What is Imagination?

Everyone out of diapers has no doubt heard the criticism “it’s just your imagination”, usually in a derogatory sense. The problem with that is it really doesn’t say anything useful, it’s just an out of hand dismissal. It also ignores the fact that EVERYTHING that’s not the imaginer, is imagined. Everything that’s not the creator, is a creation and our imagination is where it all happens. What IS our imagination, and how does it work?

It’s the closest thing to magic I know of. Limitless virtual space where literally anything can be created out of nothing. That’s the very definition of real magic. So how does it work? Doesn’t it seem a little odd that we never even ask the question? It’s like death and sleep, any real investigation is dismissed and its importance minimized to nothing.

How do you imagine our imagination works? Why did Einstein and other intellectual giants claim that imagination is far more important than intellect? Why is our intellect always at odds with our imagination in this world when they should be working together? How is our subconscious involved? Why does our imagination work for us in our dreams and against us while we’re awake?

Feel free to expound upon the subject any way you want. If you put some thought into it, you’ll learn something valuable about yourself that I promise will be useful in the trying times ahead.

originally posted by: HeirHeart

Everyone out of diapers has no doubt heard the criticism “it’s just your imagination”, usually in a derogatory sense. The problem with that is it really doesn’t say anything useful, it’s just an out of hand dismissal. It also ignores the fact that EVERYTHING that’s not the imaginer, is imagined. Everything that’s not the creator, is a creation and our imagination is where it all happens. What IS our imagination, and how does it work?

It’s the closest thing to magic I know of. Limitless virtual space where literally anything can be created out of nothing. That’s the very definition of real magic. So how does it work? Doesn’t it seem a little odd that we never even ask the question? It’s like death and sleep, any real investigation is dismissed and its importance minimized to nothing.

How do you imagine our imagination works? Why did Einstein and other intellectual giants claim that imagination is far more important than intellect? Why is our intellect always at odds with our imagination in this world when they should be working together? How is our subconscious involved? Why does our imagination work for us in our dreams and against us while we’re awake?

Feel free to expound upon the subject any way you want. If you put some thought into it, you’ll learn something valuable about yourself that I promise will be useful in the trying times ahead.

Cool subject, just my early morning thoughts


I'll often get lost in my imagination especially here on ATS, think that's one reason I get so irritated when people crap on imagining the what-ifs of the world, time, and space.

Yea Im stuck in reality, we all are, but ask yourself this aren't most of your days rather blah to downright long and depressing? Especially as we get older. Now how often do you dream and wake up and say I want to do that again.

Perhaps it's CBD, perhaps it's the Melatonin, but as horrifying as some of my nightmares are, I can have some fairly awesome dreams, a lot of the time.

Who knows is that the next reality

a reply to: HeirHeart

I am sure it will mean something a bit different for everyone.

To envision something only creates it in your own mind.

The colors, the structure, the understanding, the belief, all will be custom designed in each mind, making it unique in mind of the envisioner.

That which is imagined, can sometimes be reality, often it is never quite as you envision it, because when we envision something, we neglect a lot of the details.

Building a ship on dry land loses some of its purpose if you have no way to get it to the sea or the ocean.

there was an episode on supernatural that had this idea...a monster formed simply because of a post online and enough people believed in it to form its existance
imagination is the only magic that we know of for sure.....but what if king arthur excalibur and merline were real, and people like the church or illuminati made it their mission to erradicate magic by making people not believe in it by fear....say a crypto being kisnapped or a gnome being executed in public display
i often wonder what really existed before the council of nicea remade the bible to keep people like the peasants in control
if magic does exist im sure its still out there somewhere
a reply to: HeirHeart

*Sorry missed the reply to somehow, this is for putnam6

I’m feeling the urge to bulletpoint, I hope you don’t get offended. It’s just to highlight some ideas.

The reason they crap on it is the same reason your own intellect craps on your intuition. It’s hiding things from you that can easily be found thru imagination, thru the admittance of possibility itself. Our imagination tells us what’s possible in any world. Our intellect tells us what’s not possible in this world.

We’re not stuck here, but we are bound to it. Meaning you can leave any time you want, we all know where the door is. The problem is we’re trying to achieve something here, and if we bail that’s off the table. That’s a binding, as the term was used in ancient Egyptian magic and the Bible. Ancient Egyptian funeral rites were designed to illustrate the bindings we put upon ourselves in death. Egyptologists never get it because they don’t realize we’re not among the living.

