Stephen Aizenstat: Increasing Your Imaginal Intelligence

November 28, 2023

Stephen Aizenstat: Increasing Your Imaginal Intelligence

Stephen Aizenstat November 28, 2023

When we’re children, we’re encouraged to use our imagination. Yet over time, we tend to leave the imagination behind and emphasize logic and rational thinking. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Pacifica Graduate Institute founder Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., about reclaiming the vast resources of our imagination and boosting what he refers to as imaginal intelligence

Covering fascinating insights in his new book, The Imagination Matrix, Tami and Professor Aizenstat discuss: imaginal intelligence—the capacity to evoke imagination; how curiosity opens a different quality of being in the world; imagination and the neuroplasticity of the mind; the Dig—Aizenstat’s term for journeying into the matrix of the imagination; the practice of Dream Tending; active imagination and the work of Carl Jung; the autonomy of the deep imagination; two questions that shift us from the person-centric view of our dreams; the sense of support and belonging we find through dreamwork; how imagination evokes innovation, creativity, and motivation; the four quadrants of the Imagination Matrix—Earth, Mind, Machine, and Universe; “the place of confluence” and accessing the gifts of the imaginal realms; dreamwork as complementary medicine; the Wounded Healer; listening to the stories coming forward at this time in human history; and more.

Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com

Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., is the founder of Pacifica Graduate Institute, Dream Tending, and the Academy of Imagination. For more than 35 years, he has explored the power of dreams through depth psychology. He has collaborated with Joseph Campbell, Marion Woodman, Robert Johnson, James Hillman, and Native elders worldwide. He conducts dreamwork and imagination seminars throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. For more, visit dreamtending.com.

Author photo © Blake Bronstad Photography


Listen to Tami Simon's interview with Stephen Aizenstat: Dream Tending

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Founded Sounds True in 1985 as a multimedia publishing house with a mission to disseminate spiritual wisdom. She hosts a popular weekly podcast called Insights at the Edge, where she has interviewed many of today's leading teachers. Tami lives with her wife, Julie M. Kramer, and their two spoodles, Rasberry and Bula, in Boulder, Colorado.

Photo © Jason Elias

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Stephen Aizenstat: Increasing Your Imaginal Intelligen...

When we’re children, we’re encouraged to use our imagination. Yet over time, we tend to leave the imagination behind and emphasize logic and rational thinking. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Pacifica Graduate Institute founder Stephen Aizenstat, Ph.D., about reclaiming the vast resources of our imagination and boosting what he refers to as imaginal intelligence

Covering fascinating insights in his new book, The Imagination Matrix, Tami and Professor Aizenstat discuss: imaginal intelligence—the capacity to evoke imagination; how curiosity opens a different quality of being in the world; imagination and the neuroplasticity of the mind; the Dig—Aizenstat’s term for journeying into the matrix of the imagination; the practice of Dream Tending; active imagination and the work of Carl Jung; the autonomy of the deep imagination; two questions that shift us from the person-centric view of our dreams; the sense of support and belonging we find through dreamwork; how imagination evokes innovation, creativity, and motivation; the four quadrants of the Imagination Matrix—Earth, Mind, Machine, and Universe; “the place of confluence” and accessing the gifts of the imaginal realms; dreamwork as complementary medicine; the Wounded Healer; listening to the stories coming forward at this time in human history; and more.

Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com

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