“A blue sky is a blue sky is a blue sky; and that blue sky is us, too, because we see it.” ~ Akhter Ahsen, Ph.D., Trojan Horse p201
What is an Eidetic Image?
An eidetic is a high fidelity image, which may start off as vague, and is a vision apart from molded or searching awareness having the original life containing all possibilities and solutions as well as ordinary reality. Placing oneself at the eidetic point of activated consciousness, the eye-center, one travels the route of spiraling pictures, feelings, ideas, concepts, and memories while a new mental structuring takes place in which the past and the present meet and unite the experiencer and the doer. The solution of the “seeing” as opposed to thinking.
When an individual eidetically sees a situation in his mind, he does not commit errors of thought, memory, or guessing; he lets the high fidelity images formulate thought. The function of eidetic sight is such that it does not allow the erroneous part of the thinking mind to take over and completely corrupt the rest of the mind. Since this high fidelity “sight” guarantees separation of what is being seen from what the individual “wants” to assume, around this can be built a life of proper thought, memory, and conclusion.
What is Eidetic Image Psychology?
Eidetic Image Psychology is a broad term which is used by Ahsen to centrally address important issues concerning the mental image. It is a well-formulated set of principles and a comprehensive theory about the nature, structure and function of the image and the nature of consciousness based on his clinical and experimental work. In an applied process sense, Ahsen’s Eidetic Image Psychology proposes that the image is central to psychological resolution, personal growth, new learning and enlightenment; that in this form it is multisensory, multi-leveled, and experiential; and that it appears in consciousness as a visual Image, a Somatic response and a Meaning (ISM) at one and the same time. Ahsen refers to the ISM as the Triple Code Model of imagery, which is also an aspect of the operational definition of the structural eidetic. All images and thought processes, according to Ahsen, relate meaningfully to the eidetic, but each performs a separate and distinct function in the psyche.
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Dr. Akhter Ahsen
Akhter Ahsen, Ph.D., is one of the most influential theorists on mental imagery. Dr. Ahsen has authored numerous articles and published more than 30 books, receiving accolades from around the world. He is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and American Psychological Society. Since the 1950s, through his research and development of eidetic images and techniques, Dr. Akhter Ahsen has advanced the imagery movement and its application beyond the clinical and educational areas by incorporating art, literature, and mythology as well. Ahsen’s work has proposed that the function of the science of imagery is to re-enact experience for therapeutic, education and spiritual betterment.
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Ahsen Connects Eidetic Imagery, Neurology, Consciousness, Literature, Art, Mythology:
Eidetic theory proposes that consciousness originates in a peaceful experience of Nature and remains harmonious despite conflicts that appear to divide it, which is reflected in the breadth and creativity of the eidetic spectrum. To establish there is an eidetic connection which shows up in the commonalities of consciousness, Ahsen sought out renowned minds such as: Wilder Penfield, (Neurosurgery); Karl Pribram, (Neuropsychology); Ernest R. Hilgard, (Psychology); J. H. Matthews, (Literary Criticism); Salvador Dali, (Surrealistic Art); Kenneth Burke, (Literary Criticism); Joseph Campbell (Mythology). In this process, Ahsen shed light on how the above fields of study and eidetic imagery connect as follows:
