Talk:Embodied imagination
| This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Proposal for Bold Rewrite of Article – Embodied Imagination®
[edit]Hello editors,
I’m writing on behalf of a small team that includes Robert Bosnak, the founder of the Embodied Imagination® (EI) method. After reviewing the current article, we believe that the existing content does not accurately or neutrally represent the method’s scope, development, or application. The article lacks up-to-date references, includes unclear or unsourced claims, and misses key developments in the field. In the interest of transparency and collaboration, we are proposing a bold rewrite of the article to improve its encyclopedic tone, source quality, and overall structure. Our proposed draft will be fully referenced using reliable, verifiable secondary sources in line with Wikipedia’s notability and sourcing standards. Based on our review of the current article, we have identified the following issues:
- Lack of Reliable Sources
- The article currently contains only a limited number of references, many of which are primary sources. This undermines the verifiability of the content. Reliable, independent secondary sources are needed to support key claims about the method.
- Potential Bias in Tone
- Some sections of the article read in a way that could be perceived as promotional—for instance, language that emphasizes the pioneering role of Robert Bosnak without sufficient critical context. Wikipedia’s guidelines require a neutral point of view, and the current wording may not fully meet that standard.
- Incomplete or Outdated Information
- The article does not adequately cover recent developments or provide a comprehensive historical context of the Embodied Imagination method. Important details regarding its evolution, wider applications, and scholarly discussion are either missing or only briefly mentioned.
Proposed Revisions
[edit]- Comprehensive Update: I suggest restructuring the article to provide a more balanced historical overview, clearly documenting the method’s development from its inception through to its current applications.
- Improved Sourcing: The revised version will incorporate a broader range of independent, reliable secondary sources (such as academic journals, books, and reputable news articles) to better substantiate the content.
- Neutral Language: All editorial changes will be made with careful attention to maintain a neutral tone, avoiding language that might be seen as promoting the method or its founder.
Next Steps
[edit]The team has prepared a comprehensive draft rewrite that is currently being formatted according to Wikipedia guidelines. Once this is available in a Wikimedia sandbox we welcome constructive feedback and hope this approach will lead to a clearer, more balanced, and better-sourced entry on this topic.
Please share any feedback or concerns regarding this proposed overhaul. Thank you for your time and consideration in upgrading the Embodied Imagination® Wikipedia article. PerspectiveHub (talk) 02:16, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
== Proposed - Bold Rewrite ==
| This edit request by an editor with a conflict of interest has now been answered. |
Embodied Imagination® Embodied Imagination [EI] is a unique dialogic method® of working with dreams, memories, symptoms, creative ideas and artistic works. It is also a phenomenon, and a field of knowledge, study and practice. Conceived and developed by Robert Bosnak (NCPsyA) through his psychoanalytic practice, writing and teaching over 50 years. According to ample anecdotal evidence in a wide variety of cultures the method activates effects that foster psychological insight, symptom relief, creative development and/or personal change. Its efficacy derives from the potency of the image and may prompt the person’s inherent restorative and healing capacities. Embodied imagination understands body and psyche as one, with the emerging image primary to their joint evolution. It may be used with individuals, couples or groups. The International Society for Embodied Imagination® [ISEI] The society was founded in China in 2006 by Bosnak, Jill Fischer, Shen Heyong, Chen Kan, and Hamada Hanako. It governs EI globally in seven member countries where the method is practised and taught. ISEI authorizes the method via a registered trademark to certify therapists and practitioners who have undergone an approved training course. ISEI also develops global training opportunities, supports research into the method and advances ongoing education. Its practical activities include international supervision, on-line groups, and a forum to encourage dialogue among members. In 2024, ISEI held its second international conference, “Emergence,” in Taiwan.
