The most precious and undervalued resource on earth is imagination.
Picture a world in which imagination is valued for the infinite expansion it adds to our lives. Government, toilet paper, electricity, e=mc2, Jazz, Starry Night…these all sprang from the deep well of their creator's active imagination. Yet in families, schools, government, commerce, and most other corners of our culture, imagination is often seen as frivolous, a waste of time, or unprofitable. It is neglected in favor of the countless more “important” tasks that fill our days, our screens, or pay the bills. Those who forge ahead by letting their imaginations run wild in the face of adversity, such as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Gertrude Stein, Gandhi, Steve Jobs, Toni Morrison, and so many other creative warriors, shine a path into a better world for the rest of us to follow.
Let’s be honest: we are stressed out. Climate change looms over our shoulders like a dark cloud on everyone’s mental horizon. We keep hearing about the keystone pipeline bursting, again, and wonder, how many times can we hear this before we go numb? Or are we already? We read about Russia’s relentless assault on Ukraine, and wonder, should I let myself feel this in my heart? To maintain any kind of amenable relationship to life on earth, we humans must realize that our imaginations are a precious gift and our saving grace. All civil justice began from a small group of heretics who were punished for having vision such as emancipation, woman’s right to vote, and freedom of reproductive control. Those that fought for these basic justices had the vision to picture a world different from the one outside their doorsteps. Our next leap in this direction must be to seek wholeness on earth and release ourselves from the prison-like mindset that all must be sacrificed for the Almighty Dollar. Are we all going to suffer or die so a few ignorant rich guys can feel safe from death? So that we can play at “normality” even as we strain under the economy’s backbreaking weight? The mind staggers at such tragic absurdity. We must imagine another way. Everything you see around you, everything in this world, began in our imaginations. It is the seed of reality. With a shared vision, our imagination can find the solutions to every single problem we face.
Four Concepts of Imagination
I believe there are four crucial ways in which imagination can shape our existence.
1. To have empathy and compassion for others—End racism, sexism, homophobia, ablism.
2. To wrap our minds around paradigm-shifting, revolutionary ideas that change our entire worldview. Example: the discovery of the earth being round, not flat.
3. To realize that how “things are done” can be wrong and can be changed—White supremacy is prevalent, and must be actively dismantled. Blind consumerism is killing life on our planet.
4. To create the new: music and arts, new social systems, new approaches to the economy, and creative approaches to research and discovery in math, science, health, medicine, and healing.
Growing up as an only child, my mind had lots of time and freedom to roam across the multiverse of play. Blessed to grow up in a time before cellphones, my friends and I created the games that we played for hours at a time. Western frontiers, outer space, glamourous movie sets, we could project ourselves into an infinite array of experiences that started out as fun ideas. We’d move our bodies, our minds, our voices, and the energy would flow in and out of games and activities naturally, like a rushing river. This early play set me up to be a creative thinker, with a healthy, happy life. The creative solutions I find for my physical, emotional, social, and financial life grow from the fertile ground nurtured in my youth. The constant use of digital screens disrupts and dismantles a key component for creativity: boredom. Boredom is crucial as it creates a void into which ideas are sucked in from sheer necessity. As the saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention.” Today when kids are bored, they watch YouTube videos. Boredom, and creative opportunities are lost every time a screen is offered as a balm to boredom.
Albert Einstein, an icon of scientific genius and intelligence, blew up barriers of thought frameworks like the atom bomb (yeah, it sucks that he contributed to our most heinous weapon). Here’s the thing: his theories came completely from his imagination. His studies in math and physics created a baseline of understanding with which to play. He called his daydreams “thought experiments,” a slightly fancy term for picturing ideas that were interesting and “seeing” (imagining) how they played out. For example, he pictured what it would be like to ride next to the speed of light, at the speed of light. Our most important, successful scientific creator used his imagination as his greatest tool. Einstein did not generally perform experiments. He imagined his way into the most amazing scientific breakthroughs of modern history. Then, he figured out the math to test and communicate it. Here’s a thought experiment: imagine if Albert Einstein had a cellphone and was getting texts from all the girls crushing on him. Would he have created the Theory of Relativity? Hmmmmm….
