The first pages from my new book titled “Imagination”; a journey through the power of your mind…
Chapter 1
Childbirth
Thump thump, thump thump, thump thump. Thump, okay I’m awake! What is that awful taste? My mouth feels like a sewer. God help me if she’s smoking again.
It’s so hard to wake up after an “Oh one more chardonnay won’t hurt evening” How much longer do we have. This jello home is cold, then hot. All the bouncing around has me regurgitating in an amniotic cesspool.
Why won’t my eyes open? This is not a mother’s tender womb, with classical music or the soft voice of a pleasantly read story. It’s a ride at the fair that never ends. Please let’s just go back to sleep. Clickety, click, click, click, clickety. Mother of God, here we go with the keyboard clicks. Please turn off the torturing noise.
Ah nap time finally. Squish, squish, ouch, oh, squish, ahh. Time for sleep, please. Finally, I can rest. I’m dreaming now. What happens next, is this forever? I can see the lights and hear the sounds. There is something out there. I must see it; this is too unbearable. Please let’s sleep now, quiet peaceful sleep.
I am startled by a crash and loud noises. Oh my God, what is happening. Someone is screaming. The pressure, what is this pressure? Stop it stop it please. Stop screaming. Am I going to die? I can’t breathe. I hear the car noise, loud talking. I want to open my eyes, but I cannot. This is not like the other times with the loud music and jumping around. This is different. I’m scared. Let’s go back, drink, smoke dance, but please not this. This is unbearable.
Okay it stopped, now what. It’s quiet. We are moving smoothly now, rolling. The noise is gone. She is up, now we are in bed, yes, in bed. Oh God please let’s go back to sleep now. Breathing, breathing, what’s with the breathing. “Breathe, Breathe.” I’m breathing, make it stop” The voices are yelling loudly. Thump, thump, thump, thump, its beating so fast. Breathing again, the pressure is too much, the beating, it’s too much, please stop!
The pressure was too great. I have passed out; I must be dead. Nothing left, no sound, no beating.
The light, I can still see the light. It’s very bright, I’m not dead. God I’m cold, really cold.
Who is touching me? Hands, fingers, ugh, in my mouth. Now I’m definitely dead. Take me home God, take me home. Whack! Whack __gasping now, the pain is sharp. I’m gulping for air; I need to breathe.
What is that noise. I’m making a horrible noise in my mouth. Something has happened. I’m warm again. The beating and breathing and loud noises have stopped. I open my eyes. I have eyes, they see things beyond the bright light. It’s my mother, I know her voice. So soothing, so warm is her touch. Her warm soft body.
Ah that feels so good. My legs are warm and wet, it feels so good. Someone yells, “He is peeing on the blanket!” “It’s okay, my baby, my beautiful baby. So beautiful”. She holds me against her soft warm chest. I am wide awake now, and all I can think about is being hungry.
Chapter 2
Imagination
Imagination is the most power tool your brain can facilitate. It reaches into your soul and connects to all cognitive synapses and scans every memory in a fraction of a nanosecond. Every sound, color, shape, and texture are brought to the imagined scene. The sensations you felt in the past, and others never felt before, are manifested in an imagined thought that you create.
Your thoughts reach beyond the ethereal caverns in your brain and create involuntary physical and psychological reactions in the physical plane of your existence. Imagined fear brings shivers and tears as the breath of life is taken from your control. Your heart quickens its pace as you add scene upon scene of imagined terror.
Sleeping on your soft pillow safely from harm, you dream of lovers you have known and those you now imagine. You smell their scent, hear their whispers, and feel their body. It’s warmth and smooth touch reacts with your body. The imagined love and conjured sensations arouse your body with pleasing physical satisfaction.
Gliding across clouds suspended by a taunt nylon chute, speeding through blue waters, sliding down sea waves, your imagination can take you instantly anywhere in this world or beyond. The imagined images of physical pursuits create new thoughts. Your life is altered by mere thoughts as you plan the satisfaction of newly imagined desires.
The Power of Positive Thinking and Imaging (Peale)), has shown that to imagine or think of a path or result, is the initiating step toward accomplishing the desired outcome. Imagining a thing, or place, or activity, is a mandatory prerequisite to achieving the goal.
The centuries old phrase “Let me think it through” is a trigger to the brain as it calls upon your imagination. The surgeon reaches into your body, simultaneously imagining the shape and size of the organ or anomaly she is searching for. The Architect sees his design well before his pen gives it dimensions. The power of imagination is without limits or measure.
Imagination can be linear, or multi-dimensional. It can be passive or active, fast or slow; animated or in exacting realistic detail. The speed of thought is incalculable yet open to simultaneous editing as our thoughts roll into and out of each creation.
The complex weaving of words from the author’s pen draws upon an infinite host of available possibilities. The songs and sonnets from artists past and present, use imagination as the underlying medium for their creations. Even the scripted craftsmen, chefs, and followers of well-worn and proven instructions, cannot escape the power of their own imagination. Their tweaks and cuts, deletions and additions, give birth to innovation.
The world’s explorers sailed into unknown waters, driven by their imagined thoughts of a better life, or riches, or relief from oppression. All these things were achieved by the pursuit of an imagined destination. Without the imagination of explorers, scientists, artists, philosophers, and sovereign leaders, the world would be different today.
The scientific corollary of the conservation of momentum, and the accepted notion that every action generates a reaction, does not exclude imagined thought from its basis.
