NationStates Jolt Archive

What do you think it is?

How has it been addressed scientifically?

Could it be what seperates us from other animals?

Just something on my mind that I wanted to ask before drawing my own conclusions.

Here's a little diddy I wrote on Imagination:

Thought, the mental frontier. These are the experiences of the subconscious soul and its never-ending quest to explore strange new possibilities, think-up new ideas and new creations, to boldly do what no man has done before. Man’s sharpest, most versatile tool, the human mind is incredible at getting what it wants using what it can when properly utilized. But perhaps the most under-appreciated and neglected yet most valuable use of the mind is your imagination. Day dreams, fantasies, make believe, pretend, call it what you will, but the power to turn one thing into another, or create something that isn’t even there in your mind has so many uses that it cannot be denied as the greatest thing man has to offer.

When we were younger, it did not truly matter so much what toys we had, but how we used what we had that determined how much we enjoyed them. When we played, how often did we think our toys, or even our surroundings were what they really were? I, for one, almost never did. The toys were just props, representations of something else, and my surroundings the imaginary setting for a theater production played out in the confines of my imagination. Simple sticks off the ground could become any range of weapon I could devise, from a sword or quarterstaff to a gun or bazooka, furniture became rocks in the middle of a lava flow, or stacked together as a secret base, legos and action figures became involved in a universal war between the forces of good and evil. When we played, we defined a mental reality and explored it to its fullest, following where our minds took us. We were the writers, directors, and main actors of our own personal movies, the star athlete, the hero, we were whatever we wanted to be and we were wherever we wanted to be no matter who or where we were, and it was just as real as the material reality that we played in and used to fuel our imaginations.

But as we grew older, we have become ingrained with the idea that such things are not for mature adults, that we should grow up, stop goofing around, and get a job so we can get rich and buy everything we’ve ever wanted. Why is this necessary? When we were kids, we used sticks for guns, and that was good enough, real enough, for us then, why do we have to grow up and really kill people? Why isn’t it good enough any more? Because we’ve killed the most important thing we had first, our imagination. It wasn’t real enough any more. The reality behind it never changed, just how we perceived it did. When we grow-up, we seem to forget why it was so much fun being a kid, we seem to lose sight of our imaginations trying instead to do everything in the real world, we have no need for make believe, we now have the power to try and make it happen. We earn our money and buy our own toys and live out our fantasies, bringing them from our minds to our senses, but there are many things that aren’t necessary to make happen and even some that outright shouldn’t be made to happen, things that could instead be played out in the confines of our mind and still be just as satisfying given a healthy imagination, given that you can accept the reality of the mental experience.

This can also apply to those who have suffered from traumatic experiences where there are many cases of people suppressing or erasing their memories of them, unable to handle the reality of the situation. It is a way of protecting yourself, your own little world you can escape to anytime you want. Whenever you’re going through a bad experience and can’t get out of it, just give in to it and imagine a slant to it that makes it more bearable and allows you to endure. Be the star in a story about your struggle for survival, don’t let fear and panic overwhelm you, stay determined and calm. It is all in how your mind perceives Reality through the reflection of the two realities it’s split through, and how you imagine it is just as real as what your senses tell you is there, if you allow it to be.

I can safely say that the reality we create in our minds is just as important, and just as real, if not more so, than the reality we see with our eyes, feel with our skin, hear with our ears, smell with our nose, and taste with our tongue. Within our minds, we can do all of this when nothing is there for our “real” senses to sense, but our ability to create things out of nothing at all cannot affect our senses, yet, our senses do not have to affect our minds either, they are simply another tool for the mind to gather information to use as we see fit. The two are separated, mental and material reality, like a cracked mirror, and we are the crack, the center of a triangle, balancing the fractured pieces, trying not to let it fall, holding the two reflections of both, a double image, separate yet the same, blended, pressed and folded together, but one more distinct, more real, than the other, determining our perspectives. It all depends on how we balance the two realities that decides how we live our lives, how we feel about our lives, and what we want, what’s important, in life.

Even many religions across the world accept that the material reality is not the true reality, that it is just a temporary existence, an imitation of the real thing, an illusion. Our senses can falter, can distort, can stop working. We can die. The mental realms are also temporary, lasting as long as you’d like them to, or as long as you’re alive if you continually work to build and maintain them, but they are all in our heads, only a figment of our imagination, an illusion, and the mind can falter, can distort, can stop working. Brain dead, vegetable, the light is on, but no one’s home.

When you imagine something in place of or in addition to what you sense, it’s like staring at two reflections of reality overlapping each other, the solid yet temporary material world forming the skeleton of your reality, the basic structure, with the subjective, malleable mental reality fleshing it out into whatever you want it to be, even if it’s only exactly what you happen to sense with whatever emotional tint your mood decides to color it. But what most people don’t understand is that they are in control of all of this. Of what they’re doing, of how they’re feeling, of what their attitude is, it all depends on how you perceive reality, with both your senses and your imagination, combined within your mind. When you’re tired or ornery or pissed off or happy or playful, it all depends on how you perceive reality at the time, and many times, a boring or bad experience can be made better if you concentrate on something else to cheer you up, creating a situation that would make you feel better and acting it out in your mind, if you’re at work doing something boring and monotonous, make it a race or a challenge, or a little adventure or whatever you can think of to make it interesting and help entertain yourself despite what’s “really” happening. To use your imagination is to use the ability to reinterpret what is happening while still acknowledging what is happening.

I dont have a clue what the scientists say about the imagination. Who can really say? Eveyone has one....unless its inhibited by a mental illness and then how do we really know for sure what is going through their minds? They could have the most intense imaginations for all we know. What do I think the imagination is? For each person, it can be as unique as a fingerprint, I would imagine (no pun damnit). I think its a playground for the mind. Its a state of conciousness that has no boundaries. If the mind could have a soul- I think imagination would be it. I cant think straight right now- more after consulting my imagination. ....

Problem solving involves imagination. Animals have been shown to solve problems. Therefore animals have some ammount of imagination.

Imagination is more important then Intelligence.

Imagination is simply beign able to think about what isn't actually there, or what you can't quite see. some animals, such as crows, have displayed this ability to solve tasks set for them. it does seem to be a measure of intelligence though, and is great for problem solving. it allows you to think of ways to use or make certain objects to use (like cracking seeds and nuts with stones, or using twigs to reach insects in a tree.)