Human imagination is the force that turned the world upside down. Imagination is the power of inner images (lecture)

Imagination is the most important aspect of our life. Imagine for a moment that the person had no fantasy. We would be deprived of almost all scientific discoveries and works of art, images created by the greatest writers and inventions of designers. Children would not hear fairy tales and would not be able to play many games.

Thanks to imagination, a person creates, intelligently plans and manages his activities. Almost all human material and spiritual culture is a product of the imagination and creativity of people. Images of imagination are not something special, inherent only in art or the creative process, they are part of our everyday life.

It's easier to say - deprive a person of imagination, and progress will stop! Hence, imagination, fantasy is the most necessary human ability. It should contribute to a better knowledge of the world around, self-disclosure and self-improvement of the individual, and not develop into passive daydreaming, replacing real life with dreams. In all these cases, imagination plays a positive role, but there are other types of imagination as well. These include dreams, hallucinations, daydreams, and dreams.

Dreaming can be attributed to the category of passive and involuntary forms of imagination. Their true role in human life has not yet been established, although it is known that many vital needs are expressed and satisfied in a person's dreams, which, for a number of reasons, cannot be realized in life.

Hallucinations they call fantastic visions that apparently have almost no connection with the reality surrounding a person. Usually, they, as a result of certain disorders of the psyche or the work of the body, accompany many painful conditions.

Dreaming , in contrast to hallucinations, is a completely normal mental state, which is a fantasy associated with desire.

A dream they call the form of special internal activity, which consists in creating an image of what a person would like to accomplish. A dream differs from a dream in that it is somewhat more realistic and in to a greater extent connected with reality, i.e. in principle feasible. Dreams take up a fairly large part of a person's time, especially in adolescence, and for most people are pleasant thoughts about the future, although some also have disturbing visions that give rise to feelings of anxiety and aggressiveness. The process of imagination is rarely immediately realized in the practical actions of a person, therefore a dream is an important condition for the implementation of a person's creative powers. The need for a dream is that, being initially a simple reaction to a highly exciting situation, it then often becomes an internal need of the individual. The dream is very important in the younger school age... The younger the dreaming child, the more often his dreaming not so much expresses his direction as creates it. This is the formative function of dreams.

Images of the imagination have different aspects that are important to us:

The first aspect - all people have the power of imagination. The images presented by a person do not come from somewhere, they are an impulse, a movement of the human body, a natural manifestation of life.

The ability of a person to create images of the imagination is fraught with the chance to create during therapy pictures of himself, images of his problems, his thoughts, his feelings, his body, social relationships, his fears and desires, as well as to change existing pictures. You can imagine the processes taking place in your body, its power and resources, its ability to recover (for example, good blood supply to a sore spot). You can imagine your pain, its shape, color, activity. By changing this image, you can change the intensity of the pain and temporarily (perhaps permanently) soothe the pain.

Second aspect lies in the fact that the imagination deals with both the past and the present and future. People remember the story of their lives, looking with their inner gaze at the pictures emerging from the past.

These pictures are biased - people create, produce them both from their memories, from thoughts, knowledge of what happened in the past, as well as from their emotional memory, from the memory of the body and memories of social contacts. "Memory is a complex thing, a relative of truth, but not its twin."

The fact that the images of the imagination relate to the present is a self-evident everyday experience. We see things with our own eyes, but we also see things with our inner gaze, we can imagine, for example, the image of our heart, even if we have never seen it with our own eyes.

A person can also imagine a picture of his future. Can create in his imagination an image of his aspirations and desires, his professional future, his next vacation ... We can imagine a picture of the future, and this picture can help us decide whether I can even head towards this future, whether it suits me, will it become for me reality or not. First, a person has an image, and then he embodies it. And this third aspect imagination.

“I am in no hurry to get down to practical work. When I have an idea, I immediately begin to build a device in my imagination. I change the design, make improvements and activate this device in my brain. And I absolutely do not care whether I start my turbine in my head or test it in my workshop. I can even notice that it is out of balance. However, there is no difference in the results. In this way, I quickly develop a new concept and can improve it without touching anything. And as soon as I reach the stage when I make all possible improvements that I could think of in the invention, and when I don't see any shortcomings anywhere else, only then I embody the product of my imagination in a concrete form. " Nikola Tesla

Tesla's strategy bears a striking resemblance to the strategy described by Mozart, who claimed that he first composed the music in his head and then, when it was ready, simply “copied” it onto paper (see Strategies of Geniuses, Volume 1). Mozart wrote that he saw music in his mind's eye in such a way that it was “ almost completely finished and finished in my brain, so that I could see it as a beautiful painting or statue ... Therefore, the transfer to paper happens quickly enough, because, as I said, by this moment everything is already finished; and what is written on paper is very rarely different from what was in my imagination. " (E. Holmes. Life of Mozart, including his correspondence).

However, our verbal communication is fourth aspect imagination is always filled with images, countless images.

Good literature is different in that when we read a novel, a talented poem, or listen to some interesting story, images appear in us. And these are not the images that were invented by the authors, but these are our own images. For example, if two people are talking about the sea, then both will have an image of one particular sea or another, and not the word “sea” of four letters.

