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"Imagination"

I keep getting this horrible feeling every now and again that I'm slowly losing my imagination... that it's seeping away, never to be bought back by my childlike nature that I'm doomed to lose... er, or something. But what IS imagination anyway?

As far as I can tell, the imagination, if it er, exists independently, is fueled by wanting to escape from life itself. Sounds very depressing, but it seems logical.

That the more you hate, or maybe feel nothing in the world you're involved in, the more your brain tries to escape through the imagination. Maybe it's not a completely solid reasoning, but there's got to be some truth in it.

And if we take that reasoning a little further, could it be possible to suggest, perhaps, that to improve your imagination, you just have to become bored of life some more?

It's a scary thought. At the moment I'm stuck over what I want to do with myself. Either to head into animation (which would probably require me doing an art foundation that I don't particularly want to do for reasons that have yet to return to me (I think they're around about my feet by now)), or to chase up my other dream of running a cinema, which er, isn't going to be particularly easy either. I think I'll let that one lie for a few decades actually.

If I'm to live by my imagination, am I destined to become even more bored of life, more of a hermit than I am already? Could, even, the boredom of art classes fuel a deeper relationship with my imagination?

And do stories in themselves just express the desire to leave this terrible world behind and lose themselves in one of their own?

Possibly. The last few years have been the most exciting in my life, and I guess my tendency to try to escape has been less than average.

So what am I supposed to do? Dull myself down, stay home and stare at walls?

It's strange, but with so much stress over what I'm supposed to be doing with myself, it's incredibly hard to lose myself in anything. So maybe it's not just the excitement in life, but the stress of it too. And that's not just for writing/drawing, but for losing myself in a movie, music too.

At least, that's what I'm hoping. That I can just carry on down my difficult decisions and peril etc, and somehow take a break, relax, and be rid of the stress of every day druge.

Now that I'm finally on medication for being psychotic (You have NO idea how close I was to becoming Batman), all that I've yet to conquer is my stress. Ok, I'm allowed to fear social situations, I'm a born and bred psychotic hermit, we know this. But I guess I could calm them.

Then the next question I guess would be, if stress is a factor of imagination, would the whole imagintive process require an open mind, and does the stress mentioned close the mind?

What closes a mind, and what can be described as an open mind anyway? Surely there's no perfect state that could possibly be reached, as our minds will always be closed to some extent.

A fearless, stressless, open mind + boredom of surroundings + time = Imagination?

Science for the unscientific. It's rotten.

But still, it does seem to be that different mind states do encourage more and less working of the imagination. The only imagination that seems to come of stress is hallucinations, and they're another topic altogether.

Phew. It's a good thing to go from thinking you need to make life worse for yourself, to wanting to reduce your stress levels. Hurrah for thinking things through.

But what do you think? Is the imagination a tool bought upon us as a defensive act towards wanting to kill ourselves, or just nonsense that somehow our minds trawl out? Who knows, and indeed, who cares.

But it seems to me, at least, that the imaginative aren't hermits that want to push life away from themselves, that hate life so much that they wish to escape from it... but instead, perhaps they're fearless towards life, not removing themselves or hiding away, but adding to life itself with open minds. Sniff.

I know it's just going from half empty to half full in more words, but it's something I've struggled to understand all my life. Imagination is very important to me, so to turn it around from being the escape of the fearful to the tool of the fearless is a big change for me.

Comments? If you read all that you probably need a rest anyway. Any good advice for relaxing?

Thanks :)

Seriously, if people didn't tell me I'd never know

GAD for Grix it appears. Congratulations.

Cyclone wrote:
> Strafio wrote:
> I wouldn't go as far to say that Sympathy is completely blind
>
> I didn't say completely blind, just 'blinder'.

"more blind..."

**checks for edit**

ooops. :-)
Don't really care though.
Was just looking for an excuse to elaborate anysway! :-P

This is getting too deep for me, I'll have to read all this when I'm feeling more awake.

As for drawing my own imagination, that sounds like an idea. If I don't post for a while, I'm probably drowning in my own vomit thinking about it.

FinalFantasyFanatic wrote:
> Cyclone wrote:
> >It has to root it in
> reality (a very loose term in this case), in something it has sensed
> before.
>
> Of course it does - if something isn't rooted in someway in reality,
> what is it? Something totally apart from reality just doesn't exist.
>
> Everything can be related back to something you're familiar with very
> easily.
>
> Nothing lives on it's own, unconnected to anything around it. If it
> does, then you won't know it exists - as soon as someone informs you
> of its existance and what it is, then you can imagine it.

Exactly.

Strafio wrote:
> I wouldn't go as far to say that Sympathy is completely blind

I didn't say completely blind, just 'blinder'.

Cyclone wrote:
>It has to root it in
> reality (a very loose term in this case), in something it has sensed
> before.

Of course it does - if something isn't rooted in someway in reality, what is it? Something totally apart from reality just doesn't exist.
Everything can be related back to something you're familiar with very easily.

Nothing lives on it's own, unconnected to anything around it. If it does, then you won't know it exists - as soon as someone informs you of its existance and what it is, then you can imagine it.

I wouldn't go as far to say that Sympathy is completely blind, because that would be Apathy (not even caring to try and imagine) I guess...

But yeah, it'll never be as accurate as feeling something first hand.

That seems to make sense. Empathy suggests knowledge of the feeling. Sympathy seems to be more blind, and hence is sometimes seen as superficial, whereas empathy (perhaps) is purer because of knowledge.

Cyclone wrote:
> As I described in the monster analogy below.

Yeah, it was a good example.
On a tangent, I heard some people discussing the difference between empaphy and sympathy.
Empaphy means relating because you have experienced their situation for yourself, and sympathy meaning that you can imagine what it must feel like in that situation.

I'd never come across that before.