Part 1
At some point I've come to realize that I've been underestimating the role of mental life conventional people call "imagination." From the POV of convention imagination serves as inspiration for art and science, but more often than not imagination is something that is said to take people away from the so-called "reality." Thus the term "imagination" has a lot of pejorative uses from the POV of convention.
From the POV of subjective idealism, imagination is any kind of experience. Why so? Because when no experience can be said to be informative or conclusive, it has to be understood as imaginary. Experiences are merely suggestive because there is always a choice in how to interpret and how to relate to them. This is what allows a peer to perform subjectively strange transformations of experiences. Experience is malleable and so it can be bent, shaped, molded, restructured, orchestrated, charmed, enchanted, cajoled, invited, attracted or repelled, guided, to name only a few possibilities. And experience is malleable precisely because it is merely suggestive and isn't informative.
If a person believes in an objective domain of some sort, then they typically will view some of their experiences as hailing from that domain, and therefore will view such experiences as being informative. For a subjective idealist an objective domain is only at best a play-pretend commitment to an imaginary mental fabrication.
For the purpose of this article I want the reader to be aware that imagination can be extremely varied. It can be any sort of concrete imagery, such as what happens when visualizing a tree along with some scenery. And it can also be supremely abstract, such as what is experienced during abstract thinking. One can imagine different ways of structuring experience, and that's something very abstract.
I find it useful to distinguish subjectively different grades or types of imagination. Ultimately all imaginary activity can be understood to belong to a smooth continuum of imagination, but for the sake of communication I will identify a few types. However any time I talk about the types of imagination the reader should realize that I don't want to imply rigid and always unambiguous distinctions between these types.
I think it's best to start with the most obvious and proceed toward the most subtle.
The most obvious type of imagination is the content of the 5 conventional senses: sight, sound, human body sense (touch, heat/cold, up/down, hunger, thirst, internal pressure, etc.), taste, smell. This content often hovers like a very dynamic cloud right at the center of one's experience, and it tends to be very structured, patterned and cyclical for a typical reader whom I imagine is reading this. And the reader maybe imagines someone must have written this post. This sort of imagination could be called central or centered potential. It's that which has been most emphasized in the mind.
Next is the imaginary near potential. So for example, if you see an electronic screen in front of you right now, it's very easy to imagine the same screen being slightly to the left of where it is now. Notice, I am not necessarily talking about visualizing yet. Visualization is a kind of imagination too, but imagination is not limited to only visualization. For the purpose of this article being able to conceive of a possibility is also a kind of imagination. So it's easy to imagine the screen being in a slightly different position. It's also easy to imagine some of the words in this post being slightly different while retaining the same meaning and so on. Most conventional possibilities may belong here. Very well practiced magickal transformations belong here. So for example, if you're a practiced lucid dreamer, then the possibility of a lucid dream will be in the near potential. Thus you can imagine yourself having a lucid dream and this falls firmly with the range of expected and reliable possibilities.
Next is the imaginary medium potential. This is something that you believe is hard, but possible. So maybe you can imagine your body lifting a very heavy weight that is somewhat heavier than the heaviest you remember yourself lifting before. In terms of convention, you might imagine a type of device that could conceivably be engineered within say 20 years of research and development. As far as magickal transformations go, think of some that you think you could achieve in this lifetime, but haven't yet. Or think of those transformations that don't work very reliably.
Next is the imaginary far potential. Far potential is everything that's pretty much subjectively ludicrous, but still imaginable. So for example, let's say I imagine my body going through a wall during the so-called "waking" state. (My body goes through my wall.) I can imagine that. I can imagine myself creating a universe or twisting space and time. Presently it doesn't feel like such things are in the cards, so to speak, but because I can conceive of them they are contained in my imaginary far potential.
Next is the infinite region of imagination that is imaginable only in principle, but is presently unimaginable. This is a very important type of imagination. If anyone is interested in mastery of imagination, then it's crucial to recognize that imagination is not limited to only that which you can presently imagine.
