“Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality,” Lewis Carroll famously wrote in Alice in Wonderland. To the scientifically minded, in the pursuit of an ever-clearer picture of reality, such a weapon may seem of little use.
Imagination might feel like the trivial stuff of childhood fairy tales and senseless daydreams. Besides, few things appear more slippery and unquantifiable than the contents of someone else’s head. The faculty, though, is something neurologists and neuroscientists are now beginning to understand in more detail and, in doing so, proving that the power of imagination isn’t to be underestimated.
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As we discover in this special issue, we evolved our imaginative capability for a reason: it helps us to plan, empathise with others, and is the key to creative thinking. Take the trait of “aphantasia”. A decade ago, neurologist Adam Zeman coined this term to describe people with no visual imagination. Recently, several papers on the phenomenon have revealed its brain signatures.
We are starting to learn more, too, about hyperphantasia, aphantasia’s opposite number, in which people report an imagination so vivid it feels real. An understanding of these states of mind not only reveals deeper insights about our perception of reality, there are implications for well-being too, with hyperphantasia linked to maladaptive daydreaming – imagining scenarios and getting lost in their plot lines so often that it has a deleterious effect on a person’s life.
It also turns out there are different types of imagination, and we are uncovering how our capacity for it changes as we get older. We are also discovering that your capacity for imagination is adaptable, and that there are ways you can fine-tune it. You can also take control of your imagination as a tool to help you achieve new goals. All this paints a picture of a powerful weapon indeed, one that can enhance joy, creativity, health and more.
A weapon that even the most scientifically minded of us want in our arsenal.
Explore the special issue here
Your imagination doesn’t get worse as you age, but it does change
The four types of imagination and how they create our worlds
The extremes of imagination reveal how our brains perceive reality
Five tests will help you understand the full scope of your imagination
How visualisation sets you up for success by changing your cognition
Can imagining a better future really make it come true?
How your whole imagination is conjured up from three brain processes
