Being perspicacious, I originally intuited that perception was active, not passive, like with the “we are in here and the world is out there:” this was intentionality of course. I could focus the world: there was an “interconnection” here . . . one became “more together,” and simultaneously, the world in this focus was clearer, more colorful, more meaningful . . . “a mutual arising of Self and Existence,” as I put it. Consequently, this is also highly related to one’s awareness, Self, and consciousness per se. Our “Intrinsic nature.”

The later issues came in with people saying it was “this” or “that:” They had no sense of this more together level at all. I had to play the game. There was this “construct” idea, I guess, “internalization of the external world,” “personality.” After long considerations though, I finally realized what people were actually doing was what I called “externalizations,” and I didn’t have to take them too seriously, for their levels of interpretation were lackluster. There is that colloquial level of social interpretation, even giving Dr. Phil a hard time.

Knowing of the higher potential levels, I was able to work on this construct in a different way . . . I brought in “intent and the figure/ground,” as my rule of thumb. Even here I found this difficult; but I got out of my separateness and the two minds . . . how could the “greater mind be more intelligent if its unconscious?” . . . when I realized that we were “a Self entwined within an interactive field of meaning and knowledge,” as I labeled it. The interactions were then allowed to come in! From here I was able to follow up upon a few other explanations, like Don Juan’s talk of the first gate, second gate, and third gates of Dreaming. My focus was “activating” further levels of Dreaming.

My analogy with the figure/ground was they were like the small parts of a jig-saw puzzle, the bigger picture, greater meanings. The point is, is when we become active, one can engage and enliven those further parts of the associated meanings. They were realistic and meaningful!

So, this focus, intent, can come in a variety of workable ways now! Interconnected, and the further focus.

The point is to be active: moving from my approach and to Jung’s classic ways for instance . . .

In Psychological Types, Jung deepens his reflections on fantasy thinking by differentiating two types of fantasy thinking, namely “passive fantasy” and “active fantasy” (Jung, 1921/1971, p. 428 [CW6, para. 712]). Passive fantasy is a subjective figment of the mind whilst active fantasy is an image-making, form-creative activity. In his distinction of terms, he seemed to have been following the medieval alchemists who emphasised the difference between daydreams and creative imagination or phantasia and imaginatio. In fact, in The Tavistock Lectures he equated “active fantasy” with imagination proper “per veram imaginationem et non phantastica” and explained that fantasy is “mere nonsense” while imagination is “active purposeful creation” (Jung, 1935/1976, p. 171 [CW18, para. 396]).

Cassar, Laner. Jung’s Technique of Active Imagination and Desoille’s Directed Waking Dream Method (Research in Analytical Psychology and Jungian Studies) (p. 15). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

The union of conscious and unconscious contents will give rise to a psychological function “the transcendent function.” In Yoga and the West, Jung stated that the method of active imagination: “[…] consists in a special training for switching off consciousness, at least to a relative extent, thus giving the unconscious contents a chance to develop” (Jung, 1936/1969, pp. 536–537 [CW11, para. 875]).

Cassar, Laner. Jung’s Technique of Active Imagination and Desoille’s Directed Waking Dream Method (Research in Analytical Psychology and Jungian Studies) (p. 17). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

This image, at the point of the figure/ground . . . with intent reaching out, like a flexing muscle, or a hose filling fully . . . becomes activated. I moved from the original down to Earth contexts of going beyond one’s filters, to the more abstract, moving out of one’s models of the world, like that of the typical social order, becoming multifaceted, multidimensional. They become more real, and if this represents who you are, or what is going on . . . Wow!

. . . while in the E.T.H. lectures he stated that a “second personality brings about an absolute change in character” (p. 106). He also stated that since the patient “is no longer dependent on his dreams or on his doctor’s knowledge,” he “gives shape to himself” (Jung, 1931/1966, p. 49 [CW16, para. 106]).

Cassar, Laner. Jung’s Technique of Active Imagination and Desoille’s Directed Waking Dream Method (Research in Analytical Psychology and Jungian Studies) (p. 21). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

The Other, second personality, and Don Juan’s third gate of dreaming . . . starting to get a match here. I’d say that’s due to our more core functioning, intrinsic levels, that’s related to this deeper self, which we can adjust to, orientate around, and move into new forms of interpretation and understanding. (Addendum: The flows of motivation, the hierarchy of needs, like Maslow’s, may be related to all this, moving from the physical/security, through the social/personal, into that higher process of self-actualization.) Identity.

An interesting stage here: I was speaking of the “other;” but I just discovered its an actual topic with Jung. (So I purchased the book.) I was moving along in the social world, while others were saying, beside the Covid issues being tough, there were “other” issues that were difficult to deal with as well. It seems the ways consider everything and keep it all moving forward . . . lol.