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ARS VIVENDI (ART OF LIVING) |
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CHAPTER 8: IMAGINATION THE ARTIST IMAGINATION -- derived from the Latin word imago, a picture, figure, material representation or likeness of anything -- means the power of the mind to form images. Imagination, therefore, is a creative power which is constantly exercised more or less by every individual. If the imagination is strong and rich, we have the artist -- the man who creates new forms, whether as poet, musician, painter, sculptor, writer, or orator. Good poetry always produces a clear and distinct image in the mind of the reader, not a vague, misty, undefined thought; whilst the sculptor and the painter must first form an image of beauty in their minds before they can succeed in fixing it on the marble or the canvas. What constitutes the difference between the easy, commonplace speaking of the "gift of the gab" and the heart-stirring eloquence of the great orator? Imagination. Emerson expresses this fact in a very lucid manner. "The moment our discourse rises above the ground-line of familiar facts, and is inflamed with passion or exalted by thought, it clothes itself in images. A man conversing in earnest, if he watch his intellectual processes, will find that a material image, more or less luminous, arises in his mind contemporaneous with every thought, which furnishes the vestment of the thought. Hence, good writing and brilliant discourse are perpetual allegories. This imagery is spontaneous. It is the blending of experience with the present action of the mind. It is proper creation. It is the working of the original cause through the instruments he has already made. The poet, the orator, bred in the woods, whose senses have been nourished by the fair and appeasing changes of a country life, shall not lose their lesson altogether in the roar of cities or the broil of politics. At the call of a noble sentiment, again the woods wave, the pines murmur, the river rolls and shines, and the cattle low upon the mountains, as he saw and heard them in his infancy. And with these forms, the spells of persuasion, the keys of power, are put in the orator's hands." EFFECTS OF CONCENTRATED IMAGINATION Insanity, in an immense number of cases, is caused by the creative power of the imagination forming images of such distinctness that they become as clearly visible to the person affected as the sight of flesh and blood. It is precisely the same power as that of the poet -- a fact expressed in the common saying that great genius and madness are near allied. An Indian fakir can cause spectators to see lions, tigers, elephants, etc., emerge from a tent and furiously attack each other. By long practice of concentration the fakir attains such a degree of perfection in the exercise of the image-making power of the imagination that, through the operation of another law -- telepathy, or the transmission of an image from the mental sphere of one person to that of others -- the spectators around are made to see as an external reality the imaginative creation of the fakir. A knowledge of this law will completely revolutionise the treatment of insanity, for the cure of which there must be the trained will and the vivid imagination of a vigorous mind, which knows the cause of the mental derangement and the means of curing it -- dissipating the images formed by the imagination of the patient. The explanation of Magic, Sorcery, Witchcraft, Second Sight, Apparitions, and Ghosts is to be found in the Imagination. By this I do not mean a vague, shadowy, indefinable something, but the Creative Power of forming images in the mental sphere. All the Greatness of Man can be ascribed to Faith, Will, and Imagination. A most philosophical explanation of the imagination is given in Mrs. Crowe's "Night Side of Nature," a book which is often regarded as a mere collection of ghost stories, but which contains sound theories, and will amply repay perusal by the student of health. "By imagination," she says, "I do not simply convey the common notion implied by that much-abused word, which is only fancy, but the constructive imagination, which is a much higher function, and which, inasmuch as man is made in the likeness of God, bears a distant relation to that sublime power by which the Creator projects, creates, and upholds His Universe." Spirit or Thought has the power of constructing a visible form out of the surrounding ether. This form will vary in distinctness, according to certain fixed laws, from a mere shadowy image to a likeness so real, solid, and life-like that it cannot be distinguished from the living person "in his habit as he lived." However distinct this form may be, it must be an "ethereal," not a "material" body, held together by the power of the will (either of the seer himself or of another who acts from a distance), which, being the highest force in Nature, can resist any