Each person creates his own image of the sea. This makes communication possible and at the same time complicates and confuses it. When couples talk about love during therapy and share their ideas about life together, about trust, about their worries, strong desires, about sexuality, then both often use the same words, however, the images behind these words are different ... each is in some other "film".

One of the tasks of therapy is to try to convey to another person its images - ideas, to learn how to translate them into the language of the interlocutor.

The fruits of imagination are everywhere, they are an integral part of our world. They are part of our being.

Imagination, its products must be given a place, they must be taken seriously and respected. The way in which a person expresses his images in this moment: in words, in drawing, in clay sculpture or in dance - is of secondary importance.

The main thing is that these images find their expression. Imagination and its creative expression are not only a means to an end, but an end in themselves.

If clients express their imaginations, the fruits of their fantasies and take them seriously, it means that they are taking themselves seriously.

When a person forms his fantasies in a drawing, painting or other object, he pays his attention to what was previously only on the edge of his attention, he can observe this, take a certain position in relation to this and change it.

Albert Einstein said that imagination is the greatest creative force. Look at these words again: "great creative power." Imagination! Not education! No money! Not luck!

Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, says that fantasy is the most amazing, miraculous, inconceivably powerful force in the world. Before you dismiss this thought as crazy, you should know that Mr. Hill was an adviser to two American presidents, received an order from the rich man Andrew Carnegie to teach people to fulfill their dreams, and received many thanks from greatest people around the world that he helped to achieve success.

Imagination is the force that will lead you to places where you have never been.

Henry Ford relied on imagination and faith. Walt Disney said that if he hadn't seen Disneyland in his mind, the rest of the world would not have seen it on Earth. Bill Gates introduced his products before they became real softwarewhere we work. It should be remembered that many of the world's great people started from scratch and built empires. They dreamed. And the universe embodied experiences from their imaginations. The universe always creates real experiences from imagination, whatever it is.

Sometimes people come to therapy, whose fruits of imagination are weak and unviable. Those numerous people who are afraid or even afraid to express their fantasies and share them with other people. Some clients lack the ability to create internal images, the ability to represent something is not developed. It manifests itself in them, only in night dreams in the form of fragmentary pictures. Sometimes they sometimes have spontaneous phantom images that are elusive and fleeting. Clients get very upset when they notice this fading process in themselves.

The sources of such extinctions are different. But if he (the client) is ready to explore new paths and ways with the therapist and move forward, then it is possible - often very slowly and gradually - to nurture this ability to create in him again.

How do you develop and maintain your imagination?

Leonardo observed that “the gift of the imagination is both a rudder and a bridle for the senses” (Fogli B. Volume 2. Leonardo's Notebooks) and cited exercises specially designed to stimulate and mobilize internal cognitive processes in relation to visual impressions. For example, consider the following exercise in his painting treatise:

A way of stimulating the mind to various inventions

“I will not resist and will submit for your consideration new waywhich, although it may seem trivial and almost ludicrous, is still quite useful in encouraging the mind to various inventions.

It is as follows: if you look at walls covered with different stains or made from a mixture different types stones, and if you want to come up with some scene, you can see on this wall similarities with different landscapes, decorated with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, plains, wide valleys and groups of various hills. You will also be able to make out various battles and figures in rapid movement, and strange expressions, and costumes from distant lands, and an infinite number of things, which you can then reduce to separate and clearly distinguishable forms. When looking at such walls and a mixture of different stones, the same thing happens as when listening to bells: in their ringing you can hear any imaginary name and any word. "

(MS. 2038 Bib.Nat.22 v)

As Leonardo himself pointed out, such a seemingly trivial or meaningless mental exercise can be very important.

How to make an imaginary animal appear real

“You know that you cannot create an animal without it having [features or] parts that do not bear similarities to those of other animals. Therefore, if you want some of the animals you invented to seem real - let's say it's a dragon - take the head of a mastiff or setter, cat eyes, porcupine ears, a hound's nose, lion eyebrows, an old rooster's whiskey, and a water turtle's neck. ...

In such a case, Leonardo explicitly uses a strategy of identification, internalization, and combination of key features in order to construct something in his imagination; this process is opposite to the process of creating maps of information coming from sensory perception. Leonardo uses a strategy very similar to research human face in their grotesque drawings; he cuts, pastes and glues different elements taken from his memory and imagination in order to create a mosaic of features that would look like real.

“Apparently, this was a strategy that Leonardo applied successfully throughout his career as an artist.

