IMAGINATION
Imagining for Others (Son's Beard)
This technique involves using one's imagination to bring about a desired change for another person. It requires performing an imaginal act that implies the…
Step by step
- Identify a desired outcome for another person.
- In your imagination, perform an action that implies the fulfillment of that desire (e.g., kissing a clean-shaven face).
- Engage sensory details (e.g., feeling smooth skin) to make the imaginal act vivid and real.
- Feel the naturalness and satisfaction of the desired outcome being achieved.
- Release the 'how' and trust that the outer world will provide the necessary means or instruments for the manifestation.
Related ideas
The Talent
This technique involves using one's imagination to bring about a desired change for another person. It requires performing an imaginal act that implies the fulfillment of the desire, engaging sensory details, and focusing on the feeling of the wish fulfilled, without concern for the external means by which it will manifest.
I suggested that she kiss him and feel the smooth skin on his cheek and chin. This she promised to do. One morning I opened the New York Times to the Social page where I saw a picture of her son without a beard. The next time this lady came to see me I mentioned seeing her son clean shaven and she said: “I imagined kissing him and feeling his face, but because he fell in love with a girl in the State Department who didn't like his beard, he shaved it off.” She attributed the shaving of the beard to the means rather than the cause, which was what she had done in her imagination.
The imaginal act is the true cause, and the external circumstances (like the girl disliking the beard) are merely the instruments or means through which the imaginal cause manifests. The individual's imagination is powerful enough to influence others and bring about desired outcomes for them.