The secret of all true meditation lies in the ability to use the creative powers of the imagination.
Robert: Welcome to Inner Sight. Inner sight is simply seeing that which is always present but not yet fully recognized. You have within you the ability to see yourself and the world around you in a new way with new eyes, so stay with us, and together we’ll look at the world and ourselves with inner sight. Our topic today is imagination and the following quote comes from the writings of Alice Bailey — as does all of the dialogue on this show. Anything that you’ll hear on this show emanates from the twenty-four works of literature that were written by Alice Bailey — “The secret of all true meditation lies in the ability to use the creative powers of the imagination.” Seems like the imagination according to Alice Bailey is something very powerful. Maybe we better review what imagination really is. What is imagination?
Sarah: Imagination is one of those qualities that has a higher and a lower aspect to it. I think all of us are familiar with the imagination in the traditional sense, that of building an image or a picture in your mind of a hypothetical situation. There’s another part to the imagination that’s deeply spiritual, and it’s related to a combination of mental and emotional energy that becomes, you could say, organized and merged. It’s work with energy in the most spiritual sense, because when you imagine, you are creating something in the mind, drawing upon past experience, memory, perhaps fear or anticipation. Imagination, I think, is a quality that really distinguishes the human kingdom from the animal kingdom. Human beings have the capacity to remember and to anticipate. They don’t just live in the present even though the Buddha told us that we should. We think a lot about the future and we plan for it, anticipate it, sometimes dread it. So, the imagination is that power within us that projects itself into the inner realm, whether it’s of the future or of the subjective side of life.
Dale: Yes, it’s said to be the picture making faculty that everybody has developed in their own nature and, as you say, it’s hard to really identify it because it’s a combination of emotional energy and the energy of the mind. That’s where it originates, I believe, and it’s a combination of these two energies, so it is neither the pure energy of the mind nor the pure energy of the emotional nature — the astral plane as they call it. It’s this combination that enables one to produce these pictures.
Sarah: Somewhere in the writings of Alice Bailey, she says that the imagination is the highest aspect of the emotional realm, which suggests that art, beauty, creativity are linked closely with the refined emotional sensibility in the use of the imagination, and yet you’re right, it does draw upon the mind too. You have to have a clear, fluid mind.
Dale: Imagination actually enables us to build a bridge between the lower nature of the astral plane and the mind. It’s bringing both of these great powers together. So, we use this energy in our objective, creative work.
Sarah: I wonder if that thought lies behind the power of the song by John Lennon, Imagine, which was one of his final creations before he died, I think. It really is quite a thoughtful and beautiful song in which he asks us to imagine a world without hatred, without war, without prejudice, without divisions. That’s drawing on this emotional desire nature for a better world.
Dale: Absolutely and that’s the great power of thought! The power of using this kind of energy can be used in just such a way, in these creative ways.
Robert: I like to think of that thought — I hope it’s not arrogant to say it — but the thought of ‘what the mind of man can conceive the mind of man can achieve.’ I’m not sure if that’s overdoing it. That might be a large expectation, but if that’s true, then each of us can individually use the imagination in order to enhance our own personal development. The opening quote has mentioned the creative power of the imagination. How is the imagination used creatively?
Sarah: Well, I think as you implied, we have to be aware that when we are using the imagination we are creating. We should be careful, therefore, what we are imagining because we may possibly be building something on an inner subjective level that will eventually manifest itself in an external way. I think it’s not wise to overdo that thought. I mean, as Alice Bailey pointed out in her autobiography, she spent her whole lifetime fearing all kinds of things that never came to be. I can certainly testify to that too; a lot of us deal with fear, and it doesn’t necessarily play itself out. But there is a reality to the saying, “be careful what you desire because you might get it.” We do start the process of manifestation by how we use our mind and desire, and that’s the creative aspect. I suppose all great art begins with an image or a vision in the artist’s mind and they bring to that vision the emotional quality of a longing for beauty or for whatever effect they want to manifest. I think most artists would say they’re always disappointed by what they actually bring through because they have a vision of an ideal that’s beyond what they can really achieve to their satisfaction. Henry James touched on that when he wrote about the grasping imagination. It grasps, it tries to seize an ideal or a vision and bring it through. There was some sculptor that was asked how he did what he did with rock and he said, “Well, I look at a rock and I take away all the parts that don’t express the image.” You’ll have five minutes to think about that! (laughter)
Robert: Yes, you’ve got me dwelling on that one!
