Imagination

Imagination is a mental process that endows human with the ability to create in the mind’s eye images of events, objects or concepts that do not exist in external reality or have not been manifested in the physical plane of existence. The human faculty of imagination makes it possible for an individual to transcend the physical limitations imposed by our external reality and delve into an inner universe filled with untapped potential and possibility that can lead to unexplored avenues of creative manifestation. When we engage our imagination, we are exercising our inventiveness to create, build, experience, observe, and formulate endless possibilities and unlimited scenarios in which the constraints and restrictions of time, space and logic no longer apply. From a perspective of the creative process, imagination is a fundamental trait in the conception of ideas, and expresses itself through the element of fantasy. In exercising his imagination, an individual whose mental wanderings are punctuated by elements of fantasy, for instance, can envision in his mind’s eye a winged cow with a lion’s mane and a serpent’s tail.

Imagination is crucial in the following:
• Essential in the contemplation of fantasy
• Conceive the seed of an idea in the present that could engender a possibility in the future
• Obtain insights into scenarios that have not yet been seen
• Foresee future consequences of present plans
• Envision new objects in the mind’s eye
• Formulate the mental creation of fantastic realms or unique places
• Experience events that can only be seen in the mind’s eye
• Visualize objects, places and scenarios and observe their details
• Fill in the details concerning the general description of objects, events or places

Yet, Imagination alone is not enough to generate exceptionally productive and practical ideas. One can have a very vivid and prolific imagination, yet , none of the images projected in the mind’s eye are guaranteed to have practical value, Imagination is only profitable when it generates the seed of ideas that carry the promise of something that is novel, unique, innovative and has real world applications. In other words, the idea generated by imagination must have a practical value and be beneficial to the to the society in which the individual is part of.

Imagination is another form of visualization that makes it possible to envision objects in two or three dimensions. Additionally, we can mentally add, subtract, or change details, as well as combine or juxtapose physical attributes whether we are observing the object directly, forming a mental image of that object, or listening to its physical description. Mental images of objects manipulated by our imagination can be rotated along a three dimensional plane, scanned across their surface, or zoomed in to perceive detail or zoomed out to get a bird’s view perspective. Imagination allows you to manipulate the spatial relationships of objects as well as define their physical attributes. You can change their form, appearance, function, texture, form, color, etc. You can combine two unrelated concepts into a new whole, create whimsical places, or indulge in the creation of absurd, yet imaginative contraptions. The possibilities to create something novel out of nothing are endless, by allowing your imagination to run free, unrestricted, uninhibited, you can proceed to rearrange, combine, juxtapose, envision new scenarios, create new entities, modify and rearrange existing ones, add new attributes, bring new combinations into existence.

One can profit from the recollection and use of one’s own past experiences, educational background, hobbies, upbringing, culture, and temperament to generate a rich, and prolific visual imagery that could yield novel products, inimitable structures, incomparable places, unusual scenarios. Generally, images being formed in our imagination are the product of perceptions deriving from our entire stock of life experiences and general knowledge. In fact, imagination permeates every decision we make in regards to any action we may contemplate performing in the future, it influences our behavior and sets the course of future events. Memory sets a point of reference from past experiences while the faculty of imagination helps us to assess the consequences of future acts. Imagination permeates everything we have learned and experienced, it helps us to navigate the present, re-experience the past, or contemplate the future. It helps us to make plans in the present and imagine outcomes in the future.
• Your ability to remember and relate to past experiences
• Envision the future
• Plan in the present
• Dream at night
• Create new concepts
• Make transformations of imaginary objects
• Anticipate future consequences or results
• Manipulate structures and abstract ideas

In order to have a very productive and prolific imagination, one must pay special attention to four mental processes, which are crucial in increasing one’s own inventiveness. Fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration must be cultivated or else our ability to create would be drastically impaired. When people’s eyes are closed and there is silence, images and thoughts come to them that appear to be within their mind. In their mind’s eye people see memories of past events, imagine future situations, daydream of what may be or might have been, and dream of vividly textured happenings beyond the bounds of time and space. How important and relevant are these inner events?
The history of visualization deals with two inner events, two basic mental processes: verbal thought and visual thought.

Mental imagery and verbal language are powerful triggers that can also engage the imagination. The use of language can be used to evoke vibrant and vivid visual imagery. Fluency, elaboration, originality and flexibility are exponentially enhanced by the faculty of imagination. Inventiveness is greatly magnified when fluency, elaboration, originality and flexibility are incorporated into personal imaginings.