Vasari (1550), for example, mentions that when Leonardo was still a young student (in the workshop of the famous master Verrocchio), his father, Sir Pierrot, was given a shield made by one of his peasants. Sir Pierrot took him Leonardo to Florence and asked him to paint something on him. Leonardo “began to think that he could paint something on him that would frighten the enemy, like the head of Medusa. For this purpose, Leonardo brought lizards, newts, crickets, snakes, butterflies, grasshoppers, bats, and other strange animals to a room into which no one except him entered; from them he formed an ugly monster, terrible and frightening, which gave off a poisonous breath and turned the air into flames ... "When his father came to pick up the shield, Leonardo" showed the shield on the easel, opened the window so that a bright light fell on him, and then led to his father. Sir Pierrot was quite amazed and recoiled in surprise, not realizing at once that he saw a shield or even just a drawn form in front of him; Leonardo, supported his father saying: “This work serves the purpose for which it was conceived; take it and take it with you; it has exactly the effect that it should have ”. All this seemed to Sir Pierrot like a miracle, and he praised Leonardo for extraordinary ingenuity. "

(Andre Chastel. The genius of Leonardo da Vinci. New York, 1961)

If you start with one image, even with a very simple, “blurred and poorly distinguishable” image, you can finally fix it in such a way that it “does not float away”. For example, close your eyes and look at the images that arise on their own. Maybe it will be easier for you to remember the faces of your loved ones, your favorite movie hero, emotionally charged experiences of the past, a special vacation spot, a sunset, your car, or just a household item. If you get a picture like this, even if at first it is very unclear and fuzzy, keep coming back to it and try to add more depth, detail and color.

I have worked with many people who initially claimed that they could not visualize. One of the first questions I asked them was, "If you could visualize, what would you see?" For example: "If you could visualize a large ball hanging in front of you, what would it look like if you could see it?" At the same time, most people begin to answer: “Well, it would be red and round, about this distance from me ...” and so on.

Sometimes, when I help a person learn to visualize, I say, “Let's start with something simple, and then we'll“ enlarge ”. Let's create an image of a ball. ” After he imagines a ball or some other simple object, we add another ball, and then another - until the person can create an image of a garland of balls in the shape of a pyramid or some other composite image. In other cases, I might ask the person to start with an unclear blurred image or outline of the person, and then ask them to look at details, such as buttons on a shirt.

Then we complicate the details themselves, or add details to the image. You might say, “Well, if you could see this ball in front of you, where would the shadow be? Where would the light source be? " In order to see something in external reality, light is needed. The same principle is valid for our inner images. When they find a shadow, it becomes much easier for them to see the object itself.

The following is a transcript of a meditation that will help people apply Tesla's strategies when visualizing and creating new visions of the future.

Position your body comfortably and relaxed. Sit in a position that will really help you dream. If your body could put you in a state where you could truly give freedom to your dreamer, how would you sit then? Where would your head be tilted? How would you breathe? Where would you feel muscle tension in your body?

If you could really dream, how would your inner voice sound? Would he be aroused or whispering? Or would it just be a sound? Maybe he would cheer you up or ask you questions? Or maybe he sounded very confident? Tune your inner voice to the tone that will help you dream, lead you to dream.

Then start visualizing a certain kind of dream. The dream of the whole planet. If you could come up with a wonderful dream for the whole planet, what would it be? And since it’s just a dream, you don’t have to worry about whether it’s possible, whether it’s possible. Dream freely. If you could invent your own version of utopia, what would you see? How could technology fit into this global dream of the entire planet? But what about the war? How would children be taught? How would people from different parts of the world talk to each other then? How would we use the tools we have in an ecological and creative way for the benefit of the entire planet and the people living on it?

Let your dream guide you into the future. What would medicine be like? Will people go to doctors as we do now? Will there be more hospitals? If you could change the world through a simple dream, through visualization, how would you transform hospitals, schools and companies? What will the office of the future look like? Will there be offices at all? Or will everyone be connected with others right at home? How will people travel in the future? There is no need to limit yourself to today's technology. Imagine that you live on a planet where everything, so that you can imagine, automatically becomes reality. The only limitation will be your imagination.

How will we deal with animals and plants in the future? Will we need lawyers and psychotherapists? What will be the most important work in the future?

What kind of music will you listen to in the future? What are the museums? If you went to a museum where items would be on display today, which one would be the most fun for the people of the future?

What could you think of that would change the world the most? Which parts of our lives have more room for change?

Imagine that you can change the world through something that you have done yourself. Dream about what you could do and how it could change the world.

Allow your unconscious to continue to develop this dream in a way that is most suitable for you and that this process brings you an inner sense of pleasure, joy and hope.

Then let your mind move from the future to the past for a moment. Think about your life and find the moment when the dream became a reality for you. Remember something that was just a dream for you before, and later you found that it became a reality.

Perhaps each of you has dreams that have come true. And, perhaps, if you find one such dream, you will begin to understand: "Yes, there is one more!" Maybe there are even dreams that you have forgotten that they were once dreams, because today they are normal reality, just another lousy day in paradise.

When you look at the world around you, notice that many of the things that you see around you are in fact dreams that have come true; the room in which you sit, the electric light in which you read, the chair on which you rest, the book in your hand. All these things were once dreams, but now they have become reality.

We live in a world of dreams that come true. Perhaps you yourself have helped others make their dreams come true. Maybe you yourself are someone's dream come true. Perhaps your parents dreamed of you even before you were born. Perhaps you entered someone's life at the very moment when it was necessary for someone like you to appear.

