Digesting Jung: Food for the Journey - Inner City Books

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Bringing Fantasies into Life
Continual conscious realization of unconscious fantasies,
together with active participation in the fantastic events, has . . .
the effect firstly of extending the conscious horizon by the
inclusion of numerous unconscious contents; secondly of gradually
diminishing the dominant influence of the unconscious; and
thirdly of bringing about a change of personality. 104
Becoming conscious of one’s fantasies, otherwise known as active
imagination, is a useful activity for tracking what is going on the
unconscious. It is not generally recommended for those not in
analysis because what comes up may not have a pretty face and can
in fact be quite scary. Also, perhaps fortunately, active imagination
is not easy to get into.
Active imagination can involve painting, writing, music, dance,
working in clay or stone—whatever you feel like doing. You follow
your energy where it wants to go. The less formal training you have
the better, because the trained mind inhibits freedom of expression.
It is a way of giving the unconscious an outlet, so you don’t explode.
It is also another kind of container; instead of dumping your
affect on other people you keep it to yourself—you take responsibility
for what’s yours.
Speaking for myself, I was unable to do active imagination until
a friend suggested some simple steps. The first of these was aimed
at overcoming my fear of a blank sheet of paper.
“Take a page of a newspaper,” he said. “Lay a plate on it. Draw
an outline of the plate with a crayon or a colored pencil or a paint
brush. Look at what you made. Think about it. Now do something
104 “The Technique of Differentiation,” Two Essays on Analytical Psychology,
CW 7, par. 358.
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