Imagination and Creative Intelligence

Check out those crazy hamsters! That’s really creative and imaginative.

“An act of imagination, a speculative adventure…underlies every improvement of natural knowledge.” – Sir Peter Brian Medawar (1915-1987) British Zoologist

“The imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself.” – William Blake

As I mentioned in my articles on Creative Intelligence and I.Q. Part 1 and Part 2: Imagination is an important part of creative intelligence.

And to repeat what I said in the articles on Creative Intelligence and I.Q., imagination, in combination with creative and logical thinking is what creative intelligence is about. And using creative intelligence is much more important than I.Q. in being able to access your innate genius potential.

The Imagination

So let’s talk some more about the imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge, Albert Einstein once said.

All the great artists and scientists throughout time have understood how important imagination is. Most great ideas don’t come when we use only our logical thinking capabilities. They mostly come when we let down our guards, enter into a Low Density Lifestyle, and let the imagination take hold.

Nicola Tesla, the great scientist and inventor, once said, “Creative ideas come to us like a bolt of lightning.”

Steven Weinberg won a Nobel Prize for physics for his electroweak theory and said the idea came to him in a flash one day, while he was driving his car.

Albert Einstein once wondered, “Why is it I get my best ideas in the morning while I’m shaving?” This is because when we allow ourselves to relax and let the mind space out, the imagination can take over.

History is filled with many stories of creative insights that arrived like flashes of light, whether in daydreams, creative reveries or dreams. When you let go of your current way of thinking in order to see something new, you are letting your imagination take hold.

Imagination is Infinite

Imagination is infinite. All it takes to touch it is to close the eyes, quiet the mind and be silent – in other words, to enter into a Low Density Lifestyle. And then it flows – it may be images, thoughts, ideas or whatever, but the key is not to silence it or to criticize it. You may then want to express what you imagined – through written or spoken words, images, musical notations, or however you are most comfortable.

The key is to go and use your imagination. We are not encouraged to. But it is an important part of our lives.

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious…He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.” – Albert Einstein