Positive Energy Guide

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” Carl Jung

I so love that quote! Integrating practical intuition and powerful spirituality into daily life requires deep self-awareness.

Toward clarity, discernment, and accuracy in Guidance, let us discuss fantasy:

The purpose of fantasy is to bring visionary, inspired, and creative energy into life, to open new potentials. Fantasy assists artistry, play, and entertainment. In these realms fantasy offers many advantages.

In the realm of Guidance fantasy is counterproductive. I am not talking about using intention to direct imagery, such as visualizing energy flows, bringing in colors or forms to assist healing, or receiving Guidance in the form of intuitive imagery. When I say “fantasy” I am talking about making things up.

Making things up just for fun is play. Making things up in Guidance compromises intuitive integrity. Yes one might use imagination to find a creative way to formulate and present Guidance. That is useful too. Allowing fantasy to take the place of genuine experience is a major distraction. Substituting fantasy for discernment is a recipe for misdirection, and can be dangerous.

It is one thing to use fantasy to enhance life, and another to avoid authentic engagement with life through over-involvement with fantasy. Making assumptions, for example, is a mental type of fantasy in which rigid ideas are substituted for clear observation and response.

Fantasy can stem from sentiment, unexamined by discerning thought. It can be purely mental while emotions remain repressed. Fantasy can exist within the individual like a patchwork comprised of isolated pockets of and gradations of these extremes. No matter how it is organized, unhealthy fantasy demonstrates poor integration between thought, feeling, and will.

Unexamined, habitual fantasy tends to undermine the clear flow of life expression, tying energy up in stagnant eddies or disconnecting parts of your flow like rivulets running out and weakening the main stream of personal will.

Healthy fantasy works in concert with will, allows for a free flow of discerning observation, and supports being in touch with one’s self.

The balance point between fantasy and realism is similar to the balance between freedom and responsibility. Since this comment is abstract, I’ll say elaborate:

Responsibility allows us to effectively create in the real world, limiting potential unwelcome results of our actions, or seeking to correct the same. Responsibility without freedom can become uninspired duty or paralytic over-concern about consequence.

Freedom of expression without responsibility tends to become scattered, ungrounded, and out of touch with the results of our actions.

Paradoxically, excessive freedom becomes a form a bondage to accidental consequence.

Freely taking up responsibility and using it creatively is ideal.

Similarly, fantasy mated with realism supports visionary action. Realism without imagination is dreary and feels restrictive.

Fantasy without realism is not rooted in the actual, therefore it holds little possibility for real life expression.

Being stuck in fantasy can be a lonely place. An observant client said, “When I am in fantasy I am unable to evaluate my environment. It’s all about me.”

To a greater or lesser extent, we are all engaged to some degree of fantasy. Spiritual awakening consists in part of learning to recognize, accept, and release previously-hidden motivations. Freeing up our ability to see in ourselves the things we would prefer to hide goes a long way toward waking up to the moment.

Self-acceptance gradually forms a stabile center of objective awareness that allows us to live in the moment without manipulating it with a series of images, unseen needs, and projections. This is real freedom.

What is YOUR sense of the difference between healthy and unhealthy use of fantasy?

Does your use of fantasy bring you closer to people in real life, or build subtle walls?