other force, and overcome all obstacles. It may appear that the above is a slight digression from the main purpose of this book, which aims at teaching the art of living and acquiring mental and bodily vigour. But, on reflection, it will be seen that health is the due balancing of all the various forces concerned in life. Ill-health is very often entirely caused by the creative power of the imagination, and as knowledge of a disease is half its cure, the mere pointing out this important fact, and revealing the enormous power of the imagination for good and for evil, will throw light on many a morbid condition. It is not enough to attend to the physical side of health. Proper diet, strict moderation in eating and drinking, regular habits, are excellent in their way, but for real health much more is requisite. And even should the individual be in splendid physical condition, knowledge of the wonders of the creative power of the imagination will mean an incalculable increase of practical power. By creating an "ideal" within our mental sphere we can approximate ourselves to this "Ideal Image," till we become one and the same with it -- veritably transforming ourselves into it, or, rather, absorbing its excellence into the very core of our being. STIGMATA As an example of the direct -- not indirect -- effect of the imagination in impressing the body in a certain way, let us take the undoubted facts of what are called "stigmata" -- marks of the Cross, or bloody spots on various parts of the body, as if nails had been driven into the flesh. The sceptical eighteenth century treated them with derision as myths, and Voltaire found the pious Catholic stories excellent fun; whilst the scientific nineteenth century, up till very lately, adduced most elaborate arguments to show that these "miracles," like the rest, were impossible. The Church regarded them as "supernatural." Both parties were equally far from the truth. Stigmata were neither impossible nor supernatural. On the one hand, they were not impossible, inasmuch as they actually took place; on the other hand, they were not supernatural, inasmuch as they are within the domain of cause and effect. They are merely the "signs" -- the Greek word, semeion being much more suggestive of the true explanation than the Latin word miraculum -- of the power of a concentrated imaginationm sustained by a will fixed upon one idea. The circulation of the blood is under the control of the nervous system; wherever there is a blood-vessel there is a nerve controlling it. Now, the medium of communication between mind and body is the nervous system. Mental emotion at once affects the nervous system, which, in its turn, affects the circulatory system. A nun, let us say, has her imagination powerfully impressed with the "signs of the Passion." She is devout, and her will is fixed. The whole mind is, in consequence, bent upon one object -- contemplation of the image of the Cross. As this image becomes more and more vivid in her mental sphere, so is the nervous system impressed, and consequently the circulatory system, so that eventually there will appear in actual blood the signs of what had existed in imagination long before. If the morbid idea is overwhelmingly strong, its effect is instantaneous, as has happened in well-authenticated instances of persons dying under the delusion of their being put to death. CURES BY IMAGINATION JUST AS A MORBID IDEA WILL EVENTUALLY BRING ABOUT A MORBID STATE OF BODY. SO A HEALTHY IDEA WILL BRING ABOUT A HEALTHY STATE OF BODY. The indispensable condition is that the imagination be powerfully impressed and the will firmly fixed. A person trying an experiment, and endeavouring to make believe that such a thing is possible, will of course fail, just as he will fail if he tries to show the effect of mental emotion on the heart by pretending to be afraid. Immediately, however, he feels the emotion of terror, the heart shows the effect. Paralysis, ague, nervous affections, etc., have been instantaneously cured by the imagination. In fact, it can safely be said that the force of the healthy imagination is even more powerful in healing, strengthening, and ennobling man than the diseased imagination is in weakening, debasing, and enthralling him in the bonds of pain, misery, and disease. In one sense the world of imagination is the only real world, the exterior world being so acted upon by the inner that it is to all intents and purposes a field for the play of imagination. The storm raging without is nothing if there is peace within, while exterior calm is unheeded if a storm is raging within. It is in the power of man to be the sole autocrat in this interior realm. He may rule with absolute sway over the creations of his imagination. To the individual of unclouded reason and disciplined will alone does the imagination assign the promised land of splendid physical health and intellectual vigour.
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