Where do imagination images come from? The perceptions from which imagination images are made of are merged and arranged in a nonlinear way. These perceptions may be similar or dissimilar, often times originating from a different sources at different times. Through the juxtaposition of concepts elements that are like and alike as well as related and unrelated, individuals are capable of inventing a new concepts, ideas, instances and realities. In performing imagination leaps, people can see themselves traveling to fantasy worlds or performing feats that are impossible in real life. The ancient Greeks had a very unique and vivid imagination, which can be attested by the wealth of literary material produced by their highly imaginative minds. They invented fascinating worlds where the gods ruled the world of men, mythical creatures set out to terrorize the mortals, and their plots served to reveal deep psychological truths. The juxtaposition of various animal limbs give rise to a mythical creature known as Chimera.

It was through the imagination that ancient people could glimpse into realms filled with fantastic creatures. Hieronymus Bosch had a very vivid imagination which is best appreciated when one contemplates his masterpieces depicting otherworldly creatures that can only be the product of the most terrorizing nightmares.

In the realm of imagination, the rules of logic are defied as people come to combine an assortment of disparate elements that will create an entirely new whole. Although imagination can be perceived as a faculty whose function is based on whimsical flights of fantasy and daydreaming, it is in fact the bedrock of creativity. Far from being a faculty that allows us to daydream and immerse ourselves in the fantastic realms of fairy tales, imagination can be utilized as a tool to help us find solutions to problems. Throughout history countless individuals from all walks of life have relied on their imagination to be more productive in their personal and professional endeavors. The Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali had a very vivid imagination which was instrumental in his ability to paint highly original and unique paintings. Architect Frank Gerhy is highly imaginative when he envisions the designs for his buildings such as the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain. French writer Jules Verne had a very vivid imagination which made possible the creation of literary masterpieces such as “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “From the Earth to the Moon.” These types of visualizations based on imagination are the backbone for novel and original work in any artistic or scientific endeavor.

The Mind’s Eye

Thanks to our faculty of vision, we are capable to take in into our consciousness all the colors, shapes, textures, lines and vibrancy corresponding to the countless physical objects that surround us and provide us with a direct experience and appreciation of their beauty and unattractiveness. Yet, when our eyes are closed, we are still able to perceive and even modify those objects in our mind’s eye. A true to life visualization, full of vividness and filled with details would fail to deliver its vibrancy and convey its meaning were it not for the unique role of the mind’s eye.
The mind’s eye is the mental apparatus that functions as a viewing screen where memory and imagination assemble their images in the form of visualizations in a timeline fashion. Visualizations originating from imagination and memories need a mediator in order to be expressed, and that mediator is the mind’s eye, which functions as a silver screen over which imagination and memory project their images upon. As it was mentioned before, by virtue of our imagination and memory, our mind’s eye functions as a screen where we can “see” images of past events or imagine situations in the future.
One important aspect of the mind’s eye concerns its ability to present the content of a visual image –whether it comes from memory or imagination– and modify such image as the conceptual framework of the mind requires it. One of the most salient personal traits among inventors, designers, engineers and artists is their ability to bring together and organize in their minds the concept of a new invention, design, or device that do not yet exist in the physical world. Every conceivable structure, object or artwork began as a vision in the minds of those who had the insight to formulate their conception. Ferguson, in his book “Engineering and the Mind’s Eye” writes, “Before a thing is made, it exists as an idea. The idea may be a clear vision or it may be a little more than a glimpse of a possibility.”

The Visual Mind

The brain is predominantly visual. Vision is the sense from which humans acquire a massive amount of information, and therefore it is the dominant sense. Studies have shown that the visual cortex in the occipital region of the brain has a much larger area devoted to vision compared to any of the other senses. PET scans, which keep track of the amount of glucose (the brain’s fuel) that is being used in different parts of the brain, have demonstrated that the neural processing of a visual complex scene triggers an increased activity in the visual cortex. Amazingly, studies have also shown that when the brain visualizes, there is also an increase of glucose levels in various parts of the occipital cortex, the area of the brain responsible for visual perception. Thus the act of visualization increments levels of activity in the visual cortex in the same way as if the brain were receiving visual stimuli directly from vision.
Most of the information that forms the basis of our knowledge is of visual nature, that is, a massive amount of our learning is achieved through visual means. A crucial visual function responsible for the acquisition and use of knowledge is form perception. Form perception allows us to recognize thousands of familiar objects that surround us at any given moment. We know that a table is a table when we look at one, we also know that a car is not a fish, and that the letter “J” is not the letter “C”. Identifying these objects refers to a process called Object Recognition. Object recognition is fundamental in the process of learning, since it plays an essential and vital role in the internalization and use of every form of knowledge. In virtually all learning, one must combine new information with information learned previously. Otherwise, no accumulation of knowledge would be possible –each learning episode would stand separately, unintegrated with other learning episodes, therefore, to make this possible, one must categorize things properly. It is this visual nature of the brain that we are capable to acquire new knowledge, form new memories, and visualize events as if they were happening in real time (Reisberg, 1997).

