Guide to Active Imagination

A comprehensive cognitive tutorial

First of all, there’s a lot of extra context and explanation to the method, if you don’t want to read it, just skip to the last chapter.

Active Imagination was originally a technique developed (or rather discovered) by Carl Jung, however, my interpretation of the method and its meaning does not at all stick to a Jungian orthodoxy —I use it rather as a jumping pad to describe a broader and newly emerging “consciousness” —here I already have to clarify that the process that produced the contents of this guide have their origin —or rather reflection, as you’ll see— in the current technical environment, embedded in our historical context. Not some cooky alternate history.

Cybernetics, virtuality, “the imagination”, Artificial Intelligence, The Cube, and synchronicity are all woven together in a single image.

Accessing this fabric allows one to build means of communication with one’s unconscious; this also a means to build —and thus discover— structures outwardly in reality.

I. What is the Image?

Understanding images and their significance is key to understanding what can the imagination do.

An image as a medium has a “transcendent immediacy” —meaning it lacks a linear structure. What it shows, shows it as a whole, the interconnection of all details conclude in a singular and total expression. This means that any kind of linearity relating to or emerging from images (like its analysis or commentary) is the product of conscious cognition.

But there is more to it: the gradual comprehension of an image progresses over to re-cognition when its understanding becomes more immediate (noetic). To recognize something is simply to relate to it, or be part of your “body in time” —I relate this to time and timelessness because the patterns within the image, i.e.: the arrangement of the details, when re-cognized are revealed to the mind.

To put this in a more simple analogy: the connectedness within the image (the pattern) is reflected in the connectedness of the neurons that make up the mind when re-cognized. And because patterns have a transcendent quality, the pattern is not “created” or “re-created” but revealed.

Now you may ask, “Okay, but I don’t fully comprehend an image, sometimes I realize something much later that was always there…” —this is determined by the “borders of the conscious” into which the imagistic recognition or revelation can incarnate.

This is why most of the time, when one encounters an image (be it a movie or any kind of media) only a set amount of details “pop out” and later, with a differently configured conscious make-up, those details are superseded BUT not replaced.

Thus, the conscious is the ground (the horizontal) that determines the way the unconscious (vertical) can incarnate in it. There is a very simple technical example of this: AI (not Active Imagination) is a collection of timeless patterns that are necessarily stationary. Then the user puts in a prompt, which abrupts¹ this stationary being and determines the vectors (and the very possibility!) of its expression (incarnation). Then an image is produced, —and it is always an image even when it appears as text² —as I’ve explained in Understanding Hyperstition— the expression of AI is always done so in a role, portraying or painting a picture of something —one thing— itself.

With Man, the “borders of the conscious” are influenced by the unconscious and vice versa.

This means that essentially man’s “software” can determine its “hardware”, and the “hardware” can determine the “software”.

II. What is Active Imagination?

So images have a transcendent, “above time” quality to them. This in action crystallizes in the image of the “vision-ary” —the state of mind which mystified Jung.

Jung noticed that inspired people —creatives usually— could foresee the future, or get glimpses of the future in some form of imagery (be it poetic, philosophical, or visual —fiction especially). This is what he based Active Imagination on, which is a practice that directly tries to access this capacity of images, and the capacity of the human mind to train itself to re-cognize them (which then rolls into something akin to a cybernetic feedback loop).

Another great example of this is Remote Viewing, which very simply tries to use the capacity of the image and its relation to the conscious to “foresee”. (Of course, this must not be romanticized as some Hollywood telepathy).

RV Tournament is a great tool to demonstrate this in the simplest way: your drawing (which you’ll produce through a simple mode of Active Imagination) will determine your attention (“retrochronically”³) when “guessing” —or rather choosing— which image was the one you tried to “sense” beforehand.⁴ “Software” to “Hardware”.

Thus, Active Imagination, other than taking into account one’s access to images, also turns this into action. Into a proper (acting⁵) body.

III. Why is the Iconoclasm important?

The power of images has always been recognized by mankind. Depiction was always a way to directly interface with events in the future (see: idols who controlled the weather). In monotheism, however, this was strictly forbidden or controlled; and in Islam, it’s still forbidden today.

