This item is not in the library — it is a part of: C. Bergstrøm-Nielsen, Intuitive Music: A Mini Handbook.
Participants lie down with closed eyes on mattresses or in some other comfortable position. The leader provides instructions to facilitate the participants' relaxation. A story may be told and questions asked of participants about their own imaginations — sounds and music may be played. It is especially recommended to make this journey without sound and music as an introduction to allowing participants play afterwards.
For this exercise, the instructor should be experienced in being a participant him/herself. A practical idea for getting started is for the instructor to seek a suitable therapist or psychologist (obtain recommendations from people you know, newspapers, magazines, or the telephone directory) and make an appointment for a fantasy journey. It is also possible to work with other interested persons using each other as experimental subjects. Participants should know what a fantasy journey is and accept the idea of engaging in one. In contrast to working with adults, in employing this technique with children the instructor must take the responsibility for deciding whether the participants are mature enough to benefit from it.
The relaxation instruction may take a simple form mentioning different parts of the body such as the following: "Feel your head lying on the mattress — let go and let it relax." All of the instructions should be able to be followed by the instructor together with the other participants.
The journey takes place exclusively in the present even when the instructions are to look back in time: "And now, imagine yourself looking back on what has happened. Is there anything you especially note about it?"
It is a central technique to ask questions about what the participant experiences so that they may create their own content. The story should typically incorporate a broad framework. Pauses, sometimes really long ones, are important, and questions should always be followed by pauses.
Starting from the story, participants are to contact their own feelings and fantasy and the practice of "Fantasy Journey" encourages the resting of conscious and rational activity. Semi-conscious and unconscious material may arise and the experience can be dream-like and intense as novel aspects of the personality emerge. At times, intense, repressed feelings may be brought forward.
With this activity, I have used subjects like "The Forgotten Music" and "Playing Among Foreign Musicians." As an author of journeys, start with simple scenarios like journeying and arriving at places. Again, the framework must be clearly imaginable by the instructor while preparing! You may find further inspiration in psychological literature.
The instructor must take responsibility both for having a secure setting and for being well aware of the process. No one should enter the room after the story begins (put a message on the door and lock it, if possible) and the room should remain quiet. No interruptions of the journey can be accepted — this could greatly disturb the participants.
It is not possible to "correct" errors nor to make disturbances undone—they must be integrated in the whole! In spite of all precautions, should a disturbing noise from outside nevertheless occur, it is possible to proceed in the following way. Let us assume that in the middle of the journey you have said: "You are now very far from any noises. This is a very quiet place." At this point, someone hammers very loudly at the door (in spite of people outside having been informed). A possible way to integrate the disturbance is to say: "Suddenly, you think of a disturbing experience you once had. What kind of disturbing experience was this?" There is then a pause, the instructor takes steps to end the disturbing noise, and peace returns again. The instructor takes time to get back to the point in his/her own imagination where the disturbance took place: "How was your experience of that. (Pause) Now, go back to the landscape. How do you feel in the peacefulness here?"
In the case of a participant being in an intense emotional state after the playing is finished — crying, for example — the instructor and group should respect these emotions and take care of the person in question. However, do not try to excessively calm the person — the emotions have their reasons for coming up and normally one's personal defenses will limit the expression to a level that is safe. Should aggressive criticism of the form of the journey occur, it is not necessary to take this at face value. If the instructor believes that inner forces in the person are pushing him/her a bit too far, the instructor should try to redirect attention to the person's own mind, the investigation of which is the mutually agreed upon purpose of the fantasy.
After the journey, people are instructed about gradually returning from the fantasy: "And now, come back to yourself, lying there. (Pause) When you are ready, begin to move your body a little and open your eyes. (Pause) Gradually, stand up and begin playing the way you feel like."
The wording above is by Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, as written in Intuitive Music: A Mini-Handbook, licensed CC BY-NC 4.0 (Bergstrøm-Nielsen 2009, 13)
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