At a Journal Workshop: the Intensive Journal Method

I became interested in the Intensive Journal method after picking up a copy of At A Journal Workshop at the library and reading the first chapter. The author, Ira Progoff, writes about his response to the Nazi's book burning.

"Again and again I asked myself what would have happened to civilization if the ritual Nazi burnings of the books had been continued until all the recorded wisdom of humankind had been destroyed. … Finally one night the answer was given to me. It came as a simple practical statement spoken in everyday tones. We would, the voice said, simply draw new spiritual scriptures from the same great source out of which the old ones came. At that moment I became aware of how vast and self-replenishing are the resources of the human spirit. The fires of Hitler could burn the sacred books but they could not destroy the abiding depths out of which those scriptures had emerged."

Well, thought I, this sounds excellent. Perhaps I should write my own sacred scriptures, something that springs from my own life and experiences rather than trying to live my life by the dictates of some spiritual authority.

Unfortunately, At A Journal Workshop is tough to get through. The author uses 1000 words when 100 would do, making it difficult to sift through the excess to find the gold nuggets. It's also a fairly complex system, because we're not just writing what happened and how we felt about it, we're doing feedback exercises that get us deep into the material. These exercises begin to operate after we have worked in all sections of the Intensive Journal workbook. Strong forces of energy are generated by the feedback procedures, says Ira Progoff, which bring about significant transformation in a personality.

These are my notes, distilled from the workshop and the book.

Summary of Sections of At a Journal Workshop

At the Intensive Journal workshop you get a three-ring binder with colored tabs. Here's how to make one.

Here's what you'll be doing:

1. Keep a Daily Log on an on-going basis
2. Write a page describing the Now Period
3. Define the Steppingstones of your life
4. Explore the Steppingstone Periods
5. List your Roads Taken and Not Taken
6. Do the Time-Stretching Exercises
7. Begin dialogue with people, works, events, etc.
8. Record your dreams
9. Meditation
10. More to come . . .

Getting Started

Daily Log:
The part most like a regular diary. Record both the facts of the events and your reactions to them. Provides a continuing source of journal feedback material for use in other sections. Entries should be succinct, capturing the essence. There are a lot of essences to capture so keep it moving.

1. Sit in silence.
2. Write down what happened and how you felt about it.
   • Awakening: what feelings or imaginings came as you awoke? What were emotions and hopes as you began day?
   • What were the tasks of the day and what did you feel as you went about them? Worries, wishes, thoughts?
   • Relationships today - record emotions and experiences.
   • Your moods and rhythms - how did your attitudes and feelings vary through the day?
3. Re-read, comment.
4. Sit in silence.

Period Log:
The now period. Our focus and starting point for Journal Workshops is always the present period. Ask 'Where am I now in my life?'

1. Sit in silence. Let the essence of the period describe itself through images, metaphors or feelings. "This period of my life has been like..." Write briefly. Sit in silence again.
2. Now record the content of the period. Include your feelings about it, but write briefly.
   1. Persons: What relationships do you have? Who do you admire or model?
   2. Works: What projects or activities are important to you? Record briefly the phases and changes they have gone through.
   3. Body: healthy/sick, athletics, sexuality, diet, drugs, indulgences, physical sensations, enjoyment of nature?
   4. Society: Involvement in social or political issues? Awareness of group or heritage? Beliefs and group identity? Current events that affect you?
   5. Events: Any particularly striking or meaningful events? Challenging circumstances?
   6. Dreams: Any recurring or striking dreams?
   7. Twilight imagery: metaphors or symbols of the period
   8. Inner wisdom: realizations of profound truths? Spiritual inspirations?
   9. Intersections: any crossroads or choices that affected the course of your life?

Twilight Imagery:
Images, symbols and metaphor that come when you write

1. At the top of a sheet of paper, write Period Image and the date.
2. Sit in Silence.
3. Consider the period you have just described. Feel the tone and quality of the period. Let images, symbols and metaphors arise as if they were dreams -- a tornado; a rising sun; a knot in your stomach; a strain of music. Observe these neutrally. Write briefly.

Life Correlation:
Putting the two together

1. Sit in silence.
2. Consider the Period Log and the Twilight Imagery together. Any insights or thoughts on how they fit together? Do they balance, contradict, complement? Letting the inner and outer perceptions fit together helps us perceive the wholeness of our lives. Describe correlations in Period Log.

The Life/Time Dimension
Consists of four subsections:

• Steppingstones
• Life History Log: where we record the experiences of our past
  • Steppingstones Periods
  • Remembrances
• Intersections: Roads Taken and Not Taken
• Now: The Open Moment

Steppingstones:
Significant points of movement along the road of life. You will make several Steppingstones lists in the course of your Intensive Journal work, each from a different vantage point, so don't worry now about getting them just "right." Each time we do this exercise we are looking at our lives from a different point of view depending on what's important to us and where we are in our life history. The key is to let the list be generated from the fullness of the present circumstances of our lives.