Dale: The truth is buried within the stone.
Sarah: Just waiting to get out.
Dale: There’s another way in which this creative imagination can be used, and it’s one of the techniques we use in the Arcane School and the work of the Lucis Trust, and that’s called the “As If” technique. We use this as a technique to draw in the qualities of the soul. In other words, we ask students to think of the soul, first of all, to conceive of the soul and the beautiful qualities that make up the soul, because this is essentially what you are and what I am and what everybody else is: this soul waiting to manifest its qualities in the world. If you open a way to the soul by using this “As If” technique of imagining what the soul qualities are and see those qualities manifesting through yourself, then this is a way to use your imagination and visualization powers creatively. You bring through the qualities of love, which are basically the energies of the soul and you open a channel or a doorway to the soul and allow those energies to flow into your life, and that’s the way that one can really manifest the soul in their life.
Sarah: It’s said that the imagination is seated or anchored in the heart. There’s a saying from the Bible that, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,” meaning what we really think and aspire to, in our deepest, innermost centre, is what we really are. I think that ties in with what you’re saying, that we are already the soul. We may not reveal that as fully as we wish, but at our most fundamental point, the most fundamental level of our being, we are the soul, and the more that we can envision what that implies, the more we can begin to manifest it. In fact, there’s an ancient Hindu text called the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which is one of the earliest written texts available to humanity which goes way back to early, early times and in that Yoga Sutra, there’s the statement that that which works out on the physical plane is always a thought. So, when thoughts which are contrary to yoga, to union, are present, there should be the cultivation of their opposite. You create; you build by replacing, not by suppressing. You don’t serve any purpose by denying, but you replace or substitute.
Dale: You build in something better. I think that’s where the “As If” technique comes in because you are essentially building those higher spiritual qualities, and you’re producing in your mind, in your imagination, an archetypal image that you want to replicate in the world.
Sarah: The more clearly and crisply you form that image, the more power it has.
Dale: That’s right, and the more you can hold that image in your mind and keep it alive by your attention, then that keeps the technique flowing and the energy flowing because you’re setting up a rapport between the soul and that image that you have created of the soul, and that opens the door for the energies of the soul to pour through.
Sarah: Don’t you think that the people who really achieve amazing and unpredictable feats in life are those who have a vision that they never allow to waver; they never lose heart, no matter how hard the going is; they never give up, they never doubt the possibility of realizing their vision? I don’t mean to say that they are obsessed with it, but they unwaveringly hold it in their mind and I think that’s a productive use of the imagination.
Dale: They have a one-pointed purpose that they’re working out in their life.
Robert: There’s so much power to the imagination and I’m certainly gathering that from this discussion. I’ve heard this statement — I guess it’s along the line of the esoteric, but I’ve thought about it — that the mind is a universal magnet, and when we imagine something, if we think on it strongly enough we will draw to us like a magnet all the people, situations, places and events that will help materialize the thought. Do you think that’s overdoing it or does imagination have that kind of power?
Dale: I think it can have that kind of power. It depends on the concentration and the intensity of the thought of the individual. Most of us are saved from ourselves because the power of our thoughts is not that potent. They don’t carry that far. But the more mental one becomes in their outlook on life, and focused, I think the more powerful their thoughts tend to become.
Robert: Okay, well said. That was interesting. Visualization, I think, is a part of imagination, sometimes a part of meditation. What are the practical ways visualization can be used?
Sarah: I think that it could be used a lot more in the way that we teach our children. We seem to focus so much as a society on the more material aspects of knowledge, developing the intelligence in a way that focuses almost entirely on the physical outer planes of life, developing skills and talents and so on, but there isn’t enough emphasis, in my opinion, on developing the sense of fantasy and of the creative imagination, in even very young children. This is an interesting point with me because I remember very distinctly when I was six years old having scarlet fever. I had to lie in bed — this was the treatment at the time, lie in bed for four weeks, not getting up or doing anything. They were worried about damage to the heart, I guess — so I had this boring time of feeling okay but not being able to move around and I remember learning at that time that I had an imagination that could occupy my time. I developed the ability to create stories and fantasies within my little head that stayed with me throughout most of my youth and well into my adulthood, really. I suppose different temperaments are more prone to that habit or not, but I’ve tried to deliberately inhibit it as an adult because you can spend a lot of time on the inner abstract levels of life and not enough on the outer. I do think that for children it’s a very important creative quality that helps them to begin to see that they have a life ahead of them, that they can create through right desire, right aspiration, through learning to hold a vision or a goal in mind and working toward it, not demanding immediate fulfillment.
