IMAGINATION AND KNOWLEDGE - Let's Explore How Both are interconnected !

My exploration started when I read what Albert Einstein had said " Imagination is more important than knowledge , and  the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination, Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take everywhere". That time I was doing my post-graduation in Industrial Management after completing graduation In Mechanical Engineering. It was a big surprise for me as so for all the stress and focus has been on knowledge and knowledge alone . Nobody taught us about Imagination. As I had a great regard for Einstein as one of the greatest scientist, I started contemplating about imagination.  In this blog I will be discussing about my exploration, what is imagination, how imagination can help in our day to day life, how imagination can help us in finding creative solutions to our problems, and how imagination can be nurtured ? I will be also sharing with you about my journey in developing a system to help people in using the power of imagination to manifest their dreams, and to design their own life .

Let's Try to Understand Imagination

I looked into dictionary for the meaning of imagination-" The faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images of external objects not present to the senses . The ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful. The ability to form pictures in the mind. Ability to imagine or invent things. "

Einstein has also said " The intuitive mind is a  sacred gift and rational mind is a faithful servant . We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift ." Creativity is Intelligence Having Fun .

IMAGINATION AND VISUALIZATION -IMAGINING AND VISUALIZING 

Both imagining and visualizing are used interchangeably but are not always the same. Visualizing is forming the mental image of something. It usually requires previous knowledge or previous stored memories. Imagination is concerned with both tangible and intangible aspects of our lives. In visualization mostly tangible aspects are considered. Imagination is not always about visualization. What would you feel like being hugged by a dog , what would you say if somebody proposed you on the spot? Unlike visualization, imagination is not always about previous stored memories or images.

How I would look in a green shirt and brown trousers ? may be a question pertaining to visualization! where as " How would a new color look like?" may be a question pertaining to imagination!

There is another word ' fantasizing ' - which is mostly about what we can say daydreaming - she fantasized that she has won a hundred million rupees lottery . Some times people fantasize about the questions and come up with their answers beforehand. There is another word 'fiction', this word is used in literature in the form of prose, especially novels, that describe imaginary events, places, and people.

The Importance of Imagination in life 

The ability to imagine pervaded our entire existence. It influences everything we do, think, behave , and achieve. We can say imagination influences everything we do irrespective of our profession or field of work. Imagination draws on our experiences and knowledge of the world around us and combines them with the complete unknown to create something all together new and novel. It allows us to explore beyond the constrains of our environment and our reality, into a world of dreams, where creativity and invention are at their strongest. Imagination is a key to brain-boosting, as it helps to develop creative skills and to memorize information in a faster way. Imagination is not only about fiction. The truth is that everyone of us use imagination every day in many forms and ways. Imagination allows us to perceive all kind of information because in the case if we do not use our imagination we can understand only that knowledge which is based on our personal experience, so we are very limited without our imagination in this world. Dreams also can be considered as part of the process which is related to the power of imagination. It means that because of our imagination faculty we can see dreams, but also it is related to the way in which our subconscious mind works with the help of existing knowledge, memories, and imagination. 

Imagination can also help us to understand other people better and develop a higher level of love and empathy. 

Imagination is the key to creativity and innovation.

Just think for a moment and contemplate on how you can use your imagination more effectively and consciously in every sphere of your life. How would your life be improved personally and professionally. Imagine if you could bring the higher intelligence into your daily conscious awareness.

You can make imagination a vital part of your competence -decision making, getting creative solutions to your problems, The more you use your imagination the stronger your imagination faculty will become. You will be surprised as you start using this ability and tap into infinite source of  possibilities.

Knowledge alone will not suffice, imagination is essential for anyone, especially professionals, leaders, designers, artists, business owners,  and entrepreneurs. Leaders who not only have to lead people into future but have to foresee the challenges ahead . 

One secret ingredient that almost all successful people share is how to use imagination and come-out with novel ideas. Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs used their imagination, envisaged how personal computers could change the whole world, the way we work, the way for entertainment etc.

HOW TO ENHANCE YOUR IMAGINATION 

1.OUTCOME THINKING 

Start with the end in mind. Know your goal and have a vision of what you want to achieve . Remember your vision shapes your future and mental creation precedes physical creation. Every physical creation begins as a mental creation- as a thought, a plan, a perception, or a motive. Begin with the end in mind applies to all the areas of our life, 

It is very important to have a clear vision of what the end outcome you are looking for. It is important to apply creative  visualization to convey the goal/outcome to the inner essence of  creative intelligence. When you do this the ' Goal Striving Mechanism ' ( I have discussed this in my earlier blog in details ) starts working and ideas start coming .

2.APPLY THE CREATIVE AND EMPATHIC IMAGINATION 

Alfred Margulies in the book ' The Empathic ' explores  creativity in introspection and the empathy -the state of mind. The quest for empathy leads to the irreducible paradox of the self- which defines and finds itself through the others.

I have also observed that our state of mind plays a vital role in visualization and imagination; when body is relaxed the mind becomes quite and calm and then the state which is most conductive for creative visualization is created.

3.SOME TOOLS AND PRACTICES TO FACILITATE IMAGINATION

Many tools and practices have been developed to help people to develop and enhance the faculty of imagination and visualization. I am giving a few here :-

1. Edward de Bono Six Thinking Hats is based on an understanding of how the brain chemicals change with the mode of thinking. With the Six Hats method the fullest use is made of everyone's intelligence, experience and information. In this method thinkers visualize and imagine the hats as actual hats. The colour of each hat is also related to its functions - White Hat is concerned with objective facts and figures. Red Hat gives the emotional view. Black Hat is cautious and careful. Yellow Hat is optimistic and covers hope and positive thinking. Green Hat indicates creativity and new ideas. Blue Hat is concerned with control, the organization of the thinking process and and the use of other hats. In this method people have to imagine wearing of a particular colour hat and to think with the mode of thinking associated with that colour.