Therefore, take care of your dreams. Cherish dreams that have come true. And, returning to the present at the speed that is most convenient for you, maybe you yourself will feel that you are in a wonderful position - on the verge of a new dream. Behind you are dreams that have come true. Ahead are new dreams that give meaning to your whole life.

MEDITATION-VISUALIZATION

Below are some descriptions of visualization meditations. We give in detail the texts of immersion in and out of the relaxation state only in the first description. In other cases, they are similar.

The ship on which I sail

The psychotechnics described below is partly diagnostic in nature. The image of a ship born to the participants (a heavy cruiser, a flying brigantine, a fragile boat or a slippery unstable raft), the voyage performed on this ship can be considered a metaphorical reflection of a person's ideas about himself and about his life path. These images can talk about the actual physical and mental state, about the person's perception of the condition of his life and the ways of overcoming the difficulties and obstacles that arise (you must admit that there is a difference between seeing a yacht with a hole below the waterline in the midst of a fierce storm or a caravel rapidly sliding but waves in the rays rising sun). However, one should not tell the participants about such an interpretation of visualizations, especially since it cannot be considered more than a probabilistic hypothesis.

- Sit back, take a position that seems most comfortable to you. Close your eyes and do not open them and do not move until the end of the exercise.

Your body begins to gradually relax. You feel the tension in the muscles disappear. With every word spoken, every muscle in the body is more and more filled with a sense of calm and pleasant lethargy. Your breathing is even, calm. Air freely fills the lungs and leaves them easily. The heart beats clearly, rhythmically. Turn your inner gaze to your fingers right hand... The tailbones of the fingers of the right hand seem to touch the surface of warm water. You feel a pulsation in your fingertips. There is a feeling that the hand is gradually sinking into warm water... This magical water washes your right hand, relaxes it and rises up the arm ... Up to the elbow ... Even higher ... Now your whole hand plunges into pleasant warmth, relaxes ... Freshness runs through the veins and arteries of your right hand renewed blood, giving it rest and nourishing it with new strength ... Breathing is even, calm. The heart beats clearly, rhythmically ... And now your inner gaze turns to the fingers of your left hand.

The text above is completely repeated for the left hand. At the end, it is imperative to give instructions regarding breathing and heart..

Pay your attention to your legs. The feet relax. They feel a pleasant warmth, reminiscent of the warmth from a fire burning in a fireplace. It feels like your feet are on a grate. Kind, tender warmth rises up the legs, giving invigorating relaxation and relaxation to the muscles ... The tension disappears ... And now the muscles of the legs relax - from the tips of the fingers to the thigh ... Breathing is even, calm. The heart beats clearly, rhythmically ...

There is another source of heat in your body. He is in the solar plexus region. As if a little sun saturates your internal organs with its life-giving rays and gives them health, helps them to function better ... The muscles of the abdomen and chest straighten and relax ... A pleasant relaxing warmth spreads throughout the body, which creates a feeling of peace and relaxation ... Tension disappears in the shoulders, in the cervical region, in the lower part of the back of the head ... You feel the tension accumulated here dissolve and disappear ... Goes away ... If you lie down, your back feels the good force of the earth through the surface on which you lie. .. This power allows you to relax and pours new, fresh energy into your relaxed body ... Breathing is even, calm. The heart beats clearly, rhythmically ... Now your inner gaze turns to your face. The muscles of the face relax ... Tension leaves the cheekbones ... From the jaws ... The lips become soft and pliable ... The wrinkles on the forehead are smoothed out ... The eyelids stop quivering ... They are simply closed and motionless ... All facial muscles relaxed ... A light, cool breeze washes your face ... It is pleasant and kind - this air kiss ... The air brings you its healing energy ... Breathing is even, calm. The heart beats clearly, rhythmically ...

Your whole body enjoys complete peace ... Tension subsides, dissolves, leaves ... Fatigue disappears ... You are filled with a sweet sensation of rest, relaxation, peace ... Peace, filling you with new strength, fresh and clean energy ...

You are relaxed and free. You can be where you want to be. Where you feel good. For someone, maybe this is his own house, for some it is a corner of the yard where he liked to hide as a child. And for some, just a clearing in a summer forest, where you can wallow in the grass and see a dazzling blue above you ... Stay a little in this place. Soak up the positive energy of this place dear to you ...

And now let's go further ... You are slowly walking along the road and now you hear the sound of the sea - the waves roll onto the shore and run back again. And this sound cannot be confused with anything. Another turn, and before you in full breadth, half the world - the ever-moving surface of the sea. The sound of the surf is heard much more clearly here, you can feel the salty taste of spray on your lips and see a port full of ships. What kind of ships are not here! Times and countries have mixed in this magical port. There are huge modern ocean liners, and Indian shuttles hollowed out of a tree trunk, and ancient Greek pies, and the galleons of the Spanish conquistadors, and pirate schooners, and boats, and yachts, and fishing boats, and graceful brigantines, and punt boats, and catamarans. Up to nuclear-powered ships, aircraft carriers and Captain Nemo's Nautilus ...

