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The fifth tool is primarily a tool of the heart. But it is also the connecting point for mind, emotions, and body. This is an important tool, because it is with this tool that we not only change our beliefs and decisions, but actually fuel and activate our dynamic heart and begin the true dance that will create our reality anew. This is the tool of imagination. 
Think of the imagination as a doorway, a swinging door, a portal for two-way communication. It is the place where we can communicate to and receive messages from the subconscious and what has been called the super-conscious. It is the doorway through which spirit and soul speak to each other. It is the connecting point between this reality and that other more mysterious realm of possibility, where the soul dwells and inspiration comes from. Through this doorway we reach our Dynamic Heart. It is the place where magic can happen. It is, quite literally, the Door to Everything. By themselves, the other tools will bring results. Crying alone will eventually bring clarity and wisdom, and will help awaken desire. Affirming and goal setting alone will push on the belief system and cause shifts in our lives, especially if we allow the process to trigger our old pain so that we can cry it. But this last tool is the way we bring all of our SELF together to make magic. There are several ways to use this tool.  Directing (With the Mind) - Where Spirit speaks to Soul / subconscious Listening (To the Soul) - Where Soul speaks to Spirit Appropriation (Getting What You Need) Fueling the Dynamic Heart - Where the Magic Happens PROJECTING From the Mind This kind of imaging is very powerful when working with changing our beliefs and changing our decisions. The mind is good at directing traffic, and with this type of imaging we allow the mind to direct the movie that is defined by our desire. Having set a goal to achieve our desire, mind then builds a picture of the goal as a fait accompli. In other words, we imagine it as a done thing. Already accomplished. We build the image in as great a detail as we can, and we infuse the image with the emotion that we feel when we think of the desired thing or state of being.
The emotion here is important. If you find that you don't feel joy or interest or excitement when imagining your goal, it may be that this isn't something you truly desire. OR, it may be that you have many emotional roadblocks that are surfacing and need to be felt and expressed. Don't try to manufacture joy or excitement that you don't feel. Just let yourself sink into your feelings to find out what you really do feel. You may find pain that needs to be healed. And once that layer of pain is healed, you may find you no longer want what you thought you wanted. You may find some other desire that was hiding underneath the blockage. In that case you may need to change your goal to match your newly found desire. That's part of the process too. RECEIVING from the Soul / Feelings In this type of imaging, we try to unhook the mind from the process entirely. We don't want the mind to dictate whatever pictures may arise. We want, in this case, to listen, to allow feelings to lead, to reveal hidden desire and pain, and bring to the table whatever messages or memories are hidden there. This may be very difficult to do at first, as most of us don't have immediate access to our soul, where our emotions reside. And often the pain we've experienced in the past is stored in little bubbles that we no longer have access to. It's all still connected to us, so it's just a matter of calling to it, drawing it in and through the Door. But the soul essence that comes through the Door must be given acceptance, no matter what it feels. If it is allowed to cry out all of it's feelings, the pain will evolve and heal. Even something that seems horrendous, such as a desire to kill, can be fully cried and healed, if given acceptance and love. If you stand on your side of the Door and coax your feelings to come close, and then slam the door shut when it looks like you won't like the feelings you see there, you are simply repeating the same mistakes that we've been enacting throughout time. When using the Door as a listening tool, it may be helpful to have a way to start. Create a "listening arena" for yourself. For instance, I often imagine myself going into a room with no windows, a comfortable chair, and a blank white wall. I allow myself to relax completely (a process that used to take a while, but now only takes a moment or two), and then I ask "inside" for pictures to be shown to me on the wall. And like a movie screen, usually an image pops up. I don't try to make the image be or do anything, I just watch and listen and feel. The more I watch and listen and feel, the more the pictures take on a life of their own. From there the room often transforms into other places, and my imaging takes on a dreamlike quality. I have received some very lost parts in this way. I have also received some very interesting guidance in this way. Often shamans will talk about reaching into this place to find their power animal and receive wisdom and messages from that part of themselves. Reaching out and listening to one's small and lost parts is a little different, and requires a slightly different intent and focus. Imagine that once you open the Door, you can travel more than one direction, and find more than one type of essence there. You have parts of yourself in non-ordinary reality that are more in touch with God or the Mother, and you also have parts of yourself that are lost and hurting and unconscious. You can, in listening mode, get your "big" parts to help you contact your "little" parts. It's all waiting there on the other side of the veil, and the Door of Everything is your access point. Read: Words of CautionAPPROPRIATION How Imaging Works to Aid Emotional Healing The word Appropriation, as we use it here, means using the imaging process for getting what you need for growth and change.
If I had a lousy childhood with neglectful or critical or even abusive parents, one of the primary things I need to do is heal my inner child's wounds and re-parent him/her. I do this with imagery. Do not scoff, or dismiss this as "just imaginary". Comfort received through imaging is very real, and can contribute greatly to our healing. Imagining a new mother who holds and comforts and doesn't hit is a powerful way to help the damaged inner child heal. But the inner child must be allowed to cry the pain of the past while this is happening. Sometimes I "appropriate" (bring in, adopt, imagine ... steal) characteristics from people I've met, or characters in movies I've seen. For a long time I imagined that I had a father figure that looked and felt like John Coffey from The Green Mile. I knew he was big enough and purely loving enough to protect me and give me what I needed. I brought him into my inner world and let him reparent my damaged children. Imagine the child being loved, imagine feeling that love for the child, and imagine the child feeling loved. By imaging these things you are appropriating what you need from the universe, and its effects can be very real, if you can let yourself move through all the emotions that need to be felt and cried. Of course, if one can do this with one's actual parent, so much the better. For one thing, the healing effects will be two-way. But that's often not possible. Sometimes it's possible to have a counselor or friend "stand in" for the missing parent, and getting the much-needed acceptance this way can be very healing as well. But those who are alone, without parents, without friends, without counselor ... can still heal. Imaging to Fuel the Dynamic Heart The Dynamic Heart is the creative mechanism within each of us that has the power to create our reality, and imaging is the fuel that awakens and sparks the dynamic heart to life. Bringing mind, emotions, and body together in this fifth tool is a powerful mixture that activates and thrills the dynamic heart. It is as if mind, emotions and body combine to make the most powerful fuel imaginable. Poured together into the dynamic heart, the images and desires and thoughts given there are surrounded with love, shot with an injection of loving light, and sent out into the world to create. Imagine a powerful engine bursting to life. Imagine a runner, shot off the mark. Imagine a dancer, leaping high high higher still into the air seeming to defy gravity. This is the kind of joy and power in the dynamic heart. It has been said that all you need is love. If that were true, our pathway home would be easy. But we have other feelings too, and having been so long suppressed and judged, we now have a lot of backlog to heal before we'll be able to bring our ENTIRE selves to the dynamic heart. We must bring our point of awareness to these dark places. We must accept the feelings and allow them to cry. We must remember our desire, allow ourselves to WANT, and to strive for our desires. And we must use imaging from mind, emotions and body together to fuel the creative machinery of the Dynamic Heart. These are the Tools I have given you to fight the Secret Battle. READ: How the Tools Work Together  |
