It’s practically a no-brainer. Imagination! A majority of philosophers, scientists (including neuroscientists), psychologists, and artists all agree that imagination is essential in creativity, problem-solving, innovation, invention, generating change, improving performance, dealing with adversity, surviving as a species, and just plain enjoying life.
And Dr. George Land and Dr. Beth Jarman began the research that revealed the extent to which we learn to stifle our imagination 50 years ago.
What Exactly IS Imagination?
Imagination is the ability to form ideas or images in the mind of things that are not present to the senses. It isn’t the same thing as creativity, which is the use of imagination to produce something conceptual or tangible and often original.
We use one type of imagination (called reconstructive) when we recall any event from the past or think about what we might do or what might happen in the future.
Another type of imagination involves combining things to generate something new (whether or not it is possible to create). We can imagine a moon made of green cheese because we’re able to combine images of the moon + the color green + cheese—preferably Swiss. That doesn’t, of course, mean that such an object exists.
Being able to bring to mind ideas or images of things that don’t currently exist allows us to consider possibilities beyond those that are right in front of us. Given that we were not the strongest, toughest, hardiest, or most fearsome creatures on the Savannah, it’s fortunate we developed the capacity to use our brain in this unique manner.
It’s our ability to move back and forth between the realms of “what is” and “what could be” that has enabled us to reach beyond being a successful species to become an exceptional one. — anthropologist Agustin Fuentes, The Creative Spark
We are masters at generating alternative realities, taking what is and transforming it into a panoply of what-ifs. —neuroscientist David Eagleman, The Runaway Species
Mental Time Travel
Imagination gives us the ability to engage in mental time travel—to be in one place physically while being somewhere else mentally. If you can activate your imagination at will, you will never be bored. (And hopefully being alone with your thoughts won’t be so unpleasant you’ll be tempted to administer electric shocks to yourself.)
More importantly, escaping into your imagination can help you endure difficult situations or circumstances.
In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl talked about how some individuals who were not particularly robust physically nevertheless survived their brutal concentration camp experiences better than some who were stronger by escaping into imagination:
As the inner life of the prisoner tended to become more intense, he also experienced the beauty of art and nature as never before. Under their influence he sometimes even forgot his own frightful circumstances.
Transformation
If you want to create transformational change, you need to imagine a self and a situation that do not yet exist.
It is that dimension [our imagination of ourselves] whereby we are not merely living our lives—passively, as it were—but are actively giving them shape: ceaselessly interpreting and inventing ourselves afresh. It is that dimension whereby we do not receive a life as much as compose a life—as we might compose a story. As we appreciate the extent of this dimension, it becomes impossible to see how any aspect of our lives can escape our self-creative touch. —William Lowell Randall, The Stories We Are
There are so many ways to use your imagination, on grand scales and small ones, both aesthetic and practical. If you want to expand your own imagination, here are a few things you can do:
- Be open to experience.
- Be curious.
- Develop your observation skills.
- Get more comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.
- Let your brain connect the dots (in different ways or multiple ways and in ways others may not see).
- Be willing to suspend disbelief and commit to the process.
We should think of the imagination as an archaeologist might think about a rich dig site, with layers of capacities, overlaid with one another. —philosophy professor Stephen T. Asma