• Explains the theoretical basis behind psychomagic, Jodorowsky’s shamanic healing technique

• Details the author’s technique of “psychotrance” to access his subconscious mind to discover the most suitable psychomagic remedy

• Shares passionate correspondence between Jodorowsky and patients and admirers who have successfully used psychomagic methods for personal healing

Through films, books, comics, and art spanning seven decades, legendary filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky has offered his singular surrealistic perspective on the fundamentally dreamlike nature of reality. This perspective also underlies his healing technique known as psychomagic, which uses the symbolism of the unconscious to understand and mend reality as if it were a dream.

In The Way of Imagination, the master offers a detailed exploration of the mechanisms by which psychomagic works to heal our most pressing emotional and spiritual wounds. He examines the development of this magical form of shamanic healing and its roots in the work of René Daumal, Éliphas Levi, filmmaker Luis Buñuel, psychoanalyst Erich Fromm, Mexican curanderas, and others. He describes the four maladies of the soul, the initial stages of psychomagic’s development into a practice, and how he crafted the first psychomagic prescriptions to speak directly to the subconscious through the language of dreams. Above all, Jodorowsky explains, psychomagic is a therapy of action, rather than one of words.

Sharing passionate correspondence between himself and patients and admirers, the author demonstrates how people have successfully used psychomagic to make profound changes in their lives. He shares detailed accounts of how he uses Tarot readings to determine a diagnosis as well as how he uses a trance state—what he calls “psychotrance”—to access his subconscious mind to discover the most suitable psychomagic remedy.

Presenting a complete immersion in the techniques of psychotrance and psychomagic, this guide allows you to work with the dreamlike nature of reality and move forward on the path to healing.

Alejandro Jodorowsky is a filmmaker who made the legendary cult films El Topo and The Holy Mountain. His most recent film is 2019’s Psychomagic, a Healing Art. He is the author of more than 20 books, including Psychomagic, The Way of Tarot, and Metagenealogy. He lives in Paris.

PROLOGUE
The Birth of Psychomagic

Psychomagic in Action
A Lecture at Jussieu University in Paris, 1987

Psychomagical Letters
Responses from My Tarot Readings at the Café Le Téméraire

AFTERWORD
The Psychotrance Process

Index

About the Author