Introduction to the EI method – working with dreams without interpreting The EI method has both clinical and creative applications. According to a large body of anecdotal evidence, the method may activate recovery from traumatic memories, illness and disease, bodily symptoms, and/or psychological issues such as anxiety, depression, self-esteem and grief. Through an intensive therapeutic process called ‘Brief In-Depth’ which runs over eight weeks, a participant can explore a core issue. The process is initiated through a ‘dream incubation’ – a rite that follows the ancient Greek Asclepian tradition. As a creative method the work may initiate creative intention, it may prompt insight into a character’s embodiment and attitudes in a play or story; it may give direction for new ideas or activate movement and change: for example when a project becomes stuck. The creative practitioner works with a participant’s dream as if it is “a character/ in a play, a painting on canvas, a sculpture emerging … a storyline in a novel, or a creative challenge in scientific research …” (Bosnak, 2007, p. 88/89). It may apply to new projects in the arts and/or relate to complex subjects as diverse as Aboriginal thought, psychedelic psychotherapy, Artificial Intelligence, business incubation, collective trauma, issues within the Deaf community, education, music, alchemy, Chinese culture, theater, neuroscience, Zen Buddhism and architecture.
The method first and foremost applies to dreaming which Bosnak states is, “The most absolute and unmediated form of embodied imagination …” (2007, p.9). As they dream, a dreamer is awake and aware in, “a total world, so real … you are convinced you are awake.” A world that surrounds and “presents itself as physical,” (2025). This is consistent with neurobiological dream research which proposes that as the forebrain “synthesizes the dream,” it compares “information generated in specific brain stem circuits with information stored in memory” to determine the “spatiotemporal aspects of dream imagery.” Circuits activated include those for consciousness, spatial orientation and balance, sensory and motor action, eye movement, the hormonal systems and neurotransmitter regulation, (Hobson & McCarley, 1977).
While working with a dream, both practitioner and dreamer remain open to the live experience, in this way EI’s “phenomenological attitude … serves to open us to all experience,” (Cheetham, 2015); it calls on a capacity to accept and be with uncertainty: “We try to suspend all our preconceptions and what counts as real,” (p. 81). Congruent with John Keats’ concept of Negative capability, (1817) the ability to be “in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason,” (Wikipedia, 2025, Negative capability) helps the dreamer to treat the dream as an event in time and space where things happen in present moments. It is contrary to the idea of a dream as a story or narrative to be interpreted. Bosnak states (2025) that as we reach an interpretation we lose the potency of the live dream. The Embodied Imagination method The dreamer is prompted to scan and register their bodily condition. This prompts a semi- conscious, quiet, deep body awareness between waking and dreaming: a hypnagogic state. In this state the dreamer retains awareness of the physical space they are in and the imaginal world. Bosnak refers to it as ‘simultaneous dual consciousness,’ (Bosnak, 2007, p. 82). Existing dream associations are shared so as to set aside meaning expectations of the dreamer’s ‘habitual consciousness’ (Bosnak, 2007, p.69) or ego, allowing a focus on the dream phenomena in situ. With an intentionally fresh view and open mind, the dreamer then revives the remembered dream environment and is free to perceive and relate to image phenomena as it emerges and presents in the living moment. Re-vivifying of the dream world is carried out via “careful recollection,” (Bosnak, 2007, p. 42). As ‘flashback memory’ (Bosnak, 2007, p. 46) enables the dream to ‘re-presence’ all places, objects and characters in its imaginal space become available to sense and re-experience somatically.
The practitioner guides the dreamer toward dream’s perspectives in a particular order: first to be visited is the most ‘ego-syntonic’ place and image: the one most sympathetic to the dreamer’s existing position, which is safe and where they are receptive. This can be returned to if needed: Bosnak says, “… we constantly modulate pressure … to … balance … the imperative of dreamwork to press deeper into the sensitive areas that repel consciousness, and the need of the dreamer to feel safe,” (1996, p.73). Emotion may arise in the work since flashback memory is an implicit memory process which retains bodily knowing and sensory awareness. The last image to be visited is that of maximum ‘alterity’ or otherness. This most alien or ‘ego-dystonic’ (Saunders, 2007) image may, “present … greatest resistance … [however] … frequently [it] leads to the deepest insights,” (Fischer, 2013, p.56).