Originally posted by u/mindseal on 2016-05-15 15:30:31
Part 2
Consider a metaphor of a glowing and noisy cloud for imagination. Imagination is like a cloud floating through infinity. It is purely mental and it is very amazing and seductive. Imagination is both a blessing and a curse. Imagination used wisely and skillfully is a blessing. And imagination used foolishly or clumsily is a curse. The center of the cloud of imagination is the brightest and most solid-looking (but don't let it fool ya!). Because it is right at the center of our attention most of the time, it has the tendency to bedazzle the unwary. Said bedazzling has happened to me more times that I can reasonably mention or count. Moving away from the center there is all kinds of sensory and conceptual content in the cloud and as we move closer to the edge the content becomes subjectively more and more strange, outrageous or improbable. One can direct one's attention to the different areas of the imagination cloud, more or less at will.
And here I want to add a few more observations. The cloud changes just as the state of your volition changes. A very interesting, peculiar and somewhat rare event is when you notice how for the first time that you can remember you're able to imagine something that formerly you were unable to imagine. It means something that was formerly only imaginable in principle became newly imaginable in subjective actuality. When you experience this, you can be certain that your volition has made a significant shift, probably a shift in one of the core commitments. It's also possible for things to slip outside the cloud of imagination and once again remain only a part of the infinite imagination that's imaginable only in principle. Generally this sort of slippage isn't noticeable, duh.
It's also possible for things to move from far potential to medium and then to near and in reverse from near to medium and then to far. So for example, if you've recently overcame insomnia by learning how to fall asleep better, the possibility of insomnia moves from near to medium potential.
It's important to note that the various contents are able to move around inside the imagination cloud and they move from and to the cloud for one reason: the changed state of one's own volition. But because one's own volition typically contains a disowned or 'othered' aspect, it means the movements can fall anywhere along the continuum of consciousness-unconsciousness. When I say "movements" I mean changes in the felt-sense of probability, relevance, and actuality of said contents with regard to the contents in the center of the cloud. So there can be plenty of continual unconscious drift inside the imagination cloud.
Contemplation can easily work with the entire cloud of imagination, just like you're probably doing now. Most utility magick works in the near potential. Massively transformative and breakthrough magick can work with the further potentials.
It's good to pay attention to your attention inside the cloud. So how often do you wander the entire cloud of imagination? How often do you examine the center of the cloud? How often do you examine the near potential areas of the cloud? How often do you examine the further, medium potential areas of the cloud? How often do you prowl the edge of the cloud with your attention? You might notice how you can see some thickness of the cloud instead of just a small area. For example, you may see the electronic screen with this article in front of your eyes, which is in the center of the cloud, while simultaneously being aware of ideas, sights, sounds and other mental impressions in the further regions of the cloud.
Another metaphor I'll throw out there is life as an animated multilayered imagination cake. It can be very helpful to imagine one's own imagination in many ways.
A conventional person will hold the center of the cloud, the brightest experiential aspects, the structured, patterned and cyclical contents of the 5 senses as true existents, and as informative. Whereas the rest of the experiential contents will appear "purely" suggestive to a conventional person and thus a conventional person may speak of something being "only imaginary." They're so convinced the center of the cloud is not imaginary. And they take this conviction with them to their nighttime dreams too, thus believing the scenarios in those dreams to be real happenings until after they wake up and have a chance to reevaluate those happenings in retrospect.
Because a peer doesn't regard any area of the imagination cloud as fundamentally different from any other area, it is possible to move imaginary artifacts from the near region to the center region at will, and in reverse. Here I'll remind the reader just how broadly I've defined imagination at the beginning of the article. What allows for this fluid movement is precisely the absence of a firmly insisted-upon impermeable conceptual boundary between the types of imagination, and particularly a boundary between the center and every other area of the imagination cloud. A peer may choose to still maintain a boundary between the center of the cloud and the rest of the cloud, but that boundary will be permeable at will with possibly some self-imposed conditions to prevent random unwanted alterations.
Thus if your body is cold, you can imagine a hot region overlaid right over the cold region of experience and begin moving heat from the hot region to the cold one, as if they're "physically" side by side. That's just one example of how to use imagination, and not the complete manual.
And a final note. When images or concepts are given more and more weight in the mind, it moves them closer and closer to the near potential. So I believe daydreaming is crucial. It's only during daydreaming that you can consciously move something from a middle of the cloud to the nearby region of the cloud. So making something improbable probable requires a significant amount of intentional daydreaming. Can you imagine how important imagination is? ;)
Originally posted by u/mindseal on 2016-05-15 15:30:31