Imaginal Yoga: A Practical Bridge to Re-Enchantment

Abstract

This hermeneutic and imaginal research brings two practical approaches to the imagination into dialogue: the Tibetan Tantric Buddhist practices of self-generation and the fields of Jungian and archetypal psychology. While they hold the core tenet of imagination in common, the two traditions also have many differences—represented by the contrasts of East–West and spiritual–psychological that they represent. The tension is mediated by a third voice, representing the Middle Eastern tradition of Sufism, as channeled through French philosopher and champion of the mundus imaginalis, Henry Corbin. The dissertation explores practical ways to make the imaginal realm more accessible to the “spiritual but not religious” who are seeking practical and personalized ways to engage in individual and collective transformation. Given that the spirit–matter divide is increasingly acknowledged as the root of these crises, it is crucial that the power of the imaginal realm be rekindled as the indispensable intermediate realm bridging the two. This study suggests practical ways to cultivate consciousness that embraces paradox via a radically transformed imagination, moving past artificial boundaries between East and West, religion and psychology, in an approach called imaginal yoga. It describes a practical bridge to re- uniting spirit and matter resulting in a personal experience of re-enchantment.