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Is fantasizing helpful or harmful?

Fantasy is the process of engagement with unconscious processes, from the depths of the mythic unconscious to the make-believe worlds of online gaming. In passive fantasy we receive products of the unconscious as charged internal images: nighttime dreams, trance states and visions. Passive fantasy transgresses natural law, the limitations of waking life, and cultural restrictions, for in the subterranean realms of psychic experience all is permitted.

Active fantasy allows us to interact with the unconscious and shape our experiences. It lives next door to ideas, reverie, play, intuition, and creativity. Passive or active, fantasy can call us into lives that are larger and more enlivened, or seduce us into escapism impedes adaptation to reality. Today we can consume fantasy, and it can be consuming. Jung\u2019s collaborator, Marie-Louise von Franz said, \u201cThe great difficulty is to save the fantasy which is life-giving and cut away the childishness of the wish to realize it.\u201d

Here\u2019s the Dream We Analyze\xa0

\u201cI\u2019m in a small underground room. Near the ceiling, in a shadowy corner, hangs a cocoon or nest. It looks like a felted mitten and contains sleeping baby bats. Frightened, I summon my husband and quietly point out the nest. He agrees that we should take care not to wake the baby bats\u2014for even though they are tiny and blind, they are not vulnerable. I whisper the phrase \u201cdangerous little experts.\u201d We stand as still as we can in the dark. The next scene is outdoors and sunny. I\u2019m in the middle of a street that is normally busy, but now empty. A snowy owl appears before me on the pavement. I again summon my husband, and as we admire the owl, five more snowies arrive. They grow until they stand about four feet tall, then begin hopping and spinning and flapping, almost like they\u2019re performing a ceremonial Native American dance. I suspect they are children wearing feather costumes, but no, they really are owls. My husband and I are thrilled and honored. The street seems alive with magic.\u201d

References

Learn to Analyze your Dreams:\xa0\xa0https://thisjungianlife.com/enroll/

Quoted: Marie Louise von Franz, Alchemy: An Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology
https://www.amazon.com/dp/091912304X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_wJCVFbH3X12EK