On The Validity of The Imagination
Throughout the past decade or so of my life, I have been engaged in what some would call a spiritual journey, although the phrase has lost all meaning due to overuse. In that time, I have gone down some deep New Age rabbit holes, come out of the other side a skeptic, and am now navigating my landing place somewhere in between materialism and spiritualism.
Einstein was quoted as saying that “imagination is more important than knowledge,” and I think I tend to agree. However, we cannot discount knowledge. It is equally a part of the reality equation. The trouble arises when imagination and knowledge are not treated as equal counterparts. And when we are grounded in a scientific, skeptical, self-correcting foundation, we can fully explore the reality of the imagination in the most lucid way possible.
A common gripe against imagination is that it’s “not real.” It’s not physically true, it’s simply happening inside of a mind, so therefore it can be discarded. But I think it’s a bit shortsighted to assume that simply because the imagination is not physically real that it has no effect on physical reality. Yes, if you imagine that a monster is under your bed, that’s not “real,” in the physical sense. But someone who imagines a croissant under their bed is going to have an entirely different physical response to bedtime.
What we imagine matters. It has a tangible, real effect on how we conceive of ourselves and our place in the universe, and thus it deeply affects how we feel and make meaning of our lives. Without imagination, our physical reality would be barren, devoid of possibility, empty and flat. Our imagination doesn’t create physical reality directly, as some New Age folks would lead you to believe. But it certainly indirectly contributes to what appears in the physical realm of reality, and an overly skeptical, materialistic view blocks us from seeing the power of our imagination to affect, for better or worse, the quality of our lived experience.
We cannot live entirely in our imaginations. To live entirely in the imagination is to live life with blinders on and ears plugged. We must accept the constraints of physical reality. But to live a life devoid of imagination is to be a walking corpse, a zombie in the machine of existence. We can embrace the potency and joy of our imaginative visions and honor them for the benefits they bring to our waking reality, and at the same time not pretend that what we imagine is the complete truth of us. It’s not. We are both physically bound in the land of time and space, and non-physically liberated in the land of imagination. Both are true at once. Such is the paradox of existence.