Our Mind's Eye and Our Other Eyes

Today the sky is overcast, the trees have golden yellow leaves, the black bark of the trunk and branches can be seen through the light colored leaves, and what was once a giant green presence will shortly be a skeleton silhouetted against the sky. We see the same thing in different ways on different days. Our mind then reveals different kinds of truths about it.

We could not see this tree this way a few months ago. Why? Because our mind got conditioned to only seeing it one way.

Imagination is what makes it possible for us to get a feel for what it is like to visit places we have not been, meet people we have not met, and experience things we have not done.
Imagination is what makes it possible for us to perform boring, repetitious jobs, and it actually demonstrates how much power our mind really has in that it allows us to do more than one thing at once.

Our imagination paves the way for us to do more in life. Athletes imagine themselves performing excellently, using their mind to prepare their body for the action. Painters and sculptors ahve to see the image in their mind before they can create it. Composers have to hear a song in their head before they can play it. Writers have to see a story in their mind before they can write it. Directors have to picture the movie in their mind before hiring the actors and turning on the cameras. Architects have to imagine what buildings will look like before they draw them. Computer technicians who create software have to imagine what they want it to do before they can create the software.

Our imaginations are essential to the function of our every day lives. Without the ability to see with our mind's eye, what would we see with our other eyes?