To write our Steppingstones, we first establish the atmosphere. Second, we make a list of the Steppingstones of our life, which are moments of significant meaning or change. It is essential that the number of Steppingstones be limited, not more than 12. Describe each Steppingstone with a descriptive phrase or keyword. The first Steppingstone is always "I was born . . ."

1. Sit in silence.
2. Feel the movement of our life as a whole. Let the cycles, rhythms and tempos of your life present themselves to you.
3. Record the images.
4. Make the list of 8-12 Steppingstones with a short descripture phrase or keyword for each.
   1. "I was born . . ."
   2. "And then . . . and then . . ."

Life History Log: Steppingstone Periods:
Next we enter and explore each Steppingstone Period in turn. These periods generally are governed by a particular theme. Begin with the phrase "It was a time when . . "

1. Choose a Steppingstone.
2. Sit in stillness. Close eyes. Place yourself within the period. Feel the atmosphere, the tone and the quality.
3. "It was a time when . . . " What adjectives and images come to mind? Write them down.
4. Use the Period Log Checklist below to recall the important facts of the period. Describe the person you were then. What were your hopes, beliefs, attitudes, philosophy of life?
   1. Persons: What relationships do you have? Who do you admire or model?
   2. Works: What projects or activities are important to you?
   3. Body: healthy/sick, athletics, sexuality, diet, drugs, indulgences, enjoyment of nature?
   4. Society: Involvement in social or political issues? Awareness of group or heritage?
   5. Events: Any particularly striking or meaningful events? Challenging circumstances?
   6. Dreams: Any recurring or striking dreams?
   7. Twilight imagery: metaphors or symbols of the period
   8. Inner wisdom: realizations of profound truths?
   9. Intersections: any crossroads or choices that affected the course of your life?
5. Reread your list, letting yourself slip back to that time. Let the past become the present. Recall the feelings and sensations, pains and joys, sights and smells. Record without judgment.

Life History Log - Remembrances:
In Remembrances, we expand our work from the steppingstone period checklist. We record detailed memories, feelings, sights and smells. Often, as we work with these exercises within a period, memories from other periods arise. Record them in the Remembrances section. That way we won't forget the memory but will be able to return to it, possibly expand it if we feel it is necessary.

There, now we have worked in our past, recalling and recording the substance of our lives. Next we look to the future in the section Intersections, Roads Taken and Not Taken

Intersections, Roads Taken and Not Taken:
Here, we place ourselves back at points of transition, where a change of some kind took place that affected the shape of our lives. Think of your life as a road. It passes through many environments. It detours. It moves slowly along a broken roadbed. It rushes downhill. It shifts direction or moves around in circular paths. Sometimes it splits and you, the traveler, take one fork or the other and continue on.

Those unchosen roads still contain potential. Many of them have been carried within us year after year, waiting for new opportunity. We often think that the choice we rejected long ago are now dead, but the truth is they are like seeds. They are dormant and may still grow.

Use this section to go back of the road of your life looking for unlived possibilities. Intersections are not always obvious. They may not have been decisions that you yourself made. They may have been made by others or may have just happened w/o anyone realizing it was important at the time. One's choices of friends or school are examples of seemingly inocuous intersections that may have a big effect one's life.

1. Make an open-ended list of all the Intersections, Roads Taken and Not Taken, you can think of. Use the Steppingstone list to remind you of the periods in your life when intersections may have happened.

Time-Stretching
An essential factor in developing the capacity of life intuitions in this Journal Workshop is the work we do in the Life/Time dimension, especially time-stretching. In this exercise, we explore the Roads Not Taken. It's called time-stretching because we start from the past and look into the future. One of the goals is to open out our past experiences so we can see the possibilities still contained in our lives.

1. Open the journal to the Life History Log. Choose a period to expand.
2. Title a page "Remembrances, Stepping Stone Period _________, today's date.
3. Enter the period by rereading your entry for the period and sitting in silence allowing its feelings and atmosphere to surround you. Place yourself there.
4. When a memory is recalled record it on your Remembrances page describing as much as you can. Recall also any turning points or crossroads that took place in this period.
5. Explore an Intersection.
   1. Choose a crossroad to explore. Describe the circumstances of the crossroad simply and nonjudgmentally.
   2. Describe the path you chose, with emphasis on the beginning and early stages.
   3. Explore other road(s) not taken for this intersection by listing the other choices you could have made, or the other circumstances that might have happened by chance, then take yourself down each path in your imagination. Using Twilight Imagery, let symbols and images arise.
   4. Record.

