About
The imaginal realm is the part of experience that expresses itself through imagination, intuition, meaningfulness and soulfulness. The imaginal realm can’t be contained within a purely rational understanding. Being connected to the imaginal realm includes opening to aspects of experience that are normally in shadow and this is what creates a lot of its richness.
The benefits of being awake to the imaginal realm are far-reaching, from an increased depth of connection; 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. Being in touch with it can both immerse you in interconnection and take you along the path of individuation.
Here are some of the things that define the imaginal realm.
Experiential
The imaginal realm is something that is experienced, rather than something that can be contained by the rational mind. In order to understand the imaginal realm, someone has to do the practice that puts them in touch with it first hand.
How experience of the imaginal manifests will be unique for each person in every moment.
Imagine different people looking at a piece of art that depicts a vast, empty ocean and each person noticing their inner experience. For some people the image of the ocean may bring up feelings of peace and spaciousness, for other people longing and loneliness and other people possibility and excitement. There are an infinite number of experiences that an image can evoke in a person.
Connecting with the imaginal is even richer because it includes an entire gestalt of images, emotions, energies, intuitions, interconnection and more.
Realising how everyone’s inner world is an entirely unique, rich, tapestry of experience is an important part of understanding the imaginal.
More Than Imagination
Accessing the imaginal realm doesn’t come from just sitting down and visualising something. It’s about coming into contact with the depths of being.
Connecting with the imaginal immerses you in a soulful, whole-hearted way of being that expresses itself through the body, the emotions, relationships and lived-experiences, as much as through the imaginative mind.
Accessing this requires a level of safety and trust that you can connect with what is present in a wholehearted way, including shadows and challenging aspects of experience. The practice doesn’t work when you are in closed-minded or closed-hearted connection or you are trying to control experience in some fundamental way.
We have defined three different levels of relating to the imaginal, each with an increasing level of depth of connection:
- Psychologised: the imaginal is something the rational mind ‘makes up’, but is nonetheless a valuable thing to connect to
- Subconscious: the inner world is inherently imaginal. Subconscious experience can be uncovered and explored through this lens, often as part of healing or individuation
- Transpersonal: the imaginal is an innate part of experience that exists in its own right and lives through everything
Innate
The imaginal isn’t something you add on to experience, it’s an underlying quality that is already in the background of experience and you can learn to peel back the layers and attune to it.
Joost Vervoort describes, “An important element of this work is helping people recognise that everything has an imaginal aspect to it. Embodied imagination is everywhere and a part of everything, even when people aren’t aware of it.
There’s an imaginal eco system that is always living through you and when people aren’t aware of this their imaginaries become ideology; people develop false fixed ideas of ‘how things are’, rather than being open and receptive to reality and experience.”
Some very simple examples of common experiences that have an imaginal quality to them are having ‘butterflies in your tummy’ or noticing how you are impacted by the vibe of a room.
Transformative
Engaging with the imaginal realm has the potential to transform experience in any setting. Being in touch with the imaginal opens doors to new ways of being and relating that can radically shift how people relate to themselves, other people and the world.
It can allow you to be more deeply in touch with your direct experience and reveal aspects of experience that were previously obscure or hidden from view. This requires some courage to go towards the unknown or the shadow.
Connection with the imaginal realm can create greater degrees of freedom for people. For example, by helping people feel more creative, more connected, more alive and more wholehearted.
Connecting with the imaginal realm can also create a complete shift in context of who you are and what the world is. The imaginal realm can change how you relate to what experience is on a fundamental level, opening the door for deep spiritual explorations.
Relational
We are passionate about including the relational aspect of experience in the imaginal realm because if humans are going to find better ways of living this needs to come from a place of relating to each other and the world differently.
Relational imaginal practices are also some of the most effective for revealing new parts of experience – of yourself, others or the world. They bring you into contact with the kaleidoscope of experience that other people’s realities can be, opening doors to new ways of thinking, being and feeling. Through practice you can also sense the details of the relational field and how this shows up in experience.
By bringing the relational into the practice, it also becomes easier for people to actualise the experience in their lives and relationships. Rather than having to translate a solitary contemplative practice into a relational setting or convert an intellectual idea into something that can be lived and embodied, relational imaginal practices offer direct ways of being together that are more intimate, soulful, honest, wholehearted and expressive.
Collective
The Imaginal Realm is not just a mental process that can be accessed in your individual psyche, it lives through the body and expresses itself through the collective unfolding.
Jane Miller describes how she is, “continually awed at how the imaginal weaves all of our individual, relational, and collective stories together and the complexity of that.”
The imaginal realm connects you with meaning and purpose on a collective level. It helps people feel more inspired and resourced to contribute to the world and gives people greater capacity to be self-managing and take a leadership role.
Through his work, Joost Vervoort asks the questions, “What would happen if those involved in systems change recognize their work as mystic poetry?”
The imaginal realm is often neglected and not included in individual or societal worldviews. It’s really important to propagate more of this into the world, but connecting to the imaginal realm is not an end goal in and of itself. It’s a portal into a more full spectrum way of being that also includes being helpful, practical and engaged with the world. It’s feeling empowered to be present in a fuller way and inviting others to connect at this level of depth and wholeness.
Being in touch with the imaginal realm creates a trust in the fundamental intelligence of what is unfolding and it can facilitate deep and powerful paradigm shifts, towards greater love, capacity and maturity.
“Being in touch with the imaginal is like falling in love with experience. The eros really does something that is qualitatively different to loving kindness and other types of love or connection.
Connection with the imaginal and the attitude of deep reverence and humility that it brings, is what is missing in people’s capacity to relate to the world in a whole and beautiful way.
It’s challenging to say what is true in life and to do what is most virtuous – someone who has fallen in love with truth and the process of whole-hearted emergence is going to feel nourished to be able to do that.”