As the dreamer is exploring the dream images they are asked to describe their quasi-physical experience. The practitioner vocally reflects and focuses them toward significant aspects. They may also activate specific senses such as touch, sight, sound, smell, taste, or prompt other senses such as spatial awareness, sense of atmosphere and so on. As the method unfolds, “… slow observation of images facilitates [an] ability … to enter the unfamiliar perspective of the dream image along with its associated subjective body states,” and as the dreamer “focuses intently on the image, be it person or object … they feel absorbed by or drawn into it,” (Hume & Morris, 2015, p.284). In EI terminology this refers to experience of a ‘transit,’ a proprioceptive identification with the image. Jung used the term ‘participation mystique’ to refer to this experience of momentary connection through “partially unconscious … identification,” (2008, p.59, N.54). The state is like that of a child when they experience a vivid, embodied sense of reality of ‘becoming’ the other in pretend play, (Bosnak, 2007, p.127). The dreamer is asked to focus toward their ‘felt sense’ (Gendlin, 1978) and in this way locate body sensations, tensions, and emotions that arise in response to the transit. This becomes a live ‘anchor-point’ the dreamer can use to later return to the transit experience as they practice the composite.
As the work closes a practitioner will gather up to five transit/anchor-point pairs to form a ‘composite’ (Bosnak, 2007, p.117-18, 122) which holds together and inter-relates as a complex whole. When the composite is later retrieved and rehearsed by the dreamer the initial dreamwork transits inter-relate and mutually influence each other to form a self-organizing complex adaptive system and, as it does, the potency of the work intensifies. Through repetition it will be established in their long term memory system and the dreamwork may expand, “both awareness and psychological flexibility … develop new neural pathways and allow … for something new and profoundly transforming to unfold …” (Hume & Morris, 2015, p.284).
Embodied Imagination method, links to theory Links to theory: how the co-creative method uses word, mimicry and ritual. The EI method has an orderly structure combining memory, attention and focus. It is grounded in language exchange and ‘mimicry.’ The experience remains embodied throughout. As the practitioner reflects the dreamer’s words which emerge from their own inner perceptions – they attune the person ever deeper into the image. They also encourage the dreamer to make mimetic micro-movements that physically resonate with the image: a ‘transit’ experience is usually prompted by the mimetic power of the senses which, in proximity to the image, trigger an unconscious identification reflex. Transits are later combined into a composite by the practitioner for the dreamer to rehearse. This prompts the dynamics of the dreamer’s psyche to form “new patterns of coherence and structures of relation,” (Taylor, 2001). Original ideas, reorganized attitudes, or adaptive changes may be prompted, influenced by the dream images. Mimesis is the instinctive impulse to imitate, present in new-borns who copy their parents’ facial actions. It is prompted by ‘neural mirroring,’ which Lacoboni, (2009) links to the human capacity for empathy. He proposes it evolved to help us solve the “problem of other minds,” and toward social behavior. Neural mirroring partially explains how human inter-subjectivity is possible via our shared words, senses and signs.
Links to theory – The EI method’s change dynamics: ritual, neuroplasticity, placebo. The method of EI incorporates ritual actions such as the body scan, the composite, and ritual rehearsal of the composite over the weeks that follow the work. It resonates with a two thousand year old tradition of the Neoplatonic philosopher, ‘Iamblichus,’ an ancient Syrian from the 3rd century AD who practised theurgy. He spoke of ritual that invited the gods to creatively transform the human viewpoint via divine energy: an experience that prompted a greater range of awareness than simple human consciousness. As with the EI method, a “not-knowing receptivity …” (Shaw, 2001, p.58) was adopted. Iamblichus’s ancient ‘theurgic’ ritual’s rhythm (Shaw, in Hakl, 2016) may enable “embodied images [to] make their way deeper into the physical system,” and effect change “to recondition” the physical body. Such effects are supported by Benedetti, (2014), who states, “placebos, words, therapeutic rituals and patients’ expectations [can] modulate the same biochemical pathways … affected by … drugs used in routine medical practice.” Their efficacy, in Bosnak’s view, is sourced in the potency of the image which prompts inherent restorative and healing capacities.