Dialogue Dimension
The Dialogues are one of several Journal Feedback methods through which we come to new realization and transformation. Journal Feedback evokes an awareness of inner direction that is deeper than consciousness. It is important to follow the sequence of procedures and to build a deep base in each area where we use it.

Dialogue with Persons
In Dialogue with Persons, we establish deep dialogue with people living and dead who have had a meaningful role in our lives. Draw together a list of those with whom you feel a connection and with whom you feel the relationship warrants further exploration, clarification or growth.

1. On a blank page, write the persons name and today's date.
2. Sit quietly, concentrate on the person and think of tone and feel of the relationship.
3. Write a brief and direct statement describing the essence of the relationship. In 2 - 4 paragraphs, describe positive and negatives, what is expressed and what is hidden. Also indicate movement of relationship, that is, the phases it's gone through. Also describe where the relationship is now, even if the person is already dead.
4. Read your statement. Record any reactions on your part to your words.
5. To carry out a dialogue with someone, we must break out of the ordinary patterns of our relationship and connect with them on a deeper level. We need to get inside them somehow. The best way is to list their Steppingstones as we did our own. This helps us feel empathy for their hopes and frustrations, successes and fears.
   1. Sit in quietness.
   2. Feel the movement of their life, as much as you know it.
   3. First Steppingstone: "I was born . . ."
   4. Do 8-12 stones.
6. Now you may begin the Dialogue . Both take turns speaking. Record what is said. Don't think too much about it and don't worry if it doesn't seem rational. With practice the process will become more fluid.
7. Sit in silence. Reread. Record your reactions to what you've written.

Later, you may reread and continue the dialogue . Always date entries.

You may want to maintain separate subsections in the Dialogue With Persons section for all those you are currently in contact with. Here you will keep the dialogue s you have made, any notes on real-time meetings, conversations and events involving each person, and your thoughts and feelings regarding them.

Dialogue with Works
A work is more than your job, it is any activity that is meaningful and valuable to you. Our growth as persons is stimulated by meaningful work. To have a work is to have a vision of possibilities that may be brought to fulfillment. The relationship of a person to his/her work consists of 1) inner vision and 2) focused activity. The dialogue is not limited to the spoken or written words exchanged, but includes feelings, thoughts and decisions regarding the work, and the intensive of involvement you have with it.

1. Make a list of the works in your life, using your Steppingstone list to jog your memory.
2. Read through your list, adding brief descriptions or specific memories. If more needs to be written about a particular work, turn to the appropriate section in the Journal (Life History Log or Intersections, for example).
3. Choose a work with which to dialogue which seems to have further potential for development.
4. Write a focusing statement about you and your relationship with this work.
5. Write the Steppingstones in the life history of this work with a word or phrase of embellishment if necessary, beginning with how you first got the idea. Recall its beginnings, its possibilities, its phases of development, its difficulties.
6. Sit in stillness, feelings the presence of the work as though it were a person. Feel its quality and continuity. Record any symbolic or Twilight Imagery.
7. Now speak with the work as though it were a person.
8. Sit in stillness. Record any feelings about the process.
9. Reread. Record any additional thoughts.

Dialog with the Body: an ongoing list of awareness about body. Not stepping stones.

Dialog with Events, Situations, and Circumstances: a good place to explore volatile relationships because you can explore the relationship rather than the person.

Dialog with Society: for working with your roots and what has shaped you. A good area when you find yourself dealing with guilt when you leave institutions of your past behind you.

Now the Open Moment: where you sit with where you are now, visualizing what the next step might be. What desires have you identified, what might you do based on what you have learned?

Depth Dimension:
Symbolic forms, the indirect language of symbols

• Dream Log: facts only, no evaluation or interpretation
• Dream Enlargement: try to expand the dream
• Twilight Imagery: images and metaphor that come when you write
• Imagery Expensions: Sit with image to see if it will convey more
• information
• Inner Wisdom Dialog:

Dream Log
To begin your dream work in the Intensive Journal, it is good to catch up as best you can with the major dreams you have had in the past. We are going to be working with the dreams as a complete and ongoing whole more than with individual ones. Begin by describing the earliest dreams that you remember and continue on to your most recent ones. Record the details of the dreams as much as you can. Be as objective as possible. No analysis or interpretation at this time.

What we don't do here is as important as what we do. We deliberately refrain from analyzing the dreams. We refrain from interpreting their symbolic content, no matter how profound are the insights we feel we possess. We do nothing that would make the dream stand to reason. To do that rationalizes the symbolic material and violates its non-rational nature. Further, to interpret a dream in analytical terms neutralizes its power by depriving the dream of its ability to continue its movement and to unfold its symbolism on its own terms.

