Professor Albert Einstein once stated that imagination is even more important than knowledge. We all have this faculty, and we use it constantly, but the vital question is how? Do we apply it constructively, in helping to further our dreams and our goals, and bring to fruition the sum total of our sense perceptions? Or do we allow it to destroy our abilities, through whimsical yearnings and fancies of what might be, or by allowing this imagination to magnify the wrongs of the past or uncertainties of the future, until we are reduced to slaves of hate or fear, unable to act in present circumstances. Exactly what is imagination? For the sake of brevity let us say that: reproductive imagination is the capacity to form mental pictures of past experiences; proactive imagination is the capacity to create mental pictures of situations or conditions that we have not actually experienced. Dr. Harry Overstreet interprets it thus: Imagination is a mental synthesis of new ideas from elements experienced separately. It is not, as is so often thought, a process of making something out of nothing. Imagination is rather a process of making new wholes out of familiar parts. The more experiences one has in life, the more he can synthesize and therefore create. A further distinction is passive imagination, which consists of dreams, either the day or night variety. These become hallucinations if mistaken for reality, and may eventually lead to serious mental disorders. There are times, though, when a bit of passive imagination helps us temporarily escape a cruel or oppressive reality - beneficial if kept within bounds. Often our dreams are the prelude to creative writing or invention. Most of us have experienced the thrill of a bright idea in the middle of the night, then wanted to kick ourselves the next morning for losing it, because we didnt jot it down. The person with creative imagination can take bits of experience and sensory perceptions and reassemble them into something uniquely his, whether its a symphony (consider how Beethoven, deaf, could hear with an inner perception, his magnificent Ninth Symphony), a painting, a rocket to propel man to the moon, words that form into a poem or scenario, a playpen that even the most determined child cant escape, a Christmas present for the in-law who has everything - its endless. Everyone has an imagination to wish for something more beautiful or useful - something to lighten the load, which, by the way, if responsible for most of our inventions: mans desire to avoid work! Advertising, its obvious, feeds our imagination and very readily distorts our values. Its a well-adjusted man who can sit through an evenings advertising on TV and be assured his breath still smells pure, his stomach is still intact, he is still sane and good-looking, he is still basically desirable in spite of the fact that no deodorant has been used for six hours, ad nauseam. It is also a very well-adjusted person who can come through the days onslaught of news media knowing that there are some things more important in life than horsepower, one of which is horse sense. It is not our intention to downgrade advertising, for it is essential to our economy. We want only to point out its effects on ones imagination, and it is surely in part responsible for too many drowning in debits because of credit. The people who allow others to talk them into a supposed utopia via every latest material invention have plenty of imagination, but little foresight. As George Eliot has said, Images are the brood of desire. Advertisers take full advantage of this (and who can blame them), through visual, auditory and olfactory images. Imagination touches every facet in our lives. According to Dr. Karen Horney, it permeates all psychic and mental functions in the healthy person. When we feel the sorrow or the joy of a friend, it is our imagination that enables us to do so. When we wish, hope, fear, believe, plan, it is our imagination showing us possibilities. Lets discuss the fear aspect of imagination, the negative, corrosive use of imagination. In a nutshell, it is worry. To cope with the worry produced by an overactive imagination, which is often set off by an over-reactive emotional barometer, a person will sometimes employ yet another destructive use of imagination and shut himself off in his ivory tower, where he is protected from jibes and cruelties. What is so hard for this person to grasp is the fact that his imagination, this wonderful gift that could be taking in nuggets of satisfaction and happiness, has gone amuck, and instead of working for him in the way of mental, physical and spiritual health, it is now enlarging his anxieties; in other words, the poor guy is snowed in after the first three flakes of winter. He just knows others are criticizing or ridiculing him; the boss is getting ready to advance a less-worthy person; the wife is flirting with his lawyer, whom he suspects as not serving his best interests anyway; the 15-year-old is secretly on drugs because hes been acting peculiar lately (daddy forgets he was once young and peculiar); the IRS will no doubt descend on him this year; there may be a drought next year or a hurricane, or fire, or flood, and so on and on, until the poor soul is eaten up with ulcers. If all this sounds silly or farfetched, use your imagination negatively for one full day. When you get up in the morning tell yourself how awful you feel. Put the coffee pot on and then picture it - boiling over (and the pot just might boil over, too!). Put the toast in and expect it to burn. Your spouse will be in a grr-r-r-r mood that morning because you have so decided. If you have an appointment with your doctor of chiropractic that day, make up your mind that he needs a refresher course, or that hes been working on your back from someone elses x-rays and, while youre at it, tell him so. Continue this frame of mind the whole day and see how well you feel by nightfall. This is probably why doctors despair of curing some people. The spinal adjustment may be a work of art, but the patients mind may be full of abstractions and distractions that rule out mental and physical health. Doctors no longer separate the mind (psyche) and the body (soma). Imagination is the creative element of the mind, but combine it with anxiety and maladjustment and a person creates all sorts of problems that are manifested in such psychosomatic reactions as gas, ulcers, headaches, constipation, low-back pain, fatigue, to name only a few. And the intelligentsia are even more prone to emotionally-induced illness, because of their dissatisfaction with the status quo. An alert, inquiring mind usually assumes more responsibility, and therefore has more tension. Lets face it, life is difficult enough without confounding it with an overripe imagination plus ones own bag of inherited, environmental and cultural fears and quirks. Misery has no trouble in attracting company in the form of negative results and reactions. So, if you want to be happy and healthy, envision yourself as such. Its truly amazing what the power of positive imagining can do. Invest this powerful gift in new ideas to improve relationships, hobbies, home and office: any aspect of living that can be enriched. It will bring greater dividends and less tension than the interest off a million dollars, because you will be fulfilling one of mans basic needs, that of creativity. Let your imagination work for you to a maximum of both mental and physical well-being. Read some of the numerous books on personality and adjustment. The book shelves are full enough for those who want to meet and conquer lifes challenges. Who knows, you may eventually phase out the doctor! Published in Healthways Magazine, April 1970 |
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