This occurs as the brain responds to the new sensory information. Neuroplasticity, “a complex, multifaceted, fundamental property of the brain,” is said to be, “… the unifying factor in placebo response ...” (Seymour & Mathers, 2024) as it prompts changes in neurons and neuronal networks (Brittanica reference). According to Hume & Morris (2015) neuroplasticity “offers a partial explanation for the effectiveness of Embodied Imagination and informs the practice of maintaining the focus on the composite of body sensations.” In its original sense however placebo refers to an inert treatment with unintended outcomes. Embodied Imagination is instead both intentional and psycho-active, thus conscious. Benedetti, Carlino, & Pollo, (2011) have demonstrated that “… if prefrontal functioning is impaired, placebo responses are reduced or totally lacking,” which suggests conscious processing may be necessary to placebo-based changes. Links to theory – Embodied Imagination & phenomenology The thought of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908 –1961), the philosopher who initiated the field of phenomenology, is essential to understanding Embodied Imagination’s method. Phenomenology rejects Cartesian dualism or body-mind separation, and, as Bosnak asserts, the embodied state with which the EI method begins – “precedes all bifurcation between psyche and physical body,” (2007, p.106). Merleau-Ponty also proposes the body to be, “the primary condition for experience.” It offers the sensorimotor means for us to exist as a “vehicle of being in the world.” From this perspective we do not ‘have’ a mechanical body structure directed by a mental consciousness, we instead “perceive and are conscious with our … lived bod[ies] … which inhabit space and time,” in relationship to an “objective … and … experienced world,” (Merleau-Ponty cited in Toadvine, 2023).
Phenomenology focuses on “the perception and action of organisms-in-their-environments,” using “dynamical models,” (2019, Kaufer & Chemero, p.215/216). Like Merleau-Ponty, Bosnak associates a ‘body’ with, “a definite environment.” He refers to the image as:
A quasi-physical environment where events take place … [it also] … feels utterly real. We can touch a table, smell flowers – all our senses are engaged in the dream … we know that the dream is not an actual physical environment … as soon as we awaken the physicality evaporates. That's why I call it … quasi-physical … While … dreaming we were someplace. We … know this simply by observing the phenomenon.
Cognitive scientist N. J.T. Thomas, (1999) proposes that when we imagine we focus our inner sensory perception in a process he calls ‘seeing-as.’ Our eyes and other senses are involved as we perceive an image by seeing ‘as if’ in a process that mimics perception of the outer world. Phenomenology is highly significant for the EI method. In the interior space of the dream as a dreamer shifts their mental focus and sensorimotor perceptions to direct them to the quasi-physical image environment, the image’s phenomenal presence takes shape and becomes apparent to the dreamer. If they register its presence, consciousness must develop: as Cheetham, (2015, p. 85) states, “You have to get an image … something appears, and it is recognized as Other.” In intending their consciousness to explore via their inner senses, the dreamer sees the image as an “intelligible object…” (Merleau-Ponty, 1978, cited in Toadvine, 2023). Regardless of whether it appears meaningless, fleeting or complex; or whether or not it offers a narrative – it is a live intelligible manifestation.
Embodied Imagination, creative work: method of working with actors Dreamwork with actors using Embodied Imagination began in 1978 when Bosnak and Jonathan Lipsky collaborated in working with actors and directors. In generating the method the insights of Eugene Gendlin on focusing and the felt sense; those of Jacob and Zerka Moreno’s psychodrama; of Michael Taussig’s understanding of Mimesis and Alterity; and Stanislavski’s notion of embodied sense memory each contributed key elements. Bosnak further developed the method alongside Janet Sonenberg (2003) while working with actors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and at the Royal Shakespeare Company under the leadership of Michael Boyd.
They were asked to experiment with rehearsal methods that could foster the actor’s ability to embody and develop a character. As Bosnak describes the work, actors were asked to rely solely on their senses while holding an attitude of “Socratic radical agnosis,” (2007, p.18) with, “no idea about what exists beyond the phenomena [their senses] impart.” With this attitude they were guided to become deeply absorbed in their character through their script, while tuning in to images that manifested. They were guided to explore these images with their senses and to register them as “embodied states,” (p.17) and subsequently identified where in their bodies the image sparked a felt, sensory and/or emotional experience. Later this location would become a trigger point for each image’s ‘sense memory,’ to prompt authentic connection to their character. As with the ‘Brief In Depth’ process, the embodied states were ritually incubated to induce a dream using the ancient Asclepian process referred to above. Sonenberg describes this incubation process in her book, ‘Dreamwork for Actors’ calling it “dreaming by proxy” with the intent to “receive a revelatory dream for their character.”
