Sunday, August 5, 2007

The mundus imaginalis and imaginal encounters

The what? you ask. And anyway, why would anybody need or want to learn about what seems like such an esoteric concept? Isn’t that stuff just for mystics and Jungians and other strange folks? What importance could it possibly have for the rest of us?

My answer is, maybe nothing; but you might be surprised to learn that you’ve already been there and just didn’t know it. For me, the imaginal world provides a framework for understanding experiences that just can’t be explained by the version of reality that I was taught as a child. Dreams that seem way too vivid; encounters with ghosts or spirits; moments of intuition so profound that they change your life; psychic events like remote viewing or what’s commonly called ESP: all of these make sense if the imaginal world exists.

The first few posts in this journal were written for my other blog a year or so ago to try to explain, in simple but not simplistic terms, what the imaginal world is all about. In these and later posts I’ll share some of my experiences with imaginal figures—from Brian Kinney (my bad-boy alter ego) to Merlin the Magus to the group of imaginal women who are helping me write my dissertation.

Stay tuned. Comments are welcome.

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