Do You Imagine A Lot?

[thejackyl]

I like to write, if that means anything. Basically the story I'm writing is about me going through issues in my past (bullying, girl troubles, such things like that.) but with the knowledge I have now.

I'm writing another story about magicians causing a pseudo-apocalype.

I tried writing a crime drama type story but it ended up as Deadly Premonition, replacing York with an average guy, and rooting everything in reality.

Spoiler: Spoilers for Deadly Premonition

And not bringing in Lizard man Blanka, or John Goodman and the Staypuft Marshmellow man's love child into the mix.

The occult stuff was there, but in the end everything that was done had a logical cause. I gave up after playing Deadly Premonition, because of how similar it was.

Other than that, I usually imagine conversations with people. Not like rehearsing them so much, but I try to prepare myself for most outcomes, so I'll run those through my head a few times. Tends to make hard decisions harder than they really are...

 

[DugMachine]

I think my imagination is what keeps me up at night. Takes me almost 1-2 hours just to fall asleep when my head hits the pillow because I'm imaging weird scenarios, different ways I could have handled situations throughout the day, what friends/family are doing or I'm just imaging weird shit that would be awesome. Yesterday I was imagining myself as a jaeger pilot and fighting some kaijus. It's pretty vivid but sometimes I think of too many things at once and it becomes cluttered and those are the times I have trouble sleeping... which is every night.

 

[Shinsei-J]

I've always had a ridiculous imagination that just runs wild most of the time.
Touch, sight, sound, taste, I can emulate everything with imagination alone, to the point that it's really odd apparently.
Often I'll end up just being in third person before I know it, the gaps I can't see filled in by my own mind.
I'll cook without ingredient in my head and make it later from memory of flavour. (I don't even know the names of all the herbs I use)
When I was depressed and couldn't function I had a room full of personas in my mind that talked out my problems.

I also like to think my creative imagination is just as expansive but unlike the senses it's a difficult thing to explain.
I enjoy dabbling in things like philosophy, inventing, drawing, writing and poetry so I can't have that bad of one.

 

[viranimus]

OT: I think what you are describing if I am not mistaken is spatial orientation.

More like spatial visualization. But yeah, I'm pretty decent at creating images in my head. I daydream a lot.

Visualization is a component of orientation.

Visualization would be to "picture" what X Object looks like. However, Orientation would be the capacity to view such a visualization from any angle, interact with mechanisms and parts, to assemble and even disassemble the object within visualization. This could even be for making things that have no practical use or possible connectivity to each other (IE like screwing in a water hose into a hand gun barrel) or in conceptualized scale (either massive, microscopic or any scale other than 1:1 in between) Orientation also has other elements such as understanding ones position within a theoretical or abstract space, for example flying an aircraft one needs to understand the scope of what Y k feet represents as opposed to topography

So given the OPs original question, Im still thinking orientation fits more closely than visualization.

 

[Headsprouter]

I daydream all the time. I could be sitting playing something on autopilot while I'm focusing on a scene from some weird fantasy novel (but in my head it's an animation) that I've been drafting and redrafting completely within my head for years. Sometimes I have to rethink the choreography over and over, or sometimes I have trouble imagining how certain characters would react to situation, so I sit there and dwell on it, sometimes I get so engrossed I quit whatever else I'm doing and lie down to think about it, which usually ends with me falling asleep.

Basically, any time I have within my own thoughts, I'm working on my little fantasy world. It's nothing special, mind you, which is why it's never hit paper. Sometimes I get so involved in the scenarios and my self-created imagery that it makes me tear up, though, so I suppose it has a very great personal significance.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Thanks, every one of you, for your replies. My conclusion here I suppose is that everyone has a different mind. What they can do with their imagination, what they imagine, and how they do it are all different. Very fascinating.

