Welcome
To The Journey That Opens The World.
A project exploring how the imaginal realm can be propagated into the world for the benefit of humanity.
The People
The project connects a wide range of practitioners who are using Imaginal Practice to create positive transformation in the world.
Each of us has integrated deep and complex aspects of experience in an embodied way, with the imaginal being a key component in how we were able to do this.
We are all using this wisdom to create systems, practices, tools and knowledge that propagate the benefits of working with the imaginal and can be shared in a huge range of settings.
The Potential
Imaginal practice has the potential to transform experience in any setting.
It opens doors to new ways of being and relating that can radically shift how we relate to our experience and each other. People often describe it as a bit like doing psychedelics or dreaming while you are awake.
The benefits of unlocking the imaginal realm in experience are far-reaching, from an increased level of safety and trust in each other; to a wider range of authentic expression; to a more whole-hearted and courageous approach to showing up for difficulties; to generating more creative thinking.
It can fundamentally change how we work, play, relate, understand and feel; creating richness, flow, aliveness, honesty and depth.
Spirituality
Opening new doors to whole-heartedness, inclusion of all experience and interconnection
Business
Unlocking new ways of working together and the key to a brand new style of creative problem-solving
Mental Health
Healing at a depth that is difficult to reach in any other way
Academia
Researching the cutting edge of experience on an individual and collective level
The Practice
People often describe Imaginal Practice as akin to taking psychedelics or dreaming while you are awake.
Imaginal practice is loosely defined as connecting with the part of experience that is fuelled by imagination, intuition and soulfulness. Accessing it can be like entering a new realm.
When people are first introduced to imaginal practice, the subconscious realm of experience can open up; as if before people were always looking at the surface of experience and suddenly they are given the capacity to be able to dive underwater and explore.
It can open a door into a direct and intimate connection with the depths and richness of the full range of human and collective experience. This unleashes creativity, deepens emotional resonance, heals trauma, uncovers true purpose and unlocks new paradigms for people.
It is simultaneously an incredibly radical way of relating to the world and experience, and once you have experienced it, the most obvious thing in the world.
About Imaginal Journeying
Some of the key imaginal practices and cultures that we are building upon include, but aren’t limited to: Jung’s Active Imagination, Rob Burbea’s Soul-Making Dharma, Tantric Buddhism, Shamanic Journeying, Cliff Barry’s Shadow Work Therapy and George Lakoff’s Metaphors We Live By.
One of the main ingredients we bring is including the relational aspect of experience. Humans are all in this together and if we are going to find better ways of living, we need to transform how we relate to the world and each other and fast.
We use the cutting edge of experiential technologies to bring people into a place of alignment with each other and the deepest nature of their beings, so that they can move from this place even when they are faced with challenges.
Join The Journey
The Journey That Opens The World, refers to both ‘Imaginal Journeying’ as a concept and to the journey that we, as leaders, are taking people on.
We want to create a world where everyone has the capacity, skills and wisdom that imaginal practice can unlock for people.
If you’re interested in joining the journey as a practitioner or supporting the project, please get in touch.
You can read more about what it means to be involved in the Vision Document. Rosa has also been documenting conversations from the project, which you can watch here.
hello@imaginaljourneying.com
Practice
If you’re interested in exploring imaginal practice, here are some places to start:
- Rosa Lewis’ Overview of Imaginal Practice
- River Kenna’s writing on the Imaginal and online courses
- The Dharamagarage guided meditations
- Awakening course (currently in development)
If you would like to try one-to-one guided imaginal practice here are some people you could contact. Each will have different focuses, skill-sets and qualifications so please do your own research to discover if someone is a good fit for you: Rosa Lewis, River Kenna, Kaloyan Stefanov, Maija Haavisto, Jane Miller, David Lassiter, Theo at Untangling Self.
Or there are some adjacent modalities that we are inspired by that incorporate some elements of working with the imaginal. Some things you could look for are Internal Family Systems Therapy, Shadow Work Therapy, Somatic Experiencing and Soulmaking Dharma.
Support
All our practitioners are incredibly motivated and talented individuals who believe in the long-term, lasting positive impact their projects will make.
Financial support aids this process – either as personal grants or investment to help bring projects into the world.
If you might be interested in contributing to the financial support of a project that could pioneer new ways of being or transform things at a systemic level, feel free to reach out to people directly or contact Rosa to discuss the full range of opportunities available.
hello@imaginaljourneying.com
Case Study
Joost Vervoort
Associate Professor of Transformative Imagination
Utrecht University
Written September 2021
“I’ve been working closely with Rosa for a little over a year and her guidance has pretty much transformed the way I live, and, importantly, the way I work and lead. Her influence on my practice, experience and worldview is pervasive and highly multidimensional, so this will be oversimplifying the impact of my work with her.
Perhaps the biggest impact on my practice and life has been through imaginal practice. Working with the interaction between body, heart, mind and ‘soul’ (or the sense of interconnected meaning and storylines for those of us less inclined to this language) – to engage with the imagination in a complete and embodied manner.
I have been an imaginative person all my life, and my imagination is now a large part of my profession as a researcher and lecturer focused on more sustainable futures. I have also been a meditation practitioner for my entire adult life. But the integration of these parts of my experience and skills has been an enormous catalyst. It has made my imagination and thinking more embodied and integrated – and it has made the ways in which my embodied experience is naturally supported by my imagination much clearer.
As a result, I am better able to work with various faculties – imagination, empathy, reflection, and the facilitation of these processes for other people.
I’ve become better at recognizing and allowing space for my best traits and talents. For instance, the notion of ‘dark joy’ – being playful and joyful in a way that is allowed to have a shadow side, to have wildness, to break societal expectations.
The importance of safety has been another theme; realizing how important a sense of safety is for people to be able to take risks and do complex things has made me better as a teacher and mentor in my various roles.
I’d like to give one interesting concrete example. Inspired by a court case against my pension fund that is currently being set up to get the fund to divest from fossil fuels, I am building a courthouse game inspired by a popular Japanese game series called Phoenix Wright. The game will inform people how to go about high stakes climate cases – as well as to raise money for actual court cases. The idea is attracting lots of interest across the board.
This example demonstrates how I am mobilizing what I have learned through this approach to practice.
I could very easily bring up many examples of how my life has been impacted – in my work, my relationships, in my own guidance of others in meditation practice, in my artwork, and my music. I think the possibility space for this type of inclusive, multidimensional practice, with a strong focus on imaginal skills, is enormous.”
The Imaginal Realm
One of the most important aspects of experience that we want to share with people is that the imaginal realm is not something that you just make up.
It is a way of tapping into the depths of the ineffable and unseen aspects of reality. Of being in touch with the energies and invisible parts, that are as real as our physical worlds, even though they are hidden and formless.
Opening to the imaginal realm gives us the language and senses for feeling these parts of ourselves, each other and the world around us.
To illustrate this here are some vignettes of the imaginal realm.
“When I’m with A it’s like everything is a magical flowing river. Everything is always moving and going somewhere and yet it is also just being an expression of its river self with nowhere else it needs to go.
It can move through wildly different phases – sadness, energy, happiness; lovely little streams, quiet eddies and vast deep forces. Everything is included and swept up in the flow. Things bubble up to the surface from the depths of being and there is a dark undercurrent that flows beneath the surface. There’s the intelligence of an entire interconnected eco-system that lives within and around the river that is utilised in its own growth and for the nourishment it shares with the world. This very alive eco-system is also part of the living breathing expression of its natural joy and beauty.”