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When the oracle was consulted at Delphi, the priestess -- the Pythia -- became totally receptive to whatever flowed through her. Her role was simply to be a mouthpiece for Apollo. In contrast, in active imagination, we have to alternate between total receptivity -- to allow the unconscious to speak through us -- and a conscious engagement with the unconscious. It is the alternation between the two which is unique to Jung's method, and which makes it so useful a tool.

As with all oracular systems, start the process with reverence. Only use active imagination when something significant needs to be discovered, and only when you have already exhausted your conscious resources. Find a time and a place where you can be alone, then take a few moments to calm your mind. Once you feel relaxed, use one of two basic ways to access the unconscious -- visual or oral.

For the visual method, close your eyes, then begin with some visual starting point, perhaps a scene in a recent dream that has significance for the issue at hand. Get this starting point as clearly in your mind as you can make it, then let it unfold as it likes. If you are strongly visual, you may find that the resulting fantasy is virtually as vivid as a dream. The difference is that, because you are awake, you can consciously engage with the figures in the dream. As with any other encounter with the inner world, you need to walk a narrow path so that you remain receptive to whatever the unconscious produces, yet are able to react with conscious intent.

In the oral technique, you engage in a dialogue with a person or object who you feel might help you with the issue at hand. You can actually talk out loud, hold the dialogue in your head, or simply write both sides of the dialogue. I normally sit at the computer, slow my breathing and stop my monkey mind as much as I can. I then type a question to, for example, an enigmatic dream figure from a recent dream. Having begun the dialogue, I remain receptive to whatever emerges from within and simply type what comes out. After allowing the inner voice to speak as long as it likes, I shift back to my own personality and react to what has been said. The dialogue continues in that manner.

You may find that you actually hear the words coming from the unconscious, or they may simply come out in the writing, without any intermediate process of hearing. When I use either the visual or oral techniques, I normally "see" only vaguely, or "hear" not at all, but somehow fill in what is missing through "feelings" in my body. Jung experienced the same thing: "Sometimes it was as if I were hearing it with my ears, sometimes feeling it with my mouth, as if my tongue were formulating words; now and then I heard myself whispering aloud. Below the threshold of consciousness everything was seething with life."[C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections]

Jung only came to this method after a great deal of struggle. At first, you may feel foolish trying either of these methods, but if you do, you will probably surprise yourself with how easy it is to allow this process to occur. When using the visual technique, you will find that the initial dream scene used as a starting point evolves in directions you could never have predicted. Similarly, when using the oral technique, you will find that the voice and character of the dream figure is sharply distinct from your own, and that you won't be able to predict the direction the dialogue will take. This lack of control can make you as uncomfortable as it did Jung: "One of the greatest difficulties for me lay in dealing with my negative feelings. I was voluntarily submitting myself to emotions of which I could not really approve, and I was writing down fantasies which often struck me as nonsense, and toward which I had strong resistances." [C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections]

I've already said that one has to walk a tightrope in using active imagination. One danger is that we don't open ourselves sufficiently to the unconscious, but instead edit what comes out before it has had a chance to really emerge. Or we may start interpreting what this all means instead of simply remaining open to what is emerging. We need to just let what wants to come out, come out.