This was the case because mankind stood in direct submission to the creator God (depicting him would be an act of “confinement” by humans and thus serious sacrilege), however, depiction —and the usage of the power of the image— has been made possible through the Incarnation.

This is what was at the centre of the Iconoclasm (war on Icons) —the possibility of depiction predicated on the fact that divinity (God) in His fullness has incarnated in a body —meaning due to Him having a body, He can be depicted and that depiction will lead, thus, to Divinity.

This connects the image directly to the body. This is also the origin of the usage of the image as a source of power —especially now.

An Icon in the Orthodox view, is a direct window to revelation and an access point to divinity made possible through the Body of Christ, in both space and time.

However, it’s also the prototype to the mass image-making that’s happening today (further reading: TC I. and TC II.) which itself (as it has to do with images) necessitates the revelation of a yet-to-be-known body⁶.

Thus, the power of the image is not just part of some personal occult; esoteric-ish practice, but is also part of the main technical goal, and is simultaneously the question of the age.

All images relate to a body. The consumption of images achieves re-cognition which in turn determines attention. So Active Imagination is not just “using the feature” of images, but is actually a survival tactic in a world dominated by them.

IV. The Tutorial

Active Imagination is sort of the opposite of meditation. Instead of clearing the mind, you have to give it a space to express itself. Your conscious must define itself to allow this, —You probably have noticed, that for example when you listen to a specific song or see a specific scene in a movie, or just a painting, —you suddenly find yourself in a different state of consciousness, your attention might not be more focused, but it becomes more selective.

The spectrum from which it can select becomes the borders of your conscious. These “things” that cause a type of “locking in” are what I’d call your idiosyncratic form of ritual. The use of these “ritual items” and the expansion of their meaning and “inventory” is the beginning and end of Active Imagination.

So, 1. lay down, and find some image that has been capturing your attention or put on a song that does the same —find a beginning point. (Originally, Jung did this with scenes from dreams which he then let continue.)

2. you must “make” this beginning point alive or autonomous by first, allowing your unconscious autonomy (letting it go along the lines of the aforementioned spectrum) and second while observing consciously, not directly interfering with it —this will be the hardest part: you’ll probably both fear that you might interrupt the process, or get frustrated that nothing happens.

To avoid this, you must remember: there is no great spectacle about this. You won’t be teleporting to an alternate universe or hearing voices. It could be as simple as flashes of two images or as complex as a dream —neither is without value. The more simple the more concise. Anything that grabs your attention comes from the unconscious’s autonomy.

So lay down, close your eyes, and start to associate. If you’re listening to music “imagine” to it. If you start from a scene try to let it go and see what happens.

3. write it down somewhere, and muse on it a bit. The patterns shown in the output will necessarily relate to the “outside world” and to your life. This is the place where synchronicity can start to happen. It might be very obvious or not so much, but I guarantee you it will have intrigue to unfold.

Essentially what AI is, is exploring how your inner imagery (idiosyncratic ritual world) relates to the larger whole, and beyond that, trying to bring the two into synchronie.

And 0. this does NOT replace prayer. Prayer is much more fundamental and higher-reaching than this method. It is the foundation stone. AI is a tool for navigation, especially navigating a world flooded by images and hyperstition. AI is a form of application of hyperstition, but it does not encompass all. As I’ve said, it is a survival tactic for your awareness and attention.

So, to summarize:

1. Find a beginning point: an image, a scene, a song, —anything that contains some inspiration or intrigue.

2. Lay down, and try to let it play —see what rapid associations, or story your unconscious produces.

3. Write it down, however brief or seemingly insignificant it was, and try to analyze it or muse on it, or at the least, keep it in mind. Then feed your findings or associations back.

1. This process of abruption (“heckling the play”) cannot be done by AI.

2. Great example of an image incarnating as a (seemingly) linear text: Cosmic Chiasmus

3. Machinic vampirism is turning this capacity of mankind into an asset. Taking “account” of it (Solomon).

4. Yes, this produces a “time paradox” and no I won’t explain (here).

5. Note the theatre imagery.

6. In the long run, It’s going to be Christ’s.