Imagination - the power of the mind to form a mental image or concept of something that is not real or present.

Materialism - the philosophical theory that physical matter in its movements and modifications is the only reality and that everything in the universe, including thought, feeling, mind, and will, can be explained in terms of physical laws.

I was a bit surprised to find that the dictionary definition for imagination was so specificly nonphysical and used the phrase “not real” - I had suspected, but I had never given it much direct consideration.  It’s an interesting mindset which brings us this definition, a mindset which clearly draws a line between the manifest (what our senses can detect) and everything else.  I was, however, REALLY surprised when, on impulse, I looked up the definition of materialism.  The way I’ve usually heard it used, the rather nonspiritual or singular desire for material goods, was actually definition number four, and the philosophy that physicality was the only reality, was first.  What an eye opener!  So on the one hand you’ve got imagination, and on the other, you’ve got materialism.  Connecting this duality is a unity called conscious creation - imagination flowing into material manifestation.  But how to get there and how to knit it together in our minds?

First, there’s a difference between awareness and focus when we’re talking about deliberate, conscious creation.  For instance, I can be AWARE of the kitchen I’m sitting in while being almost exclusively FOCUSED on the silvery shininess of the fork in my hand.  In the same way, we can be focused in physical reality, while being aware of the non-physical as well.  My point in making this distinction is that we do get what we focus on, but as many times as I use the word “focus”, it actually means something unique to each of us.

For instance, can you explain HOW you focus?  What does it feel like?  When you’re focusing on something physical, you turn your senses toward it, you see it, listen to it, feel it, smell it, even taste it.  But can you not also see, listen, feel, smell, and taste something without really focusing on the experience?  Certainly!  In this case, you’re aware of the physical input, but you’re focusing on something else - perhaps an event from earlier in the day, or the gift you want to get for a friend, or about how much fun it would be to sail on a triple masted schooner.

When you’re not focused on the physical (or through the physical senses), you’re using your imagination.  Imagination isn’t just dreaming about the bicycle you want for your birthday, or visualizing yourself fighting an evil wizard with a magic sword.  If it’s not physical, it’s imagination.  In this way, telepathy, remote viewing, clairvoyance and other ‘psychic powers’ are all imagination.  Years ago, when I had my first hypnosis (past life regression) session with an intuitive counselor, I had no idea what I was going to experience.  During the entire session, I felt like I was just making things up and describing them as they came to me, like I always had.  Mom always said I had quite the imagination.  I guess I had somehow expected hypnosis and past life recall to be something more amazing and specific, and spent a great deal of energy in the session trying not to get in my own way.  “This isn’t real, you’re just making this up - how do you know if you were really a Roman soldier or just imagining it?”  Good question!  WAS there a difference?

Back to the focusing part.  “You get what you focus on, so don’t focus on what you don’t want.”  Easy enough to say, but inevitably the question comes up on whether or not you’re stepping over “those who are suffering” because it’s not what you want to create.  Again, there’s a difference between being aware of something and focusing on it.  What’s the difference?  Emotional attachment.  If you’re emotionally attached to those who are suffering, you are focusing on suffering and creating more of it.  Your feelings are an excellent flag to let you know what you are really focusing on.  Feeling joy? Feeling pain?  Of course, the way this can all work is that you can be AWARE of suffering, yet not be FOCUSING on it.  You can physically sense the suffering and assess the situation, and yet be focusing on creating a different situation altogether.  You can be AWARE of the emotional pain being experienced by others and not be FOCUSING on that either.

So what are you then focusing on?  The situation that you WANT to create - and that’s using the imagination.  Be aware of the child with the skinned knee, hear them cry, comfort them, and focus on them as whole, happy and healthy.  IMAGINE the child smiling and healing quickly and feeling fine and then follow your impulses.  You are not denying that they are suffering, you are simply choosing a different probability to experience in the next moment.  Are you feeling joyous while the child is crying?  Excellent!  Your feelings are telling you that you are focused on wholeness and joy.  Are you feeling guilty because you are feeling joyous when this child is crying?  Let it go - sharing the suffering of others is just another way of focusing on it and spreading it around.  Are you feeling the suffering of others and identifying with it by feeling the same thing?  Then you are focusing on the suffering, even if you are fighting against it.

