Vertel A.V.l and I wrote an article that reveals the topic of active imagination. For me, this is a very valuable work and collaboration, because it allows you to deeply dive into the understanding of the nature of this phenomenon from the point of view of philosophy and analytical psychology. In everyday life, we often do not distinguish between fantasy and active imagination, although at the root these are very different processes.
“In line with psychoanalytic problems, namely from the standpoint of the analytical psychology of C. G. Jung, active imagination has nothing to do with “fantasizing” (in the everyday sense). Active imagination (imaginatio) should be taken literally: as some kind of real ability to create images. As opposed to “fantasy”, which means only an invention, a sudden flash of an idea, a whim, that is, a kind of non-existent thought. Active imagination (imaginatio) is the active reproduction of internal mental images – this is a real feat of thought and thinking. This is not a weaving of aimless and groundless fantasies, similar to the construction of castles in the air, but an attempt to comprehend the facts of inner life and present them in such images that corresponded to their true nature “Vertel A.V., Krylovetska I.I. The Problem of Imagination and Fantasy in Analytical Psychology and Philosophy K.G. Jung [Text] / Philosophy of science: traditions and innovations: scientific journal of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. – Sumi: SumDPU named after A.S. Makarenko, 2019. – 1 (19). – S. 79-88.
This passage from our article allows, at a minimum, to indicate the significance of active imagination as an act of the psyche, seeking to integrate the material of the unconscious through the creation of images, and not a cursory contemplation of attempts to satisfy a frustrated need through fantasy.
I would like to give an example here to help you distinguish between fantasy and active imagination, because without experience in this matter it can be quite difficult to do this. Even when it seems to you that you are allowing events to unfold according to your scenario and you are supposedly in the process of active imagination, it is important to track your emotional reactions to what is happening in the images as well. If you do not have a natural reaction to “strange events”, such as surprise, admiration or fear, then there is a high probability that you still perceive the image as a fantasy, as something unreal, while imagination is a process of interacting with absolutely real structures of the psyche, presented in figurative form. I will give an example from my own material. During the session, I saw myself as the captain of a ship on which there was no crew and all responsibility lay on him for managing the ship. At some point, a storm began and I experienced horror from my own impotence and from the probable speedy death. At some point, I was literally overwhelmed by this feeling and the reality that this will happen, there is no other option. And at some point I made an enormous effort of will to take the helm and make an attempt to fight to the last even in such conditions, because there is no one else. At that moment, the necessary transformation took place, which would not be possible if it were just a fantasy. My involvement in the process, the feeling of a really inevitable development of events and the need to make a decision, was a sign that it was just an active imagination. When fantasizing, I would have a calm position and rather a feeling that this is still not real, which means there is no real danger. As if you can switch off from the process at any moment and this will not have significant consequences for the state. So it is the full immersion and participation that allows you to live a symbolic life, and not play it.