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An Article by Quynn Elizabeth written for New Vibration Magazine
Imagination- The Power of the Dreaming Mind
Most adults have abandoned their imagination. In the toolbox we each carry within us each day of our lives, we have thrown out one of the most important tools that we should have at hand at all times.
There are many meanings relating to the idea of imagination. Both positive and negative. Saying someone has "an active imagination" can sometimes be meant as a complement, but most of the time it is meant as a dismissal or judgement. In order to feel your center so strongly that no one can push you off balance, you must realize that you do have an imagination and that when it is trained, it is one of your most precious helpers. By "trained" I do not mean "controlled". I mean for the two of you to learn to become a team. You and your imagination can be a strong, creative pair.
As children, we have an inherant sense of imagination. Many adults look at children's imaginations as cute, irritating or generally childlike (implying a bad thing) and then they shoo it away. If only we knew what we were doing. Look around you (actually stop reading and look around your physical space) and notice things that are useful to you, or that touch you. Whatever you pick out was created in someone's imagination, maybe yours. Art, appliances, cars, stereos, music, everything around you was birthed from someone thinking "Hey, I've got an idea!".
It is the unshackling of our collective imagination that has brought our technology to the point where it is now. I believe that it is only by using our imaginations that we will take ourselves into a beneficial future. If we have a healthy, free, and active imagination, we can create a better world.
The practice of imagination can seem, to the strongly logical or scientific, strange and whimsical, which can also mean "negative and not useful". I agree that the imagination can seem strange and whimsical to the logical mind, but I disagree that this human ability is not useful to us.
I have a healthy logical mind and when my world was rocked by a supernatural experience that could not be scientifically proven, my logical mind tried to discredit it. "This isn't possible!" it screamed. But some things are possible even when they reside outside our comfortable and known territory. We have to find a way to get comfortable with this idea, and then embrace it. This relationship comes from having positive experiences with our imagination. Imagine what it was like for people as they moved beyond each technological boundary. Our ancestors were amazed by the idea of telephones (speaking long distance), soap stopping the spread of disease (small, unseen "germs" that create sickness), and space travel. At first, many were doubtful that these things were "real".
Now, we are amazed and doubtful that another form of technology is real. An inner technology called "Imagination" that can unlock an entire world within us, which leads us to an entire reality which we have forgotten. What if the other 80%-90% of our brains that scientists say we supposedly don't use is linked with the ability to 'imagine'.
To imagine is an art which requires practice. The importance of imagination in your inner practice is that some things happen, or are revealed to us, that may seem fantastic or surreal. This is a normal experience for humans. The world operates in many ways. To be willing to imagine is to be open to becoming a student of the Universe. The first rule is to have an open mind. You can, and should, use your discerning mind to find meaning in your imaginings, but it is vitally important to let your mind bend and stretch to allow these new, and old, ways of thinking to emerge and take shape.
It is also important to realize that we have been told since birth that some things are good, and other things are bad. Most have been told that if we listen to the voices in our heads, talk to ones that others do not see, and believe that our dreams guide us, we are not normal, or maybe even "crazy", and of course this is bad.
This is a belief. It is not "truth". Truth is something that works for all people. Believing that the aforementioned practices are bad actually hurt us because these human abilities bring us many good things, both for the individual and the collective. These experiences were common to all people on the planet, in one form or another. The belief that these human abilities are not real is relatively new. It has only been in the last few generations that people have abandoned many forms of the imagination, supposedly for more effective ways to think. Effective? Maybe. But not very happy or content. Look at the state of our culture. Many are quietly unhappy, locked in their worlds of work and locked out of their imaginations, leaving them depressed and uncentered.
Do not let this happen to you. As an adult you can marry your discerning mind with the unending splendor of a healthy inner world. How do you get there? Be open to your imagination. It has wisdom to share.
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