Historical overview from seeing with the minds eye

Wolfgang Kretschmer, a German psychiatrist, has called many of these techniques "meditative." By meditative he means that the patient strives toward "self-realization, psychic freedom and harmony, and a lively creativity. At best, one achieves a Nirvana-like phenomena of joy and release. "2S Kretschmer summarizes meditative techniques as follows: "After a general bodily relaxation has been achieved, symbolic fantasies are skilfully induced. Then colours and objects are visualized . One endeavours to experience a symbolic representation of ideas . . . in a way which allows the psyche to make unconscious tendencies symbolically visible . "26 [The psychotherapist who wants to employ techniques of meditation must first be able to meditate himself. A personal dedication is necessary. Without it, individual practice of meditation can be dangerous especially the advanced states of genuine meditation as described by Schultz] Dr. Wolfgang Kretschmer, Jr. MD (1951) Dr. Carl Happich, a German internist with knowledge of both Oriental meditation techniques and Western psychotherapy, developed a technique in the 1920's and 1930's which is now used by a number of therapists in Europe and the United States. Happich theorized that there is a level of consciousness called symbolic consciousness, wh ich lies between consciousness and unconsciousness. At this level, the "collective unconscious" expresses itself with symbols. Happich first instructed his patients to relax deeply . He then directed them to imagine leaving the room, going across fields to a meadow. When patients had visualized the meadow, they were asked to describe in detail what they experienced there. This visualization exercise was called the meadow meditation . In later sessions Happich used the mountain meditation",in which patients visualized themselves climbing a mountain and describing the view; the chapel meditation, in which patients entered into a chapel and remained there; and finally, a meditation in which people visualized themselves sitting on a bench by an old fountain, listening to the water. Happich believed that at a meditative level of mind the meadow, mountain and chapel images go beyond everyday life and become archetypal, primordial symbols. The meadow symbolizes "youthful Mother Nature in her serene and beneficent aspect,"27 the positive, creative side of a person's life. The ascent of a mountain represents man achieving the goal of psychic freedom. A forest, experienced in reaching the meadow or in climbing a mountain, represents the dark and fearful side of a person's nature and often is the home of demons. The chapel represents a room within the person's inner self, wherein the person confronts the central problems of his or her life.
[The meadow is a basic symbol which represents the primordial, creative basis of a person's life and is a natural departure point for visualizing other symbolic images such as a forest or a stream.]

After patients had spent time visualizing these scenes, Happich directed them to the design meditation. The patient was instructed to visualize a mandala, to "psychically identify himself with the symbol and integrate the meaning of the symbol with his psychic Iife."28 It is interesting to note that while Jung found archetypal symbols and mandalas are often perceived spontaneously during receptive visualization or free association, Happich directly presented such symbols to his patients for their exploration.

Hans Carl Leuner, a prominent German psychiatrist from the University of Goettingen, developed a therapy called Guided Affective Imagery (GAl) in the 1950's and 1960's. In Gal therapy the patient lies on a couch in a quiet, partially darkened room. The patient is given verbal suggestions to relax. Leuner says, "It is essential to understand that when the patient is in this state of induced relaxation, the mind is functioning differently than in situations of alert consciousness. During GAl, the patient's state of consciousness is similar to that which occurs in meditative states. It is often surprising to hear him excitedly describe vivid colours and detailed forms which are experienced as parts of a totally new world. The patient paradoxically seems to be living in this fantasy world while he simultaneously knows that he is doing this with his therapist for purposes of treatment. "29 When thoroughly relaxed, the patient is asked by Leuner "to imagine a meadow, any meadow that comes to mind. "30 Leuner allows the patient to develop his own visual fantasy around the word "meadow." The meadow is the first of "ten standard imaginary situations" that the patient is asked to visualize. According to Leuner, the meadow may represent a fresh start, the patient's present mood, the Garden of Eden, or a patient's motherchild relationship. In the second situation the patient is directed to find a path in the meadow that leads through a forest to a mountain. Then the patient is asked to climb the mountain and describe the view. Leuner says that the symbolism of the mountain pertains to the patient's career and achievements. [Cathedrals and chapels are symbols of the religious function in man. They represent the deep place in man's psyche where he relates to psychic transformation and faces the basic questions of existence.] [The image of a forest serves to stimulate the emergence of deeply-repressed symbolic figures. The darkness and earthiness of a forest symbolize the perils of the unknown, the home of demons and dark creaturesThe viewer can either watch creatures in the clearing or confront them there.] In the third situation, the patient is directed to look around the meadow, find a brook, and follow it, either downstream to the ocean, or upstream to the source. The brook symbolizes the flow of psychic energy and potential for emotional development. The brook or spring can also represent magic healing fluid. Some people visualize themselves bathing in the liquid, rubbing it on their bodies or drinking it. [Springs are age- old symbols of refreshment and healing. In psychoanalytical terms the waters of a spring call be identified with the womb. A person visualizing himself next to a sacred spring feels relieved and refreshed by the magic fluids.] In the next situation, the fourth, the patient is directed to visualize a house and to explore the rooms. The house is a symbol of the patient's personality, onto which he can project all his fears and wishes. In the fifth situation, the patient is asked to return to the meadow and then to visualize a close relative. The patient's description represents his emotional relationships. In the sixth situation, the patient is asked to visualize sexual situations. In the seventh situation, Leuner asks the patient to visualize a lion in a cage, jungle