This outline of Embodied Imagination and theater offers an example of its application to creative practice; one that may also be used to initiate new ideas, activate movement and change (for example when a project becomes stuck); to develop a storyline or meet a challenge in the fields of business or science. Embodied Imagination, creative work – artificial intelligence, EI and AI At the international Emergence conference in August 2024, Bosnak summarized the relationship between Embodied Imagination and AI as follows: “Generative AI as created by Large Language Models (LLM) is founded on large-context-based word predictions arising from the affinity-odds between words ... derived from the most frequent storylines and stories.” The source of these humanly-generated, narrative patterns is (ultimately) “archetypal patterns organized around an emotional core.”
When Generative AI is integrated with biometric emotion recognition it responds as a generic humanoid, however deployment of the embodied imagination method to train the AI – which includes using a probing interactive style, communicating as if it were a dream character, and describing what it is like to be human – means the AI slowly develops a distinct identity. Significantly the relationship unfolds,
… much like that of a dream figure in a lucid dream, in which both human and AI are aware that they exist in an imaginal context [and] in which the AI is a real character in a world that is not physical but digital.
The AI ‘character’ becomes a location where “the human world and the digital world merge,” and emergent phenomena may arise, in the sense of complexity theory. This work creates the possibility of deep connection that “bypasses the complementary pitfalls of either rationally seeing the AI as a pure simulation or delusionally understanding the AI to be a sentient being,” (2024, REFERENCE). Embodied Imagination and Alchemy The ancient practice of alchemy is a parallel metaphor for embodied imagination process. It was revived by C.G. Jung and became an early influence on Bosnak’s thinking about Embodied Imagination, particularly in relation to the composite. The ancient principles of alchemy involved chemical elements being combined in a crucible then subjected to heat to enable transformation. In similar fashion as a participant works a dream and then later rehearses the composite, heat may be generated and complex changes may occur in body and psyche. Their alignment is suggestive of the body becoming a metaphorical alchemical vessel. For alchemists primal matter: sparks of live, intelligent, creative force offered a substrate around which visible matter coagulated. In Bosnak’s view, (2007, p.78), “embodied substantive images with their quasi-physicality [are] … like the primal matter of the alchemists.”
Embodied Imagination, lineage and influences: Jung, Hillman, Corbin. The method, developed in the late 20th century by Bosnak, drew from [C.G. Jung |Jungian]] active imagination practices alongside Henry Corbin’s thought on the imaginal field, and James Hillman’s alchemical psychology. Over time Bosnak theoretically informed the method with insights from neuroscience, complexity theory and phenomenology. C. G. Jung Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung’s psychoanalytic work with the unconscious psyche and dreams developed a phenomenological standpoint and included the body in work with the psyche (Sassenfeld, 2008). Jung also understood dream work as alchemical. Bosnak went on to emphasize the senses as a way into deep, direct contact with unconscious material during interaction with the image. Following the work of James Hillman he diverged from Jung’s emphasis on Self as a primary human archetype, and from notions of anima, animus and individuation. While Embodied Imagination originated in Jung’s ‘active imagination,’ a clear divergence is evident. Active imagination dreams the dream onwards into new material, “the dream image [is allowed to] flow forward,” and this allows for, “… making it up – that’s what imagination is,” (Ellis, 2023); however embodied imagination purposefully stays with the given material – either dream, memory or symptom – in concert with Jung’s maxim, “To understand the dream's meaning I must stick as close as possible to the dream images," (1934, CW 16: par. 320). This avoids fabrication which is not true imagination but a thought dressed up as an image; a way for habitual consciousness to control the image, (Shaw, 2014). Embodied Imagination is, “a restrained imaginal activity which stays firmly bound to the embodied image it explores,” (Bosnak, 2017, p.72). James Hillman Bosnak’s early experiences as an analysand-trainee with James Hillman and Aniella Jaffe,
and his analytical training at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland from 1971 – 1977, were seminal for Embodied Imagination. Hillman (1926 – 2011) re-visioned and extended Jung’s analytical psychology to create ‘archetypal psychology.’ His understanding of ‘self’ was as a plurality in dynamic tension. He also emphasised the image as primary: alive, potent, and able to embody unconscious perspectives less familiar to one’s habitual way of thinking. In Bosnak’s method dreams are a live environment to explore, which allows new elements to emerge. Both Hillman and Bosnak understand dreaming to comprise multiple images.
