Utopias BAch

Guided Visualisations

introduction

“If the imagination is to transcend and transform experience it has to question, to challenge, to conceive of alternatives, perhaps to the very life you are living at the moment. You have to be free to play around with the notion that day might be night, love might be hate; nothing can be too sacred for the imagination to turn into its opposite or to call experimentally by another name” – Adrienne Rich

Here are three 10 - 15 minute ‘guided visualisations’ which might help release ideas for creating your Utopias Bach. There are many ways into your imagination, and here is a quote from Clarissa Pinkola Estés that Seran Arianwen introduced to one of our Collabatory meetings, which puts it like this:

“The doors to the world of the wild self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door. If you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much that you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper way of life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door”

There are three recorded ‘guided visualisations’, each one slightly different, that may help open those doors. The first imagines your day to day life in your ‘ideal’ world, a parallel world where everything is just as you’d like it to be. The second is imagines a future from the perspective of a non-human being. And the third one is explores an alternative world in your ‘radical imagination’ - ideas about how the world might at root, at heart, be different:

“The term radical stems from the Latin word for “root” and bespeaks a concern for the origins and “root causes” of things. It implies looking beyond surface or easy answers and a desire to uncover the deep reasons for our present reality. It also implies that answers to social problems will require fundamental solutions, not temporary fixes.” - Max Haiven and Alex Khasnabish, What is the radical imagination?

Each guided visualisation takes 10 - 15 minutes. You are welcome to tune in or out of what is being said on the recording at any point, just go with where it takes you. You can listen to the recording alone, or you could do them with others… If doing them with others, and we really recommend that you do this with at least one other person if you can, please also see the note at the end about how to ‘share’ your imaginings

Imaginings are very personal things. They need to be treated with respect. Native people, shamans, druids, celts  – create all sorts of ceremonies around visioning, and all sorts of shape-shifting into other creatures too, like in the Mabinogi. We are going to do this in our imaginations – no need to act it out or do anything embarrassing (unless you want to)!

1. Imagining Utopias Bach in your place (a day in your life in your ideal world)

Introduction. In this guided visualisation, you are going to listen to a recording that will help you imagine how your IDEAL life is in an imaginary parallel world, a world that is flourishing! Where things are good for you, for other humans around you and across the world. And for plants, animals and other non human beings. You are going explore the possibility of another world, right here on earth, but one which has followed a very different path to get to a world you’d like to live in, where things are as you want them: you don’t have to worry about whether it is possible or not, it is just about letting your imagination go free, imagining your own utopia bach, right here.

To find out, you are going to go in your very own Another-World-Is-Possible machine, designed specially for you. It will take you to a parallel world where everything is just as you would love it to be. And when you arrive, you are going to explore a day in your life in your ideal world …

After doing your guided visualisation, without talking to anyone, take a pen and write or draw things you saw or experienced on your travels. These are just for you, so put down anything you want….

2. Imagining Utopias Bach as a non-human

Introduction: We are going to travel to the future, to a future that is wonderful, and to a future where you are no-longer a human being, but some other being, perhaps a type of bird or animal or other creature on the land, or in the sea or in the soil…. Or perhaps a type of plant or moss or a tiny single celled organism… or even a mountain or rock or a pebble on a beach. You could even become a mythical or imaginary creature like a unicorn or phoenix.

You are going to imagine a world where things are good for you, as that new being, whatever that turns out to be, where you are flourishing alongside all sorts of other beings around you. You don’t have to worry about whether it is possible or not, it is just about letting your imagination go free.

To find out, you are going to go in your very own a time machine. While you are travelling forward in time, you are also going to change, morph into a different type of being. What that being is will come to you while you are travelling, or you will discover what it is, on arrival. And then you are going to explore your ideal world as that new being …  

After doing your guided visualisation, without talking to anyone, take a pen and write or draw things you saw or experienced on your travels. These are just for you, so put down anything you want….

3. Exploring utopias bach through your radical imagination

Introduction: In this visualisation, you are going to try out some different ways of getting into your ‘radical imagination’, letting yourself have little – or big! – glimpses, or gems of ideas about how the world might at root, at heart, be different. One of the things that has happened over the years, is the dominant global powers and cultures have taken away the possibility of being and thinking differently. As someone said, ‘it has become easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism’. This is clearly ridiculous, and it is dangerous too. There ARE other ways of living with each other and this planet. So we are inviting you to go free, go wild!

 You don’t have to make a practical plan for how you’d change the world. We simply invite you to remember that things don’t have to be as they are. Letting yourself remember that things could be different. Because they already are, in some places, in some cultures, in some corners. Very different. At heart different. Beautifully different.

 It’s about playing with ‘what if’ and exploring a sort of forward dream. Perhaps these things aren’t yet, but what if they could be?

After doing your guided visualisation, without talking to anyone, take a pen and write or draw things you saw or experienced on your travels. These are just for you, so put down anything you want….

sharing your visions

If you are able to do a visualisation with someone else, you can deepen your experience by seeking and exploring different world views with interest, unearthing and challenging assumptions and finding common ground: finding how these reimaginings might weave themselves together (which doesn’t mean they agree!), resonating in some small way, with the future we are going to create together.

To share your visions with others, you have to try to be good listeners, to actively listen. So when someone tells you about their vision of their future, you really listen to them and encourage them by asking questions that help them tell their story rather than take it over or criticize it or give advice. This is one of the hardest things to do! (Adults are often absolutely rubbish at it). Visions need nurturing by being listened to. See if you can become the best listeners. 

5 mins Individual work

So after doing your guided visualisation, without talking to anyone, take a pen and write or draw things you saw or experienced on your travels. These are just for you, so put down anything you want.

10 mins Pairs

Now, find one other person to talk to about what you saw or experienced.

Remember your active listening skills – I want you to take it in turns to talk about your experience.

First, one of you will talk about your vision for about 5 minutes. The other person will be listening – not questioning or judging it in any way. Just be interested, encourage them. Do not give any of your own vision.You might like to set an alarm to remind you when to change turns.

After 5 minutes Switch round so the other person tells their vision

Wider discussion

If there are more than 2 of you, you could now share your visions with the others. You could even write them down or draw them and make a big vision of everyone’s ideas.