Imagination | Spirituality & Health Magazine

Neuroscience

Imagination
by Peggy La Cerra, Ph.D

When we exercise our imaginations, we’re using bits and pieces of stored memories to generate models of creative possibilities in the forebrain ‘planning’ area of our mind-brain. In essence, this is the same process and brain region that we use to solve our life’s problems, but with fewer – if any – of the negative constraints of reality entering into the mix. As a consequence, the experience of imagining is felt to be a more positive state than that of problem solving, but it’s also less ‘reality based’. Given the assertion that spiritual people are characteristically imaginative, we might expect them to be happier on average than non-spiritual people, but we might also expect them to be more likely to hold belief systems that aren’t valid.

Rabbi Rami's Reflections

Imagination
by Rabbi Rami Shapiro

Why include imagination here. Why not be content with reality?

You may be mistaking “imagination” for “imaginary.” Imaginary points to something that doesn’t exist; imagination points to our capacity to envision what might be brought into existence.

So imagination is a creative act?

Life is intrinsically creative, and living it well means that we, too, must be creative. Creativity as a spiritual quality allows you to remain open to the new. Creativity is a response to life that is as fresh as life itself.

What about imagination in a different sense, such as the capacity to imagine new futures and new ways of being and understanding?

Absolutely. Imagination in this sense is a kind of spiritual play, and play is one of the 16 attributes we are working with. Imaginative play can be done with paint and pastels, with wood, bronze, steel, and fabric, with video and still images, with digital technologies of all sorts, and with language and storytelling. One way to use imagination is when reading sacred texts. Imagine all the different meanings a text has to offer, play with the words and the plot to see how many facets of truth a single text can reveal.

But isn’t this heresy? For some people the Bible is the literal word of God. How can you use your imagination and still maintain true to that idea?

Saying the Bible is the literal Word of God is not the same as saying you have to take the Word of God literally. Robert Burns literally wrote, “My love is like a red, red rose,” but he didn’t mean for us to take this literally. It is a metaphor to be imaginatively unpacked. What does it mean that his love is a rose, is red? Does love in someway have thorns? What are they and why are they? Asking and answering questions like this of the Bible or other holy text is playing imaginatively with the text without ever questioning its literal value.

How can I cultivate imagination in a spiritual context?

I would do two things. First I would reread my favorite passages of Scripture and learn to engage the text imaginatively by inviting as many meanings to arise from it as you can. Second, I would purchase or make a dream journal, and begin to record my dreams. Write, draw, illustrate with photos from magazines or of your own making, and create dynamic collage interpretations of your dreams. Allow yourself to imagine meanings of your dream texts as you did for sacred text. Slowly your dream journal will become a window into your imagination and kindle your imaginative faculty even more.

Best Practices

The Practice of Nested Meditations
Kevin Anderson

Since the 76 nested meditations in Divinity in Disguise were published (two of which are included below), I’ve been asked many times how I write them. Many people are finding that the nested form of poetry is accessible and helps them move, in a few words, from surface observations or feelings into deeper layers of experience.
First, a few guidelines. There’s no need for every stanza to connect logically to the one before or after. Each stanza is its own separate meditation, as is apparent if you pause for a breath or two between stanzas in two examples below.
I honor you.

I honor you,
my soul.

I honor you,
my soul
companion, as you are.

I honor you,
my soul
companion, as your are
Divinity in disguise.

Wet are the strokes of life.

Wet are the strokes of life
upon you, a still being.

Wet are the Strokes of life
upon you, a still-being-
painted masterpiece

Wet are the strokes of life
upon you, a still-being-
painted masterpiece
God is calling, "Claudia."

Each stanza after the opening line begins with the words from the prior stanza in the exact order and with the same spellings and line breaks. It might seem easier to allow oneself to rearrange words or use homonyms (e.g., soul and sole), but part of the magic feeling the nested form evokes is seeing the exact words in the same order take us to such different places as the next line is added. The form brings delight in part because its tight structure -- which would seem to straitjacket the writer -- cannot prevent the piece from escaping to surprising enlightenment.
I use the word SCOPE to teach my method for writing nested meditations.
S: Show up with a pad of paper and a pen or pencil. The muse skips over your house if you’re not poised with pen in hand!
C: Calm your body, mind, and spirit with a few minutes of deep breathing.
O: Observe your inner and outer world. Make note on paper of inner thoughts or feelings or outer perceptions (sights, sounds, smells). Let the flow be free.
P: Play with one or more of the lines you wrote down in the step above. See if you can add another line that shifts the meaning in a surprising way. If not, rework the first line or choose another one to play with. Keep playing your way from stanza to stanza.
E: Enjoy the enlightenment that often comes from such word play.
The SCOPE acronym also reminds us that this form can be used to zoom in on an experience (like a microscope) or zoom out for the big perspective (like a telescope). Either way, we can enjoy the enlightened awareness that comes through word play.

Practice Imagination

Spirituality & Health Practices: Practice Imagination Daily. Famous Quotes on Imagination. Time: 2:03

Pure Imagination

Movie Clip: Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka. As you watch, allow your mind to relax and recall what it felt like to be a kid and see wonders and creativity for the fist time. After watching, make a list of your favorite memories that inspired you to be imaginative. Approach today's challenge with fresh imagination. Time: 4:00

Sand Drawings

Creative: Drawing in the Sand, with talent, passion and grace. Time: 8:33