Reflections on Imagination: Smack Dab in the Imagination by Dia Calhoun
During a podcast episode titled Jung’s Path to Creativity and Inner Freedom (This Jungian Life August 21, Ep 386) I had an immediate reaction to something Lisa Marchiano said: So, to…create anything at all, whether it’s a stone tool or a spaceship, you have to be able to imagine it. You have to see it first. You have to be able to visualize it and have an idea about it. Doesn’t this miss a step or two? Did Einstein visualize relativity before creating it? Perhaps we begin with a problem we need to solve, or an intention to do something, and then play with possibilities. When I start writing a poem, I do sometimes have an idea, but I don’t know what the poem will end up being. (This is a good approach for poets who follow the mantra: no surprise for the writer no surprise for the reader.) Even when writing a novel, I may have an arc, or a premise in the beginning stages. But when I’m stuck in a scene where I don’t know what happens next, I have to play with possibilities--what if, wha...
