Master Key Experience Week 8 – Imagination

Imagination! What a wonderful thing this is that we possess. It’s the highlight of songs about dreaming:

“Imagine all the people, sharing all the world. You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one”

Imagine – John Lennon

and proclaiming faith in Christ:

“I can only imagine what it will be like when I walk by your side. I can only imagine what my eyes will see when your face is before me.”

I Can Only Imagine – Mercy Me

It’s the focal point of countless movies such as the 2009 film Imaginarium where a doctor’s mind controls an imaginary world. And who can forget the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy travels over the rainbow in her subconscious mind.

As children each of us spent time imagining things. Maybe it was what you were going to be when grown up, where you would live, what the house would look like or places to travel to. Or maybe you visited the land of make-believe each day with Mr. Rodgers in his neighborhood. In the Master Key Experience, Haanel takes imagination to a whole new level. In part 8.8 he highlights that:

Imagination is the light by which we can penetrate new worlds of thought and experience.

And he also issues a warning about imagination in 8.14

Do not confuse Imagination with Fancy, or that form of daydreaming in which some people like to indulge. Daydreaming is a form of mental dissipation which may lead to mental disaster.

This warning is a downfall that many, myself included, have experienced multiple times. How often have you found yourself drifting off to the daydream world, only to come back wondering where did time go and what was I actually thinking about? Constructive imagination on the other hand yields the greatest of returns for all who master it. This is why the sit for week 8 was super cool.

We were challenged to picture a battleship but then imagine all the way back to the origin, not the origin of the building of the ship or the production of the ore but to the decision that brought about its building. In fact it went farther back to the discovery that ultimately made a ship on water possible. It is simply amazing what you can imagine when thinking in this manner for 15 – 30 minutes a day.

As the great chef Emeril says when kicking it up a notch in cooking, “Bam!” when it came to the new level of utilizing the imagination. What a spectacular journey of discovery the last eight weeks!