Month: May 2023

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Active Imagination: How and Why

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For Those Who Don’t Dream, Invite Waking Dreams

If you are someone who doesn’t recall many dreams, and yet would like to engage with your dream life more deeply, there are a couple of solutions. I typically offer tips for improving dream recall but another option is to cultivate waking dreams. If you are persistent with this practice, you could even start your own ‘Red Book’ by crafting a record of your inner process.

I recently hosted a webinar on Active Imagination. I began by leading participants in an imaginal journey designed to create a rich, experiential and dream-like sequences. (A recording is available if you missed it.) I asked for a few to share their experiences and what emerged were surprising, helpful and deeply-moving scenarios, as evocative as any dream. (This imaginative process is also great for those who do recall dreams and want to engage further with them.)

Jung himself said that the products of active imagination are identical to dreams: “Image and meaning are identical; and as the first takes shape, so the latter becomes clear.” (Jung on Active Imagination, 1977.)

 

Jung on How To Cultivate Active Imagination

Those who don’t recall dreams may also find it hard to allow imagination to flow. This comes with practice and by making the most of the initial wisps of image that arrive in your mind’s eye, fleshing them out and inquiring into them. You could try Jung’s advice from his “Letters to Mr. O” about how use any image as a leaping-off place for your imagination, whether it be from a dream, memory or fantasy:

“Start with any image, for instance just with that yellow mass in your dream. Contemplate it and carefully observe how the picture begins to unfold or to change. Don’t try to make it into something, just do nothing but observe what its spontaneous changes are… note all these changes and eventually step into the picture yourself, and if it is a speaking figure, then say what you have to say to that figure and listen to what he or she has to say.”

As you let the dream image flow forward, don’t worry if it feels like you’re making it up – that’s what imagination is! Just do your best to give the image its autonomy. You will know you’re on the right track when what emerges surprises you.

 

Imaginal Dialogue as a Writing Exercise

Another great way to have a conversation with an image is by writing from both sides of the conversation. This way you also have a written record of it that you can reflect upon further. I treat it a bit like writing a poem – I find if I write a line, the next one tends to arrive on its own if I am patient and open enough.

In the Imaginal Dialogue practice, prepare by settling in your mind and body, create a sense of calm and safety that you can return to if needed. Write your name, a colon and then an opening greeting to your image. On the next line, write the name or descriptor of the character you want to engage with, then visualize the dream image in detail and wait for it to respond. You may see them speaking in your mind’s eye, hear a voice in your head, or just ‘know’ what the image says.

Here is an example using a classic intruder nightmare:

Dreamer: Can I ask you some questions?

Bandit: Make it quick, I’m in a hurry, and I don’t want to get caught here.

Dreamer: But you’re breaking into my house! What are you looking for?

Bandit: I’ve lost my family, lost my mind, trying to find a way home…

Dreamer: Do you think you will find it in my house?

Bandit: There was a warm glow from the window, I could hear laughter….

 

It’s not unusual for a threatening dream figure to open up and soften as was beginning to happen in this example. It can be a way to befriend an apparently hostile dream character. However, the process is hard to predict, so I always recommend starting with a calm mind and body and a sense of positive intention. Let the dialogue flow to a natural stopping place. Pick it up again if desired.

Jung had long, ongoing conversations with his imaginal figures, artfully recorded in his now-famous Red Book. He suggested his patients make their own version, capturing their inner life in words and images with care and beauty.  A patient of his recalled Jung saying such a book “will be your church, your cathedral – the silent places of your spirit where you will find renewal.”

 

Does This Process Have a Purpose?

A woman in the webinar asked me if we have a goal in mind as we engage with active imagination. I said no, it’s best to leave the end-game open and let the implicit unfold without directing it. Having a goal presumes the destination before we let our inner life speak. Our imaginal characters may have an alternative set of priorities that could be woven into our own in a way that changes our trajectory. The process creates shifts, but not the logical or predictable ones associated with goal-setting.

If not a goal, then, Active Imagination can have a purpose, one that has the potential to connect us with our own greater purpose. The images that come in contemplative moments speak to us across time and drop us deep. This can be an antidote to the barrage of instant messaging and 60-second sound bites that prevail in modern media, distracting us from our depths.

Jung told his patient not to listen to anyone critical of her personal red book project: “If you listen to them, you will lose your soul – for in that book is your soul.”

 

For more about how to work with active imagination, the full 90-minute webinar is available here. This is the third in three-part series that include finding help in a dream, and embodying dream elements. Recordings are available for all 3 sessions for a nominal fee.

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Befriending the old hag: A primer on sleep paralysis

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Folklore, causes and approaches to treatment and prevention

In Newfoundland, they tell stories of her: a terrifying creature said to live in the ocean and torment those who dare to sleep near the shore. In a typical account, a fisherman returns home exhausted from a long day at sea, lays down to rest and starts to drift off to sleep. But as he does so, he feels a heavy weight and can’t move or speak. Sitting heavily on his chest, is the dreaded Sea Hag, a wild woman with ragged clothes, straggly hair and long, sharp nails. She returns night after night until he arms himself with a crucifix and gathers the strength to command her to leave him be, in the name of God.

