Three Principles of Guided Imagery

First Principle: The Mind-Body Connection


The mind cues the body especially well if the images evoke sensory memory and fantasy sights, sounds, smells, feel and taste and when there is a strong emotional element involved. So, for instance, a strongly evocative image might be remembering the sound and pitch of Daddy’s smiling voice, telling you he’s proud of you; or the internal bristling of energy all through your body as you realize that you are about to triumph at something that you are home free golden.



Second Principle: The Altered State

Secondly, in the altered state, we’re capable of more rapid and intense healing, growth, learning and performance. We are even more intuitive and creative. In this ordinary but profoundly powerful, immersive mind-state, our brainwave activity and our biochemistry shift. Our moods and cognition change. We can do things we couldn’t in a normal, waking state, like lift a tree that has fallen on a child; write an extraordinary poem; replace our terror of a surgical procedure with a calming sense of safety and optimism; abate a life-threatening histamine response to a bee sting.



The altered state is the power cell of guided imagery. When we consciously apply it, we have an awesome ally, a remarkable source of internal strength and skill.


Third Principle: Locus of Control

The third principle is often referred to in the medical literature as the “locus of control” factor. When we have a sense of being in control, that, in and of itself, is therapeutic, and can help us to feel better and do better.


Because guided imagery is an entirely internally driven activity, and the user can decide when, where, how and even if it is applied, it has the salutary effect of helping us feel efficacy and mastery; that we have some control.


Your skill and efficiency will increase with practice. You’ll improve from whatever skill level you start with. Guided imagery functions in a way that is the opposite of addictive substances the more you use it, the less and less it will take for it to work.


Excerpted from Staying Well with Guided Imagery Naparstek, 1994