If you’ve ever wondered how you can possibly focus on creating what you want while others seem to be suffering, you’re experiencing this duality.  The internal struggle here is that you want to focus on what brings you joy, but you don’t want to turn your back on what is, and the duality says its either one or the other.  This very theme is the cause of much discussion on various email lists that deal with reality creation ideas.

Why is this point so important to me personally?  In my journey to understand how to create the financial situation I want, I have been learning about my self in an area where I was by and large, very ignorant - my imagination.  With money, I had dismissed my imagination and focused almost exclusively on physical reality, on what was already created, on what was supposed to be REAL.  And I tried, over and over again how to manipulate what WAS into what I wanted it to be.  I tried to focus on what I wanted, all the while I was emotionally attached to what I did NOT want.  At the same time, I was AWARE of what I wanted, I IMAGINED it all the time - yet I did not FEEL it.  What I felt was physical reality and my perpetual REACTION to it.  My feelings were showing me where I was focused, but I didn’t understand where to go from there.

I don’t know when I started to get clearer about what I was doing.  I think a big part was remembering other creations that came easy to me.  I’d always thought of the state of mind as “being in my head” - that is, I felt what my imagination was telling me, and I walked through each moment in physical reality without attachment, without judgment, without thinking much about it at all.  For instance, I was AWARE of physical reality, but didn’t identify with anything that wasn’t something I resonated with.  I experienced my own emotions, but let them flow and go, and didn’t connect them with any particular situation.  I was definitely in my own little world.

I know I learned that this approach was “WRONG” because I was somehow disconnected or detached from “reality” - and I believed it too!  Truth is, I was never really disconnected, I was just hooked up to nonphysical reality at the same time, and that wasn’t acceptable.  I tried to shut off that part of me and deal with “reality” the way I was supposed to, but it didn’t always work, or in some areas it worked too well.  <grin>

I feel like the case of the duality of imagination and materialism, or “reality” and “make believe”, for me, has finally been uncovered for the illusion that it is.  The unifying truth?  It’s ALL REAL. It’s all ME.  I am that which is physical AND that which is nonphysical.  I don’t need to choose one or the other.  And I get to reconnect all the plugs and make my imagination and my physical expression work in concert again, to create some really cool situations.

I’d like to try to share with you what this “new” frame of mind feels like.  For instance, when I wonder about having enough money to buy something I need, I can actually FEEL my focus stretching out into physical reality, instead of being inside ME.  At that point, I stop stretching out to grasp at solutions, to see what can be done about it, or if anything else might be happening.  I stop LOOKING in physical reality for the answers.  I look inside.  I let physical reality be what it is and let it move around me without needing to interfere on that level. At the same time, I am tuning in on images and imaginings of the probability that feels the most joyous, that makes me feel happy, that makes me smile as I stare off into "empty space."

What I’m remembering is that *I* am the creator of my reality.  Physical reality reflects me.  I’m remembering that trying to change an image or illusion in a mirror is really pointless and I’m going back to the source.  I am the one in charge of my own focus.  And I am not only physical, but nonphysical as well, and it’s all tied together.

I’d say that I’m coming back to myself, but that little phrase really can’t emcompass the “AH-HAH!” understanding I have about this now.  It’s a sense of peace, it’s a sense of power, it’s a sense of knowing how my own inner mechanisms really work.  The wall between worlds has crumbled, and the energy is now flowing freely between them again.

I think I’m onto something here.  <grin>

©2000, Kristen Fox. Printed in the February-March 2000 Issue of the online Conscious Creation Journal. http://www.consciouscreation.com/ (Feel free to duplicate this column for personal use - please include this copyright notice.)