Tales of the Sea Hag are legendary in Newfoundland, one of the stories now told on the St. John’s Haunted Hike tour. The legend of the Sea Hag emerged as a way to make sense of sleep paralysis, a temporary inability to move or speak during the sleep-wake transition. As legend had it, the only way to defeat the Sea Hag was by invoking the name of God.

The history and folklore surrounding sleep paralysis can be traced back to ancient civilizations, and not understanding it, many cultures attributed it to supernatural forces. The Sea Hag is a variant of the “old hag” dating back to medieval Europe, a demonic entity that would sit on a person’s chest, a way to explain the pressure and immobility of sleep paralysis.

 

What causes sleep paralysis?

An episode can occur while falling asleep (hypnagogia) or in the transition from sleep to waking (hypnopompia). Symptoms include an inability to move, often accompanied by pressure on the chest or back, hallucinations and the sense of doom or an evil presence. Sleep paralysis often occurs during sleep cycle disruptions (ie from shift work, jet lag, insomnia), but can also coincide with mental health issues. This fairly common, mostly benign condition affects about 8% of the general population at some point in their lives.

During REM sleep, to protect us from thrashing around and enacting our dreams, our body goes into a state of muscle atonia. The exact mechanism, which inhibits the motor neurons in the spinal cord, is not fully understood. It is thought to involve a combination of factors, including changes in brain chemistry and activation of inhibitory neurons.

The body naturally shifts out of paralysis upon waking, and external stimuli such as touching or speaking to the person can trigger the shift as well. In sleep paralysis, the shift to the natural ability to move simply happens in the wrong order; we are supposed to wake up after our movement is restored to normal, not before.

 

How to treat sleep paralysis

Lauren was plagued with nightmares as a child, and as she grew older this shifted to frequent, terrifying sleep paralysis. She tried some of the most common ways to treat the problem, including changing her sleeping position, taking melatonin, practicing good sleep hygiene. What finally helped most was to turn toward the experience and relax into it rather than resisting and struggling to move. She reminded herself that she was not in any danger, and that she could still breathe – so she focused on slow, relaxing breaths, and the calmer she got, the less intense the sensations became. Over a few weeks of practicing relaxing into the transition to sleep, she was able to break the cycle.

The way to treat sleep paralysis depends on what may be causing it. While sleep paralysis can affect anyone, those with psychiatric disorders, a history of trauma, sleep disorders and disrupted sleep patterns are more likely to experience it. Therefore, effectively treating trauma, anxiety and/or depression may help those with psychological causes.

Disrupted sleep can come from shift work, sleep apnea, or too much late-night partying. This is why sleep paralysis is not uncommon among post-secondary students who stay up way too late studying or socializing. Sleep apnea also causes disrupted sleep, and sometimes sleep paralysis.

Overall, what helps:

  • practice good sleep hygiene, a regular bedtime and ideally a cool, dark quiet bedroom
  • sleep on your stomach or side, not your back
  • reduce stress
  • medication, such as melatonin or antidepressants
  • treat underlying causes: ie therapy for a history of trauma, anxiety or depression, sleep medicine for apnea

 

What to do during an episode

Sometimes, despite one’s best efforts, sleep paralysis will occur. If this happens, following Lauren’s example of relaxing into the process can make a real difference. Once you understand what’s happening, you can tell yourself, it’s okay, I am safe in my bedroom and still in the dream state. If you want to wake up calmly, focus on slow, deep breaths and begin to wiggle your fingers and toes, waiting until the paralysis dissipates. Although it may feel like an eternity, the transition is usually just a minute or two.

If you want to go back to into sleep rather than waking, you might try lucid dreaming. In fact, during an episode, you are in a lucid dream – as defined by being both awake and in a dream state. You might want to experiment with relaxing back into sleep and creating a dream scenario that feels empowering rather than scary. You might imagine into flying away from the source of your fear and into a beautiful landscape. Or you could conjure the presence of an ally or friend.

To give one example, Marian tried many things to alleviate her sleep paralysis before turning to lucid dreaming. She was desperate at this point, and decided to set an intention before sleeping that if she experienced paralysis, she would recognize she was dreaming. It took a few weeks, but after an initial exhilarating experience of flying in her dream, she got more adept at becoming lucid. This coincided with a shift toward better, more refreshing sleep and a whole new relationship to her dreams.

#sleepparalysis #oldhag #seahag #sleepdisorders #nightmares #sleephealth #sleephygiene #sleepmedicine #sleeptherapy #mentalhealthawareness #stressrelief #mindfulness #luciddreaming #sleepresearch #sleepscience

 

In my complete course on nightmares for clinicians, I offer much more information about the origins, theories and treatment of nightmares. Click here to learn more.