Is Imagination Real?

People often consider imagination to simply be thoughts related to past and present daily experiences. If this were the case, imagination wouldn't be different from memories or reciting a poem. Imagination would be stale and lacking in...well, imagination! Imagination is so much more than our thoughts or memories.

The two easiest ways to understand imagination are to observe a young child and review your nighttime dreams. Young children are always imagining playful surroundings, talking to invisible characters and "seeing" situations that adults can't see. In other words, their imaginations are actively filling their young lives with images and emotions that were never experienced by them.

Nighttime dreams present all of us, children and adults, with images, characters, emotions and situations that were also never experienced. Of course, adult dreams often combine images from daily life, memories and images from the imagination. Within a child's waking life and an adult's sleeping life, however, imagination produces new and different images.

Since we know that dreams originate from a person's unconscious (hidden psychology), it is a small step to understand that imagination also originates from the unconscious psychologies of children and adults. Considering the variety of dream images that fill our sleep, we can begin to see the depth and range of the imagination but even more importantly of the unconscious.

In addition, children's imaginations are not filtered by consciousness because their consciousness is still developing. On the other hand, adults are more conscious than children and their imaginations are filtered. This means that during our waking lives we imagine solutions to problems, are filled with images and we visualize future possibilities but we also impose personal experiences, values and beliefs on our imaginations. This alters the richness of our imaginations, which often leads us to think that our imaginations are nothing but daily thoughts and experiences. When observing or asking children about the richness of their imaginations, it is clear that their filtering is absent and very little modification of their imaginations occur. We could say that children experience dreams while awake.

To become a more complete person, it is important for all of us to find ways to imagine without much filtering of our imaginations. Being playful and creative are two ways to open ourselves to the imagination and the unconscious. As adults, our filters will always be present but it is critical to attempt to reduce our filtering in order to become as complete a person as possible.

So, is the imagination real? It's as real as everyone's psychology. If you need evidence, just play with a child or inspect your dreams!