Date: 11/10/2000 2:49:16 PM Eastern Standard Time

IMAGINATION QUESTIONNAIRE
 

This questionnaire was developed by Diana Douglas, M.Ed , author of How To Bring Angels To Earth and Angel Playtime; and co-author of Always Becoming – Forever! A Journal of Conscious Living/Conscious Dying.

This questionnaire is part of my process of exploring the imagination deeply. I intend to write and publish a book that will be clear, simple, and useful for many people. All information taken from this questionnaire will be confidential.

Male___ Female  X  Age  58   Occupation(s) artist, writer, group facilitator

How do you identify yourself? (this may be other than how you earn a living)

I am a creatively-disabled activist crone.

1. What do you think the imagination is? or How do you define imagination?

Imagination is the creative flame that warms and sparks our inner lives. It prods us into unknown and unknowable adventures of the mind, soarings of the spirit, and the exciting embodiment of ideas.

1a. Did you have any images as you gave me this definition?

I saw a flame radiating red against the walls of a darkened circular cave.

2. Have you used your imagination today?

 Yes.

When? How?

I keep a daily online journal on my web site (www.windchimewalker.com). As often happens, writing my journal entry today took me places I did not expect to go. While discussing my feelings about the yet-undetermined results of the US Presidential election, I found myself within the mind and heart of a woman in Iraq. What is she thinking/feeling as she waits to hear who will be the next president of my country? I felt her terror mixed with unreasoning hope that the bombings might cease and the sanctions lifted if a sympathetic man could win the recount in Florida. Only my imagination could have taken me there.
 

3. On a scale of one to seven, with seven being often, how much do you use your imagination?

Seven

4. How do you feel about your imagination?

It is the single most defining part of my being. It is through that door that not only my art and writing flow, but my political activism as well. Without imagining a better, more just world, my activism would be meaningless. Even when I write my daily journal, imagination comes into play. My five senses come alive as I imagine their interweavings and connections. For instance, I see a lone gull flying overhead. That sight may trigger memories of my childhood on the Chesapeake Bay, or take me into the realm of one of my delicious flying dreams. Reality serves as a springboard, catapulting me into surprising places painted by my imagination.
 

5. If there is a difference, what is the difference between imagination and creativity?

Imagination is the match; creativity, the flame. Creativity without imagination becomes predictable and trite. It is the difference between an artist trying to copy a sunset, and endeavoring to express it. Imagination asks: How do I feel about this sunset? What does it enliven in me? How can I capture a hint of what is happening in my own heart/mind/spirit as I see its beauty? Imagination is the path; creativity, the destination.
 

6. Do you see yourself as an imaginative person? Why?

How could I be anything but imaginative? Everything that happens in my life has meaning. That meaning does not come from facts or figures, it comes from the creative context in which I experience things. And that creative context is informed by my imagination. I cannot imagine a life narrowly confined to what I see/taste/touch/smell/hear. Or a life that can be explained by numbers, facts or proven hypotheses. It would be dry as dust.
 

7. Do you see yourself as a creative person? Why?

I am creative at my core. After all, this is the former little girl who spent her elementary school years hearing, “Patsy, would you please stop daydreaming in class?” My creativity has come out in everything I’ve done in life: my early work as an MSW social worker, my decision to go back to school in Fine Art, my years of giving spiritual retreats based on art and ritual, the 30 years I’ve spent working with children, my political/social/peace activist drawings that were published all over the world, and today’s web work that touches an average of 120 people a day. Without creativity, I would not be who I am.
 

8. Please give examples of how you use your imagination in different situations.

I don’t know how could I tolerate my progressing disability with MS, if I had no imagination! All I would see would be loss and diminishment. As it is, I experience my disability as one of the most creative aspects of my life. Without its wisdom, I might still be scurrying along, all but oblivious to the richness surrounding me. Without the creative challenges of living in this differently-abled body, would I have
chosen to put up my web site, started keeping an online journal, and met so many amazing people from all over the world? I doubt it. It was my imagination that kicked in when I took my first computer class a little more than two years ago–-my imagination that said, “Use this tool to reach out to others and show them all you’ve learned about how to be creatively disabled.” It was my imagination that saw my site up and running before I had even heard of HTML. And it was that seeing that walked me through all that I needed to teach myself in order to manifest the dream.

In 1995 I dared to imagine a different life for myself, one that would have me living the winter months on my own in San Francisco, and the rest of the year here at home in Detroit with my husband of almost 30 years. Everything realistic pointed to the impossibility of this dream, but I didn’t let that stop me. For 11 months, I continued to see myself living as I dreamed, and did everything I could to help create that reality. I worked in a bookstore and saved every paycheck to be used for my SF expenses. I contacted acquaintances in the Bay Area, described my ideal living arrangement and asked their help in finding it. Every day I repeated my intention out loud to my husband who could not believe I was serious. This year, I will spend my fifth winter in San Francisco. It has worked out even better than I could have imagined. Architect friends in the Mission District have transformed their old shed into a tiny garden cottage that I rent whenever I’m in town. I’ve developed an extraordinary life out there with loving community, creative opportunities like singing (a love of mine) and even a life-giving commitment at a city soup kitchen. My husband and I are closer now than ever before, while each of us is more complete as an
individual. My imagination led me down this adventuresome path, while every step has been supported by my conscious intention.
 