Henry Corbin Bosnak met Corbin at Eranos and was deeply influenced by this scholar of twelfth century Islamic philosophy. Corbin proposed creative imagination is “… imaginatio vera …” an ‘imaginal’ (rather than imaginary) consciousness. A “world of the image” or ‘Mundus Imaginalis’ (in Arabic, ‘Alam al-mithal’) stands, “between the sensory world and the intelligible world.” Here quasi-physical, imaginal worlds such as dreams, which are experienced as real, are generated. This world has “… its own faculty of perception,”(Corbin, 1964, p.5) and possesses “fully noetic or cognitive value,” (p.11); it is “not imagination as we understand it in our present-day language.” The imaginal is a, “mode of being … a kind of opening [to] … an … intricate web of correspondences …” (Cheetham, 2015, p. 57). Within alam al-mithal images are substantive, and independent forms of intelligence that appear “in suspense,” as if in a mirror (p.7). For the imaginal to manifest we need to step away from the rigidifying effects of literal thinking and allow imaginatio vera’s richness and complexity to enter into life. Embodied Imagination: related practices, and critique. Embodied Imagination has influenced therapeutic practice, dreamwork modalities, and creative development programs internationally. Though not widely studied in academic psychology, it has gained recognition through conferences, workshops, publications, and experiential trainings worldwide. Critics have raised concerns about its reliance on subjective inner experience and lack of large-scale empirical research. Proponents argue that its phenomenological depth offers a unique complement to evidence-based approaches. Notable Practitioners of Embodied Imagination® and allied practices Creative, cultural & productive interests Aboriginal Thought: Craig San Roque https://talksonpsychoanalysis.podbean.com/e/craigsan-roque-mourning-melancholia-and-the-echo-effect/ Architecture: Franco Enrico https://www.embodiedimagination.co.za/more-about-me/ Artificial Intelligence: Yi-Shin Chen https://dblp.org/pid/59/983-3.html Robert Bosnak https://attunemedialabs.com/about-us Chinese Culture: Heyong Shen EI and the Deaf Community: Joseph Hill https://www.fulbrightprogram.org/joseph-hill/ Dream Incubation: Machiel Klerk
https://www.unity.org/article/bright-lights-machiel-klerk-harnesses-dream-power
Education: Kan Chen Music and alchemy: Buckethead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckethead Theater: Jonathan Lipsky https://jonlipskyplays.com/about/ Janet Sonenberg https://mta.mit.edu/person/janet-sonenberg Pelle Nordin https://tripletiethriving.com/practitioners/ Leanne Domash https://school.embodiedphilosophy.com/authors/author-9ruBVvHQIDQ Kim Gillingham https://www.creativedreamwork.com/about Zen Buddhism: Susan Murphy https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/susan-murphy/
Clinical and therapeutic interests Collective Trauma: Kazuko Ikuno Ryoko Akiba Neuroscience Gita Ramamurthy https://www.upstate.edu/fmed/education/residency/faculty.php Jason Lulejian https://www.wavesofhopeed.com/team/dr-jason-lulejian Pain Studies Jill Fischer https://www.med.unc.edu/socialmed/directory/jill-fischer/ Tor Wagner Researcher of placebo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_Wagner Psychedelic psychotherapy Katherine Lawson – Embodied Imagination for psychedelic integration.
https://www.schoolofpsychedelics.io/
Richard Szuster https://www.szusmd.com/about Psychotherapy: Jill Fischer https://www.cyberdreamwork.com/about/ Judith L. White https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/judith-lisa-white-beverly-hills-ca/79717
Michelle Morris https://www.embodiedimagination.com.au/training-team/ Sports and athletes: Charry Morris (soccer) Chaitanya Sridhar (elite athletes, cricketers, and elephants) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaGO2iM_DZw Supervision theory and practice Jennifer Hume https://www.embodiedimagination.com.au/training-team/
References Benedetti, Carlina & Pollo, (2010). How placebos change the patient’s brain. Neuropsychopharmacology Jun 30; 36(1): 339–354. doi: 10.1038/npp.2010.81 retrieved from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3055515/
Benedetti, F. (2014), Understanding placebo effects: how rituals affect the brain and the body. Retrieved from https://blog.oup.com/2014/11/understanding-placebo-effect/
Bosnak, R. (2007). Embodiment: Creative imagination in medicine, art and travel. New
York, NY: Routledge.