The often-used phrase “Stay Positive” has proven to be a medical remedy for even the deadliest of ailments. Our thoughts can affect our psychological status. They can change the way we think or react and feel at any point in time. The dying patient is evaluated as alive, because “He or she is a “Fighter”.
We have seen the predicted outcomes change for patients that implement positive thought as a remedy to illnesses.
Children who watch scary movies can experience physical reactions as a result of their imagined fear.
Sleeplessness, crying, convulsing and altered respiratory response is not a uncommon response.
Modern thought lends support to the notion that persistent exposure to harmful living conditions or debasing psychological assault, can negatively alter the future behavior of people. The connection between human psychological and physio-chemical functions of our bodies is inextricable.
Physical trauma can cause lasting damage to our psyche. Conversely, psychological trauma can manifest its effects in the physical and mechanical operation of our bodily functions. Many cases supporting the complexity and interaction of our psycho-physical relationship, validate the power of imagined thought.
I have no doubt that the evangelist Billy Graham drew upon powerful positive visions as he prepared his missions and deliveries to his followers. Thoughts became words, words became motivators that precipitated positive behavior for those that accepted the messages.
Our eyes are a portal to our soul. The soul is the vessel of our imagination. A child sees a Santa Claus in the mall and “Thoughts of sugar plums dance in their head”. We see real time physical scenes and our thoughts uncontrollably jump to visons related to the images our eyes communicate to our mind. A beautiful woman, a delectable dessert, or sizzling steak give immediate rise to involuntary thoughts and emotions.
Scientists have discovered and documented the chemical reactions and micro-electrical responses that are caused by physical inputs as well as psychological inputs to the brain. The brain is a functioning organ, and like others in our body, they have a prescribed role in our existence. Our five senses connect to the brain with conductive mediums of chemical and electrical impulses that are analyzed in the well-defined cortexes of gray matter in our protective skull.
A motor has the ability to produce work and action. The various applications of a motor create an endless list of uses that we employ in our daily lives. Our humanity presents the endless tasks that we solve with our use of the tools created by our ingenuity.
Is it the brain that produces the thoughts and images in our mind’s eyes and ears? Certainly, the brain has a function, like that of the motor. But the undefined and immeasurable energy that runs our continuous stream of thoughts is more overarching and penetrating than the blood and neurons that transfer data to and from our senses to the brain.
Chemical and electrical impulses have constraints and impedances that definably slow their conductivity toward a result. Our imagination is prescient and instantaneous. It is not burdened by prejudice or learned behavior. We can as quickly have bad thoughts as good. We can attempt to force our thoughts, but as quick as we say diet, we think and desire calories from the inappropriate and forbidden items.
As our hearts break with wrenching emotion from the loss of a loved one, or the breaking of a loving relationship, we try to dodge the grieving without success. Our brain and our bodies respond in a predictable manner. Is it our soul, our life’s energy cloud, that takes over and leads us in and out of depression and manic thought? This uncontainable mass of energy joins our body at birth and leaves it at death. This weightless jelly of the cosmos brings the fuel to our soul and it’s ever-growing inventory of thoughts.
Chapter 3
Love at First Sight
I turned the corner and saw at once how beautiful she was. Tall for woman, but ravishing and attractive beyond my restraint. Without even the first returned glance or introduction, it was if I knew her and all her history as I sized up our life together. I felt as though I knew her thoughts and anticipated her positive response to my amorous intentions. The lusting for love and the satisfaction of knowing and owning this woman’s thoughts was instantly as clear in my mind, as the completion of a lifelong quest. It was love at first sight.
Blessed are the throws of emotion when our hearts desire the bonding with another soul. Love is a powerful emotion and may be among the strongest. We know that the endorphins released in a loving bond are an elixir sweeter than any other. The object of your affection may well be the physical by-product of your imagination. At the least it is the well for sustained joy and satisfaction in our daily existence.
Young lovers embracing for the first time, communicate their desire with the touch of their lips in a first kiss. They set in motion the painting of a canvas for a life imagined together. Their physical wellbeing is at once enhanced by the bond they create. The mind’s eye persistently sees the pleasant image of their lover and life partner. Even a brief and transient separation, stimulates the brain with a psycho-physical longing for the next reunion.
Our imagination can take us back to decades old memories with all the detail, splendor, pain, or suffering that existed at the time. We can soar into the future or simply to the next day with our thoughts and longings. Any person, geography, or complex perspective comes to life in our mind as we travel through the past or the future in our imagination.
We shudder at the imagined demise or injury to a loved one. For no apparent reason our mind can instantly shift into a troubling and terrifying vision of tragedy. Our nightmares are a theater for our imagination. Our dreams can also be as pleasant as a stimulating bodily embrace. We can retire with wringing hands and disturbed thoughts, or just as well with pleasant feelings of love and longing for our soulmate. The pillow is the marque and order form for our nocturnal thoughts.
The first kiss, the happy faces at a wedding, or a child’s birthday party, can be forever etched in the brain’s memory cells. It is the imagination that is the operating system that calls up the memory and assigns it a purpose for the moment at hand. The will to suppress or recall a memory, or to create a new scene with all the trimmings is all within the scope of our power of imagination.
Chapter 5
The Scientific Mind
Chapter 6
The Soul of an Artist
Chapter 7
Maslow’s Hierarchy to Self-Actualization
Chapter 8
Seven planes of Existence
Chapter 9
Artificial Intelligence
Chapter 10
In the end
