Glossary: Active imagination

A method of contacting unconscious contents using art, dance, visualization, etc. Used as a means of bringing unconscious contents into consciousness and integrating them into oneself. By focusing on an affect or image from a dream, one directs one’s energy into the image or affect. Eventually, the image begins to act on its own and one is able to interact with the autonomous content. The purpose of this activity is to give these unconscious parts of the personality a way to be brought into a relationship with the conscious self.

Although, to a certain extent, he looks on from outside, impartially, he is also an acting and suffering figure in the drama of the psyche. This recognition is absolutely necessary and marks an important advance… [I]f you recognize your own involvement you yourself must enter into the process with your personal reactions, just as if you were one of the fantasy figures, or rather, as if the drama being enacted before your eyes were real.

-"The Conjunction," CW 14, par. 753

Although one can practice active imagination 'cold', most people do because, like Jung, they are faced with psychological distress. Paradoxically, the distress provides the best opportunity to practice active imagination, rather like an ailment containing its own cure. Jung suggests taking a bad mood, and focusing on it, making it as conscious as possible. This crystallizes it into a symbol, fantasy image, or some other representation, achieving an "enrichment and clarification of the affect" (emotion). The unconscious seeks consciousness and Jung discovered that "as soon as the image was there, the unrest or sense of oppression vanished." "The whole energy of these emotions," Jung says, "was transformed into interest in and curiosity about the image." With no exaggeration, focusing on his dark moods and transforming them into inner images saved Jung from madness.

- Gary Lachman, "Jung's Active Imagination", (Reality Sandwich)

Links:

Jung's Active Imagination, Gary Lachman (Reality Sandwich)

Active Imagination, Lawrence H. Staples. Ph.D., PsyA. (Jung Society of Washington)

Active Imagination, Robin Robertson

Jungian Active Imagination & Hypnagogia (The Mystical Experience Registry)

Carl Jung's Active Imagination (Hypnosis Alliance Network)