Learning to exercise your imagination can be a powerful way to access information that might not be normallyavailable to you. You can use this information to stimulate new ideas or solve problems at work or at home. It takes a few tries before to get the feel of these imaginary journeys so make this first one just for fun.

Start your journey into imagination at your desk or workplace. See yourself standing up, walking away … leaving on your imaginary trip. You’re going out of town. As you approach the city’s edge, imagine how the traffic and buildings thin. You don’t stop there though. Keep going farther and farther into the countryside. You pass through towns along the way--each one smaller than the one before. Finally, the road narrows and becomes a simple, rough, dirt road.

After a time, all you can see are vague wheel tracks across a grassy plain. Follow the tracks and notice that you are approaching a vast forest. It goes to the right and to the left as far as you can see. Just as you reach the forest, there is a small turn around where you can stop. A path leads from the turn around into the depths of the forest. Take the path and notice what you see, hear, and feel as you walk along. Twigs and leaves crunch beneath your feet. You stumble on the rocks of a dry creek bed as you cross. You might see deer, birds, rabbits, or other animals. The breeze sighs as leaves swirl round you. Along the way, you notice other paths. These might be fun to explore another time. Walk deeper and deeper into the forest.

Finally, you enter a grove of very large trees--much larger than any before. But, these trees are odd. Each one has a door. Some of the doors are small and some quite large. Some are high in the tree and some quite low. Some are so small you could only look through them. Others, you could enter. On this trip, open and look inside three of the small doors. What do you see there?

Whatever you see is unique to you. Don’t worry about what you find. The goal today is just to notice what you find. Then, retrace your steps, all the way back to the workplace, but with the images from behind the doors in mind.

Do this imaginary journey again with soft background music. Any kind of music may change what you see along the trip--especially in the forest. Changing the type of music--should be relaxing music though (I like Pachelbel)--will likely change your experience along the way.

Don’t feel too weird doing this. I’ve been doing something like it my whole career. You’re doing just what Einstein did to solve his tough problems--except he’d go to an imaginary carnival. You’ll find lots of places to go as you practice more.

What did you find in the forest? What was behind the doors? What “meanings” came to mind. If you adventured down any of the other paths, what did you find there?

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Mike Munn, Ph.D. Astrophysics Retired Lockheed Missile Defense Chief Scientist, Astronautics Division Research Chair. Mike can be reached at kuti@theriver.com

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