I was at this weird seminar a few years ago, and there was an exercise called a ‘magic self’ exercise. I’ve used it sporadically over the years, and I think it’s a valuable meditation practice that can help you become the person that you want to be. It’s fairly easy to learn, so here’s how you do it. Please note that although this procedure is more for men, females can still benefit.
You will be creating four mythical imaginary characters. You will use these characters to charge yourself with their characteristics. Repeated practice, of course, will yield better and quicker results. The characters are based on “archetypes” which were originally described by Karl Jung. He was a psychiatrist who noticed that many of his patients had the same elements in their dreams. He came up with the idea of different archetypes that comprise our personalities. Many psychologists believe that if you are lacking in some area of your life, it is the corresponding archetype that needs work.
Here are the four for the magical self exercise.
King
This is whatever king, real or imagined, that you admire, and would follow into battle if you were a soldier. Any king from history, stories, cartoons, books will work. I sometimes imagine the king from “Lord of the Rings,” sometimes the Tokugawa character from “Shogun,” and sometimes I make one up. The key is that you trust and respect the leadership skills and wisdom of this king enough so that you would follow him into battle and risk your life for the cause he chooses.
Warrior
This is a fierce warrior, that if you could choose any fighter from history to be like, you’d choose this guy. Achilles from Troy, Conan from any of the Conan movies, Any of Toshiro Mifune’s characters. Clint Eastwood’s “the man with no name.” Anybody that if you could magically take on his qualities, you feel you could whip anybody in a fight.
Lover
This is most skilled and accomplished seducer of women you can imagine. Johnny Depp’s character from “Don Juan DeMarco” is a fantastic model for this.
Joker
This is the character that never takes anything seriously. Always playing jokes on other people. Always sneaking in where he’s not supposed to be and causing trouble. Harpo Marx and Bugs Bunny are good role models for this.
Here’s how you do the exercise. Create a space where you can stand and turn around and spread your arms out. If you can imagine a circle surrounding you. If you have the space, imagine another circle outside the circle you are standing. So in your imagination, you are standing in the middle of two concentric circles that are approximately two and three meters in diameter.
You stand in the middle, and close your eyes. Take seven deep, slow breaths. Close your eyes. Imagine each character standing in outer ring of your circle. Slowly turn and face where each imaginary character is standing. Exhale all your breath, and then slowly open your eyes. As you inhale, imagine all the energy from that particular character flowing directly from their chest into yours. If you can visualize a chord of energy, gold or silver, or whatever, fantastic. After you’ve inhaled all their energy, close your eyes, and silently thank them. Slowly turn, exhale, and inhale the next characters energy.
After you inhale each characters energy, with your eyes closed, take another seven slow breaths and imagine that all their characteristics are mixing in the perfect level to help you with whatever you need assistance with. Once your are finished, clap your hands a couple of times, and then forget about it.
The trick is to move through life, and be open for instances where you show your new characteristics when appropriate, but you don’t force it too much. The more open and accepting for these new changes in you to show up, and quicker they’ll come.