The several hundred psychotherapeutic intervention techniques known to date increasingly resemble the “bad infinity”, which is becoming increasingly difficult to understand [3]. As far as we know, no one has yet tried to classify and systematize many correctional and therapeutic techniques based on general psychological patterns. There are well-founded opinions that all therapeutic techniques are reduced either to a small number of so-called “common factors” [7, 8], or to long-known basic methods of psychological influence: persuasion, suggestion, emotional infection and imitation. Suggestion in reality is a mild form of manipulation of the patient’s associative process, which is practiced by all psychotherapists without even realizing it. As is known, the organized influence on the patient’s imagination was first proposed by the founder of rational (and therefore cognitive) psychotherapy, Paul Dubois [1, 2]. The return of interest in this method occurred at the peak of the “psychotherapeutic wave” of the 1960s and 1970s. The method of directed imagination was first described by R. Dessoille [6] and H. Leuner [9] in the framework of research on psychosynthesis. Later, the method was used in other psychotherapeutic techniques; for example, it was the main tool used by V. Schutz in the so-called “Bodily fantasy” [10]. According to V. Schutz, the method of directed imagination, “invented in a psychotherapeutic context, is much more widely applicable” [4], from the point of view of personality and consciousness research. The purpose of the method is to work with the content of a person’s own consciousness, and thus search in its depths for traumatic factors or psychological causes that influenced the choice of a certain protective pattern. With directed imagination, the subject is completely free to allow a certain picture or image to manifest itself in consciousness. According to V. Schutz, the less structured the instruction, the more likely it is that the imagination will immediately turn to the place of the greatest psychological difficulties. When analyzing imaginary pictures and their accompanying feelings, the subject comes to a logical realization of traumatic moments, or to insight. Examples of such insights are given in the literature [4, 5]: “At the seminar, I tried to get into my very short-sighted eyes in my imagination. I had a picture of a wall with broken glass at the top and a rose garden on the other side that I wanted to enter, and there was also a wolf that I was afraid of. I couldn’t break down the wall, and I didn’t know what to do with the wolf. Then the wall became transparent (a wonderful symbol of myopia — first the wall in order not to see anything, then you adjust to see through it, but you still keep the wall). I decided to ask myself when this wall was built. When I did this, an episode that suddenly flashed into my memory when I was twelve years old and when I was terribly humiliatingly teased for making eyes at a girl. Instantly, a lot of tension was lifted from my eyes and from part of my face, and my eyes were able to move in certain directions for the first time in thirty years. Apparently, their relative fixity was a significant factor in my short-sightedness.” “The most important thing was that I allowed myself to follow my feelings when I started crying. I had a very clear picture of how I, a little boy, look at my mother. She’s furious because I just pooped in her pants. Apparently, I had difficulty getting used to the toilet. I remembered that she was holding dirty underwear in her hands, and then she began to rub it on my face in punishment. The following picture: I look at myself in the bathroom mirror, sobbing, with feces on my lips and teeth. I feel betrayed and defiled. I suspect that was the last time I saw anything clearly. I don’t even see a big “E” on the eye doctor’s chart, or anyone’s facial features more than a foot away. But what’s amazing is the realization that I saw my mother’s face quite clearly at that moment.” From the examples given, it can be seen that V. Schutz’s clients were well prepared and emotionally attuned to him. Although both examples relate only to the problem of vision, nevertheless, some important features of these episodes attract attention. Firstly, it can be noted that symbolic or abstract images, as well as real pictures from the past, can arise in the imagination. Secondly, both examples demonstrate the emergence of highly emotionally significant and sensually saturated images. Apparently, whatever the content of the imaginary pictures, the client can understand their meaning through awareness of the feelings experienced accompanying the process of imagination. These features, in our opinion, require compliance with the following conditions for organizing and conducting the guided imagination procedure: 1. The client must be interested in participating (motivated). 2. The client must know the reason for what he wants to find out (purposefully). 3. The client chooses the form of the procedure (in a group or individually). 4. The client himself determines the degree of his involvement (whether he wants to name the problem, the origins of which he seeks to establish; whether he will verbalize imaginary images, and whether he wants to discuss them with the consultant after the procedure). Based on the above, we propose the following algorithm for conducting an individual guided imagination session: 1. The therapist finds out the nature of the client’s interest and the degree (depth) of participation in this process. 2. The therapist recommends relaxing, sitting in a comfortable position (for example, leaning back in an armchair). If the client feels some stiffness or anxiety, he should be reassured and offered to try relaxing exercises or self-hypnosis. 3. After the client feels relaxed, it is recommended that he say the following statement aloud and with his eyes open (the effect of a fully functioning consciousness): “I want to know the truth about my problem.” At the same time, the client must clearly understand the problem and want to know the truth as sincerely and honestly as possible. If the client has doubts about the sincerity of the words he uttered, it is recommended to relax again and then repeat the installation. 4. Next, the client closes his eyes and moves in his imagination to a problem (for example, a sore spot). At this point, he is not recommended to try to force himself to remember anything. It is important to give full freedom to your imagination and feelings. If the client has managed to afford it, then almost immediately or with a short delay, sensually saturated pictures begin to appear in his mind: images or thoughts. 5. Next, it is recommended to pronounce the imaginary and, thus completing its semantic content, bring it to the level of awareness. In the process of verbalization, it is very important that the client pays attention to the feelings that accompany the process of imagination, so the therapist is recommended to ask questions like: “What do you feel at this moment? What feelings accompany you there?” 6. The procedure is not strictly time-limited, meaning the client has the right to interrupt or continue it at his own request. A guided imagination session usually lasts 5-15 minutes. After the end of the session, the client is asked to interpret what he saw. In our opinion, the proposed algorithm allows you to quickly reach psychologically significant points and lead to insight, as can be evidenced by the following cases from practice: 1. Client N. (a 20-year-old girl) complained of high myopia. In her opinion, poor eyesight is genetically determined, since most of the close relatives wear glasses. His eyesight began to deteriorate from the age of nine. As a result of her directed imagination, N. almost immediately saw herself at the age of about three, looking in the mirror and trying on her aunt’s glasses. At that moment, she felt mature, beautiful, and confident. During the analysis, it was found that almost all the significant adults in N.’s family wore glasses, and she really wanted to be like them. After some thought, N. came to the realization that she might have wanted to get myopia herself in order to become like the reputable people around her. In this example, children’s imitation acted as a factor of social learning, which later led to the formation of a dysfunctional skill. 2. Client L. (a 54-year-old woman) asked for help finding the psychological causes of myopia. In the process of directed imagination, L. recalled an episode that happened to her in the second grade of school, when the teacher, because L. could not cope with solving an arithmetic problem on large accounts standing at the blackboard, in a rage pushed L. face on these accounts. At that moment, L. felt bitterly offended and insecure. In the process of analyzing this episode, L. came to the conclusion that she could have chosen poor eyesight and glasses as a protection option in such cases, because “if I had glasses, I would hardly have been treated this way.” The example is characterized by the violent “pushing” of the client into the disease. Along the way, we note that the girl preferred not to complain about the teacher’s rudeness to her parents, which would have been quite natural in her position. Emotional isolation and its consequences could become one of the targets of therapeutic influence in this case. 3. Client E. (a young man of 20 years old) became interested in the method of directed imagination, which he heard about at a lecture. According to him, in childhood, up to a certain point, he had poor eyesight, and then it began to improve.E. wanted to know the psychological reason for this phenomenon. As a result of directed imagination, E. saw a forest, felt extremely fresh spring air, saw a crystal clear stream. At that moment, he felt the joy of enjoying nature, he really wanted to examine every bush and every twig in detail. Interpreting what he saw, E. remembered that at the age of 12 he and his parents moved to another country. If he had previously lived in an area with a rather unfavorable environmental situation, then everything was different in his new place. He really enjoyed the nature around him and, apparently, really wanted to see it in all its glory and as clearly as possible, which could lead to improved vision as a result. In this example, we have one of the cases of so-called “spontaneous recovery”. It can be assumed that the sanogenic factor here was not so much a change in the environmental situation (although this should not be discounted) as a dramatic improvement in the overall lifestyle of a teenager. The improvement of the family climate, associated with the fulfillment of the aspirations of his parents, is also possible. 4. Now let’s give an example that does not concern vision. Client K. (a 22-year-old girl) sought psychological help in order to establish the possible psychological causes of her illness, from which she could not recover in any way, although she did a lot in this direction. The client preferred not to name the diagnosis. In the process of her directed imagination, K. saw the following pictures or images: a floating child with wings; a kitchen stove without any signs of cooking on it; a woman in a rural house dressed in the old manner and removing something like a vat from the stove. At these moments, K. I felt loneliness and a desire to be that woman in a rural house. After the session, K. interpreted her images and feelings almost immediately.: “God, I really want a family, but I just can’t have one!” After the therapist’s subsequent question: “Do you feel that this may have something to do with your illness?” The client replied, “Yes, directly.” The images of representations in this example resemble dreams. It can be assumed that along with partial sleep, partial trances are also characteristic of human consciousness, which (as in the case of dreams) have a creative anti-stress orientation. Consciousness is loaded with unsuccessful attempts to solve an actual problem through logical reasoning. Moving away from this stereotype allows you to turn on the right-hemisphere mechanisms and bring the girl a little closer to full awareness of the problem that worries her. The described practical examples allow us to confirm the hypothesis about the possibilities of achieving rather deep insights by means of directed imagination. This, in turn, can serve as a basis for using this method as an “aerobatic intelligence” tool in cases of difficult-to-diagnose psychosomatic disorders. It should be borne in mind that the primary insight is only a starting point, the beginning of the path to further positive changes. The duration of this path to self-recovery varies widely and depends on the activity of the subject, the degree of mobilization of his personal resources. In conclusion, the described technique opens up new opportunities for studying the personality and consciousness of a healthy and sick person. Source