You walk along the piers and admire all this variety of shapes, colors, rigs. Know that any of these vessels can be yours. Choose for yourself what suits you best, what you like, what meets your needs and ideas about the vessel you need ... Examine carefully what you have chosen. Is it a huge frigate or an ordinary sailboat? Or maybe a light motor boat? What is the shape of this vessel? Streamlined, forward-looking, designed for speed? Or is it ponderous but robust constructionable to withstand any storm? What color are the sides of your vessel painted? Does it have an anchor? Or maybe you don't need it at all? Read the inscription on board the ship. What is its name? What letters is this name written in?

Board your ship. Who meets you there? Or is there no one on board? What does the greeter look like? Listen: he is telling you something ... Examine the ship from the inside. If it is a large enough ship, take your time to go around it. Look into the cabins and the wheelhouse ... Climb to the captain's bridge ... Walk the decks, go down to the hold ... What did you see in all these parts of your ship? Go to the cabin that you will occupy. Or simply designate a spot for yourself on your boat. Look - here is a sheet of paper folded several times. Expand it. This is a map. The goal of your maiden voyage is marked on it. What is this goal? Is there a name for the destination?

Set off on your voyage. Your ship is leaving the port ... Farther and farther shore ... The tops of the highest masts of the ships remaining in the port have already disappeared beyond the horizon. You are at sea on your ship, you yourself have chosen your path in this boundless sea space ... You are moving towards your goal ... Is it far? What's on the way? I don't know ... Now you will see the sequel to your own swimming movie. Look ...

The presenter falls silent. Let the participants' imaginations work without any prompts for one or two minutes.

But it's time to make a stop on our voyage. Direct your ship to the nearest harbor ... Your journey ends for today. You go down the ladder. Before you leave, take a look around, look again at your ship, remember how you leave it today. Probably, you will return to it more than once in order to continue your swimming further. Remember that it will always be waiting for you at the pier ... You go further and further from your ship ... And again you are transported here, into this room, you begin to feel your body ...

Now I'll start counting from seven to one. With each next number, you will begin to get out of the state of relaxation more and more - until the moment when I name the number "one" and you will get up rested, vigorous, full of new strength and energy.

So, seven ... You feel the feeling of your own body return to you ... Lethargy and apathy recede. You start to return to your normal state. Six ... Your muscles are filled with strength and energy ... You are still motionless, but it will take a few moments, and you can easily get up and start moving ... Five ... The state of calmness remains, but it begins to fill with a feeling of strength and ability to act ... Relaxation is replaced by composure ... Four. You feel that you have finally come to your senses and are ready to be active. Cheerfulness and energy fill you more and more. Three. Move your feet. You are fully aware of your legs and can easily tense your muscles. Wiggle your fingers. Slowly make a fist. Two. Without opening your eyes, turn your head. You are cheerful, filled with strength and energy. Did you have a good rest. You are calm and confident. One. We opened our eyes. We got up. Don't do it too quickly.

When discussing the effects of exercise, in addition to reflecting on the state, it is good to get answers to the following questions:

Which vessel have you chosen for your voyage? Describe it.

What color was it painted?

What is it called?

Did anyone meet you on board?

What did the greeter say to you?

What curious things did you find while inspecting the ship?

What is the purpose of your voyage as indicated on the map?

Did you see the name of the destination?

What was the weather like when you left the port? What happened to you while sailing?

The stories of the participants can be very interesting, full of unexpected details and vivid details. Almost certainly questions like: "What do the words of the captain of the ship mean? And why was my ship named that way? What is the meaning of the events that happened to me on the voyage?" It seems to us that it is better for the presenter to refrain from evaluations and interpretations, advising the participants themselves to reflect on the symbolism of the images presented to them by the subconscious.

Sage of the Temple

Psychotherapists are often used in meditation techniques archetypal images of an ancient sage, a temple, a candle flame, and the like (see, for example, J. Rainwater, (1992), since they allow a person to access the resources of his own subconsciousness. In the psychotechnics described below, all the listed archetypes are used.

- Imagine yourself standing in a clearing in a summer forest. Thick grass rises to your knees and flower petals touch your feet. Around the trees, a warm breeze rustles their foliage. The sun's rays create a whimsical mosaic of light and shadow. You hear the whistling of birds, the chirping of the forge

Imagination is the ability to form mental images of something that cannot be perceived by the senses. The ability of the mind to construct psychological scenes, objects or events that do not exist, do not exist, and did not happen in the past. Memory is actually a manifestation of fantasy.

Every person has some kind of imagination. In some it may be highly developed, while in others it may manifest itself in a very mild form. This manifests itself in varying degrees at different people... Imagination allows you to imagine the whole world in your mind.

This makes it possible to look at any situation from a different point of view, and allows you to mentally explore the past and future. It manifests itself in different forms, one of which is dreams. Simple daydreaming can make you impractical, though.

Some dreams, when not doing something that requires attention, provide temporary happiness, peace, and stress relief. You can travel at the speed of light in your imagination anywhere without any obstacles.

This makes it possible to feel free, albeit temporarily, and only from tasks, difficulties and unpleasant circumstances. Imagination is not limited to just seeing pictures in your head. It includes all five senses and sensations. You can imagine a physical sensation, smell, sound, taste, feeling, or emotion.