We are such powerful beings. We have the power of imagination to create beautiful, peaceful, and loving lives. So why, then, do war and pollution still ravage the world? Because most folks do not believe in this power. We are born into an endlessly materialistic society which encourages fear of the unknown and discourages both original thought and inwardly directed behavior and attitudes: inner authority. To rebel against this takes tremendous unlearning and often, a teacher, mentor, revelation, or breakthrough book/poem/movie/moment to point the way to freedom.
"Reality creation" is a term used for those who practice regularly to choose their thoughts and beliefs for personal fulfillment and the common good. What we think and focus on regularly, and what lurks beneath the surface in our subconscious beliefs, becomes our daily reality. Most people focus on what has happened before, or on the problems of the news, and on their daily lives. This creates more of that same vibrational energy in an endless wheel of negativity.
Neville Goddard was a New Thought author and speaker in the 1960s who believed in using imagination constructively, with intention. “God is imagination” was his central premise. Goddard was quite creative in his interpretations of the Bible, and literally believed that the God within us all is, indeed, our imagination. Those of us who have benefitted from this simple but life-changing and reality-changing practice know not to try to forcefully convince others. It is one’s own experience of shaping one's daily life with positive intention that does the convincing. It is free, fairly easy, and can transform an intensely stressful life into one of wonder, magic, and joy. What could the drawback be in trying to daydream on purpose? There’s little cost and immense gain.
Intuition: the bite of the gut or following a hunch. Whatever our spiritual beliefs, we have all been tickled by divine inspiration. Some of us lack seeing the value in feminine wisdom, which honors intuition, using our emotions to suss out inner truths, and communicating our feelings to build strong relationships. Reason, logic, and reductionism dominate mainstream culture; hence we’ve lost the trust to listen to that “still small voice.” Part of bringing balance to the world is to consciously reclaim our intuition, which Florence Scovel Shinn, another famous reality-creationist calls “our greatest spiritual faculty.” This takes practice and faith.
Faith is the missing piece in the overall puzzle of imagination. Faith in the value of our imagination, and our process of allowing and cultivating it, is crucial. We are constantly using our imagination but, culturally, don’t have faith in its value. Therefore, we throw away ideas or, worse, don’t engage in the process of generating ideas. Watching a fire burn, or clouds roll by, are classic ways in which humans can relax. As the brain goes into alpha waves, the ground is laid for new insights or connections to roll in. If one does not value this process, or the merit and potential treasure of this process, one will not often engage in these potent activities, or feel guilty “wasting time” and therefore not reach the relaxed state—flow state—in which connection to one’s mind, body, and emotions create a perfect trifecta for creating or synthesizing ideas.
Fear and ego have pushed and prodded us into this mental wasteland that feels dry as a desert. Everything is too hot, too bright, and the feminine ‘way of water’—of cool reflection—is resisted. But inside of us there is a well of infinite creation that will never dry up. We simply need the time, desire, initiative, and faith to dive inside our own depths. In that deep, dark center of ourselves, the light of inspired imagination will not fail. What shall we bring to the surface? Dive in. Everyone benefits from the light that only you can see.
Megan Sims is the owner of Me-Again Dance Wellness. Sharing dance-medicine in a safe and loving environment is her mission in life. She is also co-founder of the All People’s Planet Parade--a joyful ecoconsciousness raiser—every first Sunday afternoon of the month in front of the People’s Food Co-op. You can learn more about her and her movement classes at meagaindance.com.
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I’d been given some gourmet coffee for Christmas. It was late at night. I’d have to work in the morning, but, feeling impelled to give it a try, I brewed the rich dark potion.
The next day I remembered a night when I was eight years old. I was living in the tropics with my family, where heat thins boundaries and can induce fertile dreaming. I’d been allowed to drink a caffeinated beverage just before going to bed, a one-time occurrence. As I lay wide awake, the aquarium music from Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals played in my brain. It got louder and louder. My room faded into green mist and shoals of golden fish swam through it from various angles and directions, hovering and then dissolving. Having gone to school opposite one of those old, gothic mental hospitals, I was frightened I might be locked up in it when we returned to the States, and I clutched the sheets until the vision dissipated.