That’s why this world is referred to as “mundane”. Nothing really happens here because we’re dead, dreaming is all we’ve got. In death we dream about Life, but it’s not just a fantasy, it’s literally where we create the Life we’re going to upon leaving this world. Keep in mind both exist within our imagination. Life is your imagination working for you, death is your imagination working against you.

If you pay attention to the dreamer instead of the dream, you’ll notice a pattern. I mean instead of watching the dream, watch what’s happening TO the dream as you traverse the scale of human consciousness from your dreaming to waking state. What you’ll notice is increasing fragmentation of the dream. The difference between a dream and a nightmare is this fragmentation. A nightmare is simply a broken dream and our waking state is as broke as it gets.

If you’re a daily cannabis user you can do this without any special training. Quit using cannabis cold turkey after continued regular use and your dreams will become so vivid you can’t help but notice. You’ll experience some nightmares, but they’ll be offset by deeper dreams that show you something this world never will. That Life is a dream, and death is a nightmare.

It’s the reason our dreams and imagination are dismissed as unimportant, they shed light on everything this world wants to keep us in the dark about.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

The question isn’t one of validity, nor are we in any position to validate what is or isn’t real. The question is, what IS imagination, and how does it work?

Hint: look at how we make virtual realities and advance that technology to its highest form.

a reply to: nid6452

What if real or not real is a function of belief? What if the “power” of belief is the power to make something real, that it is neither until we exercise that power? What if this power has been stripped from you so you can be forced to believe what someone else wants you to believe?

i agree
how can you have validity when youre asking a question
or trying to get people to think differently
for all we know our consciousness goes to other planets or different dimensions while we sleep
maybe we enter the mind of ourselves in another dimension or time
with a dream or our imagination the possibilities are endless
it all starts with one little thought
not a background check

originally posted by: HeirHeart
a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

The question isn’t one of validity, nor are we in any position to validate what is or isn’t real. The question is, what IS imagination, and how does it work?

Hint: look at how we make virtual realities and advance that technology to its highest form.

a reply to: nid6452

I wish it was as simple as trying to get people to think differently. The problem is getting people to think at all. It’s not impossible tho, as you’ve demonstrated. All of the poo-pooing going on in this world is to deter actual thought, because if anyone actually does, they may discover what this world is so desperately trying to hide.

a reply to: HeirHeart

Maybe if I write some personal anecdotes, I may see a pattern.

There are dreams I still remember from 60 years ago. Back then I could fly quite effortlessly.

Five years ago, though, I could only achieve what may be characterized as levitation. The anchor point was under my sternum, perhaps my heart. There was great focus and concentration involved, and strain. I could only rise a few feet, like around five or six.

When I woke up I could still feel the ache in my sternum for most of the day. If I was one of those people who goes to doctors frequently I may have sought x-rays or ultrasound to see if there were hairline fractures. But no, I don't go to doctors frequently, so no physical proof of direct dream activity and physical repercussions.

right? how dare we think haha god forbis there are any philosophers that question things in todays world

originally posted by: HeirHeart
a reply to: nid6452

I wish it was as simple as trying to get people to think differently. The problem is getting people to think at all. It’s not impossible tho, as you’ve demonstrated. All of the poo-pooing going on in this world is to deter actual thought, because if anyone actually does, they may discover what this world is so desperately trying to hide.

coincidentally i could fly in my dreams too whhen i was hitting puberty, it may be because the pituitary and pineal gland werent calcified yet, perhaps thats why your dreams arent as powerful nowadays??

originally posted by: pthena
a reply to: HeirHeart

Maybe if I write some personal anecdotes, I may see a pattern.

There are dreams I still remember from 60 years ago. Back then I could fly quite effortlessly.

Five years ago, though, I could only achieve what may be characterized as levitation. The anchor point was under my sternum, perhaps my heart. There was great focus and concentration involved, and strain. I could only rise a few feet, like around five or six.

When I woke up I could still feel the ache in my sternum for most of the day. If I was one of those people who goes to doctors frequently I may have sought x-rays or ultrasound to see if there were hairline fractures. But no, I don't go to doctors frequently, so no physical proof of direct dream activity and physical repercussions.

Our imagination is personal to us as individuals but it's bound within an environment we imagined. Imagination is limitless but we can only imagine with what we know and our environment is such that knowledge and truth are in short supply.

Ask most people to imagine how humans came to be and the answer would be "we evolved from monkeys" not much imagination, do we have to imagine we were created by God?

originally posted by: HeirHeart
a reply to: nid6452

What if real or not real is a function of belief? What if the “power” of belief is the power to make something real, that it is neither until we exercise that power? What if this power has been stripped from you so you can be forced to believe what someone else wants you to believe?