Some people find it easier to see mental pictures, others find it easier to imagine feelings, and some feel more comfortable imagining sensations in one of the five senses. Teaching imagination makes it possible to combine all the senses.

A strong and developed imagination does not make you a dreamer and impractical.

On the contrary, it strengthens its creative skillsand it is also a great tool for creating and reconstructing your world and life. This is a great force that can change your whole life. It is widely used in magic, creative visualization, and affirmation. They are the creator and circumstance of the event.

When you know how to work with it, you can make your wishes come true.

Imagination plays a big role and is of great importance in the life of each of us. This is much more than simple daydreaming. We all use it, knowingly or unknowingly, in most of our daily activities.

We use our imaginations when planning parties, trips, work or meeting. We use it when describing events, explaining how to find a specific street, writing, telling or making a cake.

Imagination is the creative force needed to invent a tool, design a dress or a building, paint a picture, or write a book. The creative power of the imagination plays a big role in any area of \u200b\u200bsuccess. What we imagine with faith and feeling comes to us.

Visualization of an object or situation, a frequently repeated mental image, attracts an object or situation into our life. This suggests that you need to think only in a positive way about our desires.

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The world of the psyche is the world of imagination. There you can walk through walls, create monsters, meet the dead, change your past and future.
For example, you can meet with deceased mother, with whom a relationship did not work out during life. Express all your claims to her, hear her "forgive", repent, feel love and forgive too. It is, of course, difficult to accomplish such a feat alone, but in a psychologist's office it is quite. Not right away. Someone will need hours for such a meeting. For some, maybe months or even years. But it is possible. Let it be with a real mom - nothing. And in the imagination - quite. So much so that the surrounding reality is changing. And after such a meeting with my mother, the colors soften and acquire new shades. And even relationships with people acquire new lightness and warmth.

Or monsters - how often we give birth to them ourselves, and then we ourselves run from them. It is the work in the imagination (or rather, the work of the imagination) that allows you to establish contact with these monsters. Get to know them. See them for real. Look into the eyes. And the monsters then disappear. Or they turn into loyal staunch defenders.
Fear, anger, and shame often act as monsters. Although the possibilities of the psyche are endless, and monsters can be very different. And it is hardly worth combing them with the same brush. I think they don't like it. Each of our monsters is unique.

Or the future. We can see it visibly. And so we create it. I remember when I still only dreamed of being a psychologist and went to a psychologist myself, he asked me how I see my office. And suddenly I clearly imagined - a bright room with a large window. And even decided that it was somewhere on Pochain. Several years passed, and one day, while looking for a lease, I accidentally got into such a room and recognized it. And it was not far from Pochaina, oddly enough. Now I work there.
Usually I am dubious about such sweet stories. Because I think that this cannot be modeled on purpose, as promised in the film "The Secret". But if this desire comes from somewhere from the depths, if it is associated with an inner vocation, a call - then everything, really, can work.

In the same way, imagination can change the past. As in the same story with the deceased mother, for example. After all, after such work of imagination, not only yourself, but also your mother becomes different. If we live our traumatic experience, work through it, then some pictures (painful and black-and-white) disappear and others (warm and colored) come to replace them. This is one and the same childhood of mine. I just remember him differently now. “Theory determines what fact you see,” said Albert Einstein

And with the help of imagination, death can be stopped. O'Henry has a story called The Last Leaf. About a girl who was dying of pneumonia. It was late fall, and she counted the leaves falling from the ivy outside the window. She decided that she would die when the last leaf fell. And there was also an old man Berman in that story, an artist, a loser, who tried all his life to write a masterpiece, but he never succeeded.
You've probably read the story and you know what happened there. Why Jonesy stayed alive. What a fee I had to pay for this. What is a real masterpiece. And what power imagination has.

Or there is also a placebo effect. When the pill helps simply because we are taking it. Although this pill is a dummy. Most interestingly, the placebo effect helps even when people know in advance that they are taking a placebo.

Tomorrow is about how to feel the fabulous magic of the imagination
and how active imagination differs from empty fantasy.

*ψ
Svetlana Gamzaeva psychologist Nizhny Novgorod #spicedush

The imagination is traditionally considered an integral part of creative people.

And somehow there was a stereotype that "serious and successful people are not carried away with fantasies."

However, as practice shows, it is people who are successful and serious who owe their success to a well-developed imagination,
which intuitively finds a way out in the most difficult situations,
helps them make the right decisions,
find an approach to people
and to prevent conflicts and troubles.

Imagination is inherent in every person. True, we do not always recognize all of its manifestations precisely as a resource of the individual and do not always consciously use its truly limitless possibilities.

Imagination is the ability to imagine images, symbols, fantasies, dreams. These are “inner films” and unfolding plots that we experience in dreams or in reality, thinking or daydreaming.

During such periods, attention shifts from the outside to the inside. And our consciousness changes - we seem to be immersed in ourselves. And we find ourselves in the inner world, in the space of imagination. And while this “mental living” of stories takes place, something imperceptibly changes inside us, sources of new resources open up, the state improves, tension and anxiety are relieved.

