Active Imagination

The technique Jung developed and used to fill The Red Book: deliberately entering a waking, image-rich state and letting unconscious figures speak, argue and act, without steering them toward a conclusion the conscious mind already wants.

A method for treating the imagination as a place you visit rather than a thing you produce — closer to a controlled version of what the Merkavah literature and the Golem legend both assume is possible than to ordinary daydreaming. ⚠ Jung was explicit that the technique carries real risk without preparation, which is why he kept his own record private for most of his life rather than teaching it as a simple exercise.