Visualization

Visualization refers to the formation of visual imagery that is “viewed” as a motion picture in the mind’s eye. Memory and imagination play an important role in the creation of visualizations. Long term and short term memories are thus the primary source of visualizations filled with memory imagery. In this instance, the creation of memory imagery is based on a very specific string of actions, events and scenarios that took place in the near or distant past. Memory imagery often involves visual, verbal, tactile, olfactory and gustatory recollections. For example, people who are able to visualize events from their past can “see” their childhood best friends’ faces, “hear” the timbre of their voices; “feel” the nervous excitement experienced their impending first kiss; “smell” the delicious aroma of apple pie fresh out of the oven; or “taste” their favorite cake as they recall such memories in their mind’s eye.
On the other hand, visualizations arising from imagination are created mainly by a component that is absent in memory imagery, the element of fantasy. Fantasy is a faculty of the human mind that makes it possible to create and transport ourselves to imaginary worlds filled with a plethora of whimsical objects, unworldly environments, fantastic creatures and unrealistic situations that are not constrained in any way by the boundaries of time, space and logic. None of the images created by fantasy exist in external reality and can only be experienced in the mind’s eye until these mental images are recorded on paper or drawn on other graphic medium. People in every known culture across time have rendered their own visualizations of mythical creatures, gods, fantastic places, etc. Since imagination makes possible to translocate the bounds of time and space, we have also the faculty to visualize the future and ponder what may be or what might have been.
Visualizations have also the capacity to produce psychological and physiological changes in the human body. Behavioral psychology has developed a series of treatment for phobias and anxiety in the form of Exposure Therapy. One of the techniques used is known as Flooding or Implosion Therapy. This technique asks the patient suffering of anxiety due to a phobia, to run in his mind’s eye a series of visualizations of the sources of such anxiety. The theory is that flooding of anxiety-producing scenes will cause the patient’s anxiety to peak and then eventually extinguish, with the consequence that the phobia gradually lessens. Moreover, research has demonstrated through the use of a technique known as motor rehearsal, that when Olympic athletes visualized themselves performing a particular activity, their muscles fired electrical impulses that corresponded to the exact physical action they were visualizing.
How can visualization be applied to creativity? Our faculty of visualization permits us to run scenarios in our minds of events that do not yet take place in the real world. We might visualize the outcome of a particular event and ponder its possible benefits or consequences. Likewise, we could run a mental scenario of how a possible solution could solve a particular problem; or envision in the mind’s eye the idea of a product that does not yet exist; or visualize the layout of a never seen before architectural, engineering or artistic design. Thus, through the act of visualization we have the capability to envision the following in the mind’s eye:
• New ideas, explanations, notions or concepts
• New industrial, or mechanical processes
• New product designs, in regard to their form and function
• Novel artistic expressions
• Experience possible outcomes in the future
• Recreate specific events that took place in the past
• Ponder what could be or might have been

Visualization can also produce the following:
• The firing of certain muscles during mental rehearsal involving motor improvement
• Physiological changes in the human body due to pleasant or unpleasant mental imagery
• The experience of sensory imagery deriving from visual, verbal, tactile, gustatory and olfactory memories

Verbal Mode of Thinking

Individuals who employ a verbal mode of thinking may have a poor to fair sensory imagery, which is summoned from time to time when it is needed, but it is not their primary means to generate ideas or solutions. People who rely on verbal mode of thinking tend to hold diffused images in their mind’s eye. Their intellectual style emphasizes words, concepts, generalities, abstract and symbolic thinking. Their cognitive style relies more on inner dialogue rather than creating or combining images in their minds.

Nonverbal Mode of Thinking

Before smearing the first blob of paint, artists may hold in their minds a picture of the painting they intend to make. In what is known as mental rehearsal, athletes often visualize successful outcomes during their training by executing specific exercises of imagination intended to improve motor skills. Musicians often hear in their minds the sound of a note before they play it during rehearsal, or they hear a melody in their minds that eventually is transcribed into a song. Chefs may recall a particular flavor or smell akin to a particular dish they are thinking to make. Sculptor may feel the texture of block of granite, marble or terracotta as they visualize the final sculpture.
Nonverbal mode of thinking encompasses visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and motor imagery. Individuals in a variety of fields often rely on their sensory imagery to see, feel, touch, smell, or hear whatever is held in the theater of their mind’s eye.