Imagine if we still had that power but are designed in such a way as to be incredibly suggestive by nature, so that power can be used against us.

no we dont have to imagine we were created by God. Just because there is proof that we evolved from monkeys, doesnt mean that we didnt start out in the sea.....also with the web facts are at our fingertips, imagination though.....thats lacking heavily
im sure glad my kids have weird imaginations

originally posted by: Cwantas
Our imagination is personal to us as individuals but it's bound within an environment we imagined. Imagination is limitless but we can only imagine with what we know and our environment is such that knowledge and truth are in short supply.

Ask most people to imagine how humans came to be and the answer would be "we evolved from monkeys" not much imagination, do we have to imagine we were created by God?

immmmm pretty sure thats what happens with the government and the Bible
when i was younger it was all you HAVE to trust or you HAVE to believe in God, now that im older, i think theres a lot more to all stories than what we are fed

originally posted by: Cwantas

originally posted by: HeirHeart
a reply to: nid6452

What if real or not real is a function of belief? What if the “power” of belief is the power to make something real, that it is neither until we exercise that power? What if this power has been stripped from you so you can be forced to believe what someone else wants you to believe?

Imagine if we still had that power but are designed in such a way as to be incredibly suggestive by nature, so that power can be used against us.

As far as I know, there are a hell of a lot of people who can't imagine anything.
They just can't and don't.
This is quite telling if you want to examine this scientifically.
Often the lack of something can be more useful in finding the truth than the presence of something.

Our occipital lobes are the ones involved in turning data into imagery.
If you somehow trained yourself from childhood on, I wouldn't find it too mysterious to imagine your own imagery.
Same with sound.
We can all hear songs inside. However some people have difficulties imagining new songs, whilst others can.

There is an interesting and to me very appealing theory that not life, but thought, well, consciousness, was there first and from it came life.

Not a one man, clay throwing guy in his mancave, but all of us, every little living being.

It goes against orthodox science, but it would explain a lot of mysteries, including those around death.
We casually lose our meat bodies and are aware of ourselves getting older and more fragile.

I can observe my meat body slowly packing it in, whilst my mind is like a wiser version of me in my early 20s.

This doesn't make sense unless your mind is merely the inhabitant of said meat vessel.

Unless someone who knows for sure, comes and explains it to us however we will never understand. This is the way our meat evolved. Probably for a very good reason.
Meaning that those who knew once just weren't as fit reproducing than those who didn't.

That alone is also a clue.

Fascinating subject imagination.

I havent a clue what it is as I have aphantasia and am eternally amazed that others can literally visualize. My boyfriend builds machinery and says he sees the actual parts and can roll it around in 3D imagery in his mind, while I think in concepts only yet it still works as Im extremely creative. Two pathways to the same end results though I do have a lot harder time with mine and do masses of trial and error to achieve a satisfactory end goal.

originally posted by: nid6452
Just because there is proof that we evolved from monkeys

There is no proof humans evolved from monkeys?

i agree
had i known whatvwas going on in my dreams when i was a teenager, i wouldve loked up supplements or something to keep my glands from being calcified and sure as hell wouldve wrote everything down

originally posted by: Hecate666
As far as I know, there are a hell of a lot of people who can't imagine anything.
They just can't and don't.
This is quite telling if you want to examine this scientifically.
Often the lack of something can be more useful in finding the truth than the presence of something.

Our occipital lobes are the ones involved in turning data into imagery.
If you somehow trained yourself from childhood on, I wouldn't find it too mysterious to imagine your own imagery.
Same with sound.
We can all hear songs inside. However some people have difficulties imagining new songs, whilst others can.

There is an interesting and to me very appealing theory that not life, but thought, well, consciousness, was there first and from it came life.

Not a one man, clay throwing guy in his mancave, but all of us, every little living being.

It goes against orthodox science, but it would explain a lot of mysteries, including those around death.
We casually lose our meat bodies and are aware of ourselves getting older and more fragile.

I can observe my meat body slowly packing it in, whilst my mind is like a wiser version of me in my early 20s.

This doesn't make sense unless your mind is merely the inhabitant of said meat vessel.

Unless someone who knows for sure, comes and explains it to us however we will never understand. This is the way our meat evolved. Probably for a very good reason.
Meaning that those who knew once just weren't as fit reproducing than those who didn't.

That alone is also a clue.