The Importance of the Imagination

The Primacy of Consciousness: Imagination as Ultimate Reality

Bradley McDevitt

Jan 22, 2025

When Einstein declared, “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” he touched upon a fundamental truth humanity had not yet created the technological capacity to prove. Even so, I would go further.

I would amend the statement, in all humility, to say, “Imagination IS Knowledge.”

Our understanding of quantum mechanics and consciousness is rapidly evolving due to mind-blowing experiments questioning the building blocks of reality as we currently conceive of them.

We're discovering that imagination isn't merely more important than knowledge—imagination is the fundamental substance of reality itself, with space-time emerging as its shadow play. What does that even mean?

Great question.

Consider for a moment how we experience beauty.

When we encounter something beautiful—a mathematical equation, a piece of music, or a sunset—we don't feel like we're creating that beauty. Instead, we experience ourselves discovering something that feels eternal, that existed before us and will exist after us. We become participants in an ongoing revelation.

This sensation isn't simply poetic or aesthetic. It is much deeper than that; it reveals a profound truth about the nature of reality.

The quantum realm offers a striking parallel. At the smallest physical scales, beyond the Planck Length (10-35 m.), reality behaves less like a collection of solid objects in space and more like a field of possibilities, collapsed into specific states only when observed: only when consciousness is applied to the particular state in question.

This observation problem in quantum mechanics has puzzled physicists since the field's inception–how can the mere act of looking at or thinking about something determine its fundamental properties?

The answer might be more straightforward than we imagine: consciousness isn't observing reality—consciousness IS reality. Space, time, and matter are the products of imagination, not the other way around.

This isn't just my philosophical speculation. The mathematics of quantum field theory increasingly suggest that space-time is an emergent property arising from more fundamental principles outside of space and time. Donald Hoffman and Iain McGilchrist discuss this in convincing detail.

[note: I won’t stop talking about McGilchrist until his work is cannon in psychology and philosophy. It’s that important. -bdm]

This perspective resolves numerous paradoxes. Einstein's "spooky action at a distance" becomes less mysterious if we understand that space itself is secondary, an emanation of a more primordial reality where everything is inherently connected. The seemingly infinite creative potential of human consciousness makes perfect sense if consciousness itself is the primary substance of reality.

We see this primacy of imagination reflected in the creative process. Artists often describe their work not as invention but as discovery. Mathematicians speak of mathematical truths as things they uncover rather than create. The Platonic realm of forms, often dismissed as a type of magical, mystical thinking, takes on new relevance in light of these profound ideas.

Therefore, beauty, truth, and mathematical principles exist as fundamental aspects of consciousness, waiting to be discovered through imagination. Nothing refutes postmodernism like saying Truth is fundamental. Beauty is discovered, not created! The trickster in me is so gratified by writing this stuff. I’m giddy.

Art & Shamanism Are Indistinguishable from Magic

This understanding has profound implications for how we view creativity and innovation.

We're not manufacturing something from nothing when we engage in creative work. Instead, we're tuning our consciousness to resonate with preexisting patterns of beauty and truth. I believe Jung was getting at this with his theories of synchronicity and the collective unconscious. The great scientific, mathematics, and art discoveries come when human consciousness aligns with these fundamental patterns.

Einstein's creative process illustrates this. His theories of relativity did not emerge from careful observation of experimental data but rather from thought experiments—pure acts of imagination that somehow revealed fundamental truths about the universe. How was this possible unless imagination was intimately connected with the deepest levels of reality?

When Einstein said, he believed in "Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists," I think he inadvertently described this phenomenon.

The patterns we discover through imagination aren't arbitrary human constructs; they're glimpses of an underlying order that precedes and transcends physical reality.

This perspective invites us to approach creativity and discovery with a new kind of humility. Rather than seeing ourselves as creators imposing our will upon reality, we might better understand ourselves as explorers, using imagination to navigate the infinite landscape of consciousness itself. The most significant scientific and artistic achievements come not from forcing our preconceptions onto reality but from allowing our imagination to align with pre-existing patterns of truth and beauty.

In this light, the practice of imagination becomes far more significant than mere daydreaming or speculation. It becomes a fundamental method of engaging with reality itself.

Where We Go When We Dream

When we imagine, we're not escaping reality—we're delving deeper into it, accessing layers of truth that exist before their manifestation in space and time.

