By Leon Tunney Ware.
Albert Einstein said:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand..
Knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand?
Was Einstein stating that our intellect is governed by a sphere of knowledge that is calibrated within our consciousness?
Whereby ideas that are generated from a knowledge mindset as opposed to being created in the imagination are not innovation.... a knowledge mindset dictates ideas.
Knowledge has parameters, a process, it is systematic....follow the data to get the answer!
A knowledge mindset is based on categories of data that can be perceived as innovation when categories are hybrid together. Within a knowledge mindset data can be time encapsulated and drip fed to us at the appropriate time, what some would call a "eureka" moment!
If you can pre-empt what the future would be like 20 years from now then I believe you are in a knowledge mindset. True innovation cannot be pre-empted or predicted, nor is it a solution to a problem, it is the answer to our problems.
When a problem drives the solution you are in a knowledge mindset rather than a innovative mindset. It can be viewed that innovation is what we utilise to solve problems, but if the problem is dictating a solution then imagination is governed by the problem.
Imagination is a bit like the goose that is supposed to fly south, but decides to stay put! Logically the goose is driven by instinct, by biological data to fly south. To realise we have the choice to choose otherwise is the threshold of innovation. For the goose to be free to fly and to go wherever it chooses, whenever it wants and not be governed by the flock or the seasons, it would be perceived to be abnormal. It would be believed that something was wrong with it because our knowledge based mindset tells us that it must fly south at the appropriate time. If the whole flock were not to fly south at the appropriate time then our knowledge mindset would justify that perhaps the flock could sense a change in the weather, volcanic activity or magnetic north has moved! They wouldn't necessarily be the answer, but the answer would be driven from a knowledge mindset.
If we were to delve deeper and let go of our pre-emptive ideas would we be on the threshold of imagination or dictated to by our own understanding? The calibration within our consciousness has refined our logic, to a point where possibly it has eclipsed our imagination.
A knowledge mindset would be classed as being "in the box", to be "out of the box" in my mind is still having the stabilisers on your bike. To delete the box is where the imagination truly begins, where there are no limits, no expectations and our creations are not governed or dictated.
When you think a thought, why did you think that thought at that moment in time? Is it a consequence of inspiration, motivation or innovation?
Imagination has no thought, to think is not to imagine, thought is only used to interpret what the imagination has created, for example, if you were to close your eyes and see a beautiful landscape covered with trees, shrubs, different types of birds-whatever you choose, and then describe what you imagine to somebody else you would use words possibly like "I saw a giant bird that could fly, very similar to an ostrich-it was the colour of a flamingo, it had the legs of an elephant!
- It would seem illogical to imagine such a thing
- you would have to use things that the other person already knew to describe something they already know
However at the same time, what was described would now be interpreted through a knowledge mindset, because rational thought would dictate.... does the vision have a purpose? Does it have a value?
The point....where we are in our intellectual evolution, innovation itself has become encapsulated within a knowledge mindset. To be freed from our intellectual prison is to put all knowledge aside, all logic and rational reasoning, and to realise that innovation comes from a place in our minds, in our spirit, whereby we have our toes in Gods domain and our heels in the human realm.....we are anchored by logic and on the threshold of creation because the borders of true innovation are very close to insanity and genius.
"Imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
