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Imagination: Delight and Misery

Mole

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Imagination is a two edged sword.

On one hand imagination opens us to delight, but on the other opens us to misery.

If we were nurtured during childhood, it is likely our imagination will lead us to delight. But if we were abused or controlled as children, it is likely our imagination will continue to replay our misery.

Talking with animals such as mole, ratty, toad, badger, holmes and watson enables us to lose enough control to enter our imagination.

For some of us losing that amount of control is a natural, delightful and refreshing experience, but for others losing any control throws us back into the misery of childhood.
 

Cellmold

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This is great. I've had similar observations myself.

Too many treat the imagination like a dangerous creature at the back of the mind, not realising that they only expose themselves, rather than those who revel in imagination.

Rather than becoming estranged from reality, whatever the hell that is, engagement with imagination can actually help us to visualise a more beneficial reality.
 

Mole

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engagement with imagination can actually help us to visualise a more beneficial reality.

Imagination takes us out of our critical faculties to a deeper level of our mind.

However if we continue to meditate, we are taken out of our imagination to an even deeper level of mind that is wordless.

At such a deep level, everything remains exactly the same only no words.

It's extraordinary.
 

AzulEyes

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Imagination helps us to create and be innovative. I think it also helps us escape the world- which I think is important too. So it is meditative in that sense. It also helps us see possibilities of what we can create for ourselves in our lives.
 

Mole

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Imagination helps us to create and be innovative. I think it also helps us escape the world- which I think is important too. So it is meditative in that sense. It also helps us see possibilities of what we can create for ourselves in our lives.

If we have a damaged psyche from an abusive or authoritarian upbringing, it is likely our imagination will be damaged as well.

So the damaged imagination imagines revenge, unlimited power and hatred. But most of all the damaged imagination imagines damaging others to show what has happened to them.

In other words, the damaged imagination acts out to show the world how they have been damaged.
 

Stanton Moore

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If we have a damaged psyche from an abusive or authoritarian upbringing, it is likely our imagination will be damaged as well.

So the damaged imagination imagines revenge, unlimited power and hatred. But most of all the damaged imagination imagines damaging others to show what has happened to them.

In other words, the damaged imagination acts out to show the world how they have been damaged.

Damage can be overcome...
 

AzulEyes

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If we have a damaged psyche from an abusive or authoritarian upbringing, it is likely our imagination will be damaged as well.

So the damaged imagination imagines revenge, unlimited power and hatred. But most of all the damaged imagination imagines damaging others to show what has happened to them.

In other words, the damaged imagination acts out to show the world how they have been damaged.

That is a good point. Parents and families really need a manual when they get a baby in their charge. Instruction 1: Everything you do or say to this kid is going to affect who they become as adults, what they think of themselves, how they treat others- and their general life view. Handle with care!
 

Mole

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That is a good point. Parents and families really need a manual when they get a baby in their charge. Instruction 1: Everything you do or say to this kid is going to affect who they become as adults, what they think of themselves, how they treat others- and their general life view. Handle with care!

Yes, and in particular we can speak about the best form of child rearing, namely, the helping mode of child rearing, where the parent helps their child reach their life goals.

We can also speak about the history of child rearing: from the sacrificial mode, improved on by the abusive mode, which is improved on by the authoritiarian mode, which is improved on by the helping mode.

Child rearing has shown historical improvement linked to increasing prosperity.
 

AzulEyes

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Yes, and in particular we can speak about the best form of child rearing, namely, the helping mode of child rearing, where the parent helps their child reach their life goals.

We can also speak about the history of child rearing: from the sacrificial mode, improved on by the abusive mode, which is improved on by the authoritiarian mode, which is improved on by the helping mode.

Child rearing has shown historical improvement linked to increasing prosperity.

Interesting. My big thing is figuring out who my kids really are- and letting them be who they are. And be the best them they can be and feel loved and supported. I have a child that loves music and is very athletic. So I support this and never make any of it a chore. Ever. He goes to his instruments and he plays them. If he doesn't- then he doesn't. And he makes beautiful music.
 

Mole

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Interesting. My big thing is figuring out who my kids really are- and letting them be who they are. And be the best them they can be and feel loved and supported. I have a child that loves music and is very athletic. So I support this and never make any of it a chore. Ever. He goes to his instruments and he plays them. If he doesn't- then he doesn't. And he makes beautiful music.

Dare I say, figuring out who you are is more important.

Our childrearing determines our psychoclass.

For instance, the child sacrifice form of child rearing leaves the remaining siblings in the paranoid psychoclass.

And the abusive form of child rearing leaves the child alive, which is an improvement, but leaves them in the blaming psychoclass.

And the authoritarian childrearing does not leave the child in the blaming psychoclass, but instead leaves the child in the controlling psychoclass.

And the helping mode of childrearing leaves the child in the empathic and creative psychoclass.

So in prosperous and democratic societies it is more important to know which psychoclass we belong to, rather than which social class.
 

AzulEyes

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Dare I say, figuring out who you are is more important.

Our childrearing determines our psychoclass.

For instance, the child sacrifice form of child rearing leaves the remaining siblings in the paranoid psychoclass.

And the abusive form of child rearing leaves the child alive, which is an improvement, but leaves them in the blaming psychoclass.

And the authoritarian childrearing does not leave the child in the blaming psychoclass, but instead leaves the child in the controlling psychoclass.

And the helping mode of childrearing leaves the child in the empathic and creative psychoclass.

So in prosperous and democratic societies it is more important to know which psychoclass we belong to, rather than which social class.

Yet no one really pays any attention to this whatsoever. They only make money selling drugs and therapy to the damaged adults!
 

Mole

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Yet no one really pays any attention to this whatsoever. They only make money selling drugs and therapy to the damaged adults!

Well, in prosperous societies we know child rearing practices have improved.

We know this by studying the history of childhood.

And of course not many know the history of childhood. But class is very pervasive, and most want to be in the best class.

And here we are talking about the best psychoclass.

But it is interesting that on a site devoted to pop psychology very few seem to know that child rearing practices determine personality and psychoclass.

This can easily be remedied by reading the History of Childhood.
 

Galena

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"Psychoclass" strikes me as a word that should not exist.
 

Mole

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"Psychoclass" strikes me as a word that should not exist.

In prosperous and democratic societies 'psychoclass' is an improvement on 'social class'.

Psychoclass tells us about our child rearing and subsequent personality.

And how extraordinary on a site devoted to personality, we are told with supreme confidence that the means of understanding the genesis of personality 'should not exist'.

Perhapy you might tell that to Lloyd deMause the author of, "The Foundations of Psychohistory".

And how could we understand Psychohistory without understanding psychoclass?

And indeed how could we understand the history of childhood without understanding psychoclass?
 
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