritance and we are all born with it, just as we are all born with will, night dreams, intuition, and reason. We are born with a heart, with a liver, skin, eyes, legs, arms ext. Every organ of our body has its place and function. The physical senses we are born with, such as sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, are there for us to explore and survive in our outer environment. Similarly, just as our physical organs and their functions are essential to survival and existence, the functions of the mind (including imagination) are there to support another part of our “beingness” – our inner environment, such as thoughts and feelings.
The second aspect of imagination is that it’s a universal language of all human spices. Think about an orange. Can you see it in your mind? When I was growing up, I did not speak English. The fruit you call an orange, I called apelsin, because I grew up speaking Russian. That doesn’t sound even close to “orange,” but we see the same thing when we conjure up this image. Similarly, if I say “une très belle voiture rouge,” unless you speak French, you will not understand what I am talking about. However, if I say, “I have a very beautiful red car,” then in your mind, you will have an image of a red car. Indeed, the spoken language is what separates us, white the language of an image is what unites us.
The third aspect of imagination is that it is a subjective experience. When I say the word, “home,” what first appears in your mind? In my mind, the image that appeared was my first home in Odessa, Ukraine. My family lived there until I turned eight years old. We moved several times. Why did this particular house come to me, and not any other? What appeared in your mind? And why did this particular image appear on this day? Maybe another day, or another hour, a different image would come. It’s all meaningful, and all pertains to who you are, and where you are in your life at this unique moment.
The fourth aspect of what imagination is that imagination is a faculty of the mind, which creates thought forms through which we think, feel, and store our feelings as memories.
When we think, we actually imagine— we actually only think and feel in the form of images. If you think, “I want to call my friend”, for fractions of second, you imagine the telephone and your friend. If I tell you, “please connect with being happy or sad,” you cannot just snap into being happy or snap into being sad. You have to think about a happy event. Or a said event. And once the images begin to flood into your consciousness-- you start feeling.
The fifth aspect of imagination is that it is a link that connects our thoughts, our feelings and our bodies. When you think, for example of the word “mother,” you do not simply think about the letters that make up this word. It is a word infused with meaning, and meaning connects us to our bodies. When I say “mother,” you likely see a person. If you have a great relationship with your mother, you have positive feelings, your body relaxes, and your blood is flooded with the hormone interleukin, which may serve to strengthen your immune system. And if you have a problematic relationship with your mother, the image will arouse negative feelings, and with these negative feelings, you experience a weakening of your immune system. All of this is to say that when we evoke images, we evoke feelings— and when we change our feelings, we change our physiology. So, our images, our feelings, and our bodies are all connected. By making positive changes within our imagination, we can positively affect our feelings and bodies.
Finally, the sixth aspect of imagination is that it is one of the sources of all human activity and creativity. If I feel hungry, an idea pops into my mind that I want something to eat. Then, possibly, the next question I have is, “what do I have in the refrigerator?” Almost instantly, an image of the refrigerator and its contents pops into my mind. One great example of how imagination is at the source of human creativity is Carl Bentz. At the end of 19th century, Carl Bentz had an idea— that the engine he invented a few years earlier could possibly propel a vehicle to move. We can only speculate about the details, but we definitely know the stages of the process. First came an idea and then an image. It may have been a vague, intangible image, but an image nonetheless—and after having this image, he acted. So, imagination is always an intermediate stage between an idea and its implementation in the physical reality.
Now, we are ready to explore the therapeutic use of imagination. There are five major areas in which imagination can be used as a tool for healing and maintenance of our physical and emotional well-being.
1. A tool for exploration.
The spoken language is a product of the intellect, and it can be used to edit, rationalize, fragment, deny, or misrepresent reality. In contrast, spontaneously appearing mental images during a guided imaginal journey always display a complete and unbroken reflection of one's inner experience. Following is case illustration of how a 45-seconds guided imagery exercise helped to uncover an underlying reason for patient’s self-sabotage.
Jim, a twenty-eight years old African American men came to see me because as he said of his anger issues. During the initial interview he told me about his life, which in many ways was quite extraordinary. He grew up New York’s South Bronx without a father, living with a mother who was an alcoholic and was beating him regularly. Numerous times he was suspended from school because of fighting with his classmates. Half of his friends dropped out of school before finishing tenth grade. Many got in trouble with the law, and some got killed. Shortly, his path was quite clearly defined. Yet, his desire to study and his natural curiosity were so great that he continued plowing through grade after grade, and finished school with the highest scores.
While still hanging out with his friends, many of whom were involved with drugs he managed to enroll into community college, graduated with honors, and in two more years received his MBA. During his college years, while pursuing his masters’ degree, and after finishing his schooling Jim attempted to start a number of businesses, each having almost instant success. Yet, as soon as the business would take off he would do something to sabotage his success. He would get drunk and not show up for the most important meeting, start a fist fight with a vendor, or insult a perspective buyer. After four years of “hitting a brick wall” and failing at 8th or 9th promising projects, Jim decided to see a shrink.
