You live in a dream world. For all the years of my childhood my mother’s words floated over my head. She wasn’t wrong. I consistently drifted out of my known world into surroundings full of imagined characters. Putting my shoes in the proper place was not a priority.
Living in a dream world is not usually meant as a compliment. It’s a statement of foolishness and impracticality. Creative people are often labeled this way and encouraged to grow up and get real jobs. Learning to sustain oneself is necessary, however, for many creative people the dream world is where they are most likely to succeed, because it’s where their best work happens. Dreaming and imagining are not about escaping or being unrealistic. These brain functions are part of a condition of being, a process that arrives on its own. Creative people step from one reality into another as easily and as fully as astrophysicists move from the room they inhabit into the realm of theoretical space and time.
It turns out that one in thirty people have what is often called a ‘very vivid imagination’ or an ‘extremely rich inner life.’ Imagination is a powerful way of knowing, so much so that creative artists such as Jonathan Swift, Sylvia Plath, Aristotle and, of course, Tolkein, talked about the balancing act of imagination and madness. But clearly imagining something is not mental illness and is quite different than being in a dissociative state or hearing voices. A vivid imagination is scientifically known as hyperfantasia. Writers with hyperfantasia are not removed from reality, they are accessing a part of their minds that operates like a film set in which they move freely, listen in, watch closely, and tap into the fears and hopes of the characters who populate it.
An article in The Guardian defines the phenomenon well. This essay attests that some brains simply move into fantasy as easily as stepping into the next room. Creative writers are not delusional, spacey, disconnected, or unrealistic. They are simply innately attuned to the free association of day dreams and the ability to turn them into story. Writers taste the sandwich a character is chewing and shiver when a character steps out into a winter storm without a coat.
I have learned to put my clothes away, to say excuse me when I bump into someone, and to always be polite to cashiers. I have successfully held many jobs and pay my bills. And I did listen to my mother; I heard everything she said, and now know that living in my dream world is about being my most grounded self. Link to Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/20/like-a-film-in-my-mind-hyperphantasia-and-the-quest-to-understand-vivid-imaginations
Upcoming Events
Need a winter break? Need a time and place to set the world aside and immerse yourself in the world of words? Join me for a February Writing Retreat at Serra Retreat Center in Malibu, California! Beginning Monday, February 24th through Friday, February 28th. Writers of all genres and levels of experience are welcome. This retreat is tailored for those who do not love huge groups and who cherish the opportunity to develop their writing within a respectful structure. For more information: https://www.writingfulltilt.com/retreats/
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