Excerpts from Your Fantasies May Be Hazardous to Your Health
Introduction to the Exploration of Fantasy
Imagination and fantasy have become very important tools in our civilization. Using one's imagination is encouraged today, in schools, in the arts, the work place, and even in relationships. In the fields of entertainment and fashion, fantasy is the basic force bringing millions of dollars to these industries.
Projects such as space travel and the building of a space station are based on the imagination of professionals with visions. By the same token, the atom bomb was once a fantasy, an image in the minds of physicists. This fantasy has evolved into the manifestation of atomic weaponry. This kind of imagination is of great danger to the planet and its inhabitants. In later chapters we will inquire more deeply into the relationship of imagination and survival at the personal and global levels. . . .
Perhaps the unhealthy use of fantasy is disguised so well, behind the notion of imagination and creativity, that we cannot see the forest for the trees. It is suggested here, firstly, that it is imperative to question established patterns in our societies that are based on imagination; secondly, that we begin to discern what is helpful and what is injurious in what we call imagination and creativity.
Imagination is a powerful human quality and a most useful tool when applied with wisdom. However, when it is an unconscious, or conscious but unaware process of fantasy, it is greatly destructive, keeping humanity in vicious circles of illusions.
Daydreaming and Its Consequences
Norman was a teacher at college. He was forty-two years old, married with two children. He enjoyed teaching. He was interested in Eastern philosophy and self-understanding. His relationship with his family was good, and in general he was well adjusted and content. But he regretted not having enough money to get a sailboat. In his youth he had loved sailing, and had spent much of his free time at the library learning about boats, sailing, the weather, and everything relating to nautical living. He read hundreds of magazines over the years, and had pictures of the greatest sailing boats in the world's history. He delighted in going sailing and talking to friends who had sailboats docked at the marinas. Now, however, he had very little time for all this, and each day he regretted more and more not being able to have a sailboat. He kept looking at magazines and day-dreaming of having a boat someday.
Norman was also very interested in knowing himself. He had taken courses on meditation, self improvement and workshops on "How to make your dreams a reality." These workshops had been a disappointment to him because at forty-two he still did not have his coveted sailboat. Nothing had helped him to achieve his dream. However, he continued to observe himself to the best of his ability and persevered in his quest for truth-meditating, reading books on psychology, religion and Eastern philosophy.
One day Norman found a picture of the dream of his life, the perfect sailboat in a magazine. It was there right in front of him. It was beautiful, with all the best features he could have ever imagined. He was so excited about it that he began to daydream of being in the middle of the ocean on this magnificent sailing ship. He began to vividly experience the wind in his face, the exhilaration of the sound of the bow cutting through the waters, the rush of shifting the position of the jib; and turning to his imaginary sailing partner he said, almost shouting aloud, "Coming about!" . . . and suddenly he saw himself clearly. There was no boat, no sails, no water, no wind. All there wass in front of him was a picture of a specific kind of boat.
He was aware of the moment of now, just as it is!
He experienced himself totally as a human being, deriving great enjoyment from looking at a picture of a sailboat in a magazine! There are no judgments or evaluations. "I do not want a sailboat; I want to read and fantasize about it!" Norman realized.
It is all so clear! He is living the truth of the moment.