Imagination unleashes knowledge

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Albert Einstein

I had to ponder this quote for a few days to understand what it meant.  Particularly since it came from a man that invented physics! Any man that can understand physics let alone invent it has to have a serious imagination. So clearly Einstein lived in his imagination to come up with the theory of relativity. But I believe his imagination ultimately led him to knowledge he would never have found.

Imagination is the engine behind who we are and what we are. It is the place in which our dreams reside unadulterated. Where they flourish and allow us to see the possibility in everything. Imagination is where our truth lies.

It is often defined as an escape from reality but in fact I believe it is an escape to reality. Our own reality if we set it free. Gave it wings to fly. And let it take us.

I remember searching for meaning about 15 years ago when I was flying around the world on business trips. Place to place. Hotel room to hotel room. Suitcases packed and unpacked. Missing out of the uniqueness of all the places I travelled to because I was there for business not for pleasure. So there was no time to explore. In and out before I could blink. Spending more time on airplanes than in the places. Leaving me wondering what my life was all about.

So on a long airplane journey back from someplace that may as well have been no place, between sleeping and awake, my mind in that magical REM place so thoughts were flowing freely, I suddenly awoke with a start. With a revelation that changed my life forever. And the revelation that opened my eyes to all I could be was these simple words: I am a Product of my Imagination.

I explored those words. I wrote about them. Starting writing earnestly for the first time and I have been writing ever since. Fifteen years later and I am still writing. Exploring my imagination. My knowledge. Getting better at it the more I do it. Releasing more of my imagination to myself and the world. And sometimes that imagination opens me to knowledge I would not otherwise have tapped into if I had not set my imagination free.

So I agree with Einstein imagination is more important than knowledge because without it there is no knowledge. I believe imagination unleashes knowledge.So here’s to the imagination and the accumulation of knowledge- unadulterated. Unfiltered. Fresh and free. Imagination is the key that opens the door to a whole new world of knowledge. Image the knowledge we could possess if we truly believed in our imagination. Imagine.