Imaginal – Describing the realm of consciousness or the other world in which shamans journey during altered states of consciousness, according to Jungian psychologists. The term was applied to shamanisms and neo-shamanisms most explicitly by Daniel Noel in his book The Soul of Shamanism: Western Fantasies, Imaginal Realities (1997), in which he argues that Jungians such as James Hillman provide “indispensable resources for arriving at another New Shamanism: an imaginal shamanism for Western seekers” that does not appropriate from indigenous shamans but contributes something new and important to the world. The term theorizes shamanic altered states in a way that is easier for Westerners unfamiliar with trances to understand, but the connotations of “imagination” also raise issues of whether imaginal engages sufficiently with the “reality” of shamanic experiences.
See also Becoming-Animal.
SOURCE:
Historical Dictionary of Shamanism by Graham Harvey and Robert J. Wallis 2007
