Atlantis, Your Passport To The World Of Imagery

It would take a thousand words to explain what imagery is . . . but a picture is worth a thousand words . . . and a moment with imagery is worth a thousand pictures. Let's try this brief experiment to illustrate what imagery is all about.

Without even closing your eyes imagine you are in your kitchen. Go to the refrigerator. Grab the cold door handle and open the refrigerator. Listen to the hum of your refrigerator. Take out a lemon and smell it. Is it ripe and a little soft . . . or a little too hard? Either way pick up a sharp knife and go ahead and cut the lemon in half and then in half again. Take that lemon slice and bite into it.

A brief imagery . . . and yet you had almost all your senses involved within moments. And if your eyes had been closed, the experience would have been much more vivid and intense. Because imagery involves all of your senses, it is a much more powerful experience than the mere expression of words. If I had asked you to write down a description of a lemon, your mouth probably would not be watering.

Imagery involves entering an altered state of consciousness in which you may experience one or all of your senses at the same time. In that altered state we don't interact with the world in the usual way and our everyday concerns and worries drop away . . . even if just for a brief period. In that altered state we tend to experience more . . . and think less. In that altered state we can drop outdated and perhaps negative ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving and substitute healthier patterns.

Imagery is a way of refining and organizing a "natural process". Like a magnifying glass that focuses the sun's rays, imagery focuses what is already there. We all have immediate access to imagery at all times. In the clinical practice of imagery that "natural process" is focused so that you can help your patient solve specific problems.