As spiritual beings learning to be human, we "Row-Row-Row Our Boats" through living and trying to make sense of our lives as best we can, by looking at the reasons why we are here on earth at this time, to understand what the lessons are that we are supposed to be learning, and the ways in which we resist learning them. The challenge is to proceed "Gently Down the Stream," making choices and reframing our perceptions for gentleness in ourselves and others. Gently loving ourselves and others comes so much more naturally when we row our lives down the stream. At the same time, just as the nursery rhyme/round simultaneously echoes these instructions, "Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily" promises that this journey can invoke and experience happiness--realizing all the while that "Life Is But A Dream," that both the subjective and projective aspects of perception and the ephemerality of life itself stress the choices and reasons we have to imagine and reframe our experience of life to increase the gentleness {love} and happiness {joy} of life. Key to this is awakening and empowering the imagination--the theme of the links on this page.
The imagination is the medium of communication between the two parts of the mind: it functions as a medium through which content from the unconscious mind can come into conscious awareness.
Communication through the imagination is two-way. The conscious mind can also use the medium of the imagination to communicate with the unconscious mind. The conscious mind sends suggestions about what it wants through the imagination to the unconscious. It imagines things, and the subconscious intelligences work to make them happen.
The suggestions can be words, feelings or images. Athletes commonly use images to mentally rehearse how they want to perform by picturing themselves successfully completing their competition. A tennis player may see a tennis ball striking the racket at just the right spot, at just the perfect moment in the swing. Studies show that this form of imaging improves performance.
However, the unconscious mind uses the imagination to communicate with the conscious mind far more often than the other way around. New ideas, hunches, daydreams and intuitions come from the unconscious to the conscious mind through the medium of the imagination.
The use of Imagination and Images in personal growth and spiritual psychology demonstrates how the Higher Self "I" can be discovered and channeled through imagination, and how this Higher Self can become a "hub" through which the subpersonalities of the self come into awareness and are integrated. This rests on a foundation from Jung, Psychosynthesis, Neuro Linguistic Programming, and techniques of spiritual counseling.
I in a Nation of Images
Inner Dialogue -- Inner dialogue is a vital tool in process work, enabling us to easily and quickly communicate with parts of the self that may otherwise remain in the unconscious. These include child parts, back to the embryo in the womb; times before conception or between lives; past life aspects; and transpersonal beings, essences and forces. Inner dialogue also allows us to communicate with the Higher Self of another, and even with Deity.
Jungian Techniques: Individuation, Active Imagination and Dream Interpretation -- Active Imagination is defined as “a method of assimilating unconscious contents (dreams, fantasies, etc.) through some form of self-expression...the object is to give a voice to sides of the personality (particularly the anima/animus and the shadow) that are normally not heard, thereby establishing a line of communication between consciousness and the unconscious.” Jungian analysis strives to achieve the creative synthesis of the Soul and Ego, of the Personal and Collective Unconscious with the Conscious. This quest is the evolutionary task for our age.
Working and Playing with Subpersonalities -- We tend to have the illusion that a person's 'self' is "indivisible and inalterable without change, and always continues to completely stay the same." Actually, it is the opposite, for several various contradicting diversified inner aspects or what can be called the 'small selves within one's self' exist within us. They are called the "Subpersonality."
Guided Imagery -- An active, meditative process for self-healing, relaxation, and self-awareness
What is Creative Visualization? -- There are three basic steps to manifestation: Conceive it (what is it that you desire?), Believe it (act as though it's already occurred, in every way), and then Receive it! All the while, be thankful!
Guided Imagery for Groups -- If you have time for an extended session on imagery, choose one or more brief scripts to use as guided imagery.
New Tools for Personal Transformation -- Process Coaching offers a rich and versatile set of tools that can be used to create other new techniques and further develop one's own unique approach to their personal healing and transformation. Process Coaching students learn how to use these powerful tools in their own process... in a coaching rather than therapeutic relationship.
Self-forgiveness -- "One of the acts of life that fills experience with purpose. It brings love to a place where it wasn't before and transforms the spot by bringing a different fulfillment
Heart-Centered Personal Transformation -- Many people now see development beyond normality as the logical culmination of human development. In the first phase of life, from childhood to middle adulthood, we are becoming individuals, learning to meet the demands of family, work, and society. In the second phase, which begins, according to Jung, with the midlife crisis, we begin to turn inward, to reconnect with the Self, the center of our being. In the first phase we build and develop our ego and in the second phase we transcend it.
Phase Shifting: Training for Godhood -- "Among the most remarkable transformations that are occurring in these latter days are the incidents when individuals switch viewpoints with the Oneself for a moment in time."
Nine Gates Mystery School -- "The Nine Gates Mystery School is an intense spiritual training... not a 'workshop' or 'retreat', but a journey taken by individuals seeking the depths of life’s mysteries.
The Wisdom of Kabbalah -- "This method is a practical way to apprehend the upper world and the source of our existence while still living in this world. The Kabbalist is a researcher who studies his nature using this proven, time-tested and accurate method."
Transmissions From The Reconnections -- "We are the Reconnections. We represent all those parts of your Expanded Self that you had to forget about in order to become human." Over two dozen mind and soul provoking articles.
Essential Pathways: A Spiritual Solution -- Essential Pathways specilizes in offering lessons on guided imagery clearings - a self help site with holistic tools for personal growth and spiritual transformation.
