Imaginal Practice, Mythopoetic Cognition & Dream Work | River Kenna

River Kenna is a writer, inner work practitioner, and mythodynamics researcher. After spending the first 24 years of his life dealing with incessant mental chatter — and trying countless meditation techniques that offered little relief — it was somatic meditation that finally allowed him to dissolve his inner critic and find deep inner peace. Today his work explores somatic resonance, mythopoetic cognition, and experiments in graceful non-linear living. He teaches the Somatic Resonance course and conducts one-on-one sessions in somatic and imaginal practices.In this conversation we explore the limits of most meditation approaches and what somatic meditation offers that conventional methods miss, accessing images through the body, and what mythopoetic cognition is and why it may be the engine of the mind.We get into imaginal practice and dream work, the systematic vs spontaneous mode, staying with images over the long term, the non-linearity of dream work, and how imaginal work differs from parts work.We also explore the distinction between improving and unfolding, left brain vs right brain, devotional productivity, and a dissection of the ideas of Carl Jung, James Hillman, and Rob Burbea.🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES 🔗River's personal site River on Twitter Subscribe to River's Substack Somatic Resonance Course Somatic Descent — Reggie Ray Imagination: A New Foundation for the Science of Mind — Stephen T. Asma Mythopoetic Cognition as the Engine of the Mind — River Kenna at the Stoa John Keats — Negative Capability Inner Work — Robert A. Johnson The Master and His Emissary — Iain McGilchrist Technic and Magic — Federico Campagna Rob Burbea Carl Jung James Hillman🕰️ TIMESTAMPS 🕰️0:00 - Introduction1:58 - The limits of most meditations4:37 - The transformative power of somatic meditation9:48 - Accessing images through the body16:26 - Mythopoetic cognition27:17 - Imaginal practice and dream work35:04 - Systematic vs spontaneous mode39:48 - Staying with images over the long term45:47 - The non-linearity of dream work52:39 - How imaginal work differs from parts work56:44 - Improving vs unfolding — left brain vs right brain1:03:02 - Devotional productivity1:16:51 - Dissecting Carl Jung, James Hillman, and Rob Burbea1:25:01 - What River is working on now1:28:17 - Final words*Subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch the video versions of the Elevating Consciousness Podcast *Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional