IMAGINATION
Reproducing Perception Imaginatively
This technique involves consciously reproducing any sensory perception (smell, sight, memory) in your imagination without the physical presence of the…
Step by step
- Choose a sensory perception (e.g., the fragrance of a rose, the sight of a room, the memory of an experience).
- Without the physical object or situation present, consciously reproduce that perception in your imagination.
- Engage your senses fully in this imaginative act, making it as real as possible.
Related ideas
PerceptionFancyImaginationSensory Experience
Perception
This technique involves consciously reproducing any sensory perception (smell, sight, memory) in your imagination without the physical presence of the object. By doing so, you demonstrate that the perceived world is imaginative and dependent on your consciousness.
There is nothing that appears in perception which cannot be duplicated in fancy, and what the world perceives is all imaginative in character. Now smell is a chemical sense and depends upon contact for perception. But does one really need a rose to detect its fragrance? Cannot its fragrance be reproduced imaginatively? Having smelled an Easter lily, can you not discriminate between the smell of a rose and a lily, imaginatively? Then they do not exist independent of you, but live on some level (or levels) of your imagination! Can you call upon your memory of an experience of long ago, bring it back, and duplicate it in fancy? If so, then this world is no different from your imaginal one!
Neville teaches that since all perception can be duplicated in imagination, the outer world is fundamentally imaginative. This practice proves that objects and experiences exist within one's imagination, not independently, thereby establishing imagination as the creator of reality.