During the initial interview the therapist suggested that for some reason Jim had fear of success. After this remark Jim wrote a check, politely handed it to the therapist, said that he was afraid of nothing and no one, and left. Coming to see me was Jim’s second and last attempt “to be shrinked.”
Frankly, after having heard Jim’s story I also thought that for some reason Jim was experiencing fear of success, but knowing of his reaction to the first therapist I refrained from making any remarks. At the end of his story I said “I do not know what’s going on there but I am confident that deep inside you know. My job is simply to get the truth out of you. Ready?” Jim was ready.
I asked Jim to close his eyes, breath out gently three times (I asked him to start by exhaling first, with each following exhalation slower and longer than the previous inhalation). I asked him think or imagine himself, in any way it appeared to him, climbing the ladder of success and reaching the very top. In less than a minute Jim opened his eyes with bewilderment on his face. He reported that he saw himself climbing a ladder, one of those from the buildings of his childhood. He was wearing a three-piece suit and white gloves. When he reached the top, he realized that he was on top of the Rockefeller building. Suddenly his brother, who was shot dead at the age of twenty-two, and his childhood friend, who was still serving a seven-year prison sentence were standing before him. They looked at his white gloves and his brother said, “Kissing white ass, ah…” Then, both turned around and left.
Jim made his own interpretation, and he understood that he had a deep-seated fear that if he succeeded, it would be like turning away from those he loved. It was important that the insight came from him, in response to the images that came from within, and that the insight did not come from someone else. With my encouragement, Jim went back into the image and told his friend and his brother that he loved them but that he worked very hard at making a better life for himself and it was time for him to move on.
The case above is not only an example of the use of imagery as an exploratory technique, but also as a technique for making a correction within a discovered conflict.
Another way to use of mental imagery as an exploratory technique is through a quick exercises I often give to people to compel them to explore their expectations about life. The exercise is: “You are walking down a path alone, when suddenly someone taps you on a shoulder. You turn around, who do you see, what do you feel, what do you do?” Some people for whom “the world is a friendly place” will report of encountering a friend or relative, while others who are fearful or for whom the world is a place of danger, will report being attacked by a stranger, monster, or simply having someone unexpectedly confronting them.
2. A way of identifying and if necessary changing a belief system.
Use of imagination also enables one to discover underlying belief systems, which govern one’s choices in both waking and imaginal realities. The feelings and behavior within the experience of “dwelling” in the imaginary journey are reflective of beliefs one holds about oneself and the world. Beliefs underlying and motivating one's behavior are not as discernible as the behavior itself (i.e., overeating, smoking, fighting, etc.). A belief is not a linear, logical concept which can be rationally "figured out." Rather, it is an abstract idea which only attains form and focus when observed through one's inner lens of imagination. This perception of reality affects the way one consciously thinks, feels, and behaves.
Once the belief system is identified through its embodiment - the image— if a person discovers that this belief system is not healthy or life affirming, he/’she may choose to "re-member the adverse images in a new way.” In doing so, they can create a new image/belief that is more in keeping with their conscious aspirations. The following is an example of a client re-membering an adverse image in a new way to create a new belief that is in keeping with their waking aspirations for themselves.
Greg, a 41-year-old man came to see me because, as he said on the phone, his wife and his teenage children were bugging him about losing a few pounds and not eating “as if there was no tomorrow.” Five feet and ten inches tall, Greg weighted 310 pounds. During the initial interview Greg described the absolute terror he experienced whenever he found himself in a place without access to food (whether it be a beach, a car trip, or a visit to friends). Commonly, before leaving a party, even if he felt stuffed, he would grab something to eat “just in case” if he would get hungry and there was nothing to eat. That would happen even if the drive home would take no more than half an hour.
Over the years, Greg saw a nutritionist-to see if there were some foods that he ate that made him hungrier. He also saw a psychologist to see if there were some underlying reasons for his “food addiction,” and a priest, who told him that gluttony was one of the seven deadly sins, and that Greg needed to pray. None of these helpers really helped, although each encounter slowed down his weight gain for a few months. However, Greg’s weight kept creeping up at the rate of -5-6 pounds a year for the last twenty-five years. During our second session, I asked Greg to eat a chocolate bar, which he had in his briefcase. Then I asked Greg to close his eyes and follow, in any way it would appear to him, the chocolate into his stomach. My intention was that Greg would in some way feel or see what sudden influx of sugar did to his body. At the beginning Greg reported seeing himself sliding down the slope of brown sludge and I encouraged him to continue his journey while reporting everything that was happening to him. After a while the downslide ended and Greg reported seeing nothing but white. The white stuff became snow. Greg was walking in the snow, he said it felt like for days. He was falling down and getting up again. When he became thirsty he would fill his mouth with snow — but in terms of food, there was none. He was starving. He reported that one thought that was not leaving him was that he should have known that this journey would take much more time, and that he should have prepared better and brought more food with him. Then the imagery became blurry. Greg reported feeling sad and said that he wanted to open his eyes.
