A response to criticisms of Sozo: the use of guided visualization/imagery

A kind of directed daydreaming, creative visualization, hypnosis, or meditation that allows people to enter a state in which they can picture and experience images that help to heal or motivate them. 

A technique used by many natural or alternative medicine practitioners as well as some physicians and psychologists for aiding clients and patients to use mental imagery to help with anything from healing their bodies to solving problems or reducing stress. 

So anytime you picture something, or encourage someone else to picture something, that will help them in some way-either by motivating them, helping them solve their problems, reducing their stress level, or having a medicinal effect-is guided imagery.

Guided imagery motivates. I would think, though I have no personal first-hand knowledge, that many football teams used guided imagery to motivate the players. They visualize holding that Lombardi trophy, confetti streaming throughout a stadium gone wild, celebrating a victory. It is that visualization that dangles in their minds in the weight room…..throughout the drills…..on cold, rainy days. It is that visualization that gets them out of bed on Monday morning, after a humiliating loss, to get back on the field and fix the mistakes made.

Guided imagery inspires. A favorite hymn has one verse that paints a vivid picture on the canvas of one’s mind.

Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made…Were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade…To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dryNor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky.

This is guided imagery. As we sing this song, we visualize the entire ocean filled with ink, every blade of grass becoming an ink pen in the hands of every man on earth, the vastness of the sky as a scroll. And we are filled with awe and gratitude as we contemplate the vastness of God’s love. Another hymn I was just singing the other night, “Safe in the arms of Jesus. Safe on His gentle breast.” Do we not see that in our mind’s eye as we sing it? Is not the visualizing of it what brings a greater degree of comfort than singing it devoid of thinking about the meaning of the words? How many of those people who approach the end of their lives envision the day they will meet Jesus and other loved ones who’ve gone before them? And doesn’t that bring them hope and courage to face their final days?

Guided imagery challenges us. Not long ago, I listened to a sermon in which the pastor(one who is very much opposed to Sozo), narrated the passage rather than read it. It was highly suggestible, very much guided and directed by the speaker. He drew a fantastic picture in our minds of what was happening in the hearts and minds of the disciples. He wanted us to feel what they were feeling, experience what they experienced, ponder what was possibly going through their minds, all for the purpose of challenging us in our walk with Christ.

Guided imagery is found in the Bible.

In Genesis 15:5, Abraham is instructed to count the stars of the sky in order to imagine the number of his descendants. And Abraham believed God, that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars he beheld.

In another passage, it fills a man with faith:

When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (1 Kings 6:15-17 ESV)

Here we have a young man who is fearful of the enemy and his faith is faltering. Elisha’s faith is intact because He sees the host of God’s army and knows there’s no danger. He doesn’t see this army with his natural eyes. He sees them with his imagination. But, Gehazi cannot see because he is looking only with his natural eyes. So, Elisha prays a simply prayer that Gehazi’s spiritual eyes, his imagination, would be opened. When he does, Gehazi visualizes a mountain full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Again, he is NOT seeing this with his natural eyes. He is seeing with the eyes of his imagination. It was a form of guided imagery that God guided.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Cor. 3:18

How are we beholding? What are we seeing with? We can’t see His glory in the natural world with our natural eyes. We visualize His glory, keeping it every before our “eyes” and we are transformed. We become like Christ, by using our imagination to visualize His glory.

Science refers to the power guided imagery has to change as your Reticular Activating System. What a person focuses on, imagines, and visualizes helps the brain decide what information should be deleted and what should be focused on. When you have an image in your mind to focus on, you influence what your RAS filters out and what it highlights. As a result, you pay special attention to those things that help you achieve what your are imagining….things you otherwise would have never noticed.

How many runners, when hit with fatigue and a longing to quit, visualize crossing the finish line and are motivated to keep running? How many of them, while training, imagine themselves finishing the race for which they are training? I’ve heard of those whose mind visualizes a parent or loved one who has passed and it spurs them on to complete something in their honor. It happens in the natural….and in the spiritual:

Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who intiates and perfects our faith. Heb. 12:1b-2a, NLT

We fix our eyes on Jesus. Again, not literally, but with our imagination we focus on Him so we can run with endurance….to motivate us to keep on and not give up in weariness. This passage likens it to a race.

Numerous men and women visualize themselves in an office as CEO, or a plaque with their name on their door. They set their sights on what they want to become…what they want to become reality. It happens in the natural…..and in the spiritual:

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Col. 3:1, NLT

Setting our sights on the realities of heaven….definitely not something that can be done without using our imagination…without actively visualizing. Here, guided imagery is something we are encouraged to do because we have been raised to new life. We use our imagination to connect our minds with the divine realities in Heaven. Colossians 3:3 is one of my life verses,

For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 

I visualize myself hidden with Christ in God on a regular basis. It is was enables me to face life without fear. It keeps me from being wounded by the actions and words of others. It helps me live confidently and victoriously….because I can see myself with Christ in God. Guided imagery that motivates, inspires, and challenges me.

Visualization is such a regular part of our lives, it is often subconscious.  Meditation, for example, inherently involves some form of visualization because our minds naturally create images for whatever we are thinking. Determining a biblical course of action, WWJD, requires one to visualization what He would indeed do in their situation.

Guided imagery is simply a tool. Like any tool….like guns…..it can be used for good or ill. It is not the tool that determines that. It is the purpose for which it is used. Guided visualization is a powerful tool that should not be relegated to the enemy’s sole possession. It happens naturally. Runners use it to break a record. Athletes use it to push themselves. Executives use it to advance. Salesmen use it to sell more of their product. Pastors use it to challenge their congregation. Teachers use it to motivate their students. Everyone uses visualization to accomplish what they desire to accomplish. It happens in the natural….and in the spiritual. Throughout the Bible, we are exhorted to see, to gaze up, to look, to focus upon. All these are exhortations to use our imaginations to visualize that which our natural eyes cannot see. We are to fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. The only way to do that is with our imaginations. It is guided visualization that God directs.

In a Sozo session, any use of guided imagery is not as directed or guided as those in any of the examples above. There is little power of suggestion, which is why answers are so widely varied. We simply ask Father God, Jesus or Holy Spirit a question and they fill in the answer…they provided the visualization that answers the question. Occasionally, when a client is in a painful memory, we ask Jesus or Father God where He is in that memory. Again, there is no direction, no guiding of the imagination. Just a question that Father God can reveal the answer to in any way He desires. It is much like Elisha and Gehazi. An asking of the Godhead to reveal to the individual His presence which they cannot see at first. And, like Gehazi, they are filled with courage or hope or trust, when He reveals to them what the spiritual reality is at the time.

What about visualizing God or Jesus? Is that not making an idol? Is that not creating a false image of Him. Next time…..