Eupsychia Institute for Well Being: An Overview -- The therapists and teachers of Eupsychia specialize in soul-based approaches to training and healing using methods that are making real differences in people's lives. "Synthesizing elements of mainstream psychotherapy with non-traditional ways of healing the human psyche, we have honed this Soul-based approach to psychology for over 25 years in our work with professionals and seekers."
The National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies -- The creative arts therapies include art therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, poetry therapy, and psychodrama. These therapies use arts modalities and creative processes during intentional intervention in therapeutic, rehabilitative, community, or educational settings to foster health, communication, and expression; promote the integration of physical, emotional, cognitive, and social functioning; enhance self-awareness; and facilitate change.
Noetic Field Balancing -- "...a healing approach that combines an understanding of the ancient mysteries with modern psychology. Noetic means spiritual mind, or soul-mind. Through the spiritual mind we see the world of the soul as cause and the material/psychological world as effect, as mirror for the evolution of the soul." Along with further articles on Noetic Field Therapy and Noetic Mastery: Keys to Unlocking Our Holiness, Robert D. Waterman offers amazing insights and resources.
Imagination is Greater than Knowledge -- These pages are an attempt to imagine a science with a cornerstone of objectivity replaced by another cornerstone - subjectivity, without a denial that there is something out there.
Schooling the Imagination -- Waldorf schools, which began in the esoteric mind of the Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner, have forged a unique blend of progressive and traditional teaching methods that seem to achieve impressive results -- intellectual, social, even moral
Imagination,
Mental Imagery, Consciousness, and Cognition: Scientific, Philosophical and Historical Approaches -- A resource with numerous links for the study of imagination and mental images and their relevance to the understanding of consciousness and cognition, as approached primarily through the methods of analytical philosophy, experimental psychology, cognitive science, and the history of ideas/intellectual history. Shows a strong flavor of scholarship.
Index of Learning Styles -- Four dimensions (active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global) of a learning style model
SpiritWalk Teachers -- Individuals whose lives and teachings have brought inspiration to all of us
Unconditional Love -- The greatest power known to man is that of unconditional love.
Projection -- By learning to use Seeing the Loving Essence and Heart-Centered Listening in relation to the subpersonalities of the self, the client can learn to reduce projection and increase perception.
Cooperative Communication Skills Extended Learning Community -- "Free books, essays and exercises to help you communicate more creatively, successfully, & compassionately; encourage dialogue/resolve conflicts/prevent violence; and work with family members in building a more cooperative shared life."
Spiritueel Trefpunt -- What? A Dutch title {this page is in English}with insight stimulating articles on spirituality and consciousness
Strong at the Broken Places -- Senator Max Cleland's inflential and inspirational article about turning our scars into stars
Children of the New Earth -- "According to many, there are new generations coming into reality that have a different sense about them, a different approach to life itself. These children have been called Indigos, Crystals, Blue Rays, Star Children, and others."
Living Love--The Science of Happiness -- Effective techniques that people can use to solve problems in their lives and to feel happier. It is a method that is easy to learn and once done is totally portable, one you can do on your own. Your life becomes your teacher! Nothing necessarily has to change in your external life but you will become wiser and happier.
Creativity -- While schoolrooms have often stifled rather than nourished creativity, we are now emerging into a period demanding creativity for the workplace as well as the school, and the forms schooling will assume in the future.
Optimal Questions -- "The quality of the questions you ask determines the quality of your life. When you ask the best questions of yourself and others, you invite the best answers."
Spirit and Wisdom -- More than sixty sites pertaining to soul-based living and learning
The Truth about Enlightenment -- Unless the Inner Map of Enlightenment is seen clearly and the process of Awakening fully understood, the seeker will be groping in darkness, lost in confusion and sorrow. As the light of the Self is shining at the heart of Creation, so there is another light, the light of Understanding that can lead us, doubtlessly, to the complete realisation of the Self. This teaching, that we present here, is the clear presentation of this Understanding. May it lead all those who are on the Path to the Ultimate Experience of the I AM.
Synchronicity and the Enfolded -- "A place where marvelous ideas and experiences of synchronicity and the enfolded and unfolding cosmos, mind and soul may be discovered, explored, shared and discussed."
The Imaginative Thinker -- Anything but pragmatic in orientation and purpose, it aspires to be no less than a book of wonders, a selection of thought probes and mind-boggling ideas.
What Is Real? -- A 3-minute download yields a flash movie overview of consciousness in a spiritual light.
A Course in Consciousness -- An online 26 Chapter book from a University of Virginia Emeritus Professor of Physics
University of Yourself Recommended Books -- Most topics covered on these links, including Dreams | I Ching | Poetry | Secrets of the Universe |
Enrich Yourself | Expand Yourself | Explore Yourself |
Grow Yourself | Help Yourself | Inspire Yourself
Renew Yourself | Share Yourself
Counseling/Psychology Approaches
Behaviorism -- Behaviorism's goal is to promote the scientific study of behavior.
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy -- REBT will appeal to you if you relish quickly taking control of your own life, rather than remaining dependent upon a therapist for years.
The Gestalt Therapy Page -- Numerous articles and links on current and original Gestalt practice
Psychosynthesis -- National organization site with numerous resources
Neuro Linguistic Programming -- NLP, or Neuro Linguistic Programming, is the art and science that can be described in a nutshell, as an "attitude and a methodology that leaves behind a trail of techniques."
NEURO-SEMANTICS -- Powerful techniques for discovering and reframing the sentences and stories we tell ourselves.