Dale: Yes, I agree and that’s a very good learning and stimulating tool for children to develop their mental capacities, I think. But as you implied, if you would carry this fantasy building or image building into your adult life then it becomes a big waste of energy. It can become very time consuming and very exhausting and one tends to live in fantasies. That’s where I think it goes to the other extreme.
Sarah: Right, there’s a balance. Actually, the imagination used rightly is a balancing factor that creates a right tension between the inner and the outer levels of life where we need to function. We need to have that abstract awareness of the inner side of life that reveals meaning and significance to us, but we also need to live in a way that’s practical and visualization is a tool for this. For example, in meditation we can use visualization to serve the need of humanity in a spiritual way.
Dale: Visualization is very important in meditation, especially in the meditation work that we do and which we can discuss sometime. I was also going to mention the creative use of the imagination and visualization in healing, because this is another area where visualization is very important in directing healing energies.
Sarah: Didn’t you interview a nurse once about that? Doris Krieger, didn’t she work with visualization or am I wrong?
Dale: Yes, she did therapeutic touch and I believe there was some visualization involved in it. But I’m thinking particularly of group healing, groups involved in healing work that distribute energies from a distance, or even perhaps in the same room with the patient, where visualization on which part of the patient that needs healing is very important. It’s directing energies in a proper way and that very accurate and one pointed visualization is very necessary so that the energy gets directed properly.
Sarah: I wonder if people realize how much they visualize just instinctively or innately. I think every good businessperson is able to visualize; they may not realize it. Anybody who’s ever worked toward a goal and achieved it has practiced visualization. But what we’re talking about today is visualizing on a more spiritual level that deals with qualities such as love, the will to good, inclusiveness, sharing, justice, unity. If we can learn to visualize the expression of these qualities within ourselves and within our society, we can begin to create forms through which this energy, which lies behind these qualities, emerges.
Robert: I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page. I’m defining visualization as the act of creating a picture in the mind’s eye. Is that correct?
Sarah: Yes, except the only thing I question is what you might mean by picture, because visualization doesn’t concern only the creation of a form, it concerns the direction of energy. For example, when we close the program with the Great Invocation, we say Let light and love and power restore the Plan on Earth. That’s a statement of visualization that doesn’t really create a pictorial image, but it does evoke the mobilization of energy to imagine what a world in which light and love and power expressed themselves would be like. Do you see the difference?
Robert: Yes, very good; I’m really glad that you cleared that up for me. The Bible says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” How does this relate to imagination?
Sarah: Well, there’s a connection between the heart and the intuition. There’s a direct connection in the constitution of the human being, and we’ve talked before about the intuition being the Buddic nature. It’s that aspect of the human equipment or structure that enables us to touch with our mind the Plan of God. So, I think the imagination is a bridge between the heart centre — the spiritual heart — and the intuition.
Dale: Yes, the heart has to be involved, especially in healing. As we mentioned before and as the quote says, “as a man think in his heart…” The heart has to be involved for this energy of love to flow, and it’s extremely important to bring in the higher mind or the intuition.
Sarah: In a way, the heart is our authenticity, our truest self, you could say. It’s not just sensing and feeling, but our authentic identification with our fellow men.
Robert: You’ve been listening to Inner Sight. Now we would like to close with a world prayer called the Great Invocation. It’s a call for light and love and goodwill to flow into the world and into our heart. Let’s listen for a moment to these powerful words.
Sarah: Closes the program by reciting the adapted version of the Great Invocation.
(This is an edited transcript of a recorded radio program called “Inner Sight.” This conversation was recorded between the host, Robert Anderson, and the then President and Vice-President of Lucis Trust, Sarah and Dale McKechnie.)
(Transcribed and edited by Carla McLeod)
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