Where Does Imagination Come From?

Like a dog worrying a bone I am on this topic, this shocking lack of imagination and creativity on my students’ part. How strange then, that my son in law Garrett, with whom I was video chatting would voice the irony of most toys in America being made in China by people who are Chinese, seemingly devoid of imagination. The irony was underscored by the fact that Gabriel was, at that very moment playing ‘Marine’, an imaginary game in which he launched himself over a retaining wall (the back of the couch) to capture enemy spies. The ‘spies’ were also a figment of his imagination; he was playing by himself.

Where does imagination come from? What makes one child or one people more imaginative than the next?

Scientists reveal that imagination is generated in (or from) the pineal gland, what is known as ‘the mind’s eye’ or ‘the third eye’. This pea-sized gland, shaped like a pine cone (thus its name) sits behind and above the pituitary gland, smack in the center of the brain. It is attached to the brain’s third ventricle.

For a long time the scientific community believed this gland was a ‘leftover’ from evolution, sort of like the appendix. They could find no function for it and believed it served no actual purpose. Although a part of the endocrine system, it produces no hormones and consumes virtually no energy. It is activated by light and helps control the body’s various biorhythms. It works in direct harmony with your hypothalamus gland, your body’s director of thirst, hunger, temperature and circadian rhythms. It also controls the body’s aging process. However, lab tests show adults can function perfectly well with their pineal gland removed.

The existence of the pineal body has been known for at least two thousand years, as revealed in Galen of Pergamon’s writings, quoting studies of earlier Greek anatomists who were impressed with the single structure of the pineal and its location. He concluded it served as a valve to regulate the flow of thought in and out of the ‘storage bins’ in the lateral ventricles of the brain. The French mathematician Rene Descartes embellished on this notion, postulating the pineal housed the seat of the rational soul. There may be a measure of truth to that, seeing as the pineal is directly linked to the eyes and the eyes are said to be the window of the soul.

I don’t want to get too ponderous and too deeply into a subject I’m not qualified to discuss after just a few hours of reading, even though I thrill to the chase of knowledge. I only need to point out what is relevant to my thesis, right? Here is a relevant point: the pineal gland works hand in hand with the pituitary – the growth regulator gland. It also works as a neural pathway in problem solving.

Back to my students now.

For those of you who have been following this blog since its inception, you might intuit that I sometimes have trouble reaching my students. I deplore their lack of true understanding of the English language, even though they are quite adept at translating it. Nuance escapes them. When given a text to read, my kids can gather a meaning of sorts by translating it but generally do not understand the overall meaning of the text.

Now that I have been confronted with their lack of imagination and creativity I understand why. Imagination is essential for narrative comprehension, allowing us to vividly render the surroundings and situations being presented. However, when presented with a non-fiction document they can assimilate and comprehend it very well.

What does this mean for my kids’ EQ? There is a connection between empathy and creativity, as revealed in the study conducted by Mar, Oatley and Peterson in 2009. My students marvel that I can cry seemingly on demand. When I watch a movie, tell a story, read a book or relate an event, there go the waterworks! From what I’ve observed of my friends and students who are Chinese, they cry readily at real life situations but shed nary a tear at anything fiction. They are more sympathetic than empathetic.

All of the particularities I’ve observed in the nearly 2 years I’ve lived here suddenly take on a chilling dimension. When my students reply by rote that they will work hard to remedy a situation, that they will be diligent and work hard to become better, that they fall ‘in love’ with the first or second love prospect they meet (or are introduced to), that they follow a scripted path through life… is that what they feel or what they’ve been trained to think?

Is all of this because they cannot imagine anything different? Is Tony one of the few who somehow retained a shred of imagination, who sees himself doing something other than holding his head down and doing what he is supposed to do?

The next step in this… venture? Investigation? Of mine is to interview people to find out why they believe this lack of imagination and creativity exists. Their answers will be the subject of my next entry.