Imagination

Imagination is the immersion of a person in his inner world and the creation of images, pictures and ideas there. If perception creates for us images of objects and phenomena that are directly visible in the external world, then imagination builds images of missing objects and phenomena on the basis of existing pictures and ideas. With the help of imagination, a person can fly to other worlds, return to his past or be transported to his future.

Imagination plays a key role in such mental processes as modeling, planning, creativity, play, memory.

The possibilities of imagination are very great. Read how Nikola Tesla, the inventor of electricity and radio, the master of lightning, used his imagination: thoughts. When I have an idea, I immediately begin to develop it in my imagination. I change the design, make improvements and mentally set the mechanism in motion. It makes absolutely no difference to me whether I control my turbine in my mind or test it in the workshop. I even notice that its balance has been disturbed. It does not matter the type of mechanism, the result will be the same. This way I can quickly develop and refine the concept without touching anything. When all possible and conceivable improvements of the invention have been taken into account and no weak points are visible, I give this final product of my mental activity a concrete form. The device I have invented invariably works the way I thought it should work, and the experience goes exactly as I planned. There hasn’t been a single exception in twenty years.» — Such possibilities of imagination are the basis of thought experiments. See →

Imagination, as a state or process in the human nervous system, can have a profound effect on the body — make a person sick (“imaginary” sick) or, conversely, healthy.

Kinds of imagination

Imagination is involuntary, voluntary and post-voluntary.

Involuntary imagination manifests itself in dreams, altered states of consciousness, etc. These or those pictures sometimes come to us according to the most bizarre logic, replace each other, and amazing, magical and sometimes scary stories can be watched like in a movie theater. By setting a special task, you can learn to control this process in many ways, and you will observe already controlled dreams.

Arbitrary imagination draws in the mind’s eye or recalls from memory those pictures that you need. In the latter case, imagination is more like perception or memory. The picture of an attractive future, to which one wants to return and which one wants to realize, becomes a dream for an active person, empty dreams for an idler.

Imagination in practical psychology

Active imagination is a special method of using the power of imagination developed by Carl Gustav Jung. It is a dialogue that you have with the various parts of your «I» that live in the unconscious. In a certain sense, it is like a dream, with the only difference being that while experiencing this sensation, you are awake and fully aware of what is happening. This is the hallmark of this method. Instead of falling asleep, you are awake in imagination. You allow the images that live in the unconscious to rise to the level of your imagination, as they do in dreams that visit you during sleep.