9. Where do you think the imagination comes from?

I believe it is an innate quality of humanness that exists within every person. In some it seems to be more readily accessible than others. However, each individual must consciously choose to use her/his imagination. As adults, we are asked to rediscover this jewel that was our childhood playmate, to value and hold it up to the light of personal awareness. It often reappears when our “normal” lives seem to be falling apart, almost as though it’s been waiting for a crack in the shell of our consciousness to be seen. As with any muscle, imagination grows in strength and endurance the more it is exercised.
 

10. Have you had experiences " beyond your imagination."

Yes. During times of crisis, I have entered into the “beingness” of other persons, knowing from the inside what was happening to them and how they were feeling/seeing things at that time. This has happened with persons both living and dead.

During the Gulf War, I was thrown into a profound awareness of what life was like for the people of Iraq...the bombings, the deaths, the terror, the despair. I stayed secluded in an upstairs room of my house for almost 3 weeks, with my respectful husband protecting my need to be alone and undisturbed. I lived on Iraqi time, and was surprised to find myself creating a series of 17 pen and ink drawings that
became the basis for my new line of work (after the war) called Word Art. In March 1991, I visited a friend in the country. I remember going up to my room at midnight and, for the first time since bombs started dropping on Baghdad, I changed my watch from Iraqi time to Eastern Standard Time. I slept soundly for an uncharacteristic 12 hours. When I came downstairs at noon, my friend told me the Gulf War cease fire had been announced at midnight the night before.

My father had Alzheimers disease for 9 years. By 1987, he was in a VA Hospital, unable to communicate, curled in a fetal position, but not close to death, as far as we knew. One morning I had a vivid dream in which the phone rang, waking us up. My husband answered it and said, “It’s for you.” I took the phone and asked, “Who is this?” A woman’s voice said, through tears, “This is Frances.” “What’s wrong?” "Father’s died.” In my dream I thought she was talking about a priest I knew. Soon after awakening, I received a call from my mother that my father had unexpectedly died that morning.
 

11. Are there limits to the imagination?

In terms of the imagination’s capacity to create new realities and effect change, I believe there are no limits. In fact, imagination–-used with conscious intent-–can be a most effective tool in creating the realities we want. Imagination coupled with spirit is the most powerful force possessed by humans. And beyond humanity, there is reason to believe that each element in the universe has powers–-whether called imagination, will, or molecular magnetic connections–-that effect change. We know so little.
 

11a How do we as humans limit the imagination.

The imagination’s only limits are placed there by unbelieving individuals and cultures.  Indigenous cultures, for instance, do not even differentiate imagination from reality; they are one and the same. Whereas industrial cultures–-particularly those in the Western hemisphere–-place reality way above imagination in importance and value. In schools, classes that promote imagination-–like art, music, drama, dance, creative writing–-are always the first to be cut from the curriculum when budgets are tight. Often imaginative children encounter such negative comments as “You’re just making that up”, or “Can’t you get your head out of the clouds.” Success in Western culture is defined by income, and except for a small percentage of superstars, imaginative pursuits are at the low end of the pay scale. Only recently has there been an upsurge in interest in what is called right brain orientation and activities. It is up to those of us who recognize and use our imaginative capacities to encourage others to do so, individually and as a society.
 

12. Name some people who you feel are imaginative (living or dead, famous or not). Why are they imaginative?

Carolyn McDade–a singer/songwriter from Cape Cod in Massachusetts, whose main purpose is to help bring about cultural transformation with her music. Her focus is women, justice and the earth. The tools she favors are circle singing weekends where song and social issues are interwoven into change-producing lived experiences, and CDs that are made in collaboration with communities of committed women. Carolyn imagines the world-as-it-is-coming-to-be in her music, often singing the voices of the planet so we can hear them from the inside.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa-–His imaginative vision of the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, a gathering of former enemies who were expected to tell the truth with no fear of retribution, is one of the most inspired visions of our times. No one could have imagined it would not lead to more bloodshed, but his faith in the importance of simply telling things as they are/were has allowed South Africa to move closer to a formerly impossible-to-imagine goal of reconciliation between the whites and the blacks. His daring imagination is transforming his country.
 

13. If sometime soon you let yourself be totally imaginative, no limits, what would this look like?

My life would flow without unnecessary anxiety and effort. I would always-–not just sometimes--hold true to the belief that “Whatever I see will come to be” (quoted from a story I wrote and later put up on my web site). Imagination and reality would merge into a seamless whole. Every action I performed would come out of my deepest truth and wisdom. My life and vision would change the world for the better. There would still be sadness, frustration, challenge and obstacles but they would not deter me on the path my imagination set forth for me to follow.
 

14. Please recommend books, web sites etc. or share quotes about the imagination.

The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron

http://www.windchimewalker.com
http://www.gis.net/~surtsey/mcdade
http://www.artashealing.org
 

15. How do you feel about the questionnaire? Did you become aware or learn anything about the imagination through answering the questionnaire?

I found myself growing ever stronger in my belief in the powers of the imagination as I remembered my own life-changing experiences and articulated what imagination means to me. It is a well formulated questionnaire. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to reflect on these questions.
 

16. Additional comments:

I’m assuming if you quote me directly you would give my name with attribution. Best wishes with your project.

Patricia Lay-Dorsey
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