How to Build Your Bengston Image Cycling List (And Why It Matters More Than You Think)

How to Build Your Bengston Image Cycling List (And Why It Matters More Than You Think)

Before you begin Image Cycling, the core practice behind the Bengston Energy Healing Method, you need to build a personal list. Not just any list—this is a highly specific, emotionally charged inventory of what you want most in life. Think of it as the fuel for the process. It’s not a formality. It is the foundation.

In this post, we’re going to focus entirely on the art of creating your list: how to do it, why it matters, and what it might reveal about you.

Start with at least 20 items—no exceptions

The Bengston Method emphasizes this from the beginning: your list should have a minimum of 20 items. More is better. Thirty, fifty, even a hundred is not too much. But if you don’t have at least 20, you haven’t gone deep enough.

Each item on your list must be something you want—but don’t currently have. It has to be selfish in the best sense of the word. You’re not listing things you think you should want, or things other people want for you. These are your wants, your desires, and your dreams.

They can be physical: a house, a new car, a healthy body.
They can be emotional: a partner, reconnecting with an estranged family member.
They can be experiences: travel to Italy, publishing a book, learning to surf.
They can be outcomes: financial independence, career success, spiritual connection.

The key is that you can vividly imagine what it would be like to have each one. You’ll be using these images later, so they need to feel real.

Your list is a litmus test for what you actually want

Here’s where it gets interesting. A lot of people struggle to get to 20 items. They might think they know what they want, but when it comes time to write it down, the page stays blank.

That’s not a failure. It’s a diagnostic.

If you can’t write it down, you probably don’t really want it. Or you haven’t gotten clear about it yet.

This is why the list is more than prep work—it’s a mirror. It shows you what’s actually meaningful to you. If something you thought was important doesn’t show up on your list, ask yourself why. Did it feel inauthentic? Was it really someone else’s goal that you adopted without thinking?

As you work through this exercise, you may surprise yourself. Forgotten dreams may resurface. Longings you’ve buried under responsibility might re-emerge. This process of digging through your own desires is powerful, and it can reset your sense of direction.

The list is alive. It will change. That’s the point.

Your list is not a contract. It’s not fixed. It’s not sacred.

In fact, one of the most important insights from the Bengston Method is that your list is meant to evolve. As your life changes, your wants will shift. Some things will fall away. Others will emerge. You might achieve some of the items on your list. You might realize you no longer care about others. You might discover that what you wanted was just a placeholder for something deeper.

The flexibility of the list is what keeps the process dynamic and personal. You don’t need to overthink it. There’s no ranking, no deadlines, no justifications.

Add things. Remove things. Rewrite the list completely if you feel like it.

The more you revisit and refine your list, the more tuned-in you become to your inner compass. Over time, this becomes not just a list for Image Cycling, but a roadmap to your actual desires.

How to get started

Here’s a simple way to begin:

1. Set aside 30–60 minutes with no distractions.
2. Think in categories if you're stuck: relationships, health, possessions, travel, skills, emotions, lifestyle.
3. For each item, imagine what it would look like, feel like, sound like. Use all five senses.
4.Spend 5-10 minutes per item vividly vizualing this. This process is called “burning” the image into your mind
5. After you have burned each image, reduce it to a single word you can recall quickly. For example, if you want a black Tesla 3, the word can be just “Tesla” or “car”
6.Keep going until you hit 20.

To start off, you need to write your list on paper, at least until you have memorized it.

Don’t worry if your list seems strange. You’re not being graded on it. No one else needs to see it. It’s your list.

Final thoughts

The process of creating your Bengston Method list is where a lot of inner work really begins. It forces you to clarify what you actually want, not just what others expect from you or what you think you want. And it evolves with you, reflecting your growth, your failures, and your wins.

After you have created and burned your list, it's time to start rapidly cycling it.

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