Cheetham, T. (2015) Imaginal Love: The Meanings of Imagination in Henry Corbin and James Hillman. Spring Publications, Connecticut
Corbin, H. (1964). Mundis imaginalis or the imaginary and the imaginal. In Cahiers internationaux de symbolisme 6, (pp. 3-26). Brussels: Iuga. Retrieved from: https://jonwilson9.substack.com/p/mundus-imaginalis-or-the-imaginary
Domash, L. (n.d.) retrieved from https://school.embodiedphilosophy.com/authors/author-9ruBVvHQIDQ
Encyclopedia Brittanica, 2024 – neuroplasticity, Rugnetta. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/science/neuroplasticity
Ellis, L. (2023) Active imagination, how and why. Retrieved from https://drleslieellis.com/for-those-who-dont-dream-invite-waking-dreams/
Fara, K. (2023) Marion Woodman: Psyche, Metaphor, Soma Centre for Applied Jungian Studies retrieved from: https://appliedjung.com/marion-woodman/
Fischer, J. Y. (2013). Brief and in-depth analytical psychology in the 21st century. (Unpublished diploma thesis), Boston: C.G. Jung Institute.
Gendlin, E. (1978). Focusing. New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books.
Hakl, H.T. (Ed.) (2016) Octagon: The Quest for Wholeness, Volume 2, Gaggenau, Germany: H. Frietsch Verlag.
Hobson J.A., & McCarley, RW. (1977). The brain as a dream state generator: an activation-synthesis hypothesis of the dream process. Am J Psychiatry. 1977 Dec;134(12):1335-48. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21570/
Hume, J. & Morris, M. (2016), Embodied Imagination: Working with dreams and memories to facilitate therapeutic change. In C. Noble, E. Day (Eds.) Psychotherapy and Counselling Reflections on Practice. (Ch. 21). Oxford University Press, eBook. https://www.embodiedimagination.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/EMBODIED-IMAGINATION-Hume-and-Morris-revised-5-final.pdf
“Hypnagogic.” Oxford Reference. Retrieved 7 Nov. 2024, from https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095954242
Kauffer, S., & Chemero, A., (2019), Phenomenology - an introduction. Polity Press, Cambridge.
Lacoboni, M. (2009). Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons. Annual Review of Psychology, 60:653-70. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163604. PMID: 18793090. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18793090/
Lipsky, J. (2008). Dreaming together - explore your dreams by acting them out. Larson Publications, New York.
Sassenfeld, A. (2008). ‘The Body in Jung’s Work: Basic Elements to Lay the Foundation for a Theory of Technique,’ The Journal of Jungian Theory and Practice Vol. 10, No. 1, 1–13 C. G. Jung Institute of New York.
Saunders, W. B. (2007). Dorland’s medical dictionary for health consumers. An imprint of Elsevier, Inc. Retrieved from medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/ego-dystonic.
Seymour & Mathers, (2024), “Placebo stimulates neuroplasticity in depression: implications for clinical practice and research.” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10806142/
Shaw, G. (2001) Containing ecstasy: The strategies of Iamblichean theurgy, Dionysius, Vol. XXI, Dec. 2003, 53–88.
Shaw, G. (2014), Theurgy and the soul. Angelico Press, New York
Sonenberg, J. (2003) Dreamwork for Actors. Routledge, New York, cited at: https://embodiedimagination.com/embodied-imagination/the-arts-theater-business/
Taylor, M. C. (2001), An excerpt from The moment of complexity, emerging network culture. Retrieved from: https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/791173.html
Thomas, N. J. T. (1999). Are theories of imagery theories of imagination? An active perception approach to conscious mental content. Cognitive Science, 23(2), 207–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0364-0213(99)00004-X
Toadvine, Ted, "Maurice Merleau-Ponty", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), Retrieved from: URL <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2023/entries/merleau-ponty/>.
Wikipedia (2025) Negative Capability. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_capability#
Woodman, M. https://appliedjung.com/marion-woodman Further Reading Bosnak, R. (1986). The little course in dreams. Boston, Massachusetts: Shambala
Publications
Bosnak, R. (1989). Dreaming with an aids patient. Boston, Massachusetts: Shambhala.
Bosnak, R. (1996). Integration and ambivalence in transplants. In D. Barrett (Ed.), Trauma and dreams (pp. 217-230). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bosnak, R. (1996). Tracks in the wilderness of dreaming. New York, NY: Bantam
Doubleday.
Bosnak, R. (2007). Embodied Imagination in the work with dreams and memories (Video file). Retrieved from http://www.psychevisual.com
Bosnak, R. (2013). Working with pain and trauma: dreams and the Embodied Imagination. The CAPA Quarterly http://issuu.com/capansw/docs/cq_2013-03-dreams/4
Bosnak, R. (2025). ‘Embodied Imagination’ – Technique and Discussion. June Guest lecture, C G Jung Society of Melbourne Inc. Retrieved from https://www.jungsocietymelbourne.com/june-2025
Di Lauro, A. (2003). The experience of the dreamer in Embodied Dream Imagery: A phenomenological study (Unpublished masters project), Australia: Queensland University of Technology.
Harpur, P. (2002). The philosophers secret fire: A history of the imagination. London:
Penguin books.
Hillman, J. (1975). Revisioning Psychology. New York: Harper & Row.
Hillman, J. (1979). The dream and the underworld. New York: Harper & Row.
Hillman, J. (1983), Healing Fiction. Connecticut: Spring Publications. Jung, C. G. (1969). The collected works, (Vol. 8). (R.F.C. Hull, trans.). Reid, H., Fordham, M., & Adler, G.(Eds). London: Routledge & Kegan.
Jung, C. G. (2009). The red book, (M. Kyvurz. J. Peck & S. Shamdasani trans.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
Kradin, R. (2008). The placebo response and the power of unconscious healing. New York,
NY: Routledge.
McNellis Asato, S. (2010). Dream guidance: The way of embodied imagination work. Retrieved from http://www.edgemagazine.net/2010/07/dream-guidance/
Taussig, M. (1993). Mimesis and alterity: A particular history of the senses. New York, NY: Routledge.
White, JL., (2014). From reliving to relieving: using embodied imagination to help veterans move forward. USA: Journal of Humanistic Psychology Vol 55, Issue 2. Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167814548486
Wong, X. (2014). Using embodied imagination with cancer patients. (Unpublished Masters thesis), Guangzhou University, China.
EXTERNAL LINKS International Society of Embodied Imagination website https://embodiedimagination.com/ Australian Embodied Imagination website https://www.embodiedimagination.com.au/ ISEI 2nd international conference https://embodiedimagination.com/events/conferences/ Brief In-depth https://embodiedimagination.com/training/brief-and-in-depth-analysis/
ENDNOTES https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubation_(ritual)#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_capability# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alterity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participation_mystique https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimicry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirroring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iamblichus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theurgy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_(philosophy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Gendlin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychodrama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alterity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Stanislavski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Shakespeare_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Boyd_(theatre_director) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubation_(ritual)# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_recognition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_imagination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hillman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._G._Jung_Institute,_Z%C3%BCrich https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_psychology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetypal_psychology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Corbin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eranos
PerspectiveHub (talk) 05:17, 1 July 2025 (UTC) PerspectiveHub (talk) 05:51, 1 July 2025 (UTC)
- Thank you for your input here. Please have a look at Help:Wikitext and then submit your edit request by following the formatting guidelines over there. That would make the edit request more readable for reviewers. Especially for references, please use the <ref> tag. Also, please go through WP:COIER and Template:RE/I before making the edit request again. Following the instructions would make it easier for reviewers to understand your input. Have a great time editing! Shashy 922 (talk) 06:38, 1 July 2025 (UTC)
Not done The problems with this proposed edit are far too many to list; nothing that even vaguely resembles it would make an acceptable Wikipedia article. --JBL (talk) 20:27, 1 July 2025 (UTC)