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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?

I didn't mean you'd been picking on me. It was the lecturer at uni tonight - he tried to wear my name out by asking me to answer a load of questions. When I griped to my mates about the fact that he only seems to know my name I had it pointed out that, as I am the only PT female student taking this course, it is easy for him to remember who I am.

.. and yes, you're right :D

Hey, I'm not picking on you, I'm just right. ;)

Cyclone wrote:
> Stuff

:D

This is where I say you're right again. I've been picked on enough tonight so I'm not even going to get into an arguement that I cannot win :)

Strafio wrote:
>>
> I think it'd be more accurate to say that everything we imagine has
> roots in something we've experienced. Obviously our mind can mix,
> match, distort things... whether we want them to or not! :-D

As I described in the monster analogy below.

Ineedsleep wrote:
>>
> Nope, I'm going with you're wrong again. I've never been buried
> alive but I've imagined it. I've tried to come up with something
> even remotely akin to that and can think of nothing.

No - not even direct experiance. Experiance from watching a fil, from descriptions of what it must be 'like' by people.

For example, let's take this buried alive thing;

You could have 'experienced' a film showing somebody being buried alive.
You could of had a discussion about what it must be like - and this discussion would have taken turns such as 'I imagine you'd suffocate'. And why? Because you'd relate a tight, confined underground space to asphyxiation, to dirt in your mouth, to death. To all the different ways you've experianced these things, whether they be directly or indirectly.
You might have a nightmare - built of supposed memories.

You cannot, I truly believe, imagine something that has no relation to something you've experienced at one time or another - whether direct, indirect or completely sub-cosncious. How can your brain make up something it has no sense of? It has to root it in reality (a very loose term in this case), in something it has sensed before.

Gordon B, the imagination is so bea-uuutiful. I think it's got the same amount of beauty as the world probably had when first created. So strong and precious. It's like an entirely different world!

I find being alone helps. Yet at the same time, getting out and exploring does help it. Finding something inpsiring to give it that extra bit.

If you're struggling, Grix, why don't you see if you can draw your imagination? Could be interesting to see the result!

*light bulb*

Cyclone wrote:
> Same - I feel I have to apologise in a way - as I've just gone into
> ego-centric rant mode :)
>
> But still, I reckon nothing we imagine is from something we
> havn't experianced.

I think it'd be more accurate to say that everything we imagine has roots in something we've experienced. Obviously our mind can mix, match, distort things... whether we want them to or not! :-D

The imagination is the best thing though, isn't it. What is better. I see it as my soul. A mortal soul which could, if lucky, live on in others like memories.

Cyclone wrote:

> But still, I reckon nothing we imagine is from something we
> havn't experianced.

I had an arguement all typed out to refute that statement but then I sat back and thought about it.

Then I decided you were right.

Then I decided you were wrong again.

*sigh*

If you are right then the depth of my own imagination can take a tiny insignificant event and blow it right out of proportion.

Nope, I'm going with you're wrong again. I've never been buried alive but I've imagined it. I've tried to come up with something even remotely akin to that and can think of nothing.

Same - I feel I have to apologise in a way - as I've just gone into ego-centric rant mode :)

But still, I reckon nothing we imagine is from something we havn't experianced.