I'm pretty sure I can imagine everything. However, if an object, environment, or being is pretty detailed, my mind has to take just a second or little less to "generate" an accurate picture of it. The weight of an object I do not usually factor in but I can accurately imagine that as well. I also notice that imagining things take up (forgive me for using another computer term) "processing power". Although I can imagine a whole lot, if I try to imagine too much at once then one or some things won't get the focus they need to accurately imagine it and will begin to suffer as a result. But it's like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets and it works the other way around.

 

[Ymbirtt]

Yeah, isn't this kind of thing fairly normal? I can picture your pistol - I can drop the mag out to check it's not loaded, push it back in the receiver, the slide clicks forwards by itself, check the sights to make sure everything's aligned, left index finger staying outside the trigger guard. I've never actually held a firearm before, but I like to read about things, so I know how the pieces fit together inside and how the bullet ends up being outside.

I study Mathematics, and people think that kind of kills the imagination, but they couldn't be more wrong - the marks on paper are usually very far removed from what's actually going on in the mathematician's head, the actual details of which are very difficult to draw because they can end up being infinite or multi-dimensional or just generally impossible to put on paper.

I also imagine conversations with people. I have a lot of things I want to say, but usually those things are really boring. I usually also have a good idea of what I want people to say back and how I want people to react when I say these things, so I generally just have the conversation either in my head or kind of half-whispered when I don't think anyone's listening. I'll admit that this one probably isn't normal.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Oh yeah, I'm a constant daydreamer. And as far as the "interact/disassemble" part: I am at this moment imagining stripping down an M16A2 for cleaning, so yes.

 

[Beat14]

I would have thought most people are. I guess what your asking is a bit different to what I'm saying. But everyone is going to find their mind a busy place.

Relative to what?

Much like every other person in this thread, I believe I do imagine a lot. Compared to others in this thread I would like to think more so, but how am I going to know. Loads of dreams, plenty of thoughts. Who doesn't enjoy creating a world in their head.

It's a fantasy land in here.


more OT: I can imagine things like you say, but I didn't use a gun, I tried to think of a few different random examples. Play too many video games involving guns being used. Power tools, fruit, a cow, an anchor, a detached human eye, tried an inside of a watch, but I don't know the detail well enough, or at least from what I'm imagining I don't think it is very close.

Tried think of examples that I don't see often or think of.

 

[Norithics]

As an artist and an author, imagination is my hub of existence. Worlds and people and objects of all shapes and sizes are created, scrutinized, discarded, and when they play together well enough, allowed to mingle until they create something great. Everything from how humans could change if their DNA were altered to reimaginings of product packaging given futuristic fabrics.

It's actually hard work to create your own world. You almost have to think of everything.

 

[Something Amyss]

It takes very little to spark my imagination, though my visual imagination (along with memory, and whatever else) sucks. Really really sucks. I do imagine concepts, storylines, weird what-if scenarios, etc.

 

[Foolery]

OT: I think what you are describing if I am not mistaken is spatial orientation.

More like spatial visualization. But yeah, I'm pretty decent at creating images in my head. I daydream a lot.

Visualization is a component of orientation.

Visualization would be to "picture" what X Object looks like. However, Orientation would be the capacity to view such a visualization from any angle, interact with mechanisms and parts, to assemble and even disassemble the object within visualization. This could even be for making things that have no practical use or possible connectivity to each other (IE like screwing in a water hose into a hand gun barrel) or in conceptualized scale (either massive, microscopic or any scale other than 1:1 in between) Orientation also has other elements such as understanding ones position within a theoretical or abstract space, for example flying an aircraft one needs to understand the scope of what Y k feet represents as opposed to topography

So given the OPs original question, Im still thinking orientation fits more closely than visualization.

Hey. You've still got to visualize or 'picture' looking at from a different angles. Imagination isn't just one image, it's a stream of them. Orientation has more to do with the real world rather than your mind. Anyway, you say potato, I say tomato.

 

[Elfgore]

Since I currently work a very slow retail job and am trying to adjust to sleeping without a tv or music playing I use my imagination to pass time and make myself fall asleep.