2. Another popular tool is ' Brainstorming' .In 1970 while doing my PG in Management I got the chance to participate in the ' Brainstorming Session ' and fell in love with it. While working with Bharat Electronics I arranged sessions in ' Brainstorming ' and also in my creativity workshops jointly with Professor Krishanaswamy. These sessions generated a large number of solutions, and some out of the box solutions too. Geoffrey Rawlinson in his book " Creative Thinking and Brainstorming " has said " Brainstorming is probably the best known of all techniques available for creative problem solving ". 

The success of the brainstorming sessions depends on the application and enforcement of guidelines, especially to ' suspend judgement ' including by the leader . No evaluation is to be done, either of one's own ideas or those of any body else. Anybody who does evaluate-for example , by saying ' that is a silly idea' -is forcefully told to suspend judgement. There are  stages of Brainstorming, as follows: State the problem and discuss; Restate the problem-How to .....; Select a basic restatement and write it down, ' In how many ways can we .........; Warm-up session ( to get the participants free-wheeling -light-hearted atmosphere is generated ); Brainstorm. 

3.In BMP(Body-Mind Programming) for creative problem solving developed by me (Raj Kumar Dham) jointly with Professor K N Krishanaswamy , we have talked about 'synthetic experience'. Synthetic experience is about vividly imagined  experience, perceiving a representation of something real rather than the thing itself. Human nervous system takes the vividly imagined experience as real and body and mind both respond to it, physiology and psychology changes . A ' real experience' - physically originates within a person's natural sensory envelop- sight, sound, smell, etc. Here we have tried to create  a ' virtual reality ' without using the machine. We have introduced the concept of 'BMP Screen' , which is a 'mental screen' in front of the closed eyes. BMP Laboratory - a virtual place where the participants go in their imagination and do the BMP exercises. It is like fantasy; some people have their labs on sea shore, in beautiful parks and gardens, in Giza Pyramids, in the space, at the moon/ mars, some construct their own buildings equipped with super computers and gadgets. we have also talked of BMP Guide- a virtual guide who is present when the BMP exercises are being done.  Napoleon Hill introduced the concept of  ' Mastermind group'  in his book " Think and Grow Rich " and " The Law Of Success" . He does emphasize the fact that he knew his council was purely imaginary , but he also said " While the members of my cabinet may be purely fictional, and the meetings existent only in my imagination, they have led me into glorious pats of adventure, rekindled an appreciation of true greatness. People can select their Guide , real or imaginary Avtar), living or dead, for different problems they can have different guides too. 

For creating the desired synthetic experience we have developed vehicles which uses tools like visualization, affirmations, relaxation, breathing, mudras, and primordial sounds. These vehicles first relaxes the body and calms the mind to create the altered states of mind. Then the problem is conveyed and nurtured to help in getting a creative solution to the problem. From this you will be able to  appreciate how visualization and imagination can help in many different ways to improve the quality of life. 

4. An Experience of the Inner Terrain -Michael Ray and Rochelle Myers in their book " Creativity in Business " based on the Stanford University course have talked about this " Obvious as it seems, this is an extremely difficult thing to grasp: that the internal world, that which is invisible, is the entire source of what we experience and how we navigate through our external world. One thing is easy to grasp : Our inner terrain has none of the limits of the outer terrain. In our mind we can move through time and space , and we can exercise our senses, faculties, emotions ,and imagination far more freely than the outer world, no matter how advanced its technology." They have also discussed about " Dream Work"- these dreams come from within. We are the producer, director, all the actors, and even the scenery; our hidden mind presents the whole of production. Since in our sleep we are totally surrendered, our own innate wisdom treats us to a movie about the issues we must deal with in our real life.

Can we bring this dream-manifested wisdom out into the waking part of our life? In the ' Silva Mind Control ' and BMP the following steps are suggested to help you :-

1) Ask a clear question about a key issue before you go to sleep.

2) Keep in your mind that you are attempting to maintain a spirit of enquiry. State the question in a way that will give you further insight into the problem. You can even write down  the question in your notebook.

3) Repeat it mentally as you repeat a mantra . Put a great deal of effort behind it. Even if do not remember your dreams. you could get the answer in the morning on getting up. 

4) As you go to sleep, either you keep on repeating the question mentally or you can meditate. 

5) Make sure you have a paper and pencil with you or you can record your dream immediately upon waking up. 

6) Now ask yourself number of questions about your dream, such as: What is the answer your dream is conveying you. 

Quite a number of people all over the world have tried this quite satisfactory.

I have tried to highlight the importance of the power of imagination, and how you can make use of it in your life .

Please try the dream work and share your experiences here in your comments. You can contact me also .

Looking forward to hearing from you .

I am doing online training and coaching programs , I am available for consultations, one to one sessions, as keynote speaker , motivational speaker . I have started " I Am The Sky " program at a high school in rural area to bring out the hidden talents and faculties in the young children; and for developing their personality and character. I invite you to join me . I have been helping cancer patients and their caregivers in the hospitals through my sessions aimed at changing their mindset from pain and suffering to HOPE. 

I am also a trustee of the charitable public trust; where we have adopted 18 villages for gross root overall holistic development -health, education, and environment. Our NGO Peoples Trust is helping the needy and poor since 1983. I invite you to join me in my mission.

Raj Kumar Dham   + 919845287581 rkdham@gmail.com 

Bangalore, India