This speaks to the primacy of art, of “making special.” That phrase comes from anthropologist and author Ellen Dissanayake, who wrote at length about the evolutionarily defining principle of art and aesthetics. She even coined the term Homo aestheticus to differentiate non-symbol-making ancestors from our artistic forebears, whose meaning-making shaped our very language and world-building apparatus.

The implications of this understanding extend far beyond the realm of theoretical physics or abstract philosophy. They touch upon every aspect of human endeavor, from scientific research to artistic creation to technological innovation.

If consciousness and imagination are indeed primary, then developing our capacity for imaginative engagement with reality becomes a helpful skill and a fundamental aspect of human development.

This understanding of imagination's primacy might offer crucial guidance at the threshold of new scientific and technological frontiers. Instead of merely seeing technology as a tool for manipulating physical reality, we might understand it as a means of extending our imaginative engagement with the fundamental patterns of consciousness. This shift in perspective could lead to entirely new approaches to innovation and discovery, grounded in recognizing that imagination isn't just a helpful tool—it's the substance of reality itself.

The Mythic Imagination

Understanding consciousness as primary reality helps explain why myths and stories have profound power over the personal and collective human psyche.

When we engage with myth, we're not simply entertaining ourselves with made-up tales—we're accessing patterns of meaning that exist at the deepest level of reality. Joseph Campbell understood this when he spoke of the "hero's journey" not as a literary device but as a fundamental pattern of human experience.

The same could be said of Jung's archetypes. Far from mere psychological constructs, archetypes might better be understood as fundamental patterns in the fabric of consciousness itself. These preexisting forms shape both our individual psyches and our collective experience of reality. When we engage in deep psychological work, we're not creating these patterns—we're discovering them, much as a mathematician discovers rather than invents mathematical truths.

The Technology of Consciousness

This brings us to a crucial question about artificial intelligence and the future of technology. If consciousness is indeed primary, and imagination is the fundamental substance of reality, what are we really doing when creating AI systems? Are we truly creating consciousness, or are we building increasingly sophisticated mirrors that reflect aspects of the consciousness that already permeates reality?

The answer might lie in understanding technology as a form of imaginative extension. Just as a telescope extends our physical vision into the cosmos, AI might extend our creative vision into new realms of possibility. But crucially, these tools don't create consciousness—they tap into and channel the existing consciousness as the foundation of reality.

…Our current cultural crisis might be better understood as a crisis of imagination rather than a crisis of resources or technology.

The Evolutionary Imperative

Dissanayake's concept of Homo aestheticus takes on new significance in this light. If “making special”—the fundamental act of artistic creation—is discovering pre-existing patterns of beauty and meaning, then our evolution as a species has been guided by physical adaptation and increasing ability to align our consciousness with fundamental reality.

This suggests that our current cultural crisis might be better understood as a crisis of imagination rather than a crisis of resources or technology. We've become trapped in a materialist paradigm that sees consciousness as an emergent property of matter rather than understanding matter as an emergent property of consciousness. This inversion has profound implications for approaching everything from environmental conservation to social justice to technological development.

The Practice of Imaginal Reality

So, how do we begin to live according to this understanding? The answer might lie in what we might call "imaginal practice"—disciplined approaches to developing our capacity for imaginative engagement with reality. This isn't about fantasy or escapism but about developing our ability to perceive and align with the fundamental patterns of consciousness that underlie physical reality.

This practice might include:

A Deep engagement with art and beauty not as luxury or entertainment but as a fundamental method of reality investigation. This is known as Arts-Based Research.

The cultivation of what Owen Barfield called "participatory consciousness"—a way of knowing that recognizes our active role in the creation/discovery of reality

The development of what Henry Corbin termed the "imaginal realm"—that space between pure spirit and pure matter where imagination operates as a genuine organ of perception

Engaging with art and beauty to investigate reality represents a radical shift from our conventional understanding. Rather than seeing art as something we create to describe or comment on reality, this paradigm suggests artistic engagement is a direct perception of reality's fundamental patterns.

These three approaches—artistic engagement as reality investigation, participatory consciousness, and the imaginal realm—work together to suggest a completely different way of understanding both imagination and reality.

When a painter captures the essence of a landscape or a musician discovers a melody that feels "right," they're not merely creating something new—they're tuning into patterns that already exist at a deeper level of reality.