I can't really think 3D to well thought because of the amount of anime I have been watching has made all of my imaginings cartoony. I have created my own story in my head but I usually just put myself into situations in anime, change what happens, and just think up the effect. Great way to pass the time.

 

[MHR]

I have trouble sticking to a straight timeline in my imagination. Every time I want to play something out from the top to bottom I find a detail I want to change about it and have to start over or I find myself skipping around to individual moments and then assume they all fit together.

But I consider my visualization and orientation to be 10/10. Lately I find myself deeply daydreaming about a videogame I imagined and it's quite entertaining to think about whenever the folks are droning on about some new method of boredom.

It's like a Borderlands MMO setting, except ammo and supplies are scarce and the players have the ability to create permanent structures rigged together with props and pieces that can be arranged Garry's Mod style. I like to imagine all the possible scrap metal fortresses in detail from the rusty weather-worn watchtowers to the sheet-metal thatched walls, derelict physics enabled oil drums, Anti-vehicle dragon's teeth made of bent girders, and the placement of landmines. Then all the bandits and invading LOKI-mech robots from Mass Effect 2 fight it out for control of Fort Tetanus; It's pretty sweet.

Who ever said videogames ruin the imagination?

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Yes, and I genuinely wish I couldn't. What's so great about the imagination? You picture stuff in your head. Great. Meanwhile the real world is going on around you and you're missing out. Animals participate in it, while we do a thing call "imagining". A waste of time if you ask me but it's not like you can stop it.

 

[Heronblade]

Earlier today I was badly annoyed by a brass marching band. From 300 meters away and through a thick stand of trees I could hear their out of tune playing much more loudly than the music coming from my headphones.

I spent the rest of the walk back to my apartment imagining a device (or rather, set of devices) that would still vibrations in the air in a particularly defined area. Even had a whole conversation in my head with the band director about "letting" him test my prototype to reduce outside noise and echoes during the practices.

Then there was the scene where I was showing off starting the system up in a rather spectacular fashion... Let's just say that while it should be possible to build something like what I had in mind, there would be much less in the way of electrical discharges in reality.

Frankly, my spatial awareness and skill at imagining scenarios are both quite advanced. They have to be, I couldn't do my job if I could not visualize a complex 3D object in my head and mess with it in weird ways on the fly. Its amazing how many people think engineering is just math.

Yes, and I genuinely wish I couldn't. What's so great about the imagination? You picture stuff in your head. Great. Meanwhile the real world is going on around you and you're missing out. Animals participate in it, while we do a thing call "imagining". A waste of time if you ask me but it's not like you can stop it.

Tell you what, you give up everything in your life that was made possible by someone's imagination for a few days, then we'll revisit the subject of whether or not it is a waste of time. Sound good?

P.S. I hope you don't mind sleeping outside on the dirt while nude.

Thanks, every one of you, for your replies. My conclusion here I suppose is that everyone has a different mind. What they can do with their imagination, what they imagine, and how they do it are all different. Very fascinating.

I'm pretty sure I can imagine everything. However, if an object, environment, or being is pretty detailed, my mind has to take just a second or little less to "generate" an accurate picture of it. The weight of an object I do not usually factor in but I can accurately imagine that as well. I also notice that imagining things take up (forgive me for using another computer term) "processing power". Although I can imagine a whole lot, if I try to imagine too much at once then one or some things won't get the focus they need to accurately imagine it and will begin to suffer as a result. But it's like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets and it works the other way around.

Don't apologize for those analogies. The brain is nothing less than a biological computer, a rather powerful one at that (although we could certainly use a more reliable Hard drive and RAM setup)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I THRIVE on imagination. My mind wanders off constantly.

 

[soren7550]

I come up with stories mostly. Usually they're fantasy based, and I tend to get crazy with details, such as a character's religion, how their society acts, their customs, and such.

Now, if only I was any good at writing them down, then I'd be getting somewhere!