Sensory Imagery

A fairly competent visualizer who is capable to endow her memory with sensory qualities such as those attributed to the senses of smell, hearing, touch, taste, and vision, is more likely to experience a multisensory collage of mental images full of vividness and vibrancy. People who have mastered the intricacies of visualization are more likely of producing a physiological reaction in response to a particular action held as visualization in their mind’s eye. For instance, Olympic athletes who engaged in motor rehearsal fired the same muscles when they were visualizing the race in their minds as when they were running the race in real life. Moreover, people who have developed their powers of imagery to a remarkable level are able to see objects along a three dimensional mental plane, where they are able to see their images with great detail, and perceive texture, sounds and movement.

Sensory Imagery, we can differentiate five different sensory stimuli plus an extra one.
There are six types of sensory imagery:

1) Visual Imagery: The capacity to see pictures in the mind’s eye with a high degree of controllability and detail.

2) Auditory Imagery: The capacity to hear in one’s mind a melody with a high degree of accuracy in pitch, timbre, and rhythm. The individual is also capable to remember particular textures belonging to human voices.

3) Kinetic Imagery: The capacity to visualize object along a spatial plane, where the object can be rotated, zoomed in and out and …The capacity to visualize oneself performing a physical activity in the form of a mental rehearsal capable of producing physiological change.

4) Tactile Imagery: The capacity to experience and feel the textures of objects held in the mind’s eye.

5) Gustatory Imagery: The capacity to experience a variety of flavors when recalling memories of edible and inedible material.

6) Olfactory Imagery: the capacity to conjure up a particular smell in a wide range of odors by the mental recall of particular memories.

Conceptualization

Conceptualization is a cognitive process in which by virtue of one’s imagination, we mentally formulate the notion of a new idea, design or explanation. The mental formulation of a concept is held as an image in the mind’s eye through the act of visualization. One of the main objectives of conceptualization is concerned with the mental invention of new ideas that systematically improve or build upon existing concepts or solve problems posed by new challenges by implementing novel approaches as dictated by one’s imagination. Conceptualization has been the hallmark of invention, innovation and discovery: Every conceivable man-made object found in our civilization started originally as a vision in the minds of those who first conceived them. The successful design and attached functionality of everyday objects is achieved by their form and function; the appearance and utilitarian functionality ascribed to such designs were first constructed as visions in the minds of artisans, engineers and inventors, whom later expressed them through drawings and mock ups.

The Individual Components of Conceptualization

Sensory Input refers to external or internal stimuli that triggers visual imagery in the mind’s eye. There are three types of sensory input: Sensory Stimulation such as physical sensation involving our five physical senses; Real Time Perceptions such as impressions formed in our physical senses by actual information gathering from our immediate external environment by active seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting; and Memory impressions which refers to the stock of memories we have compiled throughout our lives.

Mental Synthesis refers to the process in which the mind actively merges two or more unrelated ideas into a new entity. Mental synthesis consists of Synectical operations such as when the mind conceives and forms a new object, merges two unrelated objects, or modifies and transforms an existing object by employing operations such as subtracting, combining, adding, transferring, etc.; Spatial Manipulation such as when the conceptualizer holding an image in his mind’s eye, can see it from different vantage points. He is able to scan the mental image, zoom into it to appreciate its details and nuances, and rotate it to observe it from different viewpoints; the last element of mental synthesis is the quality that refers to physical attributes, which refers to the mental manipulation of an object’s physical attributes such as line, form, texture, function and size.

Externalized Thinking refers to the process in which the person holding the image in his mind, transfers his visual image on paper for further exploration and analysis. Externalized thinking is essentially conducting the visual thinking process not by holding an image filling up the mind’s eye, but instead the actual thinking is done on paper in the form of sketches, drawings, doodles, or thoughts can be presented as 3-D models, such as mock ups or the like.

Eidetic Memory

Commonly referred to a photographic memory, eidetic imagery is a cognitive ability in which an individual upon being presented with information, is able to recall with precision every detail found in that information after it has been removed from their sight, in other words, he is able to see in his mind’s eye a clear and precise image of the information after he has been presented with (Johnson, 56). For people endowed with eidetic imagery, the mental image they visualize is so detailed to the extent that the image can be manipulated in a three dimensional plane.