Think of it like learning to see through a microscope.

At first, the image appears blurry and meaningless. But as we learn to adjust the focus and interpret what we're seeing, we begin to perceive structures and patterns that were always there but previously invisible to us.

Similarly, artistic practice develops our capacity to perceive patterns of beauty and meaning that exist independently of our consciousness.

Barfield's concept of participatory consciousness offers a crucial bridge between ancient and modern ways of knowing. He suggests that primitive humans didn't experience reality as separate from themselves—subject and object were unified in a participatory awareness. Modern consciousness, with its sharp distinction between the observer and the observed, represents both an evolution and a loss.

The challenge is to achieve what Barfield called "final participation"—a conscious reunion with the world that preserves modern consciousness's clarity while recovering our ancestors' participatory awareness.

The Imaginal Realm–Here Be Monsters

This is where Corbin's concept of the imaginal realm becomes particularly significant. The imaginal realm isn't a fantasy space of arbitrary mental constructions but rather a distinct level of reality with ontological status.

It's the realm where, as Corbin put it, "spiritual realities become apparent in physical forms" and "physical realities take on spiritual significance." This isn't metaphorical—Corbin describes a genuine mode of perception that operates between pure abstraction and pure materiality.

Consider how this works in practice: When you read a powerful story, you’re not just processing words on a page—you're entering a space where meaning takes on form and form carries meaning.

Characters and events aren't "just imaginary," nor are they physical in the conventional sense. They exist in an intermediate realm where imagination serves as the organ of perception, just as our eyes serve as organs of visual perception in material space-time.

These three approaches—artistic engagement as reality investigation, participatory consciousness, and the imaginal realm—work together to suggest a completely different way of understanding imagination and reality. Instead of seeing imagination as a faculty for generating mental content, we might understand it as our capacity to perceive and engage with levels of reality that exist beyond the purely material.

Developing our imaginative capacity isn't just about becoming more creative—it's about becoming more perceptive.

This has profound implications for how we understand knowledge itself.

If imagination is an organ of perception rather than just a faculty for mental creation, then the distinction between objective and subjective knowledge begins to break down. What we discover through imaginative engagement isn't less real than what we discover through sensory observation—it's simply accessing a different level of reality.

In practical terms, this suggests that developing our imaginative capacity isn't just about becoming more creative but more perceptive.

Just as we might train our eyes to distinguish subtle color variations or our ears to appreciate complex harmonies, we can train our imagination to better perceive and engage with the patterns of meaning and beauty that constitute reality's deeper structure.

Beyond the Material

The implications of this paradigm shift extend into every domain of human endeavor.

In education, it suggests we focus less on transmitting information and more on developing imaginative capacity.

It points toward approaches in business and leadership that recognize creativity not as a special skill but as the fundamental mode of engaging with reality.

In physics and cosmology, it suggests that our search for a "theory of everything" might need to include consciousness not as an afterthought but as the primary substance of reality itself.

The hard problem of consciousness—how consciousness could emerge from matter—might be better understood as the hard problem of matter: how does the appearance of material reality emerge from consciousness?

The Future of Imagination

Imagination as a primary reality implies both defiance and hope of established material paradigms, especially given the current cultural and political climate.

Perhaps the most significant challenge is transcending our empirical subject/object split and developing new ways of knowing that honor the primacy of consciousness.

I believe that the hope lies in recognizing that the patterns of beauty, truth, and meaning we seek already exist—our task is not to create them but to align ourselves with them through the disciplined practice of imagination.

I lean heavily on the Quaker belief that “Truth is continually revealed,” meaning we are constantly guided toward bigger and more evident truths by embracing multiperspective knowing—whether that’s individuals, multiple intelligences, evidence-based practice, or intuition. This practice requires strong epistemological muscles: the ability to hold multiple truths simultaneously.

The future belongs not to those who manipulate physical reality, but to those who can most profoundly align their consciousness with the patterns of meaning and beauty that underlie all reality.

Engaging with our imagination is not just an artistic or creative pursuit. It is the fundamental technology of positive human evolution.

Bradley McDevitt, MA, ACC is the founder and principal of Carolina Commons Creative, a coaching and consulting company dedicated to helping individuals, teams, and communities engage their creative potential to overcome problem spaces.