Knowing Imagination

Last night I had the pleasure of hearing the opening talk in the form of a Special Lecture given by Dr. Martin Seligman and Dr. Philip Zimbardo at the opening of the First World Congress on Positive Psychology in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Zimbardo is probably best known for his 1971 study known as The Stanford Prison Experiment, a simulation study of the psychology of imprisonment conducted at Stanford University in California in which the students who were chosen to act as guards quickly became sadistic and the study had to be cut short. He is a professor of social psychology, and his work has had a broad emphasis on everything interesting to study from shyness to time perspective, madness, cults, vandalism, political psychology, torture, terrorism, and evil. 

One part of this talk that stood out to me was his discussion of the need to celebrate heroism as an antidote and balance to the tendency of people to slip into negative acts, as witnessed in the above mentioned Stanford Prison Study. This can be seen as teaching values and behaviors that can override those negative tendencies which can operate in default unless options are available and known, something he describes as the Lucifer Effect.

He writes of this on his web site: ‘…trying to understand what about certain behavioral settings pushes some of us to become perpetrators of evil, others to look the other way in the presence of evil doers, tacitly condoning their actions and thus being guilty of the evil of inaction, while others act heroically on behalf of those in need or righting injustice. Some situations can inflame the “hostile imagination,” (italics mine) propelling good people to do bad deeds, while something in that same setting can inspire the “heroic imagination” (italics mine) propelling ordinary people toward actions that their culture at a given time determines is “heroic.” I argue in Lucifer and recent essays, that follow here, it is vital for every society to have its institutions teach heroism, building into such teachings the importance of mentally rehearsing taking heroic action—thus to be ready to act when called to service for a moral cause or just to help a victim in distress.’

The idea of hostile imagination and herioc imagination appeals to me. It affirms the fundamental importance of the imagination in knowing and offers practical application and example. What do you think about this?

Is imagination dependent upon the brain? Rational logic would suggest it is. But some people report imaginal experiences such as the white light of near-death experiences even though the brain is observed and measured as dead. One segment of the fascinating NPR series "The Science of Spirituality", covers near-death experiences and phenomenon such as meditation, in which brain activity has been measured. Click here to go to NPR to hear the 10 minute segment, or read the full story. Perhaps this lends some credence to the idea that imagination as a way of knowing transcends the limitations of the physical body. What do you think?

Jay Walker, entrepreneur and inventor, has created a library with a collection of artifacts that exemplify the human imagination. At the 2008 TED conference, Walker shows some of his collection and explains some of their relevance. An excerpt of this presentation is shown below. Also, a recent article in Wired Magazine tells more.

                                        http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

Deepak Chopra, in the San Francisco Chronicle, writes about the current crisis in the U.S. economy and the influence of the "nocebo effect", the opposite of the "placebo effect".  With the placebo effect people are inclined to positive reactions and outcomes because they are led to believe in the efficacy of a treatment. In the nocebo effect people are inclined to negative reactions and outcomes because they are led to believe in a negative way. Both placebo and nocebo effects can be understood as evidence of the power of the imagination. How much does the imagination effect the attitudes and choices of the U.S. public toward the economy?

Bill Viola is an artist who works in video. I have seen a number of his works in museum shows and have invariably been entranced and enraptured. All the pieces I have seen are large, room-filling works that include human figures and natural elements in motion and with sound. To witness his work is akin to walking into a waking dream. There are quite a few videos of his work here on YouTube.

One year ago, on November 16, 2007, I wrote about a discussion I attended on Visual Literacy. I touched on the need for videos and video games that would be enriching. I just discovered the availability of these videos on line and, to my surprise, a video game.

Bill Viola's video game, The Night Journey, embedded below from YouTube, is a video game/art project based on the universal story of an individual mystic's journey toward enlightenment. It is inspired by "the lives and writings of great historical figures including: Rumi, the 13th century Islamic poet and mystic; Ryokan, the 18th century Zen Buddhist poet; St. John of the Cross, the 16th century Spanish mystic and poet; and Plotinus, the 3rd century philosopher" and "attempts to evoke in the player's mind a sense of the archetypal journey of enlightenment through the "mechanics" of the game experience". 

                      Comments?

There are many appeals to the imagination in the course of
this, or any election.  I have
refrained from writing about the election so as not to politicize this blog.
But as the election draws near I have been thinking about the role imagination
plays in it.

Think about it. Each of the candidates asks us to join them
in imagining a future that is more or less different from the present. Each of
the candidates appeals to our emotions to evoke a response that might influence
us to choose to vote for them- one stimulates fear and anger to influence, one
emphasizes hope. One candidate portrays the competition in a negative way,
asking us to see them that way, too. One candidate talks about unity and shuns
divisive rhetoric.

What we know about any candidate we know because of what we
are shown by their carefully constructed image-makers or an image developed
over may years in the public eye, as well as from the press and how they are portrayed.
From there, our imaginations take over- using what information we have to
relate to the candidates through our own social/psychological/emotional
filters.

All of us project our expectations, desires, and fears on
these candidates, however subtly, and this has an equally subtle influence on
how we choose in our elections. Some of us feel safer with an older president,
like having an experienced parent to run the country. Some of us are excited by
youthful demeanor and new ways of approaching problems and issues.

It is impossible to avoid the influence of the imagination
in any choice we make. In electing a president the information we glean from
the press and advertising can help us to make that choice but it can also be
useful to be aware of how we are influenced by our own minds. Imagination is a
powerful, yet subtle aspect of our moment-to-moment consciousness.

What do you think about this?

This post from TEDBlog really moved me. The imagination of the people described by Wade here is so beautiful and poetic.

Wade Davis recently spent time in the Northern Territory of Australia, working on a film with the Aboriginees on Dreamtime and the Songlines. He reports from his time there:

I must tell you of the Dreaming. Spent a month in the Northern Territory. Here's a copy of the note that I sent back in week three, from a sat phone at a waterhole 200 miles east of the road in Arnhem Land.

These are and were a people with no notion of linear time. Theirs was one of the great experiments in human thought. The notion that the world existed as a perfect whole, and that the singular duty of humanity was to maintain through ritual activity the land precisely as it existed when the Rainbow Serpent embarked on the journey of creation. The logos of the Dreaming was constancy, balance, symmetry. In the moment there is deductive logic, on a hunt for example, when the men pay attention to signs with a perspicacity that would put Sherlock Holmes to shame. But in life there is only the Dreaming, in which every thought, every plant and animal, are inextricably linked as a single impulse, the inspiration of the first dawning. Had humanity followed this track, it is true that we would have never placed a man on the moon. But we would most certainly not be speaking of our capacity to compromise the life support of the planet. I have never in all of my travels been so moved by a vision of another possibility, born literally 55,000 years ago. 

This world is so amazing. The realm of the modern is just the floss. The ancient rhythms resonate in ways we can only imagine.

Thanks to Wade Davis for this and to TEDBlog for posting it.