What is it like to be a drop of water?

If you are looking at cycles in nature as a science topic then the guided visualization or fantasy below can help students get inside each aspect of the water cycle and experience it as a whole. This visualization not only can provide profound insights but also leaves students with a wonderful feeling of energy and centredness. It is suitable for any age group and can be integrated into a program of study in different ways. 

Visualisations like this one can be good ways of introducing a topic. They encourage questions from a holistic perspective rather than just a  left-brain point of view. They can generate very rich ways of exploring a topic that a normal "scientific" approach may ignore. They provide a motivation for learning based on a sense of sacredness and empathy. When used after some initial investigation they provide an opportunity for students to integrate disparate facts and experiences in a insightful way... and can generate new ways of moving forward with the topic.

This visualization  was designed in a country that experiences snow as part of winter but can easily be adapted to local climatic conditions.

A Guided Fantasy: Water Cycle

You will be peaceful and calm throughout this fantasy.  You will have a pleasant, interesting and comfortable journey.  No harm will come to you at any point.  You will be perfectly safe at all times.  You will always be able to do whatever you want to do.  When your experience is over you will feel refreshed and relaxed, peaceful and full of energy.

Allow yourself to flow with this fantasy... Let go.... Give yourself permission to enter into it as completely as you can.... Take your own pace.... Go at your own rate.

Visualize now, a large, calm lake at the base of some very high mountains.... The sun is rising slowly through scattered, pink clouds.... Enter into the peace and tranquility of this scene.... Experience it as fully as you can.... Look all around you.  See everything there is to see.... Listen to the early morning sounds.... Smell the fresh mountain air.

Visualize the water.. . . . Now, you will become the water... You will become crystal clear, pure, transparent water ... You are floating.... floating on the surface of the lake.  Enjoy being there.  Feel the water supporting you and buoying you up.

The rising sun's glowing light penetrates the depth of your being.  You are flooded with light.  Let the light in.... Experience the light coursing through you.... Feel the sun filling your entire being with brilliant, bright light.

As the sun rises higher, you begin to feel warmer and warmer... You grow lighter and more energized.... You are expanding.... You begin to rise gently, invisibly... You move higher and higher, until you are absorbed into billowy, white-gray cloud formations.

Feel yourself carried along and rolled about by friendly, pillowy clouds.... Feel yourself rising with the clouds and swiftly moving upward towards the craggy mountain peaks.

As you rise higher, a brisk, cold current of air transforms you in an instant into a shower of infinitely varied, brilliantly beautiful snowflakes.... You move gently and ever so lightly downward towards the deep, soft snowbanks below ... As you gradually descend, the bright rays of the sun pass through you, and you begin glistening and flashing with the full color spectrum of the rainbow.  Experience yourself in all your beauty and radiance.

You continue descending, lightly, airily and gracefully moving downward.... Gently, gently you are cushioned by the soft snowbank and your descent is ended.... Rest there in the sun and prepare for the completion of your journey… Feel the heat of the sun. Let it in.... Warm yourself thoroughly… feel the warm energy flowing through you. 

Fill yourself with sunlight.  Allow it to flow through your entire being…          Feel the energy and power of this light.... Experience its radiance… You have become a centre of light.

You are rested now and refreshed.  You are ready to move on.... You discover that the warm rays of the noonday sun have transformed you into crystal clear liquid.... You are fluid again ... You begin moving downhill ... now fast, now slowly ... seeking your own way... Feel your power as you flow.

You join other waters and move now right, now left ... now over, and under ... always following the path of least resistance ... Flow at your own pace and find your own way back down to the lake.

You are nearing the bottom now ... when you reach the lake, flow out onto the surface of the water and spread yourself out.  Stretch, expand and float there.  Feel the water supporting you.... Enjoy the exhilaration of having completed a varied and exciting journey... Be aware of the wide range of your capabilities.... Be aware of your beauty and your power.

When you are ready, come back to yourself and to this room.  Keep your eyes closed.... Spend some silent moments with yourself.  You will feel refreshed and relaxed, energized and peaceful.

Continue to be yourself now ... the person you are ... and            also remember that you are water. Remember your capabilities …your mobility ... your power ... your various modes of being…Remember you are filled with energy and light ... Allow yourself  more often to experience yourself as fully as you have today... When you are ready, open your eyes and make some contact with this room and with the people about you.

(Jack Sequist, cited in, The Holistic Teacher, pp. 103-105)

After the visualization…. a few ideas of things to do....

In the quiet time after the visualization encourage students to reflect upon and integrate the experience through individual activities such as painting, poetry, writing down their feelings, sensations or thoughts, or writing a journal entry from the point of view of the water. This quiet time is really important... some students may just want to sit and ponder. 

Students can share with the class their experiences and their writing if they would like to. Give students the right to pass in any sharing. As students listen to each other they will make further connections and have "ahaa!" insights. How can these be captured and encouraged?  How can the process be organic and emergent - stories spiralling into a shared "ahaa!" -  rather than students just having their turn and saying their piece?

In small groups students could put the entire sequence to music …. What might the twinkle of the sun sound like? A rainbow? The flow of water? They might like to create a performance to present to the class that also incorporates visual effects, role-plays. Have time for the audience to feedback their response as this can also provides opportunities for students to integrate and make new meanings.

As students do these activities questions will naturally arise and their curiosity will be stimulated. Collect questions as they come up (big piece of butchers paper or on the board) as well as encouraging a brainstorming session for this purpose. Ask them what surprised them or intrigued them about the experience? How could these questions be organized? What tools (like concept mapping) could help in creating a "Where do we go now?" map of scientific exploration? What would we like to know more about? To experience? To observe? To experiment? To create? Who might we ask?