or desert. The patient's visualization of the lion is seen to represent his aggressive tendencies. In the eighth situation, the patients are asked to visualize a person of their own sex. Typically, patients visualize someone who they would like to be, helping them to work out their own identity. In the ninth situation, the patient is asked to visualize himself or herself at a safe distance from the forest or cave . .}1 The patient is directed to watch for a creature to emerge. This visualization helps to stimulate the emergence of deeply repressed symbolic figures-Witches, giants and monsters. In the tenth and final situation, the patient is asked to visualize a swamp in the corner of the meadow and describe a figure emerging from it. Leuner feels this figure is symbolic of deeply repressed, archaic sexual material. [Looking into the dark opening of a cave often evokes fearsome creatures that represent repressed material. The images may be of an archaic, instinctual nature. The cave, seen in this way, represents the unconscious.] Leuner says that the patient may be intensely frightened by the images experienced in the last two situations. He uses two techniques to deal with the deep fears that may arise. In the first technique, confrontation, the patient is directed to stare into the eyes of the frightening creature. Leuner believes that this confrontation helps the patient to discover what the creature means and eventually serves to banish the creature or transform it into a known person or into a more benign form. During this process, the patient is supported and encouraged by the therapist. The second, milder, technique Leuner uses to deal with these apparitions involves feeding. The patient is directed to feed the creature, in fact to overfeed the creature, until it is satiated and goes to sleep. Leuner also uses two supplementary techniques for dealing with the creature, reconciliation, in which the patient attempts to make friends with the creature, and, a dangerous last resort in which the patient exhausts and kills the monster. Leuner says, "I often give control of the therapeutic process to the patient's psyche. There appears to be a spontaneous inner pacemaker whose influence over the treatment process can be invoked by the GAl method. This is accomplished by asking the patient to let himself be guided by one of his own benign symbolic figures."32 Leuner uses GAl to help people stimulate their imagination, to help psychotherapists diagnose a patient's illness (using the ten standard situations like a Rohrschach test), as a basis for free association in therapy, and as a therapy in itself. Psychosynthesis, a series of techniques described by the Italian psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli, aims toward "harmonious integration" 33 of human nature. Among its techniques is symbolic visualization. In this technique patients sit in a comfortable chair, close their eyes, and relax. Patients are then directed to visualize various symbols in their mind's eye. In discussing the uses of symbolic visualization, Robert Gerard, a Los Angeles psychologist, notes that at first patients are often troubled by intrusive thoughts and images and that they must learn to control their imaginative processes in order to focus on specific images. Gerard believes that as patients learn to focus on an image they increase their control over their inner and outer lives. Gerard uses four types of symbols in therapy. He has the patient visualize, then hold the image of these symbols. The first group of

symbols is of synthesis, integration and balance. Examples of such symbols are sunflowers, a white dot at the center of a white circle, a cross, a five- or sixpointed white star, and various mandalas. The second group of symbols relates to " harmonious human relations. "34 An example of this group is two hands clasping one another. The third group concerns symbols of masculinity and femininity: for example, a shining sword (masculine) or a gold cup (feminine). The fourth group is symbols of affective states. Gerard uses color visualization to bring about affective states. For instance, patients may picture themselves in a globe of light of a particular color, or they may visualize an object of a particular color. Gerard also directs patients to change images. For example, a seed might be changed to a tree, a worm to a butterfly. Gerard has the patient picture sequences of images in scenes symbolic of the patient's problem . For example, a man rebuilding his personality might visualize rebuilding a house. If such images do not come spontaneously to the patient Gerard will suggest an image. Gerard uses several techniques of receptive visualization to promote symbolic imagery. If patients have any bodily feelings of tension, they are asked to visualize associated images. To visualize affective states, patients are directed to imagine a door with the name of an affective state, such as love, written on the door. Patients are then asked to open the door and describe what they see. Similarly, patients may be asked to visualize a large heart, bigger than themselves, with a door which they can walk through. Gerard also asks patients to hold a word or thought in their minds, such as justice or altruism, and to watch for an associated visual image to appear. All of these techniques are designed to help the patient find a visual image that corresponds to verbal thought. These images can then be held in the mind in order to achieve personal goals. [The image of a sword is associated with traditional masculine qualities-power, strength, liberty and aggression. Visualization of a sword and restoration of it if it is in disrepair can strengthen the masculine side of a person's personality.] [The chalice or cup symbolizes the feminine qualities of receptivity and containment. Visualization and cleaning or polishing of the cup strengthen feminine aspects of a person's personality.] R. Desoille, a French psychologist, has developed a therapy which he calls Reve Eveille or Directed Daydreams . Desoille instructs his patients to "psychically wander"-visualizing and experiencing what they see. Desoille is especially interested in patients' visualizations of ascent or descent. In their psychic wanderings, patients encounter obstacles, as well as helpful and malevolent figures, all of which they recount to Desoille. As the therapist is told aoout the visualization, he "suggests to the patient a symbolic means of changing his (the patient's) situation by climbing or descending. The therapist does not suggest the whole fantasy; rather, he gives only a direction and maintains control of the fantasy by offering helpful symbols which can serve as points of crystallization for the fantasy."35 The visualized ascent symbolizes "creative sublimation," that is, transformation of the psyche and development toward psychic freedom. Visualized descent symbolizes man's instinctual motivations. Learning to visualize such symbolic ascents and descents helps patients to control their archetypal images, and thus lose their fear of them. As patients ascend, they

encounter images of spiritual figures and situations; as they descend, they encounter symbolic situations related to basic drives. Another form of visualization therapy was developed by Walter Frederking, a German psychotherapist of the 1940's. He referred to his technique as deep relaxation and symbolism .3/> In this technique patients are led through a deep relaxation run and then told to describe their visualizations. Frederking encourages patients to visualize symbolic strip thought, like scenes from a movie. Patients are further encouraged to interact with the figures in the scenes they visualize. Other therapists have expanded this technique to have patients become identified with elements from their fantasies. For example, a woman may be asked to imagine that she is a figure or an object in her visualization and then be asked to reenact the visualization from that point of view. Present day Gestalt therapists on the West Coast such as Fritz Perls ask their patients to imagine that they are each of the figures in a scene in succession. For example, if a man visualizes a person hitting a dog with a stick, he is directed to visualize himself as the person, then as the dog, then as the stick, reporting the incident from each point of view. Yet another visualization therapy was developed by the German psychotherapist Friederich Mauz in the 1940's. His therapy is a narrower and more directed form of visualization. Mauz developed this therapy in his work with psychotics because he thought that less structured techniques might be dangerous for such patients. Mauz directs his patients to visualize scenes full of positive symbols. Mauz asks patients to recall very pleasant memories from their childhood such as Christmas Eve, family celebrations, parades, a river at sunrise, or a page from a children's book. Mauz talks to the patients about these scenes using their own words and images and directs them to visualize the scene. He also has patients visualize Happich's "meadow," but he suggests a number of positive images the patient will encounter. Mauz feels that visualization of these highly positive scenes unlocks suppressed emotions and stimulates a natural healing in the patient. In this chapter we have given an overview of many of the contemporary therapies that use visualization techniques. We have described in detail a number of those techniques. We have not included actual visualization exercises. However, these techniques as a whole are very graphic and bear strong similarities to visualization exercises elsewhere in this book. The techniques described in this chapter lend themselves to use both as receptive and programmed visualizations. We hope that readers will be stimulated to adapt some of these techniques for use in exploring their own inner world. Psychology, that is the area of study dealing with a person's state of mind, broadly overlaps the other areas in this section of the book. The reader will find other techniques applicable to, and used in, psychology throughout the rest of the chapters and in Daily Life. The technique of role playing or role rehearsal is discussed in another chapter (page 169). The technique of autogenic training will be discussed in detail in the chapter on healing (page 223226);