Imagination space is a very special space,
which has its own landscape, its own roads and its own language.

This space is healing both for the body and the psyche. After all, in it every person can meet his Soul, hear the voice and desires of his heart.

Modern psychotherapy is well acquainted with the imagination and the laws of its space. This is working with metaphorical cards, and catatim experience of images, and working with dreams in the Jungian approach or using dreamtending, and much more. Since the time of C.G. Jung, many scientific research and created many effective practices and directions for healing, based on power and space

It is very important to understand that simple daydreaming
not work with guided imagination (!)

In order to decide a serious problemit’s not enough to just fantasize about how things are resolved by themselves. Unfortunately, by itself, something happens very rarely. All changes and transformations are the result of effort. Internal workdone competently and seriously in the space of the imagination can give significant results.

This includes relieving anxiety and tension, and getting out of stress, and resolving conflicts, and building a new scenario of life, harmonizing family relationships, and healing bodily diseases, and much, much more.

Typically, working with images includes:

presentation of some image reflecting the actual situation or problem of a person;
awareness of the connections of this situation with the person's past experience and with the systems in which he is included (family system, tribal system, cultural system);
identifying scenarios for the development of events, patterns of behavior, blocks and restrictions that keep a person inside a traumatic situation;
correction of the state, situation.

Three key steps in this work can be tentatively identified.

1). Awarenesswhat is happening and how a person creates this situation in his life.

It often happens that in a stressful situation, a person does not always see what is really happening in his life. In moments of strong emotions, he tends to either distance himself from what is happening, or close his eyes to some important aspects, or displace what is happening into the unconscious. This is how defensive reactions work, protecting from perception, to cope with which there are not enough resources inside a person.

Working with guided imagination allows you to realize and see the connections of what is happening on a symbolic or archetypal level. At the same time, there is no “hacking” of the protection, and the work is absolutely safe at the level that suits a particular person here and now.

From this point of view, working with images, symbols and archetypes is the most environmentally friendly and comfortable.

2). Understanding connections situations with other areas of life

There are no situations that arise out of nowhere in life. Each person is a part of his family system, his tribal system, a part of culture. And also - part of my experience, my experiences of trauma, mistakes, victories and successes.

All events are interconnected and are both a consequence and a cause for everything that happens. In order to change the scenario, it is almost always important to find and correct the connections that led to the negative situation.

3). Correction or changewhat needs to be changed

It is very important that all corrective actions are carried out at the necessary and sufficient level in terms of the readiness of a particular person to such changes. A professional therapist will always find out what kind of changes a person is ready to accept in his life, what is the purpose of this particular work.

Correction - change and harmonization of what is happening - will take place with the help of special techniques that the psychologist will recommend. This can be direct work with bodily reactions, and work with drawings, with metaphorical maps. It can be creating stories and fairy tales. Or maybe - a direct change in the series of events in those images that unfold in the imagination.

Why when working with guided imagination
changes then occur in real life?

Discovered in the early 90s, mirror neurons help to explain from the point of view of science the mechanism of how and why our brain does not distinguish between events that took place in reality and events that occur in the imagination.

For human consciousness, both events in the imagination and events in the reality that we habitually consider "real" will be equally real.

Thanks to neural mechanisms and the peculiarities of the functioning of the brain, a person can learn through imitation of the actions of other people, instantly recognize emotions and react to them correctly, and so on. And we can use this same ability of the brain in order to correct the scenarios of our own life with the help of guided imagination:

end conflicts that are difficult or impossible to resolve in reality;
to say goodbye and forgive those who are no longer in our lives;
build scenarios for harmonious relationships;
create career success;
work out internal barriers and self-restraints.

Two stereotypes get in the way effective work with guided imagination.

The stereotype that "imagination is not serious." Fairy tales and stories are often associated with the work of the imagination.

This is not entirely true. These days, stories often become part of successful therapeutic practice. After all, as long as the human race exists, there are as many stories that people tell themselves and others.

In fact, fairy tales are 2 million years old. And the images, symbols that come to us in dreams and dreams - even more.

Dr. Stephen Eisenstat, archetypal psychologist, student of D. Hillman, believes that he dreams of all life on the planet. Not only people see dreams, but all plants, animals, landscapes and the planet Earth meet in the common space of images, in the space of dreams. We can say that the art of creating images in dreams is 2 billion years old. So ancient history imagination and images ...

Each destiny is a life story. The experience of a person, his emotions, feelings, experiences are compressed in it. And - his transformation. And from that how to tell this story life depends what will happen in it further.

That is why techniques with fairy tales and with metaphorical cards in which people create their stories work so effectively. They help to come to terms with losses, feel a new challenge, see new dream and find the meaning to move on.

And also such stories give hope.

You must admit that often it is precisely hope that we do not have enough to pull ourselves together and change what poisons life from day to day ...

The fairy tales and stories we tell about ourselves and for ourselves help us overcome feelings of helplessness.

After all, creating the story of his life - together with a therapist or independently - a person feels himself to be a creator. And he sees how the thread of history is born by his will and intention. And this experience can be transferred to real life - creating events in life as well as a story about her.