Was Greg’s vision a symbolic representation of the belief that there might be not enough food, or a memory from a past life’s unfortunate ending (if one is to believe that there is such a thing as past lives)? Either way the images that Greg experienced were about “not enough”, which were clearly explaining his constant need to have food around and to eat “just in case.”
Past life or not, we had to make this life work, and after discussing the imagary experience with Greg, I asked him to close his eyes and go back into the image. He was encouraged to do what was necessary to do to affirm life, health, and security. Greg found himself back in the snow but this time after wondering in the snow for a while he run into a group of travelers with sleds and dogs. They shared food with him and gave him a lift to a nearby village. There his wife and his two sons were waiting for him.
Following this imaginary journey, Greg found himself feeling much more relaxed around food. I worked with Greg for another seven sessions and we focused on changing his eating habits, letting go of the “weight” of the past hurts and guilts, and creating a new image of himself as a man in control of his mind and body.
As Greg reported, the work was easy and Greg had no trouble just walking away from food. In three months he lost 40 pounds. In the following year, no longer coming to see me Greg lost another 80 pounds. As of now, five years later Greg maintains weight of 190 pounds without much effort.
I attribute Greg’s success to the change within the image/belief from “I may not survive, there is not enough food” to “I am not alone. If I need help and/or food- these resources are available to me.”
3. A technique for re-membering the past in a new way
Celia, a 48-year-old woman, presented with complaints of insomnia. In her childhood Celia was sexually molested by her grandfather and since that time she regularly experienced anxiety before going to bed. Even after falling asleep, Celia would wake up numerous times feeling anxious. Although as an adult Celia underwent psychoanalysis which revealed to her the dynamics of her familial relationships, and convinced her that she was no longer unsafe, the sleep problem never resolved.
In the imaginal experience of re-membering her past Celia was able to "stand up" to her perpetrator by fighting back and exposing his behavior to her mother. This imaginal experience was an act of dealing with the emotional reality of Celia’s life. During the eighteen-session intervention other levels of Celia’s life were addressed as well. Although her factual memory of the event did not change, Celia’s emotional memory of helplessness was transformed into a new emotional memory of self-reliance, courage, and confidence. After the imaginal correction, Celia was no longer shaping her current reality based upon the influences of the past. She had changed her past. With a different past, she created a different “now.”
4. A technique for removing the symptom.
Imagine yourself turning around the corner and seeing a bus that you need to catch about to leave. You are 15 yards away. In an instant, you run and get onto the bus before the door closes. What did just happen? At no point did you say to your brain “produce more nor epinephrine”, to sugars and fats in your body “Poor into my blood stream to provide me with more energy”, to your heart “Pump faster”, to your body “Perspire to cool down my system”. And yet, that is precisely what happened when you suddenly needed to run to catch that bus. Your body did this all that without you knowing any physiology. This bodily reaction was triggered by two things: the impulse of will to be on the bus, and the image of being able to see that this was a distance you could cover. The body did not have to be told what to do, it just followed suit and it did it perfectly. That is how an imagery exercise can affect the state of your body. It can also alter your emotional state since both are interconnected. The following example illustrate how imagery exercises can be useful in removing an emotional symptom.
Anger at someone or oneself
Close your eyes and breathe out gently three times. Long slow exhalations. Nice and easy inhalations. Breathing out twice as slow as breathing in. Now, find yourself inside of your anger; in any way you can see it. Sense and feel yourself being totally surrounded by it. Breathe out one time. Knowing that anything is possible, find your way out of anger, and look at it from the distance. Decide what you want to do with it; you can burn it, you can bury it in the earth, you can sink it in the ocean, or you can let it be taken by the wind. Do it. Breath out once, and bring something beautiful into the newly vacated space. When ready, open your eyes.
5. A way of discovering possibilities of becoming.
It is clear that in all emotional disturbances there is a lack of imaginative openness to the reception of new possibilities for living. When an individual is suffering from emotional distress, fixed and rigid patterns of existence, along with fixed and powerful images of oneself, prevent this openness from happening. The practice of imagination enables one to enter one’s inner world of non-concrete reality, unimpeded by the limits of linear time and spatiality. This inner movement acts as an enzyme of the mind, analogous to a physical enzyme that catalyzes a physiological process. The inner mental enzyme speeds up inner transformation by showing us the way and giving us direction. During the imagary journey one can explore and experience infinite possibilities of becoming and have the capability of finding various ways of existence not yet previously seen. Said anther way, during the imagery journey, one can access this openness. Then, one can chose to “rehearse the alternatives” within the safety of the imaginal experience and discover the most suitable and life promoting course.
The act of giving attention to one’s inner life and of modifying certain actions within the imaginary experience also leads one in the direction of exercising freedom and strengthening the will. The experience of freedom and stronger will in the imaginal realm exercises one’s inner “muscle” of sensorial receptivity thus bringing one to greater openness and receptivity in the waking life.
