What is imagination?

By Ande Jacobson

Some time ago, a friend and colleague posited that religious fundamentalists and extremists, which he equated to cult members, had no imagination. He said that’s what locked them into doggedly following their leader’s demands without question no matter how extreme or dangerous those demands were. While he was specifically talking about some egregious situation surrounding the rabid political divisions between the far-right extremists and pretty much everyone else, I started thinking about the concept of imagination overall. What is imagination? How is imagination employed? What are the benefits of having an imagination? Does a lack of imagination make somebody more susceptible to fundamentalism or cult participation, or more perilously, does lacking an imagination make somebody dangerous? For the purposes of this discussion, consider the Oxford Dictionary’s definition of imagination thus:

“imagination n. the faculty or action of forming ideas or mental images. > the ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful.”

From this definition, imagination, or some level of it at least, seems to be required for any substantial amount of learning in human society.

In his book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari talks about how early humans developed the use of fictive language as part of the cognitive revolution. As part of that, human imaginations grew. Instead of just reacting to dangers right in front of them, they could describe and learn about dangers that existed even when they weren’t present. In that way, their imaginations helped them survive. Over time, this use of imagination went far beyond mere survival. In early human society, imagination facilitated the formation of complex myths not only as entertainment but as a first attempt to explain the world around them before they developed tools and technology for complex investigations.

Any creative process requires the use of imagination. Writers use their imaginations to create wondrous tales, some real, some fictional, but either way, imagination is required to put together a compelling story whether true or not.

Musicians playing instruments use their imaginations to hear the music they want to play, sometimes while reading the notation on the page, or even while just thinking about it. This helps them to mentally prepare to physically play that music on their instruments. Mental preparation is an important part of practice process, and it not only includes “hearing the music” in one’s mind, it also often involves the feel of the instrument in one’s hands before execution.

On the music score, I remember a time when I was preparing to music direct a production of Once Upon a Mattress. This production was a little different than others in that the stage director left a slight musical hole late in the second act that needed to be covered in a unique way. There is a scene in which there’s a bird whose screeches and song were an important part of the story. The problem was that the actor who was initially going to sing the part got blocked into the scene in such a way that she was no longer available to do that, so we had to put our heads together to come up with a solution for how that music and the screeches would be performed. The bird itself was a puppet, so the sounds had to come from someplace else. There weren’t any spare actors who could sing the part, so that was out. One possibility was for the director to whistle the tune from offstage, but then he would have had to attend every performance, and he had a few schedule conflicts that prevented that. Another possibility was for me to whistle the part from the conductor’s podium, but I would have needed to have been miked, and we didn’t want to impose on our sound engineers since the plot had already been created. Another possibility was to have one of the musicians in the pit play the part on flute or piccolo, but they couldn’t see the stage, and there were some sight cues that required an immediate reaction, so if somebody was going to play it, they had to be able to see that action. After much discussion, we decided that I would play the part on piccolo from the podium since I was there every performance unlike many of our reed players who were sharing the run. The only hitch was that I still had to conduct the pit, and because I had to have my eyes glued to the action on stage to catch the quick, subtle sight cues to “screech,” I had to memorize the part, something I hadn’t done since my high school music festivals and marching competitions.

I set about memorizing the part, which required me to visualize the music in my head and imagine the feel of the instrument. The thing I discovered was that I couldn’t do this without having something, anything, in my hands to press my fingers onto. Playing “air piccolo” just didn’t work for me. I found that I could do it using a pen or a pencil because I could then feel some resistance in my hands as I went through the fingerings while visualizing the music in my head. It struck me as fascinating at the time how that worked, but it was clearly a form of imagination.

Athletes use their imaginations extensively as well in much the same way as musicians. They picture themselves executing their body’s movements.

Imagination is also used in strategy games such as chess. One uses their mind’s eye to visualize the board and the pieces to run through possible game sequences in planning many moves ahead.

Scientists use imagination extensively. Science as a whole is a study of understanding the world around us, and at its foundation, it’s a systemic discipline whereby a concept is defined by a course of hypotheses and proofs to build the body of knowledge. So how does this involve imagination? It takes imagination to conceive of a hypothesis to explain some natural phenomenon in a cogent way. More specifically, it takes imagination to define such a hypothesis in a way that it can be rigorously tested. Further imagination is then needed to devise the tests necessary to either prove or disprove such a hypothesis. Once a hypothesis has been proven conclusively, it becomes a theory. While it may not take imagination to embrace a proven theory, it does to expand upon it with additional hypotheses and proofs.

Even outside of science, problem solving requires the use of imagination to consider various options and analyze their potential for success.

Storytellers, lecturers, and actors also use their imaginations. In presenting their material, they picture the world they are creating with their words. Likewise, the audiences listening to these presentations or performances also use their imaginations to picture the worlds presented to them. A lack of imagination in this regard would limit one’s ability to absorb the material presented.

Going back to the initial questions, does lacking imagination make one more susceptible to a false narrative, and is this more intense in somebody with a strict fundamentalist worldview? Perhaps. According to Psychology Today, it comes down to a person’s reasoning skills. It’s normal for children to engage in “make-believe.” In doing so, they reinforce the cultural norms to which they are exposed. If their environment is a strict fundamentalist framework, they can learn that whatever the authority figure presents must be accepted even if that conflicts with something they observe. If they do this often enough, they can learn to associate compliance with stress reduction because it allows them to avoid conflict and potential rejection by their family/community. Their blind acceptance of their authority figure’s narrative effectively short-circuits any attempt at critical analysis. Critical thinking requires the use of imagination, especially when confronted with conflicting information.

In the end, it’s clear that imagination is a crucial human survival skill. While it can sometimes serve to frighten us, our imagination more often helps us evaluate our environment, relationships, activities, and helps us learn new skills and retain information. Actions to stifle our imaginations when we are young can cause developmental deficits and restrict learning later in life. A lack of imagination can negatively impact our ability to adapt to new situations and to grow intellectually. Our imaginations are something to nurture not hinder.

References:
https://agoodreedreview.com/2017/05/26/book-review-sapiens-humankind/
https://agoodreedreview.com/2017/05/30/sapiens-thoughts-common-myths/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/imagination
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/202012/what-makes-people-especially-vulnerable-fake-news
https://agoodreedreview.com/2022/02/04/book-review-the-god-delusion/