Imagination

Our brain is like a canvas. It can stimulate anything just like an artist can stimulate anything on his canvas. Now, if our brain is the canvas, then who is the artist of that canvas?

Guessed it right, it is the imagination power that we have been god gifted with. Our beliefs are possible only because of our Imagination. This is the reason all teachers ask you to imagine the problem to solve it easily. It is like the reference point for anything that we learn.

We humans have this imagination power that distinguishes us from the other animals of the planet. Simulation is the other name of Imagination. VR (Virtual reality) is a type of Simulation.

What is a simulation? A simulation is a model of something. Say if you want to create a model of your house. Then, you will go and consult the architect who will help you to design the layout based on that model. And then you will start building your house.

It is a similar situation here. Imagination is like simulations of ideas that we need to inculcate like good habits, perseverance, discipline, concentration, and consistency. A human being can do whatever he/she can do because of imagination. He/she has an idea or a simulation in his/her mind that acts as a reliable resource for their work. This reliable resource aids in the functioning of the person. Guessed it right again, it’s called experience.

You can have experience only when you imagine, then act on it, and then note your results. You don’t need to worry about it much because your brain automatically does that all the time. When you imagine water, then you get a simulation of its properties, and then note your results with water. And then you say that these are my experiences with water, not casual, but scientific experiences called properties.

So now, let’s get into the topic of today—imagination. Imagination as discussed is the canvas of the ideas inside our mind. This helps us to develop newer things and learn more. Just like the skeleton supports the body and the muscles help the body to move, imagination supports the mind and experience help the mind to make any kind of decision. So it becomes vital to imagine and learn to learn better.

When we are learning new things then we should always try to simulate that thing in our mind. Most of the time, your mind automatically does this and because of that you are able to understand something. But when it comes to genuinely complex topics then our brain finds it hard to do all by itself. So, we need to help our own mind so that it can process that information and how can we do that—by imagination.

Creativity is possible only if you can imagine. Art is possible only if you can imagine. Without imagination we cannot do some things. Unfortunately, the “factory-system” of our education system is trying to stop it. Why the “factory-system”? Let’s understand it with an example.

Your favourite biscuit is prepared in the factory, isn’t it? Well, all the biscuits that are created in the factory, have to go through the same process, the dough moulded into biscuit shapes, and then baked and then packed into the biscuits packets to be sold in the market. Just like the biscuits, all the feedback that is given to a student is the same and no spark of curiosity is going up in the student. This makes the education of an individual more like a factory-process, same chapters, same tests, and same questions.

Students today need imaginative and curiosity-increasing resources so that they become a questioner and a developer of new things. Hence doing something new is hard as it is not supported by the education system of the current times. This makes the imaginative development of a student very slow. Hence the teachers and the education system have a very big role in the imaginative development of a student.