So, working with imagination, with images and dreams is not at all a discovery of our days.

The rest is in the so-called area of \u200b\u200bthe unconscious. Our instinctive reactions, associative connections, trauma, attitudes, emotional charges are stored there. Our resources are also located there.

The unconscious is a huge storehouse of resources, knowledge, it is an instance that protects us, works around the clock, stores all our experience and intuition and all our abilities. For every situation, a person always has a resource to cope with it.

If consciousness communicates with us at the level of speech - thoughts and words, then the unconscious communicates with us at the level of images, symbols, sensations, emotions. We access it with our imaginations.

The stereotype that trances, altered states of consciousness are something "frightening and incomprehensible, this is what magicians, shamans and hypnotists are doing."

In this, of course, there is some truth. But shamanic trance is very different from the so-called everyday trance. And there is no magic in well-built algorithms for working with archetypes, with dreams, with controlled imagination and catatim experiencing images.

These are effective, consistent strategies that help you gain access to 100% of your internal resources, synchronize the work of both hemispheres of the brain. And it is through this to achieve healing or solving a difficult life situation.

Traditionally, the processes of logic and consciousness are associated with the left hemisphere, and unconscious processes, emotions, decision-making are associated with the right hemisphere. Each human hemisphere specializes in its own types of perception, perceives the world in its own way.

The left hemisphere works with words and numbers. Analytical thinking, linear reasoning is characteristic of him. And the right hemisphere is our images and imaginations, these are premonitions, intuition, fantasies and the ability to be creative. Our imagination lives there.

In order for both hemispheres to work synchronously and a person has access to all his resources and capabilities by 100%, it is necessary to go into a special state. This state is sometimes called trance.

Trance - the state of maximum concentration of attention, maximum immersion in the inner world and in internal processes... Trance is a tool that makes available the resources of the unconscious.

Trance states are part of natural, biological rhythms that are naturally built into the functioning of the organism in the process of evolution.

IN everyday life we are familiar with such states.

This is both daydreaming and the sleepy state in which we find ourselves before falling asleep.
This is the state in which we sometimes look at the landscape flashing through the windows of a car or train.
This is a state of prayer or meditation.
These are insights and insights, inspiration and the famous "state of flow", about which M. Chikszentmihaya wrote.
This is the observation of the flame, repetitive rhythmic actions (for example, sewing, knitting).
This is a state of thoughtfulness during a movie or reading.

In science, there is the concept of a 90-minute rhythm of activity, during which about 80 minutes is normal functioning, and 10 minutes is a spontaneous trance.

In this biorhythm, each hemisphere in turn reaches a peak of activity, and then the moment of synchronization comes, at this moment the interhemispheric asymmetry disappears.

And it is at this moment of synchronization that all the body's resources become available. This cycle continues both during sleep and during wakefulness, it is similar to a person's internal biological clock that helps the best way work for the whole body.

Some types of work with the imagination are associated with altered states of consciousness and are sometimes called trances. Usually, such conditions are characterized by:

relaxation of the body;
calm and deep immersion in your inner world;
the brightness and significance of the experienced images and stories that are born in the imagination;
focusing on internal images;
decrease in the acuity of perception of external objects.

They are completely safe and healing for the entire human body system.

Relaxation is not an activity. Relaxation is a natural response that you simply allow to happen. When you stop straining, relaxation remains.
Joel and Michelle Levy. "Meditation without hoaxes"

When working with a catatim experience of images, with meditative trances, when working with a controlled imagination, clients in 99% of cases note a decrease in anxiety and tension, a state of inner peace and harmony. Often, during such work, they receive insights, a better understanding of what is happening in their life and awareness of the right decisions.

Psychotherapy gives us more and more evidence of the impact of internal images on our physical shell.
Rudiger Dahlke. "Miracle of imagination"

According to S. Gilligen, one of M. Ericsson's students, in this state our self-manifestation does not require effort - images and solutions seem to come by themselves. And we are in a state of experiencing participation, when we are immersed in our real feelings, and not in ideas about them . It is this moment that allows us to change our behavior patterns, remove blocks and interfering attitudes from the subconscious.

In fact, during such work, the therapist invites the client to focus on his inner world. And through symbols and images, make a journey in your imagination. With this kind of work, the brain stops processing millions of signals from the outside world, it switches from a “thought-talk” to solving an urgent issue. And this focus on the main thing, on what worries a person, leads to what is best solution just for him.

According to Daniel Goleman, attention is a muscle that requires constant training. Working with the imagination provides such training.

Altered states of consciousness and work with imagination help to quickly restore strength after high loads and in a state of stress, accelerate recovery after operations and severe somatic diseases, and get out of severe psychological conditions.

Also, a state of rest and relaxation, a state of fullness vitality and internal energy extremely pleasant in itself. There are few medications and psychological tools that are equally effective and enjoyable.

IMAGINATION \u003d PLEASURE + SOLUTION

By training your imagination, mastering the methods of guided imagination with the help of a psychotherapist or on your own, you will significantly improve the quality of your life and bring your dream closer to reality.