After the dreams are recorded we will contemplate their wholeness and let the movement of the dreams continue to flow.

Meaning Dimension

• Meditation Log: for entrance meditation
• Spiritual Positioning: spiritual period log
• Inner Process: like daily log, a record of what's trying to happen
• Connections: all experiences where you feel yourself a part of something larger than your self
• Gatherings: list of connections made
• Spiritual Stepping Stones:
• Re-openings: open up possibilities
• Mantra/Crystals: make a meditation based on your own experience
• Peaks, Depths, Explorations: the work of your being, the large issues for you
• Testament: truths you've discovered.

Meditation Log I: Entrance Meditation
A form of Process Meditation in which a person brings himself to a place of deep quiet and centeredness. It is a means of moving through the entryway of consciousness. The Entrance Meditations are chosen from Ira Progoff's books The Well and the Cathedral, The White-Robed Monk, or The Star/Cross. Recommended: purchase these on tape from Dialogue House. That way you can listen to the meditation rather than reading it to yourself.

1. Choose an Entrance Meditation. Here's an example.
2. In Meditation Log section, title a page "Entrance Meditation" and date.
3. Sit in silence, becoming quieter and slower.
4. Read the meditation to the words "In the silence, in the silence."
5. Allow self to perceive the depth and fullness of inner spaces and experience self as being there.
6. Observe and record the thoughts and observations you experience.

Meditation Log II: Spiritual Positioning
Describing where we are in our spiritual lives.

1. Sit in silence, feeling tone and quality of your life.
2. Write a focusing statement, a few quick sentences that describe your spiritual life at this time. Include beliefs, doubts, explorations, concerns about the human situation, commitments of one's life, the things you care about. Keep it brief and focused.
3. On a fresh page, elaborate. Recall and record the changing phases of your beliefs. How did you arrive at your present beliefs? What questions are you asking? Who has influenced you? What chain of circumstances, events and pressures of life, books you've read, and speakers you've heard led to your present state of belief? Any strong inner experiences or special awarenesses?
4. Reread the entry. Now turn back to your focusing statement and re-read it. Does it need to be changed or elaborated on. Write more beneath.

Comments from Amazon.com

"This book is amazing!" It is difficult to read but I found a way around that problem by taking clear, simple notes while reading the book slowly, with a dictionary by my side. I dropped out of school in the 8th grade, but this book offered such rich rewards that I had to find a way to understand it. It took me almost a year to get through the whole book, to completely understand it, and to compile a set of practical, simple notes. It was WELL worth it! This book is one of the best books I ever found in my life, by far, and I can't praise it enough! This book will add such a richness and texture to your life, such meaning, and insight, so much creativity, so much more self-acceptance . . . really, I can't praise it enough."

"One of the most intense, and comprehensive books on using journaling as a path to personal growth I've found so far. If you want a detailed instruction book to guide you through the journaling process, look no further."

"This journal method is unlike anything else on the market and to be fully appreciated one might first read some of Progoff's other works that shed light on his Jungian influenced theory of psychology and personal growth. Progoff's Intensive Journal Method was so successful that it overshadowed his great psychological insights."

"Worth the hard work. As a person I developed greatly through this process. At a Journal Workshop, chapter by chapter, takes you through a series of introspective exercises that benefit writers and non-writers alike. As a novice writer this book really helped me get inside my characters. It's much more useful than any creative writing class or writer's workshop that I have ever attended. From a practical point of view the book is time consuming and figuratively weighty. It is not easy to cross reference between chapters. However, if you interpret the exercises liberally and skip anything that does not inspire you, these points are easy to overlook. This book is a replacement for an actual workshop and it is not an easy project. Tackle it when you can devote lots of personal time to it. For anyone at a crossroads in life, or anyone who wants to write - I thoroughly recommend it!"

"The absolute number one book about journal keeping. I have personally studied the works of countless writers of journal keeping techniques and Ira Progoff's National Intensive Journal method is #1 in my book. I am a former consultant for Dialogue House, and though I currently teach and use a synthesis of many teachers techniques (including many of my own), Progoff's method is the heart and soul of journal keeping. Soundly based in Jungian theory and the theories of other depth psychologists, as well as the world's great spiritual traditions, this work is the basis for all modern journal keeping. This text isn't the easiest to read, however (very scholarly) so I recommend actually experiencing the method in a workshop setting in addition to using the book as your journal keeping bible. Progoff is the father of contemporary journal keeping, in my estimation, and using his work as foundation, serious journal keepers will find their experience richer."

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