Psychosynthesis is the little-known psychology founded by Roberto Assagioli in the mid-20th century. It is a holistic, transpersonal psychology aiming to integrate, or synthesise, all parts of the personality and the human person. Whatever one might think of its fundamental ideologies, creativity is an integral part of the psychosynthesis model, and, as such, Assagioli’s Psychosynthesis: A Manual of Principles and Techniques (1965) is a treasury of techniques for stimulating aspects of creativity.
This particular technique is intended to improve visualisation. Assagioli describes the technique from pages 145 to 151 in Psychosynthesis according to its purpose, rationale, procedure, applications, limitations, and how it can be combined with other techniques.
Visualisation, Assagioli says, is necessary preliminary training for other psychosynthesis techniques. It helps train concentration, requires the use of the will, and offers a starting point for creative imagination. It is also a necessary stage for action. Reproductive imagination deliberately evokes a set of images of something we have already seen. We can also consciously evoke an image of something we have never seen from elements of things we have seen. These are both evocative imagination, both conscious creation of an image. In contrast, creative imagination is spontaneous, and occurs on a subconscious level, the products of which are offered up to the conscious. It is much easier to evoke a complex image of something we have seen than it is to create a new image.
There are three stages to this visualisation exercise. Readers are offered a script for the first stage only (pp. 146-147).
First imagination the setting, which is a classroom with a blackboard, grey or dull black. Then imagine that in the middle of the blackboard appears a figure; let us say the number five, as if written with white chalk, fairly large and well defined. Then keep it vividly before your inner eye, so to speak: that is, keep the image of the five vivid and steady in the field of your conscious attention. Then on the right of the five visualize the figure two.
So, now you have two figures, a five and a two, making fifty-two. Dwell for a while on the visualization of this number, ten after a little while, imagine the appearance of a four at the right side of the two.
Now you have three figures, written in white chalk, five, two, four – making the number five hundred and twenty-four. Dwell for a while on this number.
Continue adding other figures until you are unable to hold together the visualization of the number resulting from those figures.
Assagioli says this visualisation exercise is humiliating, for it becomes clear how little one can control one’s imagination and concentration. It also shows us how we visualise best, with eyes closed or open, whether we can conjure easily but sustain with difficulty, or conjure with difficulty but more easily sustain, and how broad and how vivid our area of attention is.
Let us admit to each other that this is a boring activity. Assagioli however says its value is in how it can serve as a baseline for training. After a person has become proficient in summoning and holding the image of numbers, the next exercise introduces colour. Try now to visualize two dimensional geometric shapes in colour. Imagine a green square, a yellow circle, or a pink triangle. After becoming proficient in this exercise, move on to mental photography. In this exercise, observe an image, a formula, or a diagram for around a minute. Close your eyes and visualise the observed item, describing it aloud, in detail.
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For more on enhancing creativity through Psychosynthesis therapy, see Catherine Ann Lombard and Barbara C. N. Müller, 2016, “Opening the Door to Creativity: A Psychosynthesis Approach”, Journal of Humanistic Psychology 58 (6): 659–688. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167816653224