Guided Imagery
Guided Imagery is a gentle but powerful technique that focuses and directs the imagination. It can
be just as simple as an athlete`s 10-second reverie, just before leaping off the diving board, imagining
how a perfect dive feels when slicing through the water. Or it can be as complex as imagining the busy,
focused buzz of thousands of loyal immune cells, scooting out of the thymus gland on a search and
destroy mission to wipe out unsuspecting cancer cells.
Although it has been called "visualization" and "mental imagery", these terms are misleading. Guided
imagery involves far more than just the visual sense, and this is a good thing, given the fact that only
about 55% of the population is strongly wired visually. Instead, imagery involves all of the senses, and
almost anyone can do this. Neither is it strictly a "mental" activity, it involves the whole body, the
emotions and all the senses, and it is precisely this body-based focus that makes for its powerful impact.
When properly constructed, imagery has the built-in capacity to deliver multiple layers of complex,
encoded messages by way of simple symbols and metaphors. You could say it acts like a depth charge
dropped beneath the surface of the "bodymind", where it can reverberate again and again.
Over the past 25 years, the effectiveness of guided imagery has been increasingly established by
research findings that demonstrate its positive impact on health, creativity and performance. We now
know that in many instances even10 minutes of imagery can reduce blood pressure, lower cholesterol
and glucose levels in the blood, and heighten short- term immune cell activity. It can considerably
reduce blood loss during surgery and morphine use after it. It lessens headaches and pain. It can
increase skill at skiing, skating, tennis, writing, acting and singing; it accelerates weight loss and reduces
anxiety; and it has been shown, again and again, to reduce the aversive effects of chemotherapy,
especially nausea, depression and fatigue.
Because it is a right-brained activity, engaging in it will often be accompanied by other functions that
reside in that vicinity: emotion, laughter, sensitivity to music, openness to spirituality, intuition, abstract
thinking and empathy. And because it mobilizes unconscious and pre-conscious processes to assist with
conscious goals, it can bring to bear much more of a person`s strength and motivation to accomplish a
desired end. So, subtle and gentle as this technique is, it can be very powerful, and more and more so
over time.
One of the most appealing and forgiving features about imagery is that almost anyone can use it.
Although children and women probably have a slight, natural advantage, imagery skips across the
barriers of education, class, race, gender and age--a truly equal opportunity intervention. Even though it
can be considered a kind of meditation, it is easier for most westerners to use than traditional
meditation, as it requires less time and discipline to develop a high level of skill. This is because it
seduces the mind with appealing sensory images that have their own natural pull. And because it results
in a kind of natural trance state, it can be considered a form of hypnosis as well.
People can invent their own imagery, or they can listen to imagery that`s been created for them. Either
way, their own imaginations will sooner or later take over, because, even when listening to imagery
that`s been created in advance, the mind will automatically edit, skip, change or substitute what`s being
offered for what is needed. So even a tape, CD or written script will become a kind of internal launching
pad for the genius of each person`s unique imagination.
Guided Imagery is a gentle but powerful technique that focuses and directs the imagination. It can
be just as simple as an athlete`s 10-second reverie, just before leaping off the diving board, imagining
how a perfect dive feels when slicing through the water. Or it can be as complex as imagining the busy,
focused buzz of thousands of loyal immune cells, scooting out of the thymus gland on a search and
destroy mission to wipe out unsuspecting cancer cells.
Although it has been called "visualization" and "mental imagery", these terms are misleading. Guided
imagery involves far more than just the visual sense, and this is a good thing, given the fact that only
about 55% of the population is strongly wired visually. Instead, imagery involves all of the senses, and
almost anyone can do this. Neither is it strictly a "mental" activity, it involves the whole body, the
emotions and all the senses, and it is precisely this body-based focus that makes for its powerful impact.
When properly constructed, imagery has the built-in capacity to deliver multiple layers of complex,
encoded messages by way of simple symbols and metaphors. You could say it acts like a depth charge
dropped beneath the surface of the "bodymind", where it can reverberate again and again.
Over the past 25 years, the effectiveness of guided imagery has been increasingly established by
research findings that demonstrate its positive impact on health, creativity and performance. We now
know that in many instances even10 minutes of imagery can reduce blood pressure, lower cholesterol
and glucose levels in the blood, and heighten short- term immune cell activity. It can considerably
reduce blood loss during surgery and morphine use after it. It lessens headaches and pain. It can
increase skill at skiing, skating, tennis, writing, acting and singing; it accelerates weight loss and reduces
anxiety; and it has been shown, again and again, to reduce the aversive effects of chemotherapy,
especially nausea, depression and fatigue.
Because it is a right-brained activity, engaging in it will often be accompanied by other functions that
reside in that vicinity: emotion, laughter, sensitivity to music, openness to spirituality, intuition, abstract
thinking and empathy. And because it mobilizes unconscious and pre-conscious processes to assist with
conscious goals, it can bring to bear much more of a person`s strength and motivation to accomplish a
desired end. So, subtle and gentle as this technique is, it can be very powerful, and more and more so
over time.
One of the most appealing and forgiving features about imagery is that almost anyone can use it.
Although children and women probably have a slight, natural advantage, imagery skips across the
barriers of education, class, race, gender and age--a truly equal opportunity intervention. Even though it
can be considered a kind of meditation, it is easier for most westerners to use than traditional
meditation, as it requires less time and discipline to develop a high level of skill. This is because it
seduces the mind with appealing sensory images that have their own natural pull. And because it results
in a kind of natural trance state, it can be considered a form of hypnosis as well.
People can invent their own imagery, or they can listen to imagery that`s been created for them. Either
way, their own imaginations will sooner or later take over, because, even when listening to imagery
that`s been created in advance, the mind will automatically edit, skip, change or substitute what`s being
offered for what is needed. So even a tape, CD or written script will become a